The Tales of Hoffman

While carousing in a basement barroom during intermission, a sworn enemy intercepts a rendez-vous note from the show’s star as the poet tells the tragic stories of three long-lost loves. Done in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s grand style, The Tales of Hoffman is an uncompromising vision of Jacques Offenbach’s opera featuring stunning singing and dancing (including Moira Shearer fresh off of her appearance in the filmmakers’ The Red Shoes) and outlandish and unforgettable set design.

*** ½ out of ****

A Streetcar Named Desire

After losing the family farm and being run out of town, a fragile, delusional, aging ex-schoolteacher (Vivien Leigh) moves in her pregnant sister’s (Kim Hunter) noisy and humid French Quarter flat and finds herself being bullied, abused, and driven to madness by her crude and brutish brother-in-law (Marlon Brando). Elia Kazan’s screen treatment of Tennessee Williams’ monumental play is stagy and claustrophobic, while showing its age a bit, but still daring and potent with Brando’s revolutionizing and sometimes hammed up performance standing atop a phenomenal cast which also includes the noble and dopey Maldin.

*** ½ out of ****

Diary of a Country Priest

A young, unpracticed cleric (Claude Laydu), dogged by a stomach ailment which threatens his day-to-day duties, deals with indifference, contempt, and threats of scandal from parishioners at his new pastoral posting. From a novel by Georges Bernanos, Diary of a Country Priest is challenging, harsh, protracted, austere, and pristinely filmed, all the elements underlining Robert Bresson's masterful body of work.

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

Ace in the Hole

Having been fired from every major news outlet for a variety of reasons, a caustic, hard bitten, alcoholic reporter (Kirk Douglas) talks his way on to the staff of the Albuquerque Sun-Bulletin, serendipitously stumbles upon a man trapped in a cave, and milks it for every penny its worth by generating a media sideshow and even putting the once secured man's life in jeopardy in the process. Billy Wilder's dark and witty Ace in the Hole is relentlessly cynical, eerily prescient, and contains a great Douglas performances and one of those unforgettable Wilder endings.

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

The River

The eldest daughter of a British India based factory owner vies with an American for the affections of a troubled soldier while third girl struggles with her mixed ethnicity. Jean Renoir's The River is an uncomplicated coming of age tale set amid the brimming life on the Ganges, beautiful told with painterly Technicolor and graceful, poignant filmmaking.

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

Late Spring/Early Summer

Before the poignant and sorrowful Tokyo Story, Ozu's first two entries a series of family centered dramas dubbed the Noriko trilogy (in reference to the same named though separate characters portrayed by Setsuko Hara) take a strikingly similar set-up viewed from a different angle:

Late Spring tells of father's sometimes duplicitous efforts to marry off his doting near 30 year old daughter (Hara) against her wishes, and is told in the beloved director's usual contemplative, subtle manner while featuring fine performances and an incredible, low key ending. Many subtle reference depicting the westernization of Japanese culture are fascinating

In Early Summer, Hara again finds her family playing matchmaker, but instead goes out a stubborn, independent limb by favoring a recently reacquainted childhood sweetheart who does not match up to the family's standards of marriage. Filmed in beautiful greyscale, the film is sweet natured, observant, and extremely measured

Late Spring: *** 1/2 out of ****

Early Summer: *** out of ****

On Dangerous Ground

After his latest questionable incident involving excessive force, a hardened detective (Robert Ryan) is reassigned to a manhunt in an upstate murder case where he is joined by the victim's inconsolable father (Ward Bond), wholly intent on shooting the perpetrator, with the search ultimately leading the reluctant pair to the home the target's blind, empathetic sister (Ida Lupino). Nicholas Ray's skillfully filmed On Dangerous Ground takes tired elements, and moves them in an interesting direction while resting the picture on Ryan's reliable shoulders. The Lupino performance, likely inspired by the success of Johnny Belinda, seems hackneyed and stiff and the uninspired wrap-up seems completely out of place in a noir thriller.

*** out of ****

The Red Badge of Courage

A Union Army private at an unnamed battle (supposedly inspiration for the story was drawn from the fighting at Chancellorsville) finds his grit and fortitude tested as he is hurled head on into the unforgiving blazes of war. The Red Badge of Courage is a dense, compacted take on Stephen Crane's classic, already concise Civil War tale. Starring war hero Audie Murphy, the film was at the center of a major studio fray leaving director John Huston's severely butchered picture as the main casualty.

Strangers on a Train

A tennis player (Farley Granger) trapped in a loveless marriage meets a sociopath (Robert Walker) with mommie issues and a domineering father on a locomotive. When the latter suggests they perform each other's murder ("criss cross"), the tennis pro brushes it off as humorous conjecture and doesn't realize what kind of jackpot he's in until he finds his estranged wife strangled to death. "Strangers on a Train" is a taut and brilliant adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel, whose screenplay was penned by Raymond Chandler and an uncredited Ben Hecht among others, which draws tension from seemingly routine situations (a tennis match or a carousel for example) and features a wickedly funny performance from Walker.

The Thing from Another World

(8/21/11) At an Arctic outpost comprised of scientists and Air Force officials, a large spacecraft is discovered in the frost at a nearby location. A team goes to check it out and realizes that it is a flying saucer that has been there for a long time. Their efforts to extract the craft result in its destruction but inside they find a giant, still preserved spaceman. Taking him back to base, he is accidentally thawed and begins to wreak havoc on the members of the crew who must quickly devise a way to destroy the seemingly indestructible being. "The Thing from Another World" is one of the foremost monster movies of the 1950s. From the often adapted story Who Goes There? by  John W. Campbell, which was the basis for Alien and the John Carpenter/Kurt Russell remake of this film, which is credited to director Christian Nyby, is often thought to be the work of producer Howard Hawks, whose reputation was too high to have his name on a B picture. Blending science fiction and horror, the movie contains cheesy effects (with the monster being nothing more than a man in high heels dressed in a plastic suit) and character types (the doctor who spews vegetable metaphors and insists on reasoning with the creature for science's sake as well as the know-it-all wisecracking reporter are both particularly annoying) but ends up being pretty entertaining fare. I think the secret to this film, as well as Carpenter's and Ridley Scott's film is the location and atmosphere. The coldness and remoteness are played particularly well here and the result is a highly entertaining popcorn flick.

(4/4/13) I watched the movie again, thinking I would like it more, but wound up enjoying it about the same. I find it bogged down by technical detail and jargon and am not sure I understood the central moral conflict from the point of view of the crackpot scientist or whether or not that was supposed to be taken seriously. I did really like the self-assured performance by Margaret Sheridan (who says feminism was nonexistent in the 50s?) and the scenes with the monster, cheesy as it is, are genuinely scary and exciting.

Scrooge

The story is as well known as any ever told in any form: a despicable miser is visited by three ghosts, of past, present, and future, on Christmas Eve who compel him to completely reverse his disposition. For this 1951 outing, which alternately bears the title of Charles Dickens' 1843 novel, writer Noel Langley and director Brian Desmond Hurst opted for a darker, more inclusive though, oddly, a shorter film making the results seems rushed and doesn't carry the same emotion. Scenes that have been seldom been shown on screen, such as Scrooge at his sister's deathbed and his chambermaid divvying up his lot amongst friends following his demise, aren't nearly as engrossing as they should be. This version featuring Alastair Sim, who does make a very fine Scrooge, is generally considered the definitive film adaption of A Christmas Carol. Though it's an earnest and unique attempt, I would suggest the 1939 interpretation with Reginald Owen as the contrary penny-pincher.

The Man in the White Suit

A learned chemist is currently starting his latest labor job at his 8th textile factories where he manipulates his way into the lab in order to work on his thought to be impossible invention: a dirt resistant and non-tearable fabric. Once he does gain his own laboratory, through a liaison with the boss' daughter, and finally makes his breakthrough, it creates an uproar in the industry among both capitalists and laborers who fear the new design will put them out of business. Alexander Mackendrick's "The Man in the White Suit" is not one of the strongest of the Ealing Studios comedies to feature Alec Guinness. It seems more concerned with addressing class issues than it does with providing laughs. Still, Guinness is on top of his game as usual and that along with an intriguing premise make this mostly worthwhile.

The Lavender Hill Mob

A self described unimportant clerk, who escorts gold from the refinery to the bank for a living, dreams of ripping off his employers, but can never figure out how to smuggle the gold out of the England. Then one day inspiration strikes when a souvenir peddler moves into his flat: after ripping off the gold, they will melt it into molds of miniature Eiffel Towers to be shipped across to France. After baiting two hardened criminals to help them pull off the heist, the plan is now in motion. Now all they have in their way is a group of grade school girls on vacation in Paris. "The Lavender Hill Mob" is a hysterical and inventive product of the British Ealing film studio and features a very nice performance from Alec Guiness as the timid bank clerk. Directed by Charles Chrichton, who helmed "A Fish Called Wanda" some 36 years later, from an Oscar winning screenplay by T.E.B. Clarke, the film has many nice segments, particularly a winding descent down the Eiffel Tower staircase and an ingenious escape by Guinness and his partner in a cop car where they throw off their pursuers by way of radio. Just recently, I was saying how fellow Ealing alum Peter Sellers was so chameleonlike but it must be said that Alec Guiness never got tied down to the same role twice. Take his best known work: Herbert Pocket, Fagin, Henry Holland (here), Professor Marcus, Colonel Nicholson, Prince Feisal, Hitler, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Not one of those roles is even remotely similar. In an age when we are used to seeing stars play the same roles, it is a pleasure to be treated by Sir Alec to something different in each of his films and in a time when crime thrillers are usually routine and often humorless, it is a blast to see one that is so unique and hilarious.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

The Day the Earth Stood Still is the prototypical science fiction of the 1950s, containing all the elements, good and bad, that populated the genre during that decade. It starts with the landing of a spacecraft in Washington, D.C. which captivates the whole world. As a spaceman and a robot emerge, a misunderstanding leads to the former’s hospitalization and his subsequent escape from custody as he tries to put together a meeting with the world’s leaders to deliver his message he traveled so long to convey. Made as a warning during the early Cold War years, the film is nicely handled by directing great Robert Wise. Corny elements involving aliens blend with tense images to make a great film-going experience. It also contains the most famous alien phrase/safe word: Klaatu barada nikto.

***1/2

Alice in Wonderland

 

When I heard that Tim Burton's version of Alice and Wonderland would be a rethinking of the classic tale with Alice revisiting Wonderland as a young woman, I decided to check out the Disney version of the story which I had not seen since I was a child. This was not one of the Disney films I remember fondly from my youth and after watching it again I can see why. Disney's animated film of the Lewis Carroll classic (which I have not read) is a trippy and psychedelic film. It begins with the young Alice daydreaming during an outdoors tutoring session and following a white rabbit into a tree and down a ditch into a world of imagination where things aren't as they are supposed to be. While in Wonderland, she meets a series of nasty characters and these meetings play out as a series of vignette. It is also a letdown that the music is forgettable. What does stand out about this picture is the animation, which must have been cutting edge in 1951. It also seemed that it stayed true to the story (from what I could tell) and I liked how the characters were British to a T. Although it is not an entirely  pleasant trip, Disney's Alice in Wonderland is a journey worth taking.

***