Movie Review: The Old Man And The Sea (1958)

Genre: Adventure Drama

Director: John Sturges

Starring: Spencer Tracy

Running Time: 87 minutes

Synopsis: In a Havana fishing village, "The Old Man" Santiago (Spencer Tracy) is a fisherman on a long streak of bad luck: he has not caught a fish for 84 days. His only friend is the young boy Manolin, who used to fish with the Old Man but switched to another, luckier boat. On the 85th day, the Old Man goes further away from shore and hooks a huge marlin. For days the powerful big fish pulls the Old Man out to sea, but despite his age and ailments Santiago is determined to win this battle. 

What Works Well: The almost unfilmable Ernest Hemingway novella is turned into a soulful cinematic experience by surrendering to the book's simplicity. Relying more on narration than dialogue and leaning heavily on a weathered Spencer Tracy performance, director John Sturges easily succeeds in surfacing Hemingway's potent man versus nature themes. The Old Man's battle with the marlin is about minutes, hours, and days, but represents humanity's eternal refusal to succumb to nature's might, even as age creeps up on ability. 

What Does Not Work As Well: With many scenes filmed in a studio tub, the composite visuals are patchy and distracting. The open water, special effects, and third-party sequences come with varying levels of colour saturation, light, and granularity, and are awkwardly pasted around Tracy's performance.

Conclusion: "Man is not made for defeat. Man can be destroyed, but not defeated."



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Movie Review: A Guy Named Joe (1943)

A romantic fantasy, A Guy Named Joe explores love, commitment, loss, and death during wartime turbulence.

Pete Sandidge (Spencer Tracy) is a daredevil American bomber pilot stationed in England during World War Two. He maintains a romance with Air Transport Auxiliary pilot Dorinda Durston (Irene Dunne). Although possessive, he never quite commits to her. After Pete and his best buddy Al Yackey (Ward Bond) are reassigned to a Scottish reconnaissance outpost, Dorinda senses Pete's impending demise.

Despite her best efforts to alter destiny, Pete does indeed die heroically while on a mission. In heaven, commanding officer The General (Lionel Barrymore) assigns him to be the guardian angel of rookie pilot Ted Randall (Van Johnson). Pete helps Ted develop into a brash leader, but jealousy bubbles to the surface when Ted meets the still-grieving Dorinda and they start to fall in love.

Combining wistfulness with clever wartime morale-boosting, A Guy Named Joe provides a multi-layered yet cohesively engrossing narrative. Dalton Trumbo's script is consciously lyrical, elevating the premise towards exhortations about the human condition and the nature of death to help make sense of catastrophic losses during a global war. Victor Fleming directs with panache, seamlessly melding the fantasy and romance elements into the pragmatic business of an imperfect war machine at work.

Legacies, carrying on, and letting go are themes underpinning Pete's journey in life and beyond. The influence of the dead on the living is physically represented (but not seen or heard), Fleming and the actors pulling off tricky staging and conscious evasion. For Dorinda, Ted, and Al, living and grieving are uninterrupted, although events, inner thoughts and emotions are occasionally nudged by forces unseen.

But Pete's attachment to Dorinda straddles the divide between his states of being. Helping Ted mature into a confident airman is all fun and games until he falls in love with Dorinda, and now the spectral mentor has to confront his earthly failings. Trumbo presents death as essential for collective progression and a process of individual transition, the departed, just like the living, in need of time and perspective to grasp the enormity of the change.

The cast never wink at the material, allowing the fantasy to take root and enrich the soil. Spencer Tracy sparkles as Pete, thoughtful, self-aware and reckless in life as in death, and on a journey to understand the opportunities, challenges, and audacious passion of loving life without committing to it. Irene Dunne, Ward Bond, and Van Johnson in his breakthrough role surround Pete with romance, friendship and a worthy protégé/rival.

The few scenes of aerial combat were created on the ground with the aid of stock footage and rear projection, and the results are surprisingly decent. But the machines and warfare are ultimately just a good backdrop to a universal story about every Joe's enduring resonance.



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Movie Review: Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1941)

A suspense fantasy drama, Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde delves into the darkest recesses of the soul, where vile tendencies await an awakening.

In London of the late 1800s, Dr. Jekyll (Spencer Tracy) is a respected physician, engaged to be married to Bea Emery (Lana Turner), although her father Sir Charles (Donald Crisp) has so far refused to set a wedding date. Jekyll is interested in the duality of the soul, and is conducting animal experiments to develop a drug that can separate good from evil.

Jekyll and his colleague Dr. Lanyon (Ian Hunter) rescue barmaid Ivy Pearson (Ingrid Bergman) from an assault, and she triggers his lustful impulses. He completes his research, tests the drug on himself, and is physically and emotionally transformed into Mr. Hyde, an immoral, selfish and violent man. He proceeds to kidnap and assault Ivy. Initially Jekyll is able to control his transformations back and forth into Mr. Hyde, but soon loses control, with his evil side making unwelcome appearances at inopportune moments.

An adaptation of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson story, the 1941 film version features a superlative and understated Spencer Tracy performance to help bring out the complex shadings of the internal human struggle between good and evil. With a deliberate one hour build-up, Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde invests in its characters and builds to a second half filled with disconcerting behaviour.

In this version Jekyll's virulent tendencies are unleashed by sexual repression. Director Vincent Fleming hints at the burning desire between Jekyll and Bea as they sneak passionate kisses at every opportunity behind Sir Charles' back. Maybe because of Jekyll's audacious nature Charles refuses to set a wedding date, only worsening Jekyll's frustration.

With Ingrid Bergman in full-on seductress mode, the sultry advances of Ivy are the final push. She is available and incessantly flirtatious; he perfects his concoction, drinks the potion and embraces his evil Hyde self. What starts as a mode that can be switched on and off quickly progresses to a powerful and uncontrollable condition, Jekyll unable to determine when and where Hyde appears, evil proving remarkably resilient once given room to breathe and thrive.

Fleming excels in making best use out of brooding sets to recreate 19th century London. Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde comes to life in a foreboding gas lit environment filled with cobbled streets, alleys and isolated park paths. Frequent fog and plenty of shadows complete the aesthetic.

On a couple of occasions Tracy's transformation is handled in real time with superimposed imagery and some shifty frame waviness, the effects basic but nevertheless achieving the objective. The actor does the rest, Tracy disappearing into Hyde's dark pool of soullessness with ferocious venom. The film is more unsettling than scary, the emphasis firmly fixed on revealing the ease with which human malevolence can dominate. Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde reside in every person, their eternal conflict often decided by thin margins.

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Movie Review: Boom Town (1940)

The adventures and loves of two oilmen over many years, Boom Town enjoys plenty of star power but sprawls for too long with predictable ups and downs.

The rural town of Burkburnett, Texas, is the bustling mucky centre of activity for prospective oil drillers. Wildcatters "Big John" McMasters (Clark Gable) and "Square John" Sand (Spencer Tracy) literally bump into each other and team-up, borrowing equipment they cannot afford from Luther Aldrich (Frank Morgan) as they try to strike it rich. Their first attempt is a bust, and they barely stay one step ahead of local sheriff Harmony Jones (Chill Wills). The two Johns cut Aldrich in on their next exploratory oil well, and this time they strike oil.

McMasters meets and quickly marries Betsy McMasters (Claudette Colbert) unaware that Sand was also trying to win her heart. Over the years the two men embark on a strained on-again off-again partnership, their fortunes rising and falling with the wild fluctuations of the international oil business. Sand never loses his feelings for Betsy, but she sticks with McMasters through good times and bad. McMasters eventually moves into the big leagues of New York City corporate life, where he falls under the spell of exotic businesswoman Karen Vanmeer (Hedy Lamarr). His extramarital dalliances provide Sand with a further incentive to try and win back Betsy's heart by any means necessary.

Directed by Jack Conway, Boom Town re-teams Gable and Tracy from 1938's Test Pilot, as well as Gable and Colbert from 1934's It Happened One Night. With Hedy Lamarr adding silky seductiveness in the last third, the star power certainly helps but does not fully overcome the limited material. The John Lee Mahin scripts sets the tone early, then unfortunately just repeats the cycle of ups and downs with mechanical efficiency but without gaining genuine soul.

The love triangle dynamics between McMasters, Sand and Betsy are always just a bit off. Tracy was starting to get resentful of Gable's star billing and shows it by delivering a generally downbeat and disengaged performance. Colbert's Betsy goes through the film riding the fence between the two men, loyal to McMasters but never severing her emotional ties to Sand, an unconvincing role that comes across as both passive and indecisive.

Just as the romantic liaisons are interesting but not engrossing, the business aspects of the story are curious but superficial and quickly repetitive. The wealth and happiness of the two men ride the rollercoaster of oil booms and busts, test wells proving to be either duds or gushers, money made and money lost in an instant, fortunes sometimes riding on coin tosses. Conway keeps it all moving briskly and throws in one genuinely impressive fire disaster scene, but the cyclical fortunes all start to meld into each other and go on for longer than necessary.

The film often looks the part, and is aesthetically at its best in the early scenes. Conway recreates the chaotic muddy roughness of Burkburnett, a macho rough and tumble place where everyone has a claim and a dream of striking it rich, but few have the combination of resources and smarts required to turn paper and equipment into a fortune.

Boom Town sometimes ignites, but often marks time with predictable ticks and tocks.

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Movie Review: Test Pilot (1938)

An aviation drama, Test Pilot in an excellent combination of airborne thrills and complex on-the-ground emotional turmoil.

Jim Lane (Clark Gable) is a dashing test pilot tasked with the dangerous job of flying and testing the speed and altitude limits of new and experimental aircraft. His sidekick and mechanic Gunner (Spencer Tracy) is a lifelong companion, and the two men have a deep friendship. Lane gets his assignments from the US military through businessman Drake (Lionel Barrymore).

On a cross-country flight to set a new speed record, Lane encounters trouble and lands in a Kansas field, where he meets feisty farm girl Ann Barton (Myrna Loy). The two hit it off immediately and get married within a day. After Jim and Drake have a falling out, Anne is properly exposed to Jim's world of risk taking, hard drinking and the constant danger of death. Gunner perceives Ann as a distraction and a threat to the friendship between the two men. Although Jim does his best to make the marriage work, the spectre of tragedy hovers over the couple and takes an emotional toll.

Directed by Victor Fleming, Test Pilot is a perfect mix of adventurism and human drama. The airborne photography celebrates the burgeoning birth of the aviation era for both military and civilian uses, but the film also soars on the ground: this is a story of love, friendship, and the compromises needed to make life happen.

A love triangle with a difference, Test Pilot gains most of its momentum from Jim Lane as the irresistible centre of attention for both Gunner and Ann. The destiny of the two men is inexorably linked, and Gunner is Lane's guardian as much as Lane is Gunner's reason to live. When Ann marries Lane on a whim, the careful equilibrium between the two men is disrupted. Fleming and his team of script writers (including Howard Hawks) handle the ripple effects of the unexpected marriage with a clever sensitivity, with Gunner carrying the paradoxical burden of wanting Lane to be happy but realizing that Ann does not know what she signed up for. Spice is added through the hint of attraction that Gunner also senses towards Ann.

Up in the air, Test Pilot offers plenty of thrills and action, with regular interludes of flying, racing, and mid-air mishaps. The special effects team members earn their salaries through some terrific model work, with more than one airplane encountering serious trouble and landing with spectacular inelegance.

The perfectly cast trio of Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy and Myrna Loy infuse Test Pilot with potent star power. Gable as Jim Lane is all about dashing charisma, a man who laughs in the face of death and drowns the reality of his absurd risk-taking in large volumes of alcohol. Tracy is much more cerebral as Gunner, the mechanic on the sidelines of Lane's life and therefore in a better position to assess Lane's trajectory.

Loy has the most difficult role as Ann Barton, and is exceptional in first finding infatuation with a man who literally drops from the sky to scoop here away from a boring farm life, then coming to terms with what it means to marry a man who fences with death as a career. Lionel Barrymore adds depth as businessman Drake, and Test Pilot is an early look at the world of industry comfortably holding hands with the military to advance weapons of war.

Test Pilot soars when the machines are in the sky and is just as enthralling when the stars are on the ground.

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Movie Review: Inherit The Wind (1960)

A courtroom drama fictionalizing the real trial of a schoolteacher who dared teach the theory of evolution in a rural and deeply religious community, Inherit The Wind is an engrossing battle of wits between entrenched traditional beliefs and the relentless forces of progress.

It's the 1920s in the small southern farming town of Hillsboro, and young school teacher Bertram T. Cates (Dick York) is arrested and charged for violating a law prohibiting the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution. The town leaders insist that the Bible's Book of Genesis is the only true description of human creation, and Darwin's scientific theory about the evolution of species contravenes the word of God.

Three time presidential candidate and celebrated Biblical scholar Matthew Harrison Brady (Fredric March) volunteers his services to prosecute the case, and he receives a hero's welcome in Hillsboro. Much less warmly received is the controversial Henry Drummond (Spencer Tracy), a strong believer in the power of independent thought and scientific exploration, who arrives to defend Cates. Also arriving in town to join the growing circus and report on the trial is journalist E. K. Hornbeck (Gene Kelly) of the Baltimore Herald.

Bible salesman: Are you an evolutionist? An infidel? A sinner?
E. K. Hornbeck: The worst kind, I write for a newspaper.

To compound Cates' misery, his girlfriend is Rachel (Donna Anderson), who happens to be the daughter of Hillsboro's local religious leader Reverend Jeremiah Brown (Claude Akins). Brown whips the locals into a frenzy against Cates and Drummond, surprising even Brady with his venom. As the temperature rises literally and figuratively, the trial commences with Judge Mel Coffey (Harry Morgan) presiding, and Drummond facing a hostile gallery and the seemingly impossible task of defending Cates against deeply held but simplistic beliefs.

Drummond: An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral. And the advance of man's knowledge is a greater miracle than all the sticks turned to snakes or the parting of the waters.

Timelessly potent, Inherit The Wind is based on the 1955 play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, written at the height of the McCarthy communist witch hunt. The play's intent was to use the real 1925 trial of schoolteacher John Scopes, in what became known as the Scopes "Monkey" Trial, as a parable on the need to vigorously defend the right to think, discuss, and debate, without fear from stifling laws and lawmakers.

The film takes artistic liberties with some of the facts of the trial, but keeps the essence intact. And it is astounding that Inherit The Wind remains relevant not as a historical artifact but as contemporary social commentary. Director Stanley Kramer shines the spotlight on the frustrating intransigence that results when literal, simplistic solutions are applied to complex issues. The film also highlights the ease with which ignorance can be enshrined in law, effectively legislating intellectual atrophy from one generation to the next.

Kramer creates all the trappings of a dangerous media circus in the fictional little town of Hillsboro, the real Scopes trial apparently instigated with at least the partial intent of placing Dayton, Tennessee on the map. Kramer then delights in teasing out the fine line between exuberant religious belief and the creeping spectre of mob violence, the townsfolk often slipping into threats, and Reverend Brown completely swallowed up by his own zeal in wishing for his daughter's destruction.

The complex relationship between Drummond and Brady is at the heart of the movie. Spencer and March bring the two grizzled men to life as aging veterans of many a political battle, often fought side-by-side, but this time fate has landed them on opposite ends of a polarizing religious and social divide. Despite the bluster, anger, and emotion, Drummond and Brady never lose respect for each other, and the scene where they share quiet words in rocking chairs on the front porch of their hotel is pure movie magic.

Brady: Why is it, my old friend, that you've moved so far away from me?
Drummond: All motion is relative, Matt. Maybe it's you who've moved away by standing still.

When the two men engage in the climactic battle of wills after Drummond places Brady on the witness chair, Kramer unleashes the fireworks in extreme close-up, dogma and independent thought clashing with breathtaking intensity.

Brady: We must not abandon faith! Faith is the most important thing!
Drummond: Then why did God plague us with the capacity to think? Mr. Brady, why do you deny the one faculty of man that raises him above the other creatures of the earth? The power of his brain to reason. What other merit have we? The elephant is larger; the horse is swifter and stronger; the butterfly is far more beautiful; the mosquito is more prolific. Even the simple sponge is more durable. But does a sponge think?

In a dramatic yet humourous role, Gene Kelly is a surprising success as the sharp-tongued Baltimore journalist E. K. Hornbeck, playing the role of the big city observer not mincing words when it comes to the backwardness of Hillsboro and its people. Kelly gets the film's best one-liners, but also serves as a serious sounding board to Drummond in the raging insanity of the farcical trial.

Townswoman: You're the stranger, ain'tcha? Are you looking for a nice, clean place to stay?
E. K. Hornbeck: Madam, I had a nice clean place to stay... and I left it, to come here.

An epic film about ideas and the essence of being human, Inherit The Wind delivers its message with plenty of punch and a wry smile.

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Movie Review: Father Of The Bride (1950)

A heart-warming comedy, Father Of The Bride pokes fun at a father's befuddled emotions, with Spencer Tracy in top form and Elizabeth Taylor blossoming into adulthood.

Kay Banks (Taylor) suddenly announces to her parents Stan and Ellie (Tracy and Joan Bennett) that she will be marrying boyfriend Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor). The news that his only daughter is about to fly the nest comes as a complete shock to Stan, who does not even know who Buckley is, let alone what he does for a living, how he will support Kay, and who his parents are.

After overcoming the initial shock, Stan meets Buckley and then his parents Doris and Herbert, and the family starts planning for the wedding. Although everyone desires a small ceremony and reception, the event quickly grows into a major and expensive event, complete with a snooty wedding planner. And just as the big day approaches, Kay and Buckley encounter a crisis.

Capturing every father's frazzled feelings when he realizes that his baby girl is about to belong to another man, Father Of The Bride is a bittersweet comedy. The film strikes all the perfect tones, as Stan progresses through the shock of receiving the news, anxiety about his future son-in-law, pride in his daughter, financial panic as the wedding arrangements threaten to get out of hand, and finally sweet resignation to just go with the flow. Spencer Tracy brings plenty of sincerity to the role, allowing the comedy to remain soft and grounded in genuine emotion.

All of the humour comes from the disconnect between Stan's bluster and his actual actions, as he misses every opportunity to actually get to know Buckley and his parents. Stan is of course clueless that he is the architect of his own angst. And when the wedding arrangements move into high gear, his natural inclination to want to solve problems collides with the expensive reality of professional event planning, and he is eventually sidelined into one role: paying the mounting bills.

At the heart of the movie is the tender relationship between father and daughter. The king loves his princess beyond what he can ever convey, and the idea of her heart being tied to another man is agonizing. Yet Stan cannot help but be proud of his role in the woman that Kay has become, and Tracy's performance finds that line between personal loss and unbridled joy.

Joan Bennett and Elizabeth Taylor are more physically busy than Tracy as the wedding day approaches, director Vincente Minnelli placing dad at the centre of the storm and therefore the point around which everything else revolves. Bennett and Taylor effectively portray women caught up in one of the biggest events of their lives, Ellie and Kay finally marginalizing Stan into an observer, ironically the perfect vantage point to come to terms with his emotions.

With wit and pathos hand in hand, Father Of The Bride walks down the aisle with pride.

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The Movies Of Spencer Tracy

All movies starring Spencer Tracy and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Test Pilot (1938)

Boom Town (1940)

Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1941)

Woman Of The Year (1942)

A Guy Named Joe (1943)

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)

Adam's Rib (1949)

Father Of The Bride (1950)

Bad Day At Black Rock (1955)

The Old Man And The Sea (1958)

Inherit The Wind (1960)

Judgment At Nuremberg (1961)

How The West Was Won (1962, narrator)

Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967)

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Movie Review: Judgment At Nuremberg (1961)

A powerful drama examining the culpability of German society in enabling the extremism of Hitler's Nazis, Judgment At Nuremberg is thought-provoking filmmaking at its best. A star-studded cast glows as a courtroom confrontation sheds light on the insidious rise of evil.

It's 1948, and Judge Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracy) has been recruited out of retirement in the state of Maine to preside over an American-administered post-war trial in Nuremberg, Germany. The defendants are four German civilian judges accused of crimes against the population before and during the war. By not taking a stand against the Nazi laws discriminating according to race and mental competency, the judges are accused of enabling suffering, sterilization, and death.

The most prominent of the defendants is Dr. Ernst Janning (Burt Lancaster), an internationally renowned intellectual and published author on the topic of justice, with an impeccable pre-war reputation. Janning refuses to acknowledge the authority of the court and maintains a stony silence as the trial starts, not wanting to legitimize a trial of German citizens presided over by Americans on German soil. The other defendants are less prestigious, and perhaps more susceptible due to less than pristine pasts.

The American prosecutor Colonel Tad Lawson (Richard Widmark) is committed and confrontational. A veteran of the war and several prior court cases, he mounts an aggressive attack on the acquiescence of the judges. By applying and upholding the Nazi laws, the judges normalized state brutality, and Lawson draws a direct link to the resultant mass atrocities at the death camps.

In addition to presenting stacks of documents as evidence, Lawson humanizes the victims and calls to the witness stand two civilian casualties of the Nazi laws: Rudolph Peterson (Montgomery Clift) was accused of being mentally incompetent and suffered accordingly, while in an infamous case, Irene Wallner (Judy Garland) was accused of having sexual relations with a Jew named Feldenstein.

Tasked with the unenviable duty of mounting a defence is young German lawyer Hans Rolfe (Maximilian Schell). He adopts the stance that society as a whole cannot be found guilty of following the laws imposed by fanatical rulers. Rolfe holds his ground against Lawson's ferocious legal arguments, deflecting a succession of accusations and emphasizing that the defendants were fulfilling their civic duties in applying the laws of the land.

With the courtroom frequently the scene of heated exchanges between Lawson and Rolfe, Judge Haywood struggles to determine how justice can best be served. With the Berlin blockade revealing the belligerent Soviets as much more of a relevant threat than the defeated Germans, Haywood's task is not made any easier when he meets and starts to socialize with Frau Bertholt (Marlene Dietrich), the widow of a German military commander.

Inspired by actual post-war trials, Judgment At Nuremberg is a rollercoaster ride through the evolution of societal forces. Written by Abby Mann, the script maintains an exquisite balancing act as the prosecution and defence take turns to make their case, every thrust parried with a counter-thrust, the moral pendulum swinging from one side to the other.

With Tracy providing sage oversight, Widmark and Schell are well matched and both demonstrate vehement intensity as the legal battle unfolds. But Schell adds a sublime layer of fragile humanity to the role of Hans Rolfe, an intelligent man fully aware that he is representing losers in the courtroom of the victors, yet determined that the German people not be uniformly indicted for the actions of their leaders. Unexpectedly rising to the top of a stellar cast, Schell won the Best Actor Academy Award.

Montgomery Clift and Judy Garland, in her first major film role since 1954's A Star Is Born, add a large curiosity factor. Both battling personal substance abuse demons and barely able to perform, they nevertheless pull out affecting performances as tormented and damaged victims coming back to confront the men who judged them. They both deservedly received Supporting Actor nominations.

Director Stanley Kramer's cameras find plenty of energy in the grand Nuremberg courtroom. Frequently the cameras maintain fluid motion centred on the witness chair, and end their movement by unexpectedly capturing witness and defendant in the same frame, the accuser and accused caught within the same box. Kramer also elegantly resolves the obstacle of simultaneous courtroom translation without ignoring its reality.

Outside the court, Nuremberg is a dichotomy of destruction and rebirth, entire city blocks reduced to rubble by Allied bombing, but some neighbourhoods, markets and restaurants now thriving again mostly on American money. Judge Haywood finds the locals mostly differential to their American vanquishers, and struggling with deep feelings of humiliation and confusion over a dream of restoring nationalistic self-belief turned into a nightmare of devastation.

Dr. Janning finally breaks his silence and eloquently yet emotionally outlines how individual responsibility can be subjugated by the rising tide of immense pride fuelled by intoxicating power. Judgment At Nuremberg asks all the difficult questions, offers no easy answers, and delivers poignant commentary on the dilemmas inherent in a society drifting towards extremism in the name of national reawakening.



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Movie Review: Adam's Rib (1949)

A serious comedy about the battle between the sexes, Adam's Rib examines the changing status of women through the story of married lawyers who face off in court. The sixth teaming of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy finds the couple in top form, playing off each other at home and at work.

Adam Bonner (Tracy) is an Assistant District Attorney married to Amanda (Hepburn), a lawyer who represents defendants. When Doris Attinger (Judy Holliday) is arrested for shooting and injuring her cheating husband (Tom Ewell), Adam is assigned what seems to be a straightforward prosecution case. But Amanda is sympathetic to Doris' humiliation, and to Adam's horror decides to defend her.

Amanda bases her defence on equality between men and women, presenting Doris as a woman who was defending her family and marriage. Amanda argues that had Doris been a man defending his household, he would be perceived as heroic. As the case garners hysterical media attention, Amanda's well-articulated courtroom rage against inequality befuddles Adam, but also severely stresses their marriage.

With World War Two over and women beginning to feel empowered to seek a new role in society, Adam's Rib throws open the debate about changing societal attitudes about the roles of men and women. Written directly for the screen by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin and powered by a fearless Katharine Hepburn performance, Adam's Rib foreshadows a seismic shift towards feminism that would only come to pass some 15 years later.

Amanda is a confident professional, opinionated, eager to take on a case that appears doomed, and willing to risk the relationship with her husband to better the status of women. In the courtroom she is a formidable opponent, not above resorting to humiliating tricks to weaken Adam's case. She can also be coquettish and irresistible, but her charms begin to fall behind her determination. How far Amanda is willing to go to prove her point while inflicting increasing damage on Adam's ego becomes the central question in the movie.

Spencer Tracy brings his typical principled everyman persona to Adam, creating an impressive male role model. He has strong values, loves his wife and believes in the justice system, which makes Amanda's incessant barrage on her husband's position resonate with so much more poignancy.

While Adam will fight to the end to prove that his time-tested principles are not subject to Amanda's gender warfare arguments, in contrast other men are ready to fall down and die at the feet of Amanda's coming revolution. The Bonners' neighbour Kip Lurie (David Wayne) is openly in love with Amanda, and will worship the ground she walks on regardless of which metamorphosis she is advocating. Kip is a music composer and piano player, and so gets to warble the Cole Porter song Farewell, Amanda to express his unashamed devotion to his neighbour.

Director George Cukor keeps the pacing brisk and the mood light-hearted despite the serious subject matter.  He makes good use of some interesting editing and camera placements, keeping many scenes long between cuts and allowing the camera to sit and rest, a silent observer of a loving couple arguing their way towards a new society.

Adam's Rib pushes the pendulum of harmony between men and women sharply in one direction before nudging it back a bit, careful to ensure that one courtroom battle victory is not earned at the expense of destroying the foundations needed for a new and better relationship to thrive.

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Movie Review: Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)

An earnest retelling of the Doolittle raid, America's first post Pearl Harbour retaliation against mainland Japan, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo succeeds by placing the people and the mission ahead of the machinery and the bombs.

It's early in 1942, and Lt. Col. James Doolittle (Spencer Tracy) is tasked with conceiving and executing a daring bombing raid against targets in Japan. The objectives are to puncture the Japanese perception of invulnerability, and to draw Japanese resources back from the front lines to defend their homeland. A volunteer force of B-25 bomber crews is assembled for training, and they are simply told that the mission is exceedingly dangerous and completely secret.

Among the volunteers are Lt. Ted Lawson (Van Johnson), whose crew includes Cpl. David Thatcher (Robert Walker), while Lt. Bob Gray (Robert Mitchum) leads the crew of another bomber. Lawson is newly married to Ellen (Phyllis Thaxter), who is now pregnant. In total, more than a dozen bomber crews are assembled for ten weeks of training, including learning to execute hazardous short take-offs to simulate operations on an aircraft carrier. With training complete, the bombers are deployed on-board the USS Hornet, and ultimately execute a scrambly mission, successfully bombing their targets but running out of fuel. Lawson ditches off the coast of Japanese-occupied China, and discovers that the really difficult part of his mission is about to start.

Based on Lawson's book of the same name, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo adopts a factual, almost documentary approach, with an emphasis on crew camaraderie and a good taste for the mechanics of the mission, always keeping the lives and spirits of the men at the centre of the drama.

The training and preparations for the raid, and the subsequent deployment on the Hornet, are treated with little glory and plenty of hard graft. Dalton Trumbo's script goes into some impressive details when needed, and the scenes of training for short take-offs, the B-25 pushed to do things it was not necessarily designed for, emphasize the inventiveness needed to gain an advantage in battle. The mixing of army airmen with navy personnel on-board the aircraft carrier is presented with a sense of authenticity as a source of potential tension.

Lawson's relationship with his wife Ellen is provided with plenty of room to breathe and grow. Ellen is the airman's connection to the real world, representing both the home front and a compelling reason to come back alive. Van Johnson and Phyllis Thaxter portray a genuine and tender love, Thaxter compelling as the girl next door, standing fully behind her man and emotionally supporting him with surprising fortitude.

Spencer Tracy's performance as James Doolittle stretches a bit beyond a cameo, but not by much. He is perhaps on the screen for about 10 of the 138 minutes, but leaves a lasting impression as he drops in on the men to introduce every new phase of training and re-emphasize the dangers of the mission.

Director Mervyn LeRoy allows the story to unfold through Johnson's steady performance, the photography alternating between capturing grand scenes (including original newsreel footage) of impressive war machinery and the essence of men dealing with the growing tension of a looming mission filled with unknown dangers.

The final third of the Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo deals with the unexpected post-raid adversity faced by Lawson and his crew after ditching off the coast of China. The post-script to the mission proved to be the most challenging phase, and an apt metaphor for war: it's what happens when the shooting stops that really determines the difference between real success and abject failure.

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Movie Review: Woman Of The Year (1942)

A prescient romance several generations ahead of its time, Woman Of The Year is as relevant today as it was in the year it was made. The exploration of gender politics and the role of women in modern society foreshadowed an upheaval that would only begin two decades later, with the movie uncovering power shift implications that still remain unresolved.

Woman Of The Year was also the first teaming of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, a legendary pairing that would spark a lifetime off-screen romance, and a total of nine on-screen collaborations.

At the New York Chronicle newspaper, Sam Craig (Tracy) is the sports reporter while Tess Harding (Hepburn) is an international affairs columnist. Craig is a crusty man of the people, generally oblivious to the raging Second World War and just focusing on covering the next ball game. Harding socializes with the political and intellectual leaders of the world, is on a first-name basis with presidents of foreign countries, and frequently travels to far-flung world capitals. And yet, once they meet, Craig and Harding fall in love, enjoy a whirlwind romance, and then quickly get married.

As a couple, things are a lot more complicated. Harding's obligations to keep up with global newsmakers means that she has little time for Craig. He is somewhat patient but also resentful, finding his wife often absent and clueless about what it means to be a housewife. Finally, too many references to Mr. Harding and the sudden introduction of a new family member cause a severe strain on the relationship. Sam makes a stand, and Tess confronts a difficult dilemma.

Tess Harding is one of the most memorable women to grace a movie, and her arrival on the screen as a feminist role model 20 years before the movement seeped into common consciousness is a remarkable achievement. Loving her job, excellent at what she does and enjoying every moment of her high-flying life, she still has the self-confidence to allow herself to fall in love with a man from a different world. Tess is also happily hopeless about housekeeping, openly condescending about sports, and doesn't even pause to think about the emotional needs of the man in her life.

Katharine Hepburn, who in real life was setting her own standards while dismissing the traditional behaviours and wardrobe of women, used the clout of her comeback success in The Philadelphia Story to develop Woman Of The Year. Hepburn selected the screenwriters and director George Stevens before taking the project to MGM. She brings Tess to life in one the best roles of her career, a woman with an intellect operating at twice the speed of all those around her, deploying wit, humour and seduction to help win all her battles in a man-dominated world.

Tracy gets the more grounded role as the down-to-earth Sam Craig, emotionally swept up by Tess but otherwise standing aside and allowing the joyous typhoon of her life to carry on without him. Tracy creates in Sam the bemused observer of an unfolding social revolution, a man loving a new type of woman but also crushed by what it may mean to his idea of domestic bliss. Hepburn and Tracy enjoy an almost immediate and natural chemistry, two souls meant for each other and quickly finding comfort in their togetherness.

The supporting cast is edgy and contributes to both the drama and comedy. Gerald (Dan Tobin) is Tess' secretary, happy to cater to every need of his female boss, and happier still to make Sam's life as miserable as possible. Mr. William Harding (Minor Watson) is Tess' father, proud of his daughter and fully aware of what Sam is going through but nevertheless enjoying his torment. Ellen (Fay Bainter) is close friends with William and also an aunt to Tess, representing the enduring values of a much more traditional woman. William Bendix gets the outright comic relief role, a former boxer turned bar owner who cannot help but recount long-winded stories about his tiresome bouts.

George Stevens directs with brisk pacing and energy to match Tess Harding's life, with something always going on, the phone ringing, unexpected guests at the door, and all events unfolding against the backdrop of the continuous clatter of the news wire machines. From the initial encounters between Tess and Sam to the romance, marriage, and increasingly difficult life as a couple, Woman Of The Year barely pauses, Tess never the sort of woman to take a break and Sam having to adjust to the new reality that comes with the woman in his life.

Men and women will spend eternity trying to understand and accommodate each other. Woman Of The Year brings the journey into the modern age, and makes it at once more challenging and much more invigorating.

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