After a young girl suffers a horrible attack on the night of her confirmation, she is then abandoned by those who should be looking out for her. Despite the damage she suffers, she somehow refuses to lose her kind nature or soul in the process. Louise Brooks somehow brings such innocence and heart to her role as the lead character. A little more love and no-one would be lost in this world indeed.
There’s a dark undercurrent throughout this film that is palpable even in its lighter moments. James Stewart brings an old aged cynicism to his role as a Texas marshal who is coerced by the Army into attempting a recover of kidnapped whites from a tribe of Native Americans. I’ve seen it compared to The Searchers and while it holds a similar theme, I liked this one much better. All sides are a bit more fleshed out, making them feel more realistic. There are few winners in this business and this film doesn’t pretend that there are.
I generally enjoy the resetting Shakespeare’s works to other time periods. In some ways it makes them much more accessible while also allowing for more creativity for the adapters. Unfortunately if I’m not already semi-familiar with the work, it often makes it harder for me to initially engage with the work. That was the case with this rendition of Richard III set in an alternative 1930s England including fascist elements of the era. Getting over that obstacle, I think reworking the setting added a lot of texture to the story, particularly in the visuals. There are a number of great actors in the film, being lead by a particularly oleaginous Ian McKellen as the titular character bent on murder, war, and manipulations all to ascend to the throne.
Oscar Nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; Best Costume Design
The story of a multi-term, corrupt politician running in his last campaign isn’t particularly new. Even with John Ford at the helm and Spencer Tracy as the mayor of an unnamed New England town as the lead, this doesn’t offer much new to the genre. It hits many common notes: the political machine doing the dirty work of the campaign while the candidate is under the delusion it’s for the greater good, a young upstart using modern means to finally give the incumbent a run for his money, and the mayor using his power and influence in selfish and unselfish ways. It’s certainly a watchable political film, but there are more engaging ones out there.
Although there’s plenty of films where he’s not, I always expect Edward G. Robinson to play the tough guy. Here he gets to do both as a mild mannered clerk who just happens to share the same face as a ruthless killer. There’s sometimes a bit of unevenness in his meek portrayal, particularly when he’s ‘interacting’ with the gangster, but it’s great to watch him work both sides. Jean Arthur brings her spunky best as his co-worker and love interest. The story is light and takes some inexplicable jumps (Donald Meek plays a character that only shows up in the beginning and end), but it’s worth watching Robinson act against himself.
With my blog reformatting, I’ve pondered what to do with regards to the short films I watch. Thus far, I’ve decided to at least include the Oscar nominated ones. I recently caught these two on YouTube and figured I’d pair them together. Ishu Patel’s Paradise didn’t mesmerize me quite as much as my recent viewing of his The Bead Game. Though employing some interesting techniques and beautiful colors, the story of a black bird who temporarily covets a caged, glamorous life is a much more standard animated affair.
Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase on the other hand doesn’t offer much in terms of a narrative, but is an impressive montage of famous works of art shown through clay stop motion animation. It comes off as a blending of Loving Vincent and the face morphing parts of Michael Jackson’s Black or White video.
Oscar Nomination: Best Short Film, Animated (Paradise)
Oscar Win: Best Short Film, Animated (Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase)
While I’ve never read the book this is adapted from, I did watch the 2019 miniseries within the last year, so I was already familiar with this story revolving around a squadron based in the Mediterranean during World War II. Compared to that longer version, this film is much more nonlinear and chaotic in nature. There isn’t as much time for character development, so the first hour jumps from episodes introducing one over the top character to the next. Alan Arkin’s Yossarian starts neurotic and there’s only brief glimpses as to what led him to the breaking point. The rest of the cast are all played by a slew of well-known actors including the extremely young looking Martin Sheen, Charles Grodin, Bob Newhart, and Bob Balaban . The whole film has the feeling of a crazier and darker version of MASH. Without having seen the miniseries, I would have had a difficult time following the thread of events.
It’s not surprising that this later was later adapted into a television show. It feels like a long episode of any television police procedural over the years and easily works as a pilot movie. Focusing on both the professional and personal aspects of a day in the life of Jack Hawkins’s Scotland Yard inspector, it’s interesting that it came so soon after my viewing of Working Girls, another movie focusing on one day in a worker’s life. While watching this one, I somewhat imagined an episode of some other television show juxtaposing the days of these two individuals employed on opposite sides of the law. That has the potential to be a bit deeper and engaging than this watchable, but relatively lightweight police drama.
I didn’t think I’d enjoy an over two hour, silent version of a title I’d seen only a month ago, but I surprisingly really liked this version and found the time passed quickly. A brown-faced, dressed like an over-enthusiastic yoga instructor Douglas Fairbanks leads this film and even at the age of 40, his athleticism is impressive. While I often find the emoting in silent films to be over excessive, there’s something about Fairbanks’s smile and posturing that, while bordering on hammy, seems much more natural to his personality. The set design and costuming is lavish and it ranks high in the list of black and white films I sincerely wish I could see in color. While there are some off-putting racial caractures, the cast seems rather diverse for the time period, including Anna May Wong, Sôjin Kamiyama, Noble Johnson, and Matilde Comont playing one of the male suitors.
It’s difficult to review Wyatt Earp without comparing it to its contemporary, Tombstone. Where the latter employs its cast to create a fun, action-packed ensemble piece with memorable performances, the former squanders its stacked cast to instead create a one-person biopic centered on Kevin Costner’s character. Yes, the title gives that away, but it’s a mystery why anyone felt that the entirety of Earp’s life was exceptional enough to warrant three plus hours. The first hour could be cut out completely and all that would be missed is seeing Gene Hackman and Annabeth Gish. The narrative meanders much like Earp through the American West. It did not help that the writing, framing and costuming (which may be more authentic to the time period) created such generic, interchangeable characters that it made it difficult to track who was who and what side they were on. It got better by the time the plot settled into Tombstone, but by then a lot of my interest had waned. 
Oscar Nomination: Best Cinematography