Christmas Holiday (1944)

☆ ☆ ☆

Christmas Holiday (1944) – R. Siodmak

Unusual ingredients make up this strange pudding that wants to be a film noir but lands closer to melodrama, of a particularly bleak variety.  Perhaps it doesn’t feel quite like noir because the central protagonist, the narrator of the flashbacks, is female (played by teen actress Deanna Durbin in a grown up role).  Watching women suffer the cruel twists of fate that the noir deals out doesn’t create so much darkness as pity, especially when the woman is steadfast in her commitment to the wrong guy, the guy who caused her so much pain and misery.  That guy is Gene Kelly in an early role – he always seemed to have a sinister problematic quality and he plays it up here.  He is believable although Durbin (whose character has sunk to presumed prostitution) is not.  Director Robert Siodmak (The Killers, Phantom Lady, etc.) lays all the noir trappings out but the underlying story by Somerset Maugham (The Razor’s Edge), written for the screen by Herman J. Mankiewicz (Citizen Kane), is missing some edge.  An odd framing device involving a soldier on Christmas furlough doesn’t quite fit.  As I said, it is a strange pudding that might have tasted better if it weren’t a Deanna Durbin vehicle (albeit one designed to remake her image).

Treasure Island (1950)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Treasure Island (1950) – B. Haskin

Family fare from Disney that I recall fondly from my youth and have now had a chance to watch with my two sons (aged 6 and 3).  I’ve not read the Robert Louis Stevenson novel but its adventures would seem to be made for the screen.  Young Jim Hawkins receives a map to the titular island from dying Captain Billy Bones and turns it over to Squire Trelawney who funds a voyage.  However, he relies on ship’s cook, Long John Silver, to hire the crew.  Robert Newton owns the role with his pirate’s brogue (and some argue that he is the originator of all that “arrr, matey!” talk you can’t resist).  Silver is a very ambiguous character.  On the one hand, he is a notorious pirate and might be quick to slit a throat, especially amongst his own men, if they be getting out of line (see, it can’t be helped).  On the other hand, he seems to have a soft spot for Jim Hawkins (with whom we identify), even saving his life once or twice.  Of course, things are generally pretty tame, though vigorous at times.  The kids couldn’t quite hold on to the plot, which advances through talk that was over their heads (and laced with new pirate words) but I explained things and the older one was glued to the screen (though worried at times for our hero).  Enjoyable if you accept it for what it is.

Marie Antoinette (2006)

☆ ☆ ½

Marie Antoinette (2006) – S. Coppola

Stylishly shot and lavish in production values but empty and too long, this biopic of Marie Antoinette is a bit of a dud.  Too bad, because I really want to like Sofia Coppola’s movies! We should be simpatico and not just because we are from the same generation – she also likes indie rock.  Plus, I don’t mind style over substance – in fact, excessive style can be a plus (a la Orson Welles).  Yet, after The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation, I haven’t enjoyed any of her subsequent features.  Perhaps they are too dull (Somewhere), insipid (The Bling Ring), or awkward (the mash-up of indie rock and American teen behaviour with Versailles in the 18^th century found here).  Nevertheless, Kirsten Dunst does have presence and valiantly uses her charm to give the film some spark – but it can’t be sustained.  Jason Schwartzman is vacuous (presumably on purpose) and Steve Coogan is unfathomably here in a straight role.  But there are some great looking shots, sets, and locations.  

Coogan’s Bluff (1968)

☆ ☆ ☆

Coogan’s Bluff (1968) – D. Siegel

In a sort of prelude to Dirty Harry (1971), Don Siegel directs Clint Eastwood as a steely Arizona deputy sheriff come to the Big Apple to extradite a killer.  As was his m. o., Eastwood breaks all the rules, roughing up suspects (and others) and using whatever means were available (including sex) to get his way.  The expected fish-out-of-water gags are soon dispensed with in favour of straightforward action (fights and chases).  Siegel’s direction is no frills but it is effective and concise.  Lee J. Cobb is good in support as a harried NYC precinct chief (with other acting here just ordinary), but basically Eastwood’s star quality holds the film together.  Somehow, though, I just can’t find it in my heart to root for a reactionary hero.

HE Who Gets Slapped (1924)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

HE Who Gets Slapped (1924) – V. Sjöström

Lon Chaney is absorbing and creepy as a wronged and humiliated scientist turned masochistic circus clown (yes, you read that correctly) in this early silent film from new studio MGM.  Even behind his make-up Chaney burns with an intensity that lifts the movie beyond its revenge/love triangle plot.  Swedish director Victor Sjöström (later the star of Bergman’s Wild Strawberries) keeps things moving with deft editing and some odd set-pieces.  For example, there is a recurring motif of a clown spinning a globe, no doubt reflecting the fickle vagaries of fate. Although things drag when Chaney is not on-screen and the movie shifts to Norma Shearer and John Gilbert professing their love (even while her father sells her to the wicked Baron, ironically the man who stole Chaney’s scientific ideas and slapped him in the first place, in front of the Academy no less), the conclusion is effectively downbeat.  If only the weird business of the slaps was foregrounded a bit more, this could have achieved greater cult status.

Scream of Fear (1961)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Scream of Fear (1961) – S. Holt

Susan Strasberg keeps seeing her dead father around the estate after having been away for 10 years – except he is supposed to be very much alive according to her stepmother!  With the aid of her father’s chauffeur, Strasberg tries to solve the mystery, even as those around her indicate that they are concerned for her sanity.  Of course, if her father is really dead, then Strasberg is set to inherit his millions.  This provides a motive for doing her in – and her father too – or so she begins to think.  It is hard to separate the paranoia from the reality at times in this weird tale from Hammer studios.  Director Seth Holt allows stillness and silence to create suspense and absorb the viewer in the potential horror before her or him.  Yet something is not quite right in this solid spooky chiller!

The Black Swan (1942)

☆ ☆ ☆

The Black Swan (1942) – H. King

Although it won an Oscar for best color cinematography, The Black Swan is a rather lacklustre swashbuckler.  Perhaps the genre was worn out after the 1930s and the era of Errol Flynn and all those Alexandre Dumas stories.  Indeed, this film shares strong similarities with Flynn’s Captain Blood (1935) which is much better.  Tyrone Power is good here, but although he was known for adventure films, I liked him better in later darker films such as The Razor’s Edge (1946) or Nightmare Alley (1947).  Also, there are some funny character turns here:  Laird Cregar as a mountainous Captain Morgan (yes, of the rum) and George Sanders unrecognizable in a wild red hair and beard as Captain Billy Leach.  Maureen O’Hara is fine as Powers’ love interest but her scenes are rather static.  All told, this is fine Saturday afternoon fare but look to the earlier decade for the good stuff.