DER GETEILTE HIMMEL / DIVIDED HEAVEN (1964)

You know what you’re in for when a film about the separate worlds of East & West Germany has the chutzpah to call itself DIVIDED HEAVEN. Konrad Wolf’s pic, taken from the Christa Wolf novel, is one of those ‘thoughtful’ Communist Block tales that slipped thru the Soviet censors during a brief cultural thaw. Critics had to hail these cracks in the system quickly, before the authorities clamped down on the film’s release. (Hardly a problem confined to the past with China & Iran still coming down on their own Film Fest entries.) But nobly conceived or not, this ‘classic’ from the old GDR is one lousy piece of work, and only fitfully survives as a historical curiosity. The set-up is simple enough, SHE’s a naive young thing; bright eyes & bushy-tailed, pulling her weight in a factory job while studying to be a teacher. HE’s older; sadder, wiser & sexually experienced, a chemist with a new formulation he can’t get into production. Maybe he’d have better luck in the more open-minded West? What makes the film sound interesting is that it was made just as the French New Wave was sweeping over the continent, even East Germany. (Truffaut’s JULES ET JIM/’62 is all over the place.) But after a couple of reels, the yummy b&w WideScreen lensing grows ridiculously self-conscious. As one all-too-artful composition follows another, the colliding frame-worthy images begin to cancel each other out, like a German meal mit schlag on every dish. By the time we get to the covert rhapsodies on shallow Capitalistic tendencies versus noble Communist advances, you may long for the straightforward dodges of barefaced propaganda.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Wipe away the sham humanism with a healthy dose of East/West vulgarity: Billy’s Wilder’s uneven, often uproarious ONE, TWO, THREE/’61, shot as the Berlin Wall went up.

EROS (2005)

The best portmanteau pics always have one man directing all the stories. Think Max Ophüls LE PLAISIR/’52; Andrzej Munk EROICA/’57; Woody Allen EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX//’72; Vittorio De Sica L’ORO DI NAPOLI/54. So, there’s little surprise in EROS having three very uneven parts. The opening section, and the only reason to watch, finds Kar Wai Wong putting two favorite actors (Li Gong & Chen Chang) thru a favorite theme (unrequited love). It’s a tale about an aging beauty-for-hire, the dressmaker she has a literal hold on, and a fever that passes between them, also literal. Mesmerizing, slow and exquisite, it hardly represents anything new on the Wong palette, but it’s a fine encore to his larger doses of romantic fatalism. Steven Soderbergh is next up with, of all things, a sketch out of YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS. (That'd be purposefully left out of YSoS.) A high-contrast b&w laugh-free wheeze with Alan Arkin in the Carl Reiner spot as a distracted shrink and Robert Downey, Jr. in the Sid Caesar spot (well, Sid as George Clooney) playing an alarm clock exec in full crisis mode. A couple of full color bookends point to a dream within a dream scenario, but this remains a one-joke dud that might have played better on some private occasion. Finally, a fillip from Michelangelo Antonioni, a spent force long before his mid-‘80s stroke. He’s still gazing at beautiful nonentities who are unable to communicate. At least they can dance. Or, the nude girls can, on a beach, offering non-verbal communication a la Isodora Duncan. Sad stuff to watch. (Included on the disc is a ginned up visit by a digitally mobilized Antonioni getting Up Close & Personal with that other Michelangelo’s statue of Moses, the one with the horns on his head.* The idea that our appreciation of Michelangelo is conditioned upon his appreciation of Michelangelo is a bit much.)

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Cecil B. De Mille thought his Moses, Charlton Heston, looked just like the Michelangelo. But here, in some big close-ups, the marble looks more like Laurence Olivier.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: As mentioned above, try an anthology film by a single director. And keep your fingers crossed for a quick DVD release of the restored De Sica GOLD OF NAPLES. The ‘missing’ segment about a little boy’s funeral is stunning. Naturally, the distributors loped it off for the Stateside market. Technically, the brief segment shows the unmistakable influence of Ophüls on De Sica who had just co-starred in Max's EARRINGS OF MADAME DE . . . /’53.

DRESSED TO KILL (aka PRELUDE TO MURDER) (1946)

The last entry in Universal’s modern-day SHERLOCK HOLMES adventures marks a modest return to form after the halfhearted TERROR BY NIGHT/’46. This is the one with a secret code hidden (somehow, somewhere) inside three music boxes; a puzzle so tricky it takes a couple of unintentional clues from Nigel Bruce’s Dr. Watson to jog Basil Rathbone’s Holmes into action.* There’s a bit of physical derring-do for the great man; an actual ‘follow-that-taxi’ moment; and a couple of effective stand-offs with Patricia Morrison’s smooth, stylish villain. If only helmer Roy William Neill had also found a bit of style (and atmosphere) for the first half of the film. Will this turn out to be the first ever fog-free HOLMES? Fortunately, things perk up once Holmes goes down to a London dive for some musical advice from an old, disreputable client. And the film maintains a proper course from then on. Did they know the series was ending? If they’d only thought to have tossed in some philosophical musings for Sherlock at the end, this would have made for a dandy (and graceful) exit.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Baby-Boomers will note how much Watson’s unknowingly helpful comments to Holmes are like Manfred the Mighty Wonder Dog was to Tom Terrific.

BRAT / BROTHER (1997)

Aleksei Balabanov hit a nerve (and the local box-office) with this ‘New Russia’ gangster tale about a kid from the ‘stix,’ fresh out of military service, who says goodbye to Mom & small town life before heading to St. Petersburg where his big brother is a mob hitman. We follow this Pilgrim’s Progress as he makes some unlikely friends on the street and gets to know the territory; he hardly needs to ‘learn the business’ since his army training, presumably anti-terrorist, was like Prep School for his new occupation. Less stylized and less OTT then some of his later work, the film makes a great entry point on Balabanov, playing out with some of the raw edge of a classic ‘30s Hollywood gangster pic, more SCARFACE/’32 than SCARFACE/’83 . . . and all the better for it. The action is kept human-scaled and the issues reduced to near abstraction, more concerned with the modern mores that have seen St. Petersburg turn into a new Wild West. Not that Balabanov doesn’t stage some flat out fabulous chases & complicated hits. A combination rub-out/jazz-party staged simultaneously on two floors is a particularly cunning triumph. As the supremely confident new guy in town, Sergey Bodrov has some of the street-smarts and acting economy of a Russian Steve McQueen. But his tragic early death at thirty in ‘02 probably makes him more of a James Dean figure. (That would make Russia just about the last country with a film industry to have one.) Now, Balabanov has also died, just this May at the age of 54.

DOUBLE-BILL: The classic Hollywood gangster pic this most resembles is probably Bill Wellman’s THE PUBLIC ENEMY/’31 with James Cagney’s breakthru perf. But for more Balabanov, there’s the much coarser sequel BRAT 2/’00 or the wild ride of BLIND MAN’S BLUFF/’05.

NO MAN OF HER OWN (1950)

It isn’t often that a confessional letter raises a gasp from an audience. But this twisty three-handkerchief noir manages the trick . . . and does it on a bluff. The oft-filmed Cornell Woolrich story is a classic assumed identity caper. Here, it’s Barbara Stanwyck, pregnant, penniless & unmarried, who takes on the name & persona of a young bride she’s just met on a train. The happy youngster is a little nervous, off to meet the in-laws for the very first time. Why, they don’t even know what she looks like! Cue Train Crash! The girl & her rich hubby are killed; Babs just happens to be trying on her new friend’s wedding band; and when the hospital assumes she’s this other girl, she’s just too weak to object. After all, she’s just given birth! With a combination of guilt, grit & desperation, Babs decides to play the part. She’s got a newborn son . . . er, scion to think of. And she just might have pulled it off, if only her new ‘brother-in-law' hadn’t fallen in love with her; and if the spineless bastard who knocked her up didn’t make a surprise appearance in town on the Blackmail Express. Helmer Mitchell Leisen was better known for lighter fare, but he handles this mixed genre smoothly, much helped by Daniel Fapp’s brooding chiaroscuro lensing for the heavier noir atmosphere of the last act. At 43, Stanwyck can still pull out all the stops, summoning some of the disturbing raw quality of her early films. And in her hospital bed, recovering from the train crash, she’s both deglamorized and more gorgeous than ever. Lyle Bettger brings a killer’s grin to his creepy villain, while the little remembered John Lund turns the slight stiffness that probably kept him from really breaking thru on screen into a tower of strength as the smitten brother. As noted above, the film is hardly without its share of melodramatic hooey, dark & stormy nights, etc. But it’s addictive entertainment, too little known.

NOTE: Here's an extra poster. Not sure if it's British or Australian, but they certainly gave it a blunt new title.

DOUBLE-BILL: Now that the early revelations in MAD MEN have helped to make assumed identities dramatically legit for a new generation, there’s less need to apologize for the gimmick. So enjoy NO MAN or one of the many official remakes: in French as J’AI ÉPOUSÉ UNE OMBRE/83) or as a Pop-Lite Hollywood remake, MRS. WINTERBOURNE/’96. No? Well, after the original there’s always the unofficial Rom-Com rethink of WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING/’95. Many others, too.

TERROR BY NIGHT (1946)

By the time this penultimate entry in Universal’s SHERLOCK HOLMES series came out, the films were running on fumes. Only the poster holds on to the old panache. It’s a mystery-on-a-train tale, more Agatha Christie than Conan Doyle, about a fabulous ‘cursed’ diamond that goes missing . . . or does it? The only real mystery here is how the cast seems to keep changing trains every time we cut to the next unmatched exterior stock-shot. ‘Chuga-chuga-chuga.’ That’s simple economy, of course, but the earlier pics worked hard to camouflage their small budgets. Here, no one seems to care. The execs knew what a ‘Holmes pic’ cost; what a ‘Holmes pic’ made. Good, bad or indifferent, the numbers pretty much stayed the same. Probably true, but it still doesn’t excuse all the dangling story lines among the ‘red herrings.’

WATCH THIS NOT THAT: Sidney Lumet’s all-star version of Christie’s MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS/’74 must be the luxest of all mystery-on-a-train movies. Brimming with deliciously funny turns by its knockout cast.

ANATA KAIMASU / I WILL BUY YOU (1956)

An unimpressive outing from revered Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi. He seems to miss the ironic edge in this baseball saga, trying too hard to convince us of something we already know: Money Corrupts. The simple story is laid out in a jumpy manner that makes things a bit hard to follow, but basically we’ve got a hot baseball prospect & his university mentor being wooed by a handful of free-spending pro teams. The escalation in gifts & cash quickly start to cascade down thru the boy’s family (with the expected negative results) while we focus on one of the pro scouts & the player’s longtime handler. Kobayashi (or his scripters) needlessly complicate the situation with a health crisis that adds a bathetic note to the big dramatic choice of which team will win the bidding. So while the film succeeds in leaving a nasty taste in your mouth, perhaps a less melodramatic angle might have given us something to think about.

DOUBLE-BILL: Billy Wilder’s blackest film, ACE IN THE HOLE/’51, gives some idea of how this might have worked.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Keiji Sada, who had his signature role in this film as the sympathetic scout, keeps striking poses that make him look like a very lean Greg Peck. Meanwhile, the rumpled mentor, Tokue Hanazawa, is even more of a match for Michel Simon! Not a face you expect to see twice.

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE VOICE OF TERROR (1942)

The first of the twelve modern SHERLOCK HOLMES stories with Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce made at Universal during the war years is quite different than the other eleven in the series, almost a road not taken. It’s the only one not helmed by Roy William Neill, but by routiner John Rawlings who gets excellent visuals from lenser Elwood Bredell. The anti-Nazi story, all about German-based broadcasts of doom, has some nice angles to it, a villain you won’t guess in advance, and more fine supporting turns than Universal Studios could typically muster. But what really sets this apart is its sense of scale. This is the only pic in the series with something of an epic feel to it, in spite of its brief running time and budgetary compromises. It largely comes out of the clever juxtaposition of private & public scenes, from the use of quick-cut details & portraiture shots used to punctuate turning points in the narrative, and from sets that plant small groups in over-sized settings. It’s hard to say how much of this comes out of the Lynn Riggs/John Bright script, but someone shaped this one differently, and took pains to maintain a high energy level right up thru its memorable curtain speech, written by Conan Doyle on the eve of WWI and just as apt for early ‘42. The film deserves a much better rep than it has.

THE GUN RUNNERS (1958)

Don Siegel, everyone’s favorite no-nonsense helmer, couldn’t figure out why anyone wanted to make a third version of Hemingway’s TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, and a cut-rate one at that. First up was Howard Hawks’ 1944 curveball classic with Bogie & Bacall falling hard for each other on the wharf; then, in 1950 Michael Curtiz played Hemingway more-or-less straight with John Garfield & Patricia Neal. Now, Siegel was getting Audie Murphy, in a rare turn out of uniform & out of the West, to run the fishing boat-for-hire and get into trouble, along with the pretty, but pizzazz-less Patricia Owens. Add in a dud script, a small budget and plenty of tough-to-shoot/tough-to-fake action at sea and you’ve got a nasty assignment. But never underestimate the blunt efficiency of this undersung master. A smart rewrite from Daniel Mainwaring (OUT OF THE PAST/’47; THE TALL TARGET/’51' & Siegel’s own INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS/’56) and a great vet lenser in Hal Mohr can work wonders. The film’s no classic, Murphy’s awfully bland and Everett Sloane is no Walter Brennan as his lovable alcoholic sidekick. But Eddie Albert gives one of his best perfs as a scary, controlling ratfink gunrunner, in fact, all the male support is tip-top, though the gals lag behind the boys. There’s plenty of shore-town atmosphere and typically clean action set pieces & shocks, done with Siegel’s signature brutal edge. Pay special attention to his staging & camera placements during the final shootout out at sea; textbook stuff. NOTE: The film was made to be shown in an 1.85:1 ratio while the DVD comes from a full aperture print that holds a 1.37:1 image. Chances are the original prints would have been cropped down to 1.85:1 by the projectionist using a simple framing plate and, frankly, it looks fine that way. Just be sure to use your OverScan setting, not the anamorphic which will bloat all the images. (Bad on the tummies.) Or, just watch it in the squarish Academy Ratio it comes in.

DOUBLE-BILL: As mentioned above, TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT &/or THE BREAKING POINT. And there’s also John Huston’s KEY LARGO/’48 which nips the shipboard shootout for a finale.

READ ALL ABOUT IT: In his terse auto-bio, A SIEGEL FILM, Don Siegel doesn’t say much about how this one turned out, though the film is nothing to be ashamed of. He mostly talks about how painfully shy Murphy was, and reconstructs some amusing jousts with the film’s producer.