Movie Review: The Secret Invasion (1964)

Genre: World War 2 Action  

Director: Roger Corman  

Starring: Stewart Granger, Raf Vallone, Mickey Rooney, Henry Silva  

Running Time: 95 minutes  

Synopsis: In 1943, British Major Richard Mace (Stewart Ganger) assembles a group of imprisoned convicts for a secret mission to open a new front in the Balkans, as a distraction from the upcoming Allied invasion of Sicily. The recruits include the cerebral Rocca (Raf Vallone), cold-blooded killer Durrell (Henry Silva), explosives expert Scanlon (Mickey Rooney), and forger Fell (Edd Byrnes). They secretly land near Dubrovnik, connect with local Partisans, and attempt to free a key target from Nazi captivity.

What Works Well: This war-mission-on-a-budget borrows ideas from The Guns Of Navarone and The Great Escape, and seeds the inspiration for The Dirty Dozen. Director Roger Corman ensures a base level of competence despite limited resources, and the cast contains enough quality (if not necessarily stellar talent) to maintain interest.

What Does Not Work As Well: The plot gets needlessly complicated, including a prolonged stint within a prison that features endless momentum-defeating skulking. The narrative choices range from bizarre (Rocca's finger clicking) to misguided (handing the stone-faced Henry Silva a half-hearted attempt at romance, complete with a cruel mishap involving a baby). Corman confuses noisy, over-long, poorly-staged, and clumsily-edited battle scenes for excitement, a mess made worse by the inexplicable appearance (and sometimes subsequent disappearance) of hundreds of soldiers, first from one side (the Germans), then the other (the Partisans), and then yet another (the Italians).

Key Quote:

Major Mace: Abandoned?! This mission will be abandoned only when all six of us are dead!

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Movie Review: The Other Side Of Midnight (1977)

A sprawling romantic drama, The Other Side Of Midnight is a beautifully mounted steamy story of passion, betrayal, and revenge spanning 10 years.

In Greece of 1948, Noelle Page (Marie-France Pisier) is imprisoned ahead of being tried for the murder of Catherine Alexander (Susan Sarandon). During a visit by her business tycoon husband Constantin Demeris (Raf Vallone), she recounts her story in flashback.

In Marseille of 1939, Noelle is young and beautiful but from a poor family. Her father sells her to a store owner in a sex-for-cash transaction, and Noelle starts to discover her power over men. She flees and makes her way to Paris, where she meets dashing American fighter pilot Larry Douglas (John Beck), who is volunteering with the RAF as World War Two erupts. They fall deeply in love but he then leaves for service and never fulfils a promise that he will return and they will get married. Noelle lands a job as a fashion model then discovers she is pregnant with Larry's baby.

In Washington DC, the enterprising Catherine lands a job as an assistant to Bill Fraser (Clu Gulager) at a public relations firm. With America about to enter the war, she meets Larry. They experience a rough start then fall in love and get married. After the war Larry finds it difficult to hold a job. Back in France, Noelle embarks on a long-term plan to win back her man, using her sexuality to achieve movie stardom then luring Demeris into a marriage.

Sidney Sheldon's 1973 best-selling page-turner comes to the screen at an epic, no-expenses-spared length of 165 minutes, screenwriter Herman Raucher seemingly intent on capturing all the book's details. The go-big-or-go-home approach works. Director Charles Jarrott delivers a big-budget, handsome-looking production, with rich cinematography by Fred J. Koenekamp and evocative (but judiciously deployed) Michel Legrand music. Costumes, hairstyles, and set designs (before, during, and after the war) are all stellar, with extras animating every scene. The relaxed pacing never slips into boredom, and each of the four lovers involved in the quadrangle are afforded time to develop.

The whirlwind romance between Noelle and Larry is crafted with care to capture a young woman's devastation - then fury - when abandoned, her difficult-to-watch bathtub scene a red punctuation mark. Noelle's desire to reclaim what she believes is hers propels the rest of the drama, Catherine a mere hurdle and Demeris a step-stool to the ultimate objective.

The acting is mostly excellent. Marie-France Pisier covers a lot of ground, sometimes slipping into overclocked emotions but mainly conveying a woman discovering with wonder her inner strength and ability to manipulate with beauty and seduction. Susan Sarandon is the more innocent counterpoint, and Raf Vallone hovers near the edges before stepping into the spotlight with devastating impact. John Beck is adequate but too often slab-like, over-relying on a hunky presence. The impressively deep cast also includes Michael Lerner and Charles Cioffi. 

Brimming with plot, scheming, and sensuality, The Other Side Of Midnight finds a twist to suggest hell may indeed have a fury worse than a woman scorned.



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