This is the twelfth entry in my series of thumbnail reviews of films I’ve been watching on the Criterion Channel streaming service since September 2021. I watched this set of ten films from the end of May till mid June 2022.
This latest set of films includes a British drama from 1940 starring Laurence Olivier, a 1975 action film featuring blaxploitation queen Pam Grier, an American romantic drama scripted by Billy Wilder, provocative French director Louis Malle’s debut film, an American noir film starring Ida Lupino as an unhinged femme fatale, a British period drama with a narrative built around popular songs of the time, a beautifully shot biopic of American poet Emily Dickinson, and three WW2 films – an extraordinary thriller set in Northern Africa, a romantic comedy set in post-war Berlin, and a propaganda piece starring Humphrey Bogart.
21 Days (1940): I usually associate British thespian Laurence Olivier with heavy-duty dramatic roles. But during the same period that he was making a name for himself with big-budget Hollywood films like Wuthering Heights, Rebecca and Pride and Prejudice, he also starred in this modest British thriller. Given that the film’s script was co-written by famed novelist Graham Greene, featured an extra-marital affair and a murder, and starred Vivien Leigh and Olivier, this should have made for compelling viewing. Unfortunately, I found it rather tedious, but thankfully was saved by the short running time of 72 minutes. This was Basil Dean’s final film as a director, and thereafter with the onset of WW2, he was appointed as the director of the entertainment branch of the British armed forces.
Friday Foster (1975): A-list African-American actors Pam Grier and Yaphet Kotto headline this film about a photographer who gets caught up in a conspiracy to murder the leading figures in African-American politics. As a key entry in the blaxploitation film genre, it delivers exactly as advertised, with the usual diet of nudity (just a few seconds, but highly anticipated in the days before online porn) and action, intertwined with commentary on the race and gender issues of the day. Singer Eartha Kitt and actor-musician Scatman Crothers make appearances, and Carl Weathers can be seen in one of his earliest big-screen roles. Director Arthur Marks is recognized by film historians for his contributions to blaxploitation, with the last half dozen of his films made in this genre; Quentin Tarantino supported a 1998 theatrical re-release of his 1973 film, Detroit 9000.
Hold Back the Dawn (1941): Charles Boyer and Olivia de Havilland make for a captivating screen couple in this critically acclaimed romantic drama from prolific director Mitchell Leisen. Boyer plays a European man trying to cross over to the US from a Mexican border town, who pretends to fall in love with a naive American school teacher, so that he can marry her and obtain a US citizenship. Naturally, various developments come in the way of him carrying out his cunning plan, not unlike the Sandra Bullock-Ryan Reynolds immigration dramedy The Proposal. The onscreen charm of the two stars make this an engaging watch, in spite of the implausible plot. Billy Wilder co-wrote the script, and it was amongst his last credits as a screenwriter before he launched his celebrated career as a director. The film received six Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Actress.
Elevator to the Gallows / Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (1958): Louis Malle was just 24 years old when he made his feature debut with this noir-inspired crime thriller. His cinema verite approach, honed after three years of documentary filmmaking with naturalist Jacques Cousteau, foreshadowed the French New Wave which officially kicked off a few months later with the release of Claude Chabrol’s Le Beau Serge. Malle directed actress Jeanne Moreau without make-up, revealing her true beauty and bringing her international stardom after years on the fringes. Moreau and Maurice Ronet play lovers who plot to kill the woman’s husband; the title of the film refers to the role played by an elevator in the unraveling of their carefully laid out plans. The film is noted for its desolate jazz score by Miles Davis, which he improvised and recorded in the studio while the film footage was screened for him. I fell in love with the photography and the lighting (particularly the interior scenes later in the film), although I’ve never been enamoured by Moreau as a leading lady. Malle went on to a storied filmmaking career, equally adept across thrillers, romances, comedies and dramas.
They Drive By Night (1940): Prolific director Raoul Walsh directs this intense film noir headlined by 30’s and 40’s leading man, George Raft, with Humphrey Bogart playing a key supporting role, just before his big breakthrough with High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon. Set in the world of commercial trucks, the script shines a light on the exploitation of truck drivers and the unsafe conditions they were asked to work under. Raft and Bogart play trucker siblings; one wants to move up the food chain and get into big business, while the other wants to stick to his roots and remain self-employed. Their onscreen chemistry works well, highlighting their different personalities but also their unshakeable bond. But the real star of the movie is British actress Ida Lupino, who plays a psychotic femme fatale who will do anything to get what she wants, not unlike Jean Simmons’ character in Angel Face a decade later. The powerhouse cast and compelling, twisty plot makes for quite a ride. Raoul Walsh’s next film was the acclaimed film noir, High Sierra, which reunited him with Bogart and Lupino.
Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988): As I write this blog, I’ve just read the news that the film’s director Terence Davies has passed away at the age of 77. All obituaries refer to this semi-autobiographical film as one of the high points of his career. It is set in his native Liverpool and stars the incomparable Pete Postlethwaite as an abusive, controlling father ruling over a working-class family in the 1940’s and 50’s. Much of the film’s slice-of-life narrative is built around how families and communities spent time together, inevitably at pubs and frequently entertaining themselves by singing the most popular songs of the day; with so many of these set-pieces, the film could technically be classified as a musical. Unfortunately, as a viewer who is neither from that era nor that region, I could not appreciate this film nearly as much as a native Britisher. What does come through is how desperate the hopes and dreams of women and young people are in a patriarchal society, when the man of the house had the power to give and to take away.
A Quiet Passion (2016): I followed up right away with another Terence Davies masterpiece, an impeccably mounted period drama set during the mid-19th century, which follows the life of reclusive American poet Emily Dickinson. It stars Cynthia Nixon (best known as Miranda from Sex and the City) as the poet, and the luminous Jennifer Ehle as her younger sister. There is also a pleasing supporting turn from veteran Keith Carradine as their strict but supportive father. The film tracks Dickinson’s life from a relatively normal and carefree youth to an increasingly severe, bitter and reclusive middle age, wracked by various personal tragedies, both overt and hidden. Cynthia Nixon is the very embodiment of the character and sadly this performance was not sufficiently recognized during the awards season.
Five Graves to Cairo (1943): I thoroughly enjoyed this entertaining WW2 film set in a small town in Northern Africa during the desert campaign of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (a scene-chewing performance by Austrian director-turned-actor Erich von Stroheim). Franchot Tone is perfectly cast as Corporal Bramble, the sole survivor of a British tank crew, who seeks shelter in the hotel only to find it taken overrun by the Germans preparing for the next phase of their campaign. With only the hotel owner and a French chambermaid as his protectors, Bramble must use his wits and his luck to escape…and perhaps thwart the German onslaught in the process. Anne Baxter is thoroughly entertaining as the saucy and somewhat unreliable chambermaid, while Armenian actor Akim Tamiroff uses his distinctive natural accent to great effect as the Arab owner Farid. This was Billy Wilder’s second film as a director and a year later, he shot to fame with his next effort, the crime/noir thriller, Double Indemnity.
A Foreign Affair (1948): I moved on right away to one of Billy Wilder’s best known films, a cynical comedy-drama set in post WW2 Berlin. A highly principled Congresswoman (played by Jean Arthur) arrives in Berlin as part of a congressional committee to review how US troops are operating in peacetime Europe. She is shocked to hear rumours that a possible Nazi sympathizer is freely operating as a cabaret singer (played by Marlene Dietrich) under the protection of a US Army officer. She sets out to uncover the truth and gets caught up in a comedy of errors. The film was essentially a face-off between two screen legends at the tail end of their careers as leading ladies. Like all Billy Wilder products, the film has charismatic characters delivering snappy dialogue and memorable comedic set-pieces. This is definitely one to watch for all cinephiles.
Action in the North Atlantic (1943): This film was conceived as a tribute to the Merchant Marines, the civilian naval arm of the US government, which played a key role transporting war supplies during WW2. Imposing character actor Raymond Massey and Humphrey Bogart (fresh off the success of Casablanca) play the captain and first officer respectively of a Merchant Marine cargo ship. Tasked with carrying supplies to the Soviet port of Murmansk within the Arctic circle, the crew must rely on their courage, wits and experience to survive a cat-and-mouse pursuit by German U-boats. This by-the-numbers wartime propaganda film benefits from authentic war footage provided by the US government, and the screen presence of its stars.
Here are the links to the previous thumbnails: #1-10, #11-20, #21-30, #31-40, #41-50, #51-60, #61-70, #71-80, #81-90, #91-100 and #101-110.
Chronophlogiston 