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Gun Fury (1953)
Better than the title suggests!
Except for a couple of inconsistencies, this is an "authentic western", if ever there was such a thing produced in Hollywood!
It has a believable story, with a well written screenplay, that takes advantage of the 1950's new technology, big screen, brilliant Technicolor and great location shooting.
Aside from a couple of stereotypes, the Indian and the fiery Mexican girl, the cast of characters have depth and are are genuinely believable. Phil Carey was good, Rock Hudson did not overplay his role, although Donna Reed was just along for the ride.
The score is well constructed and keeps everything moving.
I didn't expect much from this movie, given the banal title, but stayed involved with the characters until the very end.
I actually cared how it all turned out!
Cannery Row (1982)
Hemingway Got Canned!
As an avid movie aficionado and collector of Hollywood's Golden Years, who has little time for today's processed canned product, I rarely view anything made after 1955.
But I thought that Cannery Row would be couple hours of escape with characters that lived simply in an earthier time and place.
The opening, with the seagulls at evensong and the bell buoys swaying in the swell, with the fatherly voice narrating augured well.
Then the two main protagonists were introduced to us. We had two Hollywood Idols of their day trying to act, or should I say emote, as two losers in a shanty town. That was bad enough, but I followed them into some elaborate expensive Emporium Brothel that was out of Paris of the 1890's with a staff of hookers that outnumbered the towns residents.
I couldn't take any more, and at this point I gave up and canned the movie from my collection.
I mean, Hunk Nick Nolte in his prime as an eccentric would be marine biologist and reigning beauty queen of the day Deborah Winger as a "drifter"?
I am not even related to the Hemingways, but I wanted to sue Hollywood, too :)
Take away the references to Hemingway and his book title and you have just another churned out, eminently forgetful, but expensively made TV pilot.
High Conquest (1947)
Mounting Passions
Before there were astronauts, there were mountaineers. Before there were cool actors there was Gilbert Roland. He is the star of this melodrama. His co-stars are the Matterhorn, Anna Lee and Warren Douglas.
The cliché start of the film is a gentlemen's club dedicated to mountaineering. Old friends in front of a roaring fire sipping fine brandy. A young man Geoffrey (Douglas)has been invited to join them, the son of a famous member of a mountaineering team who lost his life while climbing the Matterhorn. The story is told in flashback.
Hugo (Roland) is a Swiss Alpine guide, the son of another member of that famous team of climbers who lives a happy life in love with Marie (Anna Lee)
All that changes when Geoffrey decides to go on a sentimental journey back to the Swiss town where his father is buried. He meets Hugo's Marie on the train and they become attracted.
From there the movie turns dark, as the rest of the action takes place on the mountain with the two men vying for Marie's favour.
The film holds you attention all the way through. Roland is as reliable and interesting as ever, and while his co-stars Anna Lee and Douglas are rather one dimensional characters, the supporting cast are quite competent.
If you have a little time on your hands, not a bad way to spend it.
The mountain is the real star.
Mr. Arkadin (1955)
Heavy Slogging
This is a film for Orson Wells fans and filmmakers.
Don't press the pause button, to go to the frig, or you might not bother to resume play.
A cross between Citizen Kane and Joe McDoaks, as in "So you want to be a Private Eye". It tries for meaning, symbolism, and is replete with clownish characters, and some creative camera work, but Fellini it is not.
There is, unfortunately, no message. The sound is bad, and the dialogue is pedestrian.
It is more like a homework assignment than entertainment, but then, I thought Citizen Kane and The Third Man were grossly overrated too.
Young at Heart (1954)
Unforgettable!
An odd combination of pop musical and heavy drama, but it works, and how!
The performances are memorable by all concerned, with a gem of a performance by an ageing Ethel Barrymore, who steals all her scenes in a minor role.
The music and the songs, with one exception, fit easily into the plot and don't detract from the continuity of the action.
All, who were associated with this movie deserve an award.
Even the reported tension on the set between Sinatra, Day, and the producers seem to add a touch of reality to the on screen relationships. This crooner from Hoboken is entirely believable as the ultimate "outsider" to a happy suburban picket fence household.
In a subtext, one of the last depictions of the 50s ideal American suburbia, this film portended the new age of disaffection and rebellion against the status quo.
The Tuttle family were a sharp reminder of this suburban paradise lost!
To Have and Have Not (1944)
Highly Overrated Son of Casablance.
This film is nothing more than a quickie commercial vehicle for the main actors, using a borrowed plot. Bogie was a sure bet at the box office, and Bacall was promoted by her discoverer, Howard Hawks.
It's a cheap remake of Casablanca, but ends up more like Jack Benny's "To Be Or Not To Be". In this one, the Greenstreet and Lorre characters were played by cheap doubles.
Casablanca was a minor gem, where you really identified with all the characters and which left you feeling inspired about life, as you left the theatre.
Don't get me wrong, it is also highly watchable just for the intriguing personalities of the star leads, but you end up as a voyeur contemplating more about their talents, careers, and private life, than you do about the borrowed plot.
The rest of the cast were poorly developed and eminently forgettable stereotypes, as were the sets, especially, as another reviewer has pointed out, The Bar, supposedly an exotic locale, reeking of foreign intrigue, but it looks more lake a studio canteen at lunchtime.
I give it 6 out of 10 for it's two stars.
It's movies like this that makes Casablance so great.
Major Dundee (1965)
Not a John Ford western!
I had some hope of finding something to enjoy about this movie, given the star studded cast, but I came away disappointed. Heston's embittered Major was adequate enough, but Richard Harris, the British Actor was completely over the top, hamming it up as the dissident Confederate captive. He must have been included as a sop to the then current "British invasion",that, along with the Beatles, included Lawrence Harvey, Richard Burton, Michael Caine, et al. In any event, he brought "Scene stealing" to a new low.
The weak background plot, which has to do with searching out marauding Apaches, is nothing more than a set up for the real showdown between the two protagonists, Heston and Harris.
The attempts to give the story grit and realism, was overdone. The one-armed scout, played by James Coburn had me constantly scrutinizing his outfit to figure out how they hid his arm, and the completely gratuitous and stereotypical racial scene between the southern soldier and Brock Peters was farcial, as was the way this same supposedly tough, battle hardened soldier was sent yelping by the old preacher.
It might have appeared "edgy" in the 60s, but when soldiers are surrounded by the enemy and in imminent danger of being wiped out, race and background become secondary issues.
I didn't stay around for the ending, as I really didn't care what happened to the characters.
A John Ford western it was not.
Strangers in the Night (1944)
Decent plot a la Hitchcock, with an Ed Wood Jr ending.
This could have been a good movie. The main characters are well acted and believable in a melodramatic way.
In spite of some unlikely coincidences like the unnecessary train derailment, and our hero, a marine, recognizing the painter of the portrait of his fantasy girl as an old buddy from college, the plot concept is reasonably engrossing, moves along well, and tension is built up to almost the end. This part is written like a classic thriller.
Unfortunately,the last few minutes of the film seem as if the production crew had either run of of time or money and hastily contrived a hardly believable ending. That's the part that looks look it was written by a fifth grade class.
I'm sure if you didn't watch the ending, the film would actually haunt you. Of course, you want to know how it's all resolved, and instead of haunting you, you come away very unsatisfied.
Not a complete waste of time, but a certainly a waste of talent.
Gideon's Day (1958)
Americanized Scotland Yard Farce
This early attempt to depict London as a swinging place is a far cry from what you may expect in a British crime film.
Instead of fog and rain we have our hero driving around in the sunshine in an open convertible.
The characters are all obvious stereotypes and dress the part. The Scotland Yard cops use terms like "beat it!" and "hoosegow" which I doubt were in the original book.
The plot is a mishmash of seemingly unrelated, and quite uninteresting criminal activity, perpetrated by uninteresting one dimensional characters and one waits for the film to really get started.
Our hero, Jack Hawkins is a fine actor, but is wasted in this piece of Anglo-American fluff.