Movie Review: The Adventurers (1970)

Genre: Epic Drama  
Director: Lewis Gilbert  

Starring: Bekim Fehmiu, Ernest Borgnine, Candice Bergen, Fernando Rey, Alan Badel, Olivia de Havilland, Rossano Brazzi, Leigh Taylor-Young, Charles Aznavour  
Running Time: 177 minutes  

Synopsis: It's 1945 in (fictional) Corteguay, South America. With a violent revolution underway, ten-year-old Dax witnesses rape and slaughter. His nobleman father Jaime Xenos (Fernando Rey) is loyal to revolutionary leader Rojo (Alan Badel), who seizes power but quickly turns to corruption. Jaime is appointed ambassador to Italy, where Dax (Bekim Fehmiu) grows up as a driven young man. With Corteguay again in the grips of revolution, Jaime and Dax return to the country but are manipulated and victimized. Dax retreats to Europe with nothing and starts life over again as a gigolo, intent on achieving wealth to settle scores.

What Works Well: Packed full of incident, characters, and action, this epic and engrossing adaptation of the Harold Robbins novel (inspired by the life of Dominican diplomat and playboy Porfirio Rubirosa) leaves almost nothing out from the book. The scope and scale resemble a David Lean project, but without the polish. Director Lewis Gilbert excels in grand scenes of combat and ceremonial set-pieces featuring armies of extras, and does not flinch from the intense violence and sexual exploits that underpin Dax's emotional detachment. The powerful context nails the futility of caring about a troubled country in a constant state of upheaval, idealism devoured by corruption while the populace endures persistent misery.

What Does Not Work As Well: The editing can be messy, and while the script contains the occasional sparkle, the acting lacks subtlety and most of the the dialogue is obvious. At almost three hours in length, the middle act does drag.

Key Quote: 

President Rojo: A man must use what weapons he has to defend his country, Dax.

Dax: Treachery?

President Rojo: Treachery is a weapon.

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Movie Review: Convoy (1978)

Genre: Anti-Authoritarian Action Comedy  

Director: Sam Peckinpah  

Starring: Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Ernest Borgnine, Burt Young  

Running Time: 111 minutes  

Synopsis: On the open highways of Arizona, trucker Martin "Rubber Duck" Penwald (Kris Kristofferson) tangles with photographer Melissa (Ali MacGraw) in her speedy convertible. At a truck stop she sells the car and becomes his passenger. When corrupt Sheriff Lyle Wallace (Ernest Borgnine) shakes down Rubber Duck and his trucker friends "Pig Pen" (Burt Young) and "Spider" Mike (Franklyn Ajaye), a brawl ensues. The truckers flee and motor into New Mexico, where they are joined by many other disgruntled truck drivers. The convoy becomes a public spectacle and political headache.

What Works Well: Freedom expressed as enjoyment of the open road is both nostalgic and poetic, and the kinetic visual imagery of massive trucks roaring down the highway under gorgeous skies is impressive. Cinematographer Harry Stradling Jr. also excels in capturing countless stunts involving crashing police cars and overturning trucks. The movie was inspired by the fun 1975 C.W. McCall song of the same name.

What Does Not Work As Well: There is no plot to speak of, and no meaningful characters beyond cartoon cut-outs (Ernest Borgnine suffering most from peak buffoonery). The script generally consists of CB radio chatter, and the movie invests in exactly one scene to spell out - straight to the camera - a cacophony of grievances (high gas prices, low speed limits, corrupt law enforcement, the Vietnam War, Nixon, Rockfeller). The final act steps into the ridiculous, bringing in heavy weaponry and big explosions for the sake of spectacle.

Key Quote:

Melissa (referring to the huge convoy of trucks behind Rubber Duck): But they're all following you.

Rubber Duck: No, they ain't. I'm just in front of them.

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Movie Review: Ice Station Zebra (1968)

Genre: Cold War Espionage Thriller

Directors: John Sturges

Starring: Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown

Running Time: 149 minutes

Synopsis: After a spy satellite carrying a coveted capsule falls back to Earth, the US Navy's submarine Commander James Ferraday (Rock Hudson) is dispatched to Ice Station Zebra in the Arctic. On board the sub is British spy Jones (Patrick McGoohan) on a secret mission, joined by Russian double-agent Vaslov (Ernest Borgnine) and US Marines Captain Anders (Jim Brown). The dangerous journey below the ice includes an attempted sabotage, but the extent of Ferraday's challenge only becomes apparent when the group arrives at their frigid destination.

What Works Well: The under-the-ice cinematography is excellent, and the best moments celebrate Cold War hardware: submarine, satellites, and planes. The sabotage sequence carries decent tension.

What Does Not Work As Well: The adaptation of Alistair MacLean's novel is overlong and remarkably dull. Essential plot drivers are kept hidden for the best part of two hours, and when finally revealed, none of the details pass even the most cursory logic inspection. The characters are cardboard cutouts with no background or personality, and the final climax is a ridiculous showdown on an unconvincing set.

Conclusion: A sloppy combination of senseless plotting and slack execution.

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Movie Review: Violent Saturday (1955)

Genre: Small Town Crime Drama

Director: Richard Fleisher

Starring: Victor Mature, Richard Egan, Stephen McNally, Ernest Borgnine,Virginia Leith

Running Time: 90 minutes

Synopsis: Suave bank robber Harper (Stephen McNally) arrives in the small Arizona desert town of Bradenville with two associates, the brutal Dill (Lee Marvin) and bookish Chapman (J. Carrol Naish). They case the town in preparation for robbing the bank. Notable residents include copper mine manager Shelley (Victor Mature) and his young family, alcoholic mine owner Fairchild (Richard Egan) and his straying wife (Margaret Hayes), nerdy bank manager Reeves (Tommy Noonan), new-in-town nurse Linda (Virginia Leith), an indebted and desperate librarian (Sylvia Sidney), and Amish farmer Stadt (Ernest Borgnine). On the day of the robbery, a seemingly simple job turns violent.

What Works Well: A surprisingly effective combination of life-in-a-small-town with deadly serious caper thrills. Writer Sydney Boehm adapts William L. Heath's book and makes every scene count, packing a remarkable amount of content into 90 minutes. Director Richard Fleisher maintains admirable control, alternating the town's rhythms with heist planning dynamics. Fleischer also leverages the CinemaScope format and a colourful palette by ensuring something interesting - and relevant - is always occupying the background. The third act elegantly ties together the plot threads, and the violence builds to a well-executed exclamation point.

What Does Not Work As Well: Some of the domestic scenes flirt with corny territory.

Conclusion: The quiet-behind-the-storm achieves genre-fusing success.



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Movie Review: Marty (1955)

A genial romance, Marty is a small-scale search-for-love story with a big heart.  

In the Bronx, Marty Piletti (Ernest Borgnine) works at a butcher shop. A batchelor at 34 years old with a stocky build and not blessed with good looks, Marty still lives with his mother (Esther Minciotti). He is good-natured and popular among his pals, including best friend Angie (Joe Mantell), but as the only one of six siblings not yet wedded, Marty is constantly pressured to find a girl and get married.

Reluctantly spending a Saturday night at the local dance hall where singles go to mix, Marty meets 29 year old school teacher Clara (Betsy Blair). She believes herself plain looking, but after spending the evening dancing and talking, both Marty and Clara start to believe they can still find love.

Produced by Burt Lancaster and Harold Hecht, written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Delbert Mann, Marty is one of Hollywood's earliest flirtations with low-budget, well-produced, small-scale arthouse projects focusing on a human-scaled story without the distraction of star power. The film draws its strength from street level neighbourhood locations, bona fide characters, and an intimate quest for companionship over one weekend.

With Ernest Borgnine finding the role of a lifetime, Marty is an unforgettable character. Helpful, sensitive, family oriented and self-aware, he is everyone's ideal next-door neighbour. But a somewhat portly butcher is not a natural magnet for the ladies, and for all the pressure directed his way to get married, Marty is starting to believe he will remain a batchelor. His surprise at finding Clara translates into a long night where he cannot stop talking, propelled by the exciting potential of a different future.

Chayefsky animates Marty's family and neighbourhood with people and places emitting genuine familiarity. A major sub-plot features Marty's cousin Tommy (Jerry Paris) and his wife Virginia (Karen Steele) as new parents suffocating under the same roof as Tommy's mother Aunt Catherine (Augusta Ciolli). The difficult process of convincing Catherine to relocate and live with her sister Mrs. Piletti is a trigger for serious conversations about mothers' dedication to their families and the painful process of separating from grown children.

Outside the house, Marty's social life is also portrayed with realism drawn from the suburban setting, where guys get together and waste away the night indifferently debating their mundane options to waste away the night.

Marty has to reconcile his feelings towards Clara with all the incoming signals from his mother (Clara is not Italian) and his friends (Clara is not a beauty). The butcher has to separate the gristle from the meat, and measure his optimal cut.



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Movie Review: The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

An epic disaster-at-sea story, The Poseidon Adventure helped to ignite the 1970s catastrophe movie cycle and is one of the best examples of the genre.

It's New Year's Eve, and the ocean liner S.S. Poseidon is on a journey from New York to Athens. The passengers include fiery Reverend Frank Scott (Gene Hackman), who has a frayed relationship with the Church and encourages individuals to strongly believe in themselves first. Just after midnight an underwater earthquake in the Mediterranean unleashes a massive wave, and despite the best efforts of Captain Harrison (Leslie Nielsen), the Poseidon is struck and turned upside down, still barely afloat. The surviving passengers in the grand dining room are split on whether to stay put and wait for help, or make their way upwards nearer the surface.

Scott argues strongly that a perilous climb up towards the hull is the only path to salvation, but he convinces only a small group of passengers to follow his lead. His followers include ex-cop Mike Rogo (Ernest Borgnine) and his ex-prostitute wife Linda (Stella Stevens), teenager Susan (Pamela Sue Martin) and her bratty but knowledgeable younger brother Robin (Eric Shea), band singer Nonnie (Carol Lynley), elderly single man James Martin (Red Buttons), older married Jewish couple Manny and Belle Rosen (Jack Albertson and Shelley Winters), and crew member Acres (Roddy McDowall). They start their ascent and are barely able to stay ahead of the rising waters, while frequent explosions rock their perilous surroundings. Scott and Rogo repeatedly clash, and not all the group members will make it to the hull and the chance at a rescue.

Directed by Ronald Neame, The Poseidon Adventure was producer Irwin Allen's first big-screen success. An adaptation of the Paul Gallico book, the film closely adheres to the now familiar formula of a small group of survivors navigating their way out of a disaster zone, with many candidates lined up to win sympathy and then summarily die. The Poseidon Adventure expertly delivers the requisite mix of thrills and human drama, and invests plenty of time in rounding out its characters into relatively interesting people with distinct personalities. Reverend Scott's small flock is a surprisingly memorable group, and they add immeasurably to the film's enjoyment.

The special effects and sets are excellent for the era. Using models, camera tricks and specialty sets, Neame and his production team create a disaster zone for the ages, tipping over a massive ship, creating numerous sets filled with fires, destruction and dead bodies, plus some surreal environments just for good measure: a mammoth blue Christmas tree becomes an essential climbing structure; an upside barbershop and an upside men's bathroom add nothing to the story but are unforgettable touches. Elsewhere, the film offers up a maze of inverted hallways, shafts, staircases, catwalks and submerged rooms for the survivors to try and navigate.

The script is co-written by Stirling Silliphant and Wendell Mayes, and provides plenty of bonus fun in the form of obvious religious parallelisms with the Pilgrim's Progress. Scott is a troubled but passionate reverend, and he works hard to convince a group of strangers, a combination of saints and sinners, to become his followers before leading them up to the light. Scott even gets to drag that Christmas tree over his shoulder in a symbolic nod to the cross. On the way to the top Scott's congregation stumbles across another larger group in an almost catatonic state, following a man of science (the ship's doctor) in the wrong direction.

The cast get into the spirit and deliver wide-eyed and loud performances, suitably amplified to compete with the surreal surroundings. Ernest Borgnine goes furthest to the extremes of boorishness as ex-cop Rogo, and he gets competition from Shelley Winters as the overweight ex-swimmer trudging along with the group, waiting for her moment of divinity to float to the surface. Gene Hackman is the only bona fide current star in the group, and he keeps a straight face and intense tone as a man who finds his mission in the bowels of an upside ocean liner.

The Poseidon Adventure is irresistible Hollywood entertainment: plenty of has-beens, overturned, on fire, in the water, but always looking up.

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Movie Review: Escape From New York (1981)

An action thriller set in a depressed near-future, Escape From New York carries A-movie ambitions with a B-movie ethos. The story of a lone hero attempting to rescue the President from the wasteland of a Manhattan turned into a prison is delivered on a bare-bones budget but with plenty of flair.

It's 1997, and after a crime rate explosion, all of Manhattan Island is turned into a maximum security prison, protected by a 50 foot perimeter wall and mines. Convicts are deposited into Manhattan and never allowed out, with security controlled from a police headquarters on Liberty Island under the leadership of Bob Hauk (Lee Van Cleef). Air Force One with the President (Donald Pleasence) on board is hijacked by anti-government revolutionaries and intentionally crashed into Manhattan, but the President survives by sheltering in an evacuation pod. He is captured and held hostage by unknown prisoners.

Hauk recruits newly convicted Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), an ex-Special Forces war hero who has turned to a life of crime, to mount a one-man rescue mission and retrieve a crucial cassette recording carried by the President within 24 hours. Snake lands a glider on top of the World Trade Center, and soon has to fend off crazy killers marauding the streets. He encounters Cabbie (Ernest Borgnine), Brain (Harry Dean Stanton) and his girlfriend Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau), leading him to the self-proclaimed Duke (Isaac Hayes), who commands the largest gang of criminals and is likely holding the President.

Fresh off his unexpected success with Halloween, director John Carpenter was provided enough clout to helm an impressive group of stars in an ambitious story requiring relatively elaborate sets. The clever premise is brought to life through the imaginative use of early simulated computer effects, Carpenter stretching his budget as far as it would go to bring to life a bleak vision of the future. The film clocks in at under 100 minutes and is ultimately a straightforward and fairly routine chase-and-rescue film, but also brimming with panache and attitude.

Thematically, Escape From New York logically extrapolates from all the downbeat 1970s crime-drenched New York-based dramas. Death Wish had the city in the grips of an out-of-control crime wave, while The Warriors saw the gangs effectively taking full control of the streets. Carpenter carries the trend to its conclusion, and now Manhattan is turned into a prison, abandoned to the low lifes who chased away civilization.

While the idea is rich, the execution is constrained by the budget. Once Snake makes it into the city, the action sequences are restricted to basic arm-waving clashes with zombie-like randoms, and then its quickly onto encounters with Cabbie, Brain, and then a standard confrontation with Duke's entourage. A no-rules two-man brawl in the boxing ring with Snake forced to take on the local brute with bats-as-weapons smacks of irrelevant padding. Overall, the city-as-a-prison environment appears limited to a few blocks, a couple of sets, a few overturned cars, and a rather limited population density.

Carpenter does a fine job with nighttime filming, and plays with backlighting, shadows and silhouettes to good effect. But by far the best thing about Escape From New York is the character of Snake Plissken. Kurt Russell oozes pissed-off cool, his long hair and eye patch creating a seminal image. At every turn he is confronted with an "I heard you were dead" greeting, which does not appear to surprise him. Dismissively swatting off attackers with either fists or assorted weapons, he is only strained by the impossible time limit imposed on his mission by Hauk.

The secondary cast brings together a clutch of respected veterans comfortable in schlocky surroundings. Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Harry Dean Stanton, and Donald Pleasence add plenty of esteemed heft, and spout their lines with conviction but without enjoying much character evolution.

Escape From New York is a joyride through the urban jungle of a dismal future. The overarching idea may be more interesting than the details, but the taxi trip is lively all the same.

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Movie Review: Hannie Caulder (1971)

A British-made revenge Western with a mashing of Spaghetti sub-genre elements, Hannie Caulder attempts to capitalize on Raquel Welch's comely assets but is betrayed by an uneven tone and underdeveloped ideas.

Frontier woman Hannie Caulder (Welch) is violently raped and her husband is killed by the Clemens gang of three brothers (Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam and Strother Martin). Hannie vows revenge, and teams up with bounty hunter Thomas Luther Price (Robert Culp). Together they travel to Mexico and visit legendary gun-maker Bailey (Christopher Lee), who forges a gun for Hannie. Price then teaches her the finer points of killing men in a shootout. Hannie and Price catch up with the Clemens brothers in a nearby town, but Hannie will find killing her tormentors more difficult than she imagined.

The project was conceived as a star vehicle for Ms. Welch, and co-funded by her Curtwel production company. Directed by Western veteran Burt Kennedy and filmed in Spain, Hannie Caulder boasts a decent cast and a traditional if tired premise. But the film collapses from neglect, due mainly to what appears to be a hurriedly written script by Kennedy under the pseudonym Z.X. Jones.

The tone is fundamentally unbalanced, leaving the film spinning between coarse humour, grim revenge, and attempts at gory violence. The Clemens gang resemble the Three Stooges on a bad day, the ruffians trading insults that are meant to be funny. The bad humour sits uneasily next to the rape and murder that they nonchalantly dole out, and the large gobs of bright red blood that sprays out of every victim of a gun shot.

Even worse, some key events and characters drift in and out of the film with no explanation. A small army of Mexican bandits attacks Bailey's beachfront house, triggering a mass shootout with dozens of casualties. Who these bandits are and what they wanted is never even tangentially explained. And there is a dark, mysterious gunman who makes a couple of critical interventions during Hannie's journey, including the small matter of saving her life. His identity and motivation are left up to the imagination.

Welch does as best as can be expected. Her extremely limited range is kept under the wraps of a character who does not need to say much. Towards the end of the film she starts trading snappy one-liners, and does so with a dull trace of conviction. Meanwhile, her figure is coyly hinted at through some clever fashion choices, including a poncho with not much underneath for much of the film.

The surprisingly strong supporting cast rides along for the pay cheque. Borgnine, Elam and Martin are noisy, dirty, and annoying. Lee is unsure what he is doing in the film; Hannie Caulder must be the only Western movie where characters cross borders and wait for weeks to obtain a pistol. Only Robert Culp as bounty hunter Thomas Luther Price is able to add any weight to the proceedings. On the plus side, the cinematography is decent.

Hannie Caulder is a third-rate Western for what was then a third-rate actress with first-rate looks.

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The Movies Of Ernest Borgnine

All movies starring Ernest Borgnine and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

From Here To Eternity (1953)

Johnny Guitar (1954)

Vera Cruz (1954)

Bad Day At Black Rock (1955)

Marty (1955)

Violent Saturday (1955)

The Flight Of The Phoenix (1965)

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

Ice Station Zebra (1968)

The Wild Bunch (1969)

The Adventurers (1970)

Hannie Caulder (1971)

The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

Convoy (1978)

Escape From New York (1981)

RED (2010)

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Movie Review: Vera Cruz (1954)

A slightly muddled but satisfyingly earthy western, Vera Cruz deploys undeniable star power to maintain thrust in a story of greedy mercenaries getting entangled in the Franco-Mexican War.

It's the end of the Civil War, and defeated confederate soldier Ben Trane (Gary Cooper) travels south to Mexico, looking to sell his services as a mercenary in any convenient new war. He meets Joe Erin (Burt Lancaster), the ruthless and charismatic leader of a gang of thugs including Donnegan (Ernest Borgnine) and Pittsburgh (Charles Bronson). Ben and Joe mistrust each other but agree to join forces, as a populist but under-powered rebellion led by General Ramirez (Morris Ankrum) is brewing against the occupying French rulers.

After Ben saves the life of local girl Nina (Sara Montiel), Ben and Joe turn their backs on the peasant rebels, selling their services instead to the Marquis Henri de Labordere (Cesar Romero) who recruits them on behalf of Emperor Maximillian (George Macready). Maximillian entrusts the Marquis, Ben, and Joe with the task of escorting Countess Marie Duvarre (Denise Darcel) through rebel territory to the City of Vera Cruz. But the Countess is just a distraction for the real purpose of the trip: hidden in her wagon are $3 million in gold coins needed for troop payments. As they each try to secure the biggest slice of treasure for themselves, Ben, Joe, the Marquis and the Countess engage in a fierce game of shifting allegiances and treachery.

Vera Cruz over complicates itself in the final third. With the four main characters, plus rebel girl Nina, all conspiring against each other to gain the largest share of the gold, who is pretending to agree to what with whom starts to blur. While the focus on plot is welcome, the script by Roland Kibbee and James R. Webb reaches too ambitiously for a complexity that the genre cannot handle well.

But director Robert Aldrich is otherwise able to maintain a good mix of action and character development with balanced pacing, steering the film towards a grand finale, a storm-the-fort climax bolstered by tens of explosions, hundreds of extras, thousands of bullets, and a lot of death to the wicked.

Vera Cruz benefits from a healthy and sustained tension between the characters of Ben and Joe. The two men are alike and different, both capable of killing, both hungry for money, and both primarily looking after their self-interest. But there is more sorrow beating in Ben's heart, a broken man who lost everything in the Civil War, now looking for something new to believe in. Joe has long since stopped looking, simplifying life to a strict pursuit of riches at the expense of others. The film never defaults to a buddy movie, the two men continuously keeping a critical eye on each other, looking for every opportunity to gain the advantage.

Cooper gives Ben the requisite world-weariness, his eyes and resigned demeanour conveying the disappointment of a life thrown off course by the ravages of war. Lancaster's Joe is an over-abundance of cocky toothiness, Lancaster channelling the exuberant physicality of screen rival Kirk Douglas, rather than his typical more laid-back persona. Cesar Romero, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson (billed as Charles Buchinsky) and western stalwart Jack Elam provide depth in support. When the story gets ensnared in its own cleverness, the tough guys of the west ride to the rescue.

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Movie Review: From Here To Eternity (1953)

The lives and loves of soldiers stationed at Pear Harbour in the months leading up to the Japanese attack, From Here To Eternity is a rather turgid examination of sordid behaviour, rescued by memorable characters and copious emotions.

With World War Two rumbling in the headlines, Captain Dana Holmes (Philip Ober) is nominally in charge of Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. Holmes is an ineffective leader much more interested in recruiting members to his unit's boxing team rather than ensuring good morale and readiness. He is also a rampant womaniser, altogether neglecting his wife Karen (Deborah Kerr). Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster) is Holmes' second in command, and in the leadership vacuum does his best to keep the affairs of the barracks in order. Finally disgusted with Holmes, Warden starts a dangerously illicit affair with Karen.

Meanwhile, Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift), a single-minded and determined bugler, transfers into the unit and is immediately pressured by Holmes to join the boxing team. Prewitt refuses, having once badly hurt a man in a bout. With Holmes' tacit approval Prewitt becomes a target for daily wretched treatment. One of the few men to befriend Prewitt is Private Angelo Maggio (Frank Sinatra), a scrappy and resourceful Italian-American who runs afoul of the burly James "Fatso" Judson (Ernest Borgnine), a boorish Sergeant of the Guard at the stockade.

Prewitt takes his undeserved punishment without complaint and manages to start a steamy relationship with Lorene Burke (Donna Reed), a "hostess" at the local entertainment club. With discipline disintegrating among the men as personal vendettas and affairs of the heart dominate their lives, the Japanese attack arrives as a monumental surprise.

Based on the James Jones novel inspired by his actual experiences, From Here To Eternity is a prototype of the hormone-drenched television soaps that would take over the world of entertainment in another few years. Viewed in the most crass terms, the film is about rather dim-witted characters behaving badly, soldiers of every rank with little to do except find useless trouble with women, trouble with the bottle, and trouble with each other.

But in spite of itself, From Here To Eternity registers an impact thanks to three sharply drawn characters. Sergeant Warden, Private Prewitt and Private Maggio are likable because they are real, flawed, stubborn, and frustratingly unable to avoid life's pitfalls. These men would not be peace time soldiers if they were really good at anything else, and the film mercifully avoids turning them into unrealistic principled heroes.

Instead, Warden succumbs to his lust and embarks on an affair that has "career-ending move" written all over it, Prewitt ignores the clear wishes of Holmes and subjects himself to a life of humiliation, adding to his agony by getting entangled with Lorene (a prostitute in the novel converted to a hostess to satisfy the movie sensibilities of the day), and Maggio has the courage to take on Fatso but not the brains to realize that the outcome is unlikely to be in his favour. All three are dim, yes, but also refreshingly authentic, unsophisticated men proving why they ended up in the army.

Using sparkling black and white, director Fred Zinnemann conjures up some high-impact scenes, most famous being Warden and Karen cavorting on the beach with the foamy surf washing away any sense of guilt. More emotionally intense are Warden and Prewitt having a drunken conversation in the middle of a dirt road, both of their lives reduced to pathetic lamentations, and Prewitt tearfully playing taps to honour a fallen colleague.

Montgomery Clift does emerge with the most fervent performance, creating in Private Prewitt an intractable man who does not mind being externally kicked around as long as he is comfortable with his internal code of conduct. Clift conveys a dark brew of seething anger kept in check by remarkable conviction. Frank Sinatra is also excellent in a role he lobbied heavily for, Maggio dominating every scene he is in with an attitude of battling good humour, intent on making the best out of life's limited opportunities. In contrast with both Clift and Sinatra, the sturdy Lancaster plays the sturdy Lancaster, exactly what is expected of him.

Deborah Kerr steps way outside of her zone of comfort to play a woman leaving a trail of broken toyboy soldiers in her wake, while Donna Reed as the warmer, more intimate Lorene is also memorable as the unexpected soul mate for the brooding Prewitt.

From Here To Eternity dominated the Academy Awards, receiving 13 nominations and winning 8, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and both Supporting Actor awards for Sinatra and Reed. Warden, Prewitt and Maggio may not represent exemplary behaviour, but sometimes glory can be found in celebrating the foibles of normal men.

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Movie Review: Bad Day At Black Rock (1955)

A tense thriller set after World War Two but otherwise containing all the elements of a Western, Bad Day At Black Rock is a small movie with a long reach. An excellent cast extends to the minor roles, and the ethos of a mysterious stranger arriving unannounced in a small town harbouring a dark secret would continue to resonate for decades in the hands of the likes of Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood.

John Macreedy (Spencer Tracy) arrives by train to the small town of Black Rock in the middle of the desert. A one-armed World War Two veteran dressed in a black suit and black hat, Macreedy immediately makes himself unpopular with the suspicious locals by asking for directions to the home of a local man named Komoko. Hotel clerk Pete (John Ericson) is unwelcoming, while roughnecks Coley (Ernest Borgnine) and Hector (Lee Marvin) try to intimidate Macreedy and run him out of town.

Undeterred, Macreedy seeks out the local Sheriff Tim Horn (Dean Jagger), but finds him to be useless. Meanwhile the town veterinarian Doc Velie (Walter Brennan) and Pete's sister Liz (Anne Francis) are slightly friendlier but still less than forthcoming. The unofficial town leader Reno Smith (Robert Ryan) pretends to befriend Macreedy while still urging him to leave, but gradually Macreedy uncovers Smith's central role in the dirty secret involving the missing Komoko.

Black Rock is a clutch of ramshackle buildings that time has forgot, and where the train stops reluctantly and only upon request. Director John Sturges therefore has a well-defined closed system to operate in, with Macreedy the single outside factor agitating the fragile alliance built by the locals to protect their secret. It's a simple but effective structure deployed in later examples by Leone in A Fistful Of Dollars (1964) and Eastwood in High Plains Drifter (1973).

CinemaScope may seem like an odd choice for a small film about a dirty town secret, but Sturges uses it to his advantage. The wide camera angles emphasize just how small and isolated Black Rock is, a town where horrible things can happen to good people and the rest of the world will be none the wiser.

Sturges maintains a taut compactness throughout Bad Day At Black Rock, with no wasted scenes to prolong the 81 minutes of running length. Characters are introduced quickly through the eyes of Macreedy, with quick interactions sharply defining each local's position in the town's hierarchy, from the spineless (the Sheriff) to the smoothly intimidating (Smith).

Spencer Tracy creates an unforgettable character in John Macreedy. Unflappable in black under the scorching sun and not allowing his handicap to slow down his martial arts skills, Macreedy personifies coolness and always appears to be several steps ahead of the locals conspiring against him. Robert Ryan makes for a smooth villain, his smile concealing a cold master of puppets working hard to keep the town in line. Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin enjoy the roles of tough guys given the freedom to unleash brutality on the new guy.

Although easy to guess, the secret at the centre of Bad Day At Black Rock pokes away at the scar tissue surrounding the mistreatment of Americans of Japanese descent during the War, giving the movie a modern social message to go along with its Western stylistic elements. Tracy, in his mid-fifties, may be difficult to imagine as a just-returned active war duty veteran, but a town struggling with a dark past needs a mythical warrior for justice more than an ordinary man, and John Macreedy readily delivers the bitter but required medicine.

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Movie Review: RED (2010)

A lighthearted romp with old spies reliving former glories, RED is entertaining, funny, loud, and almost instantly forgettable.

Retired CIA special operative Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is living in Cleveland and lonely to the point of destroying his pension cheques just so that he can nurture a long distance romance with Kansas-based call centre employee Sarah Ross (Mary-Louise Parker). Suddenly Moses finds himself the target of a ruthless professional hit squad. He eliminates the danger and swings back into action, trying to piece together why someone wants him dead.

Moses takes refuge with Ross and reconnects with several fellow retired CIA colleagues: mentor Joe Matheson (Morgan Freeman), wacked-out conspiracy theorist Marvin Boggs (John Malkovich) and understated sharpshooter Victoria (Helen Mirren). With the help of the ancient CIA records keeper (Ernest Borgnine) and a former Russian foe (Brian Cox), they uncover an elaborate political plot to silence a reporter and all loose ends related to a botched 1980s secret mission in Guatemala involving the CIA and many dead civilians. Moses and his friends have to stay one step ahead of ambitious current CIA agent William Cooper (Karl Urban), while figuring out the shady role of their former colleague Alexander Dunning (Richard Dreyfuss).

With a recognizable star face in every role, RED (which stands for Retired, Extremely Dangerous) just wants to have fun. The action is exaggerated, the coolness amplified, the explosions extremely frequent and noisy, and the humour sharp and delivered dry. Director Robert Schwentke keeps the action hurtling fast enough to almost conceal the large absurdities in the plot. An adaptation of a limited comic book series, RED is not a film to question the logic of a large hit squad marching through a sleepy Cleveland suburb with machine guns blazing to further the supposedly top secret cause of a sitting politician.

Bruce Willis holds the action together with his weathered, seen-it-all-before grimace, poking fun at his overall screen persona as much as the character. Mary-Louise Parker is in the movie solely to provide a non-combatants perspective to the joyous mayhem, and she sparkles with a charming freshness, television's gain (The West Wing, Weeds) proving to be a significant loss for the world of film. While it is a remarkable pleasure to see Borgnine on the screen at the grand age of 93, the rest of the cast does not rise much above barely concealed comic stereotypes, with a gawky romance between the characters of Mirren and Cox only helping to trip up the frantic action.

RED has plenty of style, limited substance, and an abundance of attitude. It adds up to an easy couple of hours, with no aftertaste.

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