LA BELLE ET LA BÊTE
*****THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
*****
THE BIG SLEEP
*****
USA
Of the mainstream Hollywood noirs few were
finer than this Howard Hawks-helmed Bogart and Bacall innuendo-fest, where Philip Marlowe is hired to protect the
wealthy and deeply fucked-up Sternwoods from a myriad scandals. No one bothers
to follow the famously convoluted plot. Rather it's the terrifically clever
dialogue and variously unsubtle hints at devious behaviour that drive each
scene. William Faulkner is credited as scriptwriter, though all the best
exchanges are directly lifted from Raymond Chandler's novel (which is well
worth reading not only for its literary merit but if you're ever curious
to figure out who exactly kills whom and to what purpose).
dir: Howard Hawks
wr: William Faulkner
cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, John Ridgely,
Martha Vickers, Louis Jean Heydt, Elisha Cook Jr., Charles Waldron, Regis
Toomey, Sonia Darin, Bob Steele, Tom Rafferty, Dorothy Malone
BLACK ANGEL
**½
USA
A lazy, sub-standard noir about an alcoholic composer tries to
clear the man charged with his wife's murder.
There is a twist, of course, that is perhaps ahead of its
time, but not by much.
dir: Roy William Neill
cast: Dan Duryea, June Vincent, Peter Lorre,
Broderick Crawford, Wallace Ford, Hobart Cavanaugh
CANYON PASSAGE
**½
CRACK-UP
***
USA
The manliest art critic you'll ever see is the innocent hero hunted by
both the good guys and the bad guys in this Hitchcockian thriller. The
plot involves a forged Dürer and a train crash that may or may not have
happened. Modern art is proclaimed evil and useless (the hero respects the
voice of the people above that of his peers and is particularly averse to
surrealism).
Director Irving Reis employs a couple of showy camera effects
(the best one, where a running clock is superimposed over a train wheel,
is repeated) and protracts most of the scenes to charge up the tension and
the atmosphere. Some of them work, but then there are times where you wish
he'd just get on with it.
dir: Irving Reis
cast: Pat O'Brien, Claire Trevor, Herbert
Marshall, Ray Collins, Wallace Ford, Dean Harens, Damian O'Flynn, Erksine
Sanford, Mary Ware
DARK MIRROR
***
USA
A 'psychological' suspense melodrama about two twin sisters, one of
whom is an insane murderess and both of whom are played by a shrewd Olivia de Havilland.
If at any point you get confused which is which - not that you're likely
to - just remember: the evil one is dressed in black. The romantic hero is
a master at inkblot and free
association tests.
The Freud reinterpretations were probably compelling
once. Today they're laughable, but it's a lot of fun to watch meek de
Havilland share the screen with mean de Havilland. Because of Siodmak's
involvement, the picture is often categorised as noir, though it lacks a distinctive visual style.
dir: Robert Siodmak
wr: Nunnally Johnson
ph: Milton Krasner
m: Dimitri Tiomkin
cast: Olivia de Havilland, Lew Ayres,
Thomas Mitchell, Richard Long, Charles Evans, Garry Owen
GILDA
*****
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
*****
GREEN FOR DANGER
***½
HUE AND CRY
***
IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
****½
IVAN THE TERRIBLE, PART II
****THE JOLSON STORY
****
THE KILLERS
***½
USA
A short story by Hemingway, with the dialogue adapted word for word,
constitutes the opening scene for this well respected noir. It's a
jump-off point for John Huston working with a man named Anthony Veiller as
co-writer, who turns the plot into an insurance investigator's
reconstruction of the life of a gangster assassinated in a small town.
Directed by Robert
Siodmak and superbly shot by Elwood Bredell, the picture unravels in non-chronological flashbacks, with
the more fascinating bits of the puzzle often passed over in favour of the more
predictable. The orchestra though, gets regularly excited.
dir: Robert Siodmak
wr: Anthony Veiller, John Huston
ph: Elwood Bredell
m: Miklos Rozsa
cast: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien,
Albert Dekker, Sam Levene, John Miljan, Virginia Christine, Vince Barnett
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A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
****½
THE
MURDERERS ARE AMONG US
**½
Germany
Cinema is yet to present us with a more radiant and porcelain-skinned concentration camp survivor than Hildegard
Knef. In this - the first drama produced in Germany after the War - she
symbolises forgiveness and optimism. As an alcoholic doctor traumatised by
atrocities he witnessed while serving for Hitler's army, Ernst Wilhelm
Borchert represents guilt and paralysis. The German people's
responsibilities towards humanity after the war are addressed in very
explicit and very crude terms.
dir: Wolfgang Staudte
cast: Ernst Wilhelm Borchert, Hildegard Knef, Robert Forsch, Albert
Johannes, Arno Paulsen, Wolfgang Dohnberg
MY DARLING CLEMENTINE
*****
NIGHT AND DAY
**
A NIGHT IN CASABLANCA
****
NOTORIOUS
***½
USA
Of Alfred Hitchcock's pre-1950's output
this glossy suspenser about a handsome couple suppressing their sexual
chemistry for a good cause is probably the best regarded.
Ingrid Bergman renounces her virginity to play the alcoholic
daughter of a convicted Nazi, with Cary Grant looking uncharacteristically
uptight as the suave agent who recruits her for the government's
interests. Inevitably they grow attracted to one another and exchange a
series of steamed-up, well-publicised kisses. But due to patriotism and
poor communication skills Bergman is forced to marry suspected Nazi with a
soft edge Claude Rains as well as his vulture of a mother.
With more talk than you'd expect of a Hitchcock assemblage,
it coasts on the stars' ability to generate heat for an inordinate amount
of time, with the major suspense setpieces delayed till well into the
second act.
dir: Alfred Hitchcock
wr: Ben Hecht
ph: Ted Tetzlaff
cast: Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Leopooldine
Konstantin, Louis Calhern, Reinhold Schünzel, Moroni Olsen
PAISA
****
THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE
***½
THE SEVENTH VEIL
**½
UK
From the title alone, you can, of course, feel the heavy-handed Salomé
metaphor coming on. And sure enough, it's there - they get it over and
done with early on, just before 36-year-old Ann Todd begins to think back
to a time where she has to play her character at the age of 14. She plays
a suicidal pianist, who refuses to
speak to anyone but readily submits herself to hypnosis and, once under
it, proceeds to lucidly narrate her life story.
Much time
has passed since this picture's use-by date, but the performances almost
save it. Todd pulls off all the necessary rigidity and fragility with
wide-eyed conviction, and Mason does a fantastic tyrant. Both were
catapulted to major stardom and the picture itself placed tenth in a
recent UK's Ultimate Film poll, which ranked the films with the all-time greatest
numbers of submissions.
dir: Compton Bennett
cast: Ann Todd, James Mason, Herbert Lom,
Hugh McDermott, Albert Lieven
SONG OF THE SOUTH
**½
THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE
***½
THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS
****
USA
An adolescent small-town
heiress kills her sadistic aunt, with two boys as witnesses. She grows
into Barabara Stanwyck, marries the more introverted - and therefore less
stable - of the boys, and eventually re-crosses paths with the other.
Packaged with meaty dialogue and seasoned Hollywood stars, this makes for
outstandingly entertaining
melodrama.
dir: Lewis Milestone
wr: Robert Rossen
cast: Van Heflin, Barbara Stanwyck, Kirk
Douglas, Lizabeth Scott, Judith Anderson, Roman Bohnen
THE STRANGER
***½
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