Everything That Dies, Some Day Comes Back

Really, there’s no way this Western should work as well as it does.  It’s far too long and there’s no action to speak of until the end, and even then it’s pretty thin gruel. Worst of all, perhaps, the main character is played by Gregory Peck at his most insufferably high-minded. He’s a rich sea captain, Jim McKay who’s journeyed from the East to Texas to marry his fiancée, Patricia (Carroll Baker). They fell in love in Baltimore but here it’s not long before he realises she’s not for him.  She doesn’t understand that he’s so comfortable in his skin that he doesn’t feel the need to prove himself to anyone, least of all to the woman who is supposed to love him. McKay is a peaceable live-and-let-live kind of guy, so he doesn’t see eye-to-eye with Patricia's  father, Major Terrill, who is consumed with enmity towards a neighbouring rancher, Rufus.  Both ranches need water from the Big Muddy river, which is owned by Julie (Jean Simmons).  She and McKay strike up an i...

Nowadays this 1960 drama is all but forgotten, which is a shame all things considered.  I watched it in my late teens when I was first getting into film and although no single scene had stayed with me I did  remember enjoying it a lot, no doubt in part because it stars two of my favourite actors from the period, Burt Lancaster and Jean Simmons. Simmons is Sister Sharon, a small-time revivalist preacher in 1927, whilst Lancaster is Gantry, a struggling salesman who latches on to her. We learn that at one time he was training to be a priest until a scandalous sexual liaison with a minister's daughter (Lulu, played by Shirley Jones) puts an end to that.   This may help explain why he takes to revivalism as the proverbial duck takes to water.   His charisma and showmanship brings Sister Sharon to the attention of church leaders in Zenith (a fictional city, presumably twinned with the town of Climax from Billy Wilder's 'Kiss Me, Stupid') who reluctantly agree to payr...

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 was very expensive for its time - stars like Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra didn't come cheap, not to mention the cost of creating Times Square and its environs in the studio. This is one of those highly stylised and theatrical musicals where there would be no point in filming it on location because it's not interested in realism.  All the colours are bright and garish, and everyone is moving and talking in a heightened manner.   The source material for 'Guys and Dolls' is some stories by Damon Runyon, whose dialogue was slang expressed in a very formal style. This way of talking really  grated on me for some reason,  especially in the opening scenes which set up the world of illicit gambling in which the story is set. Or should I say stories, since the plot is really about two separate romances. The first is between Nathan Detroit (Sinatra) and his fiancée for the last fourteen years, Miss Adelaide (Vivian Blaine).  I didn't find their r...