Everything That Dies, Some Day Comes Back

The pitch for this classic 1953 French film must have been really simple: we've got some desperate guys transporting some highly unstable nitro-glycerine across hundreds of miles of inhospitable terrain in Puerto Rico.  What more do you need to know? It's a sure-fire recipe for suspense, and the director Henri-Georges Clouzot doesn't fail to deliver. But my goodness we have to sit through a full hour of build-up before the suicide mission sets off.  What little we learn about the four protagonists at this point could have been delivered in half the time.  There are two lorries (to double the chances of success).  In one we have two Frenchmen, an ageing ex-gangster Jo who likes to act the tough guy, and the younger Mario who looks up to him.  In the other is genial Luigi (Italian in case you hadn't guessed) and dour Bimba (Dutch). Very soon it's clear that Jo's nerves are not up to the task, and during the journey Mario becomes increasingly contemptuous of h...

According to Wikipedia this is, along with 'Singin' In The Rain', one of the finest MGM film musicals. Well, I beg to differ. To put this film, directed by Vincente Minnelli, in the same bracket as the Gene Kelly classic is absurd; this film is clearly inferior in terms of the songs, the dance routines, the comedy, the romance. In other words it falls short in every department.  An aging Fred Astaire does what he can but he really needs a Ginger Rogers to complement him but instead he, and we, have to make do with Cyd Charisse.   Quite how she became as famous as she did is something of a mystery to me given that her acting is wooden, she doesn't sing, and even her dancing is quite limited in its range.   In this film she plays a famous ballerina so it is unfortunate that the ballet sequence which is our introduction to her is so woeful as to be laughable.  Given that there is an age gap of over 20 years between the two leads, I guess we should be thankful ...

My bible for any film of this era ("The Sunday Times Guide to Movies on TV") is surprisingly lukewarm about this 1953 crime film directed by Fritz Lang, not liking the 'gratuitous violence'. Well, a lot of blood has flowed since that review was written.  Sure, there are a couple of moments here of shocking violence, but they are integral to the story. And what a taut, well-plotted story it is, more than capably performed and directed, with not a moment wasted. Glenn Ford is fine as an honest homicide detective, trying to do his job despite the corruption all around him.  He eventually triumphs, but at a huge personal cost, and only with the help of the splendid Gloria Grahame, as a gangster's moll.   The gangster in question is the psychopathic Lee Marvin, having a whale of a time. Unusually for a film of this period there is some suggestion that Ford's happy relationship with his wife might extend to the bedroom,  or maybe I am reading too much into a couple ...

My bible on American and British films before 1970, and one of my most treasured possessions from my youth,  is ‘The Sunday Times Guide to Movies on Television’ by Angela and Elkan Allen. They don’t care much for Otto Preminger’s films, so I wasn’t surprised to find that they didn’t like this 1953 film noir. Nevertheless I gave it a go, because sometimes even bad films can be enjoyable.  Jean Simmons plays Diane, a pretty and intelligent 20-year old who worships her father, a not very industrious writer, but resents her wealthy stepmother.   The latter is mainly interested in her bridge club and doesn’t seem to mind financially supporting Diane and her father. Robert Mitchum plays Frank, an ambulance driver who happens to come to Diane’s attention.  She soon lures him away from his girlfriend and has him installed as the family’s chauffeur. I enjoyed the first half of the film, as characters are established quickly and efficiently, intrigued as to where we were ...

This film musical features songs by Cole Porter and has a plot that revolves around a stage musical called 'Kiss Me, Kate' (based on 'The Taming of the Shrew') that features songs by Cole Porter, who briefly appears as a character - it's all a bit meta for 1953.   The main characters are performers Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessa, who used to be married and who have a tempestuous relationship that creates  off-stage fireworks to mirror those on-stage. Further comic mayhem is provided by some gangsters who are owed money. The original stage musical won the first ever Tony, and was Cole Porter’s first integrated musical i.e. one in which the songs relate directly to the surrounding story.  The story itself is entertaining tosh and the sparkling songs are done full justice by Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson as Fred and Lilli. Most of the dancing in the film features Ann Miller. She turns up in many musicals of this era (such as ‘On The Town’ for example) and unfortunatel...