Appointment With Danger

Another “infiltrating the organization” noir, following the usual template.  T-Men championed the treasury department, Border Incident showcased the border patrol, and The House on 92nd Street highlighted the FBI.  This one delves into the life of a postal inspector.  Except for the nicely done opening sequence, I was rather underwhelmed at first and found the movie a bit clunky.  But eventually its charm started to rub off on me.  Alan Ladd brings his usual light touch to the proceedings, and there’s a lot of terrific snappy patter.  Although there are only a few tense action scenes, the way the story unfolds is engaging, if not very original.  There’s some wonderful business involving Phyllis Calvert as a nun witness, and Jan Sterling makes a good moll.  The film repeats the same pre-”Dragnet” casting as Dark City, again with Harry Morgan as the nice guy baddie and Jack Webb as the rotten one.  Paul Stewart is good too, playing pretty much the exact same role he would do the next year in Loan Shark.  Overall, it’s not a masterpiece or anything, but I had fun with it.  Rating: 8

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Dark City

No, not the sci-fi film that Roger Ebert jizzed all over.  Charlton Heston in his first major role as a gambler who fleeces the wrong guy, and finds himself the target of vengeful wrath from the victim’s brother.  Heston’s all right here, and there are some enjoyable supporting performances including Ed Begley, Jack Webb and Harry Morgan, but leading lady Lizabeth Scott is a cold fish in this.  And she gets far too many torch songs, which she’s not especially good at.  The film has some great moments (I like how the killer is only identified by his distinctive ring throughout) and a nice Waxman score, but really flounders in the third act, where it takes a forced, unlikely romantic turn and loses a lot of momentum.  Some noticeably shoddy rear projection, too.  Pretty blah overall, even for a diehard noir fan, could use a little more zing.  But it’s watchable.  Rating: 6

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Plácido

Placido is a working-class driver for hire, working for a Christmas charity pageant.  If he doesn’t make his car payment, he’ll lose his livelihood… but it becomes abundantly clear that despite appearances, charity is in short supply.  In this lively Bunuel-esque farce about hypocrisy, Berlanga mostly takes aim at the bourgeois, but doesn’t really let anyone off the hook, including Placido.  Just as good as El Verdugo, and even slightly funnier, the only real shortcoming is that the film’s pace and temperament is so manic you start to wish for a few pauses in the action.  Still, it’s a terrific satire with heaps of amusing characters and situations, a sharp critique of fascist Spain.  Rating: 8

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Delicatessen (rewatch)

I keep wavering on this movie, and I really wasn’t sure if I should have bought it (as evidenced by the fact that it took me so long to get around to it).  There are so many wonderful little moments, heaps of inventive craftsmanship, and an awful lot of charm.  But it also can be rather overbearing and needs a bit more heart.  This would be achieved in spades with Amelie, and from the behind-the-scenes features on the Blu-Ray, it seems the overdose of whimsy in this movie was largely to due to Marc Caro’s influence.  As I’ve said before, it’s a movie where you really have to let yourself go with the flow.  If you’re not in the mood for “quirky”, it’d probably drive you crazy.  Rating: 8

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A Raisin in the Sun

I picked this up because I’ve been wanting to see more Ruby Dee.  She’s superb once again, something about the way she carries herself just speaks volumes.  It’s also nice to see Poitier take on a role where he doesn’t have to be the pinnacle of dignity all the time.  He’s got some less-than-noble qualities to his character this time, and although occasionally he chews some scenery, he’s generally excellent.  I also liked Diana Sands quite a bit.  This may be an unpopular opinion, but to me the weak link in the cast is Claudia McNeil as the mother… although that’s not entirely fair, it’s really her character I didn’t care for.  When she starts chastising her daughter for not believing in God, or swooning over her daughter-in-law considering an abortion, I couldn’t help but turn against her a bit.  My larger problem, however, is that this is one of those movies clearly adapted from the stage.  While I do not demand “realistic” performances in every film, I do have a strong distaste for “stagey” performances.  And while a lot of the dialogue is excellent, some of it is a bit overwritten, and not in a good way.  Still, it’s a compelling story with strong characters and thoughtful messages… and of course, the wonderful Ruby Dee.  Rating: 7

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The Lusty Men

Terrific modern western from Nicholas Ray exploring the dangerous ambition of the rodeo lifestyle, with a love triangle melodrama added for good measure.  Ray balances everything beautifully, and the film has a satisfying fullness to it, not a single scene feels superfluous.  Robert Mitchum, Susan Hayward and Arthur Kennedy have a good chemistry together, and bring the sparkling dialogue to life.  I’ve never had the slightest interest in rodeo before, but the events are explained so deftly and shot so wonderfully that I found myself quite engaged in the action.  Maybe not the most sophisticated film, but one that hits on all cylinders.  It makes me want to revisit Johnny Guitar and Rebel Without a Cause, both of which I may have shortchanged the first time with mediocre scores.  Rating: 8

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Sciuscià (Shoeshine)

Two impoverished shoeshine boys dream of owning a horse.  They finance their purchase with some light criminal activity, but when they get caught, it threatens their friendship.  This is a mostly great film.  The plot flows very smoothly and naturally, there are some interesting scenarios and careful use of light humor, and the photography is fantastic.  De Sica has used child actors brilliantly (Bicycle Thieves) and horribly (The Children Are Watching Us)… this is somewhere in the middle.  The two leads are generally good, but occasionally go over the top.  The main issue is the overly melodramatic ending.  It didn’t really bother me that much, but it wasn’t necessary and could have been something much more resonant.  The music was also a little much at times.  But in general, I thought this was one of De Sica’s finest.  Rating: 8

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Out of Africa

Gawd, I don’t even want to write about this.  It’s all fine, there’s nothing wrong with it except how dreadfully predictable it all is.  I had a pre-conceived notion in my head of what the film would be like and it turned out to be exactly that, not a surprise in sight.  Some of the interactions between Streep and Redford are a bit interesting, but for the most part everything just lies on the screen, waiting for the next ho-hum scene.  The cinematography is nice, but only because they’re using expensive equipment in a beautiful location.  There’s no vision to it whatsoever, all the shots are quite obvious.  There’s just no soul in this movie at all, it makes me wonder why Pollack wanted to make it.  Streep gets to trot out another exotic accent, Redford gets to look handsome, Pollack gets a few easy Oscars for the mantle.  Yawn.  I did like Klaus Maria Brandauer, not as good as his performance in Mephisto, but he’s pretty much the most interesting thing in the movie.  I can’t honestly say I hated watching this movie… it’s nice, in a very calculated way.  But I sure didn’t love it.  Rating: 6

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The Big Parade

I’m not opposed to comedy in war movies.  But I have to admit for the first hour of this, I was thinking: “Gee, this is awfully light-hearted for a WWI movie”.  There aren’t a whole lot of chuckles in Paths of Glory or All Quiet on the Western Front.  Here we’ve got a lot of dumb slapstick, and although the romantic comedy was sweet and there were some lovely moments, I was wondering why this was so highly regarded.  Then right at the halfway point, shit gets real.  The ensuing battle scenes are absolutely harrowing, and still hold up 85 years later.  That first march through the woods is utterly chilling.  This is marvelous, intense filmmaking that seems way, way ahead of its time.  The film ends on a bittersweet note that I must admit choked me up a little.  Besides the slapsticky bits in the first half, and some horribly written intertitles (“The big parade! Men! Guns! Men! Men! Guns!”), this deserves its esteemed reputation.  Rating: 9

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Xiao Wu (Pickpocket)

Xiao Wu is a Fagin-esque character, the apparent ringleader of a band of pickpockets, who finds that all his peers have “moved on” and settled down, finding their way in the modern world while he gets left behind.  Not only is the title reminiscent of Bresson, but so are the use of non-professional actors, the minimalist camera style, the social realism, and the heightened sound design.  Despite this, I wouldn’t really call this “Bressonian”, as Zhang-Ke Jia doesn’t seem to be striving for that sort of emotional distance.  Xiao Wu does not silently suffer his fate like Mouchette or Balthazar, but seems to ineptly rage against it.  As in the later Still Life, Jia seems to be commenting on the shifting landscape and those lost in the wake, with constant references to change, growth, modernization and Westernization… whether for better or worse.  I don’t think Jia quite succeeds at pulling his themes together… it’s not nearly as floundering and messy as The World, but I found that Xiao Wu’s situation didn’t always communicate what it was attempting to (he is not denied agency… he could stop stealing if he wanted to).  However, the final scene is a stunner, as Jia turns the camera on the viewer, making us feel every bit the outsider that Wu does.  I was also tremendously fond of the succession of karaoke scenes (karaoke, beepers, televisions, musical lighters are recurring symbols of technology that can both unify and alienate).  An interesting work that makes me hungry for more Jia.  Rating: 8

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