RAGE IN HEAVEN (1941)

In spite of presumed expertise at the peak of his Hollywood prestige, producer David O. Selznick couldn’t find a decent followup for breakout contractee Ingrid Bergman after he remade her Swedish hit INTERMEZZO in 1939. Three loan-outs in 1941 (ADAM HAD FOUR SONS, this James Hilton adaptation, and the Spencer Tracy JEKYLL & HYDE), none doing justice to Bergman’s incandescence. ADAM barely an A-list pic, while even Selznick’s own INTERMEZZO far weaker than the Swedish original Bergman made in 1936. No doubt, this project sounded promising: from a James Hilton novel after GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS hit big (even grabbing Best Actor Oscar for Robert Donat over Clark Gable in Selznick’s GONE WITH THE WIND); top helmer ‘Woody’ Van Dyke on Christopher Isherwood’s debut script; and solid co-stars in Robert Montgomery & George Sanders. Yet almost nothing works in this looney tunes suspenser. There’s a single twist you’ll guess right at the start, long before former college chums Montgomery & Sanders make for the Montgomery family manse & meet Bergman, Mama’s new social secretary. It’s love all around, but Bergman impulsively (and inexplicably) takes up with Montgomery who promptly falls apart trying to run the family steel foundry. As Bergman’s affections shift, Montgomery’s mental instabilities multiply and tragedy (served with revenge) looms. Nobody on screen has much luck selling any of this twaddle, and Van Dyke hasn’t the visual flair to give it the necessary doom-laden psychological pull. Though it's fun to see young Ingrid given the full M-G-M polish.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/LINK: Bergman stayed at M-G-M for JEKYLL AND HYDE, but campaigned to swap leading lady roles with co-star Lana Turner who took on ‘good girl’ to Ingrid’s naughty tart. A smart tactic that might have worked here with Montgomery playing gentle savior to Sanders’ tortured, paranoid creep. Not enough to save it, as was the case in J&H, but an improvement, anyway.   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/08/dr-jekyll-and-mr-hyde-1941.html

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Montgomery seems ‘off’ here. That’s ‘off’ as an actor, not as the character. See him tackle this sort of unhinged fellow to fine effect in the unsettling thriller NIGHT MUST FALL/’37.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2012/12/night-must-fall-1937.html

CLOCKWISE (1986)

In one of his surprisingly few memorable non-Monty Python films, the great John Cleese plays a demonically punctual High School Head Master taking a day off to address a National Education Conference out of town. What could go wrong? Er, just about everything in this original script from farce-master Michael Frayn, author of NOISES OFF, a modern theatrical classic of the form. (Ignore Peter Bogdanovich’s unhappy film adaptation.) Always tricky on film, farce is all but inimical to naturalistic film conventions, thriving in the sliding walls & restricted confines of a proscenium stage, like a pressure cooker to raise comic temperature. On film, even Frayn can get bogged down in setups, here relying too heavily on Cleese’s verbal tic of saying ‘Right!,’ when he means ‘Yes!’ A missed train; a wife & old schoolmate deceived; a trio of batty seniors; a schoolgirl who’s stolen Dad’s car and is ending her affair with the music teacher; said teacher in mad pursuit; a bath in a monastery . . . and so on. Bumps and all, a trip worth taking. Especially once past the half hour mark, when director Christopher Morahan takes a moment to let Frayn pivot as Cleese takes stock of his options at a roadside phone booth. Just what the film needs now that all the balls are in the air, the pause that refreshes. And suddenly, everything clicks and comic hysteria builds. As Cleese memorably says at a low point, ‘It’s not the despair . . . I can stand the despair, it’s the hope!’

DOUBLE-BILL: Check out Michael Frayn’s serious side in COPENHAGEN/’02, his look at the infamous meeting of nuclear physicists Niels Bohr & Werner Heisenberg during WWII; the same meeting that figures in the climax of the Moe Berg saga THE CATCHER WAS A SPY/’18.

WITHIN OUR GATES (1920)

The first surviving film of Black film pioneer Oscar Micheaux, now at its centennial, holds obvious historical interest . . . non-historical interest is more debatable. Impressively independent in just getting it done, Micheaux’s film technique was equally independent, but less impressive. Such eccentric film grammar, the simple story of a black woman traveling north to raise funds for a poor Southern school is all but impossible to follow. A few scenes add up: a fine, animated church sermon with great reaction shots from the pews; a gossipy sit-down for a pair of racially intolerant white biddies; and the film’s most famous sequence, a double lynching treated as some sort of sick community fair, containing all the shots needed to put it together in your head even if Micheaux can’t. The idea that films were so primitive in 1920 that we need to cut Micheaux some slack ignores similar deficiencies in his later work, as well as the burgeoning film technique in general use at the time. And as for budgetary constraints, a wise man once said, ‘it doesn’t cost a penny more to put the camera in the right place.’ Shown regularly in film classes, it’s a guaranteed turnoff to future investigations by students on films of the period.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: A hundred years after Micheaux created a distinctive Black Cinema, we have scores of talented Black directors in film, in spite of remaining obstacles. Yet, towering above them all is another Black independent without a trace of natural filmmaking abilities. (No names, please!) The Oscar Micheaux legacy lives on.

EASY LIVING (1949)

Not to be confused with the Mitchell Leisen/Preston Sturges 1937 screwball classic of the same name (w/ Jean Arthur, Ray Milland, Edward Arnold), and certainly no classic of its own, this unexpectedly downbeat pro football character piece (Irwin Shaw story/Charles Schnee script) is good enough/interesting enough to count as a real missed opportunity. Victor Mature, uncommonly fit & handsome, top man in the league, is headed for a fall. A literal fall, as in fainting spells from a previously undiagnosed heart condition. Adding to his troubles: ambitious wife Lizabeth Scott needs his star power to put over her new interior decorator biz; his backup plan as college coach has just gone to BFF Sonny Tufts; office secretary/young widow Lucille Ball is carrying a major torch for him in spite of being warned off by owner/coach (and former father-in-law) Lloyd Nolan; plus he needs to perform at peak capacity in one last game to make the playoffs. (A $1000 bonus for each player hangs in the balance! Pro football in the ‘40s, Yikes!) An unusual assignment for director Jacques Tourneur, normally pegged for crime, noir & horror, who runs a tight show, especially good with Tufts & Ball in underwritten roles. What he can’t do is fill in missing pieces in Schnee’s otherwise sharp script. At just 77 minutes, the film loses focus & direction in a rushed last act that suffers from gaps in development, reshoots (?), and shockingly dated slaphappy misogyny, with almost every relationship & sports world issue compromised. Was Irwin Shaw’s story less pat? Worth a look though. Maybe worth a remake.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Late-Night tv historians get a rare chance to see the great Jack Parr in his not-so-great acting days as the team’s PR man.

ALL AT SEA (aka BARNACLE BILL) (1957)

After purring along for half a decade in a series of charmingly subversion British comedies for Ealing Studios (KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS/’49 to THE LADYKILLERS/’55), Alec Guinness reached an entirely different level of international stardom with THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI/’57. But he had one more Ealing comedy left to him in this modest, winning fable, loaded with Ealing Studio regulars in front & behind the camera. Guinness plays a inveterately seasick Captain from a Navy legacy family who finds the perfect ‘ship’ to command when he buys a seaside amusement pier which he registers as a foreign ship to avoid various town restrictions. Making a quick success of the long dilapidated structure, he’s now attacked by greedy town councilmen eager to tear it down for development and personal gain. And while the film’s delights run a bit shy of the best Ealing/Guinness pics, that’s no reason not to enjoy the real pleasures hiding here in plain sight. And such a handsome film under Douglas Slocombe’s camera, with director Charles Frend letting the gags rise to their natural level of buoyancy, much helped by a remarkably deep lineup of classic Brit supporting players. The sort of civilized film entertainment a generation once took for granted. Now, it’s treats!

DOUBLE-BILL: Less known than the Ealing Comedies, but coming right in the middle of them, THE PROMOTER/’52 (aka THE CARD) is a particular delight, with Guinness surrounded by Glynis Johns, Valerie Hobson, Petula Clark & Joan Hickson in a period comedy of social mobility.

THE CEREMONY (1963)

A vanity project from company logo (LHP over a lion*) to end credits, this Lawrence Harvey Production has the film company's eponymous star nobly suffering in a castle dungeon, a prisoner awaiting death by firing squad after a guard is killed during an anti-government bank robbery. Even in this nameless totalitarian state, Harvey could save himself if he’d give up the location of the hidden cash, but that’s unlikely. Instead, kid brother Robert Walker Jr. plans a daring rescue involving the old prisoner-in-priest’s-clothing switcheroo. But it’s all complicated by Walker coveting big brother’s stolen stake & loyal girlfriend, Sarah Miles. Harvey lays on chilly atmosphere and arty angles with a trowel, obliged by cinematographer Oswald Morris in high contrast b&w shots so frame-worthy, they cancel each other out. Same problem on the over-emotive acting & Harvey’s underwhelming directing chops. (Some of the action scenes turn inadvertently risible.) Beware good intentions!

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *There was no followup film for LHP after this, though Harvey directed two more times, finishing A DANDY IN ASPIC/’68 after director Anthony Mann died mid-shoot, and in the posthumously released horror WELCOME TO ARROW BEACH/’74 (neither seen here).

ESPIONAGE (1937)

Close but no cigar for this B+ programmer from M-G-M that grafts Ernst Lubitsch romantic calculation between rivals-turned-lovers Edmund Lowe & Madge Evans to International-Intrigue-On-A Train. In a runup to Alfred Hitchcock’s THE LADY VANISHES/’38, Paul Lukas is the man-of-the-moment as Europe teeters toward war, a munitions mogul whose sales could alter the balance of power in the region. His journey is the top story of the day and Evans goes after it for her newspaper using her editor’s passport to slip into hostile countries as his wife. At the same time, popular novelist Edmund Lowe, covering for a reporter pal, is forced to play husband to Evans when his real passport & visa are stolen. A clever meet-cute that plays out over the entire first act. Better yet, while Evans bonds with Lukas mistress Ketti Gallian, Lowe bonds just as closely to munitions man Lukas thru a mutual love of music. (That tune Lukas supposedly wrote actually from Tchaikovsky’s EUGENE ONEGIN.) A neat setup, nicely complicated by a gaggle of spies & assistants moving thru the train while authorities & train officials get in the way. Journeyman director Kurt Neuman keeps up the pace, but there’s only so much he can do to straighten out a script that misses plot points and never quite lines up the action. Still, fun to watch, with a good amount of old-fashioned glamor (thanks to lenser Ray June) in spite of Evans frustrating lack of sparkle. And watch for a magnificent aborted sneeze from master of the form Billy Gilbert.

DOUBLE-BILL: Try the excellent ROME EXPRESS/’32, a well-made British film that helped lay down the intrigue-on-a-train tropes and also lets you see what Conrad Veidt does in the Paul Lukas spot.

WOMAN ON THE RUN (1950)

Terrific. Smash film noir, virtually unknown, with a female POV unusual for the genre, skips Los Angeles for tasty on-location San Francisco sites to fine effect. It opens with a rubout, a witness in a mob case who’ll miss his court date permanently. Seen by a skittish artist out walking his dog, he senses danger reporting it to the cops and takes off at the first opportunity. That’s when detective Robert Keith (stealing every scene he’s in) uses the missing man’s dog to track down Ann Sheridan, the missing man’s wife. She wants nothing to do with the case. Hell, she wants nothing to do with her husband. But coerced by Detective Keith, she seems to do her bit, hiding a lot of purposeful misdirection while pursuing her own hunt with help from news reporter Dennis O’Keefe who’s dangled a thousand bucks for exclusive story rights when they find the husband. With snappy dialogue from Alan Campbell and suspense structure from co-scripter/director Norman Foster* (the man behind Peter Lorre’s MR. MOTO pics), this one really takes off. Even adds up in the logic department; pretty rare for a noir! And note Foster's mid-point placement on the big ‘reveal.’ Plus a great look from cinematographer Hal Mohr, Sheridan showing a new careworn beauty and all the glistening nightlife trimmings you could ask for, especially in the nerve-racking climax at a seaside amusement park. Rights to this indie Universal pickup must have slipped, keeping it off the revival radar, so bad copies abound. But good ones are now available on-line if you look around . . . and you should.

DOUBLE-BILL: *Orson Welles’ THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI/’47 shows some similarities. No surprise as Foster & Welles were pals, with Foster directing Welles in a lesser Mercury Production, JOURNEY INTO FEAR/’43, as well as collaborating on Welles’ problematic South American project, IT’S ALL TRUE and acting in Welles’ posthumous THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND.

DOLOR Y GLORIA / PAIN AND GLORY (2019)

Exceedingly fine. After two films that didn’t quite ring the bell, Pedro Almodóvar returns to his best form in semi-autobiographical mode. With a longstanding Federico Fellini affinity that goes back to the ‘80s in raw, edgy films like LABYRINTH OF PASSION, the echoes of 8½ and AMARCORD are no surprise here. But whereas Fellini’s early classicism curdled into mannerism & excess as he got older, Almodóvar has moved in the opposite direction with some of the cleanest narrative & least fussy visuals of his career, yet without sacrificing his signature intensely colored dramatic schemes & style. An art now so easeful & natural, you feel many will miss it, along with all that’s going on below the immaculate surface. Playing a filmmaker in triple crisis (personal, health, career), Antonio Banderas channels Fellini alter-ego Marcello Mastroianni as much as Almodóvar, as he attempts to reboot his life and heal all the mental & physical pains by successively trying out drugs, sex, work, love & memory. Memory does the trick (along with a successful medical operation!); no surprise when your memory of Mom looks like Penélope Cruz . (Nitpickers will note that Julieta Serrano makes an unlikely elderly version of Ms. Cruz.) It’s a lovely film, with a lovely, well-earned happy ending.

DOUBLE-BILL: As mentioned above, the two Fellini classics (though AMARCORD is awfully self-indulgent), but why not investigate the early, less known wilds of the young Almodóvar: LABYRINTH OF PASSION/’82 and MATADOR/’86 each especially good.