Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

[Reza]

Jazbaa (Sanjay Gupta, 2015) 3/10

Much heralded return to the silver screen by Aishwarya Rai after a hiatus of five years when she took a break to have a child and put on a lot of weight. She returns with a bang looking incredibly fit - the opening scenes of the film have her jogging and doing yoga against the Bombay waterfront - no doubt to show a finger at all the media who ridiculed her weight gain. Unfortunately the vehicle she has chosen (a remake of the South Korean film - "Seven Nights") for her comeback is an hysterically overwrought mess and badly directed to boot. A highflying lawyer (Aishwarya Rai) is blackmailed into taking up the defence of a convicted murderer and rapist after her young daughter is kidnapped. She has to race against time to save her repellent client much to the dismay of the murdered girl's mother (Shabana Azmi). Irrfan Khan is good as the jaded cop who helps her along the way. A twist ending doesn't also help this silly film which harks back to bad Bollywood films of the 1970s and 1980s. For some strange reason the director has filmed every scene through green and yellow filters which distracts throughout. It is obvious why both Rai and Azmi took on this project - rape is a major problem in India with one taking place every 23 minutes according to statistics. However, this is not a film that does justice to highlight this horrific crime. Rai needs to quickly atone for this messy film.

[Reza]

Bone Tomahawk (C. Craig Zahler, 2015) 7/10

Shades of Tarantino emerge in this very violent film that expertly mixes two genres - the Western and Horror. It has a certain tongue-in-cheek quality to it that allows one's senses to accept all the gore on display. Two men and a local doctor (Lili Simmons) are mysteriously abducted in the middle of the night. A posse (Sheriff Kurt Russell, his deputy Richard Jenkins, the doctor's crippled husband Patrick Wilson and bigoted gunslinger Matthew Fox) follow in quick pursuit. It appears the abductors are "troglodytes" - ancient, incestuous, cannibalistic cave-dwellers. The languid pace of the film actually helps as it allows Zahler, the writer, to show-off (not unlike Tarantino) via banter between the characters and makes this slow'burn of a film moving along. As director he also shows great flair in the visual aspects of the film. The third act descends into full splatter territory - hinted at during the film's opening sequence where two low lifes massacre a group of travellers and calmly slice up the throat of one man. The film's actual highlight is one incredible scene of pure gore that has to be seen to be believed. Zahler expertly mixes the two genres and has come up with a perfect hybrid. It will be interesting to see what he comes up with in his next film.

[Reza]

Diablo (Lawrence Roeck, 2015) 6/10

This western seems to be channelling a number of old films. It can be seen as an homage to Clint Eastwood by his son Scott. A number of the old man's films get a look-in - "The Outlaw Josey Wales, "Unforgiven" and going further back to the spaghetti westerns. Scott Eastwood gets a spectacular opening scene - framed in a doorway of a burning house, which itself brings memories of John Wayne framed in a similar doorway in the classic "The Searchers". Unfortunately this film will never achieve classic status though it has many good things going for it. Eastwood Jr has screen presence, his father's squinty good looks and raspy voice all of which he uses to good effect. The plot is not original - a man gives chase to Mexican bandits to retrieve his kidnapped wife - but the sudden twist in the plot derails everything that has come before. It's as if a major western rule has been broken. Walter Goggins and Danny Glover, in small but vivid roles, are both very good. And the film uses interesting locations and is beautifully photographed by Dean Cundey.

[Greg]

The Fountainhead (King Vidor, 1949) 7/10

An uncompromising, visionary architect struggles to maintain his integrity and individualism when his employers desire that he conforms to modern standards. I dislike just about everything that Ayn Rand stands for, but, damn, if it doesn't make for a good movie. While her ideologies are atrocious (there's a scene that basically amounts to "Individualism is stupid.), King Vidor takes the material and makes a really interesting, very good movie out of it.

Here is a funny quote about Ayn Rand from John Rogers: There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

[Big Magilla]

The Queen of Spades (Thorold Dickinson, 1949) 7/10

Edith Evans in her film debut.

Actually she made her film debut 34 years earlier in 1915.

Evans made a career on being a henpecking dowager, so seeing a bit of restraint in her work is interesting and it works well.

Those dowager roles came late in her celebrated sixty-six year career.

[ksrymy]

Mighty Joe Young (Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1949) 7/10

A huge gorilla is taken from his home with a young white girl with property in Africa to Hollywood where he's a star onstage and severely mistreated offstage. Where "King Kong" was adventurous and thrilling, "Mighty Joe Young" is antiseptic and charming. And while this movie doesn't live up to the 1933 classic, "Joe" still has its wits and charms about it.

Notably, the visual effects by Ray Harryhausen and his mentor Willis O'Brien are very good. They're still a little stiff in parts, but the gorilla's movement here is far more fluid than it was in "King Kong." Also, the relationship between Joe and Terry Moore is far, far more believable than Kong and Fay Wray's. Terry Moore is really good too as the young, spunky landowner. Moore's performance is what drives the film and keeps the juices flowing. Another ingénue would've made this staid and tired. Kudos to Moore for a good turn.

I think the film lacks any real sense of danger when it's time to set Joe loose and mad though. There's no doubt he's not going to be a truly dangerous threat. You know he'll get talked to and realize he's being bad and then everything will be okay. The film's way predictable, but it's still fun nonetheless.

"Mighty Joe Young" is one of the better adventure films from the time littered with them even if it's more of a social criticism than adventure yarn. The effects are wonderful and it never gets dull.

Beyond the Forest (King Vidor, 1949) 2/10

The wife of a Wisconsin doctor has an affair with an important Chicago businessman and kills the person who witnesses their affair. Oh, my God, this movie is awful. Bette Davis plays second fiddle to her terrible wig. I'm pretty sure it's the same wig they gave Victor Mature for "Samson and Delilah."

And, while we're talking about things that are shallow, there's the rest of the movie. Davis' performance is garish, gaudy, and terrible. She channels her inner Norma Desmond and strikes a pose after every sentence. She's devoid of charisma too which I've never seen her like before. And I'm guessing it was a conscious choice to show how awful Rosa is, but it does not come off well at all. Not even Joseph Cotten makes her look good. And Cotten is as appealing here as he is in "Love Letters." And I'm still trying to figure out why and how David Brian got roles because he's beyond terrible. This might be the worst ensemble of the forties.

If there's anything good about this movie, it's the score by Max Steiner which steals the thunder of almost every single scene it's in. The film's trite, overdramatic, cliché-ridden plot and dialogue are unbearable. The ending, which would be satisfying if the movie were even halfway decent, isn't fulfilling.

This movie is trash.

House of Strangers (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1949) 7/10

After he's arrested for questionable business practices, a man's son is the only loyal one of his four boys when it comes to keeping him out of prison with his property intact. "House of Strangers" is a really interesting movie. First, I'm shocked to see Edward G. Robinson won Best Actor at Cannes as he gives a really bad stereotypical performance as an Italian man. If anyone deserves to be lauded for their performance, it's Luther Adler whose menacing, sizzling work as the head of the three rogue brothers is the black, ugly, fiery furnace of the film. Adler is an absolutely revolting human being. It's a stunning performance. And his scenes with the ever-romantic, righteous Richard Conte are a chiaroscuro canvas of light and dark converging in a tornado of tension.

Susan Hayward's character feels a bit thrown-in and last-minute like the producers were mad there wasn't a dame. Hayward is decent in a thankless role, but it's far from memorable.

The dialogue is pert and sharp with stylish noir insults that runs the recipients through a cheese grater. "House of Strangers" is very good once you get past the "Whassa matta yoo?" Italian impersonation Robinson gives us.

The Window (Ted Tatzlaff, 1949) 7/10

A boy with a penchant for wild, imaginative stories must convince his parents and the police that he witnessed his neighbors murder a man while sleeping on their fire escape. Bobby Driscoll gives one of those rare Golden Age Hollywood performances where he comes off as neither perfect-little-angel-child nor spoiled brat. Driscoll and director and legendary cinematographer Ted Tetzlaff's work is touching and inviting. Driscoll does have some scenes that come off as a bit grating - the scene where he talks to detectives at his local precinct grows annoying quickly with its quick speech and obvious attempts at confusion. But, for the most part, Driscoll does a good job. His Juvenile Oscar win was not a poor choice (I'm looking at you Claude Jarman...).

As for the big kids in the cast, Arthur Kennedy is good as a caring dad, and Barbara Hale is alright as a beleaguered housewife. I just wish Kennedy and Hale seemed like an actual couple. They seem more like roommates than anyone else. As for Paul Stewart and Ruth Roman, they're wonderfully menacing as the murderers. Stewart's signature dark eyes are put to full use here by Tatzlaff and they seem to be the most prominent shadows in the film. Roman's dicey, embittered performance is a great contrast to her lesser, nicer work in "Strangers on a Train."

With Tatzlaff's eye for lighting and shadows, "The Window" is a smart visual work with incredible thrills and an ending chase to die for. A wonderful movie on all accounts that falls shy of greatness.

Straight Outta Compton (F. Gary Gray, 2015) 6/10

The rise and eventual disbanding of influential rap icons N.W.A. This is one of those movies I'd been putting off for a long time, so I figured a lazy night like last night would be as good a time as ever to see if this was worth all the buzz. And it isn't.

I'll preface this by saying the movie is good. I think Jason Mitchell's Eazy-E is the film's highlight. Paul Giamatti's sharky producer is also very well done. Everyone else mostly tries to do serious work but it comes across as amateurish and underdeveloped. O'Shea Jackson, Jr., looks like he spent most of his time trying to perfect his dad's famous scowl because his performance isn't all it's hyped up to be. Honestly, Ice Cube hasn't aged very much, so they could've thrown him in and I bet a better performance would have been given. Again, it's Mitchell who steals the show. His mannerisms and eyes do most of the work for him, so it isn't a deep, great performance, but it's the standout in a mostly disappointing cast.

And how this got a nomination for Screenplay, I'll never know. Most of the film is PARTY-PARTY-CONCERT-POLICE BRUTALITY-PARTY-PARTY-DEATH-CONCERT-POLICE BRUTALITY-PARTY-CONCERT-PARTY-CONCERT-POLICE BRUTALITY-DEATH. Instead of giving us any sense of character to chew on, like the good scenes between Dre and his mother early on, we're simply given events that shaped these men but without getting to witness how they really changed before we see the group performing again as though nothing happened.

And, as with most musical biopics, this movie never rises above "Greatest Hits" status. It plays the songs you want to hear and plays them over and over again. It takes its sweet time with them too.

"Straight Outta Compton" is mostly good, but there's absolutely no reason anyone in their right mind should ever have expected it to grab a Best Picture nod.

Bone Tomahawk (S. Craig Zahler, 2015) 8/10

In the Old West, four men set out to recapture a woman and her son from cave-dwelling cannibals. Excusez mon français, but holy fucking shit. This movie is brutal. And, even more, I don't think I've ever seen a movie quite like this before.

Director S. Craig Zahler manages to keep the film's brutal, bonkers behavior intact with the intense human drama that inhabits the first two-thirds of the film. And even though there's a big tonal shift, it never feels out-of-sync. This is rare.

And this cast is awesome. Kurt Russell trades in the swagger he has in "The Hateful Eight" for a more jaded, cynical turn as a dutiful sheriff. Patrick Wilson is always reliable, and his work here is fine. But the best part of this cast is character actor extraordinaire Richard Jenkins who is nearly unrecognizable behind his long white beard and balding hair. Jenkins' natural solemnity is put to perfect use here. His speech to convince Russell that he's going to search for the captives is endearing, and his subtlety in the cave scenes is magnificent.

Mix this with excellent costumes, beautiful desert cinematography, and a sense of urgency missing in most modern films, and you get a unique, violent, excruciating Western nouveau that will linger in your mind for a long time after you finish watching it. One of the best of the year.

Creed (Ryan Coogler, 2015) 7/10

The son of Apollo Creed, the greatest boxer of all-time, is taken under the tutelage of his father's former rival and friend Rocky, a former World Heavyweight Champion. I wasn't expecting to like this as much as I did. I think it's too formulaic to ever be called "great" as it's a pound-for-pound retread of the first "Rocky" movie, but it runs on a fantastic performance by Michael B. Jordan. Jordan gives a lot better performance than the movie really asks. You can sense the independence and frustration Adonis has in his (lack of) relationship with his deceased father. Jordan's acting never comes off as immature in these scenes. His reactions are almost unearthly quick when someone calls him Apollo, Jr. Instead of soaking it up and coming back with a cheesy response, the heat Jordan pitches at the camera and insulter is incredible. This movie proves to me that Jordan really is our next up-and-coming star.

And, man, as much as I don't want Sylvester Stallone to win the Oscar, I've got to say his performance is far better than anything he's ever done. "Creed" proves that Stallone's worst enemy in film is himself. Freeing himself from this project and handing it over to Ryan Coogler was a smart move. Stallone is touching, and, even though you can totally sense where his character arc is headed from the get-go, he plays it well.

And Coogler's direction is superb along with his and Aaron Covington's writing. When we first see Adonis, he's being the scrapper we expect, but then we see him pull up in a matte black luxury car to a gated mansion. It's a wonderful touch that lets us into the character way better than any "spoiled brat" comments from his peers would.

And while the movie rewards people who've never seen movies before with its basicity, it's still an absolute delight. Tessa Thompson's performance as Adonis' girlfriend is also very good. And giving her hearing loss was a nice touch that's put to good use several times throughout. "Creed" is very good. Who knew the best "Rocky" movie would come out almost 40 years after the original?

Ironfinger (Jun Fukuda, 1965) 6/10

After being mistaken for an Interpol agent, a vacation-bound mangets mixed up in a war between two gangs intent on winning the favor of a notorious arms dealer. As you could tell from the title alone, this Japanese send-up for Bond flicks, with Bond girl Mie Hara in tow, is pretty riotous. I think it's a huge mess, but what a funny mess it is.

There's a scene with a half-naked man daring to use a plunger to extract info from a man in a suit all in a cramped bathroom, and, even then, the bizarro nature of the film is inviting. The movie revels in its goofiness and sees just how much it can get away with before movie's end. The performances are mostly effective if a bit insipid when the dialogue doesn't call for it. The effects and homages to spy filmmaking are top notch. This is kind of "Airplane!" before "Airplane!." I'm glad I got to see this little-known film thanks to the Criterion Collection.

There isn't much more to say about "Ironfinger." It's a delightful spoof that holds its weight without becoming a truly superb lampoon. Just watch it for yourself and brace for laughter. A very funny movie.

[ksrymy]

Labyrinth (Jim Henson, 1986) 7/10

A teenage girls wishes the goblins from her favorite book would take her stepbrother away only to find him gone and herself in a chaotic maze to retrieve him. I've been meaning to see this for a long time, and it only took the death of my absolute favorite icon in pop culture history to spur it. David Bowie is a legend, and I'm downtrodden today.

"Labyrinth" is a nice '80s romp with a cute Jennifer Connelly in a starlet-is-born role. It's one of those rare teen performances that doesn't grate or come off as superficial and annoying. But let's not pretend that David Bowie's Goblin King is the most fascinating part of the picture. Bowie, with codpiece on display, uses all his charisma and angular features to make Jareth a memorable, sleazy, charming villain. His musical numbers, even if they're totally goofy, are still pretty alright standalone songs.

The puppetry is also amazing here. Jim Henson is a master, and it's sad to see that this film basically made him retire and die a few years later. The characters are cute and always delightful. Ludo is my favorite creature ever now. This movie doesn't deserve to be a flop. It doesn't quite do what "The Princess Bride" does but it has an even more palpable, eerie atmosphere to it. The first sequence with Connelly running seemingly endlessly down one corridor is spellbinding.

It's a silly film, but it's also very good. It has one hell of a conceptualized production design and never gets boring. I want to be sad about the loss of Bowie, but I can always revisit him here and in "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" and "The Man Who Fell to Earth" among many other films and media.

Long live Jareth. Long live Bowie. Even without my pining for him, the movie is still very good.

The Hasty Heart (Vincent Sherman, 1949) 7/10

A group of soldiers stationed in Burma try to cheer up a Scottish platoonmate who starts to resent them because they can go home while he's stuck in the jungle under doctor's eye because of an injury. This is the first movie I've seen with Ronald Reagan where he's moderately fun and delightful. Maybe it's because he has the whole "Yank in a sea of Brits" things going for him, but his smile and sweet delivery makes for what I'd say is his best performance yet.

And Patricia Neal is wonderful as always. I've only seen her in a handful of films ("The Fountainhead," "A Face in the Crowd," "Hud," "The Day the Earth Stood Still," and "The Subject Was Roses") so I'm starting to wonder why I haven't looked into more of her work. She's really reliable in her younger years, and she plays her headstrong nun here with a rigid, admirable determination. She's believable as a nun and as a whip-happy socialite in the same year. What a versatile woman! And her scenes opposite Richard Todd are very good. I know people are very divided on Todd's performance, so don't expect me to tip the iceberg any direction because I'm going to be annoying and say I'm right on the fence about. I think Todd's brusque manner and brogue are really great and make Lachie a great character. I think, at times, it's a bit overdone and Todd delves into ham, but his furrowed brow is cut deep into his forehead with anger and resent. Even when he seems a stereotype, Lachie is lovable. And the rest of the ensemble is quite good with Anthony Nicholls getting high marks for his work as a doctor superintendent.

The screenplay is adroit in handling bitterness, sweetness, and bittersweetness. It never settles for one predominant mood which works well in its favor. "The Hasty Heart" was "M*A*S*H" before "M*A*S*H." It's a very good movie with a magnificent cast to keep it buoying in near-greatness.

East Side, West Side (Mervyn LeRoy, 1949) 5/10

A New Yorker's wife is driven to the arms of a war hero when he takes up a mistress. "East Side, West Side" is pretty lifeless. The story is basic and fails to hit any marks that indicate realism and any that indicate melodrama. It falls in the uncomfortable nadir between the two.

Luckily, Barbara Stanwyck and Van Heflin are here to give us decent performances. Stanwyck is always reliable, so a jilted housewife is cake for her. Heflin, a very hit-or-miss actor in my experiences, is solid here as a war hero comforting Stanwyck. They make a good couple.

But the love triangle involving James Mason is sloppy and feels off. Mason himself doesn't seem to care about the film because he seems to be reading the lines in his sleep. He's deadpan and full of cinematic ague in his scenes opposite Stanwyck and especially opposite Ava Gardner who is nothing more than a supporting sexpot here. She doesn't aim to give a performance like Dorothy Malone's in "Written on the Wind." Instead, she stays boring. Mason is the films weakest aspect. It's the first performance I've seen by him that's outright bad.

The film's script frequently veers into cliché and is a big, tonal mess. Highlighted by a Miklós Rózsa score, "East Side, West Side" fails to roust its viewers from the slumber it brings on.

REWATCH: Criss Cross (Robert Siodmak, 1949) 5/10

An ex-con returns to Los Angeles to rekindle his love for his ex-wife, but, after they start an affair, she marries a gangster for whom the ex-con runs a heist. This is my second time seeing "Criss Cross," and I'm still not aboard the train with this one. I think the daylight armored truck robbery is really well-done, but none of the performances other than slimeball extraordinaire Dan Duryea's is any good.

Lancaster mostly looks pensively with a lowered brow wondering what went wrong. And staying in the past isn't a big part of his character, so this doesn't come off well. And Yvonne de Carlo doesn't do much of anything either. She's a pretty weak femme fatale and an obvious one at that. For most femmes fatale, you know they're bad, but the twist is still fun to unfold. Here, you just know she's going to screw him ever and the surprise is lacking. Only Duryea, whose awful smile and soulless eyes punctuate the work, gives a performance worth a damn.

But the heist scene and Duryea, along with a chilling final scene involving a pitch-black doorway, make for a pretty okay film as long as it doesn't focus on its lead too much. This deserves to be better, but it goes the way of "They Drive by Night" instead of "Thieves' Highway" if we're talking trucker noir.

REWATCH: The Quiet Duel (Akira Kurosawa, 1949) 6/10

A young idealistic doctor, engaged and still a virgin, contracts syphilis through a patient's blood and rebuffs his fiancée while slowly resenting the world around him. Akira Kurosawa goes for a slower approach here which is refreshing when compared to the action that abounds in his other films; unfortunately, it doesn't quite translate into greatness.

The pique elements in this film are the performances by Takashi Shimura and Noriko Sengoku. Toshiro Mifune is fine but he doesn't succeed in roles where he needs to stew in his own misery. He's always great at playing volatile, reactionary characters, and he's seems uncomfortable here. The performance doesn't come off as great as it should because of this. Shimura, as Mifune's doctor father, is moving as he slowly discovers what's become of his son, but even better is Noriko Sengoku. Sengoku, as a apprentice nurse dedicated to becoming a fully-qualified nurse after she learns of Mifune's illness, grounds the film in love when it tries so hard to rip it at the seams in the core relationship between the betrotheds. Sengoku's character, fueled by a suicide attempt stopped by Mifune, is heartbreaking and the one real bright spot in the movie. It's a smart performance and one of the best female performances Kurosawa has directed.

A moody script with high highs and low lows makes for an odd, unbalanced film which is odd as Kurosawa is usually so tight and refined in his storytelling. "The Quiet Duel" is good, but I think it would have been better in the hands of Kenji Mizoguchi. Mizoguchi would've made the main relationship in the movie work. His way with women is unparalleled.

White Heat (Raoul Walsh, 1949) 7/10

A psychotic criminal and mama's boy breaks out of prison and plans a payroll heist with his old gang. Mainly due to Raoul Walsh's ever-reliable direction, "White Heat" succeeds in most departments.

One thing I'm in the huge minority on is Jimmy Cagney's performance. Cagney is super sharp in his smaller scenes. He always played such larger than life characters, so to see him do well in these quieter moments (and there are very few here) is impressive. But I don't think it's a good performance. Cagney's scenes in the prison and asylum, especially where he's going nuts, are just awful. It makes Olivia de Havilland's character in "The Snake Pit" look sane. And while de Havilland gives a great performance in these insane moments because of her intense method acting, Cagney looks like he's never seen a disturbed person in his life. It's more like he's singing awful opera than going crazy. It's embarrassing at points and it really threw me out of the movie. If the script got rid of Cagney's psychosis and focused solely on the mother issues, I think it would be much better.

But I was surprised to find out at the women rule this film. Margaret Wycherly is wonderful as Cagney's domineering mother with a heart of molten iron. Her stare and determination are frightening as should be. And Virginia Mayo is pretty alright as an unpredictable moll. The ladies are easily the film's best addition cast-wise.

The film is very good on a technical level with Sidney Hickox' cinematography taking forefront. The movie is shot inventively and creatively especially in that huge last chase scene. As underwhelming as I found, "Made it, ma!" I think the smash cut that follows it, to what amounts to a mushroom cloud, to be far more effective and cool.

One more problem is that the film tries to fit in too many subplots. It believes every supporting character needs to have his own storyline within the confines of the film, and it doesn't work. It gets clunky very quickly.

But "White Heat" is still very good with an impressive cast and technical wizardry at some of the gangster genre's best. Raoul Walsh is the Howard Hawks of non-canon directors.

The Fighting Kentuckian (George Waggner, 1949) 3/10

A Kentuckian militiaman woos a French exile while protecting her many acres from landgrabbers. I'm not even sure John Ford could pull this movie off. What a lazy, bad movie. John Wayne's swagger and charisma don't translate well here especially in regards to the material and the lazy writing. It attempts nothing remotely poetic in its prose. Even the big speeches come off as childish.

If there's anything to credit this film for, it's a surprise turn by a Laurel-less Oliver Hardy who manages to pull off some decently funny scenes with Wayne even if they're totally tonally uneven with the rest of the film. I'd argue that this is Hardy's best performance.

But for that excellent performance, we get Vera Ralston who tries to suck the joy and any potential good qualities out of the film like she's the heiress to Hoover. Her French is hilarious and her stiffness makes Barbie look like a gymnast.

Man, apart from Hardy, this movie is really bad. We're lucky he's in it as much as he is. This movie needs a serious recasting of its lead actress and a more competent director. Hell, even Stuart Heisler would do better with this.

Sands of Iwo Jima (Allan Dwan, 1949) 5/10

A rebellious group of recruits don't like the strict sergeant they must report to until they witness him in the field at Tarawa. John Wayne's first Oscar nominated performance is good though I'd say its nowhere near his best work. It's a very standard, typical performance for him. He's the big brave guy who teaches all those young good-for-nothing whippersnappers what it means to be a true 'Murican. And Wayne was usually always very good in these roles, but it seems tired and very rehashed at this point. It's still good but it's no Nathan Brittles or Ethan Edwards.

Technically speaking, this movie sounds looks and looks nice enough even if the battle sequences seem a bit staid and stale. Nothing about them really feels too interesting. The tension is completely out of the picture here. It's edited and shot in an appropriate, but it all seems really standard.

And a lot of this has to do with the fact that the supporting players, those aforementioned whippersnappers, are really bad actors. They're more annoying because of their hammy acting than because that's how their characters should be. I was honestly shocked none of them said, "Gee whillikers!"

Honestly, the only part that took me aback was Wayne's last scene because, man, I was not expecting what happened. Granted, I knew this was one of the few movies in which he died, but I didn't know it would happen like that.

So this standard war movie with a standard leading performance and a terrible leading cast manages to be mediocre at best. It's nothing I'd rush to show anyone anytime quickly. I think Allan Dwan left all his best work in the silent era.

I Was a Male War Bride (Howard Hawks, 1949) 6/10

A French captain falls in love with and marries an American lieutenant, and, due to a bureaucracy at its finest, is registered as a bride for his voyage home. I really like Howard Hawks, I really like Cary Grant, and I really like Ann Sheridan, but only one of those three came to play here in "I Was a Male War Bride."

Hawks usually elevates underwhelming material, but this might be the most standard, by-the-books film I've ever seen him make. It's not like he really had to direct the leads either. Ann Sheridan and Cary Grant are good enough actors to where they probably don't need much help.

But then Cary Grant is so bad in this, that I think he had to be directed there somewhere. Despite his garb, I honestly didn't even know Grant was supposed to be French until the jokes about how to pronounce "Rochard" popped up. He doesn't even remotely try for a French accent. And Grant is way too on-board with being labeled a bride. He mostly whines and whines and whines. I'd have loved to see a staunch Charles Boyer in this role because we'd not only get the accent but his outrage would be marvelous. Grant's scenes on the bride boat are terrible. This is, by far, the worst performance I've ever seen him give.

But even with the clunky leading male performance and a script that leaves a lot to be desired, Ann Sheridan really knocks it out of the park here. To me, her performance and character would be what happened if Nora Charles went to war. Her cadence and mannerisms and snark are all wonderful and not only portray a great, realistic woman in the military but somebody very easy to fall in love with. There's no wonder Rochard fell for her as hard as he did (or maybe I'm saying this because I see a lot of my wife in her).

So the movie is good at best. Sheridan's dominating work is the life vest this film desperately needs.

The Emperor's Nightingale (Jiri Trnka, 1949) 7/10

A Chinese emperor spurns the song of a beautiful nightingale when he's gifted a jewel-encrusted mechanical nightingale. This is a really interesting, really pretty film. I'm upset that I didn't get to view a better copy because Jiří Trnka has a way with stop-motion and puppeteering that is masterful and magical.

The film's color palette is wide and beautiful, and the film also lets texture and pattern take forefront at times which is something most animated movies from this period never take time to do. Boris Karloff's narration is nice too, but maybe I'm only saying that because I so love "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!"

I think the tale itself is done justice here even if there are some pretty slow parts. The nightingale itself is a really interesting symbol in this version because it's so robotic compared to everyone else. And I'm speaking of the real nightingale and not the mechanical one necessarily. It works and doesn't work. It works because, if anything, the mechanical one looks more fake, but it kind of takes away from the overall message Andersen delivers (real beauty vs. artificial beauty).

But it's a very visually arresting film that I'd recommend to anyone interested in animation. And how many people can say they've seen a Czech puppet film from the '40s? It's a very unique experience.

The Passionate Friends (David Lean, 1949) 7/10

A woman falls in love with a man at a resort in the Alps only to leave, marry an older man, and find him back there on vacation nine years later. "Brief Encounter" must have really stuck with David Lean because "The Passionate Friends" imagines what if Celia's affair hadn't been brief at all.

The men in this movie are really, really good. Trevor Howard is reliable in support even if it's a bit of a rehash of his character from "Brief Encounter." They're basically interchangeable, but it's a good performance nonetheless. It's nothing too challenging. But Claude Rains's performance is one of his very best, and it's good to see him in a leading performance after years doing strong character work in Hollywood. Rains's anguish is deeply realized and the astounding cinematography only makes it all the more grueling. For a movie focusing on a woman's affair, we sure get a sympathetic, great portrayal of the cuckold. The ending is satisfying as well.

But the movie's biggest problem, what keeps it from being great, is Ann Todd whose performance is dreadful. She's never been very good, and this only proves that, if David Lean can't fix her, nobody can. The vapidity behind her eyes that seeps into her dialogue is awful. And this isn't just me pining for Celia Johnson. This is a legitimately terrible performance.

But the movie largely succeeds despite Todd's trainwreck. David Lean is a master and managed to craft a great picture around a bad leading lady. I'm a fan of this movie. I think I've been underestimating Lean my whole life through.

Border Incident (Anthony Mann, 1949) 6/10

Two Mexican and American agents go undercover to thwart the smuggling of people across the border into California. Anthony Mann is one of our most underrated directors. He was a chameleon among a wide span on genres, but his heart always lied in westerns and films noir; we're lucky enough to, more or less, get both here.

"Border Incident" starts off with the same horrendous "...and it's all true" narration that killed "The House on 92nd Street" but quickly fades out. The duo at the center, a clever Ricardo Montalban and George Murphy, are alright. They don't provide much, but they certainly aren't bad enough to make the picture mediocre. If anything, the real star of the film is the lighting which might very well be the best I've seen in any film noir. The film almost exclusively takes place in the desert at night, so it's way darker than a moody alleyway ever could be. The way the light slowly envelops faces, engulfs passions, and swallows innocence is wonderful. I was incredibly impressed with this aspect.

And while the script may not be too terribly strong, I wouldn't be surprised if Denis Villeneuve watched and took inspiration from this while making "Sicario." Other than sharing a basic plot, the film's are both stylish and moody. And Villeneuve is one of the current leaders among post-neorealistic noir filmmaking.

There's a slow-cooking death scene that I can't believe actually happened either. You'd think Hays would've shut that down immediately. Mann was the man. "Border Incident" is good; I just wish the leads were better.

World of Tomorrow (Don Hertzfeldt, 2015) 8/10

A little girl is shown her future by her third-generation clone. Don Hertzfeldt is probably the current master of animation. No director currently mixes the format with more meaning and emotion than Don does. What makes "World of Tomorrow" so special is its platform diving off the topics that make "It's Such a Beautiful Day" a masterpiece. Here, Hertzfeldt examines the human desire to spurn death as long as one can while combining the same aspects of memory that we're given in Chris Marker's "La Jetée."

This movie never made my heart ache quite the way "It's Such a Beautiful Day" did, but it's just as smart as that film. Emily Prime is an incredible character as she embodies childlike wonder in ways I've haven't seen in a movie in ages. She also perfectly captures the childhood naïveté involving topics like death and despair. The meeting between Emilys is just a way for the third Emily to vent her frustrations and absorb some memories.

The film is strong. I'd call it a great film, but I'm not seeing the masterpiece everyone else is. At this point, I think Hertzfeldt could totally phone something in and the internet film community would give it a 10/10 on principle.

Madame Bovary (Vincente Minnelli, 1949) 5/10

A provincial doctor's wife's romantic delusions about life, love, and society lead her to several affairs and crippling debt. Vincente Minnelli is the perfect fit for this movie; he's rich in style, class, and mood. So why didn't this movie work better?

For one, the acting is pretty subpar. On the good side, Jennifer Jones is actually kind of alright here. There is a lot of mugging (read: A LOT), but this is one of the few times her line readings haven't been awful. But maybe she looks good because Van Heflin and Louis Jourdan are both dreadful. Heflin is in way over his head. The movie doesn't try to get you to side with either Charles or Emma. And since it's based around a trial, we should be sympathetic with Emma and givens glimpses of sadness as to Charles' situation. We're given neither. And Jourdan is a mess. The film's best performance belongs to the most annoying of roles: Gustave Flaubert himself. James Mason's thick British accent makes it all the funnier that he's playing an iconic French writer. The film's "Bride of Frankenstein" style opening is lazy and hammed-up. But Mason perseveres to give some of his more middling work, but, in this crowd, it's the standout.

The film is beautiful though with costumes and sets as gorgeous as ever. The ballroom sequence in particular is a highlight and showcases all the film's limited strengths. It's a flurry of delight and tension.

But this film cannot succeed without a convincing Emma and neither Jones nor Lana Turner (who had to drop out because of pregnancy) could have made this good. A swing and a groundout for Minnelli.

Pinky (Elia Kazan, 1949) 6/10

A light-skinned black woman returns home to the deep south after training to become a nurse where she's treated with all the disrespect she hadn't experienced up north. I'm not going to get into the "Jeanne Crain is supposed to be black? Why didn't they cast a black woman?" gaffe because that's a whole different can of worms that I, honestly, don't care about. I think Crain is fine in the role even if there isn't much to it. Pinky's complexity comes from all the off-stage events that happen while she's away. All we know is a white man loves her and doesn't know her heritage. We don't get anyone else's opinion of her. Chalk that up to an ever-romantic Hollywood, I guess.

The supporting ladies are alright as well with Ethel Barrymore doing another standard, sick-old-biddy-in-bed turn. It's Ethel Waters that really makes the film shine. Her stern scenes opposite Crain as well as a surprisingly good turn at the end in a courtroom make her the star of the film. Granted, I think courtroom endings are the worst, laziest endings a movie can have, so chalk it up to Kazan to make it moderately tolerable. And, is it just me, or did the verdict come from nowhere? The judge was favoring the prosecution the entire trial and then, at the end of it all, just says, "Welp, racism is bad. Pinky wins!" It felt incredibly amateurish and bait-and-switchy.

The scenes between Crain and William Lundigan, who plays Pinky's fiancé, are well-acted and are among the strongest scenes the film has to offer. There's chemistry there that's desperately needed to make the film work.

So "Pinky" isn't bad, but it's far from greatness. It reeks of Zanuck and it's really middling for Kazan, but it would have failed in a different director's hands.

Battleground (William A. Wellman, 1949) 7/10

The men of the 101st Airbourne wait out the winter in the Ardennes forest to confront the German army while they become demoralized and trapped without hope. I was pleasantly surprised by how good this was. War films from this postwar era all seem to blend together and mimic one another, so this one's freshness was appealing.

The ensemble are great together with a camaraderie that's missing in pictures like "The Longest Day" and "A Bridge Too Far." John Hodiak, Van Johnson, Ricardo Montalban, and George Murphy all do fine work, but it's Oscar nominee James Whitmore as the optimistic, rough-and-tumble fighter who really steals the picture. His machismo and charisma provide a sense of direction and feeling in a largely nervous bunch. I appreciate this film for one huge reason too. It shows the soldiers as scared and with a huge desire to go home. Every other war movie I see from this era centers around strong, patriotic men who spit in the face of danger, and the sense of realism in "Battleground" is a massive welcome.

On a technical level, the film is shot well, sounds incredible, and those action sequences are beautifully crafted by William A. Wellman. Wellman usually gets my vote for most underrated director in this period of Hollywood because it's rare that he ever put out truly middling work.

"Battleground" is a very good war movie with more guts and heart than the majority from this time. Whitmore leads the way under Wellman's more-than-competent direction. A real treat.

Flamingo Road (Michael Curtiz, 1949) 7/10

A carnival dancer becomes the target of a sheriff's smear campaign as he tries to run her out of town. I love women's noir, and, if I had my way, they'd all star Joan Crawford under Michael Curtiz. "Flamingo Road" would be a mess without the determined stoicism of Crawford. Her laconic expressions are sorely missed in films like "Sudden Fear." Crawford glides through the film with one-liners and quips that would melt Margo Channing's face off.

But if there's one big thing I took away from this, it's that Sydney Greenstreet is one of the most reliable character actors of his time. Greenstreet's performance here as the corrupt sheriff is arguably his very best work. Kaspar Gutman is certainly more iconic, but he gets a chance to be very scary here and he takes that opportunity in a huge way. He's more reserved in his speech and mannerisms, but they come off with a big bang. Every time he is on screen, the air gets sucked out of the room and the power plays become violent tugs-of-war. Greenstreet is commanding and arresting in his best performance yet.

The soap-tinged noir is a very guilty pleasure of mine, and I'm looking forward to seeing so many more. "Flamingo Road" is very good. Even if David Brian is a totally weak love interest with nothing interesting about him, the movie succeeds on Crawford's persona and talent.

REWATCH: The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949) 9/10

An American pulp writer travels to post-WWII Vienna only to find the friend waiting there for him has been killed under mysterious circumstances. I probably would have been happier with "The Third Man" without this rewatch. This is the third time I've seen the film, and, this time, I grew really sick of one important aspect of the film really quickly.

William Wyler famously sent Carol Reed a spirit level with a note telling him to put it on top of the camera next time he made a movie, and I am wholly in this camp. This film's use of the Dutch angle wears out its welcome within the first act. I understand that it's supposed to showcase the unease and tension involving the missing Lime, postwar attitudes, and being in an unfamiliar place, but it grates and grates and grates so quickly that this viewing became nearly intolerable by the end.

But, of course, just about every other thing about this movie is incredible though. The shadowy atmosphere of the cobblestone streets slowly enveloping Joseph Cotten's Holly, the "cuckoo clock" speech, and the lost-in-translation feel of the first act are all on fire. If there's one thing I'd like to say, though, it's that I really, really don't understand the mass acclaim for Welles's performance. He barely shows up, has one speech and a few others, and everyone acts like it's one of the greatest performances ever put to film. Chalk it up to his fans, I guess, but I think it's merely serviceable. It fits the tone of the film well, but it's hardly the most extraordinary thing about Welles's career or even the film itself.

But, aside from those godawful Dutch angles straight out of "Battlefield Earth," this is an incredible thriller.

REWATCH: Adam's Rib (George Cukor, 1949) 8/10

When a woman shoots and wounds her cheating husband, a lawyer chooses to defend the husband on what he's sure is an easy case while his wife, seeing a double standard in the crime, fights to defend the shooter. This movie is probably the most charming film ever about lawyers. Adam and Amanda Bonner are such a great couple. For my money, it's the best Tracy/Hepburn flick and it contains their greatest work opposite one another. Hepburn puts on her usual air of feistiness and does it well, but it's Spencer Tracy that is the film's biggest surprise. For such a curmudgeon, Tracy's tender scenes involving, albeit crocodile, tears are surprisingly touching. His anger at his wife's defense of a double standard, while coming around to slowly see her point of view, is interesting. It's a feminist work done well.

But even better than Spence and Kate is Judy Holliday as the shooter at the center of the trial. Holliday is an absolute riot in one of her more muted roles. There's a scene when Holliday is being held at the police station and being interviewed by Hepburn where she won't quite shut up that is a goldmine of comedic timing. The frustration on Hepburn's face, the camera growing bored in one place, and Holliday's quiet prattling is hilarious.

And a lot of credit must go to screenwriting master Ruth Gordon and excellent writer/awful director Garson Kanin. They manages to mix some screwball physical comedy (under-the-table raspberries) with the plethora of verbal repartée that the film runs on. This is such a smart movie.

Here's a movie by Cukor that isn't weighed down by his own ambitions. It's a wonderful, delightful romantic comedy with a lot to say socially. A truly great film.

Reign of Terror (Anthony Mann, 1949) 6/10

A French patriot and his comrades try to take down the brutish Maximilian Robespierre in the final days of the French Revolution. Saying that a picture is "[insert basically anything here] shot as a film noir" is enough to get me to see it. The French Revolution in all its shadowy, historical importance would be awesome as a film noir. But here, in Anthony Mann's "Reign of Terror," it's the only really good thing about it.

The cinematography in this movie is constantly impressive with its wide array of shadows, lights, angles, and range. No two shots are alike. John Alton's work here is the real star, and, sadly, that might be because the performances in this film are really, really lukewarm. Robert Cummings, Arlene Dahl, and, sadly, Richard Basehart all mistake raising eyebrows and slight nods while stressing inflection for acting. If anyone deserves acclaim for the film it's Arnold Moss as Robespierre's chief of the secret police. He has the unsettling appearance and creepy charisma of Peter Lorre. Every scene he's in is mostly dynamite. His ending scene is very memorable and smartly acted.

The dark, hopeless streets of Paris draw similar parallels to the moody, broody Vienna of "The Third Man" from the same year. But the latter film has several good performances to carry it while this one does not. "Reign of Terror" is good at best. Mann's ambitious venture outside the West and gangsters isn't a failure, per se, but it's far from a success.

Thirst (Ingmar Bergman, 1949) 4/10

A couple in a strained marriage and a widow, a lesbian, and a psychiatrist all become entangled in a twisty series of romances. Of everything I've seen by the director, this is Ingmar Bergman's worst film, and I think I can say that it is mainly because he did not write the script.

The script is aimless and doesn't know who it wants to focus on. It bounces between relationships because it doesn't know how to maintain focus on one or two. The film is all about quantity over quality. And there isn't a lot of thirst actually going on in the film. The lesbian with a voracious appetite is the only really interesting character in the film; and, even then, she falls into the "gay people are slutty" stereotype.

Bergman's direction seems off too. He tries to match the tone of the script, but that only makes it messier. The movie tries to give each relationship its own obvious tone, and it isn't cute or innovative - it's a pigsty of a tonal mess.

It's a good thing Bergman got to start directing his own material again because if he ever continued making films like this, he'd surely be forgotten.

REWATCH: Caught (Max Ophüls, 1949) 8/10

A woman's lifelong dream of marrying rich comes true but slowly descends into a nightmare when she realizes her husband is a psychopath. Upon a second viewing, this is probably Max Ophüls' best Hollywood film. James Mason is good as is Barbara Bel Geddes, but Robert Ryan's Smith Olhrig, and what a name for a nasty villain!, is the real reason to see this movie. Ryan was always good at playing awful men, but few were ever as awful as Ohlrig.

And Ophüls directs the hell out of this movie. There's a scene, with perfect framing and shadowing, where Ryan is menacingly bouncing a billiard ball around a table outlining his control over Bel Geddes, and it's knot-in-the-stomach uncomfortable. And even if the symbolism is rather blatant, it's a nice, menacing touch to Olhrig's character. It's an unforgettable scene.

I do think the film tends to lag a bit whenever Bel Geddes and Mason share the screen but only because Ryan's presence dominates the film much in the way Anthony Hopkins dominates "The Silence of the Lambs." The script is rife with great lines and never veers off into melodrama and sleaze.

"Caught" is a great thriller with material you'd expect Hays to censor out. It's a witty, thrilling film that I'm glad to have seen again.

REWATCH: The Reckless Moment (Max Ophüls, 1949) 7/10

A mother hides the body of her daughter's lover whom her daughter has killed only to become blackmailed for it by a potentially sinister drifter. Having gone through the '40s, I was eager to see if I was correct in assuming this was Joan Bennett's best performance, and I'd say that statement is still correct. Bennett's fiercely convicted Lucia is a wonderful strong female character who strives to get what she wants, more or less, without sacrificing her femininity or status. She's way ahead of her time.

Bennett's smart performance is matched by James Mason's who never quite lets us in on his character and for the better. The ambiguity, and as it's slowly unveiled, makes the film as good as it is. He and Bennett have some serious chemistry. At points, I was wishing this were a steamy '80s movie like "Body Heat," but then I realize this was basically the "Body Heat" of its time.

I do think there are several spots throughout where the film drags a bit, and Geraldine Brooks's performance as Bea is laughable at points. I wish they'd have cast someone like a less glamorous Elizabeth Taylor instead.

But, overall, "The Reckless Moment" is very good with a wonderful female lead to keep it sailing smoothly. Joan Bennett really is one of the unsung heroes of the '40s and especially in film noir.

Prince of Foxes (Henry King, 1949) 6/10

A tale of power, betrayal, and conquest consumes the Borgias and all those in their path. As bloated as this film is, and as dull as it is at times, this movie has some really strong elements behind it. This movie would be much better remembered if DeMille were behind the camera. But then it would be more bloated than a beached whale.

Luckily, we get Henry King who's only a little dull. If the movie relies on anything, it's the central cast. Wanda Hendrix is alright, but there are three male performances of note here. First, Orson Welles is good fun whenever he pops in. It's sleepwalk material for him, but he's always great at playing pompous. His line readings are wonderful. The biggest surprise for me was Tyrone Power who is one of the most personally polarizing actors I can think of. He's either godawful (mostly every performance of his) or really good ("Nightmare Alley"). Power's charisma and lackadaisical attitude makes Cesare Borgia a really interesting character. But the actor I thought did the best work was Felix Aylmer, a long-time character actor who rarely got chances to shine. His work here as an elderly nobleman targeted for death is excellent. There's a hilltop speech he gives that is shot just as beautifully as his monologue. Aylmer's nobleman is what I'd cite as the highlight of the film. The cast is incredible here.

Along with some great costumes and sets, "Prince of Foxes" definitely trudges through standard trite epic clichés but makes up for it with an excellent cast.

Home of the Brave (Mark Robson, 1949) 7/10

A sensitive, educated black man in the military recounts his story to a psychiatrist to try and discover the cause of his psychosomatic paralysis. This was a nice surprise. This movie's treatment of its black protagonist is outstanding and James Edwards' portrayal of the character is a huge help. His performance is natural, down-to-earth and devoid of stereotypes. The film's handling of race is surprisingly good if only because it doesn't get patronizing.

This is the first film I've seen Hollywood make about psychology that doesn't treat the audience like idiots who can't comprehend it. Not only that, but it doesn't get incredibly hammy during the big scenes where Edwards' character breaks down.

And the film's psychology scenes are balanced well with its action sequences which are tense and cause whiplash. It seems like "Forrest Gump" borrowed heavily from this whether Zemeckis knew it or not.

But despite the film's success in these big departments, the film's biggest success lies in the supporting turn of Frank Lovejoy as Sgt. Mingo. Mingo is the heart and soul of the film with a touching, warm performance. Lovejoy is expressive and reactionary in the best way. When Edwards is attacked for his race, Lovejoy's slight facial movements display the anguish and pain of the tolerant. His line readings are incredibly delightful and are given with the most wonderful ease and confidence. Lovejoy steals the film.

"Home of the Brave" is very, very good and so far ahead of its time.

Come to the Stable (Henry Koster, 1949) 5/10

Two nuns push a New England community into funding a hospital. This old-fashioned movie has an incredible cast but nobody really sticks out. They all take a back seat to Loretta Young for whatever reason. And Young certainly can't carry this film on her own. She merely floats by on her natural charm and smiles a lot. And then there's Celeste Holm doing the same exact thing but with a preposterously goofy French accent (even though Sister Scholastica is the most badass nun name ever). Elsa Lanchester is okay in a role that seemed made for Ethel Barrymore but comes off as nothing more than a silly biddy. And the men are just completely out of their element here.

But the film's unwavering sense of optimism mixed with a surprising eye for shots from Henry Koster makes it a lot of fun. It tries to go for a whole the-end-of "It's a Wonderful Life" sense of cheeriness and doesn't quite work, but then there are scenes like Sister Scholastica playing tennis that make it all seem worth it at points. It's the most expertly crafted scene in an otherwise lukewarm film.

"Come to the Stable" gives us no reason to do just that, but it's one of the most harmless movies I've ever seen. No harm, no foul, I guess.

The Red Pony (Lewis Milestone, 1949) 5/10

A young boy looks up to a genteel cowboy while his parents bicker about city vs. rural living. The problem with most early Steinbeck adaptations, with the exception of El Indio's adaptation of "The Pearl," is that there is always some tacked-on happy ending that completely ruins the grim tone Steinbeck carries throughout the story. And you know that even though he adapted his own story, the studios forced him to write that last, terrible scene in. One other problem is that the film focuses much too heavily on the dad for us to really care about the son and his many relationships. I'm not sure why they did this, but it doesn't come off very well. I also wish Louis Calhern's performance weren't as awkward as it was.

But, apart from that, the movie is pretty good. Aaron Copland's score is fantastic as you'd expect. And Myrna Loy is always nice in her standard motherly roles. Robert Mitchum is the best part of the movie. It's good seeing him as something other than a tec or a thug. And he pulls it off very well. And little Peter Miles is pretty good as well. In maybe the film's most impressive scene, Miles's battle with a vulture is actually shockingly tense and bloody. It would have been a great place to end the film, but then that ending I mentioned earlier comes into play.

It's a shame Hollywood and Steinbeck himself never adapted any of his works well. Steinbeck's best film work is probably "Lifeboat," but that seems to be an anomaly here. "The Red Pony" is good in its best moments but most of the scenes involving family drag on and on.

Port of New York (László Benedek, 1949) 3/10

A customs and treasury agent investigate the robbery of opium off a ship in the port of New York. I'm not sure why anybody thought it was a good idea, but, again, this movie is hampered by it's semi-documentary style. I'm not sure anymore whether it's just a personal preference or the fact that this style yields bad movies, but it's a trend I hope to see die soon.

Scott Brady, K. T. Stevens, and Richard Rober are all incredibly bland. It's obvious how low-budget this movie is because you can tell they hired the bottom of the barrel to create and make this movie. If anything is worth noting, the cinematography and lighting can be rather good in some places. And in addition to that occasional quality, the only solid the movie gives us is Yul Brynner. Brynner is an actor I've never liked; he's always too robotic and bleary for my tastes, but here he takes command of a bad movie and paints a smart picture of a ruthless man. I was mad that the whole movie wasn't about him because it would have been a far better achievement than what we were given. Brynner is great here. It's the best work I've ever seen him give.

But not even a wonderful supporting turn can distract us from the fact that this movie is lazy and bad. "Port of New York" smells like a harbor and that's from its qualities - not the water itself.

Samson and Delilah (Cecil B. DeMille, 1949) 3/10

The famous tale of Samson and Delilah is told in grandiose fashion. Unfortunately, Cecil B. DeMille is behind the camera, so it's all spectacle and no substance. I can't decide what's funnier - the papier mâché temple crumbling at the end or the fact that I'm supposed to have enough suspension of disbelief to buy into Hedy Lamarr playing the younger sister of Angela Lansbury. It's bad. And Victor Mature is awful in a role suited for him. Mature never was a great actor, and even his grunting and brooding here is bad. And that roadkill they call a wig on top of his head is hilarious. For a director that revels in grandiosity, this movie sure looks bad. Not even George Sanders, reliable as he usually is, comes off well. And Henry Wilcoxon is laughable. Angela Lansbury tries her darnedest, but not even that is enough.

The one thing I thought was impressive was the lion battle. A lot of people think it looks bad, but I argue that it's held up well. The lion looks realistic and its actions and movements are natural even when Samson has it in a headlock. The sense of spectacle in this scene runs the whole film through so it's moderately captivating even when it's bad. But this is not a good movie, and I've yet to find a DeMille film in the sound era that isn't abhorrently sexist or remotely good. "Samson and Delilah" got its hair shorn by the director before it even made its way to the theater.

Jour de Fête (Jacques Tati, 1949) 6/10

At a traveling fair, a rural postal worker learns of all the speedy ways America is delivering mail and tries as hard as he can to become just as fast as them. I like Jacques Tati quite a lot. I think he has the visual eye that silent comedians like Keaton, Chaplin, and Lloyd were missing to make their films even better. But "Jour de Fête" doesn't quite work in the way that "Mon Oncle" and "Play Time" do. François is a cute, funny character, but he's missing all the charm and interference of M. Hulot. The magic behind Hulot lies in his stumbling into unusual circumstances whereas François is just a well-meaning idiot. It isn't nearly as cute or funny when he's the maker of his own doom or success.

But the film is still joyous and nice. There are several scenes worth note (unknowingly racing the cyclists, stamping the letters on a moving truck bed, and raising a flagpole are among the best). Tati's naïveté and wit is always infectious, and, while it isn't as good here, it's delightful in the way a mediocre Pixar movie is. We're promised a big day or a big party depending on your translation, and we don't get that imperative adjective fulfilled. Alas, I'm glad I got to see this movie because I love Tati and haven't yet cracked into the Criterion boxset a got a while ago. "Jour de Fête" may not be the director's masterwork, but I'll be damned if I wasn't smiling and charmed by film's end.

Whisky Galore! (Alexander Mackendrick, 1949) 5/10

When a Scottish boat carrying 250,000 bottles of whiskey sinks, the townsfolk go into a frenzy. This is sometimes more of a harrowing drama about a bunch of alcoholics as some of the jokes don't land. But when they do, they're mostly good. I don't think this is as funny as it could have been, but we're given some good performances. Basil Radford is reliable as usual, and Joan Greenwood isn't bad either. If accolades must be thrown somewhere, they should go to Jean Cadell as a teetotaling biddy as she's the most consistently good performer in the film. It's her upset granny that provides the film with something other than "Oh, man, how are we going to get drunk now?!"

The effects were surprisingly good too with the ship scenes making great use of water and selective shots. I wasn't expecting such quality out of an Ealing production. But the film also plays more into stereotype than any other Ealing movie I've seen. I don't know if it was a general dislike for the Scottish or what, but it comes off as really childish.

"Whisky Galore!" isn't a fantastic movie, but it has several performances that manage to keep it from ruin. It's harmless and dumb if anything.

Little Women (Mervyn LeRoy, 1949) 6/10

Four sisters grow up, find love, and locate their place in the changing world. This version of the tale has nothing on the incredible 1933 version. The Technicolor doesn't add much other than production value. None of the performances are much better either. June Allyson is a good Jo, especially when playing her as rigid and outspoken. Elizabeth Taylor is really miscast and doesn't belong anywhere near this movie. Even with her dressed down, she looks far too glamorous for this era in time. Janet Leigh is good as always, but it's Margaret O'Brien who steals the show in her most mature, realized performance. I don't think it quite reaches the emotional bounds and brilliance of Jean Parker's work in the '33 version. Rossano Brazzi and Peter Lawford don't even try. Mary Astor is solid as usual in one of her quieter roles.

The costumes are nice, but the set really lacks anything that would enhance the picture. The sets for the '33 version are beautiful and really get us into the mindset of the girls while this version seems tired and just-because about its decoration.

This version is perhaps a bit too cutesy, but Allyson and O'Brien are very good and make for a decent enough picture in what would otherwise be an incredibly uninspired adaptation of one of America's crown jewels of literature.

Easy Living (Jacques Tourneur, 1949) 7/10

A talented halfback discovers he has a serious heart condition caused by a childhood fever and tries to contain the ailment from his nagging, money-hungry wife. With the entire L.A. Rams team in tow, "Easy Living" makes its mark as a jet black sports film with an ashtray for a heart. It's biting, cynical, and also desperately sympathetic. Mature certainly looks the part, but his lack of range really makes one wonder what could have been if this movie were given a far better lead. It's a nice, juicy role that is given no respect. However, the usually wooden Lizabeth Scott is very good as the nagging gold digger of a wife. Her warming up to several people during the film is nasty and well-acted. Paul Douglas' dark photographer is also a delight, but it's Lucille Ball's supporting turn as a forlorn, in-love secretary that steals the show. She's only in five or six scenes, but she's an absolute blast in a role I've never seen her play. She's darkly funny and also heartwrenching in places. I never knew she had that kind of range.

And if this film taught me anything, it's that Jacques Tourneur, much like Otto Preminger, could make any kind of film in any genre and do it well. His direction knew no limits. He's a very smart man, and I congratulate him on his being a chameleon in the industry.

"Easy Living" is a very good movie. Sports films of this time were almost never dark if they weren't about boxing, so this film is one I'd even say is important in terms of the genre. It paved the way for the "Hardball"s and "Any Given Sunday"s.

[ksrymy]

Mistress America (Noah Baumbach, 2015) 9/10

A lonely college freshman befriends her soon-to-be stepsister as they wind their way through entrepreneurship and writing in 2010s New York. Noah Baumbach hella turns up the charm here and makes something damn close to a Preston Sturges film. The movie's pacing is light, breezy, and centers itself around constant laughs. And these laughs hit hard. I think the biggest takeaway from this film is Greta Gerwig not only for her incredible performance but Greta Gerwig's writing is evident and tastefully humorous. In an era where funny women seem to have to be vulgar to get laughs and attention, Gerwig plays with modern stereotypes to create an indelible portrait of the young, modern woman.

Gerwig's Brooke is a wonderful mix of the basic white girl with the hep, post-hipster crowd. She wrote the role perfectly for herself. She's consistently, intensely funny. Her complaints, some of the most first-world problems imaginable, come off as mini-tragedies and seeing them through her eyes is too funny. And while Gerwig rightfully dominates the film, I was very surprised by how good Lola Kirke was as Ruth. She plays second fiddle to Gerwig, but her scenes and narration come off so realistically and wittily. She portrays the mind of a young writer with such ease and determination. These two ladies need to be in more movies together because they're brilliant.

The score is also fantastic. It's how modern electronic scores should be done, which is to say not overdone.

The last third of the film, which takes place at a large, sprawling house, feels as hectic and frenetic as "His Girl Friday" or "Bringing Up Baby." They make great use of the setting. The sterilized white walls and outside are so great when matched with both bland and ecstatic characters. David Ehrlich called this "'Frances Ha' on adderall," and I think that's an astutely accurate sentiment to echo.

"Mistress America" might be Baumbach's best movie. It's certainly one of the best of the year with a female duo to rival "Carol."

45 Years (Andrew Haigh, 2015) 7/10

A woman becomes consumed with jealousy when the body of her husband's first love is found in a Swiss glacier days before their 45th anniversary party is set to take place. Looking through here, everyone is proclaiming this a 10/10 masterpiece attributing great buzzwords like "devastating" and "wrecking" to a movie that doesn't quite deserve it. "45 Years" is affecting, yes, but minorly so.

The performances of the two leads are quite good with Tom Courtenay outshining Charlotte Rampling most of the time, so I'm surprised the acclaim isn't more in his favor. This only lets one assume Rampling's nomination is akin to Lauren Bacall's in 1996. Rampling is very good in a quiet role, but I never once really felt her devastation - her jealousy, yes, but not any dreadful sense of the end. Tom Courtenay is the best as a man trying to cope with his ever-present past and convince his wife that the past is the past; whether or not that tenet is true in his case is a different story. But Courtenay's layered, complex frustration in dealing with his past, his boiling emotions, and his insecure wife really comes off well. I'm a big fan of his work here. And he does it all with that stiff upper lip that characterizes the whole film.

The film is very brisk and quick and it needs to be so or else it would become overwrought really quickly. The vignette style was really the only correct way to make the movie. It never gets stale which is something most films like this do quickly. But this isn't a lazy romance.

"45 Years" is good, very good even, but I don't think it's as impactful as everyone else is claiming, and I'm confident that I didn't miss anything.
It's a star vehicle for its leads with Courtenay rising above the rest of the film.

The film's soundtrack is superb too.

The Queen of Spades (Thorold Dickinson, 1949) 7/10

An army officer plans to murder an elderly noblewoman, who struck a deal with the devil to always win at cards, to attain her power for himself. For a quick, 90-minute film, this movie drags and drags. The movie is at its best when Anton Walbrook gets to play his usual mix of suave and neurotic, but the movie smashes the brakes when it tries to wrangle a love story into everything. The film would've been better combining Pushkin's original tale with Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart." It would better explain the insanity and pare the film down to its better bare essentials.

Walbrook carries the film with that signature swagger, but his best scenes involve Edith Evans in her film debut. The makeup they use on her is rather impressive as well because she looks more naturally older in this movie than she does in, say, "The Chalk Garden." And her performance is unusually reserved. Evans made a career on being a henpecking dowager, so seeing a bit of restraint in her work is interesting and it works well.

The film is impressive visually with great sets and costumes and dreamlike edits and effects. That final faro game is as intense as it is impressive. I just wish the rest of the film were as good as that one sequence. The shoehorned love tale is dreadful. I don't think I ever once saw any chemistry or desire in anyone's eyes. Absolute tripe.

But "The Queen of Spades" is good nonetheless with two very good performances at its true core. I wish we had someone other than Thorold Dickinson behind the camera because he was always so bland.

Le Silence de la mer (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1949) 8/10

An elderly Frenchman and his niece give a German officer the silent treatment when he's billeted to their house. Jean-Pierre Melville's signature storytelling and intensity are already prevalent and in full swing in his debut here. The movie's claustrophobia is felt as the main characters are almost never seen standing or moving in this suddenly-cramped house. The performances by Jean-Marie Robain and Nicole Stéphane are stoic as stone, so, in that regard, they're very good. Robain's narration is crucial to the film, and he reads his lines well and with great solemnity. It helps keep the scared apathy that underlines the film motoring throughout.

Howard Vernon steals the show, though, as the German sent to occupy the duo's house. Vernon's deft performance impressively juggles loneliness, awkwardness, and the search to be accepted. The silent treatment takes a much larger toll on the officer than we'd expect. I'm glad, though, that Melville never decides to make him scream and go on a rampage because that would throw us right out of the film. It would expend all the intensity the film so carefully bottles up over time. It makes the ending all the more impactful. Vernon's reading of "Macbeth" is incredible as it's incredibly reminiscent of the quiet kid having his name called in your public speaking class. Vernon's turn, while not nearly as masterful, reminds me a lot of Bibi Andersson's work in "Persona."

The film is pieced together well with the editing helping the film not feel stagnant and flat. The house is a great example of what production design should be - simple elegance and really contributing something to the film's atmosphere.

This movie joins the ranks of all those great movies set in one enclosed space. It's a straightjacket of a film that keeps up tight and nervous throughout the runtime. It's an impressive work by one of France's best.

REWATCH: I Shot Jesse James (Samuel Fuller, 1949) 8/10

Bob Ford murders his best friend and partner in crime Jesse James to obtain a pardon that will free him to marry his girlfriend but is plagued by guilt and self-disgust. Sam Fuller's debut is still as great as I remember it. The cast is excellent across the board with J. Edward Bromberg's cocky fat man giving us the movie's best performance. Barbara Britton, as the torn, distressed Cynthy Waters, is also very notable while John Ireland certainly gives us cinema's most fierce Bob Ford. And, as is needed to make any Ford effective, he makes him endearing and sympathetic. I can't recall Ireland ever being better.

Fuller didn't want "I Shot Jesse James" to be a "horse picture," and I'm really glad we don't get any rip-roaring, gun-shooting, yee-hawing action scenes because it would take away from the film's overall success. It lies in the small moments of these men's and women's lives. These moments pile and pile until the stability of everything becomes muddled in confusion and anger. The ending scene with Ford and Kelley is one of my most favorite confrontations in the western genre. It's edited and shot with an impeccable skill and an eye for not only action but emotion. Fuller was always great at capturing emotion in a film's more physical parts.

"I Shot Jesse James" is a great debut by a great director. It's one of the more unique westerns from an era inundated with the genre ("The Baron of Arizona" comes to mind also). It relies on the magic of its cast, and the chemistry is a-bubblin'.

The Lady Gambles (Michael Gordon, 1949) 5/10

A reporter's wife gets hooked on gambling while he's on-the-job in Las Vegas. Barbara Stanwyck with a gambling addiction is just the kind of movie I needed today. Stanwyck was always royalty when it came to elevating subpar movies. And this movie is good at best if only because of her and some killer editing.

Stanwyck plays Joan Boothe, a weak-willed woman which Stanwyck never got to play until the late '40s. She's usually so brassy and acerbic, so to see her give into demons and sweat profusely at a craps table is something to behold. She breathes the only bits of life into this film. The scenes in the casino are very good while anything outside of it is cheesy and unnecessary. The scene on the Hoover Dam is nothing but fluff.

But back to the casino scenes. They're on fire. It's the best the film has to offer. Whether it's Stanwyck politely asking for money or groveling for it, it's enticing. Stanwyck's performance is surprisingly physical. Robert Preston and Stephen McNally, as the two men in Boothe's life, aren't bad if just a little dull. And, because of this, Stanwyck's acting comes off as a bit overdramatic in a few points.

Under Michael Gordon's adequate direction, "The Lady Gambles" takes several falls though. For these great casino scenes, we get the last twenty minutes as punishment for reveling in such concupiscence. The film sinks steeply into a morality tale about how jazz, liquor, and alcohol tear families apart. All the scenes with Joan's sister Ruth are godawful, and Edith Barrett's performance as Una O'Connor is never anything but shrill, shrewd, and stinking.

So "The Lady Gambles" comes off as fairly mediocre in the end. If the film could maintain those high notes, it would be a minor Stanwyck classic, but, with what we get, it's just minor Stanwyck.

REWATCH: The Small Back Room (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1949) 10/10

A highly-skilled bomb disposal officer, whose tin foot, from an accident in the field, causes him enough chronic pain to become an alcoholic, is dispatched when the Germans start dropping booby-trapped bombs disguised as thermoses which have already killed three children. The Archers' most underrated film is a masterpiece in the least likely of places. Only one director, off the top of my head, has ever had the opportunity to string four masterpieces together in a four-year span: Kenji Mizoguchi from 1952-5 (for "The Life of Oharu," "Ugetsu Monogatari," "Sansho the Bailiff," and Princess Yang Kwei-Fei") comes to mind immediately; after recently rewatching "A Matter of Life and Death," "Black Narcissus," "The Red Shoes," and, now, "The Small Back Room" I can affirm that Powell & Pressburger are the second director(s) to accomplish this incredible feat.

I see many people who are disappointed with the film especially for coming off the heels of their three consecutive Technicolor masterpieces. But I think P&P master black-and-white here as well as they did with the three previous films and certainly more than in their pre-"Colonel Blimp" films and in "A Canterbury Tale" and as well as in "I Know Where I'm Going!" "The Small Back Room" is a masterpiece in tension. The ten-minute defusal sequence that starts about eighty minutes in is among my favorite sequences in cinema. The editing, tight shots and framing, extreme close-ups, and sound work are all top-notch in this moment. Christopher Challis makes a great Jack Cardiff replacement. His intelligence with lighting and shot selection is uncanny.

And we get two astounding performances in this film. Firstly, Kathleen Byron, as the long-suffering, optimistic girlfriend of our main character is amazing on several levels. One: the fact that Byron can so convincingly play a sweet, selfless woman right after playing the lusty, psychotic Sister Ruth in "Black Narcissus" shows her effective versatility and range. Byron relies mostly on harsh shadows and an unwavering, impressive, uncompromising control. She never once resorts to the hysteria that so marks and mars the alcoholic's girlfriend role in Hollywood movies.

Secondly, David Farrar is stunning as the embittered alcoholic Sammy. His expressive, handsome face and the pain and turmoil he conveys in even the simplest line readings show a firm grasp on how to handle this role. Farrar doesn't get much to do in "Black Narcissus" other than play the hunky gardener we'd come to know in melodramas yet to come, so it's good to see him get a real chance to prove his worth, and he proves it so. Farrar's intense anguish during his bouts of pain as well as in the defusal scene are great. It's one of the very best male performances in a film by the Archers.

"The Small Back Room" deserves to be in discussion with "Black Narcissus" and "The Red Shoes." It is a masterpiece in intensity and mood. It's a piece of expressionist brilliance by the British masters.

All the King's Men (Robert Rossen, 1949) 7/10

An angry, righteous politician eventually cedes to the corruption he vowed to fight on his original platform. This veiled biography of Huey Long is very good. Robert Rossen was always an underrated director, and he gets the best out of the cast here with Mercedes McCambridge giving the movie's best turn as a staunch, easily-angered campaign assistant in love with her candidate. McCambridge, with teeth agnash, uses that signature gravelly voice to make Sadie a snake in the grass though she's in plain view for us. Broderick Crawford is serviceable in a role tailor-made for him. He grumbles and grunts his way through playing the gruff governor without really diving too deep into the psyche of Willie Stark. The film focuses more on the reporting aspect which I think hurts the movie. And I find this a bit shocking since psychology was Hollywood's favorite thing in this late '40s period.

The one false note among the principal three cast members is John Ireland who is largely wasted and used only as a surrogate for the audience and their reactions. The movie could function finely without him and his character. If they would have gone in a route similar to "The Ides of March" where a low-level campaign aide finds all this out, I think it may have worked better. But the reporter angle is a bit overwrought.

On a technical level, aside from the searing screenplay, it's a competently made picture. A little more technical wizardry would probably push this into the echelon of films I'd deem "great." For now, it remains simply very good with McCambridge being the reason I'd rewatch it.

Champion (Mark Robson, 1949) 7/10

An unscrupulous boxer fights his way to the top while alienating everyone who helped him get there and refusing to cave to the demands of the racketeers. Kirk Douglas' earliest Oscar nod is for a demanding, physical, and angry performance as a scrapper who rises from the ashes after certain self-destruction. Douglas is very good, and he's an actor I usually don't admire. But the main reason I saw this was for the brilliant Arthur Kennedy. Kennedy has become one of my favorite character actors, and his first nod is for one of his more subtle roles. He isn't yelling and giving big dramatic speeches every other scene. He's timid and carries his limp like a massive chip on the shoulder. The scene where he tells Douglas his wife is leaving Douglas for him is incredible in the way it's shot and the way Kennedy restrains himself opposite a hotheaded Douglas.

The film's boxing scenes don't quite rise above what every other film on the topic did at the time. I think "Body and Soul" does everything a bit better in the technical realm, but the editing, especially during the training montage, is flashy and seamed together perfectly. The last fight is gorgeous. We are given the expensive seats and unrestricted access around the ring. It's smart in its lighting and shot selection too.

The film suffers from a really unoriginal premise though. I've seen this film several others times. Douglas is homeless at the beginning, accidentally finds his way into a fight, becomes really good, must contend with his love for a woman/orphan/brother, and discovers who he has truly become.

So we're lucky to get a cast as good as Douglas and Kennedy and Paul Stewart with the smart technical aspects on top of them. And Mark Robson was always a smart, reliable director from his early movies to his last ones. Robson directing Kennedy is a dream, and I think they're better here than they are in "Peyton Place."

REWATCH: Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer, 1949) 9/10

A man plans to murder his way to a dukedom to honor his mother's request to be buried in the family plot. Robert Hamer's delightful "Kind Hearts and Coronets" revels in its twisted darkness and is bolstered by two excellent performances. Dennis Price's work is very overlooked. His narration and performances opposite Valerie Hobson and Joan Greenwood are hilarious. And those two ladies hold themselves up well opposite a movie that pays little mind to them and treats them more as plot devices. I'd love to see a version of this that places Sibella more at the forefront. She's a fascinating character.

But Alec Guinness is the most memorable part of the film playing each of the D'Ascoynes with a unique elan and humor that makes no one of the seven feel the same as the others. I wish we were introduced to each of them a little more, and I think that's the movie's big fault. I know the film focuses on Louis, but I think the film would be more darkly touching and humorous if we got to know them more. Especially Agatha. There's so much potential in Alec Guinness as a snobby suffragette that never gets the light of day. But Guinness is great regardless.

One more thing: the American ending to appease the Hays Code ruins the film. The open-ended original British is far funnier and more in line with a Preston Sturges film than weak studio fodder.

"Kind Hearts and Coronets" never ceases to fascinate me. It's a unique picture that was made at just the right time. It's a brilliant, great film and certainly one of the funniest pictures to ever come from the U.K.

M (Joseph Losey, 1951) 4/10

The local hoods decide to take action when a child murderer terrorizes the streets of L.A. This is a really useless remake. 1951 Los Angeles pales in comparison to a politically-heavy Germany which makes for an even stronger film when you take a step back and examine the film to when it was made.

The performances aren't particularly great with David Wayne splaying himself about as if he's forgotten you don't win Oscars the same way you win Tonys. He moves about like a mermaid at film's end, and it's really bad. Even Luther Adler doesn't save the movie from mediocrity. The film doesn't try to do anything remotely interesting with the cinematography. It's far too light and uninteresting. The occasional shadow passes by our characters, but they're never used to signify anything special.

And you figure they'd do that because the film spends so much time trying to analyze the murderer that it comes off as perfunctory and presents itself as another miscarriage of Hollywood's psychology obsession of the late '40s/early '50s. For all the time they spend talking about his psychology, we never get to see any of it at action. We're simply told at the end how bad Wayne feels on the inside. And what is film if not a medium for showing not telling?

And the film spends way too much time pairing Wayne opposite a potential victim. I'm not sure if it is supposed to humanize or dehumanize him, but the girl seems to have been thrown in just for the hell of it. There's no immediate threat presented. He's not trying to kill her when they're locked in a warehouse, he's not trying to kill her when they're in a tunnel. He drags her around like a love interest in an Indiana Jones film.

This is a bad movie. Joseph Losey should know better than to make a movie like this. It's the worst kind of remake in that is adds nothing to the original. 1951's "M" is a bust.

Holiday Affair (Don Hartman, 1949) 7/10

A young mother must decide between her safe, steady suitor and a department store clerks whom her son idolizes and who gets fired after letting her go after knowing she's a commercial spy. I'm mad I didn't get to see this one right around the Christmas season because this is a very good holiday film in the vein of "Remember the Night." And, much like the Sturges film, "Holiday Affair" is an incredibly charming movie.

The film's success lies in the capable hands of its two wonderful leads. Janet Leigh is slowly becoming one of my very favorite actresses. Honestly, I don't think I'd seen her in much outside of "Psycho," but her early films here prove she's a really talented actress. She's given a standard "pick between two men" role along with "struggling mom" and somehow finds a nice balance between them to create a realistic, smart, unsure character who slides her way from the middle of a tightrope with two separate men at the ends. It's a very smart performance that never once rings false. And Robert Mitchum is very capable opposite her. He has his usual dead-eyed cocksureness working for him, but this is the first time I've seen him play a convincing romantic lead. He's a total charmer with an inviting crooked smile and closed-off posture. It's no wonder Leigh's child would like this guy so much (other than the fact that the kid gets the coolest freaking train set ever out of the guy). Wendell Corey provides a smarmy, annoying, stolid enough supporting turn to make us side with the kid and Leigh.

The script is riddled with great lines and an interesting plot that feels fresh despite it being close enough to movies we've seen before. It retains a holiday spirit with enough cynicism to not ever turn saccharine.

"Holiday Affair" is really good. It's way better than you'd expect. And it only makes me even more excited to get through Mitchum and Leigh's filmographies.

The Fountainhead (King Vidor, 1949) 7/10

An uncompromising, visionary architect struggles to maintain his integrity and individualism when his employers desire that he conforms to modern standards. I dislike just about everything that Ayn Rand stands for, but, damn, if it doesn't make for a good movie. While her ideologies are atrocious (there's a scene that basically amounts to "Individualism is stupid.), King Vidor takes the material and makes a really interesting, very good movie out of it.

You'd expect a film about architecture to be gorgeous, and Vidor makes this possible with a keen eye for detail and recycling a few of the shots from "The Crowd;" that ending scene is straight out of it. The movie moves around like a snake causing us to come face-to-face with both the structural and human architecture at play. Vidor is almost always reliable for a good movie.

Gary Cooper mucks the film up big time though. It's like all the good performances he'd given throughout the forties disappeared entirely and he's gone back to his wooden stoicism that made his performances from the '30s (minus "Design for Living" and "Peter Ibbetson") so awful. His big final speech is heavily marred by the appearance that he's reading off cue cards. Cooper himself said he didn't quite understand what Rand was trying to say, and that's really obvious. Cooper goes the whole film through looking confused and playing along minimally.

But then we get a star-is-born turn from Patricia Neal who is absolutely stunning here. And what a goddess she is on her pedestal, horsewhip in hand. And if that pre-sex scene isn't steamy, I'm not sure what is. Neal's distinctive voice, angular face, and pure talent make Dominique one of her best creations. Neal embodies the role physically, emotionally, and mentally. A socialite is a hard role to do well mostly because of the focus on his/her vapidity, but Neal takes it seriously and creates an indelible character.

So I think "The Fountainhead" is very good even if it's a huge pile of junk in the overall-meaning department. It's slick and has a splendid supporting cast as well. Watch it for Neal. She's the huge takeaway from it all.

The Lady Takes a Sailor (Michael Curtiz, 1949) 6/10

A headstrong woman in consumer reports with a reputation for honesty accidentally stumbles upon a prototype for a new submarine, and its crew try to stop her from leaking information. This delightful little film is mostly bolstered by its charm and innocence. Jane Wyman and Dennis Morgan make for an agreeable couple, and the duo go for every laugh they can get. The script is laden with jokes, some stick and some really don't, so it's worth watching because it's nearly laugh-a-minute.

The movie's visuals are pretty great. The submarine and other regularmarine scenes are realistic and nifty. At some moments, these effects are the real star of the film. And even though the movie is pretty funny, there are long sequences of inactivity with jokes that don't quite work. The film is actually at its strongest when Wyman does physical comedy, and you'd be shocked at how good she can be in that department. Dennis Morgan is handsome and charming but nothing more. I prefer his work in "Romance on the High Seas" if we're talking marine comedies.

This is a harmless, cutesy romcom that, for once, has a realistic independent woman not played by Katharine Hepburn at its core. Her life isn't fulfilled or missing a man, but finding love rears its head and makes for an interesting road. It's more good than bad, but the film could have been something different entirely if those stretches of boredom didn't find their way in.

REWATCH: Intruder in the Dust (Clarence Brown, 1949) 6/10

A young boy believes a black man convicted of killing a prominent white man to be innocent he gets an important lawyer on the case to make sure a mob doesn't lynch the accused. Claude Jarman, Jr. is much better here than as the annoying Jody in "The Yearling," so he's got that going for, him; but, really, this movie is all about two big supporting performances. Elizabeth Patterson, as a determined spinster standing beside the accused, gives us a gruff, staunch portrait in a performance filled with contempt and what it means to stand up for one's beliefs. She avoids any kind of Ma Kettle work while also avoiding any kind of "Rose for Emily" crazy spinster clichés. It's more subtle than not as she isn't flailing and screaming as the townsfolk the whole movie about how wrong they are, and that's to be appreciated.

But the film's biggest success lies in the performance of the accused. Juano Hernández' Lucas Beauchamp is one of the many great Faulkner characters, and, unlike so many of his stories brought to the screen, Beauchamp gets a worthy performance. Hernández is mostly quiet in his looks of contempt and despair, but he commands the screen when he speaks. It's a smart, savvy performance dipped in pathos and hung out to dry in a glorious wind. He's the real star of the film.

But, as for the rest of the movie, it falls a bit more flat than it should. The dialogue outside of the Beauchamp scenes is a bit timid and lesser than the rest of the movie. The scenes with the mobs talking are really poorly written, and, yes, I know the mob is a bunch of uneducated goons, but that's no excuse for lazy writing. Also, David Brian is really uninteresting as an actor. It takes a lot of work to try and get into his performance because it's like a poorly-made prototype for Atticus Finch. The role is sadly underwritten, though it could be done with him too, I guess.

But "Intruder in the Dust" is a film not done-to-death by Clarence Brown's ever-plodding style. It remains captivating at its best and disappointing at its worst. Hernández walks off with the acclaim, and we're left pondering racism in movies before the Civil Rights Act.

On the Town (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1949) 6/10

Three sailors on 24-hour shore leave look to find girls. This movie has a lot of good and a lot of bad. The Technicolor here is very good and put to good use. We get a huge array of costumes and sets both flashy and underwhelming to set the stage for the musical numbers. And good on Donen & Kelly for choreographing and shooting the numbers so well.

But one big problem is that, in my opinion (since I know many will disagree), there's no real standout number(s) from "On the Town." "You're Awful" is cute, but I can't really recall much of it eight hours later. I think "New York, New York" might be the one I liked and remember most, but maybe that's just because it's the bookend song to the film. I think all the songs are moderately enjoyable, but nothing really stands out and has status as a true classic the way other musicals from the era have.

But then we get these three females, and, God, are they awesome. Vera-Ellen does her usual sweetheart stuff, so she lags behind the other two women though she shouldn't be written off. Ann Miller is a total sexpot, and I'm loving how much I'm seeing her in musicals of this time. Her dance in "Prehistoric Man" is sexy, funny, and skillful. She's a star as far as I'm concerned. But the big takeaway from this cast is Betty Garrett whose super-horny cab driver provides the film with the most consistent laughs. Her scene where she slams the glass window between the cab and the backseat to talk to Sinatra about true love is an uproar. Garrett steals the film and makes a clean getaway when the film is done. What a funny performance!

And then there's the men. You'd think Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly and even someone like Jules Munshin would be great together, but something just doesn't stick here. Kelly's performance is almost invisible in the worst way. He has few real lines of substance, and it lacks most of the charm we've see in movies like "Anchors Aweigh" and "The Pirate." His charm is there, but it comes off in an ingratiating, oily car-salesman type way. He's very obviously a military man looking to get laid, so the charm would be way up; it just feels odd and gross though. And Sinatra, as he did in "Anchors Aweigh," plays the quiet, "gee whiz" guy and, again, it comes to no avail. You can't mute a vibrant trumpet like Sinatra. If anything, he and Munshin should have switched roles. And Munshin's performance is a mess and comes off as really amateurish (but when you're up against two of the most handsome, talented men of your lifetime, it would be hard to do anything).

"On the Town" is a lot of good fun, and I'd gladly watch it again in the future. Betty Garrett and Ann Miller take the most spotlight in a film that fairly divides its runtime between the six leads. This has one of the best ensembles I've seen in a musical, but I wish it would have lived up to the potential I know they all have. Nonetheless, I felt giddy coming out of the movie.

Bitter Rice (Giuseppe De Santis, 1949) 8/10

In an effort to avoid the police, two small-time crooks hide out in a rice workers' field, but a budding romance between the male crook and a voluptuous female worker causes tensions to rise. "Bitter Rice" has one of those great titles that works so much better in its original language than it does in English as it also translates to "Bitter Laughter" which represents the film a bit better. The bitterness is strong in this film with no smiles to be found anywhere. The angry cast is led by an always-reliable Vittorio Gassman and a sexy, full-thighed Silvana Mangano who puts all other sexpots to shame with this performance. The greatest performance is given by Doris Dowling whose surly, snarling female thief steals the show from Mangano (and I know I'm in the minority in saying this). Dowling's ferocity underlines the film's tensions and genre-playful attitude. Mangano, I found, overemoted frequently which comes off the wrong way at times.

And the film's genre is so interesting because it tiptoes the line between neorealism and classical Hollywood-style filmmaking. Mangano's character represents American capitalism with her love of bubble gum and jazz, and Dowling represents a much colder, angry Italian people. These women are the film's genres as they battle the film through. Their final confrontation is one of the more intense standoffs I've seen. And that meathook... I wasn't expecting that at all. The flooding of the fields was an unexpected scene to find in a movie like this, and De Santis' camerawork is impressive in capturing all the commotion.

The film's biggest weaknesses are Raf Vallone who doesn't really do much other than handsomely brood and try to turn a love triangle into a quadrilateral and Mangano's overacting. These two take a lot away from the movie that should have otherwise been a slam dunk.

But "Bitter Rice" is still one I would deem a great movie. It's daring and sexy and cynical. It's a femme fatale in and of itself.

The Bribe (Robert Z. Leonard, 1949) 3/10

A federal agent travels to a Caribbean island to break up a war-surplus gun racket and finds himself tempted by a gangster's moll and the head of the operation. You'd expect a movie with Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton, Vincent Price, and John Hodiak to be exciting and well-acted, but the movie comes off as lazy and unmemorable. Save for a pyrotechnically-inclined final scene, the movie is really very boring with only Charles Laughton seeming to be trying at all. And even then Laughton comes off as uninspired. He never did play poor dolts well.

The plot isn't really that exciting. It mostly seems like a movie that's more interested in marlin fishing and other hobbies asea than getting anywhere. And the tagalong Caribbean boatsman is what Desi Arnaz would have been on "I Love Lucy" if he were a pushover.

I don't have much else to say. This movie is pretty bad. There is some good cinematography, and that's about it. Some scenes are good, most are not. Robert Taylor is one of the worst leading men of this era.

REWATCH: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (John Ford, 1949) 10/10

A retiring cavalryman's final patrol to a violent Cheyenne reservation is held back by his commanding officer's wife and niece. Another watch, another confirmed masterwork. I think this might always by my favorite John Ford movie. Is it his best? That's arguable, but I'd say so. I can't think of any movies before this one that play on the "one last job before I retire" cliché, gangster and crime pictures excluded. So this could very well be the birth of one of action cinema's oldest, most reliable tropes.

And a 41-year old John Wayne is finally given a good role by John Ford if only because the director saw Wayne work with Hawks in "Red River" and realized the man could act. So he's given a nice, meaty role and absolutely devours it. I think it's Wayne's best performance hands-down. Wayne conveys the utter exhaustion of the military and the West so well especially through his posture. He looks as if he would break rank if he weren't the one leading. His delivery is better than it ever had been, and he makes off with the picture in hand.

And the cavalcade of supporting players is impressive too. Joanne Dru, John Agar, Ben Johnson especially, Hary Carey, Jr.; and Mildred Natwick all get places to shine and do they ever. Because of their collective talent, it makes nary a scene boring or overdone.

And the cinematography here is among the most gorgeous ever filmed in a western and in film in general. Winton Hoch takes full advantage of Ford's Love for Monument Valley and paints the landscape vividly. It takes full advantage of the Technicolor and keeps us gripped and glued to the action. It's such a beautiful picture.

I'll fight anyone and say "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" is Ford's masterpiece. I know I'm heavily outweighed by "Searchers" fans, but the two films aren't comparable. This one is surprisingly humorous, and "The Searchers" is as gritty and dark as Ford gets. "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" is a masterpiece. It's one of the very best westerns ever made - possibly the very best before the spaghetti period started. This is a movie I'll always cherish.

REWATCH: Late Spring (Yasujiro Ozu, 1949) 10/10

A young girl is nudged by her relatives to get married but she is happy being single as she can tend to her father. This movie isn't any less amazing then it was the last time I saw it. Ozu's quiet approach to film has never been used better than it has here. The camera, threatened to be smashed if it moves from floor or table level, settles us in comfortably. This movie is like your favorite pair of sweatpants in that it feels lived in, warm, and amazing.

Setsuko Hara's smile is probably the best smile in the history of film. She's an independent, family-focused woman, and the fact that she's happy with this in such an era would be looked down on. And everyone else in the movie sure looks down on it too. The movie toys with societal attitudes and double standards on femininity and what it means to be a woman in postwar Japan (and around the world). Hara's unwavering confidence and unshakable happiness is infectious. And Chishu Ryu, as her father, is also quietly devastating. His scenes opposite Ms. Miwa, and Hara's reaction to the news, are incredible. He's such a smart actor. Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura get the brunt of Japanese acting acclaim, but Ryu acts circles around them.

I've also never been a big fan of Noh, and the Noh scene in this movie is incredible. It's hard to perform a movie or a play with a scene about a movie or a play and not have the symbolism come off as ham-fisted. But unless you are familiar with the story they're putting on, and I sure wasn't, and know your Noh, it's a serene moment of realization and coming-to that never fails to make my chest feel a bit tight.

Ozu's masterpiece is one of my favorite pieces of cinema from the nation of Japan. I think it's the greatest film from the country not made by Kenji Mizoguchi. This smart, moving picture on human relationships never ceases to make me feel and think. It's a stunning bit of film. And that bike ride is still magical.

Edward, My Son (George Cukor, 1949) 3/10

A ruthless businessman reflects on his life after his only son dies. "Edward, My Son" has a title right out of the brain of Danielle Steel or Dame Barbara Cartland, and it's just as dramatic as those two. But with all that drama comes bars upon bars of soap. "Edward, My Son" is too melodramatic for its own good. It doesn't play up the emotions so we can feel for the characters; it plays them up simply because it doesn't know how else to be taken seriously. The film never knows where it wants to go.

And neither do its actors. Spencer Tracy dials this one in while breaking the fourth wall to let us know how he's super bad, guys, like, for real, though. Tracy is never convincing here as a total heel. And I know he can be because he's played great heels. He's boring at best. And then there's Deborah Kerr. I admire Kerr a lot. She's almost always consistently good, but this is the first bad performance I've seen her give. And by "bad," I actually mean "deplorable." Kerr's work here is so earth-shakingly bad. It's a wonder how she got AMPAS and the HFPA to throw her a bone. She plays soft, timid typical Kerr without any of the good lines or close-ups for the first 80% of the movie, and then in the last 20 minutes she plays one of the worst alcoholics I've ever seen on film. She plays it with the seriousness of Joan Crawford and the unintentional humor of Maurice Chevalier. It's a good thing they kept Edward as a Godot figure because I'm sure whomever would have played him would have been terrible too.

But the film has a nice feel to it when the actors aren't mucking everything up. It's pretty and shiny and substanceless. I'm probably being a bit too nice giving this a 3/10, but I didn't actively hate the movie so it gets a pass there.

The Heiress (William Wyler, 1949) 6/10

A plain spinster, the daughter of an esteemed widowed doctor, is wooed by a poor man who may or may not want her for her money. I love William Wyler, I love Olivia de Havilland, I love Ralph Richardson, I love Montgomery Clift, and I love Miriam Hopkins, so why isn't this movie better? "The Heiress" falls way short for me, and I wish it hadn't.

The movie is mostly marred by de Havilland's constant mugging for the first 4/5 of the picture. She tries so, so, so hard to convey Catherine's naïveté that it comes off as egregious and ingratiating. She's always bug-eyed and fiddled with her hands. Yes, these mannerisms could belong to someone who isn't good with people, but it hampers the performance tremendously. It isn't until the last fifth where de Havilland really comes alive after she becomes the steely spinster with a grudge. Then and only then does she give us a great performance. I wish she'd become jaded earlier, but, alas, the film wouldn't work that way.

Ralph Richardson is pretty good for the most part. I found his performance underwhelming and a bit more sleepy than it probably should have been. I don't believe even a proper society doctor would be so reserved in his anger.

Hopkins isn't given much to do, and Monty Clift is there to be eye candy. As long as Clift stays charming, his role works. I wish his character had been a little deeper especially for being so prominent in the plot.

The film is shot beautifully and the sets and costumes are gorgeous, so why is it that this cast can't settle in and make the place home?

Blood of the Beasts (Georges Franju, 1949) 8/10

Director Georges Franju takes us from the idylls of suburbia deep into a French slaughterhouse. This movie is horrifying in the worst possible ways. It rare that a film gets a visceral reaction out of me, so to notice that I was contorted into an uncomfortable cringe by film's end really took me aback.

Franju wanted to hold our hand through what happens in a slaughterhouse only to abandon us and leave us staring directly at the gasping arteries and fountains of blood that characterize the place. It's an incredibly brutal look into the industry and one of the most uncomfortable, gut-churning films I've seen. People always joke about needing to shower after something gross is said or seen, and I just now finally get it.

The film's black-and-white aesthetic is perfect too because, in color, this would be way too much to handle. It keeps us at an edgy, restrained, arm's length away.

Franju has always been a great director, and this is the earliest work I've seen from him. This is shocking and awesome and awful. This is a great documentary short though. It doesn't make me want to become a vegetarian, but I'll be damned before I eat veal in the next few years or however long this movie stays with me.

REWATCH: A Letter to Three Wives (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1949) 6/10

As their boat is about to set off, three wives learn that, by the time they'll be back ashore, one of their husbands will have left them. My second time through the film, and I'm still not getting the acclaim for this picture. The film reeks of Mankiewicz especially in dialogue and feel.

I think the film is shot interestingly enough. During the dance sequence, we see Jeanne Crain fly toward the camera before being pulled back, and I think that's really nifty. It's a small touch that keeps the film from being super boring. But a lot of these couples aren't believable. I know they're supposed to have their fair share of troubles, but none of these women go well with their husbands. It's like the writer purposefully made awful couples. And that's not how a movie like this should work. It isn't a matinee program.

Jeanne Crain and Linda Darnell are both lifeless and predictable with Kirk Douglas and Jeffrey Lynn not doing much better. The film is as its best when it focuses on Paul Douglas and Ann Sothern. They're sadly not a couple in the film, but when we're let into their minds, the film hits its peaks. Paul Douglas is slimy in the best way. His husband is eerie and reptilian while running on his atypical charm. He's the easy standout among the men. And Ann Sothern hits all of her dramatic marks despite Mankiewicz clearly favoring the other, prettier actresses with his camerawork. Sothern best conveys the sadness and disappointment of possibly losing her husband. She's the most realistic while also playing into the melodrama the film runs on. Hers is the smartest turn of the picture.

I'm not sure why they gave Mankiewicz the Oscar because this is a pretty standard, typical melodrama. It has no real punctuation or punches and relies on two great performances to keep it afloat. "A Letter to Three Wives" fails to truly excite but isn't a worthless or even mediocre film when its runtime is through.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (James Algar, Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney, 1949) 5/10

The classic tales of "The Wind in the Willows" and "Sleepy Hollow" are told. I'm not quite sure what Disney was going for here. The two stories don't really fit together well tonally. One's effervescent and the other's damning and doom-riddled.

The "Wind in the Willows" segment doesn't hit most of its comedic marks and fails to really captivate. It seems to think Mr. Toad scooting around in a mania pretending to drive a car is funny enough to showcase for several minutes on end. The court case isn't exciting and even the small action sequences (like trying to retrieve the deed) seem unimaginative and sleepy. I was told this was the weaker half of the picture, and that person couldn't have been more right. If this version of the tale were a movie by itself, it would be almost intolerable.

But, luckily, we're given the "Sleepy Hollow" segment which I remember having seen on a TV at a Target in Colorado when I was a kid for some reason. This tale makes up for the previous failure. Though I think the choice of making it nearly silent is poor and has the segment come off as weak, it's mostly very funny and thrilling especially at the end. Ichabod is a rather annoying character in this film and not really likable. So, personally, I didn't care when the Horseman came and decapitated him. His huge nose always stuffed in a book while loping around like some goddamn daddy longlegs is really off-putting. It isn't cutesy like the music tries to tell us. But the music is actually one of the best parts. The songs, all performed by a reliable Bing Crosby, are catchy, cute, and clever. It's like a series of music video vignettes that make the film worth seeing.

"The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" is lucky it is in the order it is. If it had ended with the flat, sour "Wind," I'd probably give it a lower rating just out of spite, but it remains a mediocre movie that has several good points but never enough to make a good film overall.

Tulsa (Stuart Heisler, 1949) 6/10

With the help of a shady Native American businessman and a geologist, a young woman takes over the oil fields of Tulsa to get revenge on the company that killed her father. This is a perfect example of an otherwise mediocre film being raised in quality simply due to its star's excellent performance. Susan Hayward is fantastic as a vengeful oil queen driven not only to devastating vengeance but to the same power and corruption she once hated. This is a weaker, female "All the King's Men" in a sense, but with a much better, more interesting lead performance. Hayward's ferocity and fiery devil-may-care sensibilities make her every move captivating and her evolution from roustabout to Tulsa royalty is marvelous. I wouldn't say it's Hayward's best performance, but it's certainly one that should go far more noticed than it has been. I think only it's only overlooked because Oscar nominated her for "My Foolish Heart" this year instead.

And there's a magnificent sequence involving a sea of fire that puts on one of the era's most impressive technical displays. The effects feel serious, scary, and ever-threatening. It's pretty to look at and I'm impressed with the reality of it all.

"Tulsa" was a surprisingly good movie, and Hayward commandeers it from the get-go and turns in a wonderful performance. It's worth watching for her alone. I'd like to see her go up against Scarlett O'Hara.

REWATCH: Colorado Territory (Raoul Walsh, 1949) 8/10

An escaped convict reunites with his old posse while contending for the love of two very different women. Raoul Walsh's remake of his own "High Sierra" is good in the same way Hitchcock's remake of his own "The Man Who Knew Too Much" is, though I'd argue that "Colorado Territory" is better than the Stewart/Day picture by a lot. It is more than just a simple remake in a different place. The movie feels different. Even with the shots of dangerous escarpments and an arid, daunting landscape, the movie becomes its own independent entity.

Joel McCrea is capable as the grizzled Wes McQueen. He's a lot more gruff than he usually is in his usual roles, but it's good to see him break out of that mold. McCrea's Wayne-like swagger gives the film more than its fair share of manly bravado. And the women he plays opposite of are two different stories. First, there's Dorothy Malone. It's really unfair to give an actress that sexy such a muted, bland role. It makes her performance unbelievable. She isn't good at playing conservative. She needs high, Sirkian melodrama to succeed. So her scenes with McCrea don't work. But then we get Virginia Mayo who, even in her brownface, gives a very good performance as Colorado. It's what Jean Simmons' role in "Black Narcissus" should have been. Mayo creates a smart, no-nonsense character out of Colorado in what was more or less written to a damsel-in-distress role.

With great cinematography and a train heist scene for the ages, "Colorado Territory" remains one of Walsh's best achievements. This pulse-pounding, unexpectedly thriller remains great even on a second viewing. A very, very underrated western as far as I'm concerned.

Shockproof (Douglas Sirk, 1949) 3/10

A parole officer falls in love with the convict of which he's taken charge. Douglas Sirk's women's noir fails to become scintillating or rousing like his other pictures. Sirk's wife, Patricia Knight, is very drab in a film by a director known for casting wonderful actresses. Her performance barely raises above a flatline, and opposite Cornel Wilde, King of Awful Acting, the movie can't succeed because the couple is never at all convincing or exciting. It's no wonder Knight never became famous. It's any wonder how Wilde did at all.

What's more, Sirk doesn't seem to play up the high melodrama he's so famous for. The approach is far more straightforward, and it just doesn't work. Especially with a couple of such mismatched proportions. The film is trying to be "Remember the Night" and comes off more as an uninspired bodice ripper without any of the steam or passion. And it doesn't aim for the amount of humor it should, and, when it goes for a joke, it falls awfully flat.

"Shockproof" is just as the title tells you. It is formulaic, basic, and completely devoid of anything original. I'm honestly shocked a film this bad could be made by such an incredible director.

Thieves' Highway (Jules Dassin, 1949) 8/10

A war veteran and truck driver seeks vengeance on the cruel, amoral produce marketer who crippled his father leading to a double amputation. Jules Dassin continues to impress me with his dark, simmering attitudes. "Thieves' Highway" is the darkest of the films I've seen him direct. This movie is a huge step up from his previous effort in "The Naked City," but it pales in comparison to the following year's "Night and the City" (but, really, few films noir can compare to the Widmark masterpiece).

Richard Conte has popped up in several movies I've seen recently, and he's proving himself to be a very capable actor within this realm. His sympathetic, puppy-dog eyes and ever-optimistic smile make for a very sympathetic character as if his current situation weren't already enough to get you on his side. Conte's anger and naïveté and subdued amor is well-controlled and makes for a compelling lead.

But he can't compare to the magnificent Valentina Cortese. I've only seen Cortese in "Day for Night," and she's incredible there, so to see her here as a brassy, forlorn streetwalker with a clichéd heart of gold is a total treat. Cortese takes what would be either a brooder's dream or a mannered actress' delight or a hysterical character actress' idea of perfection and combines the best elements of all three of those. It's a very smart performance that never rings false. Cortese grounds the film so that there's an actual threat of risk other than "Oh, no, this guy might die in his quest for vengeance."

With superb cinematography, excellent pyrotechnics, and a keen eye for motion, Dassin's "Thieves' Highway" is a great film noir that maintains its sense of excitement and the quest throughout. It's what I wished "They Drive by Night" would have been.

Twelve O'Clock High (Henry King, 1949) 5/10

A strict general, relieved from his last post because of risky decision, tries to whip his lazy squadron of airmen into shape despite huge losses. Cliché stories can be done well, but when you have such a dull, pulseless cast to try and back it up, it isn't going to come out well.

Rumor has it Dean Jagger won his Oscar for his first performance sans toupée, and that's a certainly reasonable explanation because Jagger is almost invisible here, a wallflower if you will. It's hardly impressive work that would've been better filled by a Wendell Corey type. And Gregory Peck himself isn't much better. It's basically a performance where he puts his hand to his head and complains about those darned lazy squadron members. His scenes of whipping his subordinates into order get tiresome after a while. And none of the cast who plays the squadron fighters are worth any value. And even when the cast is super wooden, we get the wonderful treat of a full reel of stock footage at the end of the film to really keep up distanced from the picture.

But the effects, sounds, and other technicals are pretty good. The flying sequences not involving recycled, grainy stock footage are delightful. Though this movie tries to be a prestige picture, it has more in line with "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" and "Flying Tigers" than it does Howard Hawks's "Air Force." "Twelve O'Clock High" falls flat around 10 A.M.

[Reza]

Knight of Cups (Terence Malick, 2015) 8/10

Weird, dreamy, flawed but extremely fascinating film about the journey of a writer (Christian Bale), who appears to have lost his way in life and love. The journey is not only of this man. It is a journey of a city seen through the spectacular lens of Emmanuele Lubezki. The city is Los Angeles and we get to see the metal and glass architecture (shades of Antonioni and his fetish of placing beautiful actors in front of buildings) as Bale drifts through streets, bedrooms, parties (Antonio Banderas is host of one and Ryan O'Neal can be glimpsed at another), the beach, swimming pools and we view him interact with his troubled brother (Wes Bentley), his father (Brian Dennehy) and an assortment of lovers - Imogen Poots (made up to look like one of the Warhol groupies), Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Frieda Pinto, Teresa Palmer and other nubile topless women). Malick's wistful film (in similar vein to "The Tree of Life" and "To the Wonder") is a spiritual, poetic, patchwork piece of cinema. This one had no script and Malick asked his actors to improvise. Bale has no dialogue (he speaks in voiceover) and flits about as extras mouth inane dialogue around him. The balletic, sharply filmed images are as if lifted off from the pages of Vogue magazine. The voiceovers by the actors are hypnotic - the film opens with Sir John Gielgud's distinct voice reading from The Pilgrim's Progress. Is the film pretentious? Yes it is. It is also tedious and repetitive. But it has the power to spellbind the viewer. Film is all about images. This one has many beautiful ones which are pleasing to the eye and calming to the soul.

[Reza]

Blackhat (Michael Mann, 2015) 3/10

Typically frantic and flashy Mann thriller let down by the unappealing lead actor - Chris Hemsworth who speaks and acts like Moose from the Archie comics. A genius computer hacker (the afore mentioned clump of hunk) is sprung from prison, courtesy of the CIA (Viola Davis in slumming mode for a hefty paycheck), to help capture a rogue hacker who is causing mayhem across the globe. Mann throws in a lot of tech jargon along with a lot of scenes of young men and women (Asian actors who will NOT win Oscar nods in such roles) staring at computer screens with furrowed brows (signifying shit has or will soon hit the fan). Deadpan chinese actress Wei Tang (who needs to brush up on her english skills) is the love interest. Not withstanding the expressive camerawork this is all style sadly lacking substance.

[Reza]

The Small Back Room (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1949) 8/10

A hidden gem from the team of Powell/Pressburger that appears to have been forgotten and overshadowed by the three extravagant colour masterpieces that came before it - "A Matter of Life and Death" (1946), "Black Narcissus" (1947), "The Red Shoes" (1948). It harks back to the smaller more intimate films from their earlier period. A gloomy and bitter character study about a self hating scientist and bomb disposal expert (David Farrar), nursing depression, a serious alcohol problem, a tin leg and a bittersweet relationship with a girl (Kathleen Byron). He is recalled into active service by the government to difuse a booby trapped bomb dropped by the Germans (the story is set during 1943) which he reluctantly takes on. Superbly atmospheric film, brilliantly photographed in noir style, sharply edited and acted to perfection by a wonderful cast of character actors playing assorted officials - Jack Hawkins, Michael Gough, Robert Morley, Leslie Banks and Cyril Cusack. The film belongs to David Farrar who creates a complicated self defeatist character who finds redemption via the very thing that cost him his leg. The film's highlights are all his scenes with Kathleen Byron which are emotionally charged and highly erotic. A must-see.

[Reza]

Dum Laga Ke Haisha / "Heave Ho, Carry That Load" / My Big Fat Bride (Sharat Katariya, 2015) 8/10

A charming little film about shouldering the burdens of marriage, putting one's pride aside and finding a sense of responsibility in life. A high school dropout (Ayushmann Khurrana), working in a shop where he mixes music on cassettes, is forced by his anxious family into an arranged marriage to a woman with a job so she can support him. They find a college educated school teacher (Bhumi Pednakar) who is not only feisty, has a mind of her own but also very fat. The plot amusingly whizzes off with the horrified young man refusing to consumate the marriage while the entire family (living in incredibly cramped quarters) wait with bated breath listening for the conjugal bed to creak. The film perfectly captures the various family members - the angry father (Sanjay Mishra), the anxious mother, the catty aunt - surrounding the bride and bridegroom. It takes a while for the groom to put aside his pride and sense of failure and accept his wife who refuses to give up on him. The climactic race, where husbands have to carry their wives on their back, is the catalyst that brings the couple finally together.
Superbly shot film with wonderful production design. The cast do wonders, each making their mark playing vivid characters. However, the film belongs to Bhumi Pednakar who put on 16kg to play the fat wife. She creates a lovely, believable character - at times sharply critical and at times feisty with her eyes showing deep sorrow and hurt at the reactions of her disappointed husband. It is also amazing how quickly she lost all that extra weight to return to her glamorous self just in time for the Filmfare awards where she won the best debut award.

[Reza]

Truth (James Vanderbilt, 2015) 8/10

During the 2004 presidential election, when the Bush administration was facing flak over the Iraq issue, CBS news anchorman Dan Rather (Robert Redford) and his producer Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) investigate an old allegation that President Bush shirked his military duty in Vietnam during the 1970s by using influence to join the National Guard. They assemble a team - a professor (Elisabeth Moss), a former Marine (Dennis Quaid) and researcher (Topher Grace) - and piece together a news item for "60 Minutes" helped by an elderly retired Colonel (Stacy Keach) who provides incriminating information and documents to back up the story. Once the news is aired the two are faced by a barrage of opposition from lawyers and all the president's aides along with the head of CBS news (Bruce Greenwood) backing down which results in Mapes being fired and Rather's professional downfall. Riveting account of television news journalism acted to perfection by an all-star cast (Blanchett is very good but I personally would have liked it more if an American actress (Michelle Pfeiffer?) could have played the part instead). Redford is stoic (if rather old - the actor looks like a prune now) and does a good job of portraying Rather - he especially nails it when viewed in profile. The film has everything which the slow "Spotlight" has missing.

[Reza]

London Spy (Jakob Verbruggen, 2015) 9/10

A fantastic paranoid spy yarn with an unusually long slow-burn that seems like one of John le Carré's thrillers. Danny (Ben Wishaw), a hedonistic, romantic and former drug addict meets and falls in love with the enigmatic, anti-social Alex (Edward Holcroft). Just as their relationship is getting serious Alex suddenly disappears and later discovered dead by Danny inside a trunk supposedly the victim of autoerotic asphyxiation. The plot takes on a mysterious turn as the dead man is found to be a MI5 agent and Danny becomes the prime suspect even though he knew nothing about his friend's background. When he decides to personally investigate the death, which he thinks was murder, he comes across lies, deceit and a cover-up involving higher ups in the government. The taut screenplay keeps the tension at fever pitch throughout leading up to a shocking denouement. An exceptional supporting cast brings grandeur to the story - Jim Broadbent as Danny's older gay mentor and confidante, James Fox as a snobbish club member, Charlotte Rampling as Alex's cold lying and reptilian mother, Adrian Lester and Harriet Walter as Alex's university professors who help in deciphering the mystery surrounding the death. A must-see.

[Precious Doll]

Prince of Broadway (2008) Sean Baker 5/10
Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) Sam Taylor-Johnson 1/10
Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015) Mark Burton & Richard Starzak 5/10
The Big Short (2015) Adam McKay 4/10
The Hateful Eight (2015) Quentin Tarantino 5/10

Repeat viewing

Midnight Cowboy (1969) John Schlesinger 10/10