Flickers in Time

No Time for Sergeants
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Written by John Lee Mahin from a play by Ira Levin and a novel by Mac Hyman
1958/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Sergeant King: Why ain’t you dead?

Will Stockdale: No excuse, sir![/box]

Andy Griffith comes off a bit more like Gomer Pyle in this one.  There are some genuinely funny moments among some over-broad comedy.

Will Stockdale (Griffith) is a backwoods country bumpkin whose daddy has been tearing up all the letters directed to him by the draft board.  Finally, the local rep comes out to fetch him in person.  Stockdale has no objection to serving but he is taken away in handcuffs anyway.

He is sent to the Air Force for classification along with some real characters.  He adopts Ben Whitledge (Nick Adams) as his best buddy and sticks to him like glue.  The gung-ho but hapless Be, has always dreamed of being in the infantry and desperately wants a transfer.  Irving S. Blanchard, a blowhard who lords his year of ROTC over the other men, will be a major thorn in Will’s side.

When they get to camp, Will unknowingly does everything possible to drive Sgt. Orville King crazy.  He finally thinks he has gotten rid of this buffoon by naming the proud Will Permanent Latrine Orderly – PLO.  His ruse backfires on him and he is finally given only a short time to get Will through all his various examinations in time to move on with the rest of his cohorts.

The Ben and Will are sent on to gunnery school.  The film then follows their misadventures in the Air Force.

This film has a really strong first half through Will’s time as a raw recruit.  It’s all pretty funny and would probably be even funnier to anyone who had gone through the experience. This is not basic training and Sgt. King is not a drill sergeant but more a tired babysitter who would basically prefer to be left alone.  The bit that made me laugh out loud was Don Knotts as a manual dexterity examiner — hilarious.  I thought the time in the regular Air Force was too silly to be really funny and overstayed its welcome.

Trailer

The Blob
Directed by Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.
Written by Theodore Simonson and Kay Linaker from an original idea by Irvine H. Millgate
1958/USA
Tonylyn Productions Inc./Valley Forge Films/Fairview Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Lieutenant Dave: Just because some kid smacks into your wife on the turnpike doesn’t make it a crime to be 17 years old.[/box]

A ton of campy fun featuring a star-making performance for the world’s oldest, and coolest, teenager – Steve McQueen.

During a make-out session with girlfriend Jane, earnest Steve Andrews (McQueen) spots a star falling close by.  They go to investigate but fail to find it.  An old hermit, does, however and is promptly attacked by the molten center of the rock.  The teenagers hear his screams and take him to the doctor.

Soon hermit, doctor, and nurse are no more.  It turns out the alien being feeds on warm-blooded creatures and grows exponentially.

[box] Beware of the blob, it creeps/ And leaps and glides and slides/ Across the floor/ Right through the door/ And all around the wall/ A splotch, a blotch/ Be careful of the blob — Lyrics by Mac David[/box]

Steve goes for the police, but they think this is a prank.  He does manage to convince his fellow teenagers though.  They try to protect their small town from certain destruction.

This has everything one could possibly ask for in one of these things.  It is tame by today’s standards perhaps but I think this is one of its charms.

The production history is as interesting as the film itself.  The Criterion Collection DVD contains two commentaries, one by the producer and a film historian and the other by the director and one of the actors.  The producer was a local distributor of B films who believed he could do better.  He thought sci-fi and juvenile deliquent films did best and found a religious and educational film studio to help him realize his vision.  It succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest dreams when Paramount picked it up as part of a double feature with I Married a Monster from Outer Space.  The theme song cracked the Billboard Top 40.

Trailer

Burt Bacharach theme song

Me and the Colonel
Directed by Peter Grenville
Written by S.N. Behrman and George Froeschel from a play by Franz Werfel
1958/USA
William Goetz Productions
First viewing/YouTube

“My faceless neighbor spoke up: “Don’t be deluded. Hitler has made it clear that he will annihilate all Jews before the clock strikes twelve.” I exploded: “What do you care what he said? Would you want us to consider him a prophet? His cold eyes stared at me. At last he said, wearily: “I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.” ― Elie Wiesel, Night

Despite its grim subject matter, this is a charming film with my favorite performance yet by Danny Kaye.

S.L. Jacobowsky (Kaye) is a man without a country, having fled Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia in succession.  He finds himself in Paris just as the Nazis begin their occupation of France.  He lives in the same hotel as Colonel Prokoszny (Curd Jurgens), a proud, arrogant, and womanizing Polish Count.  Prokoszny has orders to deliver secret papers to the resistance in England.  He is to meet a submarine on the French coast.

Both men need to flee, only there are no available vehicles and no gasoline. The resourceful Jacobowsky rounds up both the car and the gas.  That kind of thing is beyond Prokoszny so the pair end up sharing the trasportation.  They prove to be a very odd couple, not least because of the Pole’s anti-Semitism.  First, Prokoszny insists on picking up his one true love in the opposite direction.  The rest of the film follows the party’s adventures en route to the border.  With Akim Tamiroff as the Colonel’s orderly.

Plot summary aside, this is actually a comedy.  Kaye is wonderful, subtle and touching in his part and Jurgens reveals an unexpected comic flair.  It reminded me a little bit of how Lubitsch handled To Be or Not To Be.  Recommended.

Montage of stills set to music from the film

The Horse’s Mouth
Directed by Ronald Neame
Written by Alec Guinness from a novel by Joyce Cary
1958/UK
Knightsbridge Films
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Gulley Jimson: I like it here: bricks and broken glass, and an old garbage can. It’s the story of my life.[/box]

Artistic genius isn’t too “pretty” in this comedy.

Gulley Jimson (Alec Guinness) has just been released from jail for making harrassing calls to his wealthy sometime benefactor Hickson (Ernest Thesiger).  He is met by Nosey, a young man who worships his art.  Gulley has nothing but bemused contempt for everyone.  He is immediately on the phone to Hickson to try to cadge money for paints.

He also hits up Dee Coker (Kay Walsh), a combative plain spinster.  She wants him to retrieve the paintings his ex-wife gave to Hickson to pay his debts and press-marches him in that direction.  Sir William Beeder, another wealthy art patron has been trying to get his hands on one of Gulley’s early works.

Gulley manages to worm his way into the Beeders’ London flat while they are on vacation and proceeds to destroy it while painting a mural of the Raising of Lazarus.  After he is caught at that, he turns himself to the wall of a church that faces demolition.

This is Guinness’s only screenwriting credit and it’s an antic somewhat messy farce that also manages to say something serious about the creative process.  He’s marvellous as the completely uninhibited painter.  Sometimes it’s all a bit much but mostly the film is very entertaining.

Alec Guinness was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.

Trailer

Brink of Life (Nära livet)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Written by Ulla Isaksson
1958/Sweden
Inter-American Productions/Nordisk Tonefilm
First viewing/You Tube

[box] Childbirth is more admirable than conquest, more amazing than self-defense, and as courageous as either one. — Gloria Steinem [/box]

Bergman looks at the emotions of three expectant mothers.

As the story begins, Cecilia (Ingrid Thulin) arrives at the obstetric ward bleeding heavily. She has already lost her baby, two months into the pregnancy and has a D&C.  The entire experience has convinced her that she is unworthy to be a wife or a mother and that her proper schoolteacher husband doesn’t love her or want the baby.  She is basically an emotional wreck.

Cecilia joins two other women on the ward.  The first is teenaged unwed mother Hjordis Petterson (Bibi Andersson), who also had bleeding but did not miscarry – much to her dismay.  The second is Stina Andersson (Eva Dahlbeck) who is in labor with her first son and is positively radiant and ecstatic.  We follow the stories of these women and their interactions with each other.  With Max Von Sydow as Stina’s smiling, upbeat husband.

It’s a real pleasure to see these three wonderful actresses play off each other.  Bergman, as usual, cuts to the heart of the matter.  There’s a lot of sadness but the film ends on a life-afirming note.

The Law and Jake Wade
Directed by John Sturges
Written by William Bowers from a novel by Marvin H. Alber
1958/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Clint Hollister: Well, did you say a few words over the boys?

Ortero: Yeah…good-bye.

Clint Hollister: Very touching.[/box]

It’s always fun to watch Richard Widmark play a villain. Otherwise this is run-of-the-mill Western fare with some nice vistas of the Rocky Mountains.

Jake Wade (Robert Taylor) and Clint Hollister (Widmark) were in the same unit during the Civil War.  Afterwards, they and some of there friends took to robbing stagecoaches.  They were caught after a successful robbery and Clint was taken into custody.  Jake broke Clint out of jail and then took off with the loot.  Jake reformed and is now a marshall.  When Clint is apprehended, Jake breaks him out of jail to repay Clint’s previous favor.

Clint is determined to get what he considers to be “his” money.  With the original gang, he abducts Jake and his fiancee and forces him to lead them to where the loot is buried.  The rest of the movie covers their journey, the pair’s various escape attempts, and the inevitable show-down.  With Henry Silva as a mean, crazy hombre as per usual.

I have liked Robert Taylor in a few films, where he is grim and hard, but mostly he is fairly bland as here.  Widmark is smart and fairly subtle.  There are a lot of dead spots during the journey.  It’s watchable though.

Trailer

Indiscreet
Directed by Stanley Donen
Written by Norman Krasna from a play by him
1958/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Anna Kalman: I like a man with a glass in his hand.[/box]

The best part was watching two beautiful adults fall in love with each other.

Anna Kalman (Ingrid Bergman) is a famous actress on the London stage.  Philip Adams (Cary Grant) is a famous American international economist.  Anna’s brother-in-law wants Philip to take a job with NATO in Paris.  Philip thinks maybe he would prefer to go to Mexico.  Anna and Philip are introduced.  She is clearly smitten at first sight and invites him to go with her to the ballet. He informs her that he is married but separated and can never be divorced.  She is willing to date him under these circumstances and he rapidly decides to stay in Europe.  They fall deliriously in love.

Later, the lovestruck Anna is informed that Philip has lied to her about his marital status. The third act is devoted to her comic revenge.

Grant and Bergman retain all the chemistry they had in Notorious.  She is still radiant at age 43 and he is still, well, Cary Grant.  Watching them together makes up for any slightly silly comedy.  Also we get to watch Cary Grant dance!  Recommended for fans of these actors.

Clip – Cary Grant kicks up his heels