Flickers in Time

The Return of Don Camillo
Directed by Julien Duvivier
Written by Julien Duvivier, René Barjavel, and Giuseppe Amato
1953/Italy/France
Les Films Ariane/Filmsonor/Francinex/Rizzoli Film/Amato Film
First viewing/Netflix rental

Even if a unity of faith is not possible, a unity of love is. — Hans Urs von Balthasar

If you are looking for something charming and gently amusing, this might be just your cup of tea.

At the end of the previous film, Pepponi Battazi (Gino Servi), the Communist mayor of a small Italian town complained to the bishop when Don Camillo, the parish priest, threw a table at him.  The bishop responded by sending Don Camillo to another parish.  It turns out that this parish is in a village high in the Alps that cannot be reached by road.  Don Camillo does not fare well there.  For one thing, the crucifix in the church does not speak to him.

Pepponi isn’t faring too well either.  The local people refuse to be born, get married or die without their favorite priest.  Pepponi also needs Camillo’s assistance to convince a stubborn landowner to allow a dam needed to protect the village to flood a portion of his property.

So Don Camillo returns and the two resume their friendly war of wills.  The priest needs his bell tower repaired and withholds his assistance until he gets the money to do this.  Then we more or less get a humorous look at life in the village.  While ideology and religion continue to collide, in a clinch the people, not least the priest and the mayor, can be counted on to support one another.

This is another entertaining slice of life in the series.  I think I preferred the first film but enjoyed this one as well.

Trailer (no subtitles)

The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan
Directed by Sidney Gilliat
Written by Sidney Gilliat based on The Gilbert and Sullivan book by Leslie Bailey
1953/UK
London Film Productions
First viewing/Amazon Prime

For he himself has said it,
And it’s greatly to his credit,
That he is an Englishman! – from HMS Pinafore, lyric by W.S. Gilbert

If you love Gilbert and Sullivan as much as I do, you will likely love this biopic.

This is the story of the sometimes uneasy collaboration of W.S. Gilbert (Robert Morely) and Arthur Sullivan (Maurice Evans) who created many beloved comic operettas during the second half of the 19th Century.  The film explores the tensions arising from Sullivan’s continuing ambition to write serious classical music.  The story is liberally interspersed with scenes from the operettas.

This film is not as lavish nor as perceptive as Mike Leigh’s Topsy-Turvy (1999), which I really loved.  Nonetheless I was thoroughly entertained and would recommend the film to fellow devotees of the protagonists.

Clip – from a performance of HMS Pinafore in the film

How to Marry a Millionaire
Directed by Jean Negulescou
Written by Nunally Johnson from a play by Zoe Akins, Dale Eunson, and Katherine Albert
1953/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Loco Dempsey: You don’t think he’s a little old?

Schatze Page: Wealthy men are never old.[/box]

I thought this was fun.

Three fashion models team up to share a fancy apartment (paid for by selling the owner’s furniture) with the single goal of marrying millionaires.  They are Schatze (Lauren Bacall), Pola (Marilyn Monroe) and Loco (Betty Grable).  Before we know it each is being squired by an almost suitable candidate.  Schatze sets her sights on a much-older widower J.D. Hanley (William Powell); Pola is dating a one-eyed oil mogul; and Loco decides to allow a married man to take her to his lodge.

Somehow love intervenes with each one of their plans.  The fun is in seeing how they end up with Mr. Right after all.  With David Wayne, Rory Calhoun, and Cameron Mitchell as the men in question.

This isn’t laugh out loud funny but is humorous throughout and a fine light entertainment. There has been a long gap since I saw William Powell in a movie and this made me realize I miss him.  This seems to have been a showcase for CinemaScope and the film begins rather oddly with Alfred Newman conducting the Twentieth Century Fox Orchestra in a full version of his “Street Scene” suite.

Trailer

Niagara
Directed by Henry Hathaway
Written by Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch, and Richard Breen
1953/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Ray Cutler: Why don’t you ever get a dress like that?

Polly Cutler: Listen. For a dress like that, you’ve got to start laying plans when you’re about thirteen.[/box]

This entertaining film noir offers Marilyn Monroe a leading role at her most luscious.

A nice all-American young couple, Ray Cutler and his wife Polly (Jean Peters), are taking a belated honeymoon in Niagara Falls.  Ray is celebrating winning a contest for best publicity campaign at the cereal company he works for and hopes to meet the CEO, who lives nearby.  The Cutlers have been assigned to the best cabin at the motor court.　However, they graciously cede it to George Loomis (Joseph Cotten) and his wife Rose (Marilyn Monroe).  The Loomises are extending their stay because George is suffering from some unspecified mental problem, obviously including severe depression.

The Cutlers soon discover that George has at least one reason to be depressed.  Rose is a man magnet who does not discourage those she attracts.  Furthermore, they catch her in a passionate embrace with a young man at the Falls.  One night, George snaps in front of all the guests when hearing a record playing Rose’s favorite song, “Kiss”.  Polly tends to the cut he got while breaking the record.

Soon the audience finds out that Rose and her lover are plotting a way to rid themselves of old George.  Ray finally meets up with CEO and extends the couple’s stay to socialize.  Polly, who is the closest thing to a friend that George has, keeps being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  With Don Wilson as the CEO.

While I don’t think this is the best noir ever made or anything, I enjoy this movie, mostly for the atmosphere and scenery.  It is nice and steamy when Monroe is on screen and the falls look magnificent.  If the pacing were better, the plot would make a good thriller but it falls a little flat in that department.  Somehow we are one step ahead of the plot all along the way taking the surprise out of a pretty neat twist.

The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T
Directed by Roy Rowland
Written by Dr. Seuss and Allan Scott
1953/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation/Stanley Kramer Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Dr. Terwilliker: This is my day! 5,000 little fingers, all playing together on my piano! Every finger obedient to the whim of me, the master! Every infinitesimal, microscopic piece of living tissue of those 5,000 little fingers, cringing and trembling and groveling before me! Before me, Dr. Terwilliker, as I raise my baton! We shall play… raise hands! We shall play the most beautiful piece ever written! I wrote it. Ten Happy Fingers! A one, and a two, and a three, and a play![/box]

This very odd little musical is growing on me.

As the movie begins, strange leotard-wearing men are chasing a young boy through a surreal landscape with colored butterfly nets.  The boy is Bartholomew Collins (Tommy Rettig) who has fallen asleep, as he frequently does, while practicing on the piano.  We are introduced to his piano teacher Dr. Terwiliker (Hans Conreid), his mother, and plumber August Zabladowski.  All these people say that Bartholomew should practice even harder, though the plumber privately tells him that he thinks Dr. Terwilker is pulling the wool over his mother’s eyes.

Bartholomew starts playing once again and promptly falls asleep.  His dream takes him to Dr. T’s piano school, an establishment complete with dungeons for recalcitrant students. Dr. T’s plan is to kidnap 500 boys and force them to practice nonstop forever on his gigantic piano.

Worse, Bartholomew’s mother has been hypnotized and is working as No. 2 in command of the school.  The evil doctor plans to marry her once his concert takes place.  The plumber is busy installing the sinks necessary for the school to pass inspection. Bartholomew enlists him as a reluctant ally to defeat Dr. T’s plans for both the boys and the mother.  He gains a father in the process.

I can imagine that this movie was quite scary for little kids and it was a major flop.  Dr. Seuss seems to have pinpointed all the anxieties common to children’s nightmares and gathered them together on celluloid.  Nevertheless, some of the songs are quite good, Conreid is a gas, and the whole thing has a special look that you won’t see anywhere else. I enjoyed it far more on this viewing than the first time I saw it.

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T was nominated for an Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.

Joe Dante on the film – Trailers from Hell

Clip

Martin Luther
Directed by Irving Pichel
Written by Allan Sloane, Lothar Wolff, Theodore G. Tappert, and Jarolslav Pelican
1953/USA/West Germany
Louis de Rochemont Associates/Luther Filmgesellshaft/Lutheran Church in America/RD-DR Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying. — Martin Luther

The Lutheran Church spared no expense on this very well-made biopic of its founder.  I am in the wrong demographic to fully appreciate it and found it pretty dry.

The story takes place in the first part of the 16th Century when Europe was dominated by the twin powers of the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope.  In his search for peace and salvation, Martin Luther (Niall McGinnis) quits law school to become an Augustinian monk. He is later ordained a priest and becomes a theological teacher and scholar at the University of Wittenberg.

During this period the Roman Catholic church commonly sold “indulgences” that would absolve the sinning purchaser from specified times in Purgatory.  Pope Leo had embarked on the very expensive project of constructing St. Peter’s in Rome.  To finance it, he created a kind of super indulgence that absolved the sinner of all heavenly penalty.  Luther became the most outspoken critic of this practice and posted his Ninety-Five Theses in protest.

This rebellion was appreciated neither by the Church nor the Emperor.  Luther was given an ultimatum to retract his writings and when he refused was excommunicated and declared an outlaw.  He received sanctuary in Wartburg Castle, where he translated the New Testament into German.  After some years, Luther returned to the public stage and Lutheranism and Protestantism were born.

Niall McGinnis lays it on a bit thick at various points but this is basically a fine film.  The problem is that it is all too clearly an explication of Lutheran Church doctrine and its origins.  This gives the proceedings a solemn and ponderous tone and made the film drag badly for me.

Martin Luther was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Cintematography, Black and White and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and White.

Clip

War of the Worlds
Directed by Byron Haskin
Written by Barré Lyndon from the novel by H.G. Wells
1953/USA
Paramount Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Radio Reporter: All radio is dead, which means that these tape recordings I’m making are for the sake of future history – If any.[/box]

This is the epitome of early 50’s science fiction and a ton of fun.

The film begins with a voice over narration describing the plight of the Martians, whose planet is slowly dying.  They have started to cast a longing eye at Earth for resettlement.

A group of campers witnesses an object fall to earth.  Conveniently, one of them is world-reknowned scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry).  He goes to the site and meets Sylvia Van Buren, niece of the local preacher.  Forrester and Sylvia will be partners in terror for the remainder of the film.

It soon becomes evident that the falling object was not a meteorite.  It has deposited a large blob of red-hot molten material.  Firemen hang around to see that the fire it started is truly out.  They are amazed to see a kind of door open at the top of it.  Weird and scary things happen in quick succession.  Flying machines blast everything in sight.  The armed forces can do nothing to stop the destruction, which we learn is happening at several locations world wide.

Forrester and Sylvia seek refuge in a farmhouse but are searched out by the aliens. Forrester manages to nab one outside its machine and to slay it.  This produces a blood sample and the pair head back to civilization to help in the search for a way to stop the carnage.  An atomic bomb is powerless against the Martians.  It looks like the Earth is doomed and human nature begins to show its ugly face as people fight to be first in line for evacuation of Los Angeles.

This movie has it all: B movie actors at their best; awesome 50’s special effects; and glimpses of scary aliens.  The film is less than 90 minutes and is tautly and suspensefully written. It is a classic of its genre.   Recommended.

War of the Worlds won the Academy Award for Best Effects, Special Effects.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Sound, Recording and Best Film Editing.

Trailer