Flickers in Time

The Idiot (Hakuchi)
Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Written by Akira Kurosawa and Eijirô Hisaita from the novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky
1951/Japan
Shôchiku Eiga
First viewing/Hulu

[box] Mutsuo Kayama, the secretary: What could be so frightening about that idiot?[/box]

This is a beautiful, fantastically acted film.  Unfortunately, it is also 166 minutes long and I don’t feel like I quite got the point.

Kurosawa has transposed the setting of Dostoevsky’s novel from Tsarist Russia to post-war Hokkaido.  The story takes place mostly in severe winter weather.

Kinji Kameda (Masayuki Mori) has just been released from an American military hospital where he had been treated for “epileptic idiocy”.  This condition developed after Kameda was spared at the very last minute from execution after having been erroneously charged with being a war criminal.  As he waited to die, Kameda felt an enormous love for everyone and regret that he had not been kinder or more considerate.

On his train journey back to Sapporo, Kameda is befriended by Denkichi Akama (Toshiro Mifune) who is headed there to reunite with and attempt to marry the woman he loves, Taeku Nasu (Setsuko Hara).  On arrival, the two stop to admire her portrait which is on display at a photographer’s shop.  Kameda immediately feels compassion for Taeku due to the sadness he sees in her eyes.

Taeko was taken as a fourteen-year-old girl to be the mistress of a rich man who apparently forced her into some unspeakable degradation.  The man has now tired of her and has offered Ayako, the son of Ono (Takashi Shimura), 600,000 yen to marry her.  Akama raises a million yen in a bid to marry her himself.  But Kameda quietly tells Taeko shed is not the person her trials have made her and she should not marry.  He offers to take care of her although he has no money.  Then Ono reveals that Kameda is actually the owner of a valuable estate that Ono has appropriated.

But Taeko cannot bear to “ruin” someone as good as Kameda. Although Kameda’s feelings for Taeko are more tender than passionate and despite their real friendship, Kameda and Akama are at odds over her fate for the rest of the film.  In the meantime, Kameda engages in a fairly bizarre courtship with Oda’s daughter.  Tragedy ensues.

Obviously, with this cast the viewer is in store for some tremendous acting.  Masayuki Mori, who played the samurai in Rashomon, is the standout as the “idiot”.  You have to love him.  Mifune and especially Hara were almost unrecognizable to me during the first part of the film and very good.

The film begins with a text saying that Dostoevsky wanted to create a character who was completely good and the only way to do so in this corrupt world was to make him an idiot.  The story is supposed to show the destruction of such a character by life.  I suppose this is true but the message kind of got lost for me in the extremely convoluted plot.

I think this movie could have lost forty-five minutes and been improved.  Be that as it may, the version I watched was already cut from the Kurosawa’s original, which clocked in at 265 minutes and the 180 minute version shown at the film’s premier.  Since I still don’t understand some of the plot points maybe they were left on the cutting room floor.

The Racket
Directed by John Cromwell
Written by William Wister Haines and W.R. Burnett from a play by Bartlett Cormack
1951/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Booking Sgt. Sullivan: [booking Joe Scanlon, then examining the gun he was caught with] Receipt for your toy, sonny. My granddaughter could use that for a paperweight – in her kindergarden.[/box]

Despite the presence of my two favorite Roberts (Ryan and Mitchum), I thought the most interesting thing about this film noir was the commentary track.

Through some heavy exposition we learn that organized crime, lead by a mysterious boss called “the old man”, has taken over a city and is now fielding its own candidates for public office.  Working for the syndicate is Nick Scanlon (Ryan) a run-of-the-mill old time hoodlum.  Scanlon is accustomed to wipe out anyone who crosses him.  The old man does not approve of such crude tactics.

Honest cop Captain Thomas McQuigg (Mitchum) is sent in to clean up.  He has a committed assistant in true blue officer Bob Johnson (William Talman).  McQuigg begins his assignment by going to Scanlon and warning him to stay out of his district.  He and Scanlon evidently are old acquaintances and Scanlon spends most of the visit complaining about his spoiled brother who has taken up with nightclub “canary” Irene Hayes (Lizbeth Scott).

McQuigg decides to get to Scanlon through his brother and to his brother through Irene. Somehow an intrepid but green reporter gets involved and falls for Irene.  Scanlon has a few cards up his sleeve in the form of the D.A. (Ray Collins), who is the syndicate’s candidate for a judgeship.  The battle of good versus evil continues on for the rest of the film.  With William Conrad as one of the old man’s associates.

I thought this movie was just OK.  It was a remake of a silent film of the same name, also produced by Howard Hughes, from 1928.  Commentator Eddie Muller makes it clear that he prefers the earlier version, which was nominated as Best Picture in the very first Academy Award year.  He details the fraught production history in which no less than three directors worked on the movie.  Muller said that Hughes rejected Samuel Fuller’s original script for this version.  He could not live with the police corruption included by Fuller in the plot.  Fuller’s version probably would have made a more dynamic film.

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Quo Vadis  
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Written by John Lee Mahin, S.N. Behrman, and Sonya Levien from the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz
1951/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Emperor Nero: [none of his closest men will die for him in light of the mob’s anger over Rome’s burning] I’m surrounded by eunuchs![/box]

Objectively, this is worth seeing for Ustinov’s performance, the spectacle, and the music. Subjectively, it is just the kind of bloated epic I can’t stand.

The setting is Rome during the reign of the emperor Nero (Ustinov).  Marcus Vinicius (Robert Taylor) has returned to the city after emerging victorious over the Britons.  Instead of being received immediately in triumph, he is asked to cool his heels at the home of retired general Plautius.  He is immediately attracted to Lygia (Deborah Kerr), Plautius’s adopted daughter who was taken as a hostage from her father, the king of the Lygians.  It soon becomes clear to the audience, if not to Vincinius, that the entire Plautius household is made up of Christians.  Lygia is smitten with Vincinius but rejects his crude advances.

Soon enough, Vincinius is received in Rome in a triumphal procession.  He has had Lygia summoned by the emperor.  Nero is attracted to the comely lass but is persuaded by Petronius, Vincinius’s uncle and Nero’s right hand man, that the girl is not worthy of him. Vincinius claims her as his prize, angering Nero’s harlot wife Poppaea who has the hots for Vincinius herself.  Lygia flees,  When Vincinius finally catches up with her something makes him set her free.

Meanwhile, Nero’s artistic ambitions are getting out of control.  Not content with composing bad poetry, the fey demigod decides to rebuild Rome.  He will need to clear the area and decides the quickest way is to set the whole thing on fire.  He is stunned when the masses do not appreciate the gesture.  Poppaea, secretly striking back at Vincinius and Lygea, suggests the best way to deflect blame would be to blame the conflagration on the Christians.  The move concludes with the Christians going smilingly to their fate in the Coliseum and Nero’s end.  With Finlay Currie as Saint Peter.

Something about these things strikes me as so phony that I can’t stomach them.  It is as if the filmmakers neither knew nor cared about history, Rome, or Christianity.  It is 100% bombast and spectacle.  That said, the Technicolor really worked its magic on the Blu-Ray DVD I watched.  Taylor seemed a bit too old and stuffy for his role and this might be the worst performance I have ever seen from Kerr, which doesn’t mean it was actually bad. Ustinov veers between delicious camp and beastliness just as any Nero should and Genn is wry as his bored advisor.

Quo Vadis was nominated for Academy Awards in the following categories:  Best Picture; Best Supporting Actor (Ustinov); Best Supporting Actor (Genn); Best Cinematography, Color; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color; Best Costume Design, Color; Best Film Editing; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.

Trailer

The House on Telegraph Hill
Directed by Robert Wise
Written by Elick Moll and Frank Partos from a novel by Dana Lyon
1951/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Alan Spender: [to Victoria/Karin] The trouble with you is you really don’t know how to relax.[/box]

I enjoyed this noirish woman-in-peril thriller.

Karin Dernakova and Victoria Kowelska (Valentina Cortese) are helping each other survive a concentration camp.  Victoria has lost her entire family and home in the war.  Karin was able to send her infant son Chris off to stay with her rich aunt Sophie in San Francisco before war broke out.  Karin dreams being of reunited with the boy after the war is over and plans to take Victoria with her.  When Karin dies before liberation, Victoria decides to borrow her identity in hopes of a better life in America.  In the relocation camp, she attempts to make contact with the aunt and discovers she has died.

When she gets to New York, Victoria/Karin meets with some lawyers who advise that Aunt Sophie left her entire fortune to Chris.  A distant relative by marriage, Alan Spender, was named the boy’s guardian and since has adopted him.  Victoria protests but the problem seems to be solved when she and Alan fall in love and marry.

Victoria and Alan set up housekeeping in the aunt’s mansion on Telegraph Hill.  It turns out that the house comes with Chris’s governess Margaret.  Victoria quickly forms a real bond with the boy and is met with jealousy and resistance from Margaret.  For some reason, she also takes up residence in a guest room.  Then a series of events make her believe that Alan is trying to kill her …  With William Lundigan as Alan’s friend and Victoria’s admirer.

I thought this was a solid, entertaining little picture.  I liked that it did not go the direction I thought it was headed.  The leads were all very good in their roles and Wise, while no Hitchcock, handles suspense well.

Basehart and Cortese met during the shooting of this film and were married shortly thereafter.

Trailer – massive spoilers included

Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.  
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Written by Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts, and Aeneas MacKenzie; adopted for the screen by C.S. Forester from his novels
UK/1951
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Lt. Crystal: Signal from the lookout, sir. Natividad’s gone about – one more tack and she’ll be at the harbor mouth.

Capt. Horatio Hornblower, R.N: Very good, Mr. Crystal. Well, gentlemen, that leaves time for a rubber of whist.[/box]

This sea adventure makes a good popcorn movie.

The story is set during the Napoleonic Wars. The HMS Lydia is sailing in Southern waterns on a secret mission known only to its master, Captain Horatio Hornblower (Gregory Peck). As the story begins, the ship is becalmed and food and water are running short.  Sailors are beginning to die of scurvy.  The ship is saved from mutiny when Hornblower correctly predicts that the wind will pick up and the ship will reach land within 24 hours.

The ship’s mission was to reach a Caribbean island and join forces with a rebel in an effort to oust France’s Spanish ally from the a America’s.  The idea was to keep Spain occupied so occupied in defending its colonies that it would have no time to aid France.  The Lydia sets out at once and, after a battle,  captures a Spanish galleon.  Suddenly, the news arrives that Spain has switched sides and is now England’s ally.  Hornblower must free the ship.  In the process, he finds he must take Lady Barbara (Virgina Mayo), sister of the Duke of Wellington, on board.  She had been fleeing a yellow fever outbreak in Panama.

In due course, Hornblower and Lady Barbara fall in love.  But Hornblower is married and Lady Barbara is engaged to an admiral so this love is of the tortured variety.  Most of the rest of the film, however, is devoted to sea battles and Hornblower’s daring escape with a couple of his men from French captivity.

When Raoul Walsh helms an adventure story like this, you are almost guaranteed an entertaining couple of hours.  Gregory Peck made a speciality of this kind of manly but humane hero and does well here.  Mayo (The Best Years of Our Lives, White Heat) is almost unrecognizable as the kind and pure Lady Barbara. so different from her usual slutty roles.  There is a stirring score by Robert Farnon.

Trailer

Awaara
Directed by Raj Kapoor
Written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas; story by V.P. Sathe
1951/India
All India Film Corporation/R.K. Films Ltd.
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Our people are gracious and kind. They go to all the trouble to go to a cinema, stand in long queues and procure a ticket. They go through the hustle and bustle, through the blazing sun and the thrashing rain, to see your film, and; as I have always said – if you do not cheat the audience, they are very kind to you. Don’t make a fool of them. Do not take them for granted. They may not be as intelligent or as critical as other audiences, but why they have come there, they know: they want to be entertained. — Raj Kapoor[/box]

This early Bollywood musical is three hours of pure entertainment.

Justice Raghunath believes there is no room for emotion in the law.  As the film opens, we are at the trial of Raj (Raj Kapoor) for attacking him.  Raj is unrepresented but, at the last minute, the lovely Rita (Nargis), an attorney, comes into represent the young thief.  She is also the Justice’s ward.  We then segue into flashback as Rita brings out the reasons for Raj’s crime.

The bandit Jagga kidnaps the Justice’s  beloved wife Leela as revenge for the Judge’s wrongful conviction of him as a young man.  Jagga’s father and grandfather were bandits and that was enough to make him a bandit as far as the judge was concerned.  When Jagga discovers that Leela is pregnant, he decides to prove to the judge that parentage makes no difference.  He sends Leela home unmolested after four days.  When Leela announces her pregnancy the judge does not believe that he is the father and casts her out into the street.  Their son Raj is born in a gutter.

Leela and Raj live in a Bombay slum and mother works her fingers to the bone so that her son can go to school.  She keeps his parentage from him.  At school, Raj and Rita fall into puppy love.  Then Raj is expelled from school for some reason and Rita moves away.  Jagga makes his move and turns the talented Raj into a thief like himself.

Rita’s father dies and the judge becomes her guardian.  Twelve years later Raj and Rita are reunited while Raj is trying to rob the judge’s house in the guise of a piano tuner. The rest of the story follows their star-crossed romance.

This movie is full of good songs, dancing, comedy, action and romance.  Kapoor is enormously appealing.  Some of the numbers must be seen to be believed.  The dream sequence in the middle of the film is positively surreal, and I mean that in a good way.  I was kind of dreading a three-hour Indian movie and the hours flew by.  If you are looking for something that will leave you with a smile on your face, this could be the movie for you.

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