What classics did you see last week ? (16 Jun- 22 Jun 2019)
Jun 25, 2019 23:56:08 GMT
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Jun 25, 2019 23:56:08 GMT
Nora Prentiss / Vincent Sherman (1947). Warner Bros-First National. Upright, uptight big shot doctor Richard Talbot (Kent Smith) lives a pretty strict existence with a successful San Francisco medical practice and perfect family: controlling wife and a son who repeats Dad’s words and mimics his mannerisms. The only real light is his daughter Bonita (Wanda Hendrix, endearing) who is lively, independently minded and desperate for her father’s attention. One night leaving his office, nightclub singer Nora Prentiss (Ann Sheridan in yet another great performance) gets knocked down by a car. She is taken to Talbot’s office where he patches her up and starts to be attracted to her. From here an affair begins that consumes Talbot’s life. But the switch here is that Nora is not the femme spider luring the helpless male into a web. Nora is, in fact, the level headed one of the two who doesn’t want to break up a family. Talbot has to lie to her to keep her in the affair. But one night Nora does break it off to go to New York. Frantic, Talbot hatches a crazy plan to fake his own death and assume another person’s identity. He joins Nora, telling her his wife has agreed to a divorce. In NYC, he hides San Francisco news of Dr. Talbot’s fiery death. This is just the start of a spiraling series of unfortunate events that Talbot is sucked into. Kent Smith does career work here. Robert Alda and Bruce Bennett also star in substantial supporting roles. Director Vincent Sherman delivered for Warner for many years in many genres. And, again, behind the camera we have James Wong Howe bringing the noir and upping the tension with unexpected lighting and camera set-ups. For years promoted as a ‘40s “woman’s picture,” “Nora Prentiss” now has a growing and deserved reputation as classic, perhaps essential, film noir. Many memorable moments to talk over and discuss with friends.
The Asphalt Jungle / John Huston (1950). Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. As another writer has said: “’Jungle’ reflects two shades: dark and darker.” This tale of bad luck and trouble is an absolute classic essential of film noir. Director John Huston and cinematographer Harold Rosson (The Wizard of Oz, Singing In The Rain, Johnny Eager, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo) have crafted a film where each frame could be hung up as art and as a perfect example of what people mean when they say noir. Aging career criminal Doc Erwin Riedenschneider (Sam Jaffe, Oscar nominated), quiet spoken, impeccably dressed, just released from prison, evades his police tail and immediately starts putting together a crew for his latest robbery caper plan. He needs four other people: a driver, a safe cracker, a “hooligan” (muscle), and a backer with some front money. The hooligan is going to be Dix Handley (Sterling Hayden), whose story is the major focus of the film. The front man will be the (supposedly) rich lawyer Alonzo Emmerich (a brilliant Louis Calhern). But Emmerich is broke due to bad investments and his lavish support of Angela (a breakout for Marilyn Monroe), his young mistress. Early on we learn that Emmerich is planning to double-cross Doc Riedenschneider and keep all the swag. Also in the cast is Anthony Caruso as the safecracker, James Whitmore as the driver, Jean Hagen as Dix’s girlfriend, and Marc Lawrence as a nervous minor bookie working as a go-between and providing a hideout. All are exemplary. Also Oscar nominated was Rosson for b&w cinematography, Huston for directing, and Ben Maddow & Huston for writing. If you have never seen it, watch it today.
The Asphalt Jungle - One of the daddies
Experience has taught me never to trust a policeman. Just when you think one's all right, he turns legit.
Out of MGM, The Asphalt Jungle is directed by John Huston and based on the novel of the same name by W.R. Burnett. It stars Sterling Hayden, Jean Hagen, Sam Jaffe, Louis Calhern, James Whitmore, Teresa Celli, and in a minor but important role, Marilyn Monroe. Miklós Rózsa scores the music and Harold Rosson photographs it in black & white. Plot sees Erwin "Doc" Riedenschneider (Jaffe) leave prison and quickly assemble a gang to execute a long in gestation jewellery heist. However, with suspicion rife and fate waiting to take a hand, the carefully constructed caper starts to come apart at the seams.
John Huston liked a tough movie, having given film noir in America a jump start with The Maltese Falcon in 1941, he also that same year adapted W.R. Burnett's novel High Sierra. Burnett also had on his CV crime classic stories Little Caesar & Scarface, so it's no surprise that Huston was drawn to The Asphalt Jungle. As it turned out, it was a match made in gritty urban heaven.
The Asphalt Jungle was one of the first crime films to break with convention and tell the story from the actual side of the criminals. Where once it was the pursuing law officers or private detectives that were the heavy part of the plotting, now under Huston's crafty guidance we have a study in crime and a daring for us to empathise with a bunch of criminals, villains and anti-heroes. As a group the gang consists of very differing characters, and yet they have a common bond, for they each strive for a better life. Be it Hayden's luggish Dix, who dreams of buying back his father's horse ranch back in Kentucky, or Jaffe's Doc, who wants to retire to Mexico and surround himself with girls - it's greed and yearning that binds them all together - With alienation and bleakness, in true film noir traditions, featuring heavily as the plot (and gang) unravels.
With gritty dialogue and atmospherically oozing a naturalistic feel, it's also no surprise to note that Huston's movie would go on to influence a ream of similar type films. Some good, some bad, but very few of them have been able to capture the suspense that is wrung out for the actual heist sequence in this. Fabulous in its authenticity, and with that out of the way, it then sets the decaying tone for the rest of the piece. Interesting to note that although we are now firmly in the lives of the "gang", including their respective women (Hagen, Monroe & Celli all shining in what is a very macho movie), we still know that the society outside of their circle is hardly nice either! This is stripped down brutalistic film noir. Merciless to its characters and thriving on ill fate, and closing with a finale that is as perfect as it gets, this is a top line entry in what is the most wonderful of film making styles. 9.5/10