Huston’s First: “The Maltese Falcon” (1941)

by Dean | May 2, 2017 | General

The Maltese Falcon (1941 film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have never desired to see the 1931 film of The Maltese Falcon, but only John Huston‘s acclaimed 1941 version.  This is because Huston had the ability to make any movie a Big Deal, an event, without pretentiousness but certainly not without artistry, as is the case with  Maltese.  He had a capital Sam Spade in Bogart and didn’t sanitize the character.  Indecent in many ways, Spade looks quasi-angelic next to the sneaky felons played by Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre, both fascinating.   

Love And Mass Murder: The New Movie, “The Promise”

by Dean | Apr 30, 2017 | General

The Promise (2017), by Terry George, is a film about love and mass murder in the Ottoman Empire in 1914.  An Armenian medical student, Michael (Oscar Isaac), is engaged to be married but drifts into an easy love for another man’s sweetheart, Ana (Charlotte Le Bon), also Armenian.  That these two are Armenian inescapably makes them targets for a stronger power—the Turks—who start destroying those of this particular ethnic group.

The movie is often beautiful and always transporting, a big-screen treat.  (I have no desire to see it on the small screen.)  But it is not the cinematic epic Hollywood should have given us, except for its dealing with the Armenian genocide.  Director George and Robin Swicord have penned a highly predictable and often trite screenplay.  Trite: after Michael and Ana make love one night, the film cuts to Michael still in bed, looking at a fully dressed Ana as she dutifully puts up her hair. . . Also, there is nonsense.  An Armenian captive prefers having a bullet lodged under his facial skin to its being taken out.  (Hey, it isn’t fatal yet.)  And why do the Turks permit the Armenians to carry crates of explosives when the Turks themselves are at risk?

After reading Read’s Scarpia, I am dumbfounded by how inadequate a period piece The Promise is.  I don’t regret, even so, seeing it in a theatre, and you may not either.  How disappointment can be kept at bay, though, I do not know.

Cinderella Fella

by Dean | Apr 27, 2017 | General

Cover of Cinderella Man [HD DVD]

On the caricature side, in this chronicle of the early-adult life of boxer James Braddock (Russell Crowe), there is 1) a repulsive Max Baer and 2) a dismal fat cat who revokes Braddock’s license to box after Braddock fails to put on a good show.  Then there’s Braddock’s wife Mae (Rene Zellweger), more a cliché than a caricature; she dislikes her husband’s profession, his being “a punching bag.”  She visits Braddock’s manager to protest.  Gad!

Cinderella Man is watchable, though, because it’s captivatingly honest enough about poverty, and the boxing scenes are exciting, supplely executed, and perfectly edited.  The poverty is that of the Great Depression, during which Braddock makes very little money since he is unable to fight.  But a second ascent for this nice Catholic man finally begins.  Howard’s film doesn’t stick in the gray matter, but it is inspirational.  And far superior to A Beautiful Mind.

Spurning “McCabe and Mrs. Miller”

by Dean | Apr 23, 2017 | General

Cover of McCabe & Mrs. Miller

Robert Altman‘s McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971) does appear to be far more truthful about the American West than other Westerns (i.e., mythological Westerns).  However, I don’t know which is more ill-written—the movie’s Leonard Cohen songs or the Altman-Brian McKay script.  Er . . . it has to be the script.

Warren Beatty enacts a profane cynic who becomes a dominating businessman in a frontier town, and gradually he begins a relationship with a brothel madam (Julie Christie) which is pretty hazy.  The film is boringly and laughably anti-capitalist and has a lot of lame, dopey dialogue.  Although it isn’t Beatty’s fault, he doesn’t really know what kind of man he is portraying, and yet his acting is assuredly superior to that of Christie and Rene Auberjonois, who are merely going through the motions.

The costumes and production design are exactly what a non-mythological Western should have.  Even so, I said the Beatty character, John McCabe, is a profane cynic; hence it comes as no surprise that Altman’s film is an offputting, foul-mouthed (and unfocused) mess.

No Calamity, This Movie: “Calamity Jane”

by Dean | Apr 20, 2017 | General

Initially, Doris Day‘s acting in the 1953 Calamity Jane is self-conscious, rather phony, but it improves as the movie goes on; and needless to say she performs outstandingly in her musical numbers.

The choreography for the song, “Just Blew In From the Windy City,” really has Day travelling, doing everything but jumping through hoops, and the tune resembles the other tunes by being snappily fun.  The nice ballad, “Secret Love,” is a truncated “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” but both it and another ballad, “The Black Hills of Dakota,” deserve their places here.

Doris is a lot cuter than the real—and homely—Calamity Jane, although for a long time zero femininity emanates from her.  Enter the undeniably feminine Allyn Ann McLarie to balance things out.  A good singer, she arouses the interest of a great singer, Howard Keel (as Wild Bill Hickok).

Most of the films of David Butler, who directed CJ, I’ve never heard of, but I’m glad I’ve heard of this one.  It is a winsome entertainment.

Calamity Jane (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)