Movie Review: Night And The City (1950)

Genre: Noir Drama

Director: Jules Dassin

Starring: Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Googie Withers, Francis L. Sullivan, Herbert Lom, Hugh Marlowe

Running Time: 101 minutes

Synopsis: In London, Harry Fabian (Richard Widmark) is a small-time hustler determined to make it big. To finance his far-fetched schemes he constantly demands money from his increasingly exasperated girlfriend Mary (Gene Tierney), who works at the nightclub owned by businessman Phil Nosseross (Francis L. Sullivan) and his wife Helen (Googie Withers). After meeting retired Greco-Roman wrestling legend Gregorius, Harry believes he can become an influential wrestling promoter. For different reasons, Nosseross, Helen, and Gregorius' son Kristo (Herbert Lom), himself a financier of entertainment wrestling, are all interested in Harry's venture.

What Works Well: The adaptation of Gerald Kersh's book is a grim, plot-rich, and relentless journey through London's underworld. As Harry Fabian, Richard Widmark's combustible mix of desperation, self-belief, and smarminess scorches the screen, as his obsessive search for a shortcut to riches obsures ever-increasing risks. Director Jules Dassin adds a deep set of well-rounded characters pursuing conflicting agendas, and peppers the drama with London riffraff: a forger, a beggar merchant, and a riverfront smuggler all influence Harry's destiny. Strained relationships underpin motivations, including the unhappy Nosseross marriage, Gregorius' disappointment in his son Kristo, and Mary believing in Harry even as he tests her limits. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Other than Mary and her non-entity neighbour Adam (Hugh Marlowe), none of the characters are deserving of much sympathy.

Conclusion: Big plans for rich rewards come with hefty hazards.



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Movie Review: Assignment To Kill (1968)

Genre: Crime Investigation Thriller

Director: Sheldon Reynolds

Starring: Patrick O'Neal, Joan Hackett, John Gielgud, Herbert Lom

Running Time: 102 minutes

Synopsis: Private detective Richard Cutting (Patrick O'Neal) is hired by an insurance company to investigate a fraud case involving shipping tycoon Curt Valayan (John Gielgud). Cutting travels to Zurich in search of Walter Green (Peter van Eyck), who may hold crucial information about the case, and quickly tangles with Valayan's ruthless fixer Matt Wilson (Herbert Lom) and his murderous henchmen. Cutting also starts a relationship with Dominique Laurant (Joan Hackett), who may help him find Green.

What Works Well: The European cobblestones-and-trenchcoats aesthetics are a soothing throwback, and Joan Hackett's feisty presence - somewhere between naïveté and curious connivance - adds welcome animation. Patrick O'Neal is smooth-enough as the lethally cool Bond-wannabe type.

What Does Not Work As Well: A void occupies the space where the plot usually resides, director and writer Sheldon Reynolds all but abandoning the insurance fraud conspiracy and instead allowing good guy Cutting and bad guy Wilson to circle each other for 100 minutes. The action scenes are clunky, and the ending - a random assortment of layered lies - is an embarrassment.

Conclusion: The assignment is botched.

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Movie Review: North West Frontier (1959)

A rollicking adventure, North West Frontier (also known as Flame Over India) combines breathless chases with character depth and political discourse.

It's 1905 on the North West Frontier of British India, and a Muslim uprising is threatening peace in the region. British Army Captain Charles Willoughby Scott (Kenneth More) rescues six-year-old Prince Krashan, a great symbol to the area's Hindus, just before his Maharaja father is killed. Scott escorts the Prince and his American governess Mrs. Wyatt (Lauren Bacall) to Hasarabad, but not in time to board the last train out, and the city is soon besieged by rebels. 

Scott finds an ancient train engine operated by Gupta (I.S. Johar) to be in decent working order, and organizes an audacious rail escape. Joining Scott, Wyatt, and the Prince are journalist Peter van Leyden (Herbert Lom), arms dealer Peters (Eugene Deckers), and British aristocrats Mr. Bridie (Wilfrid Hyde-White) and Lady Windham (Ursula Jeans). With the rebels in pursuit, the equipment in bad shape, and a potential traitor among the passengers, Scott has to keep the escape train on-track towards the British stronghold of Kalapur.

Filmed on location in lavish CinemaScope with magnanimous Geoffrey Unsworth cinematography, North West Frontier is a remarkably well-balanced adventure. Writer Robin Estridge (adapting a Frank S. Nugent script) finds a pleasing rhythm between thrills and characters, and director J. Lee Thompson crafts an engrossing and agile package, just over two hours in length but with a fleeting energy.

Excellent special effects enliven some memorable highlights, none better than a damaged rail bridge high above a ravine. The characters have to walk a short section along a track suspended over the void by nothing, then Scott has to drive the train across, and Thompson's camera angles extract every drop of tension out of the scene. Other heart-stopping moments include the child Prince Kashan prodded too close to a large flywheel, and an attack on the stranded train by hundreds of rebels while Scott frantically leads the replacement of damaged tracks.

In the quiet pauses between heroics and close calls, the character interactions demonstrate surprising substance, and open gateways to several topics spiced by opposing viewpoints. The British as colonialists, the definition of home, arms dealers as enablers of violence, the thin line between journalism and agitation, religious tensions, contrasts between British and American attitudes, and even the sense of guilt for escaping a conflict zone all get a good workout from well-rounded perspectives. The small group of characters forced together on the train come to life through the conversations, creating intimacy at the heart of a sprawling adventure.

As can be expected, logic gaps make an appearance, several character actions only make sense as contrived plot devices, and the rebels' cause is shortchanged. But North West Frontier also knows how to pack a punch. The aftermath of a massacre is graphically presented, and even the moment of triumph hints ominously at more dark days to come. In this adventure, astute awareness adds zest to spectacular thrills.



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Movie Review: Our Man In Marrakesh (1966)

A low budget exotic adventure, Our Man In Marrakesh (also known as Bang! Bang! You're Dead!) features plenty of aimless running around, some humour, and a threadbare plot.

Foreigner Philippe is stabbed and killed in Casablanca. Soon afterwards, six tourists including the alluring Kyra Stanovy (Senta Berger) and businessman Andrew Jessel (Tony Randall) arrive in town and board the bus to Marrakesh. One of the six is a courier carrying a $2 million payment intended for sinister businessman Casimir (Herbert Lom), who is fixing a United Nations vote on behalf of mysterious clients.

Jessel is shocked to find the dead Philippe stuffed in his hotelroom closet, and further discombobulated when Kyra gatecrashes his life. They drop off Philippe at the local cemetery then attempt to get close to Casimir while evading his henchman Jonquil (Klaus Kinski). Tourists Fairbrother (Wilfrid Hyde-White) and Lillywhite (John Le Mesurier) are among the candidates to be unveiled as the courier, while tribal leader El Caid (Terry-Thomas) also gets himself involved.

A cheap British spy comedy of sorts, Our Man In Marrakesh does benefit from scenic Moroccan locations, a decent cast, a controlled Tony Randall performance and Senta Berger at her scintillating best. But otherwise this is a scroungy Harry Alan Towers production wallowing near the bottom of the pile labeled glamorous international intrigue.

The opening murder is reasonably promising and carries good echoes of Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, but director Don Sharp allows momentum to quickly seep away in the Moroccan sun. Most of the rest of the film consists of desultory hopping between locations, all the characters trying but failing to hide abject incompetence behind haphazard humour, unconvincing frolicing and dripping smarm. 

The rudimentary plot threads quickly unravel into irrelevance. Kyra knows a lot more than she reveals, but the bumbling Jessel descends into lovestruck lapdog territory as he faithfully follows her in and out of trouble. For a man capable of fixing United Nations votes Casimir proves inept at connecting with a courier and careless in protecting his secret briefcase. Klaus Kinski leaves an impression as a mostly silent ruthless chief goon, but even his steely-eyed demeanour cannot rescue Our Man In Marrakesh out of the dusty bargain bin.



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