Movie Review: Ice Cold In Alex (1958)

A World War Two desert adventure, Ice Cold In Alex is a gripping battle for survival in unforgiving terrain.

The setting is Libya in 1942, and the British are about to face a second siege in Tobruk. Captain Anson (John Mills) of the Motor Ambulance company is suffering from battle fatigue and a drinking problem, and is ordered to evacuate through the desert towards Alexandria. Separated from other ambulance trucks, Anson and his capable Sergeant Tom Pugh (Harry Andrews) pick up two British Army nurses left behind in the evacuation chaos. Diana (Sylvia Syms) is calm and steady; Denise (Diane Clare) is easily frazzled.

At a refueling station, the burly Captain van der Poel (Anthony Quayle) of the South African army joins them. van der Poel is quick to ply Anson with gin, but his physicality and ability to negotiate with Germans prove invaluable as the traveling party encounters the advancing Afrika Korps. Anson realizes he has to shape up to navigate the arduous trek ahead, and arriving safely in Alexandria becomes a personal quest bordering on obsession.

A perilous sand-in-the-teeth military journey, Ice Cold In Alex builds momentum by placing one obstacle after another in the path of a small but resourceful group. Here the war is background context, and only a few bullets are fired in anger. Writers Christopher Landon and T. J. Morrison (adapting Landon's 1957 novel) are more interested in tracking levels of character determination as a scrappy motley crew overcomes each challenge and moves on to the next, with all their strategic options equally grim.

Director J. Lee Thompson makes best use of the desert expanse to create a desolate and relentless setting, the ambulance truck (nicknamed Katy) an added character subjected to the harsh conditions. Minefields, quicksand, daunting hill climbs, enemy forces, injuries, mechanical failures, and spy activity all stand in the way of Alexandria, not to mention scarce water and fuel supplies. 

Inside the ambulance, Anson has to overcome physical and emotional scars to gradually accept the leadership challenge. At 50 years old, John Mills is willing but undeniably too old for the role, and this becomes awkwardly apparent as 24-year-old Sylvia Syms' nurse Diana instigates a romance. Thankfully Anthony Quayle is frequently nearby, his muscular and seemingly indestructible presence a potent catalyst in most situations. Whether sweet-talking the Germans or supporting the ambulance's weight on his back, Quayle's van der Poel becomes an essential but still vaguely mysterious team member.

The title refers to the ice cold beer Anson intends the group to enjoy upon arrival at his favourite Alexandria hotel. Even the most modest rewards will need to be earned with exhaustive sweat.



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Movie Review: Ryan's Daughter (1970)

A grand romantic epic, Ryan's Daughter enjoys lavish visual splendour and a surprisingly spry story of an impetuous young woman seeking fulfillment.

The setting is a small rural oceanside town in Ireland during the late stages of the First World War. Father Hugh Collins (Trevor Howard) keeps an eye on everyone's behaviour, including Rose Ryan (Sarah Miles), a spirited young woman of marriageable age. She sets her eyes on widowed schoolteacher Charles Shaughnessy (Robert Mitchum), and they do get married. Rose quickly realizes she made a mistake: Charles is exceptionally polite and adores her, but is also boring and uninterested in physical intimacy.

Meanwhile Ireland is chafing under British rule. Rose's father Tom Ryan (Leo McKern) runs the local pub and expresses hatred towards the British, but harbours a hidden agenda. A small nearby British garrison welcomes handsome Major Randolph Doryan (Christopher Jones) as a new commander. He is a war hero but suffers from a damaged leg and severe shell shock. 

Rose and Doryan fall in love at first sight and embark on a steamy affair. The village idiot Michael (John Mills), who has an incurable crush on Rose, is the first to spot the scandalous liaison. Meanwhile Irish revolutionary Tim O'Leary (Barry Foster) is in the area plotting a gun smuggling operation from the sea, while a massive ocean storm approaches.

Director David Lean returns to the theme of love set against political upheaval, this time exploring unfulfilled expectations and the consequences of illicit lust. Robert Bolt wrote the script drawing inspiration from Madame Bovary, and the jagged Irish setting provides Lean with a bounty of breathtaking landscapes. 

The focus on characters helps offset the mammoth 195 minutes of running time. Lean maintains tight interest in a relatively few characters, and teases out several themes with Roses' arc underpinning the narrative. She is warned by both Father Hughes and Charles Shaughnessy her spirit is too big for a tiny Irish village. She anyway chases after Charles, and her disappointment is immediate, leaving her exceptionally vulnerable to the dashing young Major. With her father and pub owner Tom playing a dangerous game, the sturdy father-daughter bond will confirm her destiny.

Charles Shaughnessy is Rose's counterpart, a man so satisfied with domesticity he marries her flaming spirit then does his best to snuff it out through neglect. Yet when the world closes in on Rose, Charles' attributes come to the fore in a vindication of substance over style. Father Collins is a provocative and in many ways progressive character, using his man-of-religion status to poke his nose into everyone's affairs, but also exhibiting the necessary judgment to account for humanity ahead of strict morality.

Lean's storytelling is both luxurious and languid, Ryan's Daughter pausing frequently to admire wild natural beauty captured by cinematographer Freddie Young. Although the film always moves at the slowest possible pace, moments of drama and tension drawn from the political backdrop and the harsh terrain do provide jolts of momentum, with the mammoth storm battering the Irish coast a particular highlight. An undercurrent of almost unstated humour permeates through the film, most of it conveyed through Maurice Jarre's playful music score.

Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles are adequate in the two central roles, although both yield towards staid and sober. Trevor Howard and John Mills make up the difference in showy displays of Irish character, Mills in particular getting too much screen time as the mute but observant sensitive soul trapped in a malfunctioning body.

Ryan's Daughter is one young woman with a disproportionate impact, her spirit clashing with her culture, both ready to confront and neither easy to tame.



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The Movies Of John Mills

All movies starring John Mills and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939)

Great Expectations (1946)

Ice Cold In Alex (1958)

Operation Crossbow (1965)

Ryan's Daughter (1970)

The Big Sleep (1978)

Zulu Dawn (1979)

Gandhi (1982)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Great Expectations (1946)

An adaptation of the Charles Dickins novel, Great Expectations features a spooky milieu and a captivating, layered story. David Lean's imaginative direction helps to create an absorbing experience.

It's the early 1800s in rural England. Phillip "Pip" Pirrip (Anthony Wager) is a young orphan boy, being raised by his ornery older sister and her kindly blacksmith husband Joe Gargery (Bernard Miles). While visiting the resting place of his parents in the spooky church graveyard, Pip is suddenly grabbed by escaped and ruthless convict Abel Magwitch (Finlay Currie). Pip is kind to Magwitch, providing him with food, but the criminal is soon recaptured anyway. Pip is then summoned to be a regular daily companion to Miss Havisham (Martita Hunt), an elderly woman who lives in a nearby massive estate with a young girl called Estella (Jean Simmons).

Miss Havisham has confined herself in her mansion for years, while Estella is incredibly beautiful, but also extremely mean to Pip. Nevertheless, Pip falls hopelessly in love with her. At age 20, the adult Pip (John Mills) receives unexpected news from Mr. Jaggers (Francis L. Sullivan), a London-based lawyer: a secret benefactor will fund Pip's transformation from rural blacksmith to refined city gentleman, with a promise of future land holdings to come Pip's way. Pip moves to London to start his new life, and makes friends with Herbert Pocket (Alec Guinness), while maintaining his love and pursuit of the grown up and still ravishing Estella (Valerie Hobson).

A captivating drama, Great Expectations features exceptional cinematography and use of light and silhouettes to heighten the already powerful events of the book. Lean deploys his masterful craftsmanship to capture compelling landscapes, grand buildings, and rooms that range from sparse to imposing. Dickens' characters jump to life in Lean's surroundings, Pip's life populated by exquisitely defined and indelible family members, friends, and acquaintances.

Lean neatly divides the film into two halves, Pip as a child and Pip as an adult. The opening is undoubtedly stronger, and features some brilliantly memorable interactions. Pip's initial encounters with Magwitch, Estella, and Miss Havisham contain cinematic magic of the rare kind. Pip displays bravery in the fog shrouded moors as Magwitch emerges from nowhere to barge into his life, and he demonstrates a different kind of steeliness to enter the gothic surroundings of Miss Havisham's mansion and then deal with the old lady's cob-webbed eccentricities and Estella's conceit.

Even the early and relatively brief introductions of Herbert and Mr. Jaggers are unforgettable. The more refined Herbert learns what it means to play boxing with the more streetwise Pip, while Jaggers' first scene on a candlelight staircase in Miss Havisham's house is a revelation that echoes into the future.

The second half of the film remains strong but is also more episodic and less ethereal. Dickens' original serialization emerges underneath the narrative, with some of Pip's adult adventures more contrived and mainly intended to create a breathless anticipation for the next installment.

The film plays with the theme of childhood experiences shaping adulthood. Pip the man encounters vestiges of his childhood at all of life's key moments, but not necessarily in the logical sequence he would have expected. The decisions that the child took resonate into the future, the seemingly innocent encounters with people, places and events throwing long and often unanticipated forward shadows.

While John Mills and Valerie Hobson deliver functional performances, the children and the supporting characters are the true stars. Anthony Wager as Pip the boy and Jean Simmons as young Estella carry the poignancy of complex childhoods, while Martita Hunt, Francis L. Sullivan and Finlay Currie leave everlasting impressions as Miss Havisham, Mr. Jaggers and Magwitch respectively.

Visually haunting and intellectually engaging, Great Expectations rises to the challenge of translating a classic novel into a screen gem.

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