The Naked Spur (1953) - Anthony Mann

Bounty hunter Howard Kemp (Jimmy Stewart) is on the trail of a murderer, Ben Vandergroat (Robert Ryan), and the $5,000 reward on his head. Kemp wants the money to repurchase land he once owned, but lost to a conniving wife while he was away in the war. Kemp joins forces with an old prospector, whom he offers $20 to help, and a discharged Union soldier of questionable repute. Vandergroat is traveling with a woman, (Janet Leigh). When the three pursuers finally catch up with their prey, he immediately sizes up their greedy natures and begins to sow doubt and distrust, hoping they'll turn against one another and allow his escape.

Jimmy Stewart as bounty hunter Howard Kemp.

This is the third of five exciting Westerns that Stewart made with director Anthony Mann in the 1950's. In each, Stewart portrays a rougher character type than he had built his career on up to that time. Stewart, as much as anyone in the history of Hollywood, grew as an actor, developing an entirely different screen persona over time. His work with Mann seems to mark the change. Whether it was his age--42--or a natural outgrowth of his experience as a bomber pilot in World War II, Stewart undergoes a remarkable transformation, aided by Mann's ability to tap into something previously kept hidden from audiences. Where once he mostly played genial, content characters, he began to take on more complicated, dark roles, cynical men with repressed anger. Starting with Winchester '73 in 1950; and followed by Bend in the River in 1952; The Naked Spur in 1953; The Far Country in 1954; and finally The Man From Laramie in 1955, Stewart and Mann fashioned a not so likable hero. By the time he made Vertigo with Hitchcock in 1958, and Anatomy of a Murder with Preminger in 1959, Stewart's characters can exhibit a disturbing lack of composure or grasp on accepted behavior.

As Mann's Western hero, Stewart is typically flawed, a loner, a man with a hidden past or with something that gnaws at his character. He possesses an obsessive quality to his personality and can be downright mean if he has to. As Howard Kemp, Stewart effectively conveys a wide range of emotions, from raging anger to quiet resignation. Still, deep down, the character retains a moral compass and understands right from wrong.  It's a sold performance, enhanced by an interesting script.

Mann packs the film with plenty of action, including the terrific climactic shootout at some raging rapids which required some niffy stunt work. There is also a quick battle with Indians. But the psychological game that Vandergroat is playing on his captives is as fun to watch as these set pieces. He tries to manipulate the men to his advantage, and cares for the girl only so long as she serves a purpose. The script, by Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom, received an Oscar nomination, a rarity for a Western.

The Rocky Mountains provide a beautiful Technicolor backdrop, a hallmark of any Mann/Stewart Western. William Mellor served as cinematographer on this one. Two years earlier he had won the Oscar for splendid work on A Place in the Sun. If Mann had no favorite cameraman, he at least knew how to pick good ones. He used four different cameramen for the five films with Stewart. Between them they had 26 Oscar nominations and 4 wins. 

Robert Ryan waits in ambush. 

Robert Ryan has seldom been better. He needs a shave and is dirty and his rugged looks are perfect for the part of the devious outlaw. He's really the star of the film, laughing at his captors to get them off guard. With the exception of Kemp, they are easy touches. Ralph Meeker plays the soldier, a man you are never too sure whose side he is on, and Millard Mitchell the grizzled prospector, almost unrecognizable behind a full beard were it not for his distinctive voice. (Millard, who also appeared as Stewart's sidekick in the Winchester '73, was fresh off his performance as a movie mogul in the musical Singing in the Rain ). Both are fine, though Mitchell needed to work on being a credible copse; he clearly can be seen breathing after Ryan shoots him dead. Janet Leigh is lovely in her short cropped blond hair.

Some viewers may think the ending is too abrupt, but it is within character. Kemp is a man who needs a new beginning. To make one, and to severe himself from the past that drives him, he makes the right decision.

Robert Ryan tries to outwit his captors.

Named to National Film Registry in 1997.

Other Films by Anthony Mann

• The Furies - 1950
• Winchester '73 - 1950
• Bend in the River - 1952
• The Far Country - 1954
• The Man from Laramie - 1955
• The Tin Star - 1957
• Man of the West - 1958
• Spartacus - 1960 (Fired by Kirk Douglas and replaced by Stanley Kubrick. The salt mine scene is the only remaining contribution by Mann).
• El Cid - 1961
• The Fall of the Roman Empire - 1964
  
  

City Lights (1931) - Charlie Chaplin

A poor tramp in familiar baggy pants, tight coat, and hat becomes smitten when he meets a flower girl. She is beautiful, but blind and just slightly less destitute than he. He gives her his last coin for a flower for his lapel. She is charmed and mistakes him for a wealthy man. Touched, the tramp keeps up the pretense and begins to look for ways to earn enough money for an operation to restore her sight. He tried his hand at street cleaning and as a boxer--both efforts end miserably, but his fortune changes through a chance encounter with an alcoholic millionaire, intent on suicide. When the tramp saves the man from jumping into the river, he is befriended. From that point onward, through several different meetings, so long as the millionaire is inebriated, he opens his wallet to his new friend.

Generally considered his masterpiece, City Lights stars Chaplin as his iconic Tramp character. He is certainly at the height of his immense talent. Exercising complete creative control, Chaplin also directed the film, wrote the screenplay, produced it, did the editing, and composed the effective score. Essentially a love story, Chaplin unfolds the tale with some of the most hilarious comedy sequences ever filmed.

Audiences today have little appreciation for the genius of Chaplin. It's on view here in his unparallelled comedic timing and inventive physicality, and through his uncanny ability to evoke deep feelings from the viewer without dialog. Chaplin made this film four years after talkies revolutionized the film industry and altered what audiences came to expect from films.  His two great contemporaries, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, had already abandoned silent films, and for all intense and purposes retired with the advent of sound.

It was a big risk. After all, the nation was in the midst of the Depression and understandably, audiences were increasingly discerning as to how they spent entertainment dollars. But Chaplin was an immensely confident man. He believed in his ability as an artist able to transcend the age. The result is evident in every scene.

We are introduced to the Tramp in the opening sequence. A mayor is giving a speech before a civic crowd. Chaplin uses a series of unintelligible high-pitched squeaks and sounds to represent the typical bloated political speech. It sounds reminiscent of the noises used for adult speech in 1960's Charlie Brown Peanuts television specials. Someone pulls the cord to lower the canvas cover to unveil a hidden monument. The Tramp is asleep in the arms of one of the figures. The crowd hollers for him to remove himself, and when he tries, his pants get stuck on the sword of another, reclining figure. As the band strikes up the National Anthem, the vagrant removes his hat and places it on his heart.

Several other sight gags will likely draw a chuckle from the viewer: the Tramp stops to admire the figure of a naked woman in a window, stepping on and off a freight elevator in the sidewalk as it alternatively rises and falls to gain better perspective; most of several bottles of champagne end up in his pants; and at a party, he mistakes a man's bald head for a plate of food. One of the best takes place during a sequence with the drunken millionaire as the two friends share dinner at a nightclub. While eating a plate of spaghetti, a curly streamer from the ceiling falls onto Charlie's plate and winds up in his mouth. He chews and chews but can't seem to come to the end of this "noodle."

A long noodle. 

Charlie borrows the millionaire's car and gives the blind girl a ride home, reinforcing her mistaken impression that he is rich. He visits her often in her modest apartment, and on one occasion, presents her a newspaper article about a miracle cure for blindness. At the same time, her landlord is threatening to evict her for failure to pay the rent. Charlie promises to give her the money the next morning.

What follows is one of Chaplin's best set pieces, the boxing match. The winner will earn $50. It is choreographed to perfection, with Charlie using the referee as a shield, bouncing in a funny shuffle to keep the man between himself and his opponent. The music Chaplin overlays to the scene works beautifully. Charlie lands several punches, gets the bell cord stuck around his neck, and even vaults off the ropes a few times to catapult himself into the stomach of his foe, but eventually he is knocked unconscious and loses the fight.  

Like all great silent films, there is much in a closeup. Chaplin and the other actors amuse the audience with some wonderful expressions of fear, false courage, and disdain. Hank Mann plays the Tramp's ring opponent. Nearly always listed as "uncredited," Mann would have a long film career. Here he is wonderfully dour.

The famous fight scene.

Fortune finds the depressed tramp again as he encounters the drunken millionaire a third time. He gives Charlie enough money for the girl's operation, but confusion over a robbery soon lands Charlie in jail, but not before he completes his mission and passes the money to the girl.

The final moments are special, and rank with the great emotional endings in all of film. Chaplin demonstrates that he was more than a mere director of film, he was a poet, able to weave pathos and humor together to produce magic. It is several months later. Released from jail, the tramp encounters the girl; with sight restored, she is now the owner of a prosperous flower shop. She takes pity on the strange vagrant and offers him a coin and a flower. Their hands touch, she recognizes the feel of his, and it suddenly dawns on her who is standing before her, her mysterious benefactor, not a rich man but a homeless one.

Virginia Cherill plays the blind flower girl. She is lovely and later married Cary Grant.

Films competing with City Lights that year for audiences included two horror classics: Dracula and Frankenstein; two classic gangster movies: The Public Enemy and Little Caesar; and that year's Best Oscar-winning film and epic Western, Cimarron. Still, City Lights impressively was the fourth highest grossing film.
 
City Lights was named to the National Film Registry in 1971, the third induction class. It should have been in the inaugural group.

Favorite Films of the 1940s

It's silly to try to pick a top ten favorites from the 1940s, as more top quality films were produced that decade than any other. You certainly cannot pick a definitive list, as it is more than likely to change depending on your mood. One could easily name five each from just Hitchcock and John Ford and you'd have an outstanding selection. Or five each from Humphrey Bogart and Edgar G. Robinson. Or ten film noirs, a genre that came into its own during the decade. In any case, no-one can deny that for classic film lovers, it is a phenomenal period. Here are ten of mine, listed in chronological order. A few actors have multiple appearances: Claude Rains, Dana Andrews, Ingrid Bergman, Teresa Wright, and Joseph Cotten. And noirs do comprise five or six of my favorites, depending on how you define the term.

1. Casablanca - 1942

Michael Curtiz's masterpiece has one of the most quotable scripts and outstanding casts of all time. Bogart plays the cynical Rick, still in love with Ilsa, played by a beautiful Ingrid Bergman. She and husband, an important Czech freedom fighter, are in the North African city looking to escape the Nazi's. Claude Rains, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre - what could be better. "Round up the usual suspects."

2. Shadow of a Doubt - 1943

Joseph Cotten best career performance as Teresa Wright's uncle Charlie, the Merry Widow Murderer. He's on the run from police and looking for cover. He gives a chilling speech at dinner about "silly, useless wives," that waste money and are "horrible, faded, fat, greedy women." One of Hitchcock's best, it shows that evil can raise its ugly head anywhere, even in quaint, quiet towns like Santa Rosa.

3. Double Indemnity - 1944

Insurance agent Fred MacMurray is ensnared by Barbara Stanwyck, whose Phyllis Dietrichson is sexy and conniving and spots a sap when she sees one. She wants her husband dead and Walter Neff's just the man to do it. A clever script based on a Raymond Chandler novel, the film deserved its 7 Oscar nominations. Neff provides the voice-over. "Yes, I killed him. I killed him for money - and a woman - and I didn't get the money and I didn't get the woman. Pretty, isn't it?" One of Billy Wilder's best.

4. Laura - 1946

Someone killed Laura Hunt and police detective Dana Andrews heads the investigation in one of director Otto Preminger's best. Along the way he falls in love with the dead woman's portrait. Clifton Webb plays a newspaper columnist and the girl's acerbic mentor, Waldo Lydecker. He received a well-deserved Oscar nomination for supporting actor. One of his best lines: "I don't use a pen. I write with a goose quill dipped in venom."

5. Notorious - 1946

Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman team up as U.S. agents in Buenos Aires to spy on a group Nazis. The plot involves uranium, but that's not important in this Hitchcock story of intrigue. One of Cary Grant's first serious roles, his performance is outstanding as a man who ignore his heart for his duty. In love with Ingrid, he nevertheless sends her into harms way. Claude Rains plays a seemingly respectable businessman, caught unawares by the woman he too, loves. It relies less on action than on the emotional and mental anguish the stars undergo. A brilliant film.     

6. Great Expectations - 1946

Pip, a poor orphan, has a mysterious benefactor who enables him to journey to London to become a gentleman. David Lean is known for directing some of the world's most successful epics: Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, etc. But it is his smaller, more intimate films from the 1940s that are my favorites. This film is the finest film adaptation of a Dickens' novel. Lean and his actors bring to life the book's memorable characters: the convict Magwich, the attorney Mr. Jaggers, and an old woman stuck in the past, Miss Havisham.

7. The Best Years of Our Lives - 1946

Belongs among the handful of greatest American films ever produced. William Wyler's masterpiece, it is as near a perfect film as you can get. Superior script, acting, and direction. No other "coming home" comes close to its realism and ability to affect the viewer as we follow three likable men home from WWII.  Several scenes stick with you: the emotional meeting between Dana Andrews and Best Actor winner, Fredric March, in Butch's Bar as March tells Andrews to leave his daughter alone (Teresa Wright); Andrews' father reading his son's medal citation; March coming home to surprise his wife (Myrna Loy); Andrews in the cockpit of an abandoned bomber. Wyler's other best of the decade were The Heiress and The Letter.

8. Black Narcissus - 1947

A group of nuns arrive at a convent high in the Himalayas, where the rarefied air does something to westerners. Deborah Kerr stars and her performance as Sister Clodah is terrific. She has her hands full with her own crisis of faith, and the odd behavior of her nuns, especially Sister Ruth, played chillingly by Kathleen Byron. One of directors Powell and Pressburger's impressive output in the decade, which included The Red Shoes, A Matter of Life and Death, I Know Where I'm Going, and Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. P&P films have luscious cinematography and highly interesting stories.

9. Out of the Past - 1947

Perhaps the definitive film noir. All the requisite components of the genre are here: lots of shadows and lighting; a story that you know will have a dark end for someone; a cynical hero in Robert Mitchum, an amoral detective who gets in way over his head; and a gorgeous femme fatale in Jane Greer, the woman who plays Mitchum like a sap. He knows it too, saying in one voice over, "How big a chump can you be? I was finding out." Kirk Douglas in an early role provides support.

10. The Third Man - 1949

Director Carol Reed's marvelous look at intrigue in post-war Vienna. Joseph Cotten is a down-and-out writer of pulp Westerns named Holly Martins. He's looking to land a job with his old friend, Harry Lime, but arrives too late, learning that Lime is dead, recently struck down by a hit-and-run driver. When accounts of the death don't quite agree, Martins gets suspicious and starts poking around, attracted in large part by Alida Valli, Lime's lover, Anna Schmidt. Vienna is not what it seems. The black market flourishes in the bombed-out streets and Lime's old friends, odd and mysterious, seem to be keeping a secret. This is one of the most atmospheric films ever made, infused with a bizarre zither music and some of the best black and white cinematography ever recorded. It contains one of film's most shocking appearances and a spectacular chase through the city's old sewers.

Just Missing:

The Treasure of Sierra Madre - 1948

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon - 1949

The Ox Bow Incident - 1943

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp - 1943

Late Spring - 1949

Key Largo - 1948

The Sand Pebbles (1966) - Robert Wise

A seaman looks across the gangplank at a U.S. gunboat, the San Pablo. Commissioned during the Spanish-American war, it has seen better days. The Navy vessel patrols the Yangtze River in China. It is 1926. A machinist mate first class, the man is a transfer, having been seen as a hard case and maverick by his previous skipper. He wants just one thing--to be left alone. When he enters the engine room after boarding he looks around, smiles, and places a hand on the machinery. "Hello, Engine;" he says. "I'm Jake Holman." Holman is played by Steve McQueen, who gives the most sensitive performance of his career, showing considerably more range than he's usually credited for. He is a quiet man, hard to get to know, and someone you immediately sense carries old hurts inside. He is more comfortable with machinery than people.

Jake Holman reports to the San Pablo.

The crew members call themselves sand pebbles. For the most part they are a sorry bunch, often relying on paid help from Chinese coolies to do their work. And the work is pure drudgery, hot and unrewarding. They spend their days in boredom, and their nights drinking and whoring in the saloons, all the while looking with disdain on the local populace. They are like a lot of men who live in close quarters with little to do and with scant prospects for the future; they are just doing their time and growing ever more slack in their duties, long past the time they felt any pride in wearing a uniform. Holman is destined to stir things up, and amidst the volatile political climate of the country, which is rapidly shaking off its feudal heritage and imperialistic chains, he and the crew will find themselves swept up by something they have little control over. Communist forces start to gain power and threaten to oust all foreigners from the country, and the ship is sent to collect a group of missionaries at the China Light Mission from anti-foreign mobs. Naive and blind to the historic revolution brewing, the missionaries believe god and reason will protect them.

There is a lot in this film to admire: McQueen's acting; the stunning cinematography of Joseph MacDonald, which captures both the exquisite beauty of China and the squalor of its cities; Jerry Goldsmith's lush score; and several fine action sequences. Director Wise was fresh off two enormous successes: West Side Story and The Sound of Music. This was a big departure from those. That he managed to distill a complex story as well as he did is quite an achievement. The source novel by Richard McKenna, his only novel, appeared in 1962. At nearly 600 pages it goes into greater detail about the turmoil affecting the country as nationalism grows. Still, the film is a good half-hour too long. One wonders if Wise was trying to produce an "epic" along the lines of David Lean with Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago.

Wise retained the most important parts of the novel, including the budding love affair between Jake and Shirley Eckert (pretty Candice Bergen, just twenty years old at the time). Shirley is a young missionary who manages to touch Jake's heart, cracking his tough exterior. There are a couple of nice scenes between the two as they get to know one another, floating on a serene inlet in a row boat, and Jake trying to toss a stone onto a statue of an elephant. Good luck is said to follow those who succeed. He does, but happiness will prove to be elusive. Both actors convey innocence. McQueen is particularly unassuming here and likable, far different than his typical macho persona.

Holman is an immensely likable character, one that most male viewers could relate to. At the core, he is a traditional American--a loner you can trust to do his job, unobtrusive up to a point; but when incited will give you his all, even if it means sacrificing his own safety for a bigger cause. That he will do this without fully understanding why, makes him that much more attractive and admirable. Wise and McQueen capture these traits beautifully in the last scene, with Holman wounded and under attack. "What happened? he asks himself.
    

Another love affair drags the movie down, that between Jake's friend Frenchie (Richard Attenbourgh) and Maily, a girl forced into prostitution. Although sensitively done, Wise would have been better off to jettison it.

The action sequences include a thrilling attack on a Chinese river blockade by the San Pablo, its crew finally showing some pride, and the chase and murder of Jake's other friend, Po-han (Mako). Po-han is a lovable character, who Jake takes under his wing as his assistant. Po-han struggles with the English language but wants to learn. His lessons are quite funny. His death, at the hands of Chinese rebels, is the most shocking scene in the film, savage and bloody. Jake watches from the deck of the San Pablo as the insurgents capture his friend and string him up on a pole, where the leader commences to slice his chest and stomach with a large knife. The captain, unwilling to incite an international  incident over a coolie, refuses to interfere. McQueen plays the scene perfectly, furious and full of anguish.

The river blockade battle.

There is another tense scene, a violent boxing match involving Po-han and a racist crew mate of Jake's that looks all too real. The sailor is played by Simon Oakland, who towers over the smaller man and out-weights him by a hundred pounds. Wise stages it expertly. The cigarette smoke hangs in the air, the audience drinks and noisily exhorts their betting favorite on, and the fighters exhaust themselves in blood and sweat.

McQueen earned his only Oscar nomination for the film (losing to Paul Scofield in A Man for All Seasons), and the film eight nominations in all. It won none, perhaps indicating that the day of big road-show movies had passed. Both the film and the director were nominated, Wise for the third time. He'd already won two.

Richard Crenna plays the gunboat's captain, a man trying hard to maintain his dignity and the ship's discipline. His confidence is low and at one point he contemplates suicide. He is excellent. His character is the real dramatic center of the film as far as history goes--he represents the tradition of the U.S. Navy, far from home and trying to maintain a foothold in a rapidly changing nation, one that violently resents the Navy's presence. Internal forces are about to explode as the march of history brings American imperialism in China to an end.

Richard Crenna as Captain Collins.

Other Films by Robert Wise:

• Born to Kill 1947
• Run Silent Run Deep 1958
• West Side Story 1961
• The Haunting 1963
• The Sound of Music 1965

Other Films by Steve McQueen:   

• The Great Escape 1963
• Love and the Proper Stranger 1963
• The Cincinnati Kid 1965
• Bullitt 1968
• Papillon 1973

Favorite Films of the 1950s

The 1950s was a spectacular decade of films. Here are ten of my favorites in chronological order. Maybe not the ten best of the decade, though some certainly are by most people's measure.

It marked the last decade for Bogart, who did some of his best work, and for Gary Cooper. Marlon Brando was at the top of his game, and it was perhaps the best decade for Westerns. Two make my list, but it was a rich genre. Cooper won his second Oscar with High Noon; Anthony Mann and Jimmy Stewart produced five terrific collaborations, including Winchester '73 and The Naked Spur; and Budd Boetticher and Randolph Scott combined for several classics.

Hitchcock continued his impressive run and peaked commercially in the decade with several classic suspense films. I include just one, and omit Strangers on a Train, Rear Window and North by Northwest.

Other directorial achievements of note included came from Nicholas Ray, Billy Wilder, and the great John Ford, but other fine films of theirs are omitted.

Foreign directors continued to make wonderful films, even if some weren't shown in America. I include just two here and must omit several worthy ones. De Sica's Umberto D is the best film to ever feature a dog, and Fellini made two poignant films with his wife, Giulietta Masina: La Strada and Nights of Cabiria. Jules Dassin's Rififi is a tight noir that paved the way for heist films, and Henri-Georges Clouzot gave us the Hitchcockian Diabolique and Wages of Fear.

1. In a Lonely Place 1950

Humphrey Bogart's best performance in Director Nicholas Ray's best film. Is he a murderer or not? Gloria Grahame plays his confused lover, trying to help him overcome his inner demons. From the pulp novel by Dorothy Hughes, it contains a memorable last scene. "I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me."

2. Sunset Boulevard 1951

Billy Wilder's scathing look at Hollywood follows the weird affair of a has-been movie star, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), with struggling writer Joe Gillis (William Holden). Swanson gives one of film's iconic performances. "Mr. DeMille. I'm ready for my closeup."

3. Tokyo Story 1953

The third of Director Yasujiro Ozo's "Noriko Trilogy," packs an emotional wallop. Setsuko Hara is the generous daughter-in-law in a family whose children are too busy to bother with its aging parents. Now considered on the short list of greatest films ever made, it was not released in the United States until 1972.

4. Shane 1953

One of the most authentic Westerns, it is George Stevens' best film and Alan Ladd's signature role as a retired gunfighter who helps farmer Joe Starett (Van Heflin) fight off cattlemen in a range war. Shot against the beautiful Grand Tetons it is Jean Arthur's last film and includes one menacing bad guy in Jack Palance as Jack Wilson.

5 On the Waterfront 1954

Marlon Brando as dock worker Terry Malloy comes up against the brutal union led by Lee J. Cobb. Brando won a well-deserved Best Actor Oscar in that year's Best Film. The most memorable scene takes place inside a taxi between brothers Brando and Rod Steiger. "I coulda been a contender."

6. The Searchers 1956

John Ford and John Wayne's best collaboration and cinematographer Winton Hoch's masterpiece. Inexplicably neglected at that year's Oscars, it is now on the short list of greatest Westerns. Wayne is a brutally racist Ethan Edwards out to rescue his abducted niece. A great final shot of Wayne in the doorway.

7. Sweet Smell of Success 1957

Easily Tony Curtis' best performance. He is Sidney Falco, a sleazy sycophantic press agent. Burt Lancaster plays the powerful columnist J.J. Hunsecker. Filmed in glorious black and white, New York City never looked more grittier. Ernest Lehman co-wrote the memorable script. "Match me, Sidney."

8. The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957

Director David Lean's first epic, and maybe his best. Alex Guinness gives his signature Oscar-winning performance as a rigid British colonel who helps the Japanese build a bridge. His counterpart is Sessue Hayakara as the Japanese colonel, facing Hari Kari if the bridge isn't completed on time. William Holden leads the commando raid to stop them. With a rousing climax, it deservedly captured that year's Best Film.

9. Vertigo 1958

Alfred Hitchcock's most complex film. Jimmy Stewart is a retired detective afraid of heights and obsessed with a dead woman. The twist, revealed mid-stream, is stunning the first time you see it. A magnificent score by Bernard Hermann, impeccable editing by George Tomasi, and a memorable title sequence by Saul Bass make it one of the most satisfying film experiences.

10. The Cranes are Flying

One of the first Russian films produced after the death of Stalin that deviated from the state's imposed mandate to champion Russia as a military victor, the film tells the story of a beautiful young couple separated by the war. Tatyana Samojlova, as Veronika, promises to wait for Boris, who finds himself on the Eastern front. The film depicts war as ugly and devastating and won that year's Golden Palm at the Cannes Film festival.

Just Misses:

Early Summer 1951 with Setuko Hara.

Moby Dick 1956 with Gregory Peck.

Touch of Evil 1958 with Orson Welles.

Room at the Top 1959 with Simone Signoret and Lawrence Harvey.

 

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) - Ronald Neame

Jean Brodie (Maggie Smith) teaches at a private girls school in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is 1932. Her 14-year old students are impressionable, and she is unconventional and eccentric, telling the girls that she is in her prime. "Little girls! I am in the business of putting old heads on young shoulders, and all my pupils are the creme de la creme. Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life."

Miss Brodie and her class.

It is a somewhat stodgy school, with school head mistress, Miss Mackay (Celia Johnson), expecting Brodie to adhere to strict traditional teaching methods and standards. But Brodie is a free spirit and prefers to mold the girls with tales of her time in Italy, and lessons in culture, art and politics, instead of cold arithmetic and science. She has a socialist bent and even admires Mussolini. Her favorite students are known as "Brodie's girls." They sometimes lunch together on the grass outside where she leads them in free discussions of sex and love. The girls worship her, but Mackay naturally sees her as a dangerous rebel who fosters unconventional thinking in the minds of young girls. When Brodie encourages one shy girl, Mary McGregor, to follow her heart, it leads to tragedy when she runs away to join her brother and Franco's forces in Spain. Sandy (Pamela Franklin), one of Brodie's girls, is more perceptive than most. She begins to question whether the teacher they all idolize is past her prime and perhaps not the best role model.

The shy Mary MacGregor gets some poor advice.

Sandy with Miss Brodie.

Maggie Smith is terrific as the complex Brodie, giving one of the best performances of the 1960s. The character is introduced in a splendid opening scene, riding her bike through the narrow, teeming streets of Edinburgh on her way to the school. Her hair is red and she's wearing a purple dress. The rest of the screen is mostly drab shades of grey, and that's largely true for the rest of the film too. Brodie is meant to stand out. And as soon as she speaks, you realize she is different, ostensibly supremely confident, with a rather high opinion of herself. This is a facade, however. Brodie is uncertain in love--having two lovers--and is more talk than substance, choosing to live vicariously through her students. Smith captures the character's vulnerability and hidden emotion. When one of her lovers, the married art instructor Teddy Lloyd, (at the time her real husband), confronts her about her inability to commit, she reacts defensively, trying to mask her insecurity.

The best scene in the film is a highly charged confrontation between Smith and Johnson. The head mistress thinks she finally has the goods on Brodie to force a resignation, but Brodie cleverly outwits her. Johnson leads a solid supporting cast. She is probably best known for her Oscar nominated role as a unrequited lover in David Lean's 1945 film, Brief Encounter. Pamela Franklin debuted in 1960 in The Innocents.

For the most part, Director Neame closely follows the fine source novel by Muriel Spark. He wisely deviates in the time-jumping aspect of the novel, using a straight chronological approach instead, making the film more easy to follow. And in the film, Brodie learns which of her girls betrays her; in the novel she does not.

The melody of the familiar theme song by poet Rod McKuen provides a melancholy background to the quiet scenes of the film. McKuen was the most popular poet of the time, if not the deepest. Listening to it now, more than forty years after the film's release, brings you immediately back to the late 60s and all the turmoil of that time. The British singer Oliver took the song to #2 on the charts.

Jean, Jean, roses are red
All the leaves have gone green
And the clouds are so low
You can touch them, and so
Come out to the meadow, Jean

Jean, Jean, you're young and alive
Come out of your half-dreamed dream
And run, if you will, to the top of the hill
Open your arms, bonnie Jean.

Director Neame was once a collaborator with David Lean and served as producer on Lean's two adaptations of Dickens's: Great Expectations and Oliver Twist.

Awards:

• Best Actress Oscar and BAFTA (Smith)
• Best Supporting Actress BAFTA (Johnson)
• Film nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes
• Best Supporting Actress nomination BAFTA (Franklin)

The Searchers (1956) - John Ford

Confederate veteran Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) arrives unannounced at his brother Aaron's Texas homestead just when Captain Clayton (Ward Bond) of the Texas Rangers comes looking for men to chase some Indians who have stolen cattle from a nearby ranch. Ethan goes along, leaving Aaron behind with his wife, Martha, and two daughters. It's a trick; the Indians have drawn them away from the ranches to raid those left behind. By the time the men return it is too late—Aaron and Martha are dead and the two girls captured. Ethan (and his nephew, Martin Pawley) begins a five-year search to rescue the girls and extract revenge against Chief Scar. But as the search lingers his motivation changes as he realizes the one surviving child, Debbie, has been assimilated into the Indian way of life.

John Wayne, always a better actor than given credit for, gives a towering performance as Ethan Edwards and The Searchers is John Ford's most majestic Western. Set against the beautiful stark sandstone mesas and buttes of Monument Valley and the snowy Rocky Mountains, it shows Ford's extraordinary eye for visuals. One particularly beautiful shot occurs with the two men on horseback in a growth of willows with flakes of snow swirling. Marty wonders if they'll ever find Debbie. Edwards, a relentless pursuer, utters a famous line: "We'll find 'em. Just as sure as the turnin' of the earth." A lesser director might have rejected the scene since it only serves to deepen your understanding of the character, rather than move the action forward. 

John Wayne as Ethan Edwards.

Edwards is a tragic hero. Complicated, flawed, and mysterious, he doesn't say where he's been since the war ended three years ago, only that he didn't surrender. He may have drifted, perhaps he is wanted. In any case, he is driven by an intense hatred of Indians, sparked by the death of his mother by Comanches sixteen years earlier. (When little Debbie hides in the cemetery near the start of the film, this information appears on face of one of the headstones). Dark, moody, and violent, he shoots the eyes out of a dead Comanche so the corpse can't enter the spirit world, and he indiscriminately kills buffalo so the Indians won't have enough food.

The character of Martin, 1/8 Indian, serves as a counterpoint to his uncle. In a twist of sterotypes, Ford presents the half-breed as a Christian, and the white man as a savage. Their relationship at times is strained. His could not have been an easy role to play, but Wayne is convincing as a man undergoing a deep personal struggle. The character is tragic, because though he largely succeeds in conquering his inner demons and ultimately changes for the better, he finds himself no closer to contentment.   

Ford rarely employs close-ups, but two show Wayne at moments of great emotion: the first when the posse realizes they will never get back to the ranch in time, and the second when Edwards inspects a group of recaptured white girls. Both shots effectively so Wayne deeply immersed in the role. Age 49 at the time of filming and still a vigorous man, he fills the character with intensity and credibility, and the screen with his presence.

Ford infused the film with his usual moments of comedy, here sometimes over-the-top when involving the character of Charlie McCorry, Martin's competition as a suitor for young Laurie (Vera Miles). Intended to give the audience relief from moments of intense action, the comedy detracts from an otherwise wonderful film.

The best action sequence involves a mad dash to the river by the ranger squad with Indians hot on their trail. Once across the men dig in. Using fallen mesquite trees for scant cover they exchange gunfire with the enemy, who makes a failed charge across the water, whooping and banishing their weapons. 

Max Steiner did the score, which includes rousing songs and a lovely, memorable theme (Ethan Returns). Steiner was a 24-time Oscar nominee, though not for this.

As sure as the turning of the earth.

Chief Scar

What Makes The  Searchers  Special

Little moments transform the film from a good Western to a sublime one. Ford was never big on dialog. One of the best scenes takes place as the posse hurries to leave. Clayton gulps down a cup of coffee and eats a donut; behind his back, Martha presents Ethan his blanket, newly washed and pressed. They embrace and kiss, and by the look on Clayton's face, you can tell he suspects more than innocent affection between in-laws. This knowledge makes Edwards' later close-up that much more affecting. Some critics interpret the scene as proof that Martha and Ethan were once lovers. If so, it is conceivable that Debbie is their daughter, which makes Ethan's ensuing pursuit of the girl and desire to kill her that much more sordid.

The last shot is another terrific moment. Ethan has finally returned from his long quest. Debbie (Natalie Wood) is safe and Martin is reunited with Laurie. They enter the cabin, happy and relieved, while Ethan remains outside, framed in the doorway, still an outcast from society.  

Besides Bond, plenty of Ford's stock company of actors make an appearance: John Qualen, Harry Carey Jr., Ken Curtis, Hank Worden.    

Winton Hoch's cinematography is stunningly gorgeous. He also collaborated with Ford and Wayne on 1949's She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.     

Inside Story

The famous last shot is a tribute by Wayne to Harry Carey, whom he called the greatest Western actor. Carey started in films in the silent era and with Wayne several times, including 1941's Sheppard of the Hills, 1947's Angel and the Badman, and 1948's Red River. You recognize Carey as the President of the Senate in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. His son, Harry Carey Jr., and his wife, who plays Laurie's mother, Mrs. Jorgenson, are in The Searchers.

Wayne and John Ford were one of the most successful partnerships in the history of Hollywood. They made 14 films together. Of those, Ford won the Best Director Oscar for 1953's The Quiet Man and was nominated for 1939's Stagecoach. 

Though the film was critically acclaimed, it received no Oscar consideration. Various major newspapers called it "distinguished," "remarkable," a "Homeric odyssey," an "astonishing wealth of minute detail and honest, strikingly natural charasterizations," "a rip-shorting Western, as brashly entertaining as they come," and said Wayne was "uncommonly commanding." Maybe the Academy thought it has honored the director enough.

Perhaps the film appeared a decade too early. It could easily fit alongside The Wild Bunch as a revisionist Western of the highest order.

Major Awards:

•   Nominated for Best Director by the Director's
Guild of America

•   National Film Registry 1989