1955 - A KID FOR TWO FARTHINGS, a fable about 1950's London

 One of England's best directors took on this very delicate story about the lives of people living in an area of London's East End called Petticoat Lane.  The film was shot in very garish color.  Petticoat Lane at the time was populated with Jewish immigrants.  For some reason the film barely gets into this and it's almost impossible to tell that any Jewish people live there and this is a story where the setting is very important to the film.

The story follows a young boy who has been listening to stories from an old tailor.  One story in particular is about a magical unicorn that grants wishes.  The boy  finds a young goat with only one horn and believes it to be be a unicorn.  The story focuses on the boy's fantasy about the goat and how it affects the lives of people living in Petticoat Lane.  We get a body builder who has put off marrying his girlfriend due to lack of money.  The tailor wishing for a steam machine to iron his customer's clothes. The boy's mother waiting for the return of her husband who is working abroad etc.

 

You can't fault the cast of the film.  Celia Johnson one of the mainstays of the British acting establishment plays the mother.  Diana Dors who was considered the British version of Marilyn Monroe gave a very good performance as the girlfriend waiting to get married. A very young actor named Jonathan Ashmore also does very well as the boy with the goat.  One of Carol Reed's strengths as a director was working with actors.  Orson Welles had said that Carol Reed was one of the few directors who really liked actors.

 

I think the problem with this film is that the story is maybe just a little to whimsical for it's own good.  It's also very tough to pull off a story that is told from a child's point of view.  Not to say that the film doesn't have good scenes in it.   But overall it just seems a little lacking.  Still Carol Reed was a superior director and the film for the most part is certainly worth a look.

The screenplay was by Wolf Mankowitz, the running time is 96 minutes.

1955 - THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE, a Michael Powell short ballet film

Kind of a weird one off in the career of Michael Powell.  Hein Heckroth who had been the art director on a lot of Powell and Pressburger films.  He approached Michael Powell to film a version of the famous Goethe story which had also been the basis for Disney's Mickey Mouse segment in Fantasia.

There isn't a lot of information available about this short film.  It's a ballet performed for the Frankfort Opera.  It was filmed for a German television network and apparently broadcast for television.  This version has an English narration.

 

Besides art director Hein Heckroth, Powell's go to cinemagrapher Christopher Callis was part of the production crew.  Future cinematographer and horror director Freddie Francis was the camera operator.  The editor Reginald Miles had worked with Powell and Pressburger on The Tales of Hoffman.  Still it doesn't appear that Powell had a lot of input the film, probably he was just a gun for hire.

 

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is not without interest, the sets and wide screen photography are bizarrely interesting.  The film was originally 30 minutes long but for some reason it was cut by 16 minutes so who knows what was lost.  Still it is a film directed by Michael Powell and it's not without interest.  Powell usually knew how to combine music and photography into an interesting viewing experience.

The narration was written by Dennis Arundell, the running time is 13 minutes. 

1955 - I AM A CAMERA, you know it as CABARET

This was previously a play on Broadway.  Julie Harris had a big success in the role of Sally Bowles the madcap American living in pre-war Berlin.  The inevitable transition to film did not go particularly well.

In pre-Nazi Germany force of nature Sally Bowles becomes mixed up with reserved (stuck up) wanna be writer Christopher Isherwood.  She ends up moving in with him and it's one crazy adventure after another.  There's a subplot involving a Jewish woman who is romanced by Fritz a friend of Isherwood's as the persecution of Jews begins to gather steam.

As in Cabaret, this film contains the basic plot lines of the story, Sally thinks she's pregnant, Sally gets mixed up with a rich wacky American, Sally parties a lot and on and on. 

 

I Am a Camera was a big success on Broadway but you sure wouldn't know it watching this film something clearly got lost when they decided to film it.  Laurence Harvey played Christopher Isherwood but he seems really miscast and exactly where did the filmmakers get the idea he was funny.  As for Julie Harris well it's safe to say her performance is larger than life and is it ever larger than life.  It's borders on hammy at times and her inability to control her character really makes watching this film an ordeal.  When it comes to acting in film less is more.

Apparently the woman who Isherwood based the character of Sally Bowles on was none to amused by her portrayal on Broadway or film. In real life she was a writer, advocate, a life long member of the Communist party and a war correspondent.  There's an implied reference to her and Isherwood having a sexual relationship but Christopher Isherwood was a very gay author.  Well that's the movie business for you.

The screenplay was written by John Collier, the running time is 98 minutes. 

1939 - PEACE ON EARTH, 1955 - GOOD WILL TO MEN, a couple of depressing cartoons

A couple of downer cartoons, Peace on Earth and it's remake Good Will to Men are about nothing less than the end of civilization as we know it as the human race annihilates itself in a world war.  With people now extinct, little cartoon animals take over and rebuild the world. 

Peace on Earth is actually very well made.  Apparently the director Hugh Harman felt it wasn't enough to entertain people with cute cartoon animals running around, he had a few big thoughts about the fate of mankind.  This film is reasonably effective but after all this human slaughter watching little bunnies hoping around rebuilding some kind of animal civilization is a little off putting.  It's still worth a look.  When Peace on Earth came out in 1939 the world was about to be plunged into World War II so this film wasn't that far off the mark. A real oddball of a  film.

 

Peace on Earth was obviously influential since it was remade in 1955, in fashionable widescreen called Good Will to Men.  In this version mankind essentially destroys itself with nuclear weapons again leaving more cute little cartoon animals to rebuild the world.

Both these films are set at Christmas time to really drive home the "thou hall not kill" and "peace on earth" stuff to an audience.  However cartoon mice singing Christmas carols at the end of these films is kind of weird.  In general the 1939 version of this story is more visually interesting than the remake,

Peace on Earth runs 9 minutes, Good Will to Men runs 8 minutes   

1955 - THE TENDER TRAP, really outdated rom-com

 Frank Sinatra is a New York press agent who dates a bevy of babes, a real lady killer.  Debbie Reynolds is a would be actress who as it turns out is only interested in getting married (her Mrs. degree) and having kids in the suburbs.  Frank falls for Debbie, Debbie falls for Frank but will Frank settle down and become that hubby in the suburbs that Debbie wants?

The film was apparently adapted from a three character play that was staged on a single set.  For the film version the play was "opened up" to include locations around New York City.  However a careful look at the film shows that this movie filmed in CinemaScope was shot on the MGM back lot, not an NYC location anywhere in this film. 

The supporting cast features Celeste Holm as an over the hill spinster. Apparently in this film spinster means she's in her 30's.  David Wayne is Sinatra's old buddy who has run away from his wife in Indianapolis or some god awful Midwestern city.  Wayne wants to become a playboy dude like Frankie.

 

Also showing up in a very small part is "Gavin Elster" the chief bad guy from Vertigo played by the actor Tom Helmore

If the plot of this movie wasn't so asinine it would almost be really offensive instead of just offensive.  The age difference between perky Debbie and Lothario Frank has to be close to a 20 year difference.  In fact Debbie Reynolds kind of comes off as not having all her oars in the water with her marriage obsession.

What's good about this film?  Well the theme song by Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen isn't to bad and Sinatra had a big hit with it.

The film was written by ace screenwriter Julius Epstein, the running time is 111 minutes.  

1955 - DREAMS, an Ingmar Bergman drama about two women

Ingmar Bergman writes and directs a film about the love lives of two women.  Eva Dahlbeck is the head of a modeling agency and Harriet Andersson is one of her top models.  They both have unresolved issues revolving around their love lives.

  

Dahlbeck is involved with a married man and she apparently wants him to leave his wife for her,  Harriet Andersson is in a relationship with a man she finds unexciting.  On a trip to another city for a photo spread both women come to realizations that resolve their relationships.

 

Ingmar Bergman was always considered one of the best writer/directors when it came to roles for women in his pictures.  However in this instance the situations seem a little low key and in some ways unimportant.  The film is directed with his usual skill, at this point in his career Bergman was an accomplished filmmaker.

However it didn't hurt to have two very good performers appear in this film.  Harriet Andersson always brought a sensual quality to the Bergman films that she appeared in.  Eva Dahlbeck worked with Bergman frequently and she was always a strong presence in his films.  She's kind of forgotten today in the world of Ingmar Bergman film admirers, but she was just as important to his films as Liv Ullmann or Bibi Andersson.

For the most part Dreams is a minor but well made Bergman film and is probably more a film for Ingmar Bergman film fanatics who need to see everything he made

The running time is 87 minutes.

1955 - THE AFRICAN LION, one of the Disney True Life Adventure films

File this under the "I'll watch anything" department.  The African Lion is part of the Walt Disney True Life Adventure series which ran from the late 1940's until the early 1960's before finally wearing our it's welcome.  The Disney company would purchase films from nature photographers and turn around and give them the Disney touch.  A folksy narrator , a music score which at times could get fairly silly and a story line.  I guess the films for the most part would be called documentaries but they are unmistakably Disney influenced documentaries.

The African Lion is considered one of the best in the series.  It was filmed on the Serengeti plains with Mt Kilimanjaro rising in the background.  The film proposes to be about the life of the lion but it incorporates lots of footage of the other species living on the plains.  Filmed in technicolor,  there are many impressive scenes of the animals.  Probably the worst thing you can say about the film is at times the narration by Winston Hibler gets to be a little to much.

 

The film was written and directed by James Algar, but the real stars of the film were the husband and wife team of Albert and Elma Milotte who literally followed the animals around for three years in a specially designed truck to photograph them.  

 

Obviously time has kind of taken the freshness off of this wildlife documentary.  Advances in photography have made the art of wildlife photography easier.  Still this is an impressive achievement and it is from a time when Africa was still a somewhat mysterious place.  

You can make some valid criticisms about Walt Disney and the product he put out while he was in change, but you can't argue that he occasionally was willing to try some new approach to story telling.  Today the Disney company seems to only be in the business of live action remakes of its classic cartoons or unending super hero movies.

The film was written and directed by James Algar who clearly organized the Milotte's animal footage into a narrative.  The running time is a brisk 75 minutes.

1955 - SOLDIER OF FORTUNE, another film in the wonder of Cinemascope

Set in Hong Kong in the 1950's with Communist China hanging over the heads of the British colony.  Soldier of Fortune was based on a book by Ernest K. Gann, who also wrote the screenplay.  The film stars Clark Gable and Susan Hayward.  Hayward's husband played by Gene Barry is a prisoner in Communist China and Gable is the man she turns to for help in an escape attempt.  Naturally Hayward and Gable fall in love before the big escape scene.  This is a very bad movie.

The film was shot in Fox's CinemaScope screen process with the widescreen just constantly full of a lot of pictorial scenery, when the film moves indoors the sets are so full of stuff that it seems like the actors are performing inside a museum gallery.  The director Edward Dmytryk appears to have had his hands full just moving people around the widescreen frame.  

 

But frankly the chief villain of this film is not Communist China but the terrible screenplay from Ernest Gann. Everything about this film just stinks, the colorful characters, the love story, the plot and the lack of action.  It seems like 20th Century Fox took this production and as they say tried to "put lipstick on the pig, " to cover up its deficiencies.

 

This was Clark Gable's first film away from MGM studios.  Working as a freelancer,  his later films kind of lacked the spark he had brought to his early MGM films.  Susan Hayward who apparently was a pretty tough cookie was going through a divorce and refused to travel to Hong Kong for filming.  Any scenes with Gable and Hayward on location are played by a stand-in for Hayward. The rest of her scenes were filmed on sound stages back in Hollywood. 

 The best I can say about this film is that it runs 96 minutes.

1955 - LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING, a typical Hollywood love story.

Based on a real life incident.  The love story between an American reporter and an Eurasian doctor is given the 1950's Hollywood treatment.  In other words all of the life and passion has been sucked out of it. In the film Jennifer Jones plays the Eurasian, Han Suyin who slowly falls in love with an American war correspondent played by William Holden.  The film wants to pretend it's somewhat controversial with some very shallow discussions about race but everything is smothered over with lots of travelog shots of Hong Kong where the film is set.  As this was the prissy 1950's absolutely no sign of any kind of passionate love affair between the two of them was allowed.

If anything the behind the scenes antics would probably have made a better film.  Apparently Jennifer Jones and William Holden didn't get along at all.  This culminated in Jones eating garlic before their kissing scenes and extended to her throwing flowers at Holden who had sent them as a peace offering during the shooting.  Jones complained that the cameraman made her look old and she was described as "rude and abrasive," to the production team.  It's a tribute to both the actors that on screen they actually look like they like much less love each other. 

 

Love Is A Many Splendored Thing was filmed in 20th Century Fox's widescreen process Cinemascope and the title tune became a big hit.  The film was financially successful but it is also very bland in a 1950's kind of way.  The dialog doesn't really help matters with Jones who barely looks Eurasian mouthing fortune cookie platitudes about Asia throughout the film.  William Holden comes off a little better.  Apparently the screenwriter John Patrick had his hands full having to incorporate scenes shot in Hong Kong by a 2nd unit and the studio sets where the film was finished.

 

Love Is A Many Splendored Thing is good example of a rather trite love story put over by a good Hollywood production team but it's really not much of a film.  The running time is 102 minutes.

1955 - IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA, Ray Harryhausen and the giant Octopus

 In his second film where he was in complete charge of the special effects, Ray Harryhausen again works stop motion animation wonders on a tight budget.

The story has something to do with a giant radioactive octopus menacing the Pacific west coast.  Submarine commander Kenneth Tobey after doing battle with The giant carrot in Howard Hawk's The Thing and a prehistoric Rhedosaurus that has come to life in the Beast From 20,000 Fathoms now takes on a scary gigantic octopus.  Assisting Tobey is gorgeous movie scientist  Faith Domergue one time protege or maybe girlfriend of reclusive millionaire Howard Hughes.

 

We are in B movie territory here, this was the type of film that entertained kids on a Saturday afternoon.  As those kids grew up only then was Harryhausen finally recognized as one of the best stop motion animation experts in the movies.  Harryhausen was in many ways one of the most important special effects experts in the film industry who is still influential to this day.

 

It Came From Beneath The Sea was written by Harold Smith and George Worthing Yates,  the running time is 79 minutes.

1955 - THIS ISLAND EARTH, Universal's shot at a big time Science Fiction film

Universal spent money on a technicolor science fiction film called This Island Earth, and is it ever in technicolor the sets practically jump out with all the bright glossy colors.  The story involves aliens from the planet Metaluna capturing our nuclear scientists for their own nefarious purposes. In this case creating nuclear energy to help in their war with another planet called Zagon.

Understandably the special effects for 1955 don't seem so special any more and the big monster called a "mutant" lumbers around so slowly that it's hard to believe it could catch or scare anyone.  Still the film is entertaining and doesn't wear out it's welcome running only 86 minutes.  

 

The film is sort of a 1950's science fiction film classic and was written by Franklin Coen and Edward G. O'Callaghan.

 

Interestingly enough William Alland the producer had appeared in Citizen Kane as the reporter Thompson, trying to solve the mystery of "Rosebud."

1955 - RIFIFI aka Du rififi chez les hommes

A team of crooks get together to plan the robbery of a jewelry shop.  With careful planning they pull off the robbery in a still pretty exciting extended heist sequence.  After the robbery things start to fall apart for the gang.  So goes the story of Rififi.

American director  Jules Dassin blacklisted from Hollywood during the Communist Red Scares of the 1950's signed on.  Working with a very tight budget, he managed to pull off a classic crime film.  The film has a lot of on location scenes in the dead of winter in France which gives it a real documentary feel at times.  

 

The actors picked were not exactly at the top of the heap when the film was cast,  but they helped to lend a certain authenticity to the story.

An excellent film, written by Jules Dassin, Auguste Le Breton and Rene Wheeler.  The running time is 115 minutes.

1955 - THE MAN FROM LARAMIE, Anthony Mann, James Stewart

The fifth and last western from the team of Anthony Mann and James Stewart. The setting is New Mexico the action is good as usual.  The film has a streak of brutality particularly in the scene where Stewart gets his finger shot off.

Mann was scheduled to direct Stewart's next film about an accordion playing cowboy but complained about the script and the accordion.  An angry Stewart (in real life an actual accordion player) broke off his relationship with Mann.  So it goes with Hollywood prima movie stars.

 

Still, an excellent western.  Philip Yordan and Frank Burt wrote the screenplay,  The picture runs 102 minutes.

1955 - UNTAMED, poor man's GONE WITH THE WIND

Large scale film about the birth of South Africa and the fight for independence.  Tyrone Power is the heroic leader fighting off Zulus and romancing hot Susan Hayward.  Power eventually picks freedom fighting instead of staying with Hayward which is a pretty poor pick in my mind.

Power rides around with a bunch of commandos righting wrongs and helping the people of South Africa gain their freedom (unless you are black but that's a different story).

 

Untamed was directed by studio veteran Henry King so it's well staged and acted.  The film was apparently shot on location, a least some of it anyway. 

The film mostly focuses on Susan Hayward's character.  She's kind of a poor man's Scarlett O'Hara as she goes from poor to rich to poor again.  In fact I think it would be safe to say the film definitely revolves around Hayward at the expense of the Tyrone Power character. 

111 minutes, written by Michael Blankfort, Frank Fenton and Talbot Jennings.

1955 - KISS ME DEADLY on BLU RAY

THE sleazeball private eye classic is out on Blu Ray in another classy Criterion disc.

Private eye Mike Hammer who is a border line sadist investigates the case of a missing woman and a strange black box which may or may not be part of the Manhattan project.  Hammer is such a dirt bag that it's almost impossible at times to see him as the hero of the story particularly when he's beating people up for information.

The cast as directed by Robert Aldrich is a group of almost unknown or character actors.  In a way it's a Robert Aldrich stock company of sorts since he uses some of the same actors throughout many of his other pictures.

And speaking of direction who but a tough guy director like Aldrich could knock out a film like this.  The film is rough and cynical and also very entertaining.

104 minutes

1955 - MISTER ROBERTS, film version of the famous 50's play

Considering all the behind the scene drama during the production of this film it's amazing Mister Roberts turned out as well as it did.

Henry Fonda had performed the play for three years on Broadway and was locked into his interpretation of how it should be presented.  John Ford would have seemed to have been the perfect director for a story about the navy.  However Fonda was extremely unhappy with the changes Ford made in the play.  The end result was Ford leaving the picture and Mervyn LeRoy finishing it.

You can certainly tell what parts Ford directed.  All of the exterior shots on the ship and at Midway Island are Ford's work.  The later scenes set in the studio have that phony sound stage look to them.

Still, the film turned out pretty well.  Fonda is very good as Mister Roberts.

123 minutes.

1955 - THE MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET, the stripped down version.

The stripped down version of the holiday film from the 1947 film to put it mildly.  This version has a decent director and cast and is not too offensive.  Apparently this version was part of something called the 20th Century Fox which was some sort of anthology series that at times hacked down and remade their old movies for TV.

The direction is by Walt Disney's go to guy Robert Stevenson and has a good cast with Thomas Mitchell, Theresa Wright and MacDonald Carey carrying the load.

60 minutes.

1955 - BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK - in Cinemascope

The director John Sturges shows Hollywood how to film in CinemaScope in this thriller that doesn't over stay it's welcome.

This is an MGM production a studio not exactly know for open mindedness when it comes to technological innovation or story content.  So it's kind of amazing Sturges was able to shoot on location instead of some Burbank sound stage.

Again, Sturges use of composition in the wide screen format is very impressive.

81 minutes, written by Millard Kaufman and Don McGuire.

1955 - THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, Charles Laughton's superior horror film.

Charles Laughton's poetic horror film is a one of a kind film.

Shot primarily in a studio for budget reasons, the cinematographer Stanley Cortez gave it a beautiful black and white look.

Screenplay was by critic James Agee.

Memorable performances from Lillian Gish and especially Robert Mitchum.

92 minutes.