1946 - THE RAZOR'S EDGE, interesting and sometimes impressive film about self discovery

This film is based on a very popular book by the writer W. Somerset Maugham.  The book is an entertaining read and Maugham created a fascinating story and hero in the character or Larry Darrell a man searching for meaning in his life after surviving World War I.

 
The film follows the lives of several characters, Larry Darrell the disillusioned former soldier, his fiancee Isabel Bradley, her friend Sophie MacDonald and Bradley's rich uncle the snobbish Elliott Templeton.  The narrator is played by a character called Somerset Maugham who is sort of a dispassionate observer and narrator throughout the film and novel.  The novel has Larry Darrell journeying to India where he studies eastern philosophy and transcendental meditation.  The film also sends Darrell to India but the discussions on life and philosophy are a little more vague, these are tough concepts to put over in a film. 

 

The book was a bestseller and the film was a hit.  The film's success is primarily due to Darryl F. Zanuck the head of 20th Century Fox Studios who at times would personally produce films that were of interest to him.  This is a big, expensive, good looking and well photographed production.  One of Zanuck's best writers Lamar Trotti and I'm sure Zanuck wrote the screenplay. 

 

The film was well cast with Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, Anne Baxter, Clifton Webb and Herbert Marshall in the lead roles.  This is studio film making at it's finest, an interesting premise, a compelling story and Hollywood film making professionalism at it's finest.

The running time is 145 minutes.

1946 - THE BIG SLEEP, the classic Hollywood mystery

A Raymond Chandler mystery so entertaining that anyone watching this film and trying to follow the plot will have their hands full.  The film is so confusing it has a murder in it that is unaccounted for.

This was the second teaming of Howard Hawks, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.  Bacall's career was in trouble after appearing in a picture called Confidential Agent which turned out to be a real stinker.  Hooking up with Hawks and Bogart again turned out to be a very smooth move on the part of her agent.

 

Hawks is at his peak period here, directing actors and getting the best out of them.  Bogart has another career defining role as detective Phillip Marlowe who is as good with a wise crack as a gun.  Besides Bacall who is at her sultry best as Vivian Rutledge there is a nymphomaniac sister Carmen, played by Martha Vickers who is very good but had her part cut down to emphasize Bacall. 

Mention should be made of the actor Charles Waldron playing the father of Bacall and Vickers.  It's a short part but really memorable.

Hawks did a good job putting this film together but it doesn't hurt to have three top screenwriters, William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Furthman working on your screenplay.  The film runs 114 minutes.

1946 - MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, another excellent Blu Ray from Criterion

A great disc from Criterion.  My Darling Clementine's photography really jumps out with it's stunning black and white images.

It's well documented that Darryl F. Zanuck ended up reworking the film much to Ford's displeasure but it appears that Zanuck got rid of a lot of Ford's cornball humor and indulgent character touches.  A pre-release version is featured on this new disc but it's no undiscovered Director's Cut of great scenes.

Henry Fonda had worked with Ford on Young Mr. Lincoln and his understated performance is very impressive.  Fonda was no John Wayne and the film really benefits from that.  The rest of the cast particularly Victor Mature as Doc Holliday was very good.

Ford directs, that's him on the floor staging the dance sequence he's between the flags.

This was the last picture on Ford's contract for Zanuck.  Zanuck made sure this was an "A" quality production.  The set for the town of Tombstone was actually constructed in Monument Valley to take advantage of the scenery.

Ford was a master of filming long shots.  His sophisticated visual scene is quite striking on My Darling Clementine.

97 minutes, written by Samuel G. Engel and Winston Miller.

1946 - A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, a Powell and Pressburger 40's classic

Viewed this Powell and Pressburger film the other night, for a film almost 70 years old this is still a remarkable achievement.

Filmed in technicolor and black and white with the bulky 3 strip technicolor camera,  Jack Cardiff captured some remarkable images.

The production design by Alfred Junge is very impressive

As an example of film making, this film is a quite a technical achievement.

Finally, credit has to be given to Powell and Pressburger for pulling off this amazing fantasy film.  This is a one of a kind film.
 

104 minutes.

1946 - GREAT EXPECTATIONS, classic film is good for lazy students who didn't finish the book and have a test the next day

Usually considered one of the best adaptations of a Charles Dickens novel, David Lean and his team brought this film in under two hours a considerable accomplishment considering most of these Dicken's novels are very long.

Lean and his writers apparently went through the book and underlined what they considered were the major scenes in it and then took this material and turned it into a screenplay.  Apparently this was accomplished in a couple of weeks which must be some kind of a record

The film is sort of a greatest hits of Great Expectations and having read the book (admittedly a long time ago) it's hard to figure out what exactly was left out of the film.  If I had any criticism of the film at all it would be with the ending which is just a  little contrived.  Pip finally gets Estella to see the light by literally having her walk into the light.

Even early in his career David Lean was the total pro when it came to making films.  The cinematography, acting, editing, production and sound design are at a very high level for what is a decent but modestly budgeted film.  This is a very easy film to watch for a 40's classic.

The screenplay was by David Lean, Anthony Havelock-Allan and Ronald Neame the running time is 113 minutes.

1946 - THE OVERLANDERS, World War II Australian cattle drive western

During World War II, the Australian government wanted to promote their contribution to the war effort.  Great Britain's Ealing studios usually a provider of genteel English comedies featuring Alec Guinness, decided to take up the challenge.  Ealing sent director Harry Watt on a research trip to figure out a story.  The end result was a film about a cattle drive from northern Australia to the south to prevent the cattle falling into the hands of the Japanese in case of an invasion.

Tbe Overlanders was filmed on location by Watt with Australian actors and a camera crew in some fairly rugged locations.  The film has an epic scope and impressive photography, it is also a rather boring film story wise.

The main problem with The Overlanders is that the cattle drive film has been done to death.  Dressing it up by filming it in Australia can't really change or improve on the typical troupes of this genre. Still the film moves along it's only 91 minutes and is actually fairly unpretentious.

 

Written by Harry Watt and Ralph Smart.

1946 - TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY, is yet another musical revue from MGM

 Producer Arthur Freed's musical on the life of composer Jerome Kern is just another excuse to feature MGM stars in musical sequences without bothering about a pesky plot.
 
 The actor Robert Walker is the chief victim of this mess.  He walks around knocking out songs like he was picking lint off of his well tailored suits.  The audience never sees Kern actually sit down and write a song it's just taken for granted that he has a portfolio full of them where ever he goes.  Jerome Kern may have been a great American songwriter but he was a very boring guy.

 For a composer who wrote a lot of great songs, this film presents them in a fairly mediocre middle class style.  The director was Richard Thorpe a studio contract guy who is barely remembered and gets no respect from film scholars although he made a lot of films.  Thorpe's chiefly remembered as the guy who got fired off of The Wizard of Oz.

Till the Clouds Roll By is also extremely long coming in at over 2 hours, a real killer of a film.

 132 minutes

1946 - ZIEGFELD FOLLIES gaudy and fascinating musical revue from MGM

Producer Arthur Freed wanted to recreate the kind of musical revue that Florenz Ziegfeld mounted in the 1900's.  He assembled some of MGM's musical and comedy talent for a series of sketches.  Vincente Minnelli directed about half of the film but apparently none of the comedy bits.

This is a technicolor extravaganza with big splashy tasteless sets and musical numbers that range from surreal dance sequences to a crazy opera performance completely out of context from source material.  It's all performed by top talent.  The end result is very strange.

Lucille Ball is the ringmaster in some strange cat/tiger number where she runs around with a whip trying to keep cat women under control, very kinky.  Fred Astaire and Lucille Bremer, appear in a couple of numbers.  Astaire is in his prime.  His partner Lucille Bremer is an interesting story.  Bremer was a good dancer who never hit the big time.  Rumor had it that she was also Freed's mistress.  In any case she and Astaire dance together in a couple of very watchable numbers.

Some of the more fascinating parts of Ziegfeld Follies are the comedy sequences.  They are to put it plainly not funny.  Red Skelton does a bit with a hat as a prop which is interesting to watch because it's so bad.  Keenan Wynn does a telephone bit that's awful but it all shrinks in comparison when Fanny Brice shows up.

Ziegfeld Follies is an opportunity to see an actual Ziegfeld star Fanny Brice in a comedy skit with Hume Cronyn of all people as her husband.  It's hard to believe this obnoxious overbearing personality was even remotely popular with the public.  I guess she played better on Broadway because she sure is something to see up close on the fairly big TV screen.

The film wraps up with iron lung semi opera singer Kathryn Grayson bellowing something called "There's Beauty Everywhere" all the while a crazed bubble machine dumps soap suds all over a dancing Cyd Charisse.  It was the perfect way to end this amazing film.

110 minutes, Charles Walters takes writing credit apparently.

1946 - DUEL IN THE SUN, poor man's version of Gone With The Wind.

David O Selznick's attempt at another large scale technicolor film centered around his obsession with Jennifer Jones.  This film has been described as a "stupid sex western" by the godfather of film capsule reviewers, Leonard Maltin and that about sums it up.

Selznick called all the shots during filming irritating the director King Vidor who finally walked off the set.  Selznick hired the best talent in Hollywood and it shows, the film is gorgeous to look at in 1940's technicolor.  The chief problem was the mess of a script which Selznick also took credit for.  Duel in the Sun effectively ends around the one hour mark, however Selznick sticks in a series of disconnected subplots in the second half which brings this sucker in at over two hours.   

Selznick seemed to think that Jennifer Jones was the hottest woman in Hollywood but her supposedly sexy emoting and withering is pretty ludicrous.  Jennifer Jones was capable of giving decent understated performances, but the va va va boom stuff was really beyond her range.

Martin Scorcese counts Duel in the Sun as a seminal film for him for what that's worth.

 

145 minutes, screenplay by David O. Selznick.

1946 - THE BLUE DAHLIA, not classic film noir

Raymond Chandler's only original screenplay is a disappointing mess which highlights the worst aspects of his writing, improbable plotting in a completely confusing mystery that makes absolutely no sense.  Chandler was good at characterization and hard boiled dialog but even this seems pretty second rate.

This film is so out of it we get one of the lamest cliched scenes in mystery films, gathering all of the suspects in one room while the police sort out who did what to whom.

Raymond Chandler was a notorious alcoholic and Hollywood legend has it that the director George Marshall and the producer John Houseman had to keep him liquored up in order to get him to finish the screenplay.  This story is probably close to the truth, The Black Dahlia is disappointing compared to other film adaptations like Murder My Sweet and The Big Sleep.

The Black Dahlia was known for the re-teaming of Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake a screen team for Paramount in 1940's film noir.  The film also stars William Bendix a popular character actor as a World War II vet with a few mental problems a character done to death in films.

Veronica Lake is kind of interesting to look at however The Blue Dahlia is one of those "classic" films that really doesn't deserve it's classic status.  The film is essentially a mediocre murder mystery.

Pretty worthless film.

96 minutes.

1946 - CLOAK AND DAGGER, spy vs spy stuff from Fritz Lang

Gary Cooper is a scientist working on the Manhattan project when he is sent on a secret mission by the OSS to rescue an Italian scientist.  The story is very episodic with Cooper zipping along from one spy caper to another.

This is the kind of spy film that Fritz Lang could film on auto pilot and probably did.  Lang was one of the inventors of the modern espionage film. Herr director Lang loads the film up with a lot  of atmosphere and suspense.  He's also good at all this sneaking around spy stuff since his first dip into the genre with Spione in 1928

Gary Cooper was a rather odd choice to play a scientist.   The intention seems to have been to have an all American male mixed up with Nazi spies.  Cloak and Dagger shows how a plain speaking guy can triumph over these devious Teutonic devils.  Cooper does have a very cool fight scene with a Nazi agent which is pretty brutal for 1946.

Except for a boring love plot that brings everything to a halt for about 20 minutes, Cloak and Dagger zips along pretty well.

106 minutes.

1946 - THE KILLERS, better version of the Hemingway short story

Although the 1964 version is not without it's good points, mainly Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager as the killers,  the 1946 version has it all over that film.  This is a good 1940's film noir well directed by Robert Siodmak and produced by Mark Hellinger a guy who actually had some taste and talent. The Killers was written by Anothony Veller with uncredited help from John Huston.

Somebody had the smart idea to actually use the Hemingway short story for the opening scenes in the film.  It sets the mood for the rest of the picture.  After that opening, the film uses the same story structure as Citizen Kane as the insurance investigator tries to put together why a man would wait to be killed. 

The Killers has a fine cast, with Burt Lancaster as the victim and Ava Gardner as the femme fatale.  But probably the two standouts in the film are a couple of character actors, Edmond O'Brien as the insurance investigator and Sam Levine as the cop helping him solve the murder.  Try making a film today where two character actors are as important as the main leads.

The director Robert Siodmak worked on a lot of horror movie junk at Universal before he got better assignments, directing entertaining crap like Son of Dracula and Cobra Woman.  Siodmak really pours on the atmosphere in this film, he also has a  one take shot of a payroll robbery that's very well done. 

Don Siegel claimed he used nothing of The Hemingway short story or scenes from this film for his version of The Killers.  Not true, the basic idea of a man waiting to die is from the Hemingway story and the flashback structure in this version were borrowed for the 1964 film.  

A very well done film.

103 minutes, screenplay by Anthony Veiller.

1946 -MY DARLING CLEMENTINE, a classic American film.

The gunfight at the OK Corral retold by John Ford.  One of the greatest American films of all time and a classic in the western film genre.  But how responsible is Ford for its greatness?

My Darling Clementine was the final film on Ford's contract for 20th Century Fox and Darryl F. Zanuck.  Zanuck choose the story, gave Ford a very generous production budget  and had a lot of input in the casting of the film.

Ford shot extensively on location and when completed turned in a 2 hour cut to Zanuck.  Apparently Zanuck was quite appalled with Ford's version of the film, which had Ford disregarding much of the script and inserting lots of his patented cornball comedy bits.  Zanuck took the film away from Ford, completely reedited it and cut about 30 minutes out of it.  Zanuck also brought in another director to reshoot some key scenes including the ending of the film.  

Obviously Ford was responsible for the individual scenes and the visual look of the film.  My Darling Clementine is a sterling example of Ford's strong sense of visual composition.  Every scene has beautiful black and white photography and composition.  Ford also got very good performances out of the cast, particularly Victor Mature and Walter Brennan.  Ford's technique for directing actors was to basically verbally harass and abuse them during filming.  Victor Mature, never a great actor to begin with gave a very good performace.  Walter Brennan is also good as the head of the Clanton family, Ford kept Brennan's tendency to ham it up under control for this film.  Ford also harassed Brennan so badly that he never worked for Ford again. 

Today the film is one of John Ford's greatest films. However the considerable influence of Darryl F Zanuck must be considered when applying the auteur label to this film. 

F98D6848-52B3-E752-8422-01C6E662EE81

1.03.01

1946 - DRESSED TO KILL, Basil Rathbone IS Sherlock Holmes Nigel Bruce IS Dr. Watson

The final film in the amazing 14 film series (made in 7 years) of Sherlock Holmes films filmed during the 1940's.  These films were mostly set during World War II with Holmes fighting the Nazi's or some bizarre modern day master criminal.

We saw this at our local revival theater which also ran the last chapter of Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, which was pretty lame although watching those guys fly around in their phallic spaceships is clearly a sight to see. 

In Dressed to Kill, after Dr. Watson's friend "Stinky" is killed.  Sherlock Holmes must figure out the secret to three music boxes which will lead him to some stolen treasury plates some counterfeiters are after. The mystery is a little obvious and Holmes makes some pretty big leaps of deduction during the film but this is a good little 76 minute time killer.

If Rathbone and Bruce may not have exactly been like the characters in the Conan Doyle books they are still very good as these classic characters. Dressed to Kill is your basic old movie mystery with clues dished out along the way and the detective puzzling the whole thing out.  In many ways it's more entertaining than that Robert Downey ADD mess of a film. 

Apparently 14 films was finally enough for Basil Rathbone although Nigel Bruce wanted to continue the series.  Research into this film revealed that Rathbone and Bruce also starred in a 200 episode radio series The New Adventures of Sherlock Homes that also ran between 1939 and 1946.  Pretty incredible stuff.

The film was written by Frank Gruber and Leonard Lee.

1946 - CANYON PASSAGE making a silk purse out of a sow's ear, part 2.

The previous post on Wichita, looked at the director Jacques Tourneur's attempt to take a minor western film and bring some visual flair to it with somewhat disappointing results.

Canyon Passage was Tourneur's first shot at a western and his first color film.   Tourneur was very lucky to be associated with two talented individuals, the producer Walter Wanger and the writer Ernest Haycox.  The differences in these two western films are pretty amazing.

Walter Wanger was an independent producer who was known for making quality films without being associated with any particular studio.  Wanger would prepare a script, assemble the production team, hire the director and most importantly leave everyone alone to make the film.   Wanger worked with some pretty strong willed directors like Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford and Fritz Lang.

The author of Canyon Passage was Ernest Haycox, he was a quality writer of westerns and is mostly remembered as the guy who wrote the story for Stagecoach.  With support like that behind the camera, Jacques Tourneur couldn't miss with this western.

Tourneur brought his amazing visual sense to this film using color and composition.  Tourneur is now known as a director who knew how to achieve interesting 3D depth of field effects by placing props in certain parts of the camera frame.  Canyon Passage has many examples of this.  The scene below with Dana Andrews and Ward Bond has a bottle carefully placed in the frame.  Attention is also given to lighting the set and the actors, it does create an interesting look. 

A very good high quality western,  Canyon Passage has lots of beautiful on location filming, the film also has the legendary composer/performer Hoagy Carmichael in a small role.  Carmichael's actually pretty good and he sings "Ole Buttermilk Sky."