Silver Lode (1954)

☆ ☆ ½

Silver Lode (1954) – A. Dwan

Noirish western (in color) that sees second string lead actor John Payne nearly strung up based on circumstantial evidence when a self-styled avenging Federal Marshall (Dan Duryea) turns up in town – on the 4^th of July, also Payne’s wedding day.  As in High Noon, Payne finds that his so-called friends in the town where he has made his home for the past two years are suddenly reluctant to stand by him and willing to back “the law” even though there are good reasons to believe that the Marshall, named McCarty, is on a crusade and won’t be stopped by laws or otherwise.  Obviously, this film was designed as a rebuke to Senator Joe McCarthy and his friends over in the House Un-American Activities Committee who encouraged the blacklist in Hollywood (that stopped suspected Communists from working on any films).  It is pretty overt.  However, Payne’s background has nothing to do with socialism or even community feeling – he is accused of killing a man over a poker game gone sour.  Allen Dwan’s direction is relatively undistinguished and the whole thing feels a bit rickety in this day and age.  But, that said, it comes as no shock to find that we still have grand-standing politicians (around the world) who will try to make a career by speaking loudly and belligerently about their “values” pillorying those who seem to affront them.  Go away ye petty tyrants and wake up sleeping masses.

Snowpiercer (2013)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Snowpiercer (2013) – J.-H. Bong

As usual, the dystopian future looks pretty grim (and John Hurt is there, fitting right in, appropriately named Gilliam).  In its infinite wisdom, humankind has released a chemical into the stratosphere to cool the planet and stop global warming – this freezes the Earth and causes all life to die except those who manage to escape on an insulated supertrain circling the globe. Director Joon-Ho Bong, in his first Hollywood feature, takes this high concept and brings it to life (although there is truly a lot of death). A grubby pitched battle in a crowded boxcar eventually takes on greater grandeur as a sociological look at the class struggle (with the 1% enjoying obscene privileges again, embodied by Tilda Swinton as a Thatcheresque grotesque).  Ed Harris, the engineer, gets to deliver a sermon about evolutionary theory and ensuring that the ecosystem is balanced before Bong and his Korean team blow everything up.  A bit too cramped in this train for me, as Bong favors action over thought, but this might be the key to a successful commercial career.

Funeral in Berlin (1966)

☆ ☆ ☆

Funeral in Berlin (1966) – G. Hamilton

In his second outing as spy Harry Palmer, Michael Caine isn’t quite as cocky or fun.  Instead, the intelligence business seems to have ground him down a bit.  To help a Russian Colonel who wishes to defect from the East, Palmer is sent to Berlin and famous Checkpoint Charlie. Of course, things are not exactly what they seem and Palmer is not quite sure who is working for whom or even who is who.  Things do get a bit confusing and if you attempt to figure out the why’s and wherefore’s after all is said and done, you might have trouble connecting the dots (maybe Len Deighton’s novel is clearer). Nevertheless, it feels plausible while it’s happening and serves as a passable time-waster.  Goldfinger’s Guy Hamilton directed.

Call Her Savage (1932)

☆ ☆ ½

Call Her Savage (1932) – J. F. Dillon

After a number of sex scandals and high profile court cases knocked her out of the public eye, Clara Bow attempted a comeback with this talkie film.  Referred to as “pre-code” because it was produced before the infamous Hays Code was brought in to mandate decency, happy endings, and good morals (the villain always gets punished in the end).   Here, however, there are numerous transgressions of good taste and acceptable conduct.  For one, Clara doesn’t wear a bra.  Beyond that, there is at least one good cat-fight, some inter-racial romance, a gay bar, and desperate prostitution.  There is also some high melodrama (Clara’s baby dies in a fire).   But none of this seems to change the pace of the movie, which is spoken as though every line was a potential one-liner (with a delay for the laugh, which isn’t warranted in most cases).  So, it just feels a bit odd and unusual, which may have been typical for films in 1932, as sound was just getting established.  A curiosity but no more.

The Scarlet Hour (1956)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Scarlet Hour (1956) – M. Curtiz

This is definitely a late B-noir that echoes a lot of finer films (Double Indemnity, principally) with unknown leads sporting that well-known wooden acting style.  Yet, somehow director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, Mildred Pierce) manages to make it suspenseful and even lets us care about the “hero”.  Familiar character actors Elaine Stritch, James Gregory, E. G. Marshall, and Edward Binns flesh things out and comedy writer/director Frank Tashlin somehow had his hand in the story (an illicit affair leads to a desperate robbery and murder and then the rest is all denouement as the cops close in).  Worth a look if you can find it.

Unfaithfully Yours (1948)

☆ ☆ ☆

Unfaithfully Yours (1948) – P. Sturges

Rex Harrison wants desperately to be in a manic Preston Sturges movie (such as The Palm Beach Story or The Miracle of Morgan Creek) and he heroically tries to make it so.  Just look at him thrashing about his apartment destroying stuff on his own.  It’s a bit sad really because this film shows Sturges running out of steam. The concept is good: a famous symphony conductor suspects his wife of cheating (after receiving an unwanted detective’s report from Rudy Vallee) and proceeds to imagine what he will do.  That is, there are three fantasy sequences that arise while he is conducting, apparently magnificently (the camera tracks into his eye each time). Unfortunately, his wife, played by Linda Darnell, isn’t up to the manic comic standards and the script contains too few funny gags and just so much useless thrashing about.  And this was Sturges’ last hurrah (more or less) – too bad because he burned so brightly during the war years.

The Seven Year Itch (1955)

☆ ☆ ½

The Seven Year Itch (1955) – B. Wilder

I’m not sure what I expected – but I was hoping for more bite from Billy Wilder.  Instead, the film is awkwardly dated, focused on neurotic Tom Ewell’s fantasies about Marilyn Monroe (subletting the apartment upstairs) while his wife and son are away for the summer.  Maybe the Freudian underpinnings were more shocking in 1955 (as Ewell’s id battles his superego) but there is a bit too much lecherous leering for my tastes.  Then again, I don’t watch today’s sex comedies so possibly this sort of things still exists and might be more tasteless than Wilder’s tame shenanigans (by way of screenwriter George Axlerod) which end on a safe note (of course).  Monroe herself is exactly what you’d expect – playing dumb – but not as comedic as she is elsewhere.  Some Like It Hot is 1000 times better, so look there instead of here (despite the iconic subway vent scene).