Re: Track the Films You Watch (2007)
12/03/07:
A LAWLESS STREET (Joseph H. Lewis, 1955) 
This is really no lesser an achievement than the renowned Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher Westerns; then again, director Lewis was no slouch (for he made his fair share of minor classics)!
Scott’s role is typical – a legendary marshal involved in a HIGH NOON (1952)-type situation, where he’s practically left alone to clean up a town riddled with corruption and violence – but the underrated actor invests it with warmth, humor, tenacity and a quiet dignity. The star, then, is supported by a most excellent cast: Angela Lansbury (a fine actress but a rather unlikely
chanteuse), James Bell (a usurped town leader), Jean Parker (an ageing belle and the latter’s wife), Wallace Ford (predictably in the role of the reliable town doctor), Ruth Donnelly (as Scott’s gracious elderly housekeeper), Jeanette Nolan (as the wife of a revenge-seeking ex-con whom Scott has killed in self-defense), and an interesting trio of villains – powerful boss Warner Anderson (who also fancies himself a ladies’ man and, in fact, strikes up relationships with both Parker and Lansbury throughout), shifty but nervous gambler John Emery and smooth gunslinger Michael Pate (making for a worthy opponent to Scott).
The above-average script by Kenneth Gamet (an in-joke shows the calendar in the hero’s room as being sponsored by Gamet’s Vegetable Compound!) gives characterization reasonable depth: Scott and Lansbury are married but she had left him because of his dangerous job (a situation which she has to live through again now); Scott tells Donnelly that he hears The Beast (which symbolizes the scourge of the town) every morning until it’s replaced by church-bells at the end of the picture. The highlights – most of the action seems to take place in and around one particular saloon, though in a montage we’re shown that Anderson’s ‘protection’ extends to many others in town – include an energetic and brutal fistfight between the hero and a dim-witted giant (who subsequently joins forces with him), an astonishing shoot-out two-thirds of the way involving Scott and Pate which ends with the former left for dead, and the splendid extended climax. On top of it all is the pleasing cinematography by an expert in color lensing, Ray Rennahan.
12/03/07:
MATANGO (Inoshiro Honda, 1963)
This is the seventh Honda film that I’ve watched but only the second that I found to be in any way satisfying – the other being, of course, GOJIRA (1954); actually, I’ve got five more of his titles to go (which I’ll be checking out throughout the week)…though, in all honesty, I only expect the earlier effort RODAN (1956) to be any good!
The theme and setting of the film derives from a number of earlier horror/sci-fi classics: for instance, the flashback framework where the hero’s tall tale is disbelieved by everyone – not to mention the scene in which he’s seduced to the ‘other side’ by his transformed lover – was certainly inspired by INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956). Conversely, it looks forward to another good Japanese genre outing i.e. GOKE – BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL (1968) with its disparate group of stranded passengers and the influence on them of the unfamiliar ‘contaminated’ environment (which slowly but surely leads to the disruption of the unit).
Incidentally, despite the distinction given to each of the characters (psychologist, author,
entrepreneur, skipper, etc.) – including two females (one a sluttish
chanteuse and the other a naïve student) – none are developed in enough detail to be allowed to take center-stage. Interestingly, too, the identity of the sole male survivor among them is not immediately disclosed; the revelation at the end, then, takes proceedings into unexpected
amour fou territory! As for the mutant creatures (the U.S. title of the film, in fact, was the catchpenny ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE), they’re quite silly-looking in themselves – but, sensibly, these are mainly depicted as menacing shadowy figures.
Though not quite the sci-fi masterpiece that Enrico Ghezzi (eccentric presenter of “After Hours”, the programme during which the Honda TV marathon was held) proudly claimed in his introduction, it’s quite an engaging and effective piece – if somewhat lacking in pace. All in all, I wouldn’t mind owning the SE DVD of MATANGO from Media Blasters eventually (also given the fact that the Italian subtitles on the version I watched were too rapid to read through at times, while the image itself suffered from occasional momentary freezing!)…
12/05/07:
THE SPOILERS (Ray Enright, 1942)
Rex Beach’s Western tale was much filmed over the years – including twice during the Silent era, and an early Talkie version co-starring Gary Cooper; my brother had watched the 1955 color remake, which was O.K. but uninspired. This earlier adaptation, however, stands as a prime example of the genre from the more innocent pre-war era; in fact, starting from the year after – with William A. Wellman’s THE OX-BOX INCIDENT (1943), to be exact – the Western achieved sudden maturity that would lead to any number of masterworks in various veins (
noir, psychological, elegiac, revisionist) till it died out towards the late 1970s.
Anyway, this is a quite splendid film with all three stars (Marlene Dietrich, Randolph Scott and John Wayne) in good form; incidentally, all of them had just come from impressive individual work in the genre – DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939), Fritz Lang’s WESTERN UNION (1941), and STAGECOACH (1939) respectively. Having preceded the film by the trio’s subsequent (though lesser) teaming, PITTSBURGH (1942), it was interesting to see Wayne and Scott take turns playing the unsympathetic role (in the case of the latter here, he emerges to be an out-and-out villain – if a charming one, and to which he would return for his swan-song two decades later in Sam Peckinpah’s RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY [1962]). Incidentally, in both THE SPOILERS and PITTSBURGH, Scott is clearly depicted as being interested in Dietrich – but she seems to prefer Wayne (maybe because she did one other title with the latter, SEVEN SINNERS [1940], which is to follow).
The supporting cast is also quite strong: Richard Barthelmess and Harry Carey (both of whom had been stars in the Silent era and had since settled in character roles) appear as Dietrich and Wayne’s sidekicks respectively – the former is shady and the latter hot-headed, and each prefers to settle arguments with a weapon (Barthelmess a flick-knife and Carey the shotgun he calls “Betsy”). Scott’s gang of crooked associates is made up of Charles Halton, Samuel S. Hinds and, the latter’s niece, Margaret Lindsay (who was intended to seduce Wayne for the benefit of their scheme, but ends up falling for him – the actress had been a leading lady of Warner Bros. pictures during the previous decade, but her poignant Other Woman role here is surprisingly well-written).
The compelling narrative extends to many an exciting (and, often, action-oriented) development – trial, bank robbery, jailbreak, train wreck, various instances where law officers face off or shoot it out with miners, and culminating in the famously brutal lengthy fistfight between the two male stars (though this is somewhat spoiled [sic] by the obvious use of doubles in longshots).
12/05/07:
DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (Inoshiro Honda, 1968) 
Even if Leonard Maltin rates this higher than KING KONG ESCAPES (1967) – giving it
against the latter’s BOMB – I seemed to enjoy that one more; mind you, both are essentially dreadful…but, at least, the KONG film had a good deal of campiness going for it – whereas this is merely dull (in spite of megalomaniac aliens and a plethora of monsters)!
In a way, the film is a rehash of Honda’s own MONSTER ZERO (1965), which I watched some time ago – where you also had an interplanetary attempt at world domination that saw the involvement of a clutch of Toho Studios monsters. Here, however, we get a greater variety of the latter: dinosaurs Anguirus, Baragon, Gorosaurus, Godzilla (along with its annoying baby offspring Minilla) and the flying Rodan, the spider Kumonga, the snake-like Manda and the worm Mothra. Though all these are eventually brainwashed by the aliens to do their evil bidding, destroying several of the world’s leading cities in the process, the latter provide their own monster – King Ghidorah – for the grand finale (during which it takes on all comers but, obviously, emerges the loser). That said, only Godzilla Snr. and Rodan receive any decent exposure throughout the film!
While it is accompanied by a typically rousing score, the action often comes across as confusing rather than exciting (not to mention unintentionally hilarious during the climactic monster mash). As for the plot, it’s all quite dreary – and lazy: all the Earth monsters have conveniently been assembled on an island to be studied (yeah, right – just try to get a blood sample from Godzilla, or Rodan, for that matter)…but, then, the aliens (naturally possessing superior intelligence and frightening assurance – they must have missed MONSTER ZERO, for they’re deluded into thinking that the monster
ensemble can’t hold a candle to King Ghidorah!) manage to fit all of them with a conditioning device behind the ears!!
Finally perhaps its most amusing elements to me were the fact that the island personnel (channeling the monsters’ individual movements on a monitor) are able to judiciously cross-cut, for suspense purposes, between attacker and prey (a moving train) during a demonstration; the film-makers could have fitted the aliens with make-up or, at least, a mask so to hide their all-too-obvious Asian countenance (there’s no suggestion in the script that that they may have adopted such a disguise in order to go undetected among the Earthlings); also, for a kiddie film, a lot of the human characters are heard cursing the aliens (sure, it’s in Japanese, but the implication is unmistakable).
12/06/07: SEVEN SINNERS (Tay Garnett, 1940)
Fond memories I had of watching this movie on Italian TV as a kid made me spring for the rather lackluster “John Wayne: An American Icon” 2-disc collection from Universal; the film itself reunites four actors (Marlene Dietrich, Mischa Auer, Billy Gilbert and Samuel S. Hinds) from Universal’s successful Western comedy of the previous year – DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939).
Co-star John Wayne had just re-achieved stardom with John Ford’s seminal STAGECOACH (1939) – the nine years following his impressive turn in Raoul Walsh’s THE BIG TRAIL (1930) had mostly been spent in Grade Z Westerns; while he would eventually make this boisterous type of entertainment his own, he’s likeable enough but still somewhat stiff here. Dietrich, on the other hand, has a ball with her role of an exotic cabaret singer (she even does a number in full naval uniform, recalling her famous top hat ’n’ tails routine ending in a lesbian clinch in Josef von Sternberg’s MOROCCO [1930]) – who effortlessly turns the head of every man that crosses her path and, consequently, is the cause – or, should I say, prize? – of many a row (but which leads to her deportation from one Pacific island to the other).
Again, the supporting cast is marvelous – not just the three character actors I mentioned earlier (Auer is a pickpocket-cum-magician who tags along with Dietrich’s Bijou, Hinds the stern Governor of the island, and Gilbert actually steals the show with his typically amiable flustered shtick as the boss of the titular café), but also Albert Dekker (a brief but very interesting role as a ship’s doctor with whom Dietrich ends up – I dare say that the subtle relationship between them is more believable than the central one between her and Wayne!), Oscar Homolka (a mobster with pretenses to Dietrich’s favors, he makes for a particularly strong villain), Broderick Crawford (who is terrific as a rough ex-sailor who purports to be Dietrich’s bodyguard – however, his loyalty to the navy is even greater, and this brings about an unexpected dramatic scene towards the end where he nearly beats up Dietrich because she’s disrupting naval officer Wayne’s career chances!), Vince Barnett (amusing as the taciturn but resourceful bartender of the “Seven Sinners” whose recurring loud jeering at Homolka’s expense could prove fatal at any moment), Reginald Denny (appearing all too briefly as Wayne’s understanding superior officer) and Richard Carle (as the judge appointed to run Dietrich, Auer and Crawford out of town at the start of the picture – despite his owlish demeanor, he doesn’t flinch from carrying out his duty when confronted with the wiles of the legendary
femme fatale, the sleight-of-hand of the Russian
émigré, or the uncouth manners of the seaman). As would also prove to be the case in their subsequent teamings – THE SPOILERS (1942) and PITTSBURGH (1942) – Wayne and Dietrich’s romance is interrupted by his involvement with another woman of higher standing; here, it’s Anna Lee in her American debut – and, even if the role doesn’t amount to very much, the actress invests it with a quiet gracefulness that is typically British.
The film (which was remade in 1950 as SOUTH SEA SINNER) runs a bit thin on plot, but is kept on track most of the time by director Garnett – who made other ensemble pieces in exotic settings, namely CHINA SEAS (1935) and BATAAN (1943). It also benefits from expert shadowy lighting courtesy of the great Rudolph Mate`, but the undeniable highlight of SEVEN SINNERS is the climactic bar-room brawl – which is really no less elaborate (or uproarious) than the one featured in DODGE CITY (1939), which is often singled out as the quintessence of this type of sequence.
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