MAFIOSO (1962)

The great Alberto Sordi stars in this blackest of comedies as a Milan factory manager who takes his chic, Northern wife & blond girls on a long-deferred vacation to his hometown in Sicily. While his new family meets, greets & faces off with the old family & the old ways, Sordi is being sized up by the local mob. Is the man who left home and ‘made good’ still a man of honor? This lethally funny (make that lethal & funny) story has little in common with typical Hollywood mob pics. (John Huston’s eye-popping adaptation of Richard Condon’s PRIZZI’S HONOR/’85 gets near its startling wavelength.) It has a fine, sharp eye for cultural clashes and Lattuada’s helming pulls landscape, character & narrative together in a manner that brings Budd Boetticher’s Westerns to mind. But Lattuada’s great achievement stems from avoiding the all but inescapable romanticism that pervades even the toughest of Hollywood mob tales. There’s no easy identification with thuggery or the kinetic appeal of violence, no sentimental asides or dramatically broken oaths of loyalty; just calculation, crime, comic monstrosities and queasy choices.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: There is no Garbo! There is no Dietrich! There is only Louise Brooks! – 1955, Henri Langlois, Founder of the Cinémathèque Française (A ridiculous overstatement, no doubt, but those who know Louise Brooks will get the point.)

Langlois might just as well have said: There is no GODFATHER! There is no THE SOPRANOS! There is only MAFIOSO! - 2010, MAKSQUIBS, Hack DVD Blogger (A ridiculous overstatement, no doubt, but those who know Alberto Lattuada’s masterpiece will get the point.)

IVANHOE (1982)

If you can accept the ground rules of ‘80s television (an ultra bright/ultra sharp picture element for your ‘Trinatron’ tv; the glossy make-up & shag hair stylings; skimpy crowd scenes and the barely functional megging), this turns out to be a remarkably effective (and full) version of the Walter Scott classic. John Gay was a whiz @ churning out these redo scripts and the cast, at least on the male side, is largely better than M-G-M’s 1952 epic. There’s James Mason, Anthony Andrews, Michael Hordern, John Rhys-Davies, Julian Glover and Sam Neill who gallantly makes like a young James Mason as that noble, romantically conflicted villain Brian de Bois-Guilbert. The two women, Olivia Hussey & the underwhelming Lysette Anthony, are no match for the young Elizabeth Taylor and a stately Joan Fontaine, but that loss is offset by having Robin Hood & his Merry Men in their proper place. (M-G-M downplayed their role since Disney was releasing another Robin Hood pic that year.) What grand storytelling and what surprisingly rich characters Scott pulls out of the expected stereotypes. If only Allyn Ferguson’s dim score had some of the old Miklos Rozsa magic to it. (NOTE: That's a poster from the 1913 version!)

CAREFUL (1992)

An early feature from Winnipegian Guy Maddin, an artsy Canadian auteur who favors purposefully distressed visual & audio elements to heighten the ironic edge of his work. This is one of his better conceits: in an isolated mountain town, all sorts of dysfunctional family crises are played out sotto voce for fear that any loud noises (yelling, gun shots, caterwauling) might set off the incipient avalanches that loom above. The sequences shot on strikingly artificial mountainsides & townscapes make exceptional use of the long lost film techniques Maddin cultivates (tinting, toning & two-strip color; expressionist acting out of UFA-Germany; the lo-fi audio of Early Talkies; and the ‘blasted’ look of worn-out 16mm dupe prints), but the sibling rivalries grow tiresome as his visual palette runs riot then runs out of steam. He seems unable or unwilling to bridge the chasm between clever concept and finished product. But the journey is not without interest.

A QUANTUM OF SOLACE (2007)

Moviegoers have been remarkably loyal to James Bond, slogging thru staggering levels of mediocrity. But as a rare asset at moribund United Artists (M-G-M/Columbia Pictures now share rights and FOX put out the DVD), there are too many interested parties to let the old nag die. Hence, the collective sigh of relief when the latest Bond (Daniel Craig, rough & compact) re-energized the franchise in CASINO ROYAL/’06; and hence, the collective groan over the follow-up. Truth be told, CASINO wasn’t all that great, while QUANTUM boasts that rarest of Bond attributes, a good underlying story. But you can hardly follow it. Not only the narrative, but also in the action sequences which have been Mix-Master’d to death (the 2nd unit director is just off THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM/’07), ignoring the fun of seeing cause & effect play out. (A big set piece @ an opera house must have read well, but it’s muffed with logistics that don’t hang together and supporting players we’ve barely met.) With so many of the familiar Bond routines expunged as old-fashioned & corny, Bond becomes just another over-produced action pic. (NOTE: Didn't anyone notice where the oo7 logo-gun was pointing in this poster?)

CLOAK AND DAGGER (1946)

In the last & least of Fritz Lang’s WWII thrillers, Gary Cooper plays a professor who’s recruited by the O.S.S. to get a nuclear scientist out of Italy. There are some startling set pieces in here (a brutally quick assassination in the dark; a messy & shockingly violent hallway fight that’s ‘covered’ by street singers just a few feet away; Coop chattering away in German), but the film as a whole is awkwardly played and unconvincing. Lang’s previous WWII fare (MAN HUNT/’41, HANGMEN ALSO DIE/’43, MINISTRY OF FEAR/’44) may be uneven, but their unconventional narratives are fascinating and they share a visual grammar as ‘Langian’ as a MABUSE pic. Even better were the two masterful films that came just before this, WOMAN IN THE WINDOW/’44 and that unrivaled gem SCARLET STREET/’45. But this formulaic tale comes off as both flat & far-fetched.

BOLT (2008)

A real surprise. This relatively unsung computer animation from Disney (not PIXAR) is a bit cavalier in ‘sampling’ well-known plot twists, but the mix-up from newbie helmers Byron Howard & Chris Williams is bright & winning. Bolt is a rescued pup, brought up to believe he’s the super-hero canine he plays on a cable show. So, when the script has his teen co-star kidnapped, he runs off to save her, and comes face-to-face with . . . the real world! Not the most original concept, but plenty usable. And new enough for its intended audience. Bolt is voiced by John Travolta whose unforced delivery is the best thing he’s done in ages. Miley Cyrus shares top-billing as Bolt’s teen co-star, but it’s more like a glorified supporting gig. The real co-star is an abandoned, street-smart alley cat brilliantly voiced by Susie Essman. (ALLEGRO NON TROPPO/’76 fans may be reminded of the Sibelius/Valse Triste kitty.) But all the supporting animals shine. There’s a nifty hand-drawn sequence that takes us westward on a stylized map of the States and watch for a huge emotional swipe from Chaplin’s THE GOLD RUSH/’25 just before the fiery climax. (Walt would have approved, he stole from Charlie all the time.) Best of all is what’s not in here. No pointless Pop Culture references, no wise-guy gags and not a potty joke in sight. Huzza!

THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING (1952)

Right after HIGH NOON/’52 and right before FROM HERE TO ETERNITY/’53, Fred Zinnemann made this crushing flop. Minimally adapted from Carson McCuller’s semi-autobiographical play & novel, it remained his personal favorite. You’ll see why it didn’t connect, it’s almost uncomfortably true to McCuller’s poetic realism, but with it’s stylized theatricality retained it gets inside some of the fears of adolescent passage in a manner rarely seen. (Charles Laughton’s THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER/’55 and Delmar Daves’ THE RED HOUSE/’47 find similar notes.) Julie Harris (debuting @ 26) is all exaggerated elbows & social frustration as 12-yr old Frankie who dreams of riding off with her older brother on his honeymoon. More situation than narrative, we’re stuck with Frankie in the alternately comforting & claustrophobic confines of a hot kitchen along with her young cousin (the heartbreakingly splendid Brandon de Wilde) and a black domestic with troubles of her own (a magnificent Ethel Waters). Lenser Hal Mohr reaches all the way back to SPARROWS/’26, his great Mary Pickford film, in some of his effects, and movie mavens will spot an almost grown up Dickie Moore as a soldier who tries to pick up Frankie. But the real magic comes at the end of Act II when Waters, de Wilde & Harris join in singing HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW. A bit of B’way magic, turned into cinematic gold by Zinnemann’s tact, taste & reserve.

CONTEST: This was a Stanley Kramer production, now released as part of a big DVD set with intros by professional widow & keeper of the flame Karen Kramer who makes yet another gaffe by claiming film debuts here for original cast members Harris, de Wilde and Waters. Hmm. Ethel Waters had actually made occasional film appearances starting in ‘29, working under such little known directors as W. Van Dyke, Minnelli, Duvivier and Elia Kazan. (With an Oscar nom. for his PINKY/’49.) Kramer misses the fourth member of the original B’way cast kept in the film. Guess who to win our usual MAKSQUIBS prize, a Write-Up of the NetFlix DVD of your choice. And no Googling. Thanks.

SHIP OF FOOLS (1965)

Stanley Kramer used controversial issues the way most Hollywood producers utilized sex & violence, as leavening & cover for a multitude of cinematic sins. His work, over-ambitious & under-realized, came off better when he only produced. But in this film (a painfully coarsened version of Katherine Anne Porter’s phenomenal bestseller), his typically stolid megging is helped along by the double narrative propulsion Porter achieved in her crisscrossing storylines (think GRAND HOTEL on a German ship in the early ‘30s) and via the time constraints of a fixed travel schedule. Visually, the single set forced Kramer to focus on the fascinating faces of his starry cast (Vivien Leigh, Lee Marvin, Simone Signoret, Oskar Werner, George Segal, José Ferrer, Michael Dunn) and he gets stellar support from the superb analogue F/X production work of the prince of process, Farciot Edouart & matte wiz Albert Whitlock, along with unusually fine b&w lensing from the uneven Ernest Laszlo. It’s a really big show, and it holds your attention, even with the obvious choices and pat twist endings scripter Abby Mann pulled out of Porter’s portentous sea saga. (In the ‘intro,’ Karen Kramer, who’s become something of a professional widow, lies about Stanley getting an Oscar© nom for Best Director. Guys, this is not a hard fact to look up.)

READ ALL ABOUT IT: Goodness knows, Katherine Anne Porter got plenty of critical brickbats on her long gestated novel. But what marvelous things are in it! Those two terrifying kids Ric & Rac alone make SHIP OF FOOLS worth reading.

VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960)

Simple, but highly effective low-budget horror film about a small British town that collectively sinks into a coma for half a day. Seven months later, all the fertile women deliver weirdly beautiful blonde kids who rapidly grow into brilliant, emotionless children. A local outbreak of Asperger’s Syndrome or an alien invasion via stealth conception? George Sanders, in remarkably sobersided form, is the local scientist (and ‘father’ to one of the boys) who thinks he can teach the little heathens humanity as one might teach table manners. His optimism will be sorely tried. Helmer Wolf Rilla avoids shocks tactics & showy effects, but his homely blandness gets under your skin in its own way, turning the ordinary into a cudgel of terror. The end product is creepier than scores of better known fright flicks.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/LINK:  Young Martin Stephens followed up his demonic child in this film with another off-kilter kid in THE INNOCENTS/’61, based on the Henry James classic THE TURN OF THE SCREW. In that film, he uses his own voice, but he sounds dubbed in this one. And by a young woman. Creepier & creepier.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-innocents-1961.html