OBSESSION (1976)

Made right before his mainstream breakthru in CARRIE/’76, director Brian De Palma, with co-scripter Paul Schrader, can’t find dramatic footing even in the wading pool depth of this snarky cineast puzzle.  More ripoff than homage, think of it as a ‘refrigerator door’ poem made from magnetic word tiles.  The ones you arrange (and rearrange) to create cute haiku or doggerel-of-the-day.  Only here, instead of words, each tile a famous scene or moment from Alfred Hitchcock’s VERTIGO: looming tower; brooding portrait painting with a hair style to copy; switchback staircase; telltale piece of ‘borrowed’ jewelry;  dead love doppelgänger; terrifying dream sequence; confessional letter written but not sent; two fails at saving the love of your life; all fogged up cinematography (Vilmos Zsigmond extrapolating off an unrestored print of VERTIGO?); Bernard Herrmann score.*  Plus, Bonus Tile from DIAL M FOR MURDER/’54: deadly scissors!  How’s the old saw go: Talent borrows/genius steals?  Not so much here.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Quite a contest in bad accents between John Lithgow’s southern drawl and Geneviève Bujold’s Québécois Italian.  He’s the villain/partner; she’s the reborn love; both still topping Cliff Robertson’s befuddled patsy, moping at having to play leading man on a low budget.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/LINK:  *Composer Bernard Herrmann didn’t live to see his last two films (this and TAXI DRIVER) Oscar nom’d.  Shamefully, his first nod from the Academy since 1947!  None of the Hitchcocks even nominated.  Not PSYCHO, not VERTIGO.  And while he likely split his own vote, at least he lost to the great score Jerry Goldsmith wrote for THE OMEN/’76.    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/omen-1976.html

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Don’t ruin VERTIGO by seeing this first!  And note our Truth in Advertizing poster with ‘money quotes’ from the likes of Rex Reed and Liz Smith.

ANOTHER LANGUAGE (1933)

When a newlywed husband brings his independent-minded bride home to meet the in-laws after a blissful stay in Europe, his overly possessive mother immediately goes to work to divide (and conquer) the happy couple.  Over at R.K.O. this scenario played out in a superb adaptation of Sidney Howard’s decade old play THE SILVER CORD*, beating this roughly similar M-G-M project from Rose Franken’s recent B’way play to the screen by three months.  (Production delayed when Helen Hayes took over from Norma Shearer after husband Irving Thalberg’s heart attack?)  And who to direct but Edward H. Griffith, new to M-G-M after specializing in just this sort of literate play-to-film transfer back at R.K.O. where he’d helmed Philip Barry’s HOLIDAY/’30 and THE ANIMAL KINGDOM/’32.*  Robert Montgomery is the weak-willed husband, folding to Mother's wishes & will at family gatherings while losing the romantic spark Hayes once felt in him.  Now, it’s family outlier John Beal, a lovestruck nephew, who speaks ‘another language’ with her.  All expressed in an unintentionally intimate dance in front of the whole family, their defining romantic moment.  If only the emotions came thru on film.  It’s not that the character motivations or story beats are less obvious or psychologically transparent in THE SILVER CORD, but everything there still ‘lands,’ while everything here dissipates, leaving an ending that feels both unearned and a cheat.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Four members of the B’way cast went West, including Beal and Margaret Hamilton as the sole aunt who talks the family talk, but also knows the score.  She’s fun!

DOUBLE-BILL:  *Director John Cromwell picked up the Edward H. Griffith mantle at R.K.O., including THE SILVER CORD/’33.   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-silver-cord-1933.html

ZULU (1964)

Physically impressive ‘Last Stand’ war film (its sweeping TechniRama® visuals best seen in Hi-Def resolution), a fact-based late-19th Century southern Africa battle of attrition with 100 British soldiers holding the Rorke’s Drift outpost against 4000 Zulu warriors fresh off major victories against large British units.  Michael Caine made his first mark here, playing a ‘toff’  officer, heavy with class attitude/short on field experience coming against lower-class army engineer Stanley Baker who just barely outranks him.  Building mutual respect as waves of Zulus attack and attack (Northern fortifications; South barrier; Chapel; Surgery, even Cattle corral).  Director Cy Endfield (who co-scripted with Baker) masters the tricky logistics while expanding on the usual formula for these things, so instead of filling only the last two reels with battle, this 2'18" film is nearly all action from the halfway mark on.  Grueling for the men; grueling for the audience.  But done up proud, as they say, and, in spite of an unmistakable Imperialist tone, for its era the film plays fairly.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Caine, who’d quickly show range and solidify his new-found stardom with IPCRESS FILE/’65, ALFIE/’66 and GAMBIT/’66, maintained that only an American director (Endfield had been Blacklisted in the States) would have countenanced a Cockney in this role.  He does lay on the upper-crust accent pretty thick, like Robert Downey Jr faking Sherlock Holmes, when he should be speaking like Edward Fox as . . . Edward Fox. 

DOUBLE-BILL:  A prequel (not seen here), ZULU DAWN/’79, has bigger names and a smaller rep.

THE UNFINISHED DANCE (1947)

Where has this deranged monstrosity been hiding?  Splashy TechniColored family film on the backstabbing backstage world of ballet finds ten-yr-old Margaret O’Brien, already a star for five years, entering the first (and last) growth spurt transition of her young career, guided by producer Joe Pasternak & director Henry Koster, now at M-G-M after helping teenage singing sensation Deanna Durbin work her way thru puberty at Universal.  Could they do the same for O’Brien?  (Hint: two years on she’d leave M-G-M at 12.)  Here, O’Brien’s a scary, whispering, psychopathic terror, officially cared for by a traveling showbiz aunt and unofficially cared for by debuting Danny Thomas, the creepy downstairs ‘uncle,’ with the permanent 5 o’clock shadow, swarthy complexion and hooked nose of a fairy tale ogre.  And he sings little ditties when pressed for advice.  Yikes!  Mostly, Margaret lives with fellow baby ballerinas at the dance academy where she’s become unnaturally fixated on company star Cyd Charisse and worried about new international superstar Karin Booth replacing her.  Perhaps an Opening Night accident could fix all her problems.  Crippled by a fall thru the on-stage trap door?  Blackmailed by students who’ve guessed her secret.  Panicky midnight flights from home.  Breaking up marriage engagements to keep people close to you.  Lying to anyone over the age of 21.  This is one psychologically damaged horror show of a kid.  A TechniColor first for lenser Robert Surtees with madly color-coordinated costumes and some surprisingly sophisticated dances, sets & decor.  Perhaps ‘dance director’ David Lichine did more than choreograph this one-of-a-kind oddity.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Baby-boomers will spot Elinor Donahue (eldest daughter on FATHER KNOWS BEST) debuting as O’Brien’s little turncoat dancing pal.

DOUBLE-BILL: Not seen here, but is the Grand Guignold ballet of BLACK SWAN/’10 any sicker?  OR: Melodrama at the ballet came into its own next year with THE RED SHOES/’48.

LAWLESS (2012)

Depression-era Moonshine Whiskey saga, from Australian director John Hillcoat, savages its way thru a violent three-sided conflict that pits local ‘still’ masters against prohibition authorities threatening annihilation unless they get a cut of the profits.  Agent Gary Oldman makes his entrance ‘Tommy guns’ a’blazing, while rival enforcer Guy Pearce comes in from Chicago to organize a brewers’ protection racket.  Only the Brothers Bondurant hold out, their manly independence embodied in the fraternally unlikely trio of Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke, and baby brother Shia LaBeouf.  Key to the film’s failure seen in a pivotal attack on the head of this indomitable family.  Quite literally an attack on ‘the head’ since Tom Hardy’s noggin’ is all but lopped off, his throat cut ear-to-ear by protection enforcers who leave him for dead.  Too ornery to die, he holds his head on to walk twenty miles to the nearest clinic.  Or so local legend has it.  Truth is girlfriend Jessica Chastain came back and was jumped & raped before driving him to get medical attention.  But in a script sourced from a book by family descendant Matt Bondurant*, this incident stands alone in setting a legend straight.  Everything else overcooked, a series of set ups to ennoble the rather ignoble Bondurants.  The boys sure ‘take a lickin’ & keep on tickin’!  The dental bills alone!  And the astonishing power of recover after constant beatings; fine in a martial arts pic, but this needs something more believable.  One great moment, though: Guy Pearce, a John Hillcoat regular, carefully giving his slick hair a fresh dye job (black as night) before tomorrow’s confrontation.  The ultimate bad guy here, he even offs sweet, crippled sidekick moonshiner Dane DeHaan.  You may find yourself rooting for him.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK:  Young Jeff Bridges’ overlooked moonshiner-makes-good pic, THE LAST AMERICAN HERO/’73, has more feel for the territory, even when it heads to the racing track.  And forgoes the loud showy ‘quiet’ acting on display here.  (Hardy, in particular, might as well be practicing vocal stylings in heavy breathing for his next film, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES.)  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2011/02/last-american-hero-1973.html

LAUGH, CLOWN, LAUGH (1928)

Standard issue Lon Chaney feature (from a hit 1923 David Belasco play starring Lionel Barrymore & new wife Irene Fenwick*), follows a master clown who can’t stop crying off-stage, and a wealthy young Count whose dissipated life left him vulnerable to uncontrollable fits of laughter.  A doctor suggests love as a cure, unaware the one thing these men have in common is the object of their passion, 15-yr-old Loretta Young.  Raised as a foundling by Chaney, he’s only recently noticed the girl has become a beautiful young woman.  While the Count (Nils Asther), who once drunkenly forced his attentions on her, now chastely offers love & marriage.  Unaware of any connection, the two men laugh & cry their way to health, their ying/yang temperaments a balm between them before the impasse is discovered.  (A missing reel #4 possibly weakening this part of the story.)  The bosom buddies each offer renunciation, but overseen love-making leads to the inevitable clown liebestod.   Atmospherically handled by director Herbert Brenon & cinematographer James Wong Howe (fabulous back-stage and deep focus angles), Chaney’s usual masochism tempered by melancholy rather than horror or revenge.  A bit slighter than other late-silent Chaneys*, but still effective.  Excellent preserved film elements, too.  Look for a Turner Classic edition newly scored by H. Scott Salinas.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *Pivoting between monsters & third-wheel types, Chaney’s best-remembered roles combined the two in HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME/’23 and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA/’25.  Best known, but not his best.  For delayed revenge: Victor Sjöström’s pageant like HE WHO GETS SLAPPED/’24.  For unrequited love: George W. Hill’s exceptionally naturalistic TELL IT TO THE MARINES/’26.  And for pure malevolent masochism, Tod Browning’s THE UNKNOWN/’27, silent Hollywood’s sickest mainstream movie.   OR: *After Chaney’s early death, Lionel Barrymore took on remakes & obvious Chaney vehicles like MARK OF THE VAMPIRE/’35 and THE DEVIL DOLL/’36.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2009/12/devil-doll-1936.html

NOU FO / RAGING FIRE (2021)

Hong Kong action specialist Benny Chan is well represented by his final film (only 58 when he died during post-production), threading the needle between elaborate fight sequences and something closer to a traditional policier where compromised cops work on the razor’s edge of legality.  Splitting genres and splitting fans, but the non-doctrinaire shouldn’t mind.  Donnie Yen is a rock as an incorruptible police detective, a bit older/a bit wiser, but reliably unbending when pushed to go light on criminals with connections or shade the truth in court testimony against fellow cops.  And it’s one of those former cops, Nicholas Tse, now out of jail who’s setting up an elaborate revenge involving players on both sides of the law that will test his one-time partner to the limit.  Not a lot of surprises in plot or characterization, though Chan & his co-writers seem to have digested many a Michael Mann pic in shading the relationship & meetings of the leads.*  Action sequences are the film’s real strength, exciting and largely CGI free, with one inner-city car chase (with add-on motorcycle) right in the middle of the film a particular standout.  (Only a final mano-a-mano showdown misses, long and anticlimactic.)  Special shout-out to Donnie Yen, pushing 60, stoic & still battle-worthy.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *But unlike Michael Mann, who promises the moon and delivers reheated pizza, Chan sticks honestly to his more limited menu.

WIND ACROSS THE EVERGLADES (1958)

Working under his own production banner after hitting the prestige/success jackpot with ON THE WATERFRONT/’54, THE HARDER THEY FALL/’56 and A FACE IN THE CROWD, Budd Schulberg couldn’t have guessed this would mark his early finish, thru at 44.  And he didn’t go alone, taking troubled director Nicholas Ray along with him while stalling Christopher Plummer’s fast-rising career for a full six years.  (Ray made just one more film in Hollywood before overseas production on his last films.*)  So does this fact-inspired turn-of-the-last-century avian holocaust story rate a second chance?  Nah.  Plummer’s the stranger in town (a yet to develop Miami), recruited by the Audubon Society to paddle into the ‘River of Grass’ to find destructive bird poacher Burl Ives and his clan of merry bird murderers, decimating flocks to supply plumage to society ladies.  (A true ecological disaster, BTW.)  Not a bad set up for an action adventure with a conservationist slant.  But Ray & Schulberg had different ideas and Ray split after shooting his own rewritten script before Schulberg came in to finish directing and restore what he could.  The result truly inept.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK:  *After ankling, Ray made PARTY GIRL/’58, an odd mob drama at M-G-M before leaving Hollywood behind for THE SAVAGE INNOCENTS/‘60, KING OF KINGS/’61 and 55 DAYS AT PEKING/’63, the last a major flop, but a heck of a show.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2013/01/king-of-kings-1961.html  OR: Burl Ives Oscar’d the same year for nearly the same perf in William Wyler’s THE BIG COUNTRY/’58.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-big-country-1958.html  OR: Schulberg’s ex, Elia Kazan, moving on (and up) to scripter Paul Osborn to cover similar socio-economic/environmental terrain in WILD RIVER/’60.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2018/10/wild-river-1960.html

THE QUIET AMERICAN (1958; 2002)

During his lifetime, Hollywood adaptations of Graham Greene’s more prestigious titles (as opposed to his ‘entertainments’) ran roughshod over core ideas.  THE FUGITIVE/’47 lost its defining alcoholism; the miracle at THE END OF THE AFFAIR/’55 is missing; and in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s adaptation of Greene’s prescient Vietnam novel, set near the end of French involvement, THE QUIET AMERICAN’s presumed guilt as an agent of war is revealed to his British war correspondent rival as misread innocence.  This flip, along with the shallow inadequacy of Audie Murphy in a title role requiring more layers than an onion, all that’s remembered about the film.  (Yet didn’t Greene do much the same sort of reversal when he adapted his own short story into THE FALLEN IDOL/’48?*  A motivating crime now revealed as an accident.)  If only Phillip Noyce’s relatively faithful remake of 2002 cleared up our choice.  Instead, swings & roundabouts.  More atmosphere and a young Asian beauty as the mistress clouding the thinking of two rivals in ‘03.  Mankiewicz, shooting in Rome, hired an Italian actress to play this mutual obsession.  Yet it’s Robert Krasker’s photo-journalistic b&w that gives the nearly contemporary-with-events 1958 version an of-the-moment/newsworthy vibe.  Surprisingly, the film’s major action set piece, when communist forces from the North attack a military lookout tower where the rivals are stuck overnight, is better organized under Mankiewicz.*  In the remake, Brendan Fraser far outdistances Murphy as the not so naive and sentimental American, his fat, friendly baby-face growing progressively leaner and less flushed from the tropical heat, signaling his connection with a new military force splitting the difference between Communist North & French-supported Capitalist South.  The choice trickier between Michael Caine, very good but a tired 70 when this was made, and the often astonishing Michael Redgrave, a lean 50 and the more believable newsman.  Lastly, in easy hindsight, the use of cascading Vietnam headlines from the '60s to wrap up the 2003 version feels cheap. 

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: See Greene reverse his own work (probably for the better) in THE FALLEN IDOL/’48.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/fallen-idol-1948.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *More typical of Mankiewicz’s disinterest in visually getting story or character points across is a telling goof when Murphy & his new dog call on Redgrave at home.  The camera starts on Murphy before panning down to show he’s got a dog with him.  How much more effective to have started on the dog before panning up to reveal Murphy as the owner.