edwardi-koch

In Beau James, Bob Hope does a great job of depicting how the enormity of New York courses through its Mayor's blood and at least partially takes over every aspect of his life. Politics, in general, makes it difficult, if not impossible some times, to actually have a private life. When New York is your wife, you have no time for mistresses. Bob Hope did a great job of illustrating this in Beau James. He neither looked nor spoke like the tall, angular, thick-accented Jimmy Walker, but Hope captured his spirit and his joie-de-vivre. Paul Douglas is superb as Chris, the Tammany Hall boss. Alexis Smith is marvelous as Walker's pragmatic spouse and Vera Miles is gorgeous and winsome as ingénue Betty Compton with whom Walker had an affair. There is a great cameo by Jimmy Durante while Darrin McGavin and James Flavin both resonate in strong supporting performances. This is an enjoyable film that never forgets that New York is its actual star.

Rod Steiger gives the greatest lead-actor performance I have ever seen in the title role of the Pawnbroker. Lumet's direction strikes no false note and neither does the incredibly well-researched and painfully honest script. It's hard to believe how virtually forgotten this true masterpiece of a survivor's private hell. It shows very vividly that even those of us lucky enough to survive the camps need to be ever more rare of spirit to survive without significant trauma scars. Steiger extracts every piece of emotion from his character with a performance that exceeds all that came before it and has never been surpassed. Every aspiring actor needs to view Steiger's performance to realize how magnificent it truly is.

Although not a pleasant movie to watch, An Act of Violence is as memorable and honest a look at the realities of the aftermath of war that one would ever want to see. Van Heflin's post-war suburban bliss with wife Janet Leigh is ended by the grim and dogged determination of pursuer Robert Ryan. Heflin's hidden cowardice during the war cost Ryan his leg and some of their comrades their lives. Ryan won't rest until the ledger is balanced somehow.

That's all of it, and Zinneman allows it to unfold in a manner that goes straight to our hearts and minds. This movie obviously has earned a Fan Club at TCM since they now show it frequently after I hadn't seen it since the late 50's until about 10 years ago. I recommend it highly.