Movie review - "The Lawless" (1950) ***

 Pine-Thomas' only real attempt to make a "critics' picture" is pretty good, helped by some quality talent - Daniel Mainwaring wrote the script, based on his novel, and Joseph Losey directed. It uses some Paramount stars, Macdonald Carey and Gail Russell, who are effective. Russell's sad eyes suit the role.

It's about prejudice against Mexicans in a California border town. The emphasis is on white Carey, a journalist, who doesn't really have skin in the game... but I recognise that sort of compromise is needed to make the movie work.

There's a satisfying riot and a good deal of intelligence. It's a shame they had to rely on a "fake rape" narrative and a kindly rich white man to come along at the end and fix things. Tab Hunter has a small part - it was his debut.

Movie review - "Lady in the Dark" (1944) **1/2

 A once famous musical now barely revived - I've listened to a couple of radio adaptations of it. The show had Moss Hart, Kurt Weill, and Gershwin plus Victor Mature, Danny Kaye, Macdonald Carey and Gertrude Lawrence. This junks most of the score and has new stars - Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Jon Hall, Barry Sullivan, Warner Baxter. It does have colour Director Mitchell Leisen gets a photograph in the opening credits. Gail Russell pops up at the end as the object of affection of the guy Rogers had a crush on in high school.

It hasn't aged well. Rogers is a strong, beautiful, successful career woman, scolded by her all-wise all-knowing shrink for not wanting love and romance.  She's put in a position of never wanting to be hurt again... Secretly wanting a man who dominates her. Ugh.

You know, you could alter this and update it. Make the shrink a woman. Keep having a career be important, make it about fear of being hurt.

It's of interest. There are elaborate dream sequences, which while they can't escape the feeling of theatricality, are still impressive, and lovingly shot by Leisen and his team. There's a few songs. Rogers is very good.

Paramount were pushing Sullivan as a star - didn't work out. He's really annoying. In fairness it's his character. Milland is charming in a rather stock leading man role but at least they got someone with a bit of star power for Rogers. Baxter is just old. Hall is... well, I didn't buy him as a big time star, and he's not that much better looking than Milland. I'm guessing he was cast because they could afford him. But it is good that they got a leading man for this part.

Movie review - "El Paso" (1949) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Pine-Thomas were known for their low budget action films but after the war they began to think that you needed to spend money to make money so the budgets rose - this was their first million dollar movie and their first with John Payne, with whom they would often collaborate.

It's not a bad Western, with Payne as a former Confederate officer and lawyer who goes out west after the war to visit a town and discovers it's under the thumb of landowner Sterling Hayden. He falls for Gail Russell whose father Henry Hull is a drunken judge. There's also Gabby Hayes.

The colour is gorgeous, the locations are fine - it's not a spectacle but there's impressive production values. Payne is a strong action hero - sensitive but also virile. Hayden is an effective villain though his part is surprisingly limited - they probably should've given him more to do. Russell brings her fragile beauty - it's not really much of a role, to provide a conscience, but she's fine. Hill hams it up. So does Hayes, Dick Foran is an effective villain.

There's interesting themes and moments here. It's about Payne wanting to bring law and the importance of the rule of law - though he wants to get revenge and so gets to kick arse (having it's cake and eating it too). Payne gets to kill Hayden and spare Dick Foran. Payne kills an innocent person. A kid is orphaned.

There's a fantastic final shoot out in a dust storm.  I like the way Payne is mentored by a Mexican friend - who tells him how to shoot but also urges caution.

The film never quite clicks into top gear. The drama feels muddled somehow - as if the film isn't living up to its potential.  There's a decent running time but I kept wanting to see more Payne-Russell, more fleshed out stuff for Hayden and Foran, more of the thief Mary Beth Hughes.

So it's frustrating.Lots of good things about it though.

Movie review - "Salty O'Rourke" (1945) ** (warning: spoilers)

For this movie to work it helps to know that it was originally envisioned as a vehicle for Mickey Rooney and that Stanley Clements was an upcoming name at the time due to Going My Way. Because although it's technically an Alan Ladd film, Clements is the hero as much as anyone.

The set up is complicated - Ladd owes $20k to Bruce Cabot, which means he needs to buys a horse, which means he needs a jockey, Clements, which means Clements needs to pretend he's 17, which means he has to go to school, which means his teacher is Gail Russell who expels him on day one for being fresh, which means Ladd has to romance Russell.

This is the sort of movie that should be fun but isn't, despite the presence of William Demarest as Ladd's sidekick. Clements look like a prematurely aging old man and he got on my nerves; Ladd never gets to be a colourful Damon Runyon gangster; Gail Russell's doe eyed beauty is touching but she really falls for Ladd which makes his disdainful attitude kind of mean. It's also really nasty that Clements gets shot dead. That's full on - I found a similar problem in the other Ladd "comedy", Lucky Jordan which got very serious at the end.

Movie review - "Calcutta" (1947) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

I always enjoy this Alan Ladd potboiler - it was the movie that introduced me to Ladd, and also director John Farrow, and whenever I think of either filmmaker I'm inclined to think of Calcutta more than say Shane or Hondo. I've already reviewed it on this blog so I'll only make some random observations:
* June Duprez's performance gets worse every time I see this. It's not that bad a role - I mean, yes she does pine, but she gets to be a lounge singer as well. But she's wooden and off form.
* Gail Russell's performance gets better every time I see this. She seems so fragile and helpless - she makes a fantastic femme fetale. I'd rank her better than Mary Astor in The Maltese Falcon, in part because you'd more obviously believe/fall for Russell with those massive eyes. That final line "I'd hate to have killed you" is brilliant.
* Alan Ladd is great in this sort of role - tough, vengeful, misogynistic. But he struggles to convince that he falls for Gail Russell in anyway. Come to think of it, I can't recall Ladd being that effective in love with anyone on screen. Maybe in The Great Gatsby or The McConnell Story.
* The support cast is very strong. In addition to the always reliable William Bendix, there's great turns from Edith King, Lowell Gilmore and Paul Singh. The Paramount stock company weren't as strong as Warners (Rains, Greenstreet, Lorre, etc) but they do pretty well.  The same could be said for the art department.
*It's really not fun to watch Ladd literally slap a confession out of Russell at the end.
*I generally tend to like films Seton I Miller writes. I will note his tendency to rip off other movies though - there's three musketeers of guys, two of whom are unhappy when one of them gets married (Gunga Din); the final confrontation where the man goes to the woman "he wouldn't have gone there alone you must have come with him" (The Maltese Falcon); the fat criminal (Casablanca, only here it's a woman).
*It's not very British (I think there's one British character in it, a cop) and not even that Indian. Really it could have been called "Saigon" or "Shanghai" or "Rangoon" just as easily.

Movie review - "Wake of the Red Witch" (1948) *** (warning: spoilers)

1948 was a big year for John Wayne - although technically an "A" star since Stagecoach in 1939, this that was the year he found himself ranked among the top ten most popular stars in North America for the first time. His best known credits for that year were Red River, Fort Apache, 3 Godfathers and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, but this is a cheerful, unpretentious film which in its own way was influential - because Wayne's boat in the movie is called "Batjac", a name Wayne used for his own production company. It was made by Republic, the cheapie company that had Wayne under contract for many years, but they provided more money for his films around this time, especially this one, which was based on a best seller, and has boats and period costumes and stuff.

This is a south seas movie starring the Duke as a tough sea captain not unlike his role in Red River. There is a lot of plot - within the first ten minutes Wayne is scuttling a ship and going on trial and explaining all this back story. Indeed I feel there was too much plot in the film - it leapt around in time and had all these flashbacks and characters and got very complicated with trials and betrayals when the essential story was kind of simple: Wayne and Luther Adler hate each other because both love Gail Russell, who dies, and there are some valuable pearls at the bottom of the ocean defended by a nasty octopus.

There are two great things about this movie: the love story between Wayne and Russell which is well done; apparently the actors had an affair and I'm inclined to believe it because their chemistry is so good. Russell shone in these sort of tragic, poor-little-thing roles and Wayne commits emotionally.  (It's a genuinely good performance.)The second strong thing is the ending, when Wayne goes to retrieve the pearls - and dies. Full on!

Other good things - the production values are high, the support cast excellent including Gig Young and Henry Daniell.

Movie review - "The Uninvited" (1944) **1/2

Paramount has a go at an old dark story but gives it first-rate treatment, with a decent budget and Ray Milland as star. This has a strong reputation and is certainly classy but it isn't that scary - certainly nowhere near the best of Val Lewton, or Universal around this time. So much of the script involves backstory of events that happened years ago which aren't really dramatised - most of the finale involves four actors sitting around chatting.

There are some effective moments, such as hearing the sobbing of the ghost, and Gail Russell's performance - all wide eyes and nerves. Cornelia Otis Skinner is fun as the creepy local shrink who has more than a whiff of a Mrs Danvers/Rebecca/lesbian type attachment to the ghost.

Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey are the the super close brother and sister who decide to buy the house; Hussey's character isn't really needed in the film when you think about it - her role could have been carried by Ray Milland. At least there is a strong female to counter balance nasty Skinner, the comic maid and helpless Russell. The doctor she romances is Alan Napier.

There are some interesting personal relationships, one or two effective moments, decent acting, but it was underwhelming.

Movie review - "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" (1948) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Part of the late 40s fortune teller phase which also included Nightmare Alley, this features Edward G Robinson as a fortune teller who starts as a shonk then realises he has a genuine gift. He has a strong control over heiress Gail Russell, whose death Robinson predicts.

I'm not a big fan of true psychic movies because it always feels like it's cheating; that's how it is here as well - Robinson predicts the future, it comes true but in a slightly different way. There are some effective moments but I couldn't helping thinking "lazy scriptwriting" a lot.

Robinson is in good form as the psychic - he plays it in his customary no-nonsense manner, which helps make the part less airy-fairy. Gail Russell adds some solid "tragic ethereal victim" aura (in part because of her own real life fate) as the heiress who seems to be doomed. John Lund is wet and useless as always as Russell's love. William Demarest provides some tough talking sass as a DA and there's a surprise ending (if overloaded by exposition) where the cops shoot Robinson dead while trying to save Russell's life and the cops don't get punished for it.

John Farrow and his editors have jazzed it up by going non linear - we start with Russell about to kill herself then flashback - and it has the pleasures of films from this time (crisp black and white photography, expert character actors) but I found this disappointing.

Movie review - "The Tattered Dress" (1957) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

As Man in the Shadow begat Touch of Evil so did this beget Man in the Shadow - it's another black and white Universal neo noir about a murder and police corruption in a small town starring Jeff Chandler, produced by Albert Zugsmith and directed by Jack Arnold. Chandler is a ruthless lawyer defending someone for murder - he gets the wrong people off side and finds himself on trial. There's lots of jazzy music and a slutty blonde dancing in a tight evening dress while sipping on alcohol - the sort of image you always saw in Zugsmith films.

This wasn't bad - it moves crisply enough and has an interesting cast: Chandler is forceful as a lawyer not a million miles from Don Draper (that terrific voice is well used in several speeches); Jeanne Crain pops up in a rather thankless role as his estranged, forgiving wife; Jack Carson is superb as a nasty sheriff; poor old Gail Russell pops up and is effective as a sad, broken woman.

I didn't quite buy the story - Carson goes to an awful lot of trouble to made life hard for Chandler; it sets up this murder story in the first third then becomes about something entirely different (i.e Chandler on trial for bribery); Chandler's summing up at the end doesn't make sense (he's saying he went after money and made a lot of mistakes and justice is important... what does that have to do with being not guilty?)

But Carson is a terrific antagonist - smart, ruthless - and Chandler gets to play one of his most flawed heroes: ambitious, unfaithful, a gambling addict. It's an erratic but interesting mystery.

Movie review - Ladd #6 - "Salty O'Rourke" (1945) **

Alan Ladd showed a flair for comedy in Lucky Jordan so this piece of horseracing whimsy comes as a disappointment. It would seem to be a sure thing - Ladd is a gambler who has to pay of a bookie in X number of days or he'll be killed, so he and his partner (William Demarest, ideal) buy a race horse and get a jockey to ride it. So far so good - then the jockey has to go to school and is a pain to a school teacher (Gail Russell) so Ladd busies himself with the school teacher.

The main problem with this film is structural - we want it to be about Ladd getting up to wacky shonky tough guy shenanigans and being charmed by Russell, but the plot of the film is really about this jockey kid being wild and Ladd and Russell having to pull him into line. Now that sort of plot would work if the jockey was a little girl or something - it's the plot of Little Miss Marker - because then you'd have the three of them forming a family, which is holistic. But here the jockey is a 17 year old and the plot evolves into a romantic triangle with the jockey loving Russell and Russell loving Ladd and Ladd loving Russell - but only after he finds out that she loves him. So the poor old jockey has to be shunted out of the way. Another problem is Ladd doesn't have that much to do - the jockey gets more screen time.

Russell is beautiful and certainly has a tragic presence - many tragic stars you can't tell from their persona but looking at Russell on screen you just get the feeling it's all going to end badly for her in real life unless someone came along to protect her (which is unfortunately what happened). She and Ladd ought to be a good combination - a tough guy and a sweet girl - but it doesn't work here since Ladd isn't really given the chance to be tough, or Russell the chance to be that sweet (she needed to look after little kids or something).

Movie review - Ladd #10 - "Calcutta" (1947) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Another unregarded Alan Ladd melodrama set in the third world - he's a pilot in Calcutta (though it could easily have been Mozambique or Aden or Sumatra), a war veteran with two good buddies, a womaniser who's dating a night club singer (June Duprez) but who won't get tied down to no dame no sir, who is the sort to go investigating on his own when one of his mates is killed, hangs out in slinky casinos run by dodgy foreign businessmen and charms exotic shonky women.

There's some excellent black and white photography, plenty of plot (which doesn't quite hide the fact you've seen it all before - gambling dens, jewel smuggling rings, femme fetales) and John Farrow handles it all brisk fashion.

Alan Ladd is ideal in the role but lacks a little energy - I understand he's supposed to be an "I don't care" kind of guy but he doesn't care a bit too much, especially in his scenes with the romantic interest. (It's possible to do a gay reading of this film - he is so misgoynistic and devoted to his buddies, when sexy Duprez lies on top of him in a dressing gown he barely registers attention and he tells Duprez that the end "you're a great guy" - makes you go "hmmmm...")

Gail Russell is an excellent femme fetale - so sweet and innocent looking it really works. Her last line "I would have hated to have killed you" is really chilling. William Bendix is also very good as Ladd's best mate - the two have very strong chemistry. I also enjoyed the support cast, including a chubby female version of Sidney Greenstreet and various shady types. I've seen this movie a few times now and always enjoy it - there was something very appealing about these studio backlot recreations of exotic hot spots (Casablanca is the best known but there's also Mr Moto films and so on).

NB Although released in 1947 when India became independent, this is set in a time when the British were still in charge.