Soylent Green (1973): adapted from the Harry Harrison novel Make Room! Make Room! by Stanley R. Greenberg; directed by Richard Fleischer; starring Charlton Heston (Thorn), Leigh Taylor-Young (Shirl), Chuck Connors (Tab), Joseph Cotten (Simonson), Brock Peters (The Chief), and Edward G. Robinson (Sol Roth):
Soylent Green's grungy, beige-and-green, run-down, over-populated world of 2022 is a great aesthetic creation for the set designers and costume people. The movie infamously adds a ridiculous 'twist' to Harry Harrison's science-fiction novel about Malthusian over-population so as to make the movie more 'popular.' Now it's the only thing people remember about the movie. Oh, well. Chuck Heston is solid and stolid as a dogged policeman investigating a murder and being pursued by shadowy figures who don't want the reason for that murder to come out.
The best thing about Soylent Green is Edward G. Robinson's performance as Heston's partner, a man old enough to remember Earth That Was, and mourn it. Robinson knew that he'd be dead of cancer soon after filming, and he was -- he died days after the final wrap. What he delivers here is a jewel of a performance. He elevates the material to Art in every scene he's in. He moves the whole movie up from lightly recommended to Recommended.
The Narrow Margin: written by Earl Felton, Martin Goldsmith, and Jack Leonard; directed by Richard Fleischer; starring Charles McGraw (Detective Brown), Marie Windsor (Mrs. Neal), and Jacqueline White (Ann Sinclair) (1952): Short, snappy B-movie was remade into a somewhat superior Gene Hackman vehicle in the early 1990's, with the definite article removed from the title.
Detective Brown has to get a mobster's wife who's turned state's evidence to Los Angeles from Chicago. So they take a train. Killers are on the train. Killers may be at various stops along the way. It's all fairly tense and succinct, with a meanness of attitude and violence that suggests the growing influence of Mickey Spillane on film noir in the United States. A more charismatic cast would have made a big difference -- this is not a testament to great film acting -- but the movie is still well worth watching. Recommended.
Shadow of a Doubt: adapted by Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson, and Alma Reville from a story by Gordon McDonell; directed by Alfred Hitchcock; starring Teresa Wright (Charlie), Joseph Cotten (Uncle Charlie), Macdonald Carey (Graham), Henry Travers (Joseph Newton), Patricia Collinge (Emma Newton), and Hume CRonyn (Herbie Hawkins) (1943): Perhaps Hitchcock's most nuanced and humane exploration of human evil, Shadow of a Doubt casts its shadow forward on similar explorations of small-town America that include Blue Velvet, Fargo, and many other seriocomic films and television shows.
Joseph Cotten, cast against type as a monster, does great work as Uncle Charlie, a serial killer who returns home to his older sister's house just one step ahead of the law. Once there, his 'twin' -- Teresa Wright as his niece Charlie (Charlene), named in honour of him -- swiftly moves from hero worship to growing horror at what she gradually perceives her uncle to be. Wright is also excellent as the increasingly horrified Charlie who nonetheless must weigh what to do about her uncle as she fears what the monstrous allegations would do to her mother, who adores her baby brother.
There's a tremendous breadth to Shadow of a Doubt. Comic scenes with a young Hume Cronyn and Henry Travers offer commentary on an audience's love of thrills and murder. Hitchcock and his writers also examine the somewhat stultifying family dynamic of the younger Charlie's household. As is common in Hitchcock films, the law is a step slow and a day late throughout the film. The final confrontation will be between the two Charlies and no one else. Highly recommended.
Babes in Toyland (aka March of the Wooden Soldiers): written by Frank Butler, Nick Grinde, Anna Alice Chapin, and Stan Laurel; directed by Gus Meins and Charles Rogers; starring Stan Laurel (Stannie Dum) and Oliver Hardy (Ollie Dee) (1934):
Enjoyable Christmas musical from Laurel and Hardy, set in the world of Mother Goose. The slapstick is fun, the romantic leads forgettable, and the musical numbers occasionally puzzling: why doesn't Hardy, who showcased a nice singing voice in other movies, get a number here?
A monkey dressed up to look like Mickey Mouse is really quite disturbing, especially when it's flying around in a toy zeppelin throwing bombs at the Bogeymen who have invaded Toyland. Recommended.
The Magnificent Ambersons: adapted by Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, and Jack Moss from the novel by Booth Tarkington; directed by Orson Welles with Fred Fleck and Robert Wise; starring Joseph Cotten (Eugene), Dolores Costello (Isabel), Anne Baxter (Lucy), Tim Holt (George), Agnes Moorehead (Fanny) and Orson Welles (Narrator) (1942): The follow-up to Citizen Kane is revered both for what it is -- a broody slab of American Gothic -- and what it isn't -- 50 minutes longer.
Yes, the studio re-edited the film without the input of Welles, chopping it down to 88 minutes and filming a newer, happier ending. Legend has it that the lost footage was quickly destroyed by RKO Pictures to prevent Welles from editing it back in.
While Welles was already notorious for going over budget, the fault really lay with RKO. They knew that The Magnificent Ambersons, a Booth Tarkington novel Welles and his Mercury Theatre had previously adapted for radio, was a tragic downer when they greenlighted it with an unheard-of-for-RKO million-dollar budget. But Welles would get the blame, and never really have full control over a decently budgeted studio film again.
What's left here is a magnicent, truncated Gothic tale with more than a hint of Great Expectations about it, though it's Great Expectations as seen in a funhouse mirror. Welles' brilliant use of shadows and textures, and his uncommonly fine understanding of how to achieve depth of field with the camera technology of the early 1940's, is on display here. The movie looks great as the camera flows through the chiarascuro rooms of the Amberson mansion.
The other fascinating intertext for this film would be The Great Gatsby, again in a funhouse mirror as the pseudo-Gatsby character, played by Joseph Cotten, becomes a true (and benevolent) success while the old-money family of the woman who rejected his love in a fit of pique, played by Dolores Costello, disintegrates under the onslaught of Time and the 20th Century. Tim Holt is suitably un-formed and callow as the spoiled rich kid, and Anne Baxter is radiant as Cotten's daughter Lucy. Highly recommended.
