The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

Feeling trapped by her autocratic mother and sister, a young widow (Gene Tierney) longs to be on her own and jumps at the chance to rent a seaside cottage, even after being forewarned that it is haunted by the ghost of a surly sea captain (Rex Harrison) who met an untimely demise. Joseph L. Mankiewicz's The Ghost and Mrs. Muir strikes too light a tone before suddenly changing gears and turning somber. Tierney is consistent, Harrison's performance is grating at times and appealing at others, and George Sanders has a memorable supporting role. The black and white cinematography is exquisite.

** 1/2 out of ****

Gentleman's Agreement

A California journalist (Gregory Peck) heads to New York to write for a liberal digest and labors over how to approach his new assignment in exposing anti-Semitism in many variants in society until it hits him: attack it like every one of his acclaimed exposés, by getting down to the ground level, and feign being Jewish himself. Age shows on this Elia Kazan Best Picture Oscar winner and it grows tiresome and overly preachy with a bland Peck at his most rigid. The screenplay however is utterly thorough and explores its subject through many angles and lenses.

** 1/2 out of ****

A Double Life

An aged and renowned stage actor (Ronald Colman) inevitably adopts the personality traits of the roles he takes on. As he throws himself into the role of Othello, his jealousy towards his ex-wife and costar is inflamed. With a screenplay by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, George Cukor's A Double Life is a well directed piece, even if the story is more than a little transparent and the dialogue is stiff as this character study migrates from an elegant New York theater piece to a tragic noir. Colman delivers a memorable, Oscar winning performance.

*** out of ****

Out of the Past

A man with a mysterious past living anonymously in a rural setting is drawn back into his old life after being recognized by an ex-associate and hired to track down a ruthless gangster's moll. Jacques Tourneur's formative film noir is somewhat dumbly plotted and uninvolving to a point while offering absolutely tremendous dialogue, a quintessential Robert Mitchum performance, and a sly, villainous turn from Kirk Douglas. Great usage black and white.

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

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

A pitiful underachiever (Danny Kaye) bullied by his wife (Ann Rutherford), boss (Boris Karloff), and almost everyone else in his insignificant existence finds solace in his frequent and ever increasingly reality merging reveries. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a 110 minute long movie from a 2,000 word 1939 James Thurber short story with its best bits coming directly from the source and a prolonged Kaye monologue that likely surpasses it in length! Shot in unsightly Technicolor, it features a few more impressive riffs from Kaye and Karloff is hilarious as his browbeating boss.

The Bishop's Wife

A newly appointed bishop (David Niven) has been pounding the pavement to raise funds for a new cathedral, both to little avail and at the cost of his relationship to his wife (Loretta Young). Praying for guidance, it arrives in the form of an angel (Cary Grant) who strolls into town and seduces all the women before teaching the clergyman a valuable lesson of love and seasonal cheer. Henry Kosters' The Bishop's Wife, based on a book by Robert Nathan which featured uncredited screenplay work done by Billy Wilder and Charles Bracket, is a much beloved holiday movie which I found to be alternately sappy and disturbing. With an intercessory celestial being at its center, this seems like an obvious attempt to capitalize on the success of It's a Wonderful Life from the previous year and even the child actors who portrayed Zuzu and young George Bailey are on hand as if the producers weren't even trying to disguise the fact.

Boomerang!

The deliberate, seemingly random murder of a beloved local priest stirs a quaint, New England community into a panic causing law enforcement to pin the murder on an itinerant, whose only hope is his dogged attorney (Dana Andrews) who is assured of his innocence. Boomerang! is a considerable misfire coming from legendary director Elia Kazan. Filming this real life story on actual locations and presenting it in a docudrama style, the film comes off as stilted and not nearly as interesting as it sounds. Lee J. Cobb, playing a surly police captain, is one of the few saving graces of the picture.

Miracle on 34th Street

When the Santa Claus slated to lead the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade reports for duty in a drunken stupor, a frantic Macy's executive (Maureen O'Hara) can't believe her luck when she stumbles upon an ideal replacement (Edmund Gwenn) who is so good that she offers him a seasonal gig in the department store. Soon though the hiring decision causes her personal and professional distress as Kris, who claims he is the real annual bestower of holiday cheer, disrupts her sales policy and spins his fantastical stories to her impressionable and sheltered young daughter (Natalie Wood). "Miracle on 34th Street" is a sweet, funny, surprisingly pointed, and occasionally very sharp Christmas tale directed by George Seaton and based on a story by Valerie Davies. The cast is very fine. I especially liked O'Hara as the tough but softhearted executive, John Payne as a benevolent attorney (though I was never able to figure out who he was in relation to O'Hara), Porter Hall as a shifty psychologist, Gene Lockhart as a bemused judge, and of course Gwenn, exemplary in his Oscar winning role. Natalie Wood is a little precocious and Thelma Ritter makes her very brief but highly impressionable debut. For those who haven't seen this film (I only saw it for the first time recently), I think it is natural to lump it together with all the other saccharine holiday offerings and avoid it entirely. Doing so, however, is a great miscalculation and a denial of one of the finest holiday films that plays just as well, if not better, for adults than children. 

Odd Man Out

Just on the heels of a jailhouse break, Johnny McQueen, the leader of an unnamed IRA-like organization, plots a bank robbery to fund his terrorist sect. Wounded during the operation, Johnny falls from the getaway car and scuttles quickly down an alley into an abandoned storefront. Alone, dying, and pursued he now must make his way back to the hideout where his girl waits, and where they can administer medical services and protection. In "Odd Man Out" as was the case  Vienna in his classic "The Third Man", Carol Reed is in love with the shadowy city of the night and again crafts many wonderful external nocturnal scenes, this time in Belfast. In the film that gives James Mason first billing and launched him to stardom, he unfortunately has limited screen time and his top notch portrayal, along with that of some of the other actors portraying IRA figures, gives way to less interesting characters. However, the film does wrap up in a grand and exceedingly bleak fashion. "Odd Man Out" is a well-made thriller that shows off the talents of its leading man in a limited role, as well as the great aesthetics of its ample director.

Crossfire

A civilian is murdered in his apartment in Washington D.C. and the suspect list has been narrowed down to three G.I.'s on leave. When a surly private (Robert Mitchum) is called in by the police inspector (Robert Young) to assist in the investigation, it soon becomes clear that hatred was the motive with all fingers pointing to the wily officer (Robert Ryan) who has done everything imaginable to extricate himself from the situation. "Crossfire" is a dark and intelligent treatise on racism while also succeeding as a whodunit and a brilliantly shot film noir. Edward Dmytryk, directing from a novel by "In Cold Blood" filmmaker Richard Brooks, wonderfully utilizes shadows and angular shots to tell his story, which seems relevant and cutting edge even by today's standards. The trio of Roberts who star in the film all fill their roles nicely, with Mitchum in a tough, brooding performance, Young as the pragmatic inspector, and Ryan a particular standout as the cunning and virulent racist. Gloria Grahame also has a memorable bit as a call girl who provides an alibi for one of the suspected soldiers. "Crossfire" is a brave film that was ahead of its time which also manages to be an artistic triumph as well.

Brute Force

At Westgate Penitentiary, the inmates live a harsh existence made even harsher by Captain Munsey, the sadistic head of the guard staff who runs the prison under the cowardly warden. In cell R17 reside a group of men, led by Joe Collins, who all committed crimes motivated by love and share a brotherly bond. When Munsey drives one of them to commit suicide, they decide it is time to follow through with their often talked about escape plans. Brute Force is a hard boiled and brooding prison film made in the noir vein by Jules Dassin, who made some very fine noir and crime films both foreign and domestic. From a screenplay by Richard Brooks (In Cold Blood) from a novel by Robert Patterson, Brute Force is an unsympathetic look at prisoner control methods, prison operations, and a daring escape movie. In one of his early staring roles, Burt Lancaster commands the screen as he always does with that quiet yet powerful manner. Stellar supporting actor Hume Cronyn is excellent as Munsey, crafting an extremely contemptible villain. The film also contains a wonderful ending, featuring the chaotic prison break. Brute Force is a dark and wonderfully directed film that manages to offer a social commentary while being a rousing entertainment as well.

The Lady from Shanghai

Orson Welles was an uncompromising creative genius with a distinct visual style and feel for the camera. He often clashed with the studio heads over how his films were cut and presented and this is the reason, I suspect, why his resume is so short yet filled with great works. The Lady from Shanghai was made following the massive success of Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons. It is not his strongest work, yet it is visually exciting and entertaining nonetheless. Welles stars as Michael O'Hara, a tough Irish sailor who right off the bat admits his naievty in falling for a wealthy woman (Rita Hayworth) whom he rescues from an attack in the park. Somehow he is serving as a deckhand on her famous defense attorney husband's yacht and soon after that he is intwined in a murder plot full of double and triple crosses. The film opens as intriguing noir and Welles' narration is wonderfully ominous. The next few scenes play out well as well and then the film somewhat loses focus and becomes plodding during scenes on a yacht and a tropic isle. Then things pick up steam when the murder plot is introuduced and the film wraps up is the highly memorable House of Mirrors finale. Despite its plodding midsection and a plot that no man with any semblance of a brain would find himself in, The Lady from Shanghai is a fine addition to Orson Welles' directorial canon.

Black Narcissus

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1947 Black Narcissus may be the most beautiful film ever made. A film in which the plot and the scenery change roles, as the plot fades to the background and you are left to admire the beautiful scenery brought to the forefront. The story tells of a group of Calcutta nuns who are sent to establish a missionary school in The Himalayas. There they face not only the treachery of the physical conditions, but the temptations which challenge their religious vows. Although the plot of this once controversial film has become stale, the scenery of the Himalayan mountains is good enough to be used in the Planet Earth series. The camerawork is really unthinkable for the time it was released. Also the ending is quite effective as well.
***1/2