Flickers in Time

The Spirit of St. Louis
Directed by Billy Wilder
Written by Billy Wilder, Wendell Mayes and Charles Lederer from a book by Charles A. Lindbergh
1957/USA
Leland Hayward Productions/ Warner Bros./Billy Wilder Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Charles Lindbergh: Now, I don’t propose to sit on a flagpole or swallow goldfish. I’m not a stuntman; I’m a flier.[/box]

Billy Wilder makes the story of a man alone in a plane richly cinematic.

This is the story of Charles Lindbergh’s (James Stewart) historic transatlantic solo flight. The story opens with Lindbergh lying in bed unable to sleep the night before he is set to attempt the crossing.  We get his story as he tosses, turns, and reflects on how he raised the money and got his plane built for the flight.  We learn that six men have died attempting this same feat.

After Lindbergh’s suspenseful takeoff in fog over a muddy runway, we are alone in his plane.  He never did get to sleep and grows increasingly loopy over the 33 hour flight.  A house fly joins him in the plane and he begins to talk to it.  Later in his exhaustion he begins to talk to himself.  We get more details from earlier in his life through his thoughts.  We also get to watch some dazzling scenery from the air and live through several scary incidents.

I had heard of this film for a long time but had not seen it or realized it was written and directed by Wilder.  It certainly is not characteristic of his work.  It shows, though, what an accomplished director he was even without his trademark wisecracks.  The flight scenes are especially beautiful.

This film was a notorious flop.  Lindbergh hated Stewart’s portrayal of him and most felt he had been miscast as a man almost half his age.  I liked it a lot though.

The Spirit of St. Louis was Oscar-nominated for Best Effects, Special Effects.

Trailer

The Brothers Rico
Directed by Phil Karlson
Written by Lewis Meltzer, Ben Perry and Dalton Trumbo; story by Georges Simenon
1957/USA
William Goetz Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Johnny Rico: [to Eddie] Okay, okay, so nobody’s blaming you. Let’s just say something happened way back when, huh? So maybe I am gonna die, but Eddie, you’ve got even bigger troubles. You’re gonna live.[/box]

An entire family is dragged down by the mob in this effective late film noir.

Eddie Rico (Richard Conte) has gone straight.  He used to work as an accountant for the mob but now he runs a successful laundry.  Yet when he gets an early morning call asking him to hide an associate in a back room, he agrees.  No questions asked.

His life becomes more complicated when his brother Gino comes to call.  Gino says he was the trigger man and brother Johnny (James Darren) was the driver in a mob assassination.  Now the mob is looking for Gino and he is terrified.  Johnny has disappeared.  Eddie gives Gino money to help him leave the country.  Soon Eddie’s “Uncle” Sid, the mob’s boss, summons Eddie to Miami.  Eddie and his wife are trying to adopt and this is happening at the worst possible time.

In Miami, Sid tells Eddie that Johnny’s brother-in-law has gone to the DA and he is afraid Johnny will snitch.  He asks Eddie to locate his youngest brother, warn him, and get him out of the country.  Things get pretty bloody after that.

The wages of crime, like sin, is death and this is a very dark noir.  Conte is excellent as the conflicted protagonist.  I have a mixed reaction to Karlson’s crime films.  I liked this one a lot.

Trailer – spoilers

Kronos
Directed by Kurt Neumann
Written by Lawrence L. Goldman; story by Irving Block
USA/1957
Regal Films
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Dr. Hubbell Eliot: We have half of the equation; we can turn matter into energy. But up there, they have the second half; they can turn energy into matter.[/box]

This B sci-fi film is kind of a mixed bag.

A truck driver is humming along to “Something’s Gotta Give” on his radio as he tootles down a desert road.  Suddenly he sees a small beam of light before him.  There is a blinding flash and the trucker is instantly zombified.  His handler sends him to a laboratory where he blitzes a guard.  There is a second flash and the handler takes over Hubbell Ellis, the lab’s head scientist.

Ellis now has a mysterious gleam in his eye.  An asteroid looks ready to collide with earth. Ellis counsels using nuclear weapons to destroy it.  This proves ineffective and the “asteroid”, really a spacecraft, lands in the Gulf of Mexico.  It morphs into a gigantic robot and starts heading for a nuclear power plant.  In the meantime, Ellis is put in an insane asylum.  During his rare lucid moments, the frightening truth begins to emerge.

The film features stylish title credits, a great score, and an intriguing premise about energy conservation.  After a very promising opening, it kind of resolves into a standard creature feature plot, with attendant romance and wisecracks, and lacks thrills.

Trailer

The Deadly Mantis
Directed by Nathan Juran
Written by Martin Berkeley;story by William Alland
1957/USA
Universal International Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Dr. Ned Jackson: I’m convinced that we’re dealing with a Mantis in whose geological world the smallest insects were as large as man, and now failing to find those insects as food, well… it’s doing the best that it can.[/box]

The plot is rather bland but the monster is rather awesome.  And we all know what is important in these things.

We start with an explanation of North American missile defense.  Then we travel to the outermost command above the arctic circle.  A weather station is destroyed.  Its occupants simply disappear.  Then an Eskimo village and cargo plane are attacked.  The military locates a bit of evidence.  Scientists determine that it must have come from a living thing.  The part is taken to a entomologist/paleontologist (William Hopper) at the Museum of Natural History.  Turns out it’s the spur from a prehistoric preying mantis!

The mantis is moving southward toward its natural environment in the tropics.  It makes stops in Washington DC and New York City, where its last stand proves to be the Lincoln Tunnel.  The obligatory romance is also included.

I was impressed with the special effects in this one, extremely dated though they are. Several different techniques appear to be used.  Other than one howler of a real mantis climbing a tiny Washington Monument, they are effective.  There’s also some better than average use of stock footage.  Not bad for a giant bug movie.  Why are all giant creatures born in either the Arctic or the desert?

Trailer

Forty Guns
Directed by Samuel Fuller
Written by Samuel Fuller
1957/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation/Globe Enterprises
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Jessica Drummond: I need a strong man to carry out my orders.

Griff Bonnell: And a weak man to take them.[/box]

Fun Sam Fuller Western confirms my opinion that Barbara Stanwyck aged the most gracefully of the classic actresses.

Jessica Drummond (Stanwyck) is the boss of Cochise County, Arizona.  She backs up her iron rule with forty hired guns and the allegiance of hand-picked sheriff Ned Logan (Dean Jagger).  Logan (Dean Jagger) also has an unrequited passion for the wealthy Jessica. Jessica has been saddled with little brother Brockie (John Ericson), now a mean alcoholic loser, since his birth.

U.S. Marshall Griff Bonnell (Barry Sullivan) rides into the territory with his two younger brothers, Wes (Gene Berry) and Chico.  He aims to take fugitive Howard Swain, Jessica’s top gun, into custody.  As soon as the Bonnells arrive in town, Marshall John Chisum (Hank Warden) pleads for help but Griff refuses to lift a finger for him.  The almost blind Chisum is promptly gunned down by Brockie for kicks.

Things take their brutal course.  In the meantime, Jessica and Griff, who have a lot in common, fall in love setting up a triangle with the jealous Logan.  Brockie and Griff are inevitably drawn into conflict leaving Jessica in a sad dilemma.

I enjoy this movie a lot.  It is short, taut, and features some stunning shots of men on horses. Stanwyck retains the dignity and looks to be a believable middle-aged love interest.

Trailer

Abandon Ship (AKA Seven Waves Away)
Directed by Richard Sale
Written by Richard Sale
1957/USA/UK
Copa Productions
First viewing/YouTube

Edith Middleton: Why are the wicked always so strong?

This “lifeboat” type movie goes a little overboard.

A ship is sunk by a derelict mine.  Ship’s officer Alec Holmes finds himself and a few others clinging to some debris.  He swims off to rescue nurse Julie White (Mai Zetterling).  They are attacked by sharks and end up on the captain’s skiff with an assortment of passengers and crew.  Many of these people, including the captain, are grievously injured. The skiff is designed and equipped to hold nine people.  Twenty-seven people are on board or clinging to the side.

With his dying breath, the captain puts Holmes in command.  He is immediately confronted by a barrage of demands and complaints and must immediately establish himself as the unquestioned authority.  Fortunately, he has a couple of pistols at his disposal. Eventually, the radio man reveals that he did not get a chance to send an SOS. Some of the passengers and a wounded fellow crew member (Lloyd Nolan) advise Holmes to sacrifice some of the occupants so that at least some can survive.  Holmes initially resists this but a storm makes him question that decision.  Steven Boyd, Kenneth Moore, Finlay Currie and Gordon Jackson share the boat.

The movie has a motley cast of characters and setting very reminiscent of Hitchcock’s Lifeboat.  The film presents the interesting moral question of whether some should be sacrified for the good of the group and, if so, who is the most dispensable.  The script is good at drawing a large number of well-defined characters.  Unfortunately, the acting and dialogue seemed too melodramatic for my taste.  This is a very highly rated film, though, and others probably will enjoy it.

Clip

The Incredible Petrified World
Directed by Jerry Warren
Written by John W. Steiner
1957/USA
GBM Productions
First viewing/Internet Archive

[box] Lauri Talbott: Sorry you feel that way. I was hoping we could help each other.

Dale Marshall: You don’t need help – neither do I. Not as long as we have two men around us. [/box]

John Carradine is the best thing about this terrible movie and he phoned his part in.

The movie begins with a long documentary sequence about the ocean depths that allows the filmmakers to use some stilted narration and stock footage of a battle between a large fish and an octopus.  We then move to the story.  Prof. Millard Wyman has invented a diving bell that will allow exploration of the sea deeper than ever before.  A team of two men and two women occupy the bell.  The cable snaps and the explorers find themselves in underwater caves that oddly include plenty of fresh air and water.  They meet up with a menacing old weirdo.  After a lot of jealous bickering between the ladies, they are rescued. The end.

This movie looks like hell and is boring.  Clearly Carradine was in this solely for the paycheck.  There’s not even a monster.  Don’t bother.

Trailer

Tokyo Twilight (Tôkyô boshoku)
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu
Written by Yasujiro Ozu and Kogo Noda
1957/Japan
Shochiku Eiga
Repeat viewing/Hulu

[box] The pattern of the prodigal is: rebellion, ruin, repentance, reconciliation, restoration. Edwin Louis Cole [/box]

Of all Ozu’s domestic dramas, this is the one that made me cry most.

Kisako Sugiyama (Isuzu Yamada) abandoned her husband Shukichi (Chisu Ryu) and three children years ago.  The son subsequently died in an accident.  Daughter Tatako (Setsuko Hara) was old enough to remember her mother but daughter Akiko was only a toddler.  As the story begins, Tatako and her own daughter have moved back in with Shukichi.  Tatakoi doesn’t want to talk about it but it seems that her marriage is breaking up as well. Akiko is staying out late at night and worrying her family terribly.  She spends much time searching for her erstwhile boyfriend Kenji who has been avoiding her.

She needn’t have bothered.  When Akiko finally tracks down her man to tell him she is pregnant, he is no help whatsoever.  She is all alone.  She feels even more alone later. Then she discovers that the woman at the mah jong parlor who took an interest in her is actually her mother.

Damn, it is hard to be a woman.  Or a person really.  All of Ozu’s films deal with the dissolution of the Japanese family but this takes it to a new level of frankness.  I felt so sorry for each and every person in this movie that the tears started about 30 minutes before the end.  None of this is a criticism.  The whole thing is exquisitely and sensitively done. Recommended.

Isuzu Yamada was having quite a year.  Her most memorable role is as the Lady Macbeth character in Throne of Blood, but there’s the lustful, vengeful landlady in Lower Depths, and her subtly heartbreaking performance in this as well. She was certainly a fine actress.

Excerpt from the score