September's here, bringing a bouquet of solid cinema - among them, the Best Picture nominee The Quiet Man.
Long in development, The Quiet Man started life as a short story by Maurice Walsh, published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1933. Director-producer John Ford originally envisioned it as a more dramatic story with the Troubles and the IRA firmly part of the story, as in The Informer. By 1952, we'd had a World War and were in the middle of a Red Scare; except for two joking references, the Troubles and the IRA were no longer part of the picture. Instead, what we get is the story of a man escaping his past by following an ideal of someone else's memory, the Ireland his mother told him about. Indeed, what we get is a love story between an American and an Irishwoman, each learning how to adjust to the other's culture.
The film was a hit with audiences and the Oscars, and was one of six or seven exceptional films released that September:
Caribbean (aka Caribbean Gold)
release: September
dir: Edward Ludwig
pr: William H. Pine / William C. Thomas
scr: Frank L. Moss and Edward Ludwig, from the novel Carib Gold by Ellery H. Clark
cin: Lionel Lindon
A man gets caught between rival pirates and helps with a slave uprising on a Caribbean island in the 1700s. There are many, many potential pitfalls here, but I think Caribbean does an admirable job of side-stepping many of them. You've still got the Dorothy McGuire-esque "she may be racist and sadistic about that racism, but other than that, she's nice" love interest, but you've also got a slave uprising led by actual characters. Then there's Zora Donahoo as the loving nurse betrayed by the whites she devoted her life to. Its most impressive feat is making a charismatic star of John Payne. One twist too many, maybe, but I appreciated them getting at the casual inhumanity and criminality of the colonizers.
Just for You
release: September
nominations: Best Original Song ("Zing a Little Zong")
dir: Elliott Nugent
pr: Pat Duggan
scr: Robert Carson, from the story "Famous" by Stephen Vincent Benet
cin: George Barnes
Broadway songwriter tries to get his daughter into an exclusive girls' school and navigates his relationship with his leading lady. It's very sweet. Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman, they've got something, she really is perfect as someone who is both grounded and a star. Songs are catchy, "Zing a Little Zong" is obviously the nominee, but I'm a fan, as well, of "I'll See-See Ya in Bahia" and "The Live Oak Tree" and "On the 10:10 from Ten-Ten-Tennessee." Does one of those things where the person who should be the chief architect of conflict instead becomes an understanding bestie, and so there's very little in the way of suspense, just enjoying the songs until the movie ends. You know what? That's fine by me.
Park Row
release: September 1
dir/pr/scr: Samuel Fuller
cin: John L. "Jack" Russell
Journliams! New York! The turn of the century! A rogue reporter establishes his own paper in competition with his old employer, a violent rivalry ensues. The hero is a two-fisted guy, as evidenced by a single-take fight sequence that sees him taking to the streets and pummeling gangsters hired by his rival to destroy his newspaper stands, a crazy sequence for all its rioting and fires and screaming horses and fisticuffs. The villain is a woman, though of course there's an attraction between the two, and while she may be snooty and competitive, she is too absent from the inner workings and so is horrified to learn that she has accidentally hired gangsters to snuff out the competition. Meanwhile, there's a mini-history of New York. Fuller was a newspaperman, worked his way up from a newsie selling papers to a filmmaker who had the clout to strike out on his own - he knows the territory, the legends, the personalities. To see this, one would think the only worthwhile paper was a crusading one, one that wasn't objective, one that got hostile. And maybe so. Can't imagine not loving this movie, it has everything one could desire from a film.
The Merry Widow
release: September 5
nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration - Color (Cedric Gibbons / Paul Groesse / Edwin B. Willis / Arthur Krams), Best Costume Design - Color (Helen Rose / Gile Steele)
dir: Curtis Bernhardt
pr: Joe Pasternak
scr: Sonya Levien and William Ludwig, from the operetta by Viktor Léon and Leo Stein
cin: Robert Surtees
Disguised as her secretary, a wealthy widow is wooed by an aristocrat from her late husband's bankrupt home country. Lana Turner and Fernando Lamas are great together, not to mention incredibly beautiful; great support provided by Una Merkel and Richard Haydn. And yes, those nominations are very deserved.
Monkey Business
release: September 5
dir: Howard Hawks
pr: Sol C. Siegel
scr: Ben Hecht & Charles Lederer & I.A.L. Diamond, story by Harry Segall
cin: Milton R. Krasner
A scientist and his wife accidentally take a formula that mentally regresses both of them to their youth. Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers are comic geniuses, Rogers in particular using every muscle in her face to transform without transforming, the effect of the formula taking place to the left of the frame, no closeup, before the audience is straight-up told it's taking effect. Marilyn Monroe and Charles Coburn great in supporting parts, Grant great. Story and screenplay very self-aware of how silly it is but committed to the bit, thank goodness. I had a good time.
Lure of the Wilderness
release: September 11
dir: Jean Negulesco
pr: Robert L. Jacks
scr: Louis Lantz, from the story "Swamp Water" by Vereen Bell
cin: Edward Cronjager
Remake of Swamp Water, but this time the con on the run hiding in the swamps has his daughter with him. A lot of the little local drama of the original is dispensed with, focusing instead on hero Jeffrey Hunter learning how to trap with the con (Walter Brennan, who also played the role in the original) while falling in love with his wild daughter (Jean Peters). I guess I get it, and the scenes of the trio in the wilderness are pretty interesting - there's an Adam and Eve quality to the romance in the swamps - but I do miss the details of the town in the original.
The Quiet Man
release: September 14
wins: Best Director, Best Cinematography - Color
nominations: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Victor McLaglen), Best Screenplay, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration - Color (Frank Hotaling / John McCarthy, Jr. / Charles S. Thompson), Best Sound Recording (Daniel J. Bloomberg, Republic Sound Department)
dir: John Ford
pr: Merian C. Cooper / John Ford
scr: Frank S. Nugent, from the story by Maurice Walsh
cin: Winton C. Hoch
An American returns to the Irish town he was born in for a new life. A romantic-comedy. More on Friday.
O. Henry's Full House
release: September 18
dir: Henry Hathaway / Howard Hawks / Henry King / Henry Koster / Jean Negulseco
pr: André Hakim
scr: Lamar Trotti, from the story "The Cop and the Anthem"; Richard L. Breen, from the story "The Clarion Call"; Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, from the story "The Last Leaf"; Walter Bullock / Philip Dunne, from the story "The Gift of the Magi"; Ben Hecht / Nunnally Johnson / Charles Lederer, from the story "The Ransom of Red Chief"; John Steinbeck, narration
cin: Lloyd Ahern, Sr. / Lucien Ballard / Milton R. Krasner / Joseph MacDonald
An anthology film adapting the works of O. Henry. So we must give O. Henry the full credit he deserves, because every one of these is expertly plotted. To the filmmakers' credit, there are times when one wonders if what you're watching could possibly have been as effective in prose form as they are on the screen. Most people I know love "The Ransom of Red Chief," in which two kidnappers find themselves in over their heads when they abduct a terror of a little boy, best of all; my favorite is "The Last Leaf," about fallen women and fatherly artists.
Tomorrow, Bela Lugosi and the Harlem Globetrotters.
2 comments:
Did Burgess Meredith play the fatherly artist in 'Last Leaf?'
Anonymous: it was Gregory Ratoff.
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