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.

1948 - CALL NORTHSIDE 777, mixing fact with fiction

 The true story of a reporter's attempts to free a man found guilty of murder.  Set in Chicago and filmed primarily on location this type of film helped start a trend of on location filming getting Hollywood out of the studios.  The film appears to be a mixture of fact and fiction, although the basic story seems accurate.

James Stewart plays the reporter in reality actually a composite of two reporters working for the Chicago Times newspaper.  Stewart is on screen practically the whole time and gives a strong understated performance.  Probably legendary tough guy director Henry Hathaway had something to do with keeping his "aw shucks" mannerisms under control.

 The film's photography from Joe MacDonald is impressive considering it wasn't exactly and easy thing to film on location in the late 1940's.

 

Audiences today would probably find the film a little slow and lacking action, but this is really more of a procedural story with Stewart slowly unraveling with happened the day a policeman was shot and how an innocent man was arrested and sentenced for the crime

Written by  Jerome Cady, Jay Dratler, Leonard Hoffman and Quentin Reynolds.  The running time is 111 minutes.

1968 - 5 CARD STUD, an entertaining western

Here's something you don't see everyday, a mystery film set in the old west.  Dean Martin is the card shark who gets involved with a group that lynches a man they suspect of cheating at cards.  One by one the group starts dying off while Deano tries to figure out what's going on.

Robert Mitchum shows up as the Reverend Jonathan Rudd, essentially repeating his character from The Night Of The Hunter.  The producer Hal Wallis and the director  Henry Hathaway load the rest of the cast up with a familiar bunch of names. Inger Stevens, Roddy McDowell, Yaphet Kotto, Denver Pyle and everyone's favorite character actor Whit Bissell.

 

As with any Hal Wallis production the film looks good and Henry Hathaway does his usual excellent job staging the action scenes.

 

Written by Marguerite Roberts the film runs 103 minutes.

1960 -SEVEN THIEVES, a good heist film.

The big selling point in this film were Joan Collin's sexy striptease dance numbers.  There's actually only two of them but they are pretty hot.  Once you get past this you get a pretty good crime caper film.

Edward G. Robinson is the mastermind behind the robbery of a casino in France.  Rod Steiger is his right hand.  Joan Collins, Eli Wallach and the rest of his assembled group are the remaining thieves which gets you up to the number 7.  The film was well made by tough guy director Henry Hathaway and the script is by a good crime writer Sydney Boehm who wrote the classic The Big Heat.

 

The acting is uniformly excellent and it's very unusual to see Rod Steiger as the romantic leading man.

102 minutes.

1962 - HOW THE WEST WAS WON, on Blu Ray

The Blu Ray producers spruced up a lot of this film, erasing most of the lines in the three camera filming process and generally cleaning things up quite a bit.  The film looks fairly spectacular at times if not completely perfect.  Of course you can't duplicate the Cinerama experience on a home screen.

The film itself was always kind of lumpy mess of a story.  It follows one family, the Prescott's as they move west with that "manifest destiny" attitude that gave white European Americans a reason
to go anywhere and take anything they wanted.  But I can be a little more charitable now since the whole story is just an excuse to film a bunch of spectacular scenes in the 3 camera process that at times still look very impressive.

MGM loaded up the film with an "all star" cast signing just about everyone they could think of but the film seems to focus mostly on two actors George Peppard and Debbie Reynolds.  Three directors were hired, George Marshall, John Ford and Henry Hathaway.  Hathaway ended up directing most of the film and apparently re-shot Marshall's footage.  Ford had a lot of trouble filming in the large screen process and the results were deemed marginal at best but nobody had the nerve to rework his footage since most people were afraid of him. 

162 minutes, written by James R. Webb.

1945 - THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET,

During World War II,  the mysterious Mr. Christopher is the head of a Nazi spy ring located in the United States.  Their job is to get the secret of "process 97," the atom bomb.  Lucky for America the FBI is on the case.

Usually considered a "semi-documentary."  This is a police procedural drama shot on actual locations.  The producer Louis De Rochemont and the director Henry Hathaway copied many of the newsreel techniques De Rochemont had used in his "March of Time" documentaries that played before feature films in the 1940's. 

The approach in this film was to show the FBI using meticulous scientific and investigative techniques to crack the spy ring.  What comes off watching it now is how creepy the whole thing is with the FBI filming every little move the spies make.  The ongoing gathering of every piece of information by the FBI gives the whole thing a "Big Brother" kind of feel throughout the film.

The FBI would not have cooperated with this film unless it showed them in the best possible light and their halos are polished mighty bright.  Still the film does have a little bit of a backbone to it, the Nazi spies are not a bunch of stupid ideologues and there is a fairly clever plot twist at least clever for the 1940's anyway.  

Like a lot of trend setting films, the years have worn away the special qualities of this story.   On location filming is no longer a big deal and police procedural dramas have borrowed so much from  films like The House on 92nd Street, it just doesn't look very special anymore.

The success of this film did help get studio filmmakers out of the back lot and onto real locations.

88 minutes.

1966 - NEVADA SMITH, is a good Western

A young man avenges the death of his parents in this western film from Henry Hathaway.

Hathaway and his cinematographer Lucien Ballard put together a very good looking film on magnificent locations in the Inyo National Forest.  The supporting cast is a great bunch of old school Hollywood actors featuring Karl Malden, Martin Landau, Brian Keith, Suzanne Pleshette, Raf Vallone, Howard De Silva, Iron Eyes Cody, Arthur Kennedy and Paul Fix. 

Probably the only negative things about it are the episodic screenplay from John Michael Hayes, and the "johnny one note" performance of Steve McQueen

Nevada Smith is a starring vehicle for Steve McQueen but he doesn't seem very interesting in starring in it.  He hardly registers any emotion and for a revenge story he doesn't seem very vengeful.  In fact he barely seems to have an interest in anything in the film McQueen's just going through the motions  He always was kind of an oddball personality in the movies.  

Still, this film is entertaining.  Henry Hathaway was a very good director.  Nevada Smith has some good action scenes and an excellent supporting cast backing up McQueen.  To repeat the point, this is a very good looking film shot in widescreen.

128 minutes.

1947 - 13 RUE MADELINE, good and exciting World War II spy thriller.

James Cagney is the head of a World War II espionage group tracking down the location of  V2 rocket launchers while simultaneously dealing with a clever Nazi double agent.

Henry Hathaway one of Fox's best in house directors filmed in the same semi documentary style that he used for The House on 92nd Street which means lots of on location filming.  Hathaway had the benefit of having Cagney a powerful actor to really whip the story into shape.

This is old style Hollywood storytelling of the highest order, with clever plotting and exciting action sequences.  Although the on location filming isn't probably as fresh as it was back in the 1940's, it does give the film a lot of verisimilitude.

13 Rue Madeline is a film that isn't afraid to embrace it's realistic and downbeat ending something you don't see in a lot of films today.

95 minutes.

1953 - NIAGARA , interesting thriller with strong scenic backgrounds

At everyone's favorite 1950's honeymoon spot Niagara Falls, Marilyn Monroe perfectly cast as a trampy ex-waitress is married to crazy Korean war vet Joseph Cotton.  She's decided to kill him and run off with her lover.  Another couple, Jean Peters, who in real life was once married to Howard Hughes and her goofy husband Casey Adams are dragged into Monroe and Cotton's marital issues.

The director is Henry Hathaway and the producer is Charles Brackett.  They may not exactly have the Hitchcock touch, but this is a very effective thriller.  Hathaway was always the no nonsense studio craftsman so I doubt he put up with a lot of Marilyn Monroe's movie star behavior.  She gives a very good performance as a very nasty person that doesn't completely involve her showing off her chest for a change.

Obviously the attraction in Niagara was Monroe running around in low cut and tight outfits, but the on location filming around Niagara falls is very impressive.  The filmmakers have really captured the sense of place of the Falls in all it's tacky 1950's honeymooning glory. 

Again, very well made.

92 minutes.  Written by Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch and Richard Breen.

1971 - RAID ON ROMMEL, B movie war movie rip off from Universal Studios

Richard Burton and the director Henry Hathaway must have really needed some cash when they filmed this war story.

Raid On Rommel is in the great tradition of Universal Studios crapness.  The film is shot with a next to no budget somewhere in I'm guessing the desert in California, all the scenes with stuff blowing up are cribbed from another film called Tobruck and the whole thing has that cheap television feel to it which isn't surprising considering it was originally intended as a TV movie that was released to theaters instead. 

Universal Studios (or Universal Pictures) is an interesting entertainment company to consider for a moment.  Taken over by a talent agency called MCA.  MCA transformed it into a provider of very middle brow entertainment into the 1960's and 70's.  A lot of the TV shows and made for TV movies came out of Universal.  People grew up on films and shows like The Sword of Ali Baba,  Fluffy, McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force, Did You Hear the One About the Traveling Saleslady? and the mad scientist turns people into snakes epic, SSSSSSS to name a few.

Universal was where Steven Spielberg got his start and it certainly influenced his film sensibility.  Universal was also where Alfred Hitchcock finished his career, and once he signed with them the quality of his films dropped off dramatically.

99 minutes

1952 - DIPLOMATIC COURIER, working definition of the term "sub par Hitchocock like thriller."

Those 1950's Communists are at it again but thank goodness the United States has it's top Diplomatic Courier on the case.  A diplomatic courier is basically a glorified errand boy for the State Department but in this film he's Tyrone Power defender of freedom and fighter of those commies.

It seems the United States can learn when the Commies will attack Europe.  Information that is "three times more explosive then Pearl Harbor" is floating around Europe.  For some reason Power races around trying to get this information before the Ruskies can get it, all the while trying to figure out if husky voiced Hildegard Neff is either a commie or a righteous dude woman of freedom like himself

The whole film is just pretty poor in almost every way.  The screenplay by Casey Robinson stumbles along from one sloppy plot point to the next.  The film is supposedly set in Europe but it's pretty clear that they sent a second unit over seas with a stand-in for Tyrone Power and had him run around some scenic locations which they then fit into the usual studio back lot settings.

Henry Hathaway was always a good contract director but there was only so much he could do with this kind of film. 

The film has a few things going for it in the cast.  Patricia Neal is a traitorous American who attempts to seduce Power, she's actually fun.  Karl Malden shows up as a military policeman playing his usual second banana role.  Last but not least is Lee Marvin as another military policeman.  It must have been one of Marvin's very early roles since he has dark hair.

Overall the whole film is pretty pathetic.

97 minutes, written by Casey Robinson and Liam O'Brien. 

1964 - CIRCUS WORLD, hugh Samuel Bronston production with John Wayne

Wanna be circus drama like The Greatest Show On Earth has spectacular set pieces and a spectacularly poor script.

John Wayne is the head of a wild west show type of circus on tour in Europe.  Wayne is searching for his long lost love who just happens to be Rita Hayworth who has a daughter who just happens to be Claudia Cardinale who Wayne just happens to be raising as his adopted daughter.  Well it's not Eugene O'Neill exactly it's more like Barbara Cartland.

Circus World was directed by the old pro Henry Hathaway and filmed in 70mm.  More importantly it was produced by Samuel Bronston a man who when it came to film thought very big as in, King of Kings, 55 Days at Peking, The Fall of the Roman Empire and El Cid.  Bronston was a producer known for his "creative" financing.  Circus World was the end of the road for him as the film was a big flop.

The film is entertaining nonsense, with a couple of very cool set pieces.  A ship tips over in a harbor and since this is a Bronston production it's a real ship.  There is also a spectacular fire sequence, where it looks like John Wayne was almost  burned at one point.

This gigantic film production is a fun time waster with a 9 million dollar budget when 9 million dollars bought a lot of bang for a film production buck.

John Wayne plays John Wayne as usual.

135 minutes

1969 - TRUE GRIT & 1975 - ROOSTER COGBURN

OK here we go lots of True Grit.

True Grit the John Wayne version.  This one hasn't stood the test of time very well.  The first 40 minutes were slow moving with lots of exposition before we get to the actual pursuit of the outlaws.  

John Wayne appears to be enjoying himself, Glen Campbell can't act, and the main catalyst for the story Mattie Ross, played by Kim Darby is just pretty hopeless and much to old to be playing a 14 year old girl.

True Grit is in a lot of ways a John Wayne western, but the pivotal character is the girl, if the audience can't relate to the girl the film can't really work.  The film pretty much has to fall back on John Wayne hamming it up as the drunken lawman Rooster Coogburn which was funnier in 1969 then it is today.

On the positive side, True Grit was filmed on some beautiful Colorado locations and once it finally gets going has some fairly decent action.

Re-watching this was somewhat of a disappointment.

128 minutes, written by blacklisted writer Marguerite Roberts.

Rooster Cogburn had the producer Hal Wallis and John Wayne back along with Katherine Hepburn for a sort of sequel.  This was never much of a film.

John Wayne and Katherine Hepburn supposedly directed themselves and it sure shows.  Watching these two legendary actors engage in the mutual butt kissing of each other gets really tiresome after a while.  Wayne shamelessly engages in even more hammy out of control acting then he did in True Grit and for almost 2 hours.   Hepburn is a little more controlled but not by much.  Apparently arch conservative Wayne got along very well with the liberal Hepburn, they were about the only two old time Hollywood stars still standing by the time Rooster Cogburn was filmed.

Since this is a Hal Wallis production, the film looks good with lots of on location filming in the state of Oregon.  Still not so hot as a film.

108 minutes, written by the producer's wife Martha Hyer.

1950 - THE BLACK ROSE, standard adventure stuff in Technicolor!!

Pretty boring Tyrone Power adventure story, shot on location in England and Morocco. 

Power is supposed to be a young English scholar in search of adventure.  Power looks to be in his 40's so he doesn't exactly have that young scholar thing going for him.  Tyrone Power doesn't even attempt an English accent and maybe that's for the best.  Orson Welles shows up as a Genghis Khan type of character and he actually underplays his scenes for a change and is pretty good.  A french actress Cecile Aubrey, is the love interest and she acts so infantile she seems like she's brain dead. 

The director is Henry Hathaway who should have been able to do this kind of adventure story in his sleep and maybe that was the problem, he must have been half asleep, the film has no energy, it's basically a technicolor travelogue.  The cinematographer was the legendary Jack Cardiff, but this film isn't up to the level of the Powell and Pressburger pictures he worked on.

The Black Rose is known as the film Orson Welles raided for costumes and props for his film version of Othello, in particular the fur coat he wears throughout that picture.  Othello is certainly a much better film than this.  Welles provides the only interest in this film

120 minutes.