Movie Review: Hondo (1953)

Genre: Western  

Director: John Farrow (and John Ford, uncredited)

Starring: John Wayne, Geraldine Page  
Running Time: 84 minutes  

Synopsis: With tensions rising in Apache territory, US Cavalry dispatcher Hondo Lane (John Wayne) stumbles upon the isolated ranch of Angie Lowe (Geraldine Page). She is living with her young son Johnny and unsure about the fate of her husband. Hondo helps her with errands in return for a horse, and an attraction grows between them before he rides off. Apache leader Vittorio grows fond of Johnny and allows Angie to stay on her land, but only if she finds a father figure for the boy. Hondo tangles with Angie's no-good husband, before returning to her ranch with war about to break out.

What Works Well: Cultural tensions reside within the character of Hondo Lane, a half-Apache raised by the tribe and now straddling the uneasy line between representing the cavalry and acknowledging the government's record of breaking treaties. Unable to trade in lies, Lane's moral code is both a point of pride and source of trouble on a frontier beset with contradictions. The small and personal story focused on the complex dynamics between Lane, Angie, and young Johnny is rich enough to probe the essentials of family within turbulence. 

What Does Not Work As Well: The Apache portrayal oscillates wildly between honourable and ridiculous, and the dark skin make-up does not help. The circle-the-wagons battle scenes (directed by an uncredited John Ford) retreat towards unfortunate simplifications, discarding opportunities uncovered by the good set-up work. The short running time (the movie is based on a Louis L'Amour short story) sacrifices all secondary character definitions, but still features an intermission to accommodate unfulfilled 3D ambitions, also apparent in some gimmicky throw-stuff-at-the-screen sequences.

Key Quote:

Hondo: A man oughta do what he thinks is best.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Trip To Bountiful (1985)

Genre: Road Trip Drama

Director: Peter Masterson

Starring: Geraldine Page, John Heard, Carlin Glynn, Rebecca De Mornay, Richard Bradford
Running Time: 108 minutes

Synopsis: In Houston of the late 1940s, the elderly Mrs. Watts (Geraldine Page) is living in a cramped two-room apartment with her son Ludie (John Heard) and daughter-in-law Jessie May (Carlin Glynn). The two women barely get along, and Mrs. Watts longs to escape the apartment and visit her tiny hometown of Bountiful one last time. With Ludie reluctant to accompany her, Mrs. Watts takes the initiative and sets off on her own, embarking on a bus ride full of memories and anticipation.

What Works Well: Horton Foote adapts his own play for the screen, and director Peter Masterson delivers a small, intimate story of nostalgia with an eye for picturesque middle-of-nowhere bus stops. An acting showcase for Geraldine Page, this warm and lyrical road trip contrasts sweet memories of home as a refuge from present hard compromises and discomforts. Rebecca De Mornay (as a fellow traveler) and Richard Bradford (as a helpful Sheriff) make small appearances.

What Does Not Work As Well: The theatrical origins are obvious, the narrative is singularly lacking in surprises, and the pacing succumbs to repetitive reminiscing about the good old days. John Heard's Ludie gets one late moment to shine, but it arrives out of nowhere. 

Conclusion: A sweet but largely inconsequential ode to the past.



All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

The Movies Of Geraldine Page

All movies starring Geraldine Page and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Hondo (1953)

Sweet Bird Of Youth (1962)

The Beguiled (1971)

The Day Of The Locust (1975)

White Nights (1985)

The Trip To Bountiful (1985)

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

Movie Review: White Nights (1985)

A dance drama, White Nights sets up an appealing Cold War premise but is more clunky than smooth in delivering basic plot points.

Celebrated ballet dancer Nikolai 'Kolya' Rodchenko (Mikhail Baryshnikov) defected to the west from the Soviet Union eight years ago. Now while on a flight to Tokyo with his publicist Anne Wyatt (Geraldine Page), an electrical fault forces the plane into an emergency landing at a Siberian military air base. Soviet Colonel Chaiko (Jerzy Skolimowski) seizes Kolya as a criminal and places him in the company of Raymond Greenwood (Gregory Hines), a tap dancer who defected from the United States to the USSR and then married his interpreter Darya (Isabella Rossellini).

Chaiko's plan is to repatriate Kolya and get him to perform again at the Kirov ballet in Leningrad as a Soviet propaganda victory. To this end Kolya's previous lover and dance partner Galina Ivanova (Helen Mirren) is deployed to convince him to recommit to his homeland. But Kolya will not give up on freedom, and builds a strong bond with Raymond and Darya to try and plot an escape.

Directed by Taylor Hackford, White Nights earns points for an imaginative story, tapping into the Cold War's cultural front as well as Baryshnikov's own real-life story (he defected in 1974). And the quest to integrate ballet into a dramatic narrative works much better here than in Herbert Ross' hopelessly melodramatic The Turning Point.

The title refers to the constant daylight during the summer months in Russia's northern reaches, and the first half of the film, set in the harsh Siberian landscape, is a surreal waking nightmare for Kolya. From the crash landing back in the country from which he escaped, to tangling with Chaiko and then finally meeting Raymond, a black American confined to a vaudeville stage in Siberia, Hackford adroitly creates a world standing on its head for the sophisticated New York-based dance superstar.

The juxtaposition of Raymond and Kolya is at the the heart of the film. Other than providing an opportunity for ballet and tap dancing to share the centre stage spotlight, Raymond offers an alternative view of the American Dream as seen by a black man who outgrew the cute tap dancing kid label and was forced into military service in a war he did not believe in. Raymond's disillusionment festered into a full grown abandonment of his homeland, although his espousal of communist beliefs is never portrayed as anything other than shallow.

Most of the film's other details don't work too well. The sputtering memory of a relationship between Kolya and Galina is stranded in a repetitive loop, and the thriller elements that creep into the final act are unnecessary and quite unconvincing. The performances are constrained by Baryshnikov and Hines, dancers mostly masquerading as actors. And in her first American film, Isabella Rossellini struggles in a bland role.

White Nights maintains sufficient forward momentum to make it across the Cold War demarcation line, but much like a night full of light, not all the elements fit quite right.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Beguiled (1971)

A psychological drama, The Beguiled delves into the jungle of sexual politics and emerges with deliciously ripened fruit. One of Clint Eastwood's least Eastwood-like roles adds to the intrigue.

In the middle of a Civil War battle, Union soldier John "McBee" McBurney (Eastwood) is severely wounded and separated from his company behind Confederate lines. He is found by 12 year old Amy, who takes him to an all-girls school run by Martha Farnsworth (Geraldine Page). In addition to Amy, five other adolescent girls attend the school, including the romantic and responsible Edwina (Elizabeth Hartman) and the desirous Carol (Jo Ann Harris). The slave Hallie (Mae Mercer) is a loyal servant.

Martha is initially adamant that McBee will be turned over to a Confederate patrol as soon as his wounds are tended to. With a limited amount of time to avoid a prisoner's fate, McBee immediately sets about endearing himself to the girls, attempting to stoke a romance with Edwina, acquiescing to Carol's aggressive advances, attempting to convince Hallie that they are on the same side of the war, and working on the stern but lonely Martha to convince her that she needs a handy man to help run the school -- and maybe more. Even Amy continues to harbour a crush on the man she found in the woods. With four girls and one slave all beginning to see value in McBee, jealousies erupt and tensions rise to superheated levels.

Set entirely in and around the school, The Beguiled is a sharply executed war within a war. McBee may have thought that he survived the brutalities of a Civil War battlefield, but he promptly ignites another, more incendiary conflict within the school walls. One virile man dropped into the company of eight women proves to be a combustible mix, and McBee will need to deal with the explosions that result from his lighting various real and imagined pent-up passions.

In the role of John McBurney, Eastwood is either on his back recuperating or hobbling around on crutches. His mere presence, rather than any gun, represents the threat, allowing Eastwood to actually act. Soft spoken, calculating, and relying on a combination of pity and persuasion, he dominates the movie with a macho magnetism that knocks the ladies' world off its axis.

Geraldine Page's Miss Martha proves to be the most resilient of the women that McBee needs to conquer psychologically, and Page brings to the role her authoritative aura, a woman leading and protecting other women through a war. Of course she has an ignoble past and present needs, and once McBee finds these weaknesses, he relentlessly bores in.

Elizabeth Hartman and Jo Ann Harris are excellent as polar opposite personalities, Hartman's Edwina too quickly to fall in love more out of romantic hope than practical conviction, while Harris smolders as Carol seeks nothing other than a satisfying sexual conquest. The Beguiled tackles repressed sexuality, incest, and rape, and then pushes against more boundaries in a disconcerting fantasy sequence. 

Director and frequent Eastwood collaborator Don Siegel adapts the Thomas P. Cullinan novel with a view to exploring the evil women are capable of. McBee is ultimately the catalyst, and he barely commits a physically violent act within the school. But his presence and immoral behaviour in spreading lies, false affection, and empty promises are more than enough to trigger bedlam in a previously staid environment. Several women scorned at once are capable of a hell like no other.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Sweet Bird Of Youth (1962)

One of Tennessee Williams' less absorbing plays is adapted into a relatively staid film that never quite takes off. The story of a desperate gigolo meeting his past and plotting his future, Sweet Bird Of Youth is filled with distasteful characters who deserve each other and little else.

Handsome Chance Wayne (Paul Newman) returns to his home town of St. Cloud, Florida with aging movie star Alexandra Del Lago (Geraldine Page) in tow. St. Cloud is run by the grizzled and corrupt Tom Finley (Ed Begley), and his almost saintly daughter Heavenly (Shirley Knight) used to be Chance's girlfriend. Chance and Alexandra scandalize the town by taking a room together at the local hotel, but everyone is immediately advising Chance to quickly hustle out of town: his dark past with Heavenly means that Finley does not want him around.

Alexandra believes her career to be over and is dealing with drug and alcohol addictions. She does not quite know what she is doing with Chance or how she ended up in St. Cloud. Chance has never succeeded at anything in life, and he generates income by prostituting himself to wealthy women. He nevertheless still has aspirations to use Alexandra to finally get his big break in Hollywood and win back Heavenly's heart, although she is now engaged to a doctor. Meanwhile, Finley is embroiled in a political battle and has to fend off allegations of corruption, and he just wants to see Chance gone, either voluntarily or by force if necessary.

None of the main characters in Sweet Bird Of Youth have enough redeeming features to evoke anything resembling sympathy. Chance is at the centre of events and on his way to discovering that the sweet benefits of youth are fleeting, but proves himself to be a miserable, self-centred soul, and this after the Richard Brooks script toned down his less attractive features from the original play. Alexandra confirms the worst suspicions about Hollywood has-been divas, as she spirals into the squalor of multiple addictions and yet still believes herself entitled to royal treatment. And Tom Finley gathers up all the corruption and menace of southern politicians ruling through a combination of sleaze and intimidation.

No compelling arcs are provided to prod development of the main characters. Chance needs to uncover the reason why he is suddenly deep in Finley's bad book, a charged revelation but not enough to open new avenues to explore. Through the fog of substance abuse Alexandra receives news about the box office results of her latest movie, an outcome that only amplifies her theatricality. And Finley is the local law of the land starting on the evil side and slithering further into the darkness. Paul Newman, Geraldine Page and Ed Begley are effective in bringing these unsavoury people to life, but are then left stranded. 

Heavenly, with that none too subtle name, is meant to be the one source of light and pure goodness in Sweet Bird Of Youth. Although Shirley Knight does her best, the role is paper thin and the character unconvincing. For all her goodness Heavenly is inexplicably willing to overlook and forgive a large accumulation of momentously sordid faults.

Richard Brooks also directed Newman in the adaptation of Williams' more flammable Cat On a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and at least does succeed in breaking Sweet Bird Of Youth out of its stage confines. The film makes good use of several locations, although a large amount of time is spent in the hotel room.

Conniving and morally bankrupt characters plotting against each other are always enticing to a degree. They are, however, always more compelling when they seek or at least accidentally stumble onto a path out of their moral morass. Sweet Bird Of Youth just flaps past that opportunity.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.