Movie Review: The Wreck Of The Mary Deare (1959)

Genre: Marine Mystery Drama

Director: Michael Anderson

Starring: Gary Cooper, Charlton Heston, Richard Harris

Running Time: 104 minutes

Synopsis: During a storm in the English Channel, salvage boat Captain John Sands (Charlton Heston) stumbles upon the drifting and seemingly abandoned cargo ship Mary Deare. He clambers onboard and is surprised to find Captain Gideon Patch (Gary Cooper) alone and still trying to maneuver the vessel. Patch refuses to share his agenda with Sands, but an inquiry involving the ship's owners and Second Officer Higgins (Richard Harris) awaits once the two men make it back to shore.

What Works Well: Gary Cooper (despite his ailing health and in his penultimate role) and Charlton Heston demonstrate commendable agility and forge a robust partnership at the adventure's heart. Joseph Ruttenberg's cinematography in stormy and underwater conditions is stellar, particularly the opening encounter between the Mary Deare and Sands' salvage boat, and the closing scuba diving sequence.

What Does Not Work As Well: The plot is constipated by Patch's refusal to reveal his motivations. By the time the drama moves to dry land, it's too late to float the tell-but-don't-show insurance fraud conspiracy. The Higgins character is a stock henchman; the real villains remain shadowy and barely defined, robbing the movie of tension. The logic holes are plentiful, including why the bad guys never ditched Patch overboard, or why they conveniently left one lifeboat behind.

Conclusion: Quite wet, but just about salvaged by star power.



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Movie Review: Friendly Persuasion (1956)

A family drama set during the Civil War, Friendly Persuasion explores Quaker culture with beauty and patience, unencumbered by an urgent plot.

In Indiana of 1862, Jess Birdwell (Gary Cooper) is the head of a pacifist Quaker family consisting of his wife Eliza (Dorothy McGuire), son Josh (Anthony Perkins), daughter Mattie (Phyllis Love) and youngest son Little Jess (Richard Eyer). They live on a farm, attend the local Quaker place of worship, and maintain friendly relations with neighbour Sam Jordan (Robert Middleton) and his son Gard (Peter Mark Richman), a Union soldier romantically pursuing Mattie during his furloughs.

Eliza is the more strict parent, while Jess tries to navigate pathways between religious beliefs and pragmatic day-to-day life. The couple gently clash over Jess's desire to buy an organ, and how much leeway to allow Mattie in her budding romance with Gard. Meanwhile the turmoil of the Civil War is getting closer, and Josh has to decide if taking up arms is ever a good thing.

An adaptation of a 1945 novel by Jessamyn West, Friendly Persuasion is a 137 minute travelogue introducing Quaker culture through a sympathetic lens. Michael Wilson (uncredited due to being blacklisted) wrote the screenplay, and William Wyler directs with an emphasis on rich colours, quaint settings, elegant rural scenery, and no intention of creating too much conflict.

Many scenes are ponderously long, and plot points are few, far-between and repetitive. A day out at the local fair seems to last for a day. Jess and Sam Jordan have an ongoing friendly rivalry about who owns the faster horse, and this eats up an inordinate amount of screen time. Jess and Josh embark on a trip to sell seeds and end-up at the farm of the widow Hudspeth (Marjorie Main) and her three unmarried daughters. They salivate over Josh in a mildly humorous but prolonged and ultimately inconsequential episode. Little Jess tangles repeatedly with the admittedly cute Samantha the Goose.

The Ellsworth Fredericks cinematography and music by Dimitri Tiomkin contribute to a languid sense of picturesque tranquillity.The low key adventures do serve to draw out the characters, Jess emerging as a mischievous renegade compared to his more buttoned-down wife Eliza. Josh and Mattie are both growing into free thinking adults willing to test the rules, their independent spirit nourished by their father. 

The final 40 minutes veer towards some actual drama: Confederate rebels close in on the area, and Josh is torn between Quaker principles of non-violence and the reality of an armed enemy almost at the door. Ultimately Jess, Eliza and Josh each confront mortal danger in their own way, with a broom taking the brunt of their war. Even in the midst of battle, Friendly Persuasion sweeps away any threats to familial serenity. 



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Movie Review: Beau Geste (1939)

An epic military adventure about brotherhood and sacrifice, Beau Geste is an absorbing and richly rewarding drama.

It's the middle of the Sahara desert, and a French Foreign Legion relief column, responding to reports of Arabian tribal attacks, arrives at Fort Zinderneuf and finds no signs of life. All the men inside the fort are dead but positioned at their parapet firing stations with rifles pointed at a departed enemy. Only two men lie dead in more natural positions, one of them killed by a sword and holding  a note confessing to the theft of "Blue Water", a precious gem.

Fifteen years earlier, the Geste brothers Beau (Gary Cooper), Digby (Robert Preston) and John (Ray Milland) are adopted orphans being raised by the kindly Lady Patricia Brandon (Heather Thatcher). The brothers are close friends and dream of joining the French Foreign Legion. Patricia is running into money problems, and her one remaining precious asset is Blue Water, a massive sapphire worth a fortune but also legendary for bringing bad luck to its owner.

The boys grow up into upstanding young men, and John falls in love with his childhood sweetheart Isobel (Susan Hayward). One evening Lady Patricia and her adopted sons are admiring Blue Water when the lights go out and the jewel disappears. No one confesses to the theft. Soon after, the three men do join the Foreign Legion and undergo training at the hands of the brutal Sergeant Markoff (Brian Donlevy). Digby is separated from his brothers before circumstances lead to a reunion at Fort Zinderneuf.

A remake of the 1926 silent film and making use of the same sets, the 1939 version of Beau Geste is a lavish adaptation of the classic P.C. Wren novel. Director William A. Wellman and his excellent cast weave the intricate story with confidence, delivering in under two hours a deeply satisfying adventure touching on themes of military honour, family bonds, companionship, and sacrifice.

The narrative arc is supremely elegant. The opening scene at an isolated fort filled with dead soldiers is unforgettable, setting a sweeping mood of anticipatory dread. It is followed by a flashback to events 15 years prior with the Geste brothers as young boys, Wellman and screenwriter Robert Carson cleverly unveiling the brothers' personalities and future legacies. Both scenes boast details that will echo back in amplified tones close to 100 minutes later, when the events at the fort are finally revealed.

A large part of the film's appeal lies in the complexity of the characters. None of the Gestes are presented as impeccable heroes, lending weight to the mystery of the missing Blue Water gem. And the ambitious and brutal General Markoff, the closest thing to the villain of the piece, gets plenty of time to demonstrate his qualities when the going gets tough. Brian Donlevy's chilling turn as Markoff, bordering on psychotic but finding an arena where psychosis may be a good thing, was deservedly nominated for an Academy Award.

The rest of the cast members share the screen time, with Gary Cooper, Ray Milland and Robert Preston getting their individual moments without dominating. In one of her earliest roles, Susan Hayward gets a relatively few scenes. The rest of the supporting cast is filled with sturdy character actors, including J. Carrol Naish, Albert Dekker, and Broderick Crawford.

Beau Geste is packed with plot, and all the pieces come together in the rousing final act. Once the action moves into the fort for the final third of the film the mystery of the missing jewel intermingles with a brewing mutiny and an external threat to the troops. At the middle of it all are brothers looking out for each other. Wellman never loses sight of the heart of his story, and proceeds to deliver one of the screen's most poignant farewells. Whether in the comfortable surroundings of home or in an unforgiving desert surrounded by death, gallant gestures matter.

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Movie Review: Bright Leaf (1950)

A potent mix of business manoeuvring and romantic entanglements, Bright Leaf is a drama filled with fierce characters seeking fortunes and confronting flaws.

It's the 1890s, and Brant Royle (Gary Cooper) returns to Kingsmont, North Carolina to establish a tobacco business. Years earlier the Royles were driven off their land by the powerful tobacco mogul Major Singleton (Donald Crisp). Now Brant wants revenge, although he still lusts after the Major's feisty daughter Margaret (Patricia Neal). She has grown up to be as conniving as her father, and as interested in causing trouble. Meanwhile, businesswoman and brothel owner Sonia Kovac (Lauren Bacall) always loved Brant and is happy to see him back in town, but he never reciprocated her affection.

With financial help from Sonia, Brant teams up with inventor John Barton (Jeff Corey) and colourful promoter Chris "Dr. Monaco" Malley (Jack Carson). Using a production machine invented by Barton and Malley's promotional savvy, they corner the market by automating cigarette manufacturing and launching a catchy marketing campaign. With Brant on the ascendancy he makes his move on Margaret and tries to buy out the Major, but both business and romance are about to get a lot more complicated.

Directed by Michael Curtiz and possibly inspired by real events, Bright Leaf is a rich broth of corporate machinations, personal greed, cold revenge and hot romance. Clocking in at 110 minutes, the film is packed with grim emotion and multiple struggles for self-definition through destroying others rather than nurturing personal growth. Curtiz maintains interest by quickly cycling through the various threads of Brants life, and efficiently moving through the passing years.

Aesthetically Curtiz creates an enjoyable environment of a bustling town built on the tobacco industry before the product was associated with any health threats, with every frame populated by activity in all corners. From the prostitutes tempting their customers to the frenzied auctioneer selling the latest tobacco leaf bundles to the tycoons fretting over their business prospects, Bright Leaf is a dynamic experience.

The film is distinguished by colouring all the main characters an interesting shade of grey, and avoiding simplistic good and bad definitions. As Brant claws his way from a penniless man driven by revenge to the top of the tobacco heap, the lines of distinction between him and the Major begin to blur. Brant is blinded by a mission to reclaim his family's heritage, destroy the Major, and conquer the Singleton estate and Margaret as two ultimate prizes. His focus blinds him to the victims he creates along the way, and they are all ready to help bring him down when his turn comes.

Margaret Singleton and Sonia Kovac stand out as women true to their intentions, but at diametrically opposite ends of the spectrum. Margaret is her father's daughter from her first introduction, a fact that makes her irresistible to Brant. She plays his need to subjugate her for all its worth. Meanwhile Sonia remains true to her genuine love for Brant, her heart persisting in the belief that someday he will awaken to what she has to offer, while her head says otherwise.

Gary Cooper is freed from his typical good-guy persona and presents a dour, single-minded man. His aggressive intensity creates a hard shell at the heart of the film. Patricia Neal is all conniving sass, and Lauren Bacall conveys the struggle between passion and pragmatism. Donald Crisp, Jeff Corey and Jack Carson add plenty of animation to the other supporting roles.

Engaging and entertaining, Bright Leaf glows with the heat of sweltering determination colliding with human failings.

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Movie Review: High Noon (1952)

A classic ticking clock Western, High Noon explores the theme of steadfastness in the face of adversity, and finds a society easily yielding to compromised appeasement.

In the town of Hadleyville, Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper) marries his sweetheart, Quaker girl Amy Fowler (Grace Kelly). Just as they are heading off on their honeymoon, news filters in that gang boss Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald) has been unexpectedly released from prison and is arriving in town on the noon train, seeking revenge. Indeed, three of Miller's hoods are already at the station, waiting for their boss. Kane interrupts his honeymoon plans and returns to Marshal duties, much to Amy's disgust.

Five years earlier, Kane cleaned up Hadleyville by arresting Miller and sending him to face justice and an expected hanging. Now Kane attempts to swear-in deputies to help him in the new looming confrontation with Miller, but finds no willing volunteers. Deputy Marshal Harvey Pell (Lloyd Bridges) quits early, and in turn Kane's best friend, his mentor, the town judge, the pastor and other usually reliable allies turn their back on him. Meanwhile a disgruntled Amy plans to leave town, along with local businesswoman Helen Ramirez (Katy Jurado), who has a history with both Miller and Kane, and an uneasy relationship with Pell.

Directed by Fred Zinnemann and written by Carl Foreman who co-produced with Stanley Kramer, High Noon is a pessimistic study of societal failings. The action unfolds in real time, a looming clock making an appearance in almost every other scene, the tension building as Kane appeals for help and is rebuffed at almost every turn. The tight 85 minutes are dedicated to uncovering the various excuses the residents of Hadleyville concoct to avoid supporting their Marshal, resulting in the irony of a man forced into individually protecting a community that does not deserve his protection.

With Foreman labelled an uncooperative witness for refusing to name names by the McCarthy witch hunt, High Noon builds on the struggles of a man insisting on doing the right thing in the face of widespread public condemnation. With the noon hour approaching, everyone wants Kane to leave town and allow the bad guys to take over, a preferable outcome compared to a messy public confrontation that can ruin the reputation of the community. He refuses, stares down evil in the bright sunshine and exposes the appeasers as unworthy of their own societal freedoms. The story also carries echoes of non-interventionist attitudes to Nazi Germany prior to World War Two, and condemns the propensity to give in and get along for the sake of avoiding harsh truths.

The film is not without its weaknesses. The bad guys carry little menace, and waste away for most of the film at the train station waiting for Miller's train. Helen's backstory and previous involvement with both Miller and Kane deserves better than the sideways hints it receives. The relationship between Kane and Amy is quick to rupture, there being apparently no reservoir of love, trust and good will to help them through their first crisis. Modern Los Angeles makes an appearance in the background of an otherwise impressive crane shot, and the film's signature song Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin' plays pretty much continuously on a maddening loop for the duration of the film.

But Zinnemann overcomes the shortcomings with a stunning visual aesthetic, making full use of Cooper's increasingly anguished face as Kane's realization of just how pathetic his own community is grows with every encounter. The town empties out as High Noon approaches its titular climax hour, and Zinnemann achieves grandeur by setting his lonely Marshal against eerily empty streets and vacant buildings, one man standing tall, both mad enough and brave enough to defend principles everyone else is more than willing to abandon.

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Movie Review: Garden Of Evil (1954)

Despite a stellar cast, stunning scenery and a potentially intriguing premise, Garden Of Evil stumbles into a narrative morass and withers into insignificance.

A steamboat carrying a group of men towards the California gold rush runs into engine trouble and is forced to dock at a small Mexican port for repairs. On board is the quiet and mysterious Hooker (Gary Cooper), professional gambler Fiske (Richard Widmark) and the excitable Luke Daly (Cameron Mitchell). At the local tavern they meet the desperate Leah Fuller (Susan Hayward), offering large sums of money for the services of men willing to help rescue her husband, trapped under rubble at a remote mine site.

Hooker, Fiske and Daly and local Mexican Vicente (Victor Manuel Mendoza) join Leah on the dangerous multi-day journey to the mine through Apache territory, including a narrow mountain pass. Once at the mine they rescue the trapped John Fuller (Hugh Marlowe), but his injuries mean the journey back will be even more hazardous.

Directed by Henry Hathaway from a Frank Fenton script, Garden Of Evil simply fails to ignite. All the ingredients are ready, but the mix is out of balance, and ultimately the film descends into endless and repetitive scenes of the group riding, camping, and on the return journey, taking turns dying as the numbers are whittled down.

Garden Of Evil is an attempt to draw rich and sometimes philosophical characters, consumed by greed, lusting after a beautiful woman, challenged by the terrain and guarding against each other while fending off hostile opponents (in this case Apache Indians). The themes are drawn from The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, but the execution is wholly unconvincing. Hooker and Fiske manage some clever exchanges of dialogue, but otherwise the characters are flat and stuck on a single note, the tension between them contrived, with Hooker easily the smartest, toughest, and coolest.

Other fundamental flaws include a difficult to believe negative dynamic between Leah and John Fuller, the latter quick to castigate his wife after she went to great lengths to save his life; and an incomprehensible decision to embark on the return journey soon after arriving at the mine site, the script seemingly ill at ease with anything except the group riding through the terrain.

Which leaves the scenery to admire, and Garden Of Evil is frequently visually stunning. Filmed in Mexico and brought to life in CinemaScope and Technicolor, Hathaway makes excellent use of spectacular mountain passes, lush vegetation, sunrises, sunsets, and silhouettes, and the camera angles innovatively emphasize both the beauty and dangers offered by the secluded locales.

Beautiful to look at but carelessly throwing away its promise, Garden Of Evil is overgrown with weeds.

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Movie Review: The Westerner (1940)

An entertaining big-budget Western, The Westerner helped to establish the genre as a serious venue for bringing to life engaging characters and exploring key themes in the West's progression.

It's the 1880s, and large numbers of settlers are arriving in Texas, putting up fences and producing crops to the chagrin of cattlemen who want the country to remain wide open for cattle grazing. In the small town of Vinegaroon, self-appointed Judge Roy Bean (Walter Brennan) runs the local watering hole which doubles as his courtroom, with his rough, ready and regular customers providing a convenient jury pool. Bean is aware of the shifting social landscape and sides with the cattlemen, refusing to accept that the West is undergoing a fundamental change. He also worships stage performer Lily Langtry, plastering her pictures all over his saloon.

California-bound drifter Cole Harden (Gary Cooper) is brought in front of Bean accused of stealing a horse. Harden is innocent, and recognizing Bean's fascination with Langtry saves himself from hanging by spinning long tales of personally having met Lily. Gradually Harden and Bean develop a thorny friendship, despite Harden lining himself up with the settler family of Jane Matthews (Doris Davenport). But when violence erupts and lives are lost in the battle between settlers and cattlemen, the two men are forced to finally confront each other, and matters are further complicated when it is announced that the one and only Lily Langtry will be arriving in Texas for a stage show.

A year after John Ford's Stagecoach revitalized the big-budget Western and proved that the genre can indeed be respectable and not just B-movie fodder produced on Poverty Row, William Wyler picked up the challenge and delivered another grand tale of the old West. Drawing inspiration from the life of the real and legendary Judge Roy Bean, The Westerner is a simple story of two resourceful men who discover that as much as they should be friends, the changing times will inevitably push them towards confrontation.

The Westerner is a story told with humour, elegance and two fine performances. The screenplay by Niven Busch and Jo Swerling keeps the mood light with plenty of wit and colourful secondary characters. The remarkable but real antics of Judge Roy Bean in self-appointing himself as the law and running a courtroom out of his saloon are genuinely funny, and the film celebrates one of the West's great eccentrics.

While Walter Brennan won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award (his third win in five years), his is the film's central performance, and Bean is its most compelling character. In his later years Brennan would become known as the cinematic goofy sidekick, good for a cheap laugh but little else. The Westerner may be his finest performance, as he gives the Judge depth, evil smarts, natural suspicion, and a potent mix of charm and deadly determination. Brennan's protective-aggressive portrayal of Bean's (apparently true) infatuation with Langtry is a particular joy.

In contrast Cooper is solid but unspectacular in a role that he only accepted reluctantly and to fulfill his contractual obligation to producer Samuel Goldwyn. Cooper recognized that Cole Harden is strictly second fiddle despite occupying the moral high ground. But The Westerner revealed the special magic that sparkles when Brennan and Cooper are together on the screen, and led to four more collaborations.

Despite the prevailing quality, the film is not without its faults. Wyler allows a few scenes to go on for longer than needed, and makes too much of Bean's obsession with obtaining a locket of Langtry's hair, which spills over into a drama between Harden and Jane.

But in addition to the two central characters, there is a plenty more going on in the film to compensate, and the tone easily switches to serious when needed. This is the story of the west evolving from wide open and generally lawless to a place where families are settling and hoping to raise children and tend the land. The era of the Roy Beans of the world is drawing to a close, and men like Harden will have more say as the new frontier evolves from rowdy to domesticated. The Westerner will endure, but only by transitioning from wild and carefree to thoughtful and considerate.

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Movie Review: Meet John Doe (1941)

Directed by Frank Capra, Meet John Doe is a feel-good story about populism, politics and pretense. The film is easy to enjoy, but lacks depth and sophistication.

Sassy newspaper columnist Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) loses her job when the struggling daily paper is sold to tycoon publisher D. B. Norton (Edward Arnold). In her final column she writes about a letter she received from "John Doe" stating his intention to commit suicide on Christmas Eve, because he can't find a job and the world has become a grim place where people don't care about each other. John Doe and his letter are entirely manufactured by Ann. The published column is taken seriously and causes a political firestorm. Ann is re-hired to write a series of John Doe columns, outlining the source of his anger and creating a manifesto for a better society.

Vagabond "Long" John Willoughby (Gary Cooper) is hired to pretend to be John Doe, with his every word scripted by Ann, who uses her deceased father's diary for inspiration. Willoughby's caustic travelling companion "The Colonel" (Walter Brennan) hangs around to witness the deception.

Willoughby plays along with Ann's every request, hoping to make enough money to fix a bum elbow and take another shot at a baseball career. The John Doe political phenomenon takes off across the country in the form of organized clubs promoting good neighbourliness and citizens looking out for each other. But Norton and his backroom backers harbour secret intentions of hijacking the John Doe movement as a springboard for a presidential election campaign, leaving Willoughby and Ann to struggle with the consequences of their actions.

Meet John Doe easily achieves the objective of satirizing simplistic political messages, celebrating each individual and the power of neighbourliness while exposing the corrupt puppet masters behind every curtain. It's a simple slice of Americana effectively presented with Capra's typical charm. The plight of the average guy is once again placed front and centre as a gateway to a broader societal lesson, with simple solutions to complex problems easily devoured by the masses, a phenomenon that reverberates around the globe and across the years.

But the film itself stays on the same elementary plane occupied by its own message, and veers towards the simplistic. Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin cannot quite find the dose of magic needed to elevate the themes and emotions towards something greater than the sum of the most basic ideas, and the film plateaus early and plays itself out with a combination of predictability and mild amusement.

Several scenes run much longer than they need to, from The Colonel's rant about "heelots" (hordes of heels in search of money) to the endless Bert Hanson story about forming the first John Doe club. The film seems unable to make a point without resorting to an overabundance of tiresome talk. It's never quite bland, but the absence of any true spark, wit, threat or sharp edge gives John Doe and his adventure a free pass towards a contrived ending that fails to resonate.

Gary Cooper is fine in a role that would have better belonged to James Stewart, but Cooper does all that he can with it. Long John Willoughby is the ultimate reluctant hero, and Cooper sheds any semblance of confidence and dives into the character's sideswiped puzzlement over sudden wealth, fame and influence. Any energy enjoyed by the film is provided by Barbara Stanwyck as Ann Mitchell. She enlivens the first half, but her character is subsequently tamed and takes a back seat as the Jon Doe phenomenon sweeps the nation and Long John' mounting dilemma becomes the centre of attention.

Not unexpectedly Ann falls in love with Long John, but only because the script demands it, and the film waves from afar at the notion of a romance without genuinely engaging in the concept. John Doe's story ends at the top of a building on Christmas Eve, the movie turns suddenly towards religion to find a quick exit, and an imperfect man again understands his value. It's all delivered with the best of intentions, and it's all just a bit twee.

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The Movies Of Gary Cooper

All movies starring Gary Cooper and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Beau Geste (1939)

The Westerner (1940)

Meet John Doe (1941)

Ball Of Fire (1941)

For Whom The Bell Tolls (1943)

Bright Leaf (1950)

High Noon (1952)

Garden Of Evil (1954)

Vera Cruz (1954)

Friendly Persuasion (1956)

Love In The Afternoon (1957)

The Wreck Of The Mary Deare (1959)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Ball Of Fire (1941)

A screwball comedy, Ball Of Fire sparkles with wit and innovation thanks to Barbara Stanwyck's unbridled sensuality, and a witty clash-of-the-classes script.

Professor Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper) is leading a group of seven other stuffy academics sequestered in a dusty mansion to write a new encyclopedia. When Potts realizes that the team is hopelessly not equipped to properly write an entry about "slang" language, he recruits a group of common people to help out. Sassy cabaret singer Katherine "Sugarpuss" O'Shea (Stanwyck) at first wants nothing to do with Potts, but quickly crashes the mansion when her mob boss boyfriend Joe Lilac (Dana Andrews) orders that she be stashed away from the police, since her testimony can incriminate him.

Sugarpuss electrifies the mansion and the team of professors, and Potts finds himself irresistibly drawn to her. With the police investigation into Lilac dragging on, the mobster's lawyer decides that he should marry Sugarpuss since a wife can't testify against her husband. But Sugarpuss herself is starting to grow fond of Potts, and she won't find it easy to give up life at the mansion to rejoin Lilac's exploits.

Ball Of Fire is fast, furious, funny, packed with farce, and yet surprisingly tender. Directed by Howard Hawks in the same vein as his previous screwball classic Bringing Up Baby, Ball Of Fire adds new depth to the familiar formula. Much of the credit goes to the clever script by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder, who surround the central opposites attract love story with layers of multiple characters, a zany energy, and refreshingly original embellishments.

The enjoyment level is amplified by successfully mushing three plots into one: an unlikely love story, a ridiculous encyclopedia research project, and a criminal dodging an investigation. Somehow, gangsters, academics and a cabaret singer end up seamlessly contributing to the same story.

At the middle of it all is Barbara Stanwyck in an Academy Award nominated performance. She creates an alluring bundle of energy as Sugarpuss O'Shea, a street smart performer who can talk herself out of any situation and manipulate any man into cross-eyed, weak-kneed submission. Sugarpuss is introduced with back-to-back interpretations of the musical number Drum Boogie, once in spectacular full orchestral mode and then on a single intimate instrument: a small match box. The brazen innovation of that scene sets the stage for the film, Hawks allowing Stanwyck to lead from the front whether she is plotting her wacky hideout survival or her unlikely love life.

With Cooper the stiff but slowly overheating love interest, the main supporting sub-plot of Ball Of Fire is at least partially a wacky reimagining of Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, as Sugarpuss invades the workplace of an elderly crew beavering away on their project, and turns it upside down. The supporting professors, diametrically opposite to their unexpected guest in every way, are played for perfect laughs by the likes of Oskar Homolka, Henry Travers and Richard Haydn. They create a madcap environment of earnest academia disintegrating into a pool of juvenile lust as Sugarpuss knocks the stuffing out of their staid workplace.

Even more animated in support are Lilac's two hoodlums Duke Pastrami (Dan Duryea) and Asthma Anderson (Ralph Peters). They are the rather dense go-betweens connecting Sugarpuss in hiding with Lilac, and Hawks gives them plenty of time to add colour and criminal charisma as the comedy hurtles towards a chaotic conclusion.

Lighting up the sky with a streak of playful fun, Ball Of Fire is a bright blast.

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Movie Review: Love In The Afternoon (1957)

A spring - winter romance, Love In The Afternoon is talkative and static, but still manages to shine thanks to a radiant Audrey Hepburn and a congenial Maurice Chevalier.

Claude Chavasse (Chevalier) is an elderly private detective in Paris, typically hired to prove infidelity. A widower, Claude lives with his daughter Ariane (Hepburn), an aspiring cellist with a inquisitive disposition who does not hesitate to rifle through her father's files. Claude's latest client is Monsieur X (John McGiver), and sure enough Claude uncovers Madame X having a liaison with rich American businessman and renowned philanderer Frank Flannagan (Gary Cooper) at Frank's Ritz Hotel room. Monsieur X claims that he wants to catch his wife in the act and shoot Frank. This horrifies the eavesdropping Ariane, and she sets about to intervene.

Monsieur X: Please, monsieur, is the news good or bad?
Claude: That depends. Is this your wife? [Hands over a photograph]
Monsieur X: It looks like her.
Claude: Then I regret to inform you that it looks bad.
Monsieur X: Then there IS another man!
Claude: There is. And I regret to say that he looks good.

Ariane does save Frank, there is an immediate attraction between them, and they start to see each other regularly at Frank's hotel room, always in the afternoon. But Frank is a high flying businessman with a lover in every city and no intention of settling down. Ariane is a romantic looking for her dream man, but to make Frank jealous, she creates the illusion of also having numerous lovers. It's a dangerous game, as Frank is well set in his womanizing ways, and Ariane's heart is deeply set on Frank.

Cooper was 56 years old at the time of release, and only four years away from his untimely death. Hepburn was literally half his age at 28. As in the quote above, the script tries to insist that Cooper is a handsome devil, but unfortunately he was not a leading man able to camouflage his age. He carried every one of those 56 years, creating a central problem for Love In The Afternoon. As much as Frank Flannagan is a successful jet-setting businessman, Ariane is simply too smart, practical and resourceful to immediately fall for a man who could well be her elderly uncle. Any chemistry between the two quickly smells foul.

Past the troublesome age difference, the film is a romance based on a lot of talking in just the two locations. Director Billy Wilder, who co-wrote the script with I.A.L. Diamond, is rarely able to break away from Flannagan's hotel room and Claude's apartment, which doubles as his office. With a running length of 130 minutes, a sense of claustrophobia is unavoidable. Since Love In The Afternoon is based on a novel (Claude Anet's Ariane, Jeune Fille Russe), and not a stage play, the inadequate variety in settings is a sign of either a lack of imagination or budget limitations, or both.

But despite the shortcomings, the movie does work better than it should. The dialogue exchanges are sharp, Wilder and Diamond, who would go on to collaborate on a total of twelve films, finding frequent zingers that comment on everything from Paris, to shady business, and the airiness of love confronting the practicality of lust without commitment.

Ariane's one strategy to gain Frank's attention is to hold up a mirror and talk his walk, pretending that she behaves as he does, arousing intense jealousy as Frank finally has to confront the emptiness of a life full of women but lacking the one woman. It's the film's central hook, and it works beautifully thanks to Hepburn's seductively intellectual approach to her quest. And Hepburn is the film's main asset, displaying her coy appeal, giving Ariane a delightful spirit of level-headed rebellion mixed with insecurity.

Frank: Everything about you is perfect.
Ariane: I'm too thin! And my ears stick out, and my teeth are crooked and my neck's much too long.
Frank: Maybe so, but I love the way it all hangs together.

Even with Hepburn in top form, Chevalier steals every scene he is in, creating in Claude Chavasse a memorable father pretending to still have some control over his daughter while knowing full well she is off on her own, enjoying new adventures inspired by his own detective work.

Ariane: Papa, you are a cynic!
Claude: I guess I am.
Ariane: You enjoy your work!
Claude: I guess I do.
Ariane: You'd enjoyed it even if you weren't paid for it!
Claude: I wouldn't go that far.

The one recurrent elaborate gag running through Love In The Afternoon is a good one: Frank has a musical foursome known as the The Gypsies at his disposal, and they follow him around on his travels providing musical accompaniment to his numerous trysts. The Gypsies provide the film with dry humour and an entertaining musical score, although Fascination is eventually overused to distraction.

Love In The Afternoon is an imperfect but still enchanting romance, celebrating love's ability to overcome and soar, any time of day.

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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: For Whom The Bell Tolls (1943)

An excruciatingly slow adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway novel, For Whom The Bell Tolls is obsessed with the romantic elements of the story and almost entirely ditches the essential Spanish Civil War political backdrop. Despite decent lead performances, at almost three hours long the film risks buckling under a crushing weight of saccharine-heavy tedium.

American Robert Jordan (Gary Cooper) is an explosives expert volunteering with the Republican side against Franco's Nationalist forces in the bloody Spanish Civil War. He accepts a dangerous assignment to blow up a strategic bridge high in the mountains. He has three days to plan the mission so that the sabotage coincides with the start of a key Republican offensive.

Robert travels to the secluded mountains near the bridge and connects with a small group of civilian Republican sympathizers and gypsies, led by Pablo (Akim Tamiroff) and Pilar (Katina Paxinou), who are to help him with the mission. Also in the group is Maria (Ingrid Bergman), who was rescued by Pablo and his men after being held captive by the Nationalists, but Pablo is now gradually losing his will to fight for any cause and is more interested in saving his skin. As Robert plans for the destruction of the bridge, he and Maria fall in love as Pilar takes effective leadership of the group, although Pablo remains an erratic and sometimes dangerous presence.

Cooper does a reasonable job as the world weary but still dedicated volunteer fighting for a cause he believes in, and in a short nod to the political background of the story, gives a short speech about the evil Nazis and fascists using the Spanish Civil war as a training theatre and proving grounds for larger conflicts to come. But otherwise, most of For Whom The Bell Tolls is a prolonged and almost interminable romance, Cooper and Bergman exchanging long, slow and earnest sweet nothings in the shadow of the looming studio-created mountains.

Bergman as Maria holds her own as a pure victim of the war amidst all the fighting men and women, director Sam Wood perpetually bathing his leading lady in pure bright light to make her luminescent skin glow while everyone else struggles against the darkness and the grime of cave survival. Akim Tamiroff and Katina Paxinou deliver earthy but uneven performances as the locals grappling with a disruptive conflict much bigger than their simple existence, their proud heritage and their survival instincts clashing in an internal battle as fierce as the war.

Tamiroff is sweaty enough but finds it difficult to make sense of Pablo's frequent attitudinal changes, his shady and questionable machinations matched by the equally incomprehensible indecisive reaction of the group to his frequent betrayals. Paxinou received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and although Pilar is a good role model for women taking charge in a man's world, most of what Paxinou does is colourfully over the top.

For Whom The Bell Tolls features a couple of action sequences which temporarily bring life to the movie. In the first Republican allies engage in a lengthy mountaintop battle against Nationalist troops, a well executed sequence that highlights cunning and sacrifice before ending in an impressive display of air force fire power. The second eruption of violence is the 30 minute climax to the film, as Robert finally puts romance aside and proceeds to the actual mission of trying to blow-up the bridge and engaging enemy troops. This one is a bit less convincing, but nevertheless improves upon the drabness of the apathetic pace that precedes it.

At the end of the battle the big bell does toll, mostly to signal final relief from a story that sometimes dings but mostly dongs for far too long.

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