Movie Review: Appointment In Honduras (1953)

Genre: Jungle Adventure  

Director: Jacques Tourneur  

Starring: Glenn Ford, Ann Sheridan, Zachary Scott, Jack Elam, Stuart Whitman  

Running Time: 77 minutes  

Synopsis: American adventurer Jim Corbett (Glenn Ford) is on a mission to deliver a large sum of money to the rebel forces of deposed Honduran president Prieto. Needing to traverse the jungle to arrive at a rendevouz point, Corbett recruits four convicts led by Reyes (Rodolfo Acosta), and takes hostage bickering wealthy couple Harry and Sylvia Sheppard (Zachary Scott and Ann Sheridan). For Corbett's mission to succeed, the group has to survive wild animals, army patrols, and many double-cross attempts.

What Works Well: The colour cinematography conveys the milieu's sweatiness, and at a duration of 77 minutes, the adventure does not linger.

What Does Not Work As Well: This is a laboriously fake trudge through the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, with awkward-to-bad special effects, plastic and uniformly unlikeable characters, a disinterested cast delivering stiff acting, rudimentary dialogue, and clumsily executed action scenes. At least the zoologists in the audience can debate which of the jungle creatures are actually native to Central America.

Conclusion: Painfully paddles in place.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: They Made Me A Criminal (1939)

A drama about a boxer forced to abandon his life then discovering a new way to live and love, They Made Me A Criminal is a hard-boiled and uneven split-decision.

In New York, boxer Johnnie Bradfield (John Garfield) wins the championship title. Publicly he pretends to be a clean-living model of good behaviour, but privately he is a cynical womanizer and heavy drinker. At a private party, his manager gets involved in a scuffle and kills a reporter then flees with Johnnie's girlfriend Goldie (Ann Sheridan), pinning the blame on Johnnie.

The boxer is forced to disappear and drifts across the country, finally arriving at the Arizona palm tree and dates ranch run by Peggy (Gloria Dickson) and her grandmother (May Robson). Peggy also houses a group of ex-New York juvenile delinquents (the Dead End Kids). Johnnie befriends the boys, getting them in and out of trouble, while trying to spark a romance with Peggy. Meanwhile, detective Phelan (Claude Rains) is determined to catch up with the fugitive boxer.

Only six years after 1933's The Life Of Jimmy Dolan, Warner Bros. dusts off the same script and produce a remake, this time as a showcase for John Garfield and the Dead End Kids. The story carries inherent power and Garfield is effective and more than sufficiently caustic in the leading role. But despite many scene-for-scene recreations, this version stumbles upon weaknesses exposed by suspect choices.

Song and dance extravaganza maestro Busby Berkeley somehow ends up in the director's chair for a mostly grim drama. A few high-angle shots are impressive, but otherwise Berkeley demonstrates no interest in artistically enhancing the intensity of Johnnie's predicament. Gloria Dickson as the main love interest is an unfortunate non-entity in a de-emphasized role. More damaging is the casting of a clearly disinterested and therefore over-indulgent Claude Rains as Phelan, his role whittled down to a handful of scenes and losing much of its impact.

But perhaps the fluffiest deficiency resides in the remake's raison d'etre. Once the Dead End Kids enter the movie at the start of the second half, Johnnie is relegated to the sidelines of the boys' antics and escapades. The fledgling romance with Peggy is shoved far to the background and becomes a clumsy afterthought dealt with in boorish strokes. For fans of the Kids this is all well and good, but otherwise They Made Me A Criminal deflates for a substantial stretch until the climax picks back up.

Despite still delivering a decent punch, They Made Me A Criminal is also on the receiving end of some solid self-inflicted blows.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Edge Of Darkness (1943)

A World War Two drama, Edge Of Darkness is a stirring tale of resistance in a small Norwegian village.

In the occupied Norwegian fishing community of Trollness, all the residents and all the stationed German troops are found dead. The events of the prior week are revealed in flashback. 

The German commander Koenig (Helmut Dantine) maintains order through intimidation, and his soldiers keep close tabs on the restless villagers, including resistance sympathizers Gunnar Brogge (Errol Flynn), a fisher, and his lover Karen Stensgard (Ann Sheridan). But not all the residents are hostile. Cannery owner Kaspar Torgersen (Charles Dingle) is a German collaborator. Karen's father Martin (Walter Huston) is the village's only doctor and stays neutral, while his wife Anna (Ruth Gordon) is borderline delusional. The innkeeper Gerd Bjarnesen (Judith Anderson) lost her husband to the war and is fending off a German soldier's unwanted romantic advances. 

Gunnar and Karen learn the Allies will drop off a weapons cache from the sea. The villagers are only able to communicate at secret meetings, and have to decide whether to unite, organize and take up arms against the occupiers while guarding against the threat of informers.

An adaptation of the book by William Woods, Edge Of Darkness is an engrossing multi-character drama. The Robert Rossen screenplay patiently explores the tensions simmering among residents chafing under the Nazi occupation, and director Lewis Milestone keeps the story moving, using most of the two hours to delve into the challenge of uniting a group towards a common purpose as the fuse is lit for a raucous climax.

From the opening sequence showing dead bodies strewn all across the village, Edge Of Darkness sets itself apart as a grim and uncompromising view of war. Despite propaganda objectives to rally anti-Nazi support when the war's outcome was very much in doubt, the story rises above shallow pedagogy by avoiding crass emotions and histrionics. Instead Milestone gets down to the pragmatic business of occupiers and the occupied engaged in a deadly game of mental and physical manoeuvring for intimidation and control.

The underlying theme is strength in unity, and despite the presence of stars Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan, they have relatively limited roles. Gunnar and Karen are just two of the many villagers making up a community with diverse viewpoints on how to deal with a well-armed occupying force. And while businessman and factory owner Torgersen is easy to dislike as an all-in collaborator, the grey middle zone of uncertainty is most compelling. 

Doctor Stensgard, his mentally suffering wife Anna, and the church pastor are among prominent citizens unsure whether carrying guns and charging at the Germans is the wisest course of action, while elderly and retired school teacher Andersen (Morris Carnovsky) seeks an independent method of resistance.

In addition to debates between here-and-now action and pick-the-right moment strategy, an undercover agent adds intrigue, while the weaponization of sex features in the story of Polish captive Katja (Nancy Coleman) and a harrowing rape incident. The narrative depth extends to commander Koenig's own ambitions and disillusionment with his superiors.

When the time comes for the bullets to fly, Milestone and cinematographer Sid Hickox deploy gliding camera work to capture a village turning into a battlefield. Filled with human-centred intrigue, Edge Of Darkness is a sharp moment of reckoning.



All Ace Black Movie Blog Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Dodge City (1939)

A sprawling western, Dodge City features Errol Flynn's first foray into the genre with a character-rich plot and many well-executed highlights. 

After the Civil War, the arrival of the railroad transforms Dodge City, Kansas, into a bustling but crime-ridden cattle trading hub. Adventurer Wade Hatton (Errol Flynn) leads a cattle drive towards the city, and in subduing the dangerously drunk Lee Irving (William Lundigan), upsets his sister Abbie (Olivia de Havilland). Upon arriving at Dodge, Wade finds the town being run by corrupt businessman Jeff Surrett (Bruce Cabot) and his henchmen, including the killer Yancy (Victor Jory).

The town leaders including Abbie's uncle Dr. Irving (Henry Travers) appeal to Wade to accept the role of Sheriff and instill law and order. He reluctantly accepts, and along with his sidekicks Rusty (Alan Hale) and Tex (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) starts cleaning up the town while working on thawing his relationship with Abbie. Wade finds support from local newspaper editor Joe Clemens (Frank McHugh), but Surrett will not quietly accept the challenge to his authority.

Most of the elements expected in a western ride into Dodge City, including the cattle drive, a reluctant lawman, the battle between good and evil for the soul of a town, tension between settlers seeking a peaceful living and cowboys intent on shooting up the place, showgirls and gambling tables, and finally a quite epic barroom brawl. Director Michael Curtiz and writer Robert Buckner throw in a streak of mean humour and a framing story featuring rail tycoons pushing the iron horse ever westward to open up more territory for trade and settlement.

Curtiz makes excellent use of bright Technicolor, and the chaos of Dodge City looks gorgeous, the mayhem, characters and sets popping off the screen. The stunt work is also stellar, including a jump onto runaway horses dragging a victim through the street, that anarchic brawl (an extension of the Civil War), and a climax featuring a train on fire. Backprojection is also cleverly deployed in a couple of dramatic action scenes, including a race between a train and a mail wagon.

The narrative is enlivened but also sometimes distracted by the wealth of characters. The opening act has trouble finding traction, as Curtiz bounces around to introduce the town founders, Wade and his colleagues, the Irving family, and Surrett, his cronies and victims, including the Cole family. The investment does eventually pay off, but as with the streets of Dodge City, an uneasy sense of too much going on threatens cohesion.

Errol Flynn combines a smooth persona with a stiff transition to the western milieu, an Australian playing an Irish character in the American west landing just a bit awkwardly. Bruce Cabot makes for a fine smarmy villain. Olivia de Havilland, in her fifth teaming with Flynn, is lively but underutilized, with Alan Hale hogging too much screen time for a sidekick role. Elsewhere the cast is deep in talent and familiar faces, including Ann Sheridan delivering a couple of kicky numbers as a saloon showgirl.

Buoyant and more than a bit disorganized, Dodge City captures the town's frontier spirit.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

The Movies Of Ann Sheridan

All movies starring Ann Sheridan and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Kiss And Make-Up (1934, uncredited)

They Made Me A Criminal (1939)

Dodge City (1939)

It All Came True (1940)

Torrid Zone (1940)

They Drive By Night (1940)

Edge Of Darkness (1943)

Appointment In Honduras (1953)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: It All Came True (1940)

A crime comedy musical drama, It All Came True is a weird mixture of gangsters, entertainers and dotty seniors, but gels enough to maintain interest.

Hardened mobster Chips Maguire (Humphrey Bogart) and his naive piano player Tommy Taylor (Jeffrey Lynn) are forced to flee Chips' nightclub in a hurry to avoid arrest when the police stage a raid. During the escape, Chips shoots and kills an informer using a gun he had previously registered in Tommy's name. The two men take refuge at the financially struggling boarding house run by Tommy's mother Nora (Jessie Busley) and her lifelong friend Maggie Ryan (Una O'Connor). Nora is thrilled to welcome back her son, who still believes Chips will help him become a famous musician.

The boarding house guests include the paranoid Miss Flint (ZaSu Pitts), washed-up magician The Great Boldini (Felix Bressart) and his scene-stealing dog, Mr. Salmon (Grant Mitchell), and Mr. Van Diver (Brandon Tynan).

Chips pretends to be a businessman named Grasselli and confines himself to his room, while Tommy reconnects with his childhood sweetheart Sarah Jane (Ann Sheridan), Maggie's daughter and now a feisty singer. Chips starts to go stir crazy, and eventually decides to convert the boarding house into a new nightclub venture with Tommy and Sarah Jane as the main attraction.

Made the year before Bogart's breakout roles in High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon, It All Came True is a curiosity. A slow and meandering start and a weak ending dominated by vaudevillian performances bookend the film. But the middle third surprisingly corrals the right amounts of wit, gentle romance, light gangsterism and sweet musical numbers into a decent enough package.

The main theme of a hardened criminal gradually softening in the presence of mother-like care is predictable enough, but Bogart plays along and subjects himself to plenty of self-deprecating humour. His fish-out-of-water presence in a room filled with stuffed animals towers over the film, although Ann Sheridan comes close to matching him in a spirited performance of her own as an entertainer who stands her ground but cannot hold a job. Compared to Bogart and Sheridan, Jeffrey Lynn is unfortunately bland.

The weaker parts of the movie have director Lewis Seiler surrendering arduous stretches to the boarding house guests gibbering away about not much or performing versions of poetry readings and magic shows decades past their best-by date. The film's title is a reference to the imaginative tall tales spun by Mrs. Taylor, and many scenes have a static theatrical feel as the residents natter. Happily, the little bits of interaction with law enforcement and Chip's gangland colleagues push back with doses of energy.

As the nutty fluctuations in tone, subject matter and quality develop a charm of their own, It All Came True is neither good nor bad, just quirky.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: Torrid Zone (1940)

An enjoyable if lightweight adventure in an exotic land with romance, drama, humour and droll characters, Torrid Zone delivers ripe fruit.

Steve Case (Pat O'Brien) is the highly strung manager of an international fruit export company based in a literal banana republic. Case controls chief of police Juan Rodriguez (Frank Puglia), and orders him to deport newly arrived lounge singer Lee Donley (Ann Sheridan) because she is too hot for the locals. Case and Rodriguez also have problems with revolutionary leader Rosario (George Tobias), who is at least temporarily behind bars, while Plantation 7 is under-performing ever since Case's best man Nick Butler (James Cagney) quit after having an affair with Case's wife. The new man Anderson (Jerome Cowan) and his wife Gloria (Helen Vinson) are overwhelmed and unable to cope with Rosario's hit and run raids.

Case cajoles Butler back to work with the promise of a big bonus, Lee avoids deportation by easily duping Rodriguez and sidling up to Butler, and Rosario escapes the execution squad and gets back to the mountains to lead his men. Butler tries to whip Plantation 7 back into productivity while figuring out a way to find Rosario's mountain hideout and subdue the revolution. But the real battle is on the plantation, where Lee and Gloria are hissing at each other, in a claws-out battle to claim the queen banana crown.

That Torrid Zone does not bother to name the country where all events are taking place is a good clue to the film's attitude. The opening globe hints at a location somewhere near the equator, and that's all that needs to be revealed. This is a jungle romp played very much tongue in cheek, and although broad comedy is not the intent, the film aims for and mostly achieves an amiable vibe where the actors are having fun trading barbs, the outcome is predetermined, happy and not very important.

Lee (to Case): Mister, the stork that brought you must have been a vulture.

Director William Keighley, never accused of trying to infuse quality where none is needed, hustles the action along to can the movie in 88 minutes. He also forgets to provide any guidance to the likes of Pat O'Brien, who shouts his way through the film with the deftness of a gorilla, and Andy Devine (as a Case loyalist and Cagney's sidekick at Plantation 7), who deploys his high pitched squeaky voice to distraction. Cagney just plays himself and easily gets away with it, while Ann Sheridan emerges as the star of the film.

Lee (cutting off Butler's shirt so she can dress his wound): Oh, did I hurt you?
Butler (sarcastically): Oh, no. How could you hurt me by sticking a scissors in my arm?

While the character of Lee Donley has no business being in this unkempt environment or anywhere near men like Nick Butler, Steve Case or Rosario, the script plonks her there to stir the pot, and stir she does. Sheridan glides through the movie with the silkiness of Bacall on her most dangerous days, and gets all the best lines. Her verbal duel with Gloria Anderson is filled with gems, as two cats go at it in the jungle heat.

Lee (picking up a cigarette dropped by Gloria): I believe this is how the Chicago fire got started.
Gloria: The Chicago fire was started by a cow.
Lee: History repeats itself.

The rest of the film stumbles along, large quantities of fruit moving on impressive trains, punctuated by Rosario cheating death on several occasions to continue leading his people's revolution. His guerrilla army seems to mainly consist of a small band of smelly nitwits more interested in banter than fighting, but it's all besides the point. Torrid Zone is a place where nothing is serious, and all the real action happens in the form of zingers paving the way for Nick and Lee to fall into each other's arms.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: They Drive By Night (1940)

A rough and tumble story about independent truckers that morphs into a film noir, They Drive By Night is always engaging but suffers from some lack of cohesion.

Brothers Joe and Paul Fabrini (George Raft and Humphrey Bogart) operate an independent long-haul truck on the west coast, scrapping for jobs, driving for dangerously long hours, and always running the risk of being jipped out of their pay by unscrupulous shippers. Paul is married to Pearl (Gale Page), but their domestic bliss is threatened by his frequent long absences. Joe meets sassy waitress Cassie (Ann Sheridan) and they start a friendship that turns into romance.

Just when it seems that the brothers are getting ahead and paying off their debts, a disaster on the highway interferes with their progress, forcing Joe to park his ambition and accept a more secure management job with the trucking company of jovial tycoon Ed J. Carlsen (Alan Hale). But Carlsen's wife Lana (Ida Lupino) is bored with her marriage and has her lecherous eyes on Joe. When Lana realizes that Joe is serious about Cassie, an evil murder plan is conceived.

They Drive By Night is two almost distinct stories wrapped into one film. The first part is a relatively unique look at the world of truckers living a life on the road, pushing to find and make the next delivery, and stopping only to drink enough coffee to keep themselves awake. It's a greasy, dark, and desperate occupation, as men like Joe and Paul chase the next paycheque, and dream of owning their own truck and expanding the business beyond the limits of their drooping eyelids, all while staying barely one step ahead of the bill collectors.

The second half of the film shift gears and heads purposefully towards frantic but less kinetic film noir territory, quickly piling on unrequited lust, jealousy, murder, a conniving femme fatale losing touch with reality and finally a courtroom showdown. It's an abbreviated crime drama, captivating enough by itself, but not sufficiently connected to the truckers' life established in the first 45 minutes. Director Raoul Walsh ensures that the quality never flags and delivers both sides of the film with verve, but there is a definite sense of truncated business, the script (by Jerry Wald and Richard Macaulay) perhaps running out of ideas to properly feed the initial on-the-road story of Joe and Paul.

With Raft at his peak and Bogart rapidly climbing towards the top, They Drive By Night enjoys two tough men in fine form. Raft takes the lead and is sympathetic as a well-meaning and ambitious man striving to better his lot. Bogart supports with a more conflicted personality, Paul torn between loyalty to his brother and trying to appease his worried wife.

The leading ladies put on a strong showing as well, Ida Lupino dominating the second half of the film with her turn as the bored and jealous Lana, a role that starts flirty, passes through steely determination and then slides towards destructive irrationality. Ann Sheridan is more prominent in the opening half, her Cassie tough enough to fend off hordes of leering truck drivers but sweet enough to melt into a relationship with Joe once she gets to know him.

They Drive By Night finds two different roads to navigate, and despite the rather abrupt transition, the drive is enjoyable on both.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.