The Best Years of Our Lives

An elder Army sergeant (Frederic March), a bombardier (Dana Andrews), and a sailor (Harold Russell, a real life veteran and Oscar winner for the role), who lost his hands in a bombing and now is fairly functional with metal hooks, return from their tour at war's end and find their families, jobs, and themselves almost unrecognizable as they struggle to cope with their return. William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives is overlong and at times mannered, but extremely touching and well realized with tremendous acting by all involved, also including Myrna Loy and Teresa Wright playing March's wife and daughter, respectively.

*** 1/2 out of ****.

Beauty and the Beast

Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's fairy tale, which tells of a beautiful, kindhearted commoner (Josette Day) trading places with her imprisoned father held in an enchanted castle inhabited by a cursed, brutish creature (Jean Marais), was given a magical, bizarre, and overtly sexual interpretation by Jean Cocteau is his classic film. Following a few pedantic opening passages, which also feature Marais, here playing the cruel Avenant who also seeks Belle's hand, as soon as our heroine arrives at the Beast's fortress the picture takes on an otherworldly quality marked by enigmatic, seemingly inexplicable special effects that capture the imagination and put modern movies to shame.

Notorious

The stigmatized daughter (Ingrid Bergman) of a Nazi spy is offered a chance at redemption by the U.S. government when she is recruited by an intrepid agent (Cary Grant) to seduce and surveil one of her father's cohorts (Claude Rains). Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious, which was scripted by Ben Hecht, is one of The Master's finest and most sophisticated thrillers with Bergman never looking so radiant, Grant demonstrating great appeal, thanks in part to his character's vulnerability, and Rains turning in an absolutely spectacular performance as a not quite so heartless villain. There are many unforgettable sequences here including the extended kissing scene, the wine cellar progression ending with the tracking shot on the concealed key, and of course the brilliantly contrived final escape followed by Rains' long climb to rejoin his mates.

The Big Sleep

Private investigator Phillip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) is hurled into a complex maze of blackmail and murder when he is hired by a dying, wealthy businessman to resolve his daughter's (Martha Vickers) gambling debts, and ends up falling for her icy, older sister (Lauren Bacall). Howard Hawks' classic noir mystery, from Raymond Chandler' novel and a serpentine screenplay which features partial credit attributed to William Faulkner, is a lot of fun when you focus on the characters and dialogue and abandon all hope on keeping up with the convoluted plot (this is the movie where Chandler reportedly couldn't determine who committed one of the killings). This was the second film which Bogart and Bacall appeared in together, their first as a married couple, and a make or break film for her and their scenes together prove to be the highlight of an entertaining, shambolic picture.

A Matter of Life and Death

In the middle of an air raid, a British RAF pilot (David Niven) makes a brief and undeniable connection with an American radio operator (Kim Hunter) before evacuating his plane without  a parachute, an action that should have claimed his life had his heavenly handler been on point. Now while embarking on a love affair with the operator, the pilot is informed that he will have to argue the case for his life before an ethereal court and seek a representative who can best testify on his behalf. "A Matter of Life and Death" (released as "Stairway to Heaven" in the U.S.) is an incredible work from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger and serves as a summation for their numerous WWII films.  A young Niven delivers a remarkable performance as the quintessential Brit and Hunter is his match playing his sweet soulmate. Roger Livesey has a great supporting role as a doctor helping Niven with his visions as does Raymond Massey who plays the prosecuting attorney, an English hating American revolutionary. Filmed where heaven is seen in tints and earth is shown in ebullient complexion, a counter to the color scheme presented in "The Wizard of Oz", "A Matter of Life and Death" ranks among The Archers most visually fantastic, imaginative, and touching features.

The Postman Always Rings Twice

(minor spoilers)

A drifter walks into a roadside diner and inquires about a help wanted position. He is taken on the shrewd owner and taken greatly by his young and sultry wife. Soon, the two find each themselves in each others arms and quickly cook up a scheme to bump off the bumbling husband, not fully aware of the meaning of the title omen. "The Postman Always Rings Twice" is classic film noir from the hard boiled James M. Cain novel. John Garfield is excellent as the well meaning hitcher who has no intentions of getting entangled with the seductive femme fatale, played by a sexy and sultry Lana Turner. Much of the film's tension is released following the murder (although the latter courtroom scenes feature a great turn by Hume Cronyn as an unscrupulous defense attorney), "The Postman Always Rings Twice" is genre defining filmmaking.

The Blue Dahlia

A bomber pilot returns home from war and, after having a few drinks with his service buddies, goes to meet his wife and finds her at a party in the arms of another man. After a heated and public argument, she turns up dead the next morning and the G.I., along with the sultry ex-wife of his dead wife's lover, must solve the mystery before the pursuing coppers close in. "The Blue Dahlia" is a well made noir from director George Marshall with a script by the hard boiled novelist Raymond Chandler. Alan Ladd is in top form as the hard nosed G.I. and Veronica Lake is as sexy as ever as the mysterious blonde whom he becomes entangled with. William Bendix and Doris Dowling are also strong in supporting roles as an edgy, brain damaged veteran and Ladd's malevolent wife. (spoilers) Only in the end does the film unravel with an unsatisfying revelation of an irrelevant culprit, maligning an otherwise excellent noir exercise.

It's a Wonderful Life

"It's a Wonderful Life" arrives on television every holiday season with the certainty of cookies and milk, and is met with both fondness and weariness alike. Revisiting this ageless classic, I was taken in and captivated as always, but I was also surprise at how dark the film is in spots, a quality not always associated with the work on first thoughts. Released in 1946, this is still essentially a film about the depression, made by Frank Capra, a director who perhaps most typifies that decade. It opens with celestial beings representing God and St. Peter receiving prayers of desperation for the sake of a despondent George Bailey. Summoning a bumbling angel, the two higher beings take him through the selfless hayseed's life where all of his personal dreams and ambitions are sacrificed for the good of the people in the small town. Faced with the prospect of jail on Christmas Eve, the angel gives George a chance to see what life would have been like had he never been born. For Jimmy Stewart, "It's a Wonderful Life" represented what I suppose you could call a composite of his career, featuring the wide eyed good natured performance indicative of his early work as well as the darker, tortured soul roles that defined much of his latter roles. His transitional work here is remarkable, and he is surrounded by such a great supporting cast: Donna Reed is sweet as his wife Mary and Thomas Mitchell plays another great drunk in Uncle Billy. Henry Travers is excellent as Clarence the angel, and Lionel Barrymore has some of the best scenes as the despicable Mr. Potter. "It's a Wonderful Life" is a film I gladly revisit whenever it presents itself, and is one of the most affecting and captivating movies ever crafted.

Great Expectations

Pip, a young boy being raised by his abusive older sister and her kindhearted blacksmith husband, is visiting his parent's grave on the British moors when he comes across a gruff escaped convict whom he shows a great kindness too. Soon he has been sought out by Miss Havisham, a vindicative old woman who wishes Pip to be the playmate of her adopted daughter Estella. Pip is really there so Havisham can see Estella break his heart as Pip naturally (and instantly) falls in love with her. A few years later as a young man, he receives word that he has a secret benefactor who has great expectations for him and wishes for him to travel to London and become a man of means and style. Charles Dickens' classic novel was brought to the screen by David Lean, a man of great vision who was known for his later epics but even here fashioned a grandiose film out of a great Victorian novel. The film is composed of stark black and white cinematography by Oscar winner Guy Green, and successfully compresses the story into a fast paced and thoroughly entertaining film. The cast is terrific: Anthony Wager and John Mills (both excellent) as young and old Pip, Jean Simmons and Valerie Hobson as young and old Estella, Martita Hunt as Miss Havisham, Alec Guiness in early role as Pip's friend Herbert Pocket, Bernard Miles as Blacksmith Joe, Francis L. Sullivan as a barrister, and Finlay Currie as Magwitch the escaped convict. Great Expectations is classic literature brought to the big screen in one of the finest adaptations ever conceived.

My Darling Clementine

After Wyatt Earp settled his affairs in Tombstone, Arizona he set out for Hollywood where he would spend the rest of his life. In some regards, he has never left as numerous films have been made about his and Doc Holliday's encounter with the Clantons at the O.K. Corral. Yet before Lancaster & Douglas, Garner & Robards, Russell & Kilmer, and Costner & Quaid stepped into their boots, they were most memorably inhabited by Henry Ford and Victor Mature in John Ford's masterpiece My Darling Clementine. While herding cattle west to California, the Earp brothers stop outside of Tombstone for the night. While Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan go into town for a night of gambling and carousing, they leave their kid brother James to guard the herd, only to find him shot in the back and and left face down in a rain puddle when they return, murdered by the evil Clanton family led by their nasty father (the wonderful character actor Walter Brennan). To exact revenge, Wyatt takes a job as town Marshall, appointing his remaining brothers as deputies. But this isn't a cold blooded revenge tale. It is actually a warm film bristling with humor and romance, and of course hard drinkin' tough talkin' men, and this is what makes the film so appealing. While awaiting the day for vengeance, Earp fines the time to romance the sweet school teacher Clementine Carter, the old flame of the surgeon/gambler/bank robber/tuberculoses infected Doc Holliday who has a penchant for Shakespeare, whom Earp makes an ally. Victor Mature brings a sadness to Holliday in a great performance as the reckless and brilliant gunslinger. Henry Ford, maybe the most affable of all leading men, creates a human Earp, tough as nails but with a tender side. Here, John Ford, who made so many great westerns in so many different ways, finds the right notes to tell his story, ones that aren't seen often in the genre. The result is a telling of the Wyatt Earp story that none have been able to match, and a western that few have been able to approach.

The Killers

The Killers, based on a short story by Ernest Hemingway, opens fantastically with a diner/hostage scenario followed by the murder of the main character. It is followed by a contrived insurance investigation coupled with an effective flashback plot narrative in which we learn what led to the opening events. The film is often mentioned as an epitome of film noir, and that it is, as it contains all the elements that make up the genre such as the dark shadows, troubled hero, femme fatale, etc. It also represents the breakthrough performance of Ava Gardner and the debut of Burt Lancaster, reportedly the studio’s last choice, but an unavoidable one. By that I mean it seems that Lancaster was destined for the movies with his screen presence, physical stature, and dramatic demeanor. It is also worth mentioning that John Huston anonymously contributed to the screen play, and was probably responsible for its hard boiled elements. The Killers represents a classic, though flawed, entry into the original American film genre.

***1/2

The Stranger

Orson Welles directed what is universally considered the best film of all times, but had a curious career after that. I mean, what do you do after your directing debut is Citizen Kane? Though he never matched his initial success, his subsequent films (at least the ones I’ve seen) are engaging due to his directorial prowess (You could argue that he played a hand in the directing of The Third Man, another best of all time candidate). With The Stranger, Welles takes a standard story and enhances its with his direction. His presence as an actor along with the great character actor Edward G. Robinson doesn’t hurt either. Robinson plays an agent for the war crimes board who is after the elusive Nazi War criminal Franz Kindler (Welles) who has destroyed all known evidence of his past. To get to Kindler, Robinson decides to release his closest associate from prison in the hopes he will lead him to Kindler. Where he takes Robinson is to a small town in Connecticut where he loses his lead and has to build a case against Kindler, a now respected professor about to marry into a well-to-do family. Like I said, direction is key to enhancing any film and that is the case here. Though some elements of the script are standard, they are given a boost, and I also especially liked the ending, one of those strangely concocted ones which could have only been developed by Welles.

*** 1/2