1954 - GORILLA AT LARGE, entertaining murder mystery with a great gimmick

Yes examine the title.  The film features a guy in a monkey suit but that's not all.  There are actually two people in monkey suits.  The film also has an amazing cast of actors who I thought I would never see in a movie called Gorilla at Large.

Anne Bancroft a two time Tony award, one time Academy award, three time BAFTA award and two time Emmy award winning actress is in full femme-fatale mode.  She's a circus acrobatic working at a seaside carnival.  She runs around in tiny sparkling costumes and vamps any male she can.  She's married to Raymond Burr the owner of the carnival who at this point in his career was usually cast as bad guys.  Bancroft's trapeze act has her performing above a wild gorilla to titillate the audience.  Admittedly this film is very early in her career and I would like to say Gorilla at Large is a companion piece to The Miracle Worker but that would probably be pushing it a bit.

The gorilla is played by George Barrows who specialized in wearing gorilla suits.  Barrows was the gorilla in Robot Monster, Tarzan and His Mate, The Adventures of Captain Africa, Hillbillys in a Haunted House and that unforgettable episode of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., My Friend the Gorilla. 

Well there's a murder at the carnival so let's call in detective Lee J. Cobb to solve it.  Cobb had worked with Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan, George Cukor and Sidney Lumet.  Cobb has to unravel the murder while constantly chewing on a big gross cigar and firing off the "one-liner" gorilla jokes.  He acts like he is doing stand-up at some comedy club. Also a call out to Lee Marvin as a really stupid cop who is clearly the comedy relief in this film. 

Well it all comes down to the gorilla escaping and terrorizing the crowd on the carnival midway, while carrying Bancroft around.  It's in the great tradition of the ending of King Kong and it you are going to steal from a classic gorilla movie you might as well steal from one of the best.

 Needless to say this film was shot in 3-D so we get lots of shots of things flying at you which of course means nothing on a TV screen.  Gorilla at Large is an extremely entertaining show in the great lore of the B-movie.

The film was written by Leonard Praskins and and Barney Slater, the running time is a brisk 83 minutes. 

1954 - THE MAGGIE, aka High and Dry aka Highland Fling

A production from the famous Ealing Studios in England made during their top period which ran from the late 1930's to the end of the 1950's.  Ealing was noted for it's modestly budgeted but well written and directed comedies primarily set in England.  The pictures they produced were usually at a very high standard technically and creatively.

 

The Maggie was one of their best pictures directed by one of their best directors Alexander Mackendrick.  Mackendrick was an American who as a child had being raised in Scotland by his grandfather.  He eventually ended up in the British film industry where he worked his way up to directing.  He had what I would call a humanistic approach in film making concentrating on the actors and the story.  He was apparently a perfectionist which caused him to be fired off of several projects towards the end of his career, he ended up in California teaching film.

 

The Maggie is an extremely charming  and cleverly written film.  It's the story of a small just about broken down cargo ship about to be repossessed.  The captain manages to trick a rich American business man into letting him transport his cargo to a castle he has purchased.  The ship named the Maggie is in such a dilapidated condition it may sink at any moment.  The American discovering he has been tricked by the captain pursues him.  This all ends up in a series of clever and humorous encounters.

 

The film was well cast with Paul Douglas as the American businessman.  Douglas was probably nobody's idea of a leading man but he was an excellent actor and knew his way around performing in dramas and comedies. The ship's captain was played by the Scottish actor Alex Mackenzie in full "old sea salt" mode.  The encounters between these two performers are very amusing.

The Maggie is an extremely enjoyable film and highly recommended.

The film was written by William Rose one of Ealing's top screenwriters, the running time is 92 minutes. 

1954 - FEAR, aka ANGST aka really dreary film

Well they can't all be neorealist masterpieces and this film from Roberto Rossellini is one tedious film.  The film stars Ingrid Bergman who was in a famously scandalous affair with Rossellini after being impressed with his post World War 2 Italian films made on location and with non actors. Bergman ended up leaving Hollywood and her husband moved to Italy where she collaborated with Rossellini on a series of so-so films.  Hey that's the power of films to influence people's lives I guess.

Fear is set in post war Germany during the reconstruction of Europe.  Supposedly Rossellini wanted to examine how reconstruction was affecting Germany but who was he kidding this is just a very dull marital drama.

 

In this film Bergman is a woman cheating on her husband with a younger man while also being blackmailed by the younger man's ex girlfriend.  Bergman is trying to keep her affair secret but the situation is slowly unraveling.

 

Rossellini as usual filmed on real locations to add some substance to this drama, but all the location filming in Germany wasn't going to bring this monotonous soap opera to life.  I've seen more interesting drama on General Hospital. 

Fear was written by Roberto Rossellini, Franz von Treuberg and Sergio Amidel.  The running time is 83 minutes.

1954 - DRAGNET, the feature film...

If anyone remembers a cop show named Dragnet which I kind of doubt, it began life as a radio show produced and starring Jack Webb.  Webb went on to adapt the radio show as a half hour television show in the 1950's.  Webb brought the show back from the grave in the mid 1960's mostly to make the American public aware of the dangers of drug use particularly marijuana.  This was kind of rich since Webb was apparently a pretty big boozer in real life.

Dragnet was known as a  police procedural with the emphasis not on gun fights and car chases but on LAPD detectives assigned to a case.  Webb and his cop partner would methodically run down each lead. If you were looking for crime fighting action this show was not for you.  Supposedly the episodes were based on true life stories and the end of each show had the narrator of each episode intone in a grave voice the results of each case with loud booming music in the background.   

 

Dragnet was no doubt an important and trend setting crime genre but time has not been particularly kind to this show. Webb's emotionless clipped delivery of his dialog and the almost next to nothing drama in each episode made this show ripe for parody.

 

Which brings us inevitably to the movie version Webb directed which was released in 1954.  About the only difference between the television show and the movie was that it was filmed in color.  Otherwise this was basically and extended episode of one of his shows with the same cheap looking sets and the same stock company of actors that Webb used over and over.

 

Dragnet the film is kind of an odd bird.  The LAPD basically violates every suspect's civil rights during their investigation of a gangland shooting.  Webb seems to have a particular disdain for the 5th amendment and at times seems to want the district attorney to bring the bad guys to trial without any evidence just because he says they are guilty.  I'm not even going to get into the illegal wiretapping business.  Webb certainly had an interesting point of view when it came to law enforcement

The film was written by Richard L. Breen, the running time is 88 minutes. 

1954 - EXECUTIVE SUITE - a look inside the management team of a company circa 1954

This film was big stuff when it was released.  The story involves the jockeying for power among the senior vice presidents of a manufacturing company after the CEO dies from a stroke.  The drama comes from all the manipulation and backstabbing among the vice presidents as they maneuver to replace the deceased CEO and assume the leadership of the company.

 

This film is notable for being the first produced screenplay from Ernest Lehman who went on to write North By Northwest and The Sound of Music.  Robert Wise was the director and as a former editor at RKO he knew how to pace this story for what is basically a film with a lot of talking heads sitting around a conference table. 

MGM didn't scrimp on the cast it was a major group of stars.  Frederick March is the CFO who is strictly a numbers guy and doesn't care about the employees.  Paul Douglas is the head of sales having a fling with his secretary played by Shelley Winters.  Walter Pidgeon is a VP who knows where all the bodies are buried.  Dean Jagger is the old timer who is in charge of manufacturing. A very hammy Barbara Stanwyck is the major stock holder. An impressive cast anyway you cut it.

Then there's our hero William Holden the VP in charge of design and development, he's married to June Allyson who for a change isn't playing her usual goody two shoes character.  Holden is so full of the compassion for the company and employees he's just to good to be true. 

 Executive Suite has a real 1950's vibe to it and seems very dated.  Ernest Lehman did a good job moving all the chess pieces of the plot around but overall the film seems very superficial and hackneyed, time has not been kind to this film.  The film was a critical and commercial success.

The running time is 103 minutes. 

1954 - PRINCE VALIANT - entertaining comic book movie

 Based on a long running and I do mean long running comic strip ( 1937-1971) the story of a Viking Prince in the court of King Arthur was known for not having any dialog in the comic strip.  Instead the narrative is all in captions.  

MGM had a big hit in Ivanhoe so 20th Century Fox obtained the rights to Prince Valiant.  Daryl F. Zanuck got tough guy director Henry Hathaway to film it.  Legendary screenwriter Dudley Nichols put together a story and the film clearly was an expensive production.  Then the studio went out and completely miscast it.

 Pretty boy 50's actor Robert Wagner with his American accent was cast as the Viking prince complete with ridiculous page boy wig which was true to the comic but came off as really goofy looking.  Equally ridiculous was Sterling Hayden as a knight of the round table.  Hayden didn't even attempt a British accent and he looks extremely uncomfortable in his goofy medieval wig.  Debra Paget almost 20 years Hayden's junior was his love interest.

 

More wig silliness, Janet Leigh squeezed into a dress has to wear practically a floor length wig which she manages not to trip over.  About the only creditable actor in this film is James Mason an actual Britsh actor.

 

Henry Hathaway keeps the film moving with lots of action and fighting.  The photography by Lucien Ballard is good and the composer Franz Waxman wrote a great score.  In spite of the crazy casting decisions this is an entertaining comic book film.

The running time is a not excessive 100 minutes.

1954 - THE BRIDGES AT TOKO -RI, one of the finest Korean War films.

One of the finest films about the Korean War.  The Bridges at Toko-Ri was closely based on the short novel by James Michener.  Michener had been a reporter on a navel task force flying bombing runs against the North Koreans.  He created his characters based on actual pilots and officers he had met during his stay.  In fact the last part of this film follows the fate of an actual helicopter rescue of a downed navy pilot towards the end of the film.

This is an excellent studio production.  The producers William Perlberg and George Seaton put together a good cast starting with William Holden as the navy pilot with serious questions about what the United States was doing with it's involvement in Korea.  Frederic March is Holden's commanding officer, Grace Kelly has a small role as Holden's wife.

The film also has for a change a restrained Mickey Rooney as a helicopter rescue pilot.  Character actor Earl Holliman is his co-pilot.  Another veteran character actor Charles McGraw is Holden's squadron leader.  This is one of the very underrated McGraw's best films.  Charles McGraw had previously had a good role in the classic The Narrow Margin.

 

The navy cooperated with the producers so a good portion of the film was shot on actual carriers.  The rumor is that Holden  learned how to taxi a fighter jet down the carrier's runway.  One of the most interesting things about this film is the subtle antiwar theme that is carefully woven through out the film.  The navy may have been good about providing ships for this production but they certainty didn't read the script carefully.  This film does not have the usual "rah rah" feel good war movie ending.

The film was written by Valentine Davis, the running time is 102 minutes.

1954 - ADVENTURES OF HAJJI BABA, 1950's mainstream eroticism.

The producer of this film, Walter Wanger who was associated with filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford and Joseph L. Mankiewicz had a second career churning out potboilers like Arabian Nights, Night In Paradise and Salome, Where She Danced, popular popcorn films for the most part.

Wanger had an interesting life to put it mildly. He was part of a major scandal which involved him shooting his wife's lover in the testicles.  Wanger ended up spending time in jail and basically had to restart his career at cheapo studios Allied Artists.  Going back to what he knew best Wanger mounted The Adventures of Hajii Baba and basically drenched it in as much sexiness and eroticism as he could get away with in the mid 1950's.

 

The plot, not that it matters has John Derek as Hajji Baba leading a spoiled princess played by Elaine Stewart to safety as they escape Arabian Bandits.  They meet up with a tribe of what else, Amazon warriors. There are lots of dancing slave girls and scenes of Stewart in bondage to appeal to the boys in the movie theater.

 

I will say that Elaine Stewart is a real looker and the whole thing as silly as it sounds is very colorful and doesn't outlast it's welcome. Nat King Cole sings the ballad of Hajji Baba which is repeated throughout the film and is very effective.

The film was written by Ricard Collins and the running time is 94 minutes.

1954 - VERA CRUZ, cynical western from director Robert Aldrich

Burt Lancaster is grinning away in Robert Aldrich's Vera Cruz.  Along with Gary Cooper, Lancaster is mixed up in the Mexican Revolution as a soldier of fortune.

The movie was noted for a new level of cynicism that hadn't been seen in westerns before.  Gary Cooper is I guess the nominal hero of the film but even he is a lot more interested in his own situation than helping out the Mexican revolutionaries

 

Robert Aldrich directed the film on location in Mexico but couldn't seem to rein Lancaster in with all of his goofy grinning.  After all, Lancaster was one of the producers.

 

The film runs 94 minutes and has some decent action.  Lancaster as usual does all of his own stunts.  Vera Cruz was written by Roland Kibbee and James Webb

1954 - THE FAR COUNTRY, another fine James Stewart/Anthony Mann Western

The 4th in the Mann/Stewart western series.  This one is set in Alaska during the gold rush but actually filmed in Alberta Canada.  The Far Country is part of the adult western film fad that set in during the 1950's. Basically the western film toughened up after surviving lots of light weight films in the 1940s (singing cowboys anyone).

As usual Mann has the cast riding over real locations not some comfy studio set back at Universal Studios.  At one point the production even filmed on a glacier.  Mann knew how to stage on location action scenes.

 

In a Mann film, these stories brought out the harder side of Stewart's character.  It was a very welcome change of pace for the good actor.

 

The film was written by the reliable Borden Chase and runs 97 minutes.

1954 - SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, a high point for the MGM musical

An acknowledged classic MGM musical.  This film is unusual in that it is an original musical with original music and choreography created especially for this film.

MGM had so little faith in this film that they cut the budget which accounts for some of the phony sets the actors perform against.  It turned out to be when of their biggest box office hits of that year beating out their overblown turkey Brigadoon.

The film was very well directed by Stanley Donen with the dances and musical numbers staged by Michael Kidd.  The dance numbers particularly the barn raising number are extremely well done.

A superior Hollywood musical during the 1950's.

102 minutes, written by Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich and Dorothy Kingsley. 

1954 - SECRET OF THE INCAS, early version of Indiana Jones film

This film is usually cited as the inspiration for Raiders of the Lost Arc.  There certainly are a lot of very unusually close similarities. 

To begin, Harrison Ford's costume is an exact replica for Charlton Heston's outfit right down to the hat.  Both men are on a search for archeological treasure and both films have that reflected light trick in the tomb that leads to the discovery of the treasure.  There are however a few differences.

The chief difference is that Secret of the Incas has of all things several musical numbers. These sequences feature a singer names Yma Sumac who has an incredible vocal range which apparently runs about five octaves.  As interesting as these musical numbers are they do kind of bring the action to a halt at times. 

Secret of the Incas is a good adventure film with lots of on location photography in Peru and a fascinating insight into how Hollywood essentially makes the same film over and over with all due respect to Mr. Spielberg and Mr. Lucas.


 98 minutes.

1954 - REAR WINDOW, the Hitchcock classic

Alfred Hitchcock and his writer John Michael Hayes created this film about voyeurism and didn't miss a trick incorporating a murder mystery and a love story into the plot.

 

James Stewart playing a photographer with a broken leg has noting to do but spy on his neighbors with his binoculars and eventually a telephoto camera.  Each different apartment window has it's own little story.  Eventually Stewart becomes aware that all is not right with the apartment directly across from his.  It seems the invalid wife of a salesman has suddenly vanished.

Hitchcock was always able to bring out the best in established actors.  James Stewart is very good as the photographer.  Thelma Ritter is the home health care nurse and Grace Kelly looking great as usual in her third Hitchcock film is good as Stewart's on again off again girlfriend.

Considering the dramatic and technical challenges this is an impressive and very entertaining film.

112 minutes.

1954 - SEAGULLS OVER SORRENTO or CREST OF THE WAVE

We're on a Scottish island at a British navel testing station.  It seems there is a powerful explosive that the navy is trying to stick into the warhead of a torpedo to blow stuff up.  The trouble seems to be that the explosive tends to blow the submarine up before the torpedo can be fired out of the sub.  After several failures the British Navy sends for USN Lt. Gene Kelly (playing a scientist) to figure out what's going wrong.

The drama arises from the British personnel resenting the involvement of the United States Navy in solving their little torpedo problem.  Perhaps things could have been worked out if Kelly had performed one of his song and dance numbers, from Singing in the Rain or An American in Paris.

Kelly seems a little out of place in this film surrounded by all of these Limeys, but he's actually not to bad.  It just goes to show you that if you spend a life in the musical comedy genre it tends to really typecast you in more dramatic roles.

Seagulls Over Sorrento is capably by Roy Bolting who combines character studies of the sailors with humor and drama.

92 minutes, screenplay by Frank Harvey and Roy Boultingh

1954 - TARGET EARTH, a rather zany low budget science fiction film

From low budget studio Allied Artists suppliers of cheap crime and science fiction films comes this rather interesting space invasion film with a pretty stiff alien robot monster.  In fact the monster looks like it is made out of cardboard for the most part.

Trapped behind enemy lines. Five people must survive in deserted Chicago as these goofy killer space robots wander the city.  At least one of them anyway.  I can't recall seeing more than one robot at a time.

As if killer robots from space isn't enough of a problem, one of the five individuals hiding out in Chicago,  is some sort of psycho criminal with a gun who trying to run the show.  

Target Earth's cheapness and B movie cast make the film fun to watch.  The film stars Richard Denning who kind of made a career out of this stuff.  Denning's last gig was playing the Governor of Hawaii on the Hawaii 5-0 TV series.

75 minutes, written by James H. Nicholson, Wyott Ordung and William Raynor.

1954 - DIAL M FOR MURDER, a very good Hitchcock film.

Not very much to write about on this one.  Dial M for Murder is now regarding as one of Hitchcock's best films.

As previously discussed by a lot of film scholars and critics, Hitchcock took a one set play by the author Frederick Knott and with clever use of camera angles and lighting was able to make the play look like a film.  A lot of film scholars think this is the Hitchcock film to study if you want to learn about his film technique.

Hitchcock always claimed that he could have phoned this film in.  He apparently was planning Rear Window while making this film but re-watching this film it's hard to believe he wasn't engaged in this production.  The film was made during the 3-D craze and Hitchcock got stuck with filming in 3-D which he used rather subtlety probably a little to subtlety as it turned out.  I saw the film in 3-D many years ago and after watching it I wasn't exactly sure what the 3-D brought to the film going experience.

Dial M for Murder is a very good film made by the master of the film medium. It's also Hitchcock's first film with Grace Kelly who looks like a million bucks.

105 minutes screenplay by the author of the play.

1954 - THE DETECTIVE, clever, classy, entertainment

Alec Guinness is Father Brown a priest who is also an amateur detective, he matches wits with master thief Flambeau over the legendary Blue Cross. 

This is a very good comedy thriller, well written and directed by Robert Hamer.  The film is a battle of wits between the master thief and the parish priest.  It's pretty clear the Colombo TV series got a lot of their ideas from this film, borrowing the character of the childish priest who is a lot smarter than he seems.

Father Brown is a fascinating character, he is as interested in stopping Flambeau as he is saving his soul.   This film is a comedy thriller with a definite existentialist bend to it.  No one is really in danger and there is a complete lack of violence but not action.

The acting is very good, Peter Finch is the thief Flambeau who could probably be comfortable lecturing at a University, Bernard Lee, who was usually "M" in the James Bond films, actually plays his part with some humor.  Alec Guinness is a little to cute as Father Brown, but he is fun to watch.

91 minutes.

1954 - RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11, this is a great film

Finally a great movie.  The producer Walter Wanger, had shot a guy who was having an affair with his wife Joan Bennett.  He ended up going to jail for assault and while in jail he was shocked at the horrific conditions that the convicts were living in.  When he got out he decided to make a film about prison life.

Wanger hired Don Siegel a talented B movie director in the best sense of the word.  Siegel brought speed to this film.  Riot in Cell Block 11 moves fast and doesn't have a dull moment in it.  Siegel and Wanger got permission to shoot a lot of the film on location in Folsum Prison and that really adds to the look of the film.

 

The cast has a bunch of talented character actors.   The film is around 76 minutes long and makes it's points about overcrowding and the poor treatment of the convicts without hammering your head over it like a good liberal would.

 A very impressive film.