Every now and then, I come across an album that completely blows my mind, as it seems perfect in almost every way. The last such album I listened to was The Mars Volta’s self-titled 2022 release. A few days ago, I was browsing a list of albums on my Spotify home screen and randomly clicked on one with an interesting cover design (I am eternally grateful to their recommendation engine for many such chance discoveries).
The album, Antimai, was a July 2022 release from an American prog rock group called The Dear Hunter. I was surprised that I had never heard of them, considering they have been around since 2006 and that almost all of their nine studio releases have been concept albums; I regularly conduct searches for “best concept albums of the year/decade” or “latest concept album releases”, and somehow hadn’t picked up their name from the search results (although I subsequently validated that they do show up!). Although they clearly have a loyal fan following, and their releases are covered in dedicated sites like The Prog Report and Prog Archives, it’s a crime that the band are not better known, given the quality of their music.
The main body of their work is a series of concept albums known as the Act Series, with five albums released between 2006 and 2016, and the sixth and final instalment still awaited. Antimai is the second album in a new narrative series, whose story kicked off with the 2021 EP, The Indigo Child and an accompanying short sci-fi film called “The Indigo Child: Prologue: Cycle 8” | DUST.
From left to right, The Dear Hunter: Robert Parr (backing vocals/guitar), Maxwell Tousseau (backing vocals/guitar/keyboards), Casey Crescenzo (lead vocals/guitar), Nick Sollecito (bass) and Nick Crescenzo (drums)
Artist: The Dear Hunter, comprising Casey Crescenzo, (lead vocals, guitar, organ), his brother Nick Crescenzo (backing vocals, drums & percussion), Maxwell Tousseau (backing vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion), Robert Parr (backing vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Nick Sollecito (bass). Additionally a horn section features on several tracks.
Album theme/concept: The fictional city of Antimai is built in concentric circles, with each ring occupied by a separate caste and organized in a social hierarchy. Each song represents one of the eight rings of the city.
Best songs: Ring 8 – Poverty, Ring 7 – Industry, Ring 6 – LoTown, Ring 5 – Middle Class, Ring 3 – Luxury, Ring 2- Nature.
What makes it special: Listening to Antimai is like drinking a new wine and having your taste buds tickled by notes from old favourites. I could get hints of Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois, The Grateful Dead’s Terrapin Station, Mayer Hawthorne and even late 80’s Miami Sound Machine. The tracks have the shifting song structure that is typical of prog rock, but are also infused with elements of Jazz, R&B, funk, Caribbean and Latin rhythms. All of this is expressed through lush orchestration and elevated by delightful vocal harmonies.
The album kicks of with a song about the outermost ring of the city of Antimai; the track is named Ring 8 – Poverty, and the opening bars felt like the soundtrack to a thriller film; in fact I started visualizing these notes playing over the tense opening scene of the 1958 Orson Welles classic Touch of Evil.
Ring 3 – Luxury is perhaps the most ambitious track on the album and is essentially a two-part song, with the first part titled Hall of the Guides, kicking off with spoken verse like in a stage musical, which then segues into a melodic song. But the real beauty is the second half, titled Cream of the Crop, which features a delightful nine-note riff before each verse, played on a marimba or xylophone (or perhaps it’s a Caribbean steel drum).
My favourite track is Ring 2 – Nature, which I have listened to more times than I can count. I love it for its heartfelt melody and evocative, and sometimes playful lyrics:
“Then there arose those intent on moving And like a miracle, they kept improving Then change begat the tail begat the fin begat the fist Strength enough to subsist”
In my listing of Best songs, I’ve excluded only 2 out of the 8 tracks, and that’s only because those two don’t appeal to me quite as much as the other six, in a relative sense. Many other reviewers consider the closing track Ring 1 – Tower, as one of the best on the album.
Antimai is the gift that keeps on giving, as every subsequent round of listening reveals new sounds embedded in the many layers of music. I look forward to its sequel titled Sunya which is due out some time this year.
Here are the other bands/albums featured in this series:-
This is the ninth entry in my series of thumbnail reviews of films I’ve watched on the Criterion Channel streaming service. I finished off this set of 10 films between February and early April 2022. It includes three films featuring Harry Belafonte in the cast (including his film debut), another satire from Spanish auteur Luis Garcia Berlanga, a Swedish drama with Ingrid Bergman in her first lead role, an all-time Hollywood classic from Joseph L. Mankiewicz, a Douglas Sirk melodrama, an Italian farce about sexual impotence, a truly unpleasant rural drama from the great John Ford, and an Italian anthology film featuring Silvana Mangano.
Island in the Sun (1957): Set on the fictional Caribbean island of Santa Marta, this star-studded film is an adaptation of Alec Waugh’s novel of the same name. The ensemble cast includes James Mason, Harry Belafonte, Joan Fontaine, Joan Collins, Dorothy Dandridge and Stephen Boyd. The story revolves around the members of the wealthy plantation-owning Fleury family and the intersection of their lives, both romantically and politically, with others on the island. These include an ambitious black union leader (played by Belafonte), a retired war hero, the island’s governor, and his eligible bachelor son. Another sub-plot involves a romance between an aspiring young mixed-race woman (played by Dandridge) and the progressive-minded aide of the island’s governor. With two interracial romances portrayed in the film, it was controversial enough to be banned in some parts of the US; to put it in perspective, this was ten years before the Sidney Poitier starrer Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. The plot and commentary on race politics was a key reason that Belafonte chose to be cast in the film. And of course, he gets to sing the song, Island in the Sun, which turned out to be one of his greatest hits. This was the third film of Belafonte’s career and coincidentally, he had costarred with Dandridge in all of them. Director Robert Rossen had previously received a Best Director Oscar nomination for All The King’s Men, and a few years later would go on to direct Paul Newman, The Hustler, one of the landmark films of his career.
Bright Road (1953): Since it was Harry Belafonte month on Criterion, it was inevitable that I would watch, Bright Road, his film debut. Belafonte establishes himself as a charismatic on-screen presence, even in a small supporting role as the principal of a rural black elementary school in Alabama. Most of the screen time however, goes to the legendary Dorothy Dandridge and the child actor Philip Hepburn. Dandridge plays an idealistic new teacher at the school, who takes it upon herself to encourage a problematic student to realize his potential. This big-hearted, low budget film is based on a short story and sticks to the source material, avoiding unnecessary padding, and coming in at a runtime of just 69 minutes. The following year, Dandridge appeared in the musical, Carmen Jones, and became the first African-American to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. Her two other notable screen roles are in Island in the Sun (see above) and the immortal Porgy and Bess opposite Sidney Poitier. Sadly, these watershed films did not help her career, and she died in 1965 of a drug overdoes at the age of 42.
Odds Against Tomorrow (1959): My third Harry Belafonte film in a row was this emotionally-charged noir crime thriller which ranks as one of the finest examples of the genre. It stars perennial bad boy Robert Ryan as Earl Slater, a racist criminal hired by a crooked ex-cop to pull off a bank heist, and partnered with a black man (Belafonte), who he naturally detests. Slater’s prejudice is so deeply entrenched that no rational argument or element of pragmatism can overcome his hatred towards his partner. Belafonte’s character is no pushover either, and gives as good as he gets. Naturally, the tensions, bickering and threats come in the way of the meticulous preparations required to pull off the robbery. Director Robert Wise invests as much time in fleshing out the characters and their back stories, as he does in the tautly filmed heist sequence. The standard aspect B&W cinematography adds to the claustrophobic feel of the film. Wise’s next effort was the diametric opposite in every way – West Side Story, for which he won Oscars for directing and Best Picture. He repeated the trick a few years later with The Sound of Music. One of the most versatile directors in Hollywood history, he was equally proficient with action, horror and sci-fi genres, but notably started his career as a film editor, with an early career highlight being the Oscar nomination he received for Citizen Kane.
The Executioner / El Verdugo (1963): The ever-entertaining Spanish thespian José Isbert stars in this amusing drama as Amadeo, a public executioner whose approaching retirement will make him ineligible for government accommodation. His solution is to convince his daughter’s fiancé to replace him, assuring the man that there are hardly any executions conducted and he will never actually have to do the deed. Things don’t quite work out as planned for the ill-starred fiancé-turned-husband, played by Italian acting icon Nino Manfredi. Isbert, as the highly persuasive and garrulous father-in-law and Manfredi, as the hapless milksop are a treat to watch together, while Spanish actress Emma Penella plays the daughter trying to make the best of the situation. The final act features some striking and symbolic imagery by cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli, who went on to work on three Sergio Leone films. This was the third of director Luis Garcia Berlanga‘s films that I found on Criterion, and I am so grateful to have been introduced to this remarkable director’s oeuvre. The film was nominated for a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Intermezzo (1936): This Swedish drama was 20-year-old Ingrid Bergman’s first lead role in a film; her luminous performance brought her to the attention of Hollywood producer David O. Selznick, leading to its English language remake in 1939 and her rapid climb to international stardom. In the film, Bergman plays a Anita Hoffman, a piano instructor who provides home lessons to the daughter of a famous concert violinist, Professor Brandt (played by Gösta Ekman). Impressed by her talent, the violinist invites her to accompany him on his next concert tour. During their travels, they fall in love and Anita Hoffman must choose between following her heart, or sacrificing her love to safeguard Prof. Brandt’s family. Bergman was a few years away from maturing into the beauty that the world fell in love with in Casablanca, but she certainly lights up the screen with her presence. The chemistry between her and her older costar heralded her future screen pairings with the leading men of Hollywood, including Humphrey Bogart, Gregory Peck, Gary Cooper and Cary Grant.
All About Eve (1950): All About Eve usually finds itself included in the lists of “greatest films of all time”, and rightfully so. The narrative centers around the power play between a successful Broadway actress, Margo Channing (Bette Davis), and an ingénue (Anne Baxter) who tries to insinuate her way into Channing’s personal and professional life. The supporting cast includes veteran character actors Thelma Ritter and George Saunders, and future star Marilyn Monroe in a minor role. The script is packed with acerbic dialogue and melodramatic scenes, which provides the perfect sandbox for the seasoned cast. Hollywood loves movies about showbiz, and typically rewards them with Oscar glory. But even by those standards, this film was an extraordinary success, garnering a record 14 Oscar nominations, and winning six, including one for Best Picture and two to Joseph L. Mankiewicz for Directing and Best Adapted Screenplay. He had won the same two awards the previous year for A Letter to Three Wives.
Imitation of Life (1959): The last of Douglas Sirk’s amazing run of 1950s melodramas, addresses complex themes of racial identity and white guilt. The plot of the film involves multiple dysfunctional relationships, particularly involving parents and their children, a recurring theme in Sirk’s films. The acting is top-notch from Lana Turner (as a struggling single mother Lora Meredith, who becomes a Broadway star), Juanita Moore (as Annie, her black housekeeper and confidante who enables Lora’s success) and Susan Kohner (as Annie’s fair-skinned daughter, Sarah Jane, who is able to pass as white, and is ashamed of her mother). I appreciated the film for its tackling of difficult subject matter, but I found the unrelenting negativity to be heavy going as a viewer seeking “entertainment”. Moore and Kohner received Oscar nominations for their emotionally charged performances as mother and daughter. Incidentally, Koehner is the mother of Hollywood directors Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz.
Il bell’Antonio / Handsome Antonio (1960): Sitting firmly in the genre of Commedia all’italiana, Marcello Mastroianni stars as a small-town playboy with a big secret – he’s impotent. His parents, proud of their son’s macho reputation, marry him off to the local village beauty (Claudia Cardinale), but their son’s inability to consummate the union leads to disbelief, shame and consternation for the entire family. A scathing commentary on gender politics and the unabashed patriarchy of Sicilian society of the time, the story was adapted from a novel by celebrated playwright and filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini. Mastroianni is his usual deadpan self, an acting style which suits his disingenuous protagonist, and Cardinale is magnetic as the blameless young woman who must fend off insinuations that it’s all somehow her fault. The film was directed by frequent Pasolini collaborator, Mauro Bolognini, whose body of work included five films nominated for the Palm d’Or at Cannes.
Claudia Cardinale and Marcello Mastroianni in Mauro Bolognini’s Il bell’Antonio (1960)
Tobacco Road (1941): I was searching for movies by directing legend John Ford, and chanced upon this inexplicably unpleasant film set in rural Georgia. I discovered that this so-called comedy was a significantly toned down adaptation of a novel and Broadway play, so I can only imagine how much worse this film could have been. The plot of the film centers around farm owner Jeeter Lester’s desperate attempts to prevent the bank from possessing his unproductive farm. His schemes are upended by the unpredictable behaviour of his grown-up children – a bumbling son and a nearly feral daughter. It’s difficult to describe how disagreeable every character in this film is, and how desperate I was for its 85 minute runtime to come to an end. Clearly I am in the minority, as the film was a box office success, and the only complaint from critics of the time, was that the film was too sanitized compared to the play! Vivacious actress Gene Tierney and dour leading man Dana Andrews both appear in supporting roles, a few years before they hit the big time as the leads in the 1944 film noir, Laura.
The Witches / Le streghe (1967): This anthology film consists of five segments, each directed by the cream of that era’s Italian filmmakers – Luchino Visconti, Franco Rossi, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Mauro Bolognini and Vittorio De Sica. The film was financed by uber-producer Dino De Laurentiis and all five segments starred his wife, acting superstar Silvana Mangano. The stories also feature well-known actors Alberto Sordi, Totò and Clint Eastwood (this was his next screen appearance after the Sergio Leone trilogy). As expected, some segments work better than others – the weakest was De Sica’s story, An Evening Like the Others, with Eastwood; Visconti’s segment, The Witch Burned Alive was intriguing for its exploration of fame and narcissism; the most annoying was Pasolini’s over-the-top fable, The Earth Seen from the Moon. The anthology format found great favour in the Italian film industry in the 50s and 60s, with films like The Gold of Naples (1954), Yesterday Today and Tomorrow (1963), Ro.Go.Pa.G. (1963) and Boccaccio ’70 (1970) attracting the top directors and stars of the time.
Following on from my last entry in this series nearly a year ago, which covered Mastodon’s many critically acclaimed concept albums, I take a look at Paradise Theater, the 1981 concept album from Styx, a band that rode the Album-oriented Rock (AOR) wave of the 70s to become one of the biggest stadium rock acts of its generation. Even non-fans couldn’t have escaped the heavy airplay enjoyed by their catchy soft rock/rock opera tracks like Mr. Roboto and The Best of Times, and power ballads like Lady and Babe. The release of Paradise Theater would take them to the top of the Billboard charts and was their biggest hit.
Styx in 1981: (from left) Dennis DeYoung, James Young, Tommy Shaw, John Panozzo and Chuck Panozzo
Artist: Styx, comprised of Dennis DeYoung (vocals, keyboards), James “JY” Young (vocals, electric guitars), Tommy Shaw (vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocoder), Chuck Panozzo (bass guitar, bass pedals) and his twin brother, John Panozzo (drums, percussion). Additional horn section featured on some tracks.
Album: Paradise Theater (1981)
Narrative genre: Ups and downs of an economic cycle
Album theme/concept: Fictional account of Chicago’s Paradise Theater, from its opening in 1928 to its closure thirty years later.
Best songs: A.D. 1928/The Best of Times/A.D. 1958 (three tracks sharing the same melody), Rockin’ the Paradise, Too Much Time on My Hands, She Cares.
What makes it special: To be honest, there is a relatively light connection between the songs and the story of Chicago’s Paradise Theater. This is a great album, with outstanding songwriting, arrangement and production values; period.
Musically, the songs are constructed around the band’s trademark three-part vocal harmonies, contributed by Dennis DeYoung, James Young and Tommy Shaw. The alto vocals and falsettos on the album comes from Dennis DeYoung, who took on the lead singer duties on all the tracks that he wrote. DeYoung also played the keyboards, which are integral to all the songs. The musical arrangement gives enough room for Chuck Panozzo’s bass licks to peek through the tight rhythm section.
The short opening track A.D. 1928 sets the tone right away with DeYoung’s keyboards and vocals, segueing seamlessly into beautiful harmonies of Rockin’ the Paradise. The highlight of the album is the anthemic The Best of Times, which is the quintessential Styx song, combing the vocal harmonies, keyboards and rhythm section into the perfect singalong package. Both the opening and closing tracks, A.D. 1928 and A.D. 1958 are effectively extensions of this song.
Too Much Time on My Hands is one of two songs written and sung by Tommy Shaw on the album. It kicks off with a twangy keyboard riff played by DeYoung, after which John Panazzo’s snare drum jumps in with a punchy beat. Although Shaw does not have DeYoung’s vocal range, his singing on this track and on She Cares (one of the unknown gems on the album) is effortless.
The second half of the album is not as strong, with the only notable tracks being She Cares and Lonely People, the latter’s horn section reminding me of of course, of that other famous (and eponymous) band from Chicago!
Two years later, Styx released another concept album, Kilroy Was Here, which featured the smash hit, Mr. Roboto. Soon after, this incredibly talented line-up had run its course due to creative differences, and the band broke up for several years. They reformed in 1990, but by then, their brand of rock had been replaced with heavy metal, which itself would soon give way to alt-rock and grunge.
Here are the other bands/albums featured in this series of my favourite concept albums:-
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.
James Mason and Danielle Darrieux in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 5 Fingers (1952)
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.
Continuing on from Part 1 and Part 2 of my 2022 music review, here are the final 8 albums released this year by some of my favourite artists.
Megadeth – The Sick, the Dying… and the Dead (2nd Sep): This band from LA was formed in 1985 following founder Dave Mustaine‘s exit from Metallica, and were considered one of the “big four” thrash metal bands, along with Metallica, Anthrax and Slayer. I think their best work is 1992’s Countdown to Extinction, which came out at the tail end of the metal era, just as grunge was taking over the world. Their 1994 follow-up, Youthanasia, had some good tracks too, but I’ve struggled to get through any of their subsequent albums; I think this is partly because they have stayed true to their brand of high-speed thrash metal, while my tastes have changed. That remains the case with this, their sixteenth studio album; diehard fans will probably love tracks like Life in Hell, Sacrifice and Killing Time, but they didn’t do anything for me. Night Stalkers with legendary rapper Ice-T and This Planet’s On Fire with Sammy Hagar on vocals both bring some variation to Mustaine’s limited vocal range. Although the album has received praise from music critics (it has a Metacritic score of 78), I don’t see myself going back for more. I’ll just have to be content with Capitol Punishment: The Megadeth Years, their excellent greatest hits CD from 2000.
Ozzy Osbourne – Patient Number 9 (9th Sep): The prolific rock vocalist continues to stay relevant at the age of 74, releasing his thirteenth solo album, just two years after his previous well-received effort, Ordinary Man. That 2020 album was notable for collaborations with a host of well-known musicians like Post Malone, Elton John, Slash and Charlie Puth, some of whom I would never have imagined recording with the former Black Sabbath front man. Osbourne continues in the same vein on his latest release, with a mouth-watering line-up of some of the greatest guitarists in rock (Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Mike McCready from Pearl Jam and former Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi), and a similarly impressive array of drummers (the late Taylor Hawkins and Chad Smith of Red Hot Chilli Peppers) and bassists (Metallica’s Robert Trujillo and Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses fame). Does it all add up? Well, it’s received an incredible 4 Grammy nominations – for Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance (both for the title track), and Best Metal Performance (Degradation Rules). The songs are immaculately arranged and produced, but do not explore any new musical ground. The only two songs that I would feel like listening to again are Nothing Feels Right and God Only Knows. Frankly, I would rather go back to Ozzy’s first three solo albums from the 80’s – Blizzard of Oz, Diary of a Madman and Bark at the Moon; they still set my pulse racing.
Vieux Farka Touré / Khruangbin – Ali (23rd Sep): Boureima “Vieux” Farka Touré, the son of legendary Malian musician Ali Farka Touré who passed away in 2006, released his self-titled debut album in 2007. I was captivated by his distinctive guitar play and the underlying groove of songs like Ana, Wosoubour and Courage. However, I lost track of his subsequent albums, and then was pleasantly surprised to discover that he had partnered with one of my current favourite bands, Khruangbin, to release Ali, a tribute album of his father’s cover songs. I hadn’t previously listened to Ali Farka Touré’s music, and had no point of comparison for these cover versions. So I ended up listening to each song twice to understand how they had been updated in this new collaboration. Essentially, Ali Farka Touré steps in for his father’s guitar and vocals, while Khruangbin adds a dubstep groove; the result is similar to the DJ remixes of old Hindi songs, which really works for me. It’s a crisp 37-minute-long album with 8 tracks and I really loved Lobbo, Tongo Barra and Alakarra. This is Khruangbin’s second collaboration of the year, having already released an EP titled Texas Moon with Leon Bridges in February.
Queensrÿche – Digital Noise Alliance (6th Oct): Queensrÿche’s 1988 magnum opus, Operation: Mindcrime is frequently included in lists of all-time great metal albums, and it also features in my own series of favourite rock/metal concept albums. The band went through a tumultuous phase following the dismissal of lead singer Geoff Tate in 2012, leading to a dispute around the rights to the band’s name. In 2014, a court decided in favour of co-founders Michael Wilton (lead guitar) and Eddie Jackson (bass), following which Tate (unsurprisingly) named his band Operation: Mindcrime. In spite of all the ups and downs, Queensrÿche have kept up a steady output and this, their 16th studio release, is their highest charting album since their glory years. Vocalist Todd La Torre does an impressive job of replicating Tate’s amazing vocal range, and the twin guitar attack from Wilton and Mike Stone ticks all the boxes on tracks like In Extremis, Lost in Sorrow and Out of the Black. The obligatory power ballad, Forest, unfortunately does not have the epic scope nor emotional depth of their classic Silent Lucidity. The album ends with an enjoyable cover of Billy Idol‘s Rebel Yell. Overall, I would rate Digital Noise Alliance as one of the best mainstream rock/metal albums of the year.
Skid Row – The Gang’s All Here (14th Oct): Skid Row was among the last of the “hair metal” bands that rose to fame at the end of the 80’s, enjoying massive success with their self-titled 1989 debut, driven by the singles 18 and Life and I Remember You. Lead singer Sebastian Bach had an impressive set of pipes, and became a hard rock sex symbol, following in the footsteps of other rock vocalists like David Lee Roth and Axl Rose. The band went off the radar with the rise of grunge and alternative rock, and hadn’t released an album for 16 years, until returning this year with their sixth studio album. Three of the original members remain – guitarists Dave Sabo and Scotti Hill, and bassist Rachel Bolan (all 58 years old) – and are accompanied by 35-year-old Swedish vocalist Erik Grönwall. The band still packs a punch, and songs like Hell or High Water, Time Bomb, Resurrected and When the Lights Come On evoke the American heavy metal sound made famous by bands like Mötley Crüe. The only disappointment is the 7-minute-long power ballad, October’s Song, which meanders along without any catchy hooks or riffs. The album peaked at a respectable #14 on the US Billboard charts, indicating there is plenty of appetite for more from the reconstituted band.
Joji – SMITHEREENS (4th Nov): George Kusunoki Miller (aka Joji) is a former YouTuber turned singer-songwriter, who I came across a couple of years ago via his poignant duet Afterthought, with New Zealand singer-songwriter BENEE. The song featured on Joji’s introspective and somewhat dark 2020 album, Nectar, and his new release SMITHEREENS, continues with a set of similarly thoughtful and melancholic tracks. Joji’s music can be described as lo-fi pop; the songs feature minimal instrumentation – essentially some synthesizer lines and a drum machine – delivering simple but appealing melodies. All the action revolves around Joji’s heartfelt vocals, which I would describe as a “baritone-edged tenor”, with falsetto used quite effectively as a hook on some lines, and electronic enhancement used purposefully elsewhere. Most of the praise from reviewers has been focused on the lead single, Glimpse of Us, but in fact, I enjoyed almost all the songs on this short 24-minute album – Feeling Like the End, Die For You, Before The Day is Over, Dissolve, NIGHT RIDER and BLAHBLAHBLAH DEMO (like the album name, some song titles are styled in all-caps).
Bruce Springsteen – Only The Strong Survive (11th Nov): “The Boss” is back with his 21st studio album and this time he’s recorded covers of his favourite R&B and soul songs. Given that Springsteen has built his career on “blue collar rock”, I admit I was surprised to learn that he is so fond of the R&B genre. Needless to say, the songs are all well-established classics, effectively a Motown greatest hits collection with nothing to dislike. The lead single is a delightful cover of Frank Wilson‘s Do I Love You, made all the more enjoyable by the high-energy music video. I got goosebumps listening to the second single from the album, a rendition of the Commodores‘ Nightshift. The music videos for all four singles (the other two being Ben E. King‘s Don’t Play That Song and Tyrone Davis‘ Turn Back the Hands of Time) capture Springsteen’s live performance energy. I do like the way the arrangement on most of the songs incorporates a string (violin, viola and cello) section. What an amazing gift from the legendary 73-year-old musician.
Smashing Pumpkins – Atum: Act One (15th Nov): Smashing Pumpkins was a high-profile poster child of the alternative rock movement, churning out critically acclaimed albums Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness in the 90’s, before fading out of mainstream pop culture over the next two decades in spite of regular recording and touring. They have returned with a bang with their latest project, Atum: A Rock Opera in Three Acts, an ambitious concept album which acts as a sort of sequel to the albums Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Machina/The Machines of God, continuing the story of a rock star named Glass. The album is being released in three instalments of eleven songs each. The first instalment, Atum: Act One was released last month, The opening track is an instrumental named Atum (pronounced “Autumn”), which starts off slow, but ends with a sense of grandeur. It is followed by three outstanding tracks – Butterfly Suite, The Good in Goodbye and Embracer – the last of which will definitely end up on my 2022 playlist. The compositions revolve around Billy Corgan‘s distinctive, heartfelt vocals and catchy keyboard riffs, with Jeff Schroeder‘s and James Iha‘s twin guitars and Jimmy Chamberlain‘s drums all interlocking beautifully. The remaining seven tracks continue in the same vein, although I didn’t find any that I loved quite as much as the first three (although Where Rain Must Fall has been rapidly growing on me). Overall, this is a mature, highly accomplished effort and I am definitely looking forward to Act Two scheduled for 31st Jan, 2023 and Act Three due on 23rd April, 2023.
That concludes my snapshot of 24 new albums released by my favourite artists in 2022. In 2023, I look forward to new releases from Uriah Heep, Metallica and Dream Theater, as well as the remaining two instalments of Smashing Pumpkins’ rock opera.
James LaBrie – Beautiful Shade of Grey (20th May): Canadian singer James LaBrie is better known as the long-time vocalist for American prog-metal band Dream Theater. All members of the band are constantly busy with solo projects or supergroups when not recording and touring together, and LaBrie is no different, with Beautiful Shade of Grey being his fifth solo release since 2005. This time around he pivots away from melodic death metal to a more mellow and accessible sound. His 24-year-old son, Chance LaBrie, whose band Falset launched their debut album in 2020, is the drummer on the album. Italian guitarist, Marco Sfogli, who has been a regular on previous LaBrie solo efforts, shines throughout, especially on the tracks, Devil in Drag, Hit Me Like a Brick and the beautifully arranged What I Missed. Many of the tracks, shaped by LaBrie’s characteristic vocal style, sound like the softer songs from recent Dream Theater albums – pleasant, but somewhat formulaic; the ballad, Supernova Girl and the predominantly acoustic Give and Take, are typical examples. Wildflower is a notable exception, with its vocal harmonies elevating it above the ordinary. The note for note cover of Led Zepellin‘s Ramble On sounds great, but is an incongruous presence vs. the style of the other songs. This 48-minute-long album is definitely worth a try for fans of the Dream Theater sound, or anyone looking for mellow metal.
Harry Styles – Harry’s House (20th May): The English singer-songwriter is a pop culture phenomenon, emerging actor (Don’t Worry Darling and My Policeman both released this year) and style icon all rolled into one. His third studio album was released earlier this year to similar levels of acclaim as his sophomore 2019 effort Fine Line, and has just garnered Grammy nominations for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album. I admit I haven’t listened to much of Styles’ music other than the ubiquitous Watermelon Sugar, and some hits from his One Direction days, but I count myself a fan of his sound and style, and so I was already positively predisposed to the new album. It certainly doesn’t disappoint, with a collection of songs that have depth and texture, exemplified by Music for a Sushi Restaurant, Late Night Talking, Grapejuice and the hit single As It Was. Then there’s Cinema and Daydreaming, both of which have a great R&B/soul vibe, with John Mayer on guitars on both songs (and what sounds like a Nile Rodgers riff at the end of the former track). The beautifully contemplative Boyfriends has the great Ben Harper on acoustic, electric and slide guitars. These delightful variations, including Styles’ falsetto on the chorus of Satellite, are the little surprises that make this album such a joy to listen to. One can only imagine what else this talented 28-year-old has in store for his fans in the coming years.
Def Leppard – Diamond Star Halos (27th May): Def Leppard has a special place in my life, as Hysteria was the first rock album I listened to, and fell in love with, back in 1987. I chronicled this a couple of years ago in a four-part series describing my journey through rock and metal. The British band has continued to remain active through the years, although they are not the chart-topping sensations they were in the late 80’s. To their credit, they have tried to experiment with their sound on albums like Slang (1996) and X (2002), but with mixed success. Their 12th studio album returns to their 80’s template, continuing with the same line-up of the past three decades – vocalist Joe Elliot (now 63 years old), Rick Savage on bass, one-armed drummer Rick Allen, and guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell (who replaced Steve Clark after he died on alcohol poisoning in 1991). The throwback sound with their signature vocal harmonizing, works perfectly, particularly on the early tracks Kick and Fire It Up. On two songs, the band collaborates with Alison Krauss, who brings her country vibe to This Guitar and the slower Lifeless. The band has had great success in the past with ballads and acoustic songs like 1992’s Two Steps Behind, and they land a couple of winners here with Goodbye for Good This Time and Angels, enhanced by a piano and strings arrangement. Overall, this album is well worth listening to for fans of Hysteria and 80’s hair metal/pop rock.
Michael Schenker Group – Universal (27th May): I have to confess, MSG barely qualifies as an “old favourite”; I do own their best-selling live release, One Night at Budokan, but have never listened to any of their studio albums. Band leader Michael Schenker (who started his career at age 17 as lead guitarist for Scorpions with brother Rudy)has been the constant through the years, accompanied by a revolving door line-up of respected musicians. The band had released 10 albums until 2008, and then after a gap of 13 years, came out with Immortal last year and Universal this year. Both feature top class Chilean vocalist Ronnie Romero, who has also been singing for Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow on their live shows since 2016. The creative energy on Universal appears to be directed towards vocal performances rather than guitar pyrotechnics, given the other high-profile guest vocalists on the album – legendary Helloween frontman Michael Kiske brings his distinctive pipes to the Ronnie James Dio homage, A King Has Gone (the Rainbow connection is strong here as the track features Rainbow’s former bassist Bob Daisley, drummer Bobby Rondinelli and keyboardist Tony Carey); highly regarded metal vocalist Ralf Scheepers growls and shrieks on the ferocious Wrecking Ball; former MSG lead singer Gary Barden and Romero share a duet on The Universe. If you want a dose of late 70’s no-frills guitar shredding and rock vocals, then this is the album for you.
Coheed and Cambria – Vaxis – Act II: A Window of the Waking Mind (24th June): This is the American prog-rock band’s much anticipated sequel to their 2018 release, Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures. It’s the latest in their long-running sequence of concept albums based on The Amory Wars, a space opera graphic novel series written by 44-year-old band frontman Claudio Sanchez. At four years, this is the longest gap between album releases in the band’s twenty-year history. The synth and Auto-tune elements have been dialed up on this release, and the intros to A Disappearing Act and Bad Man would not be out of place in a 90’s pop album. I have unconditional love for this band, but in this case there are only 4 out of the 13 tracks that I would put on my repeat listening list – Comatose, Liars Club, the outstanding Rise, Naianasha (Cut the Cord) and the epic 8-minute suite Window of the Waking Mind. That’s still a better hit rate than the 2 tracks I loved on Vaxis – Act I, so I have no complaints overall and I look forward to many more years of exhilarating output from this amazing band.
Of Montreal – Freewave Lucifer f<ck f^ck f>ck (29th July): The prolific Kevin Barnes, the man behind the band Of Montreal, has released three albums in as many years, with the latest being his 18th studio album since 1997. I was an unabashed fan of his delightfully effervescent 2020 release, Ur Fun, but surprisingly I couldn’t get any excitement out of I Feel Safe with You, Trash released last year and likewise, no vibe whatsoever from this year’s 33-minute long album either; after listening to it twice, there’s not a single song that I like. The music is too esoteric, experimental and freewheeling for my taste.
Russian Circles – Gnosis (19th Aug): This Chicago-based instrumental rock trio has been quietly accumulating a legion of fans since 2006 and this is their 8th studio release. I fell in love with their highly acclaimed 2013 release, Memorial, and thereafter listened to their previous album, Empros. I lost track of their subsequent three releases and sadly also missed their live performance in Kuala Lumpur in 2015. What I find particularly attractive about their music is Dave Turncrantz‘s slow drumming cadence, which produces a heavy, brutal, almost primitive sound, around which the bass and guitars are structured. There are few surprises on the 40-minute-long Gnosis, with the band sticking to its tried and trusted formula. My favourite is the title track highlighted by guitarist Mike Sullivan‘s eastern-style rhythms. The songs do start blending into each other after a while, although the one-two switcheroo of the lullaby-like Ó Braonáin, followed by the aural assault of Betrayal, did jar me out of my trance (neither song appealed to me!). Overall, a good effort which will be of interest to hardcore fans and first-time listeners, but nothing exceptional if you’re looking for some variation from their previous releases.
The Mars Volta – The Mars Volta (16th Sep): In September, I wrote a full review of the band’s new self-titled album, their 7th studio release, which marked their emergence from a self-imposed ten year retirement/hiatus. Two months later, it continues to be top of mind; in fact, Spotify’s year-end wrap-up of my listening choices acknowledged that Vigil was my top song of the year. There’s not much more to be said beyond that, except to express my deep frustration that the band didn’t get a Grammy nomination. This is definitely a contender for my favourite album of the year.
That brings us to the end of Part 2. In Part 3, I will cover albums from Megadeth, Ozzy Osbourne, Vieux Farka Touré& Khruangbin, Queensrÿche, Joji, Bruce Springsteen and The Smashing Pumpkins.
The past couple of years has seen a surge in new album releases from veteran bands. Typically, artists in the twilight of their career focus on monetizing their back catalogue through regular touring. The Covid lockdowns and inability to travel gave these bands the time and energy to write and record new music.
During this time, I’ve experienced the joy of listening to new albums from old favourites like Stone Temple Pilots, Deep Purple, Kansas, Yes, My Morning Jacket, Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne and of course, ABBA, with their thrilling return in Nov 2021 after a 40-year hiatus with the Grammy-nominated Voyage. Irrespective of the quality of these albums, the experience of listening and re-listening to them, identifying musical influences and shortlisting the best songs, has been immensely rewarding.
Having done this for 2020 (Part 1 and Part 2) and 2021 (Part 1 and Part 2), I was excited to see an even larger number of familiar names on the release list for 2022. As we close out the year, here are thumbnails of new albums from some of my favourite bands/artists, the majority of whom are rock and metal.
Jethro Tull – The Zealot Gene (28th Jan): I haven’t listened to a new Jethro Tull album since 1989’s Rock Island, a decent follow-up to their outstanding 1987 release, Crest of a Knave (which upset Metallica‘s …And Justice for All to win the inaugural Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Grammy). Fast-forward more than three decades, and 75-year-old founder Ian Anderson has returned with an all-new line-up (essentially the musicians he had been touring with over the past decade) to release the band’s 22nd studio album. Anderson’s flute-work is the DNA behind the album’s unmistakable “Tull” sound, while the songs themselves flit between Tull’s mid-70’s folk-rock sound and late 80’s rock-pop phase. The opening track, Mrs Tibbets, falls into the latter category while Sad City Sisters and Where Did Saturday Go? are examples of the former. Other notable tracks include Mine is the Mountain, The Zealot Gene, Barren Beth,Wild Desert John and the lovely, acoustic Three Loves,Three. The album does have a few filler songs, during which one tends to “tune out”, but then a good track comes along and grabs your attention. The closing song, The Fisherman of Ephesus, has a storytelling cadence which bears a passing similarity to some of Al Stewart‘s classic songs. Overall, the album is definitely worth a listen, and it’s really commendable that Mr. Anderson is still writing all the music and lyrics himself after all these years.
Steve Vai – Inviolate (28th Jan): My first exposure to Steve Vai’s virtuosity was on David Lee Roth‘s 1989 album, Skyscraper. One year later, his lead guitar magic on Whitesnake‘s Slip of the Tongue made it my favourite album from the band. And his 1990 solo release, Passion and Warfare (still considered his best work), yielded my favourite guitar instrumental track, Sisters. I am less familiar with his subsequent albums, although that didn’t come in the way of a mind-blowing experience watching him live in Kuala Lumpur in 2014. The 62-year-old released his tenth studio album in January, and it carries his instantly recognizable playing style, particularly what I refer to as “the sitar sound”. The standout track on the album is the first one, Teeth of the Hydra, which manages to sound relaxed and incredibly complex at the same time; the music video showcasing his new custom triple-neck Ibanez Hydra guitar is a treat to watch. My other favourite tracks are Little Pretty, Candlepower and Avalancha; all are melodious and have catchy hooks, not something one can take for granted with guitar virtuosos, who sometimes get carried away creating technically challenging music that may not necessarily be fun to listen to. No such issues with this amazing album.
Steve Vai with his custom Ibanez Hydra, featured on his 2022 album Inviolate
Scorpions – Rock Believer (22nd Feb): German rock band, Scorpions, released their 19th studio album seven years after their previous effort. Incredibly, three of the stalwarts from their glory years are still with the band – diminutive vocalist Klaus Meine (now 74 years old), rhythm guitarist Rudy Schenker (also 74) and lead guitarist Matthias Jabs (67 years old). On the new album, the band has revisited the formula that has delivered hits over the years and made them a popular live attraction – punchy riffs and hooks, a standard rock drum beat, the occasional guitar solo, and Meine’s distinctive nasal vocals. But for that very reason, it felt a bit dated and I struggled to stay focused through the first four tracks. Then come two consecutive songs which really stood out. Shining in Your Soul has a reggae/ska beat, reminiscent of their 1979 hit Is There Anybody There. And then came Seventh Sun, perhaps the best track on the album – the underlying slow drum beat gives the song a heavy feel, but there’s also variety – a plucked guitar intro line, a light catchy chorus and a guitar solo. The final track, When You Know (Where You Come From), is the obligatory ballad, but doesn’t have the same magic as Wind of Change. The deluxe version of the album has 5 additional tracks adding another 20 minutes to the album, but honestly none of them grabbed my attention.
D’Virgilio, Morse & Jennings – Troika (25th Feb): The prolific prog-rock singer-songwriter-musician Neal Morse (Spock’s Beard, Transatlantic, The Neal Morse Band), is out with yet another album, this time a collaboration with drummer Nick D’Virgilio and vocalist Ross Jennings. This highly pleasing one-hour-long release is filled with easy listening songs, which are strongly influenced by, and pay tribute to, the music of CSN. Every track delivers a combination of delightful vocal harmonies and beautifully coordinated musicianship. There’s no question that the acoustic ballad, Julia, is the standout track of the album, and is sure to be a staple of future live shows; listening to the track gave me echoes from Dream Theater‘s Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, particularly Solitary Shell. My other favourite songs are Everything I Am, You Set My Soul on Fire, One Time Less, Another Trip Around the Sun and My Guardian. I’ve named more than half the songs in the album, so it’s pretty clear that I really enjoyed it! At the age of 62, Neal Morse shows no signs of slowing down, with more than 40 studio albums under his belt, as well as countless cover albums, live recordings (including one with Yellow Matter Custard, a Beatles tribute supergroup) and compilations.
Sabaton – The War to End All Wars (4th Mar): Swedish heavy metal band, Sabaton’s tenth studio recording is yet another concept album revolving around war, and serves as a sequel to their 2019 release The Great War – both commonly used terms for World War I. I’ve previously written about The Great War album, in my on-going series about favourite rock/metal concept albums. Fans of the 2019 album know what to expect from the sequel – Joakim Brodén‘s elaborately descriptive lyrics, set to Hannes Van Dahl‘s militaristic drumbeat, and highlighted by catchy singalong choruses; the best examples are Stormtroopers, Dreadnought, Soldier of Heaven and Lady of the Dark. The opening and closing tracks – named Sarajevo and Versailles respectively – are a pair, built on the same musical structure. There are two tracks that deviate (pleasantly) from the established template. One is Hellfighters, which with its chugging rhythm guitars and lead solos, sounds very much like something that could have been written by Iron Maiden. And the other is Christmas Truce, which kicks off with keyboards and is sung in a suitably poignant tone. There’s no question that Sabaton continue to evolve musically, while staying true to their chosen military metal sub-genre.
BENEE – Lychee EP (4th Mar): New Zealand pop singer BENEE (aka Stella Rose Bennett) is the youngest of my “old favourites”, given that I first listened to her only in 2020. Her two excellent 2019 EPs, Fire on Marzz and Stella & Steve, and her first full length album, Hey U X, from late 2020 were very much on repeat play on Spotify at that time. I really enjoyed her brand of bubbly pop with a hint of melancholy in her soulful voice, and included her in my post, Favourite female singers of the decade. She released her third EP earlier this year, containing 7 songs and clocking in at 25 minutes. It’s bit of a mixed bag; the lead single, Beach Boy, definitely delivers the catchy pop hooks that I enjoyed so much in 2020. Soft Side continues in the same vein, with some Auto-tune vocals thrown in. The third track, Hurt You, Gus would be classified as “chilled out background music”, rather than achieving sing-along status. From that point onwards, the songs felt progressively less distinctive, and the final song, Make You Sick, which is nearly 7 minutes long did absolutely nothing for me. Still, three songs out of seven isn’t too bad, and hopefully the 22-year-old will explore interesting musical avenues with her future efforts.
Joe Satriani – The Elephants of Mars (8th Apr): Joe Satriani has been a mentor, friend and elder stateman to the rock guitar community for decades; both Steve Vai and Kirk Hammett were students of his, and credit him for the techniques they learned in their formative years. Certainly, his virtuosity was in no doubt on his iconic breakthrough albums Surfing with the Alien and Flying in a Blue Dream in the late ’80s, but I was somewhat underwhelmed by the sameness of the compositions. I therefore hadn’t kept up with his subsequent (and regular) output over the years. And so I was incredibly surprised by the maturity, variety and the sheer joie de vivre shining through on this 18th studio album. Pretty much every track is amazing and different; I tried listing my favourites and it looks like I’ve covered most of the songs in the album – Sahara with its eastern rhythms, the cinematic thriller vibe of The Elephants of Mars (in spite of the sudden interlude in the middle which I didn’t like), the contemplative and moving “Vai-like” Faceless, the upbeat and funky Blue Foot Groovy, the epic-sounding Sailing the Seas of Ganymede, the tabla intro and mystical rhythms in Doors of Perception, the bright tonal colors and jazzy groove of E 104th St NYC 1973 and the party-themed electronica-infused Night Scene. A special shoutout to all the artists on this album – Kenny Aronoff (drums), Bryan Beller (bass), Rai Thistlethwayte (keyboards) and Eric Caudieux (keyboards, sound engineer and record producer). I am indeed contemplating declaring The Elephants of Mars as one of my top instrumental albums of all time!
Kirk Hammett – Portals EP (23rd Apr): What a coincidence that Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Kirk Hammett all released solo albums in the same year – the key difference for Hammett is that this is his first ever solo effort after more than 40 years as Metallica‘s lead guitarist. Although the release is an EP with just 4 songs, they are all pretty long and the album clocks in at nearly half an hour. The first time I listened to the album, I couldn’t get a hang of it, but I then read an interview with Hammett in which he said that the songs are “soundtracks to the movies in your mind”. I felt that context was critical, and the second time around I was able to appreciate the music better; and it also explains the track titles – Maiden and the Monster (Hammett is a horror aficionado), The Jinn, High Plains Drifter and The Incantation. In comparison with the easy accessibility of the first six albums in this list, I needed to work harder as a listener in this case. The musicianship is unquestionably great, but I suspect the only times I will play this album is when I need some background music, or to test the acoustics on a pair of headphones.
In Part 2, I will cover 2022 album releases from James LaBrie, Harry Styles,Def Leppard,Michael Schenker Group, Coheed and Cambria, Of Montreal, Russian Circles and The Mars Volta. And Part 3 will have albums from Megadeth, Ozzy Osbourne, Vieux Farka Touré& Khruangbin, Queensrÿche, Joji, Bruce Springsteen and The Smashing Pumpkins.
This is the seventh entry in a series of thumbnail reviews of films I’ve watched on the Criterion Channel streaming service, starting in September 2021. I finished off this set of 10 films during December and early January 2022. This lot includes two early French New Wave films, one Hitchcock thriller, a “railroad” Western, a post-WW2 drama, a fictionalized account of a real-life scam, a film noir, a crime docudrama, a drama set in the Aussie outback, and an Italian drama from the late-neorealist period.
Till the End of Time (1946): Guy Madison and Robert Mitchum star as US Marines who return home to Los Angeles after the end of WW2 in 1945. Both face challenges settling back into civilian life, as they re-engage with family and friends, meet other ex-servicemen, and make new acquaintances. Dorothy McGuire, fresh off her acclaimed performance in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, headlines the movie, playing a war widow who falls in love with Madison’s character. Although a reasonably well made film, it doesn’t have the emotional depth of the similarly themed The Best Years of Our Lives, which was released around the same time. Robert Mitchum became a genuine star a year later with the release of the film noir classic, Out of the Past. Director Edward Dmytryk continued to make well-regarded films with big movie stars for another two decades, including The Caine Mutiny (Humphrey Bogart), The End of the Affair (Deborah Kerr), Raintree Country (Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor), The Young Lions (Clift and Marlon Brando) and Shalako (Sean Connery and Brigette Bardot).
The Baron of Arizona (1950): Samuel Fuller’s second directorial effort is the highly fictionalized account of a real-life scam which made headlines in the late 19th century. Vincent Price is compelling as the fraudster, James Reavis, a real-estate agent who concocted an audacious scheme in the 1870’s, using forged documents to lay claim to about 19,000 square miles of land across Arizona and New Mexico. The story becomes progressively more bizarre and sordid, as Reavis builds layer upon layer of falsehood to shore up the legality of his claim. Famed cinematographer James Wong Howe infuses even the daytime scenes with a sense of darkness, in keeping with the subject matter. Given the period and location, the film is sometimes classified as a Western, although not with the usual tropes of that genre. Fuller followed up with the progressive-minded war film Steel Helmets (covered in #11-20 in this series), thereby setting a pattern of war, westerns and noir as his preferred genres.
His Kind of Woman (1951): Australian director John Farrow (father of actress Mia Farrow) directs this unconventional film noir set at an upscale resort in Baja California. “Noir king” Robert Mitchum plays a professional gambler, who is offered $50,000 to complete a mystery assignment at a retreat for the rich and famous; Jane Russell brings her typically sassy screen persona to the role of the femme fatale; Vincent Price delivers a shamelessly over-the-top performance as a hammy Shakespearean actor, also a guest at the resort. Mitchum’s character soon discovers that there is more to the assignment than he has been told, and has to use his wits and new-found allies to survive. The release of the film was delayed after studio owner Howard Hawks took control away from the director, and added reshoots to incorporate additional story elements and a recasting of a key role. Given the added costs, it wasn’t a surprise that the film lost money at the box office. However, audiences enjoyed the on-screen chemistry between Mitchum and Russell (as did I), and they were immediately cast by the studio in the entertaining noir thriller, Macao. Director John Farrow survived the mistreatment and went on to win an Oscar a few years later for co-writing the screenplay of Around the World in 80 Days.
Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell in John Farrow’s His Kind of Woman (1951)
Boomerang! (1947): Elia Kazan’s third feature film was shot in a factual, semi-documentary style, and tells the true-life story of a high profile murder case in Connecticut in the 1920’s. Square-jawed leading man Dana Andrews, brings his grim-faced, no-nonsense acting approach to the role of the State Attorney, who comes under relentless pressure from local politicians to close the case quickly, in the face of mounting public anger. The Attorney is determined to see that justice is done, rather than just push through a convenient prosecution. Jane Wyatt plays his wife, who also is targeted by vested political interests to make her husband toe the line. This was the first of Elia Kazan’s films to garner him awards for directing (winner of the National Board of Review and New York Film Critics Circle Awards); he also got a nomination at Cannes. His next film, Gentleman’s Agreement, would win Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture, besides a host of other nominations.
Le Beau Serge (1958): Claude Chabrol’s debut effort as director is considered to be the first film of the French New Wave. Chabrol was the first of the contributors to the film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma, who went on to become a director and along with other critics-turned-directors, Éric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut, changed the course of French and world cinema. Le Beau Serge starts off with a young man, François (played by Gérard Blain), returning to his village in central France, to rest and recuperate after a recent illness. He seeks out old acquaintances, and discovers that his close friend, Serge (played by Jean-Claude Brialy), has become a bitter alcoholic in the intervening years. The film narrates François’ efforts to navigate the social fabric of the village, where everyone appears to be discontented and resentful. In terms of tone, the film is grounded and austere, compared to the irreverence and spontaneity of subsequent French New Wave films…nevertheless, shooting on location with no props and no movie stars gave Chabrol’s film the authenticity that was the hallmark of the La Nouvelle Vague movement. It was a low key start, and in fact, it was only after the release of Chabrol’s second film, Les Cousins, and Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, a few months later, that the movement became recognized as such. Chabrol was just 27 years old when he made this film, and he would go on to direct a film a year for the next half century, in addition to documentaries and TV shows!
The Sundowners (1960): This engaging and well-made drama, adapted from Jon Cleary’s 1951 novel of the same name, is set in the Australian outback in the 1920s. The term “sundowners” refers to transient laborers who would travel from farm to farm for work. Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr bring great heart and warmth to their roles as the Irish-Australian couple, Mr. and Mrs. Carmody, traveling with their son Sean through rural Australia. Mr. Carmody loves the nomadic life, whereas Mrs. Carmody and the boy dream of buying a place and settling down. The story takes us through various episodes in their lives, and the interesting characters they meet, particularly an Englishman played by Peter Ustinov. It’s a touching story, let down by a somewhat unsatisfactory ending (not to mention Mitchum and Kerr’s dodgy Aussie accents!). Although nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, it is less well-known compared to director Fred Zinnemann’s classics High Noon, From Here to Eternity and A Man for All Seasons.
Les Cousins (1959): By the time Claude Chabrol had the financial wherewithal to release his debut film Le Beau Serge, he had already finished his follow up, Les Cousins, featuring the same two actors Gérard Blain and Jean-Claude Brialy. There is a symmetry to these two films – Le Beau Serge is set in the countryside and showcases village residents bitter and resentful about their lot in life; Les Cousins is set in Paris and chronicles the cynical, devil-may-care lifestyles of the young urban set, who lived for the day and couldn’t care for tomorrow. In Les Cousins, studious and earnest Charles (played by Blain) comes to Paris to study law; he stays with his cousin Paul (played by Brialy), who is Charles’ diametric opposite in terms of value systems and behaviour. We follow Charles’ wide-eyed introduction to Paul’s wild life in the big city – the women, the parties, the booze – and the inevitable impact that Paul’s decadent lifestyle has on him. The film won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. Ironically, although he kick-started the movement, Chabrol was perhaps the most restrained and least experimental of the French New Wave directors, which makes his films more accessible to the casual viewer.
Rope (1948): I went through a phase about 15 years ago, when I diligently watched a dozen of Alfred Hitchcock’s most well-known movies. Given how prolific he was, there are several remaining on my watchlist that I tick off from time to time, with Rope being one that I was happy to find on Criterion. Two privileged young men (played by John Dall and Farley Granger) plan and execute a “perfect murder” in their penthouse apartment, confident they won’t get caught. James Stewart plays their former prep school housemaster, who is unwittingly responsible for their convictions of intellectual superiority, and may be the only person who can bring about their downfall. The film is notable for its long takes, with the entire narrative taking place in the apartment in real time. This required an extraordinary degree of on-set choreography, leaving many critics of the view that the technical challenges distracted from the storytelling. The film was not well received by the public either, perhaps because none of the characters are particularly likeable (in fact, some are downright unpleasant) and because of the homosexual subtext. I found it to be a gripping viewing experience and was completely drawn in by the dialogue and the suspense. Granger reappeared three years later in Strangers on a Train, and these two Hitchcock films remained the highlights of his career. John Dahl had further success as the lead in the 1950 film noir, Gun Crazy, and a key part in the 1960 historical epic, Spartacus.
Girl in the Window / La ragazza in vetrina (1961): The 1940’s heralded the era of neorealism in Italian cinema, but by the early 50’s, audiences started resenting these soul-crushing stories of poverty and destitution; filmmakers responded by including comedic elements into these films, giving rise to the term “pink neorealism”, which then morphed into the commedia all’italiana, or “Italian style comedy” genre of the 60’s. The Girl in the Window is considered an example of pink neorealism, although there is nothing intentionally comedic in the narrative. It was an early starring vehicle for Italian acting icon Lino Ventura, as well as for striking French actress Marina Vlady. Ventura plays a seasoned Italian coal miner, working in a mine in the Netherlands, who takes a newcomer (Bernard Fresson) under his wing and shows him the ropes. The first half of the film puts the audience into the heart of the black seams underground, while the second half sees the two men let off steam during a night out on the town. Given the daily hazards the men experience at work, one can understand their almost childlike need for entertainment and companionship. Overall, I would describe the film as informative and insightful, rather than entertaining. This is not surprising, given that director Luciano Emmer was known primarily for his documentaries, although he did make a few well-regarded comedies. Remarkably, he continued to work until just before his death in 2009, at the age of 91.
Denver and the Rio Grande (1952): This American “railroad Western” is a fictitious retelling of an armed confrontation that took place in the late 1870’s, between two competing railroad companies for “right of way” through a pass on the Colorado-New Mexico border. Edmond O’Brien and Sterling Hayden play the chief antagonists representing the two railroads; character actor O’Brien is cast as the conscientious engineer, Jim Vesser, while Hayden brings his signature tough guy act to the character of McCabe, a bully who must win at any cost. The story is packed with gunfights, legal battles, corporate espionage and even a spectacular train crash, although the obligatory love interest subplot feels a bit forced. It’s a watchable movie, but Edmund O’Brien did not really tick the box for me as a charismatic leading man. Director Byron Haskin had previously directed the excellent noir, I Walk Alone, which I covered in #21-30. He does a good job managing the large-scale action in this movie, and this experience probably helped when he graduated to big-budget sci-fi films like The War of the Worlds (1953), From the Earth to the Moon (1958) and Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964).
Experimental rock band The Mars Volta brought joy to their legions of fans by unexpectedly announcing in June 2022 that they had reunited a decade after their break-up, and had been recording new music together. Months of anticipation culminated with the release this week of The Mars Volta, their seventh studio album and the first since 2012’s Noctorniquet. The reason the album is self-titled is to allow the band to start on a clean slate, moving on from the experimental, psychedelic/prog rock sound that captured the imagination of fans and critics in the early 2000’s, and ultimately led to a 2009 Best Hard Rock Grammy for the track Wax Simulacra from the album Bedlam in Goliath. As is frequently the case with the Grammies, the award was a belated recognition for the body of work they had built up in previous years, particularly the astonishingly inventive 2005 album Frances the Mute, which I had on heavy rotation on my iPod during 2006-07.
from left: Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, the creative forces behind The Mars Volta
The core of the band, which was formed in El Paso, Texas, remains the dynamic duo (watch their live performances for proof) of vocalist/lyricist Cedric Bixler-Zavala and songwriter/left-handed guitarist/keyboardist Omar Rodríguez-López (both are now 47 years old). Founding member Eva Gardner, who left the band before they recorded their first full album, is the bassist on this album. Omar’s brother, Marcel, who has played keyboards on all but their debut release, is back. Willy Rodriguez Quiñones is the only newcomer, becoming the sixth different drummer in the history of the band.
As mentioned, this new album veers off into a pop-based sound. Whereas the tracks on previous albums contained a mix of incomprehensible lyrics, discordant instrumental (and vocal) shrieks, and unexpected switches in pace and tone, this album is more accessible in every way, although Bixler-Zavala’s high-pitched, near-falsetto vocals provide the link to the past. Switching from experimental rock to pop doesn’t come at the cost of artistry; it’s just a different expression of skill and creativity, and therefore the ability to excel in a different genre is all the more impressive; it’s as if Jackson Pollock suddenly started painting like Rembrandt, or Quentin Tarentino made a hit rom-com.
The first noticeable change in the new album is the length of the songs. Whereas Frances the Mute had three songs of 12-13 minutes and one of 32 minutes length, the longest track on this album is just over 4 minutes. Overall, The Mars Volta clocks in at just 45 minutes, quite a contrast to previous albums, most of which were 60-75 minutes long.
With every successive playing of the album over the past three days, I found myself liking more and more songs, and experiencing that wonderful feeling when each track starts taking on a distinctive identity.
The lead single, Blacklight Shine, is also the lead track in the album and has a catchy chorus, accompanied by a rolling bongo-like percussion sound; and as with previous songs from the band, the lyrics switch between English and Spanish. Shore Story is as conventionally structured a song as you could imagine, built on a slow R&B groove, with enough room to hear Eva Gardner’s thoughtful bass lines. Blank Condolences continues along the same vein, but this time a bluesy guitar provides the frills, supporting by a stuttering drumline. Next comes Vigil, the first song on the album that hooked me, with its beautifully paced chorus: “It’s the want || of the weight || when it crushed || All the centrifugal ways our lives || fall in and out of place“. Que Dios Te Maldiga Mi Corazon is a full-on latin-tinged track and quite reminiscent of the band’s older work. Palm Full of Crux is another favourite of mine, this one has a combination of piano, horn and flute sounds, holding the heartfelt vocals in a delicate web. In No Case Gain, Bixler-Zavala switches between throwback psychedelic vocals when singing the verse, and a lower register (for him) delivery on the refrain. I love the falsetto wail in the chorus of Equus 3: “Pain in my heart, go away || ‘Til we settle the score, you tried to scatter to the wind“. Another R&B-style track follows with Collapsible Shoulders, once again elevated from the conventional to the memorable, by the chorus: “I’m livin’ on the verge of ruin || And never did I hear you say “Leave no man behind”“.
It’s been a while since so many tracks on an album have appealed to me, and by the looks of the critic reviews, this release has really given everyone a frisson of delight. Whether you are a fan of the band, or just looking for something new to listen to, I highly recommend getting hold of the new album. Meanwhile, I intend to go to the band’s back catalogue, as well albums like Antemasque and In•ter a•li•a that Bixler-Zavala and Rodríguez-López worked together on as members of other bands.
This is the sixth 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 during the second half of November of 2021. Given this is now September 2022, it’s pretty clear how much I’ve fallen behind in posting these, with the original intent having been to do so at the same pace as my viewing. I also realize just how many movies I powered through during those first few months of the subscription, driven by the sheer thrill of being able to access this amazing library of films. In twelve months, I’ve watched a total of 142 films on Criterion, so I still have another eight thumbnails to post in order to get to #131-140…by which time, I would have seen a few more! It’s a good problem to have. For the moment, let’s go through this set of #51-60, which includes one mystery thriller, a Japanese monster movie, a Japanese crime film, three noirs, one WW2 submarine thriller, one romantic comedy, one social drama and one literary adaptation.
The Grass is Greener (1960): Director Stanley Donen exemplified the golden age of Hollywood, starting off with big budget musicals before moving on to romantic dramas and comedies, invariably with the biggest stars of the day. The Grass is Greener is a “love quadrangle”, set in England, starring Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons. It’s always fun to watch a movie packed with A-list stars, and in this particular case, having Mitchum cast against type as a lovesick oil millionaire. Watching the film, I got the sense that this must have been a relatively relaxed film shoot; for one thing, the actors had all worked with each other previously and enjoyed a real-life camaraderie; and secondly, most of the proceedings take place within a sumptuously furnished English country house. Having said that, I could not quite reconcile the very adult theme of the story with the lighthearted tone of the film, and came away feeling rather disappointed. The film was not a major success at the time of its theatrical release, but given its star wattage, it has enjoyed a lengthy second life on cable channels. Stanley Donen ventured into Hitchcockian territory with his next two films, Charade and Arabesque, both of which enjoyed box office success with an entertaining package of mystery, romance and humour.
The Enemy Below (1957): The submarine thriller is a specific sub-genre of war film, which if well made, can make for a tense and claustrophobic viewing experience. They typically involve a cat-and-mouse game between the captains of a ship and a submarine, or two rival submarines. The Enemy Below ticks all the boxes, and benefits from some fine acting by Robert Mitchum, as captain of an American Destroyer escort, and Curd Jürgens, as captain of a German U-boat. While some films choose to portray one or the other captain as evil or sadistic, The Enemy Below portrays both as honorable men, doing a job, but not intent on unnecessary killing. The film is directed by Dick Powell, who had a successful career as an actor in both comedies and detective films, before making the jump to directing. Other notable films in this sub-genre include Run Silent Run Deep (1958), The Bedford Incident (1965), Das Boot (1981), The Hunt for Red October (1990), The Wolf’s Call (2019) and Greyhound (2020).
Ace in the Hole (1951): This sordid tale of greed evoked strong reactions from critics when it was released, with terms like “grotesque”, “distorted” and “absurd” being used to describe the premise and the plot. As society itself has turned more cynical in subsequent years, the film has won the respect of many modern-day critics, with Roger Ebert including it in his The Great Movies series of publications. Kirk Douglas plays Chuck Tatum, an ambitious but combustible journalist, whose career has fallen on hard times due to arrogance and alcoholism. One day, he chances upon an accident scene – a man has been trapped in a cave-in while exploring a Native American cliff dwelling. As rescuers frantically work to get him out, Tatum realizes this has the makings of a national human interest story – provided he can prolong the rescue effort and control the narrative. Thus begins the journalist’s slide into a quagmire of deception, from which he cannot escape. Douglas excelled at playing flawed characters who come to tragic ends, and this ranks as one of his great performances. The film is sometimes classified as a film noir, with Jan Sterling, who plays the trapped man’s wife, fulfilling the role of femme fatale. Director Billy Wilder received an Oscar nomination for co-writing the script. Mr. Wilder was clearly in the midst of a purple patch at the time – he had received Oscar nominations for his previous two films (A Foreign Affair and Sunset Blvd.) and would garner writing and directing nominations for his next two efforts (Stalag 17 and Sabrina).
A Colt Is My Passport (1967): While Toho studios captured the imagination of international audiences during the 50’s and 60’s with the Godzilla films and the acclaimed works of Kurosawa and Ozu, it was Nikkatsu, Japan’s oldest studio, that targeted local audiences, particularly Japanese youth, with their highly stylized mukokuseki akushun (“borderless action”) films of the 60’s. Five of these were compiled by Criterion in 2009 into a box set titled Nikkatsu Noir, which includes A Colt is my Passport. It was directed by Takashi Nomura, who was strongly influenced by French crime films and Italian spaghetti westerns. Nomura’s visual style, choice of music score and having a cold and calculating killer as a protagonist certainly do evoke the mood of Sergio Leone’s films. Leading man Joe Shishido was notable for his cosmetically enhanced cheeks, which gave him a chipmunk-like look that I found equal parts ridiculous, unsettling and distracting. But it helped create a visual identity for the actor, which he leveraged into a successful career in Nikkatsu action films, such as Rusty Knife, Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards!, Gate of Flesh and Branded to Kill, many of these directed by B-movie maestro Seijun Suzuki.
Jerry Fujio and Joe Shishido are contract killers on the run in Takashi Nomura’s A Colt Is My Passport (1967)
Destroy All Monsters (1968): As a big fan of “creature features”, it’s no surprise that Godzilla movies have always been on my watchlist – both the Japanese originals as well as the various modern incarnations. Having said that, one must admit that many of these have been average to mediocre; it’s almost like the idea of a Godzilla film is better than the experience of actually watching one. That was my impression of Destroy All Monsters, the ninth entry in the original “Shōwa era” series, which ran from 1954 to 1975. On paper, it was a no-brainer, as it featured an all-star kaiju team-up and had the original director Ishirō Honda returning after a gap of two films. The opening exposition tells us that it’s the year 1999, the world is at peace, and all the kaiju have been confined to an island research facility. But then an alien race, bent on the conquest of Earth, release the kaiju and using mind-controlling technology, unleash them upon the major cities of the world. If I had watched this film in my childhood, I would have thoroughly enjoyed it, but the dated visual effects and the wooden acting were too much to take, and I had to will myself to sit through it to the end. Still, if you want to see Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Gorosaurus, Anguirus, Baragon, Manda and the incredibly annoying Minilla together on screen, this is the movie for you. Although director Honda was celebrated for the Godzilla series and other sci-fi films, it is equally impressive that he came out of retirement in the 80’s to work for his friend Akira Kurosawa as an assistant/consultant on the master’s last five films, including Kagemusha, Ran and Madadayo.
Hangover Square (1945): I was able to erase the bad memories of Destroy All Monsters with this extraordinary crime noir film, featuring Laird Cregar, an actor that I had not heard of previously. The film is set in London in 1903 and tells the story of George Harvey Bone (played by Cregar), a successful music composer, who suffers from spells of short term amnesia, triggered by stress and discordant sounds. Concurrently, there are unsolved crimes in the neighborhood which may or may not be connected with Bone’s brief periods of unexplained absence. Throw in a wealthy fiancé, a suspicious Scotland Yard criminologist and a manipulative nightclub singer, and we have the makings of a melodramatic thriller. Most of the narrative takes place in Edwardian London nighttime, allowing acclaimed cinematographer Joseph LaShelle to use lamplight and fog to create a starkly lit noir masterpiece. Laird Cregar was on a crash diet during the making of the film (an attempt to slim down for more romantic roles), which created severe health problems and resulted in his death at the age of 31, just two months before the film’s release. I can therefore imagine there was some verisimilitude to Cregar’s performance of the tortured artist living on the edge of sanity. German director John Brahm also directed the well-regarded horror films The Undying Monster and The Lodger (also starring Cregar).
I Wake Up Screaming (1941): I couldn’t get enough of Laird Cregar, so I promptly followed up with another one of his pictures, although he wasn’t the lead in this one. Square-jawed leading man, Victor Mature, plays New York sports promoter Frankie Christopher, who we see at the start of the film being questioned about the murder of an up-and-coming actress he was mentoring. Although he protests his innocence, police detective Ed Cornell (Laird Cregar) is determined to put Frankie behind bars. Caught in between is the dead actress’s sister Jill, who doesn’t much care for Frankie, but doesn’t think he is guilty either. Although Mature plays the leading man, it’s Laird Cregar who delivers the narrative tension with his menacing on-screen presence. The film plays out like a real whodunnit with the guilty party not revealed right till the end. This was director H. Bruce Humberstone’s best known film, although he was a prolific filmmaker who worked on a wide range of genres, including four films in the Charlie Chan detective series and three Tarzan films.
The Last Tycoon (1976): Famed director Eliza Kazan’s final film featured a powerhouse cast, including Robert DeNiro, Robert Mitchum, Jack Nicholson and Tony Curtis. It is set during the Golden Age of Hollywood and tells the story of a successful young studio chief, Monroe Stahr (DeNiro), who falls in love with a young actress he fleetingly sees on a movie set. Being a man accustomed to getting what he wants, he tries to woo her, while his life is pulled in various other directions by the demands of his job. Sadly, in spite of the stellar cast, the pacing is lethargic and the film just seems to go nowhere. It’s a rare misfire for DeNiro at a stage of his career when he was in films such as Taxi Driver, 1900 and The Deer Hunter. Likewise, it was an unfortunate coda to Kazan’s storied directing career that saw him win Oscars for Gentleman’s Agreement and On the Waterfront, and receive nominations for A Streetcar Named Desire and East of Eden.
Angel Face (1953): There were a couple of moments while watching Angel Face, when I physically jumped in shock, that’s how unexpected the twists and turns in Otto Preminger’s film noir are. Ambulance driver Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum) responds to an emergency call at a large mansion. It turns out to be a false alarm, but while he’s there, Frank strikes up a conversation with heiress Diane Tremayne (Jean Simmons). In due course, Diane and her wealthy parents have taken a liking to the industrious young man and offer him employment to support his ambitions of opening his own car repair shop. I wouldn’t want to reveal any more about the plot but suffice to say that things don’t end well. Preminger keeps everything calm on the surface, adopting the tone and pacing of a regular social drama, and then springs a surprise on the viewer from time to time. Angel Face was made midway through Preminger’s illustrious career, eight years after he was Oscar nominated for Laura and seven years before Anatomy of a Murder.
Black Widow (1954): This well-made mystery film is shot on Cinemascope in vivid colour, rather than in B&W or the grungy tones associated with noirs and thrillers. The legendary Ginger Rogers, who made her name starring in wholesome musicals with Fred Astaire, gets top billing here, cast against type as a haughty and viciously gossipy actress, Lottie Marin. Lottie and her husband live in the same New York apartment building as their friends, Broadway producer Peter Denver (played by Van Heflin) and his vivacious actress wife (played by the vivacious Gene Tierney). Into their high society lives enters Nancy Ordway, an aspiring young writer dreaming of making it big in the Big Apple, and then things start to go horribly wrong. The film received only middling reviews upon its release, but was popular with audiences, and likewise I too found it entertaining. Director Nunnally Johnson was better known as a scriptwriter, with writing credits including the Oscar nominated Grapes of Wrath, and hits like How to Marry a Millionaire and Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation. His most celebrated directorial effort was The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, starring Gregory Peck, which received a Palm d’Or nomination at Cannes.
Chronophlogiston 