1776
(2 hrs & 46 min, color, 1972)
The last month and a half before July 4, 1776, when
the Declaration of Independence was adopted in Philadelphia, is the occasion
for a most enthralling period enactment, directed by Peter H. Hunt from the
smash stage musical. Besides its very
singular and vital music and lyrics, there is lots of thought-provoking humor,
ideological disputings, political maneuverings, moments of poignant
introspection, even a touch of male/female romance. It unites past and present in timely wedlock,
as Adams, Jefferson and Franklin face off with destiny and each other.
SINGIN’
IN THE RAIN (1 hr & 42 min, color, 1952)
Directors Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen fashioned a
musical that continues to have wide appeal.
Singer/hoofers Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds have many
devices up their sleeve for enabling their silent film company to shift over to
talkies, and those devices are very funny, tuneful and unforgettable. Jean Hagen, right on the mark in a difficult
portrayal, poses complications as a possessive and snooty star of silents,
whose baby voice bodes ill for the new medium.
The tap dancing is sensationally good, as is Kelly’s famous frolic in
the rain with the title song.
SLEUTH
(2 hrs & 18 min, color, 1972)
The sleuthing in this remarkable tale is done by two
English dudes, who make it something of a sport – a very dangerous one, as it
turns out. What starts off as a
larcenous gentlemen’s agreement between a highly eccentric murder mystery
novelist (Laurence Olivier) and a socially ambitious hairdresser (Michael
Caine) segues into a contest in deadly subterfuge and psychological mastery in
a very labyrinthine plot. The veteran
director Joseph L. Mankiewicz did a flawless, finely calibrated job, working
from a celebrated play by Anthony Shaffer.
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 is a dynamic mixture of
eeriness, excitement and loving encounters, thanks to the sensitive directing
of Anatole Litvak. [No snakes are seen
or heard.]
SOME
LIKE IT HOT (2 hrs & 2 min, b&w, 1959)
The funniest picture the legendary Billy Wilder ever
made unites Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as Prohibition Era musicians who
witness the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and take flight from underworld hit
men. It is a send up of gangster movies
and the Roaring Twenties. What is the
comic premise? Lemmon and Curtis
disguised as women and traveling with an all-female band that includes sexy
Marilyn Monroe! Bawdy and bounding
bedlam follows, as our hapless heroes seek to maintain their disguise, while
romancing and landing in merry mishaps at the same time. A scream!
STREETCAR
NAMED DESIRE, A (2 hrs & 2 min, b&w, 1951)
Vivian Leigh is fabulous as Blanche Dubois,
Tennessee Williams’ aging, tormented and wasted relic of southern gothic
nobility, who visits her younger sister (Kim Hunter) and sister’s violent,
Neanderthal husband (Marlon Brando) in a low-rent New Orleans
neighborhood. It does not take long for
these three conflicted souls to kindle a smoldering fire of jealousy, hate,
insanity and perverse sexuality that leads to tragic consequences. At the directorial helm is none other than the
Class A Elia Kazan, recreating on the screen the play he introduced so
brilliantly on the stage.
SULLIVAN’S
TRAVELS (1 hr & 30 min, b&w, 1941)
In his undisputed comic masterpiece, Preston Sturgis
satirizes Hollywood’s simultaneous obsessions with realism and make believe.
Joel McCrae portrays a film director who during the Great Depression leaves his
cushy studio and takes to the road to find out about life in the raw, with the
intention of making a movie that captures the brutal essence of the submerged
masses’ struggle. His simulated life as
a hobo turns up failed actress Veronica Lake.
Sturgis writes and directs with alacrity, a strong, driving narrative
and the witty wisdom of a court jester.
SUNSET
BOULEVARD (1 hr & 50 min, b&w, 1950)
Billy Wilder’s searing indictment of
behind-the-scenes Hollywood features William Holden as a starving screenwriter
trying to get a foothold there, who gets entangled in the elaborate fantasy
life of a has-been femme fatale of the silent screen, Gloria Swanson. He soon discovers that this woman’s dreams of
making a comeback have led her to the edge of psychosis, and she threatens to
become his undoing. The world of
decadence and exploitation that Wilder opens up has been visited before but
nowhere as penetratingly. A sturdy piece
of work!
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. Though Burt Lancaster is a
force to contend with as the columnist, it is Tony Curtis who dominates the
scenery 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.
TALENTED
MR. RIPLEY, THE (2 hrs & 18 min, color, 1999)
Patricia Highsmith’s disturbing novel, set in the 1950s,
comes to the screen courtesy of director/writer Anthony Minghella. Matt Damon is Tom Ripley, a young knockabout
musician who through an extended tapestry of pathological lies and desperate
but deceitful moves insinuates himself into the good graces of a well-to-do
family, He is much taken with Jude Law,
the family’s ex-patriot son, until their friendship turns violent and leads to
the progressive dissolution of Ripley’s integrity. A most fascinating dark journey! Vintage quality acting all the way by a
vintage cast!
THERE
WILL BE BLOOD (2 hrs & 38 min, color, 2007)
A trenchant character study of a predatory
prospector in the old west who while scrapping around for gold discovers oil
and builds a dynasty, the film astutely directed by Paul Thomas Anderson from
an Upton Sinclair novel! Daniel
Day-Lewis’ portrayal of him is not only brilliant; he is off the charts. We watch the man over the better part of
three hours go from a simple grubber to a slithery, decadent beast of prey at
whose hand many suffer. It is not a
western in the traditional sense of the word, and it is not for all tastes, but
it is a unique and worthy magnum opus.
THIRD
MAN, THE (1 hr & 45 min, b&w, 1949)
The diseased and demoralized state in which World
War II left much of Europe is the hypnotic backdrop of director Carol Reed’s
potent, internationally beloved thriller.
Graham Greene devised the screenplay, based upon one of his own
novels. A starving American writer
(Joseph Cotton), newly arrived in postwar Vienna in search of an old buddy
(Orson Welles), is plunged upon his friend’s apparent death into a tangle of
dangerous circumstances related to black marketeering. A fast-paced, beautifully stylized, lucidly
written film, driven by a brooding compassion!
THOUSAND
CLOWNS, A (1 hr & 56 min, b&w, 1965)
One of the most hilarious motion pictures my eyes,
ears, heart, soul and funny bone have ever encountered, given lively direction
by Fred Coe, from the hit play by Hugh Gardner!
Jason Robards gives his greatest screen performance as a funny if
impudent society dropout and adult child living a life of whimsy and
playfulness along with his 12-year-old cohabiting nephew (Barry Gordon). But in two days time he gets a reality check
he never would have imagined possible – by Child Welfare and by his sudden
attraction to a flighty social worker (Barbara Harris). See it and howl.
TO
KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (2 hrs & 9 min, b&w, 1962)
Harper Lee’s bittersweet evocation of life in the
Deep South during the Great Depression comes fully alive. Director Robert Mulligan and screenwriter
Horton Foote capture all the book’s rich and essential details. A six-year-old girl (Mary Badham) and her
ten-year-old brother (Philip Alford) experience something awesome, bewildering
and eventually traumatic when their loving and widowed lawyer father (Gregory
Peck) defends a poor black man (Brock Peters) against a charge of attempted
rape. The fallout from this trial lands
upon their tender heads. Unforgettable!
To
read other entries in my blog, please consult its website: enspiritus.blogspot.com. To learn about me consult on the website the
blog entry for August 9, 2013.
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