Pickup on South Street
Grim realistic crime movies from the inner cities have always been a great source of drama. In most cases they concerned the mob, a heist or a combination of the two. These movies always had a sympathetic character to identify with. “Pickup on South Street”, is a different type of crime movie. It is full of unsavory characters with no real redeeming qualities and its villains are communist traitors, proving to its American audience that there is no greater evil then the red devil. Skip (Richard Widmark in a typical humorless and sneering Widmark role), is a street pickpocket and the hero of the film. He steals the wallet from one Candy (Jean Peters), which has a microfilm of top secret Government information obtained by her communist boyfriend spy Joey (Richard Kiley). Joey is under suspicion from the FBI agent Zara (Willis Bouchey), who has been following Candy and realizes that the microfilm has been stolen by a common thief. Candy, it seems, did not realize she was delivering communist spy information, thinking she was only smuggling industrial secrets. She does not mind doing something illegal, as long as it is not unpatriotic. Skip on the other hand does not care about patriotism and on realizing what he has tries to turn a profit, even if that means selling it to the commies. In the end everyone is looking for Skip, including Candy who keeps falling in love with untrusting men. The movie was written and directed by Samuel Fuller who on one hand has an unpatriotic hero and another, a communist villain. It was a tricky ploy in his screenplay that allowed him to tell a more realistic story of the current American under belt of the inner cities. The film is very violent and dark. Both the FBI and the communists zero in on our pickpocket through the use of the local snitch. It seems that being a snitch was a sort of profession in the noire inner city world of Hollywood. Her name is Moe and she is played by Thelma Ritter in what is easily the best part of the movie. Ritter gives a gusto performance and breathes life into a character that at first seems to be without scruples and later comes out more heroic than anyone else in the movie. Her small screen time mesmerizes, making her ultimate and sad fate effective. This movie can pack a punch and is an edgy slice of gritty low life.
Gentlemen Prefer Blonds
The 1950s was far from being the politically correct world of today and in those fun filled days, sexual innuendoes were considered fun and exciting rather than dangerous, intimidating and demeaning to women, which they are. Many Broadway shows and movies during this period glorified the arch type of single woman as being shallow and one minded. A great example of this is the celebrated musical comedy from Howard Hawks, “Gentlemen Prefer Blonds”. Why do they prefer blonds you ask? Well, mostly because blonds look like Marilyn Monroe. At least they should want to. Putting aside its frivolous view on the female mind with its cynical portrayal of its main characters, this movie is trying to be a musical comedic romp. If it was not for the scene stealing appearance and performance by Monroe, it would have failed at that as well. Monroe plays Lorelei Lee, whose sidekick as a showgirl is Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell). Lorelei tries so hard at being stupid that Monroe succeeds in putting doubt in our minds as to whether or not it is all an act. That conclusion is never given in the movie, resulting in a bit of frustration for those of us trying to make sense of all the silliness. It is just that forced stupidity that makes anything that Dorothy says seem almost prophetic. In actual fact Dorothy is as shallow as Lorelei. Both are looking for men. Lorelei wants a man with money and nothing else matters. Dorothy just cares about physical appearance. Of course Lorelei is the only one of the two who is Blond. She is the main point of the film’s title and does so by prostituting herself. The plot takes the two on a ship full of rich gentlemen and hunky athletes, while revolving around Lorelei’s efforts at getting her Rich Nerd fiancée’s Father to agree to the marriage. This plot device involves a private detective working for the Father, who ends up falling in love with Dorothy. There are some cute and amusing moments involving a dirty old man whose money piques Lorelei’s interest and a closing court case that tries to stamp some sort of goodness on what has preceded in the film, so that we can attain a happy ending. The movie however has a wonderful musical number featuring Monroe titled, “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend”. The number lets her use her husky, sexy voice to perfection while cooing about money and dancing in an adorable pink dress that just shows enough to keep our interest. That number almost makes the rest of this movie worth watching.
The Big Heat
Back in 1931, before he ran away from Nazi Germany, Fritz Lang made a terrifying film about uncontrollable obsession. That movie was, “M”, and it dealt with the black horror inside the obsessive urges of a child molester and murderer. Lang continued to have a long and mostly successful career in Hollywood which had him going back time and again to the subject of obsession. “The Big Heat”, hits this subject head on and in so doing becomes one of Lang’s best creations. What seems like a straight forward cops against the mob story, that looks like a violent tale of vengeance, is in reality a warning against the dangers of unfettered obsession. Glen Ford plays police Sargent Dave Bannion who is the kind of cop stuck in a corrupt world and thinks that his righteous belief on what’s right raises him above everyone else. His object of hate and what he feels is the cause of all that is wrong, is the local mob boss Mike Lagana (Alexander Scourby). Bannion is not content in waiting for the right opportunity to catch Lagana. He also does not believe in investigative work that relies on surprise and stealth. He believes in confrontation, wanting to prove his bravado with direct threats to the gangster. Actions that result in the murder of his wife. At that point the obsession takes on a new level of energy, but his methods stay the same. There are many women that Bannion comes in contact with and each one is endangered directly by his actions. Some due to his stupidity and others due to direct intent. Similar to the monster in “M”, Bannion never blames himself as he causes the death of innocents and guilty through his direct style and sometimes senseless actions. Lagana has a second in command named Vince Stone (Lee Marvin at his scary best), who is the evil and muscle of the mob and gives the story its anchor. He has a girl who is independent and tired of his brutish ways (Gloria Grahame in a terrific performance). This is Debby and she follows Bannion to his hotel room one night after being treated with disdain by Stone. Bannion uses this opportunity to interrogate her and then shows then brags to the mob all of his new information he obtained. This results in Stone throwing a cup of boiling hot coffee onto Debbie’s face in one of the most famous and iconic film Noir scenes ever made. The actual violence occurs off screen but the suddenness of it and the screams of terror leave an impression of shock. Bannion knows that the wife of a corrupt cop who committed suicide has hidden evidence against Lagana that the evidence will be released if she dies or stops getting fed money by the MOB. Bannon uses this truth in getting Debbie to contemplate the widow’s murder. What is apparent is that regardless of the consequences or in spite of them, Bannon continues to endanger all the female accomplices he comes in contact with, which includes his wife and daughter (who is protected from the mob by some old army friends). In the end he is so caught up with himself that he fails to feel any real pity to his victims and only a sense of satisfaction with the end result. Ford has just the right demeanor for the role as his emotions range from grimacing to rage. His hard face give a truism to the action of his character. Graham has the type of face of someone who takes what they can get but never believes they deserve any better. She has a pretty but bland face that shows fear in the eyes while retaining stoic sameness in her outward appearance. This makes the face burning scene more powerful. Marvin has the look and psyche of evil. Even his laughs makes the spine crawl. The world surrounding the characters in the film is a world full of corruption where in one scene we are shown the police commissioner playing poker with the criminals. This is a scene shown first in this movie and often copied in later crime corruption movies. The bulldozing obsession of Bannion succeeded in breaking the ring of evil, but at a great expense and with many lost innocent bystanders. The film asks the question of sacrifice and if the end result justifies the means. It is a powerful message and this is one of Film Noir’s classics.
Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot)
Jacques Tati has been called the Charlie Chaplain of France, but his comedies have much more in common with Buster Keaton then they have with Chaplain. His delightful film, “Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday”, at first glance looks like a throwback to the great comedies of the silent era. The film, however, is extremely aware of its period and location and uses sound cleverly in its scenes of French society as it existed in the 1950s. The movie is very scarce in dialogue and high on body language and physical action. This is where Tati and Keaton find common ground. Otherwise the movie’s feel and style is unique, French and sophisticated. This is a comedy that rarely had me laughing out loud, yet placed a permanent smile on my face almost from its first scene until its last. There is no real story in the movie as it just follows a few days at an Atlantic Ocean holiday village, in the middle of the summer. The movie begins by introducing us to the trains and vehicles from the period that brings all the holiday goers from the big cities to a small seaside town. Tati, who wrote and directed the movie, plays Monsieur Hulot and he arrives alone for his vacation riding in a small, slow and extremely ungainly car. Before we see his full physical appearance we already know that this person is a bit on the strange side. He is a tall, long legged, slightly overweight edifice in appearance and seeing this large person coming out of his petit car sets the stage on how he will relate to his new surroundings. I kept thinking on how uncomfortable it must have been for him to drive many hours in that car. This is not a man searching for comfort or one that is aware of comfort. His arrival immediately shifts the film to him and centers the surroundings on his location during the vacation. He walks in a form of an angle, is hesitant on his surroundings and constantly gets tangled up with objects and other people. He hardly makes a sound, but when he speaks it is in a slow extended drawl that gives the impression that he is mentally handicapped. The film follows our hero doing all the normal and mundane things that people do when on vacation. Eat, drink, swim, play sport and sit around doing nothing. It is sublime to watch such a comical movie with no plot and based on strict observations. Remember when Seinfeld said that his TV show was about nothing and just a few people going through regular occurrences. Well Jacques Tati invented this form of comedic subject many years before. The genius of the movie is its ability to lack any real dialogue or have any plot and still stay interesting and quite amusing. Tati concentrates on the little things in life, such as Hulot’s inadvertent leaving of the hotel front door open, allowing gusts of wind to cause havoc with the hotel lobby. Tati also succeeds in incorporating quite a few quirky characters in his collage of a holidaying France. There is the pretty blond holidaying by herself and probably hoping to meet an eligible mate, a waiter who is constantly annoyed by the tourists but depends on them for his livelihood and many small children running around as children seem to do, eating ice cream and getting into mischief. The movie actually seems to show us a snapshot of France and its people, whether Left or right wing, old and young. Strolling amongst all of this is our peculiar hero Hulot. Watching the movie gave me the feeling that I was part of the people and on a vacation at a pretty and secluded beach in France. There is nothing wrong with that.
Journey to Italy
Italian Maestro Roberto Rossellini had a deep and moving repertoire of great films, yet this small film of human frailty and ordinariness may be his crowning achievement. It is a simple story of a long married couple forced together on an inheritance trip to Italy, whose married life slowly breaks apart during their trip, until it is ultimately saved in an instant by love. That is the story behind the film and it is the successful believability of this story that lifts the movie into greatness. The couple, Alex and Katherine Joyce (George Sanders and Ingrid Bergman), are traveling to an area near Naples so that they can sell a villa they recently inherited from a deceased uncle. Alex is a business man and workaholic and feels the trip as being a nuisance. Katherine is a sensitive romantic and was looking forward to the trip. She plans on doing touristic things during the visit while he just wants it to end. From the beginning of the trip the couple argues. The arguments extend to personal issues that are cruelly thrown at each other. There is an extended scene where they separate for a couple of days and each in their own way flirt with the thought of infidelity. For Katherine it is dismissed by her and for Alex dismissed by the object of his affection. When they are joined again at the Villa, their anger and frustration boils over and both agree on getting a divorce. It is at that moment that the movie takes us on twist that drives the movie to its glorious conclusion. They are made to attend an excavation at the site of the volcanic destruction of Pompeii where they witness the excavation of a perfectly preserved form of two lovers in an embrace just at the moment of their death. It is this symbol of love and the real meaning of life and brings both of them into an emotional state. Escaping back from the excavation they are caught in a religious procession of the kind that only the Italians can perform. The procession becomes a parading mass of people in Naples. The wave of people arrive at their stalled car and envelopes them like a giant hand separating them one from the other causing deep fear and anxiety to both. Then, in a moment of enlightenment restores their love. The ending has the camera looping up above them as they find each other and embrace. An American Romantic film will always show a couple attracted, fighting the attraction and then slowly growing into their love. Here we have a long married (and childless) couple who feel unloved and through their bitterness realize that love never dies and like a fire that needs fuel erupts the moment it is lit. It is a glorious statement of love and humanity.
UGETSU (Ugetsu Monogatari)
Recent modern Japanese cinema have found great success in the telling of atmospheric ghost stories and their interpretation of the afterlife brings a cold chill to these stories of creeping horror. Kenji MIzoguchi’s “Ugetsu”, is the film that single handedly created this unique style of horror. There is one particular scene where a family is traveling in a rickety boat down a river seeping with mist and foreboding. It is impossible to think of so many subsequent horror films set in isolated foggy landscapes without realizing their influence from this film. “Ugetsu”, is also much more than a horror movie or a ghost story. It is a stunning period film set in the war torn 16th century Japan. A detailed film that makes you feel as if you are opening a window into the mysterious past and on a mysterious world. It follows the travails of two obsessive, or dreaming, men. One (Genjuro) is a potter and is obsessed with money. The other one (Tobei) wants to be a heroic samurai. Both men live in a small village and are married to good women. Genjuro has a small son as well. Both travel to the nearby town as war rages around them so that they can sell Genjuro’s unique pottery. It seems that Genjuro is very talented. During this visit Genjuro easily sells his wares for a good profit and Tobei gets rebuffed from soldiers he is trying to join for being a beggar without armor. On their return to their wives they quickly begin to make more pottery for an even greater profit. Tobei helps and is promised a portion of the profits that he wants to use to purchase armor. Throughout this, a violent war is raging in the surroundings and sounds of warfare are heard in the distance. The marauding armies arrive at the village of our two friends and they are forced to escape with the Pottery. It is here that they take the famous boat ride that first hints at the supernatural elements that will engulf the movie. Danger seeps from the mist and Genjuro leaves his wife and child on the shore, tasking them to return to the village. He does this seemingly to protect them but it is clear that they are interfering with his drive to sell his pottery. It is no surprise that she does not survive the journey back. Tobei’s wife on the other hand refuses to leave the boat. On landing in their destination of the City, Tobei deserts her after taking money bought from some of the pottery for purchasing a sword and armor. Her fate, of a lone woman without protection or money, becomes tragic. Gang raped by soldiers she becomes a prostitute in a brothel. Tobei murders an unsuspecting soldier to steal the head of a Samurai General who he then claims for himself to the opposing Army and is given his own horse and army as a reward. Meanwhile Genjuro is seduced by what he thinks is a noble lady of an adjacent castle. We know better that this is a ghost and our knowledge gives a feeling of creepy anxiety in their love making scenes of serenity. When it becomes apparent to him that he was lying in rubble of a destroyed castle with a ghost of a dead princess, it is a revelation that reveals his true place in the world. At the same time Tobei finds his wife and realizes what he has done to her, filling his heart with regret and sorrow. Both men come to the same conclusion and both discard their previous obsessions. The ending is a sad somber conclusion that incorporates all the previous elements in the film. We are left to wonder if these ghosts truly existed or if the cruel world created them through cracks in the sanity of the men living in it. This is a haunting and exciting move that pulls its viewer into another long past world and a film that you will not soon forget.
Shane
The lone gunfighter coming to the rescue of good decent people against injustice and evil is a western standard that we have seen time and again. This Western Motif was perfected in 1953 with this tightly wound tale, simply titled after its hero. Shane (Alan Ladd) wonders into the homestead home of Joe Starrett (Van Heflin) who, along with the other homesteaders, is being driven out of their homes by the local cattle baron, during the Johnson Count War in Wyoming, just at the end of the civil war. Shane takes a liking to Joe and falls for his wife (Jean Arthur) and her adorable son (Brandon DeWilde). He protects them from the cattle baron (Ben Johnson) and his evil hired had (Jack Palance at his most menacing). Palance’s introduction and entrance to the local town has him slowly leading his horse by foot that embodes menace with every step. One of the interesting aspects of the film and a trait followed by countless films since, is the lack of knowledge given to us as to who our hero really is. We know he has a background but are only hinted as to what it is. When he faces the hired gun fighter (Palance), we realize that each has heard of the other and that they share the same occupation. The film only contains two actual gun fights but the two it has are enough. Director Stevens uses a loud explosive sound to immolate the firing of a gun and connected the actors being shot to a wire that pulled them back violently once shot. This gave the feeling of real violence that lends these scenes extraordinary power. I also enjoyed the juxtaposition of Shane dressed effeminately and pretending to live a life of a mild homesteader, to his scene facing the enemy with his guns. In one he looks harmless and in the other extremely dangerous and dark. Shane comes across as almost dainty and weak when he first appears in town alongside the other homesteaders, making his transformation to precise killer that much more startling. It is a testament to Ladd’s underrated acting that he pulls this variance off with great effect. Clint Eastwood did something very similar in his masterpiece, “The Unforgiven”. That film has a lot in common with this one, none more than the idea that killing leaves an imprint on one’s soul that can never be erased. One of the unique elements in the film is the depth that the film gives both sides of the conflict. There is a scene that the cattle baron rages his anger to the homesteaders and we realize that this man worked very hard and through enormous dangers to get to where he was. I almost felt empathy and compassion for him, giving the film more texture and depth. It is made very clear that he does not enjoy causing pain and death to the homesteaders. An important element to the film is that of the relationship between Joe’s son and Shane that is used show Shane’s sensitivity, while explaining the reasons for his actions. This relationship embodies the film’s ending with its deep emotion that reminded me of the anguished cry that ended the French classic, “Forbidden Games”. Shane is not your ordinary film and a Western with power.
Beat the Devil
“Beat the Devil” is a satire on Humphry Bogart films starring Bogey himself. It requires Bogey to play his regular and typical character that he has been playing since the early 40s and surrounds him with funny quirky and extravagant characters. The plot of the film is not really believable nor is it important. What is important is that aside from Bogey you have a group of four criminals who act and look like caricatures from MAD magazine. That is the beauty of the film. All the cast are in a small Italian port town waiting to catch a boat to Africa so that they can swindle the government there, in purchasing some uranium rich land. We have Bogey, playing a down and out Bogey in need of cash, a team of four slimy criminals consisting of a tall fat British slime ball, a former Nazi, a fake British officer who is an actual present day Nazi and an Italian hawk nosed scoundrel. In addition there is an innocent bystander British couple on vacation. All are waiting to board the same run down ship to Africa. Why the couple wants to go is beyond me and I am pretty sure that the script writer, Truman Capote, did not know either. He just needed to place them there. This haphazard use of the plot is what makes the movie so irresistible. Bogey also has an Italian bomb shell wife (Gina Lollabrigida), who oozes with sex appeal. Being what it is, the plot places the four criminals and Bogey needing to arrive in Africa so that they can purchase or steal the uranium rich land. To their dismay the boat that is taking them there is going through some extensive repairs. During the wait for the boat, Bogey amuses himself with the wife of the couple (Jennifer Jones), while his wife flirts with the husband (Edward Underdown). The British tourist wife is a consistent liar and the husband a pompous ass. These character traits are needed in order to move the plot into a suitable conclusion. As for our criminal group, the slimy mastermind (Robert Morley) is a great satirical caricature of Sydney Greeenspan’s character from, “The Maltese Falcon”. The ex-Nazi is played by Peter Lorri. Lorri not only played in the “Maltese Falcon”, but started his career as Fritz Lang’s child killer in, “M”, making him perfect for this nasty but humorous role. He has some of the greatest lines in the film and rumor has it that director, “John Huston”, allowed him to add lib some of these lines. For example his speech about time is witty and brilliant as well as meaningless but succeeds in getting its point across in a most amusing way. Another one of the two criminals is the obnoxious British Nazi who claims to be a British army Major and is the cold blooded killer of the group. The Hawk nosed Italian closes the foursome and is the most untrustworthy member. Altogether we are never bored with these characters and their bumbling attitudes as they amuse us, making this one of the strangest and most delightful comedies ever made by Hollywood.
1001 Movies before you die 