Movie Review: Pitfall (1948)

A tense drama with noirish elements, Pitfall uncovers the dangers that seep to the surface when the thrill of an affair clouds better judgement.

In Los Angeles, John Forbes (Dick Powell) is an mid-level manager with the Olympic Mutual Insurance Company. Married to Sue (Jane Wyatt) and father to young son Tommy, John is going through a mid-life crisis, feeling stale in his life, marriage and career. At the office, private detective MacDonald (Raymond Burr) reports to John that he has uncovered Mona Stevens (Lizabeth Scott) as the recipient of gifts paid for by the convict Smiley (Byron Barr) with ill-gotten money insured by Olympic. MacDonald also does not hide the fact that he found Mona to be stunningly attractive.

John sets off to meet Mona and recover as many of the gifts as possible. He is immediately attracted to her vulnerability and they embark on a brief affair. But MacDonald wants Mona for himself, and from behind bars Smiley is seething with jealousy. John's stray impulses set off a chain of events that will threaten his career and result in unexpected violence.

Directed by André De Toth, Pitfall carries the insurance-and-crime echoes of Double Indemnity and foreshadows the straying-man-ruins-life lessons of Fatal Attraction, but is not quite as sharp as either of these two classics. Pitfall builds a decent mood, boasts a good cast in fine form, and is packaged into a compact 86 minutes. But the crime elements take a long time to grab hold, and are focused within the obtuse character of the private detective MacDonald.

The film's black and white cinematography and crime elements suggest some noir-light aesthetics. But De Toth does not go out of his way to engage in the noir style, nor does the plot forcefully move in a noir direction. Pitfall is more of a morality tale about the dangers of wandering away from the comforts of family, with defined villains and few motivational ambiguities.

John Forbes is the prototypical middle class man, well established in his career with a loving wife and cute kid. And yet he has hit the middle age wall where he is deeply resentful of his life, using sarcasm as a crutch, questioning what it all means and aching for the carefree freedom of youth. In short, a perfect candidate for the lure of a quick affair, and he stumbles into Mona's apartment fully vulnerable to her sob story.

But alluring as she is, John does not belong in the sordid world occupied by the likes of Mona, MacDonald and Smiley, and his dive into emotional entanglements within their gutter creates ripples that culminate in a series of crimes. MacDonald's obsession is the main catalyst for evil deeds, but John's involvement makes a bad situation much worse.

Dick Powell is dependable and well suited to the role of bland insurance man. But Lizabeth Scott and Raymond Burr deliver the two most memorable performances. Scott is perfect as the attractive victim with the darkness of a misdirected life swirling behind her eyes. Burr as MacDonald is simply imposing in a suit about three sizes too big, a self-satisfied presence trying to force the world to bend to his will, consequences be damned. Jane Wyatt's role as Sue Forbes grows in importance as the story progresses, and Wyatt rises up to the challenge of the pivotal role Sue ultimately gets to play in deciding John's fate.

Pitfall may not always shine with new ideas or blazing execution, but it does deliver a solid cautionary tale about the hazards of succumbing to wayward impulses.

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Movie Review: Mister Roberts (1955)

A World War Two multi-character drama set on a cargo ship in the Pacific, Mister Roberts features a dream cast in fine form debating man's destiny and military discipline. But the film can't quite shake its more hokey elements and the confining stage origins.

With World War Two coming to its conclusion, the US cargo ship Reluctant is on duty somewhere in the Pacific, keeping the rear lines supplied under the baking sun and very far away from any combat operations. Lieutenant Doug Roberts (Henry Fonda) is the executive officer, has the respect of the men, and shields them from the dictatorial antics of Captain Morton (James Cagney). Also on board is the world-weary "Doc" (William Powell) and the young Ensign Pulver (Jack Lemmon). The latter is in charge of "laundry and morale", but is trying to ride out the war while doing exactly nothing.

Roberts is desperate to be involved in combat missions before the war ends, and repeatedly requests reassignment to the front lines. Morton knows that Roberts is essential to the successful functioning of Reluctant, and refuses to endorse Roberts' applications. With Morton pushing the crew ever harder, Roberts has an opportunity to relieve the mounting pressure on his men, but at the cost of his own principles and desires.

Through a combination of round-edged drama and mild humour, Mister Roberts celebrates the men who missed the business end of the war and yet contributed the unglamorous work that ensured success. It's a rare perspective, with a focus on friction, camaraderie, restlessness and boredom among men stationed far from home and far from the action, suffering through all the drawbacks without any opportunities to confront the enemy.

The film is dominated by the talent of a fine cast, and the performances overcome a somewhat creaky script weighed down by the story's theatrical roots. Despite Fonda, Cagney and Powell (in his last film role) all being too old for their roles, they deploy the full depth of their talent to give the film a distinguished air. The younger Lemmon mugs his way towards an Academy Award as the officer who moves from the fringes of trouble towards the eye of the storm, in what would prove to be a template for his career persona.

A troubled production featured director John Ford sparring with Fonda, an altercation that eventually led to a physical tussle. Ironically, it was Ford who had insisted on Fonda reprising his Broadway role as Roberts, despite Warner Bros. worries that he was too old. Fonda had also spent seven years away from the movies, and the studio was concerned his screen appeal was dimming. Ford's ill health eventually forced him to quit the project; Mervyn LeRoy and an uncredited Joshua Logan (director of the stage production) finally tidied up the project with plenty of reshoots.

Almost the entire film takes place on the Reluctant, and creating two hours of war drama with no enemies in sight and no shots fired unsurprisingly proves to be a stretch. In between the unfolding tension between Roberts and Morton, there are long-winded filler scenes about sailors ogling on-shore nurses; nurses coming on board the ship for no defined purpose; and the manufacturing of a cheap whiskey-like concoction from an assortment of chemicals. Ensign Pulver gets to play with a large home-made firecracker, and eventually manages to flood the boat with soap suds in a sequence better suited to broad vaudevillian farce. Apart from making the point about the soul-crushing boredom of service in the war's deep background, these scenes add little to the film's central narrative while consuming plenty of trite minutes.

The story that does matter is a battle of wills, effectively delivered: the principled Roberts believes the war of his life is passing him by; the tyrannical dufus Morton considers captaining the Reluctant to be the pinnacle of his career and needs Roberts to stick around since he holds the men together. The playful Pulver, the one character with something resembling an arc, is the clever but carefree officer who will grow into his responsibilities.

The script by Logan and Frank S. Nugent settles for a tone of light drama with occasional dips into more serious territory. But on the small boat there is not much room for nuance: when the central conflict between Roberts and Morton spills into the open, it's all conveyed in stark contrasts between villainy and sacrificial heroism, the emotions setting sail into simplistic waters. Mister Roberts avoids complexities, but does contemplate different layers of ambition.

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Movie Review: The Thin Man (1934)

A sharp murder mystery wrapped in a celebration of couplehood, The Thin Man crackles with wit and offbeat energy.

Inventor Clyde Wynant (Edward Ellis) suddenly disappears, leaving behind distraught daughter Dorothy (Maureen O'Sullivan), ex-wife Mimi (Minna Gombell), recent lover Julia (Natalie Moorhead), and confused business partner Herbert (Porter Hall).

Retired police detective Nick Charles (William Powell) has known Dorothy since she was a child, and is eventually persuaded by his wife Nora (Myrna Loy) to help investigate Clyde's disappearance. This soon turns into a multiple-murder investigation with Clyde as the prime suspect, as Lieutenant John Guild (Nat Pendleton) closes in on solving the case. But all is not what it seems, and Nick's intervention turns the case on its head, with Clyde himself a victim and the real murderer well-hidden among a large number of suspects.

The Thin Man derives most of its appeal from the interplay between Nick and Nora. He is happily retired from policing, happy to drink at all hours, and happy to live a glib life of languorous socializing, yet his detective brain never stops working. She patiently matches his intelligence but combines it with sly prodding towards doing something useful in life, like helping to solve a murder. The repartee between them adds a shimmering gloss to The Thin Man, elevating it from a whodunnit to a pointy cerebral puzzle.

The mystery elements of the film are absorbing, the screenplay by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich packing three murders and a dozen disparate characters into 93 minutes. The dichotomy between Nick's love for the life of leisure and the sudden acts of evil conniving generates entertaining tension, as director W. S. (Woody) Van Dyke gradually but inevitably moves Nick to the centre of the mayhem, culminating in a droll all-suspects dinner invitation.

William Powell and Myrna Loy create the roles for which they became most famous, an odd couple with genuine warmth. The subtle moments in the film when Powell and Loy cut through both the drama and the comedy to display genuine caring between Nick and Nora are the foundations of their screen magic. Powell brings self-depreciating haughtiness to Nick, and Loy, dressed in a succession of stunning outfits, plays Nora as the woman who knows that she is her husband's source of both monetary and emotional wealth, but wields her power with tender subtlety. Their relationship is under constant observation by their pet dog Asta, a source of understated comic relief.

Successful to the point of spawning five sequels over the next 13 years, The Thin Man helped create the template for classy screen crime mysteries built on the chemistry of a crafty couple.

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Movie Review: Life With Father (1947)

A comedy about turbulent family dynamics, Life With Father pokes fun at life within New York's upper crust, and explores the balance of power between men and women.

Clarence Day (William Powell) is a well-respected New York stockbroker, as crusty and set in his ways as he is rich. Married to the resourceful Vinnie (Irene Dunne), they have four red-headed children: Clarence Jr. (Jimmy Lydon), John, Harlan, and Whitney. While Clarence thinks that he runs his household with strict discipline and a tight hold over the family finances, the reality is that Vinnie and the kids successfully navigate around him to do almost as they please.

Clarence hates to have house guests, but that does not stop Vinnie from welcoming cousin Cora (ZaSu Pitts) and blossoming teenager Mary (Elizabeth Taylor) for a visit over a few days. Clarence Jr. is immediately infatuated with Mary, but gets no useful advice from his father on how to nurture the romance. Life in the Day household gets a lot more complicated when it is revealed that Clarence was never baptized. This horrifies Vinnie, but she struggles to get her stiff husband to acknowledge her feelings.

Based on the play by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, Life With Father is a sharply written comedy, delivered by a glimmering cast in top form. William Powell and Irene Dunne demonstrate terrific chemistry as a long-married couple who have learned to keep their household thriving for the benefit of their growing children. While the film generally focuses on ultimately frivolous issues besetting a rich family with no real worries, it is nevertheless a pleasing and playful examination of homefront politics.

Powell is quite funny as Clarence Day, nailing the stuffy mannerisms of a man believing that he is the master of his domain. Powell keeps his nose in the air, his tone haughty with finality, and his attitude imperious. Unfortunately for Clarence, the main theme of Life With Father is his utter lack of actual influence. Vinnie and her children have mastered the art of circumventing him, and Vinnie controls the real levers of power. Irene Dunne has all the subtle tricks of household command and control, including controlling on a strict need-to-know basis the flow of information to Clarence, turning on the faucet of tears when convenient, and befuddling Clarence with financial castles in the air to liberate money from his pocket.

Elizabeth Taylor, at just 15 years old, already bedazzles the screen whenever she is on it, with a combination of coquettish girlishness and irresistible charm. Clarence Jr., who initially claims no interest in girls, falls under Mary's spell the minute she walks through the door. Their relationship shows all the signs of evolving into another asymmetrical arrangement where one partner is love-blinded into miscomprehending where the domination lies.

For a two hour comedy that takes place mostly inside one house, director Michael Curtiz is light on his feet, briskly moving the action through the many rooms in the Day mansion, and maintaining a steady stream of playfulness in the antics of the various family members. A running joke about the household maids ties the film together, while there are excellent comic punctuation marks dispersed throughout, including Clarence's intolerance for house guests, a condition ignored with a smile by Vinnie.

A late appearance by an ugly dog statuette, immediately despised by Clarence, is ingeniously deployed by Vinnie to resolve several lingering bones of contention. Life With Father is all about getting the best out of the family patriarch, despite his best intentions to stand in the way of his own happiness.

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Movie Review: How To Marry A Millionaire (1953)

With three beautiful but broke women desperate to snag ultra rich husbands, How To Marry A Millionaire finds all the right kinds of comedic trouble. Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe and Lauren Bacall are the devious but frantic instigators of the husband hunting game, and ultimately face the farcical consequences when the best laid plans go awry.

Schatze (Bacall) is a fashion model, Pola (Monroe) is a stunning blonde but blind as a bat without her glasses, and Loco (Grable) is true to her name and just a little nutty. Together they are close to penniless, but nevertheless they rent a swanky furnished New York apartment, pretending to be wealthy to attract rich men. The apartment actually belongs to Freddie (David Wayne), who is apparently on the run to avoid tax evasion charges. The three women survive by gradually selling off the apartment furniture, but the days pass without any of them finding suitably rich husbands. Schatze repeatedly fends off the advances of the persistent Tom Brookman (Cameron Mitchell) because she believes him to be a gas jockey.

But the ladies finally strike it lucky when they are invited to a cocktail party for out-of-town oil tycoons. Schatze is soon enjoying the company of the gentlemanly but much older J.D. Hanley (William Powell), Loco is accompanying a two-timing businessman to a lodge in Maine where she contracts the measles but also meets the hunky Eben (Rory Calhoun), and Pola falls for a one-eyed man who may be only pretending to be extremely wealthy. Although everything looks promising, nothing will proceed as anticipated on the way to finding the right match.

A mix of comedy, romance, and some farce, How To Marry A Millionaire is bright, cheerful, colourful and breezy. The trio of Bacall, Monroe, and Grable keep the screen filled with a bubbly froth of men-seeking hormones, and the three actresses quickly establish memorable and distinct characters.

Bacall's Schatze holds the group together and appears the most mature, but she is catastrophically error-prone in her assessment of men's qualities. Monroe goes to town as Pola in a role full of understated comedy. Pola refuses to wear her glasses, believing they make her ugly, and as a result Monroe gets to walk slowly into walls and carries on conversations with people she does not recognize. Monroe demonstrates excellent timing and self-control, Pola fighting against herself to place beauty ahead of elegance and basic functionality.

Loco is perhaps none too bight but has an uncanny talent to pick up men while shopping, getting them to pay for whatever she was buying, and then bringing them home for a look-over by Schatze and Pola. Grable mixes adorable naivete with a lust for riches, a combination that misfires with a spectacular bang when she meets Eben and his trees in the wilderness of a Maine park.

How To Marry A Millionaire was the first film shot in CinemaScope. Director Jean Negulesco demonstrates the breadth of all that the technology has to offer, the movie opening with wide-screen shots of the 20th Century Fox Orchestra performing Street Scene, followed by a sparkling montage of New York landmarks. Negulesco then keeps his ladies bathed in glamour regardless of their declining financial fortunes. The Nunnally Johnson script even finds its way to a private fashion show scene with Schatze, Pola and Loco among a bevy of beauties modelling for Tom Brookman as he insists on a private showing of the latest fashions simply to get close to Schatze.

How To Marry A Millionaire is of course useless as a how-to guide, but rather than helping to find millionaire husbands, the film offers priceless fun.

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