Many of the English language movies that appeared in
the pre-1970s, postwar period are still widely familiar to cinema buffs at
large. Who has not heard of “High Noon,”
“The Bridge on the River Kwai,” “On the Waterfront,” “Lawrence of Arabia” or
“West Side Story?” But there is some
excellent work that either has grown dim in memory or has never been
discovered. I am speaking of
masterpieces, ones that will never date or fail to be pertinent to any epoch
and represent the finest in motion picture content and craft. The nine dramatic films I have listed below
all fulfill this expectation to my satisfaction. Anyone barely over thirty years of age at
present is not likely to be familiar with most of them. Six of them are in black and white, released
at a time when color movies were the exception instead of the rule. I have seen each and every one of the nine
many times and would not object to seeing them again. I pass on a few words for your
consideration. All are currently
available in DVD. They are listed
alphabetically, not in any order of preference.
Darling
(2
hrs & 2 min, b&w, 1965)
A
London fashion model (Julie Christie) flits promiscuously from pillar to post,
a kind of bitch goddess whom Christie makes us care very much about without
ever dulling her fangs or sparing her the full consequences of her folly. The lively narrative of moral descent, under
John Schlesinger’s brilliant direction, unfolds with style-plus, every scene
terse and sharp. Dirk Bogarde is the sensitive
intellectual whose life the woman ruins and Laurence Harvey is the decadent
advertising tycoon who does so much to corrupt hers. There are great touches of imagination
everywhere the eye and ear turn. What at
the time was often referred to as “the swinging life” is exposed as a
sham. A moral tale that knows its
idolatrous enemy and who gets bought and sold!
Elmer Gantry
(2 hrs & 27 min, color, 1960)
The
sawdust trail is treated with gusto, fervency and inspired imagination in
Director/Writer Richard Brooks’ great award-winning work, from the novel by
Sinclair Lewis. Burt Lancaster gives the
performance of his career as the charlatan evangelist of the title – a failed
cleric turned traveling salesman, who insinuates himself into the work of a
tent revivalist (Jean Simmons) after whom he lusts and becomes both a boon and
a liability to her. Shirley Jones
ratchets up the heat as an old flame of Gantry’s turned prostitute. Revivalism collides with a suspicious press,
local officialdom, fateful misfortune, and scandal before the film reaches its
blazing climax. The film moves fast,
probes deep, stirs the blood and in its own way acknowledges the gift of faith,
however inadequately the chief characters embody it.
Face in the Crowd, A
(2
hrs & 5 min, b&w, 1957)
The
power of the TV tube to create overnight stars out of sleazy people is now
widely acknowledged. But in the 1950s
nobody wanted to be told that such a thing was possible, hence this brilliant
film’s box office flop. Director Elia
Kazan is the master magician who made it happen, with the indispensable assistance
of Screenwriter Budd Schulberg, who first conceived of it. Andy Griffith is a dissolute deadbeat, who is
discovered by a roving radio journalist, Patricia Neal. First local then national audiences get
hooked on his sassy, cracker barrel humor, until he becomes over time a
destructive force that politicians as well as TV executives must contend
with. Was the high voltage film ahead of
its time? You betcha! Will it ever get the recognition it
deserves? We can only hope!
Hud (1 hr & 52 min, b&w,
1963)
An
orphan kid (Brandon de Wilde) must choose between the respectable values of his
Texas rancher grandfather (Melvyn Douglas) and those of his self-serving,
reckless Uncle Hud (Paul Newman). How
that eventuality is reached is the scheme of a tough, muscular drama, based
upon a Larry McMurtry novel, and concerned with a deep-seated father-son
rivalry. A hoof and mouth epidemic
brings the domestic sore to a head.
Newman and Douglas are tremendous, and Patricia Neal is quite infectious
as an emotionally victimized housekeeper.
We are led gently into this den of distress but fully experience the
hammer force of events as they build.
Credit it all to Director Martin Ritt.
Hustler, The
(2 hrs & 15 min, b&w, 1961)
The
Faust legend is brought into the pool hall in Director Robert Rossen’s
masterful drama of a soul in turmoil.
Our lead character is Fast Eddie (Paul Newman, never better), a nobody
who happens to be king of the pool table in his own back alley, until he takes
on reigning pool champion Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason), not knowing that in
so doing he also takes on a scurrilous racketeer (George C. Scott) who owns
Fats and demands the Devil’s due. Piper
Laurie is super-terrific as Eddie’s souse-y but wise girlfriend, the tragic
Gretchen who stands between them.
Close-ups are used to amazing advantage all through the scenario, the
script is flawlessly incisive, and everything about the production clicks,
right down to the slightest flourish of a cue stick. (Note: Newman did a pretty fair sequel to it
in 1986 entitled “The Color of Money” under Martin Scorcese’s direction.)
In the Heat of the Night
(1 hr & 50 min, color, 1967)
Sidney
Poitier is a literate, proud, courageous, shrewd, well-dressed,
self-respecting, and professionally competent police detective from
Philadelphia who shows bigoted small Mississippi town sheriff Rod Steiger how
to solve a murder and throws Jim Crow racism back into the redneck teeth with a
flourish. Director Norman Jewison and
Screenwriter Stirling Silliphant, working from a John Ball novel, are our
benefactors. The film is full of high
tension face-offs, and almost every scene is memorable. The African American male image in movies has
never been the same since this one was released in 1967. It grabs and just will not let go. I never tire of watching it again and
again.
Paths of Glory
(1
hr & 26 min, b&w, 1957)
Long
before his “Strangelove” and “Space Odyssey,” Stanley Kubrick gave us this
wrenching drama of military injustice set during World War I. Do not let the uninspired title fool you; it
is meant sardonically. Nothing happens
to cheer about in this screen story, adapted from a novel by Humphrey Cobb. Three French soldiers face prosecution for
cowardice in the face of the enemy (punishable by a firing squad) on behalf of
an entire company so accused. Kirk
Douglas is the company commander, who steps out of his place in rank to come to
the trio’s courtroom defense in an apparently losing battle for sanity and for
their lives. Few movie indictments of
the war apparatus have ever burned hotter or more unforgettably. The film well deserves rediscovering.
Snake Pit, The
(1
hr & 48 min, b&w, 1948)
The
first major Hollywood movie ever to treat the subject of mental illness with
studied seriousness remains a first rate drama of brokenness and healing. Olivia de Havilland is marvelous as a victim
of deprivation and subtle abuse, who has to descend into the bowels of a
state-run asylum to find the face of her personal demons. Mark Stevens is her faithful but bewildered
husband and Leo Genn her devoted psychiatrist.
The screenplay, adapted from a novel by Mary Jane Ward, is a dynamic
piece of work, a mixture of eeriness, excitement and loving encounters. Thanks to the sensitive touch of Director
Anatole Litvak it is the kind of experience you can carry inside you
forever. [Note: There are no snakes in
the picture. The phrase is only used as
a metaphor at one point in the dialogue.]
Sweet Smell of Success
(1
hr & 36 min, b&w, 1957)
This
screenplay by Ernest Lehman and Clifford Odets has both an emotional and a
cerebral impact, having to do with a corrupt, misanthropic syndicated columnist
and his long arm of silent, inconspicuous influence into lives and affairs both
private and public. (Some claim to see
in him a fictional counterpart to the hated Walter Winchell.) Though Burt Lancaster is a force to contend
with as the columnist in question, it is Tony Curtis who dominates the scenery,
giving one of his best dramatic performances as Lancaster’s press agent lackey,
playing informant, blackmailer, even pimp to gain his favor. The film packs a mighty wallop and is handled
with great economy, subtlety and dead-on-the-mark control of atmosphere by
Director Alexander Mackendrick, aided in no little measure by the
cinematography of veteran James Wong Howe.
To read other entries in my
blog, please consult its website:
enspiritus.blogspot.com
I welcome feedback. Direct it to bobracine@verizon.net
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