This is the eighth entry in a series of thumbnail reviews of films I’ve watched on the Criterion Channel streaming service. I finished off this set of 10 films in January 2022 (yes, I’m terribly behind!). Compared to my usual fare of 40s and 50s Hollywood classics, this time around I had a British WW2 film, a Taiwanese period drama, a low-budget Western, an unusual family drama set in rural Italy, a feel-good Christmas movie from the 40s, two films from prolific German director R.W. Fassbinder, two films from legendary American screenwriter-producer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and a Douglas Sirk melodrama.
Green for Danger (1946): The lists of great English-language films of the twentieth century are inevitably dominated by Hollywood productions, with relatively few British films making the cut. This was probably because many of them did not benefit from the distribution might of Hollywood studios, and were unavailable to international critics until the VHS/DVD era. One such hidden gem is Green for Danger, a murder mystery set during the V-1 bombing attacks on England in 1944. The film is headlined by British thespian Trevor Howard in one of his early roles, and filled out by a cast of skilled stage and screen actors. On the night of a V-1 attack in rural England, one of the injured villagers unexpectedly dies on the operating table. The anesthetist, played by Howard, is charged with negligence. Subsequent events indicate foul play, and other hospital staff are added to the police’s list of suspects. The ensuing mutual distrust among the staff is exacerbated by workplace conflicts and romantic entanglements, with everyone’s nerves strained to breaking point due to continuing bombing attacks. Director Sidney Gilliat had previously worked with Alfred Hitchcock, co-writing The Lady Vanishes in 1938, and he certainly picked up some tricks from the great master in ratcheting up the tension. Incidentally, the film title provides a clue to the modus operandi of the murderer.
A Bright Summer Day / 牯嶺街少年殺人事件 (1991): Set in Taipei in 1960, this is a slow-burn coming-of-age story of surly teenager Xiao Si’r. The boy has his hands full, attending night school to make up for poor grades, whilst navigating the politics of two rival gangs out on the streets. To further complicate matters, Si’r finds himself obsessing over Ming, the girlfriend of one of the gang leaders. All this plays out against the backdrop of raids by the Taiwanese secret police to root out sympathizers of the Chinese Communist Party, with one such investigation targeting Si’r’s father. Director Edward Yang incorporates everyday slice-of-life moments into the narrative to provide relief from the tension; child actor Wong Chi-zan in particular, has a few memorable scenes as Si’r’s street smart best buddy, “Cat”. Xiao Si’r is played with tragic authenticity by 15-year-old Chang Chen on his acting debut; since then he has risen to international fame, with key roles in Happy Together, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Red Cliff I and II, and most recently, as Dr. Yueh in the 2021 scifi epic, Dune. With a running time of about 4 hours, it’s possible to watch this absorbing drama episodically, like a mini-series. Nearly a decade later, Yang scaled similar heights with his contemporary family drama, Yi Yi: A One and a Two…; both films deservedly featuring in the 2022 Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time poll at #78 and #90 respectively.
The Shooting (1966): This low budget Western was directed by Monte Hellman, a protégé of American B-movie guru Roger Corman. In 1965, Hellman shot two Westerns back-to-back, The Shooting and Ride in The Whirlwind (both featuring Jack Nicholson and Millie Perkins), which have subsequently achieved cult status. The films have been retrospectively categorized as “acid westerns”, a term coined by film critic Pauline Kael in a review of the 1970 Mexican film, El Topo. The expression refers to a Western that subverts the genre by incorporating metaphysical themes and a hallucinogenic tone into the narrative, giving audiences the sense of being on an “acid trip”; something that was very much a part of the late 60s zeitgeist. In The Shooting, a mysterious woman (Millie Perkins) hires two men to escort her to a town across the desert; during the journey they are pursued by a black-clad assassin (Jack Nicholson). There is no attempt to explain the woman’s motives nor the purpose of her expedition, with her cryptic (and unpleasant) behaviour adding to the sense of intrigue. With a crisp 82-minute runtime, the absence of a plot doesn’t bog the narrative down too much, with the stark imagery being a key contributor to the entertainment factor. Hellman’s greatest achievement is considered to be the 1971 road movie, Two-Lane Blacktop, while Nicholson went on to decades of mega-stardom following the release of Easy Rider in 1969.
The Wonders / Le meraviglie (2014): This unusual drama centers on a family of beekeepers living in rural Tuscany. The film’s events are seen through the eyes of the teenager Gelsomina, the eldest of five sisters living on the farm with their mother and ill-tempered bully of a father. The initial scenes depict the typical hardship and monotony of rural life, but then their drudgery is interrupted by an unexpected sequence of events. These disruptions activate the natural restlessness of the youngsters and brings them into conflict with their father, a man firmly resistant to change or external influence. His behaviour led me to reflect on the psyche of people who are trapped in a way of life which they cannot escape from, even when given the opportunity. The Super 16mm film used by the filmmakers gives the interior shots the raw, intimate feel of a home movie, while the 1.66 aspect ratio does justice to the beauty of the Italian countryside. For its documentary-like realism, it reminded me of another Italian film – Ermanno Olmi’s The Tree of Wooden Clogs. Director and scriptwriter Alice Rohrwacher was only 23 when she made The Wonders, and received a Palm d’Or nomination at Cannes. Her follow-up, Happy as Lazzaro, won the Best Screenplay award at Cannes a few years later.
Holiday Affair (1949): Tough guy and film noir specialist Robert Mitchum made a brief genre switch early in his career, co-starring with Janet Leigh in this Christmas-themed romantic comedy. In the days leading up to Christmas, single mother Connie Ennis (Leigh) buys a toy train from Steve Mason (Mitchum), a war veteran turned department store salesman. One thing leads to another, and the two become romantically involved. Of course, there are many hurdles to be crossed before we can get to the mandated happy ending. Gordon Gebert, playing Connie’s precocious young son, and sad-faced character actor Wendell Corey, as Connie’s doomed-to-failure suitor, are part of an entertaining ensemble cast. The same year, Janet Leigh played Meg in Little Women, but she’s probably best known for the role of Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 thriller Psycho, and for being the mother of versatile actress, Jamie Lee Curtis. Before switching to a career in directing, Dan Hartman had already garnered two Oscar nominations for scriptwriting, including for the celebrated 1942 Bob Hope-Bing Crosby comedy, Road to Morocco.
The Merchant of Four Seasons / Händler der vier Jahreszeiten (1971): Rainer Werner Fassbinder was one of the leading lights of the New German Cinema movement, and one of the most prolific directors of his generation. Having never watched any of his films, I was gratified to discover all his well-known works on Criterion. I opened my account with this, his twelfth feature, which also represented his international breakthrough. It’s a rather bleak story of a fruit vendor (colloquially referred to in Germany as “a merchant of four seasons”), who just can’t catch a break in any aspect of his life. Fassbender’s incisive exploration of an uncaring and selfish modern urban society, is as unsentimental as the community it depicts. The circumstances and emotions depicted are even more relevant in the present day, given the rising number of broken marriages and general trend of weakening familial bonds. The film’s international success brought Fassbinder to the notice of domestic film critics who had previously ignored or dismissed him. It led to ten years of high profile film and TV projects before his untimely death from a drug overdose at the age of 37.
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul / Angst essen Seele auf (1974): I immediately opted to watch another Fassbinder film, and perhaps his most highly acclaimed work. Many commentators consider Ali: Fear Eats the Soul to be an update of Douglas Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows, but that would be like saying Star Wars is George Lucas’ remake of Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress; in both cases, the director has remade the film for a different era altogether, and added unique new elements that make the film all his own. As if tackling one social taboo wasn’t enough (young man falls in love with much older woman), Fassbinder decided to make the relationship interracial as well, an understandable choice given how race politics had become so central to Western society in the late 60s (and continues to be so). One rainy evening, Emmi, a lonely German widow meets Ali, a young immigrant worker from Morocco in a bar. The chance encounter eventually blossoms into love, but the couple’s attempts to live a normal life together are thwarted by the disgust and contempt they face from friends, family and society. The way Fassbinder portrays the impact this has on Emmi and Ali, is heartbreaking. The film is as powerful today as it was 50 years ago and it deservedly features (at #52) in the 2022 Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time poll.
5 Fingers (1952): This outstanding thriller is based on the true story of a spy (codenamed “Cicero”), who leaked top secret documents to the Nazis, while employed as a valet to the British ambassador in Istanbul during World War II. James Mason plays “Cicero” and French actress, Danielle Darrieux plays a key role as his confidant, an exiled Polish countess named Anna Staviska, whose late husband had ties with the Nazis. The film contains some of the most witty dialogue written for the screen. Take for example, this bit of small talk between Countess Staviska and German ambassador Count von Papen; the Count says: “Countess, why did you leave Warsaw?”; her droll response: “Bombs were falling, I felt I was in the way”. And later, to clarify her feelings towards Nazi leader Hermann Göring, she says “I refused to invite Göring <to hunt at our estate>. I couldn’t tolerate his killing a wild pig; it seemed too much like brother against brother.” The plot is full of fantastic twists and turns and keeps you glued to the screen right till the end. The film was deservingly nominated for Best Screenplay and also garnered a third Best Director nod for Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Mason had just moved to Hollywood after a successful film career in England, and this was one of his early successes; two years later he would receive his first Oscar nomination for The Star is Born.
A Letter to Three Wives (1949): After watching 5 Fingers, I turned back the clock three years to this Joseph L. Manckiewicz film, one of his earliest successes as a director. While we are familiar with “high concept” sci-fi and action films, here we have a social drama powered by a high concept. In fact, the pitch is in the film’s title – one morning, three well-to-do women who are about to leave on a boat trip receive a letter from Addie Ross, a common acquaintance, informing them that she has run off with one of their husbands, but not specifying which one! Stuck on the boat, the three friends frantically try to figure out which of them is the unlucky one. A series of flashbacks reveal the dynamics of the three marriages, all plagued by self-doubt and friction, exacerbated by the demands of the “social ladder” rat race. One common source of the three wives’ insecurities is the their husbands’ unanimous admiration for Addie Ross, the epitome of social success in their local community. High drama ensues in the final act, as the women rush home after their boat trip to uncover the culprit. Although considered a Hollywood classic, I found the film a bit dated, and not something I would be inclined to watch again. The drama won Mankiewicz an Oscar each for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, and was also nominated for Best Picture. Kirk Douglas, who at that time was considered a fast rising young actor, plays one of the husbands; a few months later, his lead role in the sporting drama Champion represented a turning point in his career, garnering him his first Oscar nomination.
Written on the Wind (1956): Douglas Sirk was the king of the Hollywood 1950s melodrama, whose films I suspect, influenced a number of Indian directors of that era. Sirk formed a strong personal bond with Rock Hudson, with Written on the Wind being the seventh of nine films they collaborated on at Universal Pictures. The story revolves around Kyle, the self-destructive son (played by Robert Stack) and Marylee, the love-starved daughter (Dorothy Malone) of a Texas oil billionaire. The brunt of their actions are borne by Mitch Wayne (Rock Hudson), a senior employee and close friend of the family, and Lucy Moore (Lauren Bacall), an office secretary who is drawn into the family politics. The plot involves themes of impotence and promiscuity, and the overt depiction of these on the screen reflected the steady decline of Hollywood self-censorship (aka the Hays Code) in the late 50s. Under Sirk’s direction, these ingredients serve up a high octane melodrama, whose emotional beats have echoed down the years onto shows like Dallas, Dynasty and Yellowstone. Dorothy Malone deservedly won an Oscar for her portrayal of the emotionally fragile heiress Marylee, whose ill-judged actions are a result of her failure in love. A sad footnote for one of the stars – the film was released just weeks before Lauren Bacall’s husband, film icon Humphrey Bogart, died of cancer.
Here are the links to the previous thumbnails: #1-10, #11-20, #21-30, #31-40, #41-50, #51-60 and #61-70.
Chronophlogiston 
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