Movie Review: Mystery Street (1950)

Genre: Crime Investigation Drama

Director: John Sturges

Starring: Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest, Jan Sterling, Bruce Bennett, Marshall Thompson, Elsa Lanchester

Running Time: 93 minutes

Synopsis: In Boston, penniless bar hostess Vivian (Jan Sterling) tries to re-connect with a wealthy married man who is now ignoring her. In desperation she takes advantage of drunk family man Henry (Marshall Thompson) and drives out to Cape Cod to force a meeting. A murder is committed, and the skeletal remains are only discovered six months later. Police Lieutenant Peter Morales (Ricardo Montalban) works with Dr. McAdoo (Bruce Bennett) of the Harvard Medical School to piece together the evidence, identify the victim, and find the culprit.

What Works Well: This engaging investigative mystery focuses on the meticulous work of police detectives and forensic specialists, director John Sturges saluting the science and legwork required to crack difficult cases. The facts behind the pleasingly complex murder are obscured by the passage of time and deceptive cross-cutting personal agendas: Vivian's nosey landlady (Elsa Lanchester) hatches a plot of her own; roommate Jackie (Betsy Blair) is a keen observer; bystander-with-a-secret Henry harbours evasiveness; his wife Grace (Sally Forrest) is suffering from loss; and wealthy boat trader Harkley (Edmon Ryan) has the most to hide. On-location filming in Boston adds authenticity.

What Does Not Work As Well: Some of the investigative deductions require significant leaps, and while the ending is well-executed, it also depends on many fortuitous breaks. 

Conclusion: Dogged detective determined to deal with difficult death.



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Movie Review: Border Incident (1949)

Genre: Crime Drama

Director: Anthony Mann

Starring: Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Howard Da Silva

Running Time: 94 minutes

Synopsis: Border agents Jack Bearnes (George Murphy) and Pablo Rodriguez (Ricardo Montalban) team-up to investigate a human smuggling ring exploiting agriculture workers across the America-Mexico border. Both men go undercover: Rodriguez as a worker seeking to cross the border, Bearnes as an on-the-run criminal in possession of coveted false immigration documents. They tangle with various minions up the chain of command, leading to the criminal mastermind: wealthy American land owner Owen Parkson (Howard Da Silva).

What Works Well: The investigative elements are solid and invest in exposing the multiple layers of goons, lieutenants, and internal tensions in a criminal enterprise. Director Anthony Mann, in an early big-studio but still small-budget production, captures the sweaty desperation of low-skilled workers risking everything for better economic opportunities. Working mostly at night and leveraging desert-and-canyon western aesthetics, Mann also crafts a couple of excellent highlights, one involving a combine harvester and the second featuring quicksand. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Both the narration (text-book style) and dual-country jingoism are amateurish. The pacing is tripped up by minutia, the John C. Higgins script occupying itself with details instead of depth, culminating in a dubious climax of muddled loyalties.

Conclusion: The money is always greener on the other side of the border.



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Movie Review: Battleground (1949)

A squadron level view of World War Two, Battleground joins a group of soldiers on the messy front lines of a seminal battle.

It's December 1944, and men from the 101st Airborne Division including Holley (Van Johnson), Roderigues (Ricardo Montalban), and Jarvess (John Hodiak) are eagerly anticipating some downtime in Paris. Private Layton (Marshall Thompson) is brand new to the unit, while the older "Pop" (George Murphy) is about to receive a release allowing him to return home.

But instead of getting a break, they are ordered to deploy to the front lines in a hurry: the Germans have mounted a surprise offensive (later known as the Battle of the Bulge), and the American soldiers find themselves defending the strategically important town of Bastogne. Outgunned and outnumbered, they are soon surrounded, but despite taking losses they refuse to yield.

Just four years after the war's end, Battleground provides a gritty ground-level perspective, and a good companion piece to director William A. Wellman's The Story Of G.I. Joe (1945). With the propaganda aspects of the in-war years stripped away and the overconfident and more uniformly stoic cinematic attitude of later post-war years not yet taking hold, writer Robert Pirosh adopts a perceptive tone, embracing realism. 

Hastily dropped into the front lines to plug holes exposed by the German offensive, here the fighting men are even unsure which country they are in (France, Belgium or Luxembourg are the candidates). They lack any oversight of the unfolding strategy, and beyond the immediate command to dig foxholes (and then more foxholes), defend their turf, survive artillery barrages, and scout a patch of forest, they have no idea what is going on or why.

And their humanity shines through. Doubt, fear, and complaints are constant companions, and far outweigh moments of heroism. Fundamental mistakes are made, including allowing Germans disguised as Americans to slip through the lines. Subjected to enemy propaganda leaflets and broadcasts, several men attempt to weasel away from the front lines. Enemy encounters are brief, but the battle against the elements is a constant. Cold and wet terrain drains away physical strength, while the ever-present Ardennes fog saps morale by preventing intervention by the vastly superior Allied air force.

Working with a limited budget and on confined sets, Wellman squeezes the most out of his cast. The first act is slow as the men are rather clumsily introduced then trundle their way to Bastogne and the hospitality of local woman Denise (Denise Darcel). The pace picks up once they deploy to the forest, with Van Johnson's jaunty Holley nominally the lead character. But Marshall Thompson's Layton slowly emerges as the most interesting soldier, learning-by-doing and tracing the arc of America's involvement in the war from hesitancy to leadership.

The men of the 101st who held their ground became known as the Battered Bastards of Bastogne (and it is in Belgium). Battleground is an honest salute to genuine individual behaviour coalescing into group courage.



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Movie Review: Madame X (1966)

A melodrama about one woman's downfall, Madame X sinks into a churning sea of sentimentality. 

Clay Anderson (John Forsythe) is the scion of an influential Connecticut family, living with his mother Estelle (Constance Bennett) in their grand ancestral home. He marries San Francisco shopgirl Holly Parker (Lana Turner) and they have a child. Clay travels constantly in pursuit of a diplomatic career, and Holly succumbs to loneliness and seeks comfort with suave bachelor Phil Benton (Ricardo Montalban).

Clay's sudden return from a long trip and Phil's unexpected demise threaten a tragic scandal. The vindictive Estelle is eager to preserve the family reputation and pressures Holly into faking her death and disappearing forever from the lives of the Andersons. Initially relocating to Europe and meeting charming musician Christian Torben (John van Dreelen), her life spirals downwards. In Mexico she falls into the clutches of serial swindler Dan Sullivan (Burgess Meredith) as fate conspires to reunite her with the Andersons and her now grown son Clay Jr. (Keir Dullea).

Another Hollywood remake of the 1908 French play by Alexandre Bisson, the 1966 version is colourful, glossy, and crushingly boring. Producer Ross Hunter aims for the glory years of Douglas Sirk social melodramas, but 10 years later and in the uninspired hands of television director David Lowell Rich, Madame X is a glorified small screen soap opera, lacking in context, depth and thematic commentary.

The problems start with the casting of John Forsythe (48 years old) and Lana Turner (44 years old) as newlyweds, creating a disorienting 15 year narrative shift. Not surprisingly, both are unconvincing. With his wealth and family connections Forsythe's Clay should be well further ahead in his career, while Turner struggles to settle in the role of a naive bride unaware what she married into. However, her performance improves with her character's age and Turner commendably embraces a dowdy and deglamourized image as Holly's fortunes nosedive. Constance Bennett, in her final film appearance, adds a welcome spark as the conniving mother-in-law .

The Jean Holloway script lacks subtlety, and the second half is one mother's neverending farewell to a tormented life. The final 45 minutes surrender to various levels of physical, mental and emotional agony, Holly often on her back in bed and flirting with death. The wallowing is made much worse by a syrupy and unrelenting Frank Skinner music score designed to emphasize all the weepy moments.

The climax arrives in a courtroom filled with far-fetched coincidences and characters floundering in oblivion. Madame X is destined for a hard life, and her film is equally dire.



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Movie Review: Sweet Charity (1969)

An overblown musical, Sweet Charity emits occasional sparks but never ignites.

In New York City, Charity Hope Valentine (Shirley MacLaine) is a dance hostess in a sleazy joint along with her friends Nickie (Chita Rivera) and Helene (Paula Kelly). Charity still dreams of finding true love, and after her latest no-good boyfriend literally dumps her into the park lake, she stumbles into a dreamy one-off evening with movie star Vittorio Vitale (Ricardo Montalban). Charity tries and fails to land a respectable office job, but instead finds an unlikely romance with insurance risk assessor Oscar Lindquist (John McMartin) after the pair are stuck together in an elevator. But finding long-term love and happiness will not be an easy quest.

The first film directed by Bob Fosse, Sweet Charity is an adaptation of the 1966 stage musical. What works on stage for the most part stumbles on the screen, with the story spread way too thin to occupy the 2 hours and 30 minutes of running time, the songs resoundingly average, and only the better dance numbers providing an occasional lift. The Neil Simon story offers some moments of comedy, but the general sense is of rampant overacting in a bloated production incapable of trimming the fat.

The highlights are few but sharp: the dancing girls sing and dance to the seductive (Hey) Big Spender; the entire Rich Man's Frug dance sequence at the Pompeii Club is spectacular; Charity belts out If They Could See Me Now and dances up a storm in Vittorio's pad; then along with Nickie and Helene she performs There's Got To Be Something Better Than This, longing to escape a life of dancing with disgusting neanderthals. But for every good musical interlude there is an equivalent dud, including Sammy Davis Jr. performing a mess of a song as a pseudo preacher, and the owner of the nightclub singing the quite dreadful I Love To Cry At Weddings.

Fosse's direction never stops pointing to itself. His favourite childish tricks include zooming into an unfocused shot and zooming out again into a different scene, and the ever handy freeze-frame. The film simply does not carry enough weight or drama to justify stylistic antics, with Charity's fairy tale pursuit of true love beyond juvenile in its simplicity.

Shirley MacLaine is game and through sheer energy bulldozes her way through the film, unapologetic in her theatricality and willing Charity along in her naïve quest for any better job and the love of any man. The supporting cast alternates between bland and irritating, John McMartin contributing plenty of nothing to the role of blank insurance risk assessor Oscar. Montalban and Davis cash their cheques for effectively playing themselves.

Sweet Charity is a mediocre mix of admirable glitzy dancing, average music, and a mundane, unnecessarily protracted story.

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