Movie Review: The Long Night (1947)

Genre: Crime Drama  

Director: Anatole Litvak  

Starring: Henry Fonda, Barbara Del Geddes, Vincent Price, Ann Dvorak, Elisha Cook, Jr.  

Running Time: 101 minutes  

Synopsis: A man is shot dead on the top landing of an apartment building. The suspect Joe Adams (Henry Fonda) barricades himself inside his apartment, resisting police attempts to flush him out as a crowd gathers on the street. Flashbacks reveal that factory worker Joe met and fell in love with greenhouse employee Jo Ann (Barbara Bel Geddes), but was crushed to discover that she is already in another complex relationship with smarmy magician Maximilian (Vincent Price). Joe seeks emotional refuge with the brassy Charlene (Ann Dvorak), but cannot shake his feelings towards Jo Ann.

What Works Well: A remake of Marcel Carné's Le Jour Se Lève (1939), this is a story about the descent from optimism to cynicism. A well-meaning and initially cheerful steel mill factory worker, Joe represents every man victimized by layers of lies and overlooked by women of similar class seeking upward mobility with slimy exploitive sophisticates. And when confronted by authority, Joe does not even expect due process. His tiny apartment is riddled with police bullets before he is even charged, and Joe's detached reaction confirms his lack of surprise. Henry Fonda brings thoughtful rage into the showdown with bleakness. 

 

What Does Not Work As Well: While Barbara Bel Geddes is fine in her screen debut, the script saddles Jo Ann with inconsistent emotions, including a frantic and shouty climactic outburst that misses the mark. Maximilian's character is cartoonish rather than real, his goading unbecoming of a celebrity who already has the girl. Finally, the light piercing the darkness is supposed to be solidarity with Joe from the crowd gathered in the street, but this element is weak due to underinvestment in neighbourhood characters.

Key Quote:

Maximilian (to Joe): You know, I always find it rather amusing, these conceptions you simple men have concerning women. But the lovely creatures, they're so much more complicated, thank heaven.

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Movie Review: The Secret Of Convict Lake (1951)

A Western with a difference, The Secret Of Convict Lake is a tight and tense drama set in an isolated community during an unforgiving winter storm.

It's 1871, and six convicts escape from Carson City and make their way on foot across a mountain range in a snow storm. The chasing posse has to turn back due to the harrowing conditions, and the escapees are presumed dead. One of them does perish, but the remaining five, including the level-headed Jim Canfield (Glenn Ford), conniving Johnny Greer (Zachary Scott) and the young but ailing Clyde (Richard Hylton) make it over the peak and down to the tiny community of Monte Diablo Lake.

There they find only women, including Marcia (Gene Tierney), her future sister-in-law Rachel (Ann Dvorak), the young and innocent Barbara (Barbara Bates), and the bedridden but strong willed Granny (Ethel Barrymore). The men of the community, including Marcia's fiance Rudy (Harry Carter), are away on a long-term prospecting trip.

Initially the women have the weapons and the upper hand, and the five men are confined to a lodge. Johnny is convinced that Jim has hidden $40,000 in stolen money, but gradually other truths emerge: Jim does indeed have links to the Monte Diablo community, involving a revenge motive due to false murder testimony. Tensions and emotions rise as Jim and Marcia are strangely attracted to each other, Johnny pursues the frosty Rachel to gain an edge, and Clyde emerges as potentially the most dangerous of them all at Barbara's expense.

Loosely inspired by real events, directed by Michael Gordon and co-written by an uncredited Ben Hecht, The Secret of Convict Lake is an unfortunately forgotten gem. Packing an astounding amount of plot, conspiracy and character dynamics into its 83 minutes, this is an enjoyably intricate and thoughtful Western exploring original territory.

Gordon plays with the power dynamics between men and women as well as the struggle for domination between the men themselves, as the story reveals its layered secrets on its own terms. Despite some clunky action scene staging and editing, the resolution is exceptionally clever, and the denouement pushes the boundaries of the cinematic era.

This is a Western with an abundance of narrative arcs, and the ever shifting character motivations and evolutions dramatically enhance the film. Jim, Marcia and Rachel all undergo transformations as the storm-enforced confinement unfolds, while Johnny and Clyde reveal a lot more about themselves than first meets the eye. Once the inevitable gun smoke clears, an entire community has been changed forever, and indeed Monte Diablo Lake gains a new name.

The Secret Of Convict Lake carries seeds of stories later extrapolated in better known films. The theme of sexual tension between prisoners and women standing on guard appears in the classic The Beguiled, while a group of men and women starting out on a hostile footing in an isolated setting but developing unexpected relationships was exploited for fun in Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. The Secret Of Convict Lake adds a surprisingly intriguing personal double-cross and revenge story, conflict between future sisters-in-law, and lonely women unable to resist the temptation of treacherous men.

Glenn Ford plays to his strengths as an almost honest man caught up in crooked events, Jim Canfield victimized to the point of not caring about the consequences of his grim course of action. Gene Tierney emerges as the most resilient of the local women, initially unaware of her role in the dangerous showdown looming at her doorstep but gradually distinguishing between the shades of grey.

Underrated and mostly forgotten, The Secret Of Convict Lake is well worth rediscovering.

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Movie Review: Scarface (1932)

Produced by business magnate Howard Hughes with a money-is-no-object attitude and directed by Howard Hawks, Scarface is an early milestone in the history of cinema as a whole, and specifically the gangster movie.

Ambitious criminal Tony Camonte (Paul Muni) teams up with mobster boss Johnny Lovo (Osgood Perkins) and they eliminate rival gangster Louis Castillo (Harry J. Vejar), taking control of the illegal alcohol distribution business on the South Side (the City is unnamed, but presumed to be Chicago). Tony's ambition is unlimited, and he lusts after the luxuries of life as well as Poppy (Karen Morley), unperturbed that she is Lovo's girlfriend. He also sets his sights on taking control of the North Side business, controlled by the powerful O'Hara, despite Lovo's protestations.

Tony's weakness is his insanely protective attitude towards his sister Cesca (Ann Dvorak). While Tony allows himself total liberty to commit all crimes, he does not want Cesca to even be seen with a man. With the help of smooth assassin Guino Rinaldo (George Raft), Tony eventually makes his move for total dominance of the City and eliminates O'Hara, sparking a brutal round of reprisal killings and shootings. Gaffney (Boris Karloff) emerges as Tony's main adversary, and as the body count rises and the police move in, Tony faces his destiny from the top of the criminal world.

Dancing on the edge of celebrating the criminal lifestyle and wildly violent with numerous murders, drive-by shootings and even a depiction of the St Valentine's Day Massacre, Scarface opens with a perfunctory warning that crimes are dominating society and the government should do something about it. But the rest of the film presents a glamorous view of the riches up for grabs in the gangster world, and draws the easy message that living well and dying young is an attractive choice. Tony drools over his ability to wear each tailored dress shirt for just one day, and celebrates the arrival of the hand-held machine-gun as a game changer in his ability to dominate the streets.

This appeal to the dark side was all good for business of course, and Hughes had the resources and independence to battle the fragmented censorship regimes of the day to place his vision squarely in front of eager audiences. The success and notoriety of Scarface was one of the prompts that brought in stricter national enforcement of the Hays Code by 1934.

Hawks' directing is taut, and the film's visuals pack a punch with plenty of car chases and drive-by shooting action scenes. The Ben Hecht script (adapting the Armitage Trail book) includes ample character development scenes that round out Tony's rapid rise and inevitable fall. Paul Muni brings a manic magnetism to Tony, his eyes conveying a greed that will only be satisfied with the rapid pace of criminally accumulated riches, and a lust after Poppy that will only be quenshed when his mentor Lovo is crushed. George Raft makes a strong impression as the suave Guino, perpetually flipping a coin as he coldly goes about the business of killing.

Scarface may be muddled about its patched social responsibility in the face of the joyfully rampant excess on display, but there is no doubt the high entertainment quotient combined with ambitious production values influenced the early evolution of the movies.

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