764. Hollywood Shoots Up

Or... Old Blue Eyes? More like? Old Golden Arm!

I really want to write about something NOT in the English language. So far, all I’ve written about are movies in English. However, there are quite a few foreign films on here and as the list ascends, the anglo-centricism does inevitably die down. However, given that I just wrote about Requiem for a Dream, I want to bookend that with Otto Preminger’s 1955 film, The Man with the Golden Arm. This is not a Bond movie as I thought it was for many years. Instead, it stars Frank Sinatra as a heroin addict living in the ghettos of Chicago. Between bookies and his crippled wife, he can’t escape this toxic environment or kick his habit and the film details his struggle to get clean.







What impressed me most about this movie was how unflinching it was for its time. In the late 1950’s, the only sort of drug oriented films were sensationalist propaganda (we all remember the landmark 1930's "masterpieces" reefer and cocaine madness!). However, unlike the users in those films, Sinatra is not a babbling idiot. He is a man in trouble looking for answers and trying to make his life better. He is tortured and well developed.

Also, unlike those sensationalist films, he is among the most moral characters depicted. There is a clueless cop, but there is also the sinister drug dealer and the emotionally draining wife which lock him into his heroin abuse. Sinatra is stuck in the middle trying to please everyone and continues to fall back to his old habits.


I can understand how this film, despite the omnipresent Hayes Code, whose censorship encased Hollywood for almost 30 years, had to be released. It was a wake-up call that movies were meant to deal with real life subject matter and that the clunky and outdated Hayes Code was holding back subject matter that people wanted and needed to see. Man With a Golden Arm is a great movie and Sinatra is excellent in it but the lasting effect on Hollywood is ultimately it’s most important legacy.

About the Top 800 Project:

Using the They Shoot Pictures Starting List of 8800 films (LINK) and my Netflix ratings, I sifted through the list and of the 4500 films I’d seen, I selected a random number of films I liked more than the others. The list was about 812 films. I kicked off 12 to get an even 800. The list chronologically goes up to 2009. Each blog entry will list ten films, one of which will be discussed in detail. The ten films will then be posted toThe Top 800 Master List, a Google docs file compiling them. When the countdown finishes in what will be probably be a really a long time, I will begin discussing random films that I didn’t get to before.

MURDER! CRIME! MYSTERY! an entire day of american film noir!

american film noir of the 40s and 50s is one of my favorite genres of film. everyone wears suits, derbys, and there is always a murder most foul or a heist to full off. these are great movies to flip on and get lost in an america that is long gone. TCM and FXM recently show six classic film noirs i have never seen and were all included on they shoot pictures list of top 250 film noirs ever made. i am going to watch all of them and blog it.

the first thing on the bill for today is 'the street with no name,' a 1948 fox production starring noir stalwarts mark stevens and richard widmark. the sheer appearance of richard widmark in anything is going to make for an interesting film. he is apparently a bad guy in this one and sees like he is in kiss me deadly mode. this is one of those, 'ripped from the pages' films with a lot of vocal narration over the first part of the film and a note indicating its real nature. much like phenix city story and kansas city confidential, these films pride themselves on a set up of lots of names and intercut scenes of police work. the feel is to make it like a newsreel eventually leading into the action of the plot. in terms of film noir, im really not a fan of these types of real life noir. the editing is a bit too jumpy and the dizzying amount of names, faces, details, makes the plot profoundly difficult for long periods of time. with this in particular, i have faith in william kneighly as a director (his film pandora and the flying dutchman is a masterpiece) and his directorial style is valliant but in the end, this is a sub-par noir. finally, widmark comes into the scene. he could have been bogart if he had the right agent. he commanded the screen like few did. he makes a medicore film worth watching. as i watch this, he slapped a woman a couple times. widmark did clearly girl slapping well though the best use of physical abuse towards in a film noir still belongs to pick-up on south street. ***** ****** sure did know how to take a slap right to the kisser. actually, i changed my mind, this is a pretty decent film. gotta love widmark

next up; richard thorpe's the unknown man with walter pidgeon and ann harding. the movie begins with a first person narration introducing you to the plot. its about a attorney that may have acquited a murderer. gettin' excited. i like the feel of this one. this one clearly has a low budget and the direction is decidedly lazy. while thorpe was a capable director, he clearly is "less than meets the eye." when it comes to noir, siodmak, fuller, and ulmer all had their distinct styles but a lot of noir directors had a very similar mise en scene. at least the lighting and shadows in the unknown man is quite well done. there was just a great OH SNAP moment...where the killer reveals himself by including a detail where only the killer and the lawyer would have known. and now he ended up dead. oooooh!

Scandal Sheet, directed by phil karlson and written by sam fuller. yup, right off the bat, this off has the gritty dialogue of fuller. there is a newspaper editor who has been implicated in a murder and the paper's star reporter investigates. this one also stars donna reed (who was a huge star even before her eponymous show) and broderick crawford fresh off his brilliant performance in all the king's men. there is a really great pivotal scene that takes place in a lonely hearts club, which were places where single people went to find spouses. for some reason, this seemed like a good idea...to force lonely people to meet other lonely people and one couple is given a free wedding at the end of the dance. yes, i firmly believe true love can form at a forced social event over the course of a few hours. -- fast forward an hour. i realize ive seen this movie before. sometimes when one watches a dizzying amount of the same kind of movie, the names escape me. however, it was the looming and panicked performance of broderick crawford that jogged my memory. i cant help but remember now how different this performance was from all the kings men. also, i remember john derek's great nice acting.

ok, halftime. quick bikeride out to go to whole foods, pick up some yogurt and kombucha. head over to the north andover sheep sheering festival, get locked out of my house, kick in third kitchen window dangling from drainpipe and climb into the house.

RIGHT.

the fourth film of the day is eyes in the night, a film about a blind detective. so far there is ann harding (again), donna reed (again!), and a dog (named friday). its directed by fred zinnamin who would late achieve huge success with from here to eternity and a man for all seasons (and some would say a nuns story as well). this is exceptionally low budget and the camera work is excessively shocking and lazy. this guy would win an oscar? these pans are attrocious and even for a noir, the acting is pretty bad. lets see how it progresses. until im going to go back to drinking kombucha. i just did some quick research and this was only his second or third full length film. before this, he was mainly doing hokey shorts in the "crime does not pay" series. he made a decent noir some years later with act of violence but eyes in the night is clearly a director who hadnt hit his stride. also, the dog is the best actor in this by far. he opened a door handle with his mouth. WIN

penutlimate film in this marathon! its armored car robbery and clocking in at a tight 65 minutes, one of the shortest full length features ill ever watch. so far, this movie RULES. four guys rob an armored car (DUH) and a chase ensues. this has everything so far, a car non starting and tension ensuing. a perfect plan slowly unravelling and a host of a bush league actors from the 40s and 50s (charles macgraw!). directed oddly enough by richard fleischer, who went onto direct such shlocky and largely medicore big budgeters fantastic voyage and doctor doolittle, the filmmaking is very capable. maybe he should have stuck with noir, as his follow up to this, the narrow margin, is a great movie. yeah, cool flick.

LAST ONE! DESTINATION MURDER! ok, this was a crazy idea in retrospect. every actor is starting to look the same. so far today, ive seen a million white dude in hats and suits, a few choice dames, one black person, and one dog (who had a bigger role than said black person). im a big fan of this genre but it definitely does remind you how far cinema has come in terms of integration of not just white people. alright, nevermind that. we got the usual stuff. murder, off to a cop to find the killer on barely any clues. meh. im going to post this and try to live with the fact that i watched six film noirs today.

RECENT WATCHING - Rest of OCTOBER

like most weeks, i watch movies. here is a recent rundown of things that have appeared on my screen that didnt make enough of a mark on me to warrant its own blog entry:

CRIMINAL LOVERS - this french francois ozon dark twisted thriller from 1999 isnt as affecting and unique as swimming pool or under the sand but it definitely has its most moments of sexual power plays and murder. im a huge fan of ozon and his unique style but this one didnt really jump out at me. still pretty good though

LITTLE DORRIT - with no disrespect to the great derek jacobi and alec guinness, this was dull. this 1988 adaption of dicken's little dorrit is painfully slow and very uninteresting. without question though, both actors still deliver fantastic performances in this 6 hour borefest.

SOUTH PACIFIC - having seen this classic rogers and hammerstein revival on broadway a few months ago, i was curious to watch the original film version from the 50s. directed by josh logan, who directed the original show on broadway, it was an honest and direct adaption from the stage complete with the same wonderful songs (some enchanted evening, gonna wash that man right outta my hair, bali hai etc). acting was kinda meh but the broadway cast spoiled me a bit

ATANARJUAT (THE FAST RUNNER) - well. this 2001 film was shot on digital video, is 3 hours, and filmed entirely in innukitit (the innuit language of northern canada). that being said, it was pretty good. with all these things going against it, the fact that it was an interesting revenge tale means it was pretty outstanding. i need to give major to lead actor Natar Ungalaaq. he is completely naked running through the canadian snow and glaciers for about 10 minute running from people trying to kill him. that being said, his penis looked TINY especially after falling in ice cold water. its not a fair statement on him due to shrinkage but man, it take guts to be out there that naked and that cold. or perhaps it takes bal---nevermind.

THE UNINVITED - the version i watched tonight from the 2009 horror film; a remake of the superb korean film 'a tale of two sisters,' one of my favorite films of all time. what suprised me the most about this is that i didnt hate it. in fact, i kinda liked it though it was not nearly as good as the original. however as far as remakes go, this is probably among the best. the cast of david strathairn (sp?), emily browning, and elizabeth banks really sold it though. so yeah, this is definitely a pleasant surprise.

NIKKATSU NOIR BOX SET - this 5 disc collection of rare crime noirs from 60s japan has a few real gems. nikkatsu is a studio in japan which in the 60s was known for putting out edgier fare to connect with younger audiences looking to break from the japanese film traditions of ozu and kurosawa. basically, these films are japan's attempt to make their own stylized film noir a la the US and france. of these rusty knife and cruel gun story are a bit underwhelming. a colt is my passport looks pretty damned cool and has a quentin tarantino-ish feel to it though is more style than substance. the two true gems of this collection are i am waiting and aim at the police van which i will go into more detail below.

- I AM WAITING is a superior film noir about a washed up disgraced boxer, a mysterious dame with a sordid past, and a cafe where people go who have nothing left. this is a film that could stand up to any film noir, japanese, french, or american. definitely recommend for fans of the film noir genre

- TAKE AIM AT THE POLICE VAN was directed by the japanese noir master seijun suzuki and was a superb, intense, and twisty noir thriller. i see a lot of parallels between melville and sam fuller in this film. suzuki was definitely one of the finest cutting edge directors in japan at the time and in this early work, it shows how great he would become

i call it the tingler!

in celebration of halloween, i decided to watch my favorite B-horror film ever, THE TINGLER. made into 1959 and starring vincent price with direction from the legendary b movie director william castle, this is about fear and how it manifests itself. not in the figurative sense, but in the literal way; as in, fear is an organism that builds on the spine of a human and is released through screaming. if a person is not allowed to scream, the creature on the spine builds and kills the person.

make no mistake, this is one of the silliest movies ive ever seen and without a doubt, one of hte most entertaining. and there are fantastic moments of well filmed terror. there is a great sequence that combines B&W with color, a rich red color representing blood which is first seen dripping out of a faucet and then the camera pans to a bathtub FULL of blood. awesome.

and then there is the amaing "science [very fictional]" in the movie. for example, deaf people die of fear. they dont have a chance if theyre scared really badly.

there is something so fun in the massive absurdity of it and the presence of vincent price makes everything better.

i love that this could be a parody of 50s sci fi films in the vein of LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA or THE TRAIL OF THE SCREAMING FOREHEAD.

im not really sure where im going with this...aside from saying that THE TINGLER IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!1

RECENT WATCHING 2nd Half of September

ive been busy and would like to blog a few of these things, especially in some of sort of film noir round up, but meh...here is a recap of my recent watching i dont feel like expounding on full time

MAN'S CASTLE - a suprisingly well done exercise in early sound film (1933) directed by early american master frank borzage and starring a young spencer tracey and loretta young, two stars who will obvious do much better. this early work is a nice indication of things to come for all

MONA LISA - the breakthrough film by famed irish director neil jordan (the crying game), this one stars bob hoskins, robbie coltrane, and a particular bad ass turn by michael caine. its a noir-ey, twisty crime film that is filled intrigue and whatnot. hoskins in crime movies is pretty much always a must watch

CARL TH DREYER: MY METIER - a criterion doc on the life and unique style of the great danish direcor carl theodor dreyer (passion of joan of arc, ordet). very surprisingly, this was very poorly done and not terribly informative. dreyer was a fascinating personality and this doesnt do him justice.

COUP DE TORCHON - i was shocked i enjoyed this film. i normally find french post new waver bernard tavarnier's to be incredibly boring but this one was exciting and sorta felt like claude chabrol instead. a young and oft naked isabelle huppert stars in this thriller of a serial killer/moralist living french occupied algeria prior to the breakout of the war.

A COLT IS MY PASSPORT - one of the films in the newly released Nikkatsu Noir collection from Eclipse; this is a tarantino esque noodle western from the 60s (...japan). not much of a cohesive or interesting plot, but this had great music and some cool camera work

GENERAL IDI AMIN DADA - a 90 minute interview with general idi amin and a profoundly interesting look into a charismatic and completely insane director. i can honestly see how the people of uganda were so taken with him. he is so swarthy and well spoken cannibal!

THE NAKED AND THE DEAD - this is a gritty war movie from the late 50s that seemed like it would be pretty ahead of its time. however, now it just looks like every 'war is heck' overlong films from the 50s. by no means bad but by no means interesting

RANCHO NOTORIOUS - fritz lang's worst film. i cant even remember if i wrote about this already. lets just say that germans probably the best choice to direct pleasant western flix

THE LONG NIGHT - now this is one hell of a film noir! starring henry fonda and directed by the great anatole litvak, this dark tale tells in flashback the events that led to the murder of a magician (wonderfully played the always entertaining vincent price). dare i say this is "smoldering?" an absolute must watch for noir fans!

SCANDAL SHEET - '...she didnt get married, she got murdered.' yup,, another smoldering film noir from the 50s. though not as good as THE LONG NIGHT, this is still a pretty entertaining flick. broderick crawford plays a tough as nails newspaper editor with something to hide and john derek is the rookie with a nose for the truth. OOOH! directed by phil karlson who also did...

THE PHENIX CITY STORY - ive been wanting to see this one for a while but was very disappointed with the true crime feel of the film. that genre is really hard to pull off and unless its in the ultra auteur hands of sam fuller to jules dassin, it just comes off as boring. and this unfortunately is really dull.

THE HUMAN CONDITION TRILOGY - will blog about this VERY VERY soon..

a day dedicated to movies

every month or so, i stay in all day and watch movies. the sources are netflix and my DVR and each film is unrelated to the other. its a day i can relax. my wife is at work and i can go through an entire day without speaking. in short, its one of my favorite ways to spend a weekend. i even manage to work in some exercise when i head to my home gym and bike for 90 minutes and do 30 minutes on my rowing machine; two exercises that are perfectly conducive to dense foreign films. im going to live blog these days that are so sacred to me.

MY NEIGHBORS THE YAMADAS

i was considering adding this to my animationcentric post from yesterday but since it was a piece of movie day, ill open with it. anyway, this is a release from the fabled studio ghibli; internationally known as the company that releases films by hiyao miyazaki, considered by many to the greatest director of animated films of all time. this isnt miyazaki but isao takahata, the other jewel in studio ghibli's crown. he made grave of the fireflies, maybe the most depressing movie ive ever seen. my neighbors wasnt depressing at all, but a unique pastiche of skits about a middle class japanese family. if everyone's family is crazy, then this is the normal familial experience. it is equal parts humourous and sweet and decidedly human. not takahata's best but an amusing watch nontheless

MY WINNIPEG

this is sort of related to yamadas. it is a part documentary/part surrealist drama on guy maddin's childhood and memory reflection on winnipeg, manitoba the city of his youth. starring ann savage (from the legendary film noir detour) as his mother, its a wierd and entrancing trip around what many people thinkto be a boring canadian city. yeah, winnipeg probably still is boring but with maddin's camera, it looks fascinating. maddin has perfectly made a profoundly unique style over his last 8 or so films. it is usually B&W with choppy fade ins and vague and mysterious title cards. the style is not dissimilar from abstract expressionism but also has a vague noirish feel to it. this is a fascinating and intelligent watch, much like maddin's other work (brand upon the brain, cowards bend the knee, saddest music in the world).

THE STRANGE WOMAN

this is sort of related to my winnipeg is a wierd kind of way. ann sheridan, the star of winnipeg was the star of detour directed by edgar ulman, who directed this film! woo! this wasnt as good as detour or my winnipeg. i thought this was on theyshootpicture.com's 250 essential noir films. it wasnt. this is a dull melodrama redeemed only for the puncturing gaze of hedy lemarr. NEXT.

BOB LE FLAMBEUR

note: this has nothing to do with the last 3 movies i watched thematically, stylistically, or actor wise

i have seen this a couple times before and i like to give it a watch every time it pops up on sundance or TCM. its not my favorite film from jean pierre melville, but its a great one nontheless. this is a french noir from the 50s and one of the first films to transition from noir to new wave. melville walked this line on the cutting edge of film. he films were dated in some ways in that they transported the audience to a paris of the 40s with gangsters in cool hats. what made his films cutting edge but the style and the early techniques of the new wave. bonus: isabelle corey is in this movie who is one of the most beautiful french actresses ever to grace the screen.

A GIRL CUT IN TWO

this is a recent effort from the prolific french filmmaker claude chabrol. he started in 1959 and has 77 IMDB credits to his name. among them are some bonafide classics (le ceremonie, les cousins, this man must die, the butcher) but most of them are boring pretentious french films and this one falls squarely in the latter category. i didnt really watch it for chabrol though. i watched it for the otherworldly beauty of ludivine sagnier. sorry isabelle corey, but ludivine is THE MOST beautiful woman ever to grace the french (or maybe the world's) cinema. it wasnt terrible and had some good bits of drama but overall, a meh effort.

DAMNATION

now this is type of boring prententious foreign film i can really sink my artsy teeth into. bela tarr, the director of this film usually films in B&W, uses long takes involving slow tracking shots across barren landscapes. his masterpiece is satan's tango, a seriously depressing 5 hour experiment though his wreckmeister harmonies is also pretty damn good. damnation isnt my "favorite" film of his ive seen but its pretty good. there are some great tracking inside dance halls which tends to be a reoccuring theme in his films. after watching this 2 hour loosely plotted film with oh so many tracking shots of rainy muddy landscapes, i can only help but feel that hungary is not a place i would want to visit anytime soon. EDIT: the prefab people is really an underrated bela tarr masterpiece.

BRUNO

i literally cried at the end of the movie from laughing. i havent cried from laughter in a really long time. this was a seriously funny movie. it is way over the top gay (duh) and a bit offensive but isnt that why we love it? of course. the more offensive the better though it wasnt as bad as borat (i know. sad). there are some cringe moments but again, borat had more. i didnt think id enjoy this movie as much i did. i also never thought id see a male urethra open up and sing. sometimes, we surprise ourselves. it was a good night.

::QUICK BREAK::

i went from talking about hungarian art cinema to open male urethras singing in about 4 sentences. for those of you who are still reading, recognize my random genius!!

::back to blog::

L'INNOCENTE

im running out of steam here. its been a long day and i wrote a lot of words not many of which make sense. maybe i shouldnt use this format anymore. maybe i shouldnt blog EVERY movie i see or attempt to write intelligent things (or even things) for EVERY movie. after all, i occasionally have nothing to say...like this one. this movie is famed director luchino visconti's last film. it was alright...which is pretty much how i feel about most of his movies. i only really loved death in venice and found of his other works pretty boring. at least his films are nice to look at. alright, thats it. no more blogginess