nmarshi

Unavailable on DVD, but found on VHS at Blockbuster, "Mr Lucky" is a Cary Grant vehicle, even more than a morale boosting, "keep the homes fires burning" war movie. Grant gets to play a wide range of roles here: fashion plate, grifter, romantic lead, war hero and (most notably) knitter of sweaters. Look, I've seen them all: North By Northwest, Bringing Up Baby, To Catch A Thief, and on and on.This has many moments that match the very best that Cary Grant had on offer. Most notably, there's an extended sequence of Grant riffing in Cockney to Laraine Day. Now Cary Grant liked to identify himself as a Cockney (which is usually termed as an East Londoner), but here he gets the rare opportunity in his movie career to play one (also in Gunga Din), and when asked where he picked up the rhyming slang that makes Cockney so annoying (charming to Americans) he says: Australia ! Ah Hollywood... You've also got to admire the sartorial splendor which Cary maintains throughout the film, even though he 's supposedly a poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks who left home at nine. Apparently there's a finishing school on Skid Row, and Cary was voted Best Dressed. Of course, one of the perverse running gags of "Mr Lucky" is that our hero wears absurdly garish ties, and does not know how to tie a Windsor knot. All he needs is Laraine Day to bring him the appropriate conservative necktie to complete him. Bless him he fights her off ... On a fifth viewing (over a lifetime), I have to admit the last twenty minutes drips with melodramatic sentiment out of step with our modern times (hey, I still tear up-don't tell anyone) but this is still a classic: funny, fast paced, easy on the eyes, and with a great supporting cast.

Saw "Kiss Me Deadly" at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica as part of the Film Noir Festival which happens every year there. First time viewing, and expectations were high. We were lucky enough to have the first assistant director from the film, and Maxine Cooper who played Velda waved at us from the back of the cinema. However, the pre-film discussion was lackluster and a missed opportunity. The film itself was a gripping, complex tale, where neither the characters nor the audience knew what was going on. This Mike Hammer-played unconvincingly by big muscled, Beach boy looking Ralph Meeker is an opportunist with a heart of gold, a cad with a conscience, a bully with a soft streak. His sidekick and secretary Velda, didn't have the femme fatale aura I would have expected. However, there are a host of other character actors who flit in and out of the film who are worth the price of admission: Nick Dennis as Nick, Hammer's idiosyncratic car mechanic (va va voom); Leigh Snowden as Hammer's fastest pick-up ever and Cloris Leachman in a small but pivotal role, in her first film. Where the film falls down is in its central intrigue: 'the "great whatsit' which Hammer and everyone else in the movie is chasing, has a dated, ho-hum quality once the cat is out of the bag. Apparently the film was controversial in its day and the studio may or may not have been behind the changing of the ending at the time "Kiss Me Deadly "was issued. According to our presenter the final 5 minutes were confusingly cut to satisfy the U.S. Government. We got to see the film as originally intended by the director, but there's nothing there now which warrants the fuss made 50 years ago. In fact, the supposed "incredible" ending I've read about in other reviews played cheesily to me, to use a classic film critique term. Still, "Kiss Me Deadly" is worth seeing, as much for its foibles as its accomplishments, as well as for its wonderful glimpses into downtown Los Angeles, and Bunker Hill before the skyscrapers replaced its Victorian tenements.

Just saw "The Fallen Idol" at the Nu-Art in West Los Angeles on the last day of its one week run, with a new crystal clear 35 mm print. The meaning of the title only becomes clear at the film's conclusion, so I won't say much more on that score. From a Graham Greene novella which I have never read, the author drafted the screenplay, so presumably the film remains faithful to Greene's perennial themes: loyalty and betrayal; faith and faithlessness; marriage and divorce. What makes these issues intriguing is that the film largely revolves around the point of view of an innocent, charming young boy called Phillipe, played to perfection by Bobby Henrey. He lives in the London embassy of a French speaking country, which is a sort of purgatory (always the Catholic themes with Greene) which is both in England and not subject to its laws. He is taken care of by a kind valet/ chef de maison called Baines (understatedly played by Ralph Richardson) and his Cruella De Ville of a wife (played as the personification of small-minded evil by Sonia Dresdel). Phillipe has no mother (she has been unwell and away for a long time), and no memory of her. Insteads, he has the run of his own Garden of Eden-the huge Embassy with its lovely views over London, great rooms and sweeping staircases. He even has his own snake- a pet that he hides behind a brick on the balcony and carries around in his pocket. He hero-worships Baines, who indulges him and talk to him and hates Mrs Baines who orders him around, hectors him and threatens him at every turn. The story of the film occurs over a week-end, where Phillippe and the Baines' are left alone in the Embassy as the ambassador has gone to bring back his wife from her convalescence, and revolves how Phillipe understands the love triangle between Mr Baines and Mrs Baines and the lovely Julie (played with cheek-bones high) by Michele Morgan, speaking both French and English.

Look out for some terrific performances by the main cast (especially Bobby Henrey as Phillipe), but also by a series of supporting characters : two washerwomen, a sharp tongued lady of the night, a kindly bobby, several detectives and a perceptive doctor. The photography bears mentioning. There are shades of the "Third Man", as well as a great hide and seek game in darkness under the furniture in the empty Embassy, and a truly memorable run through the empty streets of London in the dark. From a personal point of view I enjoyed several scenes shot on location at the London Zoo, which was all very familiar even from a fifty year vantage point.

The film won a British Academy award so it's not exactly undiscovered, but it's not been easy to find at revival theaters or on DVD, but it deserves to be. As I said at the top, a minor masterpiece which operates on many levels. (Los Angeles-April 2006).