DOCTOR STRANGE (2016)

It’s disingenuous to feign disappointment with the increasingly rote exercises of MARVEL STUDIOS.* This one, which uses IRON MAN’s arrogant-scientist-laid-low template, was generally well-received, though not without a share of fanboy pushback. But it’s a lumpy piece of merchandise, a pedestal built to display another pedestal, as Benedict Cumberbatch swallows the Kool-Aid of career-advancement playing the eponymous doctor. (Looking like Pierce Brosnan; inhabited by Tom Cruise’s acting choices.) A forgettable story sends him to the Mystical East, hoping to find a spiritual cure for his surgical-worthy hands, crushed in a car wreck. Turns out, he’s a natural at inner-bliss/meta-physical incantations, but has to spend his time fighting world domination battles against Mads Mikkelsen, with raccoon eye makeup substituting for character. There’s a nice cameo from Benjamin Bratt as a former graduate of Tilda Swinton’s inner-cure swami institute, but everyone else just worries over their next lame repartee. It all gets sorted out (and made meaningless) via time continuum rewinds which, alas, aren't available for the viewer.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The film is loaded with phantasmagoric (fantasmagoric?) visual effects - traveling & collapsing thru time & space. They must have looked hallucinogenic on the big 3D screen. But in home viewing, much of the film's non-special effect scenes suffer from murky digital photography funk.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: The film offers two follow-up teaser tags. Sneak peek or threat?

DOUBLE-BILL: *Even the best MARVEL pics (CAPTAIN AMERICA/’11; GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY’14; DEADPOOL/’16) lose their footing or overplay their hand in the inevitable sequel.

APARTMENT FOR PEGGY (1948)

There’s a pejorative tinge in saying a film is ‘nice.’ But here’s a film that’s nice in a good way; and in a smart way. Writing & helming in the wake of his MIRACLE ON 34th STREET success*, George Seaton dared to stay small with what first looks like an all too tidy tale of retired philosophy prof Edmund Gwenn giving up on life until he opens his home, heart & intellect to a young couple stiffed by the post-WWII housing shortage. SHE: Jeanne Crain; pregnant, motor-mouthed, resourceful / HE: William Holden; G.I. Bill Chem Major, guilt-ridden by a lack of income, feeling he’s falling behind. Seaton knows that we know what’s coming and smoothly plays out the whole curmudgeon-warms-up tropes in act one; much helped by expert playing from leads & support. And the film keeps making sharp moves, using much of the second act to highlight the frustrations of war brides losing contact with husbands challenged & changed by college experiences; then shifting to personal tragedy in the third act (without going maudlin) so Holden can work his manly sensitivity angle. (Solid & handsome as they come, Holden had a flair for showing the messy inside of a breakdown.) The first act theme (life is worth living) returns in a coda (served dry, with a twist) and only Seaton’s square megging keeps this from being a top pick. (See him fumble a comic set piece for Holden & Gwenn.*) But still plenty good enough. In fact, it’s downright nice.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Production head Darryl F. Zanuck took an inexplicable disliking to MIRACLE and thought he’d give Seaton a lesson opening this quintessential Christmas picture in June! Then the damn thing ran and ran; right thru the holiday season.

DOUBLE-BILL: *The overworked gag has Holden & Gwenn struggle to assemble a baby’s wash tub from ‘easy’ DIY instructions. You’ll find pretty much the same gag from Preston Sturges (same year/same studio), but with far better comic results, for Rex Harrison and a home recording machine in UNFAITHFULLY YOURS/’48.

LINK: The Victorian parlor song that runs thru the film, Michael Balfe’s I DREAMT I DWELT IN MARBLE HALLS, would have been part of everyone’s musical DNA at the time. Now, not so much. Here’s an early (w/ piano accompaniment) and later (orchestrated) link to recordings by Dame Joan Sutherland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0FE6LlBWbQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yebOy5Ne6bQ

RIKUGUN / ARMY (1944)

Keisuke Kinoshita’s fourth film was another wartime special, designed for the changing fortunes of 1944 and apparently commissioned by Army authorities. Something of a pep talk and a recruitment vehicle, if with a rather downbeat edge, it’s a multi-generational portmanteau pageant that begins in the battle-scarred midst of an 1866 war for supremacy between warring Japanese factions. Notably, the family arc we follow, with stops every decade or so for a fresh war, is on the losing side. After about four of these vignettes, the second half settles down to concentrate on a more modern story as a father, disappointed in own his war record, sees small hope for military advancement coming from his eldest son, a weakling and a bit of a sissy. Instead, the father leads a youth military-prep group in-between escalating comic fights with the factory owner who funds the organization. He hardly notices how his son has grown up, winning a fine army commission after all. Kinoshita gives us much of the war drama via commentary from non-participants, avoiding the action we hear discussed. An odd directorial choice, perhaps dictated by budgetary concerns. But it all leads up to a final sequence of real power, as the son heads to his deployment in China amidst thousands of marching troops in a festive citywide celebration to send them off. The film’s focus shifts to the mother, at first avoiding the spectacle, but then drawn to it in an increasingly desperate try to see her son in the big parade before he leaves. Kinoshita builds this sequence into an exceptionally strong set piece, as the mother struggles thru crowds for what could be a final look.*   It’s like an OTT silent film set piece from King Vidor, like the one in THE BIG PARADE/’25 where the French girl can’t bring herself to let go of her soldier boy as he’s being driven out of town. Here, it’s so effective, you have to think twice to remember the horrors perpetrated by the Japanese during the Chinese Occupation; leaving a sour taste to this historically interesting film.

DOUBLE-BILL: The complete Kinoshita WWII films are on Criterion/Eclipse - Series 41.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *John Ford gets a similar effect (in 20 seconds & a handful of shots) as Claudette Colbert moves to higher & higher ground for a last look at husband Henry Fonda as he marches off to face the British in DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK/’39.

BORN TO BE BAD (1950)

All but unknown Nicholas Ray pic (you’ll see why) is a bitchy affair for Joan Fontaine, a bit long in the tooth as a New Girl in Town, hustling between San Fran’s artsy ‘smart set’ and old-wealth ‘social set’ to get ahead. And if that means dumping macho literary light Robert Ryan for her roommate’s monied fiancé (Joan Leslie; Zachary Scott), so be it. Fontaine positively purrs her way thru the role and the film has its moments in the first half, but too many plot complications & see-thru lies stop it cold before too long. Ultimately, Ray has neither the style nor much zest for this sort of trash. At least Mel Ferrer gooses things up in an early credit as an amusingly mediocre society painter, a wolf behind gay trimmings. And Robert Ryan gets a shot at something outside his usual brutes & borderline psychos, playing a suave, but rough-hewed writing talent (think James Jones/Irwin Shaw). He’s terrifically appealing, his enjoyment in the role infectious.

DOUBLE-BILL: Fontaine’s a regular Eve Harrington here (of ALL ABOUT EVE fame), filming right across town from this R.K.O. production over @ 20th/Fox.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Don’t skip the Alternate Ending on the disc with gives Joan a couple of extra turns of the screw . . . so to speak.

HARRIET CRAIG (1950)

Third go-round for George Kelly’s Pulitzer Prize winner must have seemed psychologically obvious even in 1950, like Ibsen For Dummies. Not a bad thing in some ways, there’s craft (or rather craftiness) to it, and Joan Crawford is frighteningly well-suited to her role as the house-enthralled Mrs. Craig, both controlled & controlling as she manipulates & lies her way thru a childless marriage to Wendell Corey, sabotaging his career & friendships to keep him close by, dependent on her alone. Relatives & servants get similar treatment, finally leaving her with only her freakishly well-ordered house as companion. (As if ‘bizarro’ Nora, from A DOLL’S HOUSE, finding herself alone, stayed inside when she slammed the door.) The film makes a basic mistake in opening up Kelly’s play, losing its single-set claustrophobia; and Crawford’s actions (and acting) are too transparent. One neat addition has Corey explicitly held thru sex, with Crawford’s short, manly hair style adding a dominatrix edge. (Still very striking under lenser Joseph Walker though director Vincent Sherman brings little flair even in house design.) But the part really doesn’t work without a sense of pity; here it’s A Termagant’s Comeuppance. In ‘36, Rosalind Russell & John Boles took a more stagebound approach under Dorothy Arzner. What we really need is the lost ‘28 silent version with Irene Rich & Warner Baxter, perfectly cast, under forgotten writer/director William de Mille, older brother of you know who.

DOUBLE-BILL: As mentioned above, the earlier Arzner (under the play title, CRAIG’S WIFE) . . . OR: To get a feel of what the de Mille silent might have been like, there’s his MISS LULU BETT/’21 a fine domestic dramedy with great perfs from manly Milton Sills & exquisite Lois Wilson.

GOOD MORNING, MISS DOVE (1955)

You know the drill: small-town spinster teacher never realizes how many lives she’s affected over the years. (IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE/’46 is like a guy version of the same idea, with wife & kids in the mix. Miss Dove even stops a panic run on the local bank for those who missed the Capra.) Henry Koster megs in his becalmed non-interventionist front-and-center CinemaScope style (he was livelier back in the ‘30s) and a light comic tone keeps things from getting too sticky. Along with some oddly stiff acting; as if English were everyone’s second language. But halfway in, you notice that Jennifer Jones’s Miss Dove is less severe disciplinarian/truth-teller, more vinegary, unyielding and needlessly rude; hiding 'the Terrible’ Miss Dove’s soft spot under a cruel comic edge. She's like a female Clifton Webb, the phenomenally popular cranky, know-it-all at 20th/Fox (where this was made). Webb, who came late to film, after decades on stage, made an unlikely leading-man. Fey, fussy, yet a top studio grosser, often as Dad to batches of children. Easy to see how this might have been developed for him. (Same dialogue; different clothes.) To some extent, it works well enough with Jones, these Most-Memorable-Teacher things always do. (Though perhaps not in Germany! - see bonus poster)

The trouble is that Jones has nothing like the sheer technique Webb built up over decades headlining B’way revues. (Romberg, Berlin, Porter & Kern all wrote for him.) So where Webb was tart, stylized, precise; Jones gives mannerisms by rote. She soon went back to glamorous suffering and returned the Clifton Webb act to Clifton Webb.*

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Until Webb retired and left Richard Haydn as a reasonable facsimile in THE SOUND OF MUSIC/’65.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Watch close to see the student population go from lily white to integrated over the decades. First a Jewish kid (with a matzo ball making mom) then during the final assembly, look fast for a black kid. Progress.

DOUBLE-BILL: Webb’s at his strict sweet-and-sour funniest in CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN/’50 . . . OR: For a more traditional spinster teacher number, see Claudette Colbert, John Payne & director Henry King take much of the curse off the format in REMEMBER THE DAY/'41.

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN (2003)

Piss poor, with witless dialogue, inept action (staging & direction), and a joyless tone, this comic book adaptation, a fantastic turn-of-the-last century adventure stocked with glosses on famous literary characters as a privy fighting guild brought together to battle a villainous mastermind, was a damp way for Sean Connery to end a career.*  The basic idea is INDIANA JONES meets the A-TEAM, but it’s more 'Triple A' division, with a story that doesn’t add up after a nifty initial prologue with a platoon of faux Germans invading British banks before a platoon of faux Brits retaliate by raiding a German weapons factory. Someone’s trying to start World War Zero, ya? But it’s all downhill from there, beginning with a second prologue that scoots off to Africa to enlist Connery’s Allan Quatermain in the eponymous league. From there, neither plot, characterization (not a memorable perf in the lot) nor shot sequence make much sense. Easy enough to blame over-parted megger Stephen Norrington (he hasn’t directed since), but plenty of shame to go around. The best thing in here, and very much worth a look, are the models & miniatures (vast cityscapes and sea-going sub) which lend the feel of a deluxe Pop-Up Picture book to things, and hold up far better than the all-too-quickly dated CGI monsters and explosions. Otherwise, pass.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Maybe that’s why he’s hiding under a hat in our poster.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Of course, Connery nails this sort of thing in INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE/’89, second best of that series.

DEEP WATERS (1948)

Dean Stockwell makes an adorable hardluck kid in a sweet, but not overly sentimental pic that finds director Henry King working right in his comfort zone. Orphaned three years back when Pop died at sea, Stockwell, after running away from a series of foster homes gets a tryout with hard-shelled/soft-centered Anne Revere. If only he could spend all his spare time with Dana Andrews’ independent lobster fisherman (and hearty Portuguese mate Cesar Romero), it just might work out. Andrews’ connection to the kid is Jean Peters, his on-again/off-again fiancé and the boy’s social worker. Unsure of the surrogate-father relationship, she worries about Stockwell’s safety out at sea almost as much as the bad turn he’s taking on land. There are a couple of nice detours built into the story, but the real reason it works so well comes from how King handles his players (all naturals, has Romero ever been this good?, and watch for the great D. W. Griffith actress Mae Marsh as a worried neighbor); his locations (plain, but handsome Maine seascape & towns); his understated staging (with just the right positions to cover some scenes in one confident set-up); and by letting homely attitudes speak for themselves. The film’s largely low key, but not without a wallapalooza storm-at-sea sequence to show off some still powerful effects work. (Presumably from F/X specialist Fred Sersen & second unit helmer Joseph Behm.) And note it’s placing as a second act turning point rather than holding back to milk for an action finale. Just a lovely little pic. A shame the print isn’t in tip-top shape, but don’t let that stop you.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Warm, lovely, talented, Jean Peters had a major career quashed by her loathsome, jealous creep of a husband, Howard Hughes.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Cyril Mockridge contributes a fine, evocative score, very British/Frank Bridge, and gorgeously orchestrated by Maurice de Packh who seems to have freelanced around town when something special was needed. (See IMDb.com to spot the M-G-M/ Arthur Freed musicals he was brought in on.)

HANA SAKU MINATO / PORT OF FLOWERS (1943)

Those who know the gently satiric post-war Ealing Studio comedies (e.g. KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS/’49; THE LAVENDER HILL MOB/’51) will recognize tropes & tone in this bit of wartime escapism, yet still find the Japanese orientation a little jarring. A smoothly run debut for director Keisuke Kinoshita, out in ‘43 when the war seemed to be going well, no doubt explaining the relatively modest patriotic elements. It’s a standard farce set-up about a couple of con men who land on an underdeveloped island where they ingratiate themselves before raising a syndicate to restart the old shipyards with shares bought by trusting locals. Naturally, they’re planning a hasty escape with the cash before any work starts, but plans go awry when love enters the picture along with an unknown ‘relative’ and worst of all, when war is declared!  !Bonsai!  (Hey, it’s a Japanese war pic, Pearl Harbor is celebrated.)  Suddenly, their bogus plans take a practical turn as ship building is not only a boon to the community, but also patriotic & profitable.*  The playing leans to the broad side and some transitions are abrupt, but there’s more than just historical interest here. Especially with a cast that features fistfuls of actors soon seen in works from Ozu and Mizoguchi. Kinoshita continued making these wartime quickies, now collected in a Criterion set, and more prestigious fare later. But his films never really broke thru Stateside so that even his BALLAD OF NARAYAMA/’58 is better known in Shohei Imamura’s Cannes’ prize-winning version of 1983.* More reports on these wartime efforts to come.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Sure, it’s WWII Japan, but we might well be watching a sequel to THE MUSIC MAN or THE PRODUCERS.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *The heavy-weather subject matter of NARAYAMA (voluntary death in the forest for seniors) was D.O.A. in the Matthew McConaughey/Gus Van Sant SEA OF TREES/’15.