The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) – M. Scorsese

I stayed away from this film for a decade, perhaps because of its 3-hour length or maybe because of my general disinterest in Leonardo DiCaprio.  Also, I’m not a big fan of 1980s-styled greedy power-hungry capitalist jerks (I would say Gordon Gekko but I’ve never watched Wall Street).  But with time on my hands and a director like Scorsese, I decided to give it a try. And right out of the gates, I’m getting a very strong Goodfellas vibe (from the voiceover) – but perhaps just those scenes where Ray Liotta starts getting into drugs?  But wait, is Wolf actually a comedy?  Leo and stockbroker partner Jonah Hill are going way over the top – and so is Scorsese.  This could be a self-parody. The story echoes Goodfellas too: true story, life of crime, busted by the FBI, turn in your friends and write a book. We accepted the moral ambivalence of the gangsters in the earlier movie but never really identified with them because they were scary and violent.  Here, as I said, these guys are jerks – hard partying drug-users who use women for sex (cheating on their wives, even when chosen as trophies alone, such as Margot Robbie) and screwing over everyone who will trust them with a dollar. These are the kind of bros that we could do without.  But Scorsese pumps up the adrenalin, makes it all larger than life – and doesn’t quite indict us (or Leo) for finding it fun.  In the end, I’m not sure we should fault a director for repeating himself (particularly one like Scorsese whose output is so varied already) when it takes amazing technique to pull something like this off.  I just was just hoping for a bit of a message here rather than an anthem to bad boys (that is probably celebrated by today’s bad boys).

Razzia sur la Chnouf (1955)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Razzia sur la Chnouf (1955) – H. Decoin

As I understand it, after all of his successes for Renoir and Carné & Prévert in the 1930s (not to mention Pepe le Moko), Jean Gabin had a bit of a lull in his career until his comeback as a world-weary gangster in Touchez Pas au Grisbi (1954) for Jacques Becker (a masterpiece).  Then began a spate of French noir or gangster films where he was equally likely to play a cop or a criminal. In Razzia (the title translates as “Raid on Drugs”), he is another aging gangster returning to France after a decade spent overseas, largely in the US.  He is hired as an enforcer for boss Marcel Dalio, charged with applying some discipline to his drug racket, while acting as the proprietor of a bar/restaurant.  So, Gabin (playing Henri Ferré from Nantes) begins making the rounds, meeting the chemist, the delivery men, and the dealers, pressuring them to pick up their game and increase sales. As viewers, we are treated to some pretty lurid scenes (as far as 1955 goes) and director Henri Decoin doesn’t pull his punches when showing the negative effects of heroin on the customers and crooks. Lino Ventura (later a star in Jean-Paul Melville’s Sixties French noirs) and Albert Rémy are two gunmen paid by Dalio to assist Gabin but they also don’t really trust him.  Indeed, we also feel that Gabin might be looking after his own interests as much as (or more than) Dalio’s. Yet even after getting beat up by the cops, Gabin plays everything cool and methodical (including his no-nonsense seduction of bar hostess Magali Noël). Perhaps you’ll see the end of the film coming and perhaps you won’t.  It doesn’t surprise.  But what is essential about this film is its mood – the noir vibe. I wouldn’t rank it with the best of the genre (such as Rififi which came out the same year) – but it is a welcome invitation back to the smoky underworld of Paris.

 

The Suspect (1944)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Suspect (1944) – R. Siodmak

Charles Laughton is a kindly businessman with a shrewish wife in early 20^th century London. When young jobseeker Ella Raines chances into his office, they strike up a friendship which blossoms into affection.  Eventually, Laughton decides to ask his wife for a divorce, but she refuses. He tells Raines that they can’t meet again but it is too late because his wife has found out and threatens to tell everyone about his suspected infidelity.  The next thing we know, she is dead and a police inspector is nosing around Laughton’s place.  We never feel anything but sympathy for Laughton, even as the police start tightening the screws upon finding a “motive” (his relationship with Raines).  But they can’t pin anything on Laughton – that is, until his drunken rotter of a neighbour (Henry Daniell) claims to have heard the murder through the walls. Now Laughton is really cornered and the usual fate of the film noir protagonist awaits him.  Yet he is willing to try one last gambit (and still remarkably retains audience sympathy).  This is not the typical noir, but a character driven piece with Laughton more subtle than his later scenery chewing years would suggest and fine direction from noir stalwart Robert Siodmak (The Killers, Criss Cross, etc.). 

 

Horror Castle (1963)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Horror Castle (1963) – A. Margheriti

Another atmospheric Gothic chiller from director Antonio Margheriti (see also Castle of Blood, 1964), here credited as Anthony Dawson.  Originally entitled “The Virgin of Nuremberg”, here we find married (not virginal) Rosanna Podesta moving to a spooky medieval castle in Germany with her husband whose ancestors lived there. The castle is also home to a museum full of ancient torture devices (‘natch) that were once wielded by ancient patriarch The Punisher.  There is a statue of him in a hooded masked outfit with barbaric mace. On her first night, Mary (Podesta) awakens to find her husband Max (Georges Riviere) missing – she wanders downstairs, through the lonely castle (full of shadows and bumps in the night) and into the museum. Following a trail of blood, she finds a dead woman inside the legendary iron maiden. Of course, no one believes her the next day.  Once we see someone roaming the halls dressed as the Punisher, we are led to suspect that anyone could be the killer, including husband Max, loyal (but disfigured) aide Erich (Christopher Lee), and possibly even the cryptic old housekeeper Martha (Laura Nucci).  Although much of the film is Podesta wandering the castle in her dressing gown, there are enough suspenseful events to hold your interest – and the unexpected twist at the end is worth the wait.  Beautifully gruesome.  

 

The House on 92nd Street (1945)

 ☆ ☆ ☆

The House on 92^nd Street (1945) – H. Hathaway

Using the documentary style for which Dragnet later became famous on TV, Henry Hathaway’s war-time noir includes voice-over narration, real location shooting, found footage (of Nazi spies, J. Edgar Hoover, etc.) mixed with actors (Lloyd Nolan and Leo G. Carroll, most noticeably) and a torn-from-the-headlines plot (Nazi spies are trying to smuggle secrets of the atomic bomb out of the US).  Bill Dietrich (William Eythe) is a college student recruited by the Germans to spy for them but he quickly tells the FBI and works as a double agent for them.  We see how he makes contact with the Nazi spy ring and attempts to earn their confidence while still passing along details of their actions and communications back to the FBI.  With this information, FBI Inspector Briggs (Nolan) hopes to find the local kingpin, Herr Christopher, and break up the ring before it’s too late.  Apparently, references to the bomb were added just before this was rushed into release in September 1945.  Not bad but a bit of a programmer.

 

The Spanish Prisoner (1997)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Spanish Prisoner (1997) – D. Mamet

There was a time when David Mamet was compared to Alfred Hitchcock, at least with regard to the puzzle films he created (if not for his primary work as a playwright). House of Games (1987), his first, was probably the best of these films.  Then, there seemed to be a distinct dropping off in quality – I don’t even recall his last two features, Spartan (2004) or Redbelt (2008), but they do suggest the macho one-ups-man-ship that has also been a hallmark (or target) of his work (see also his Glengarry Glen Ross, 1992, directed by James Foley).  Returning now to The Spanish Prisoner (1997), I was pleased to discover the twists and turns of the classic con-game film, even if it took a few minutes to get used to the stylized literary dialogue (and they way the actors speak it).  Campbell Scott plays an inventor (of the MacGuffin, or “Process”) who promises his boss (Ben Gazzara) that he will protect the company secrets, even as he begins to worry that he won’t be fairly remunerated.  This worry is encouraged by Jimmy Dell (Steve Martin), a rich New Yorker who Joe Ross (Scott) meets on a Caribbean island when sent there for a company meeting.  As viewers, we are quickly led to suspect Dell is not all he seems – and secretary Rebecca Pidgeon soon joins forces with Ross (and the FBI) to investigate.  But is it all too late?  Maybe.  Styled perhaps on the Hitchcockian chase thriller (as the noose tightens Ross finds himself on the run from both baddies and the cops), this is mostly prestidigitation on the surface without too much of a look at Mamet’s deeper themes. But fun enough, as the pieces slowly fit together.  

 

Crossroads (1942)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Crossroads (1942) – J. Conway

William Powell plays David Talbot, a French diplomat, recently married to beautiful Hedy Lamarr, who is suddenly accused of an outstanding debt and asked to turn over $1 million francs.  Unfortunately, Talbot has long been suffering from amnesia and can’t remember his past!  When he refuses to pay, he’s taken to court where witnesses identify him as another man (Jean Pelletier). There are a few twists and turns in the plot (that involve Basil Rathbone and Claire Trevor) but Talbot remains inscrutable throughout.  Is he pretending to have amnesia? It's a possibility. Powell only occasionally allows his witty and dapper (Thin Man) persona to show through and instead remains glum and rather dour most of the time.  This takes a bit of the shine off the film but it is nevertheless a solid watch, if not quite noir. Of course, it’s all tied up with a bow at the end (although didn’t seem like it would be).