The Mickey Mouse Theater of the Air

Classic Television Showbiz

The Duel at Silver Creek (1952)

I liked this movie but I don't want to spend a lot of time summarizing it, so I will quote from the Wikipedia:

Luke Cromwell, aka the "Silver Kid" (Audie Murphy), loses his father to mine claim-jumpers. He is deputised by Marshal Lightning Tyrone (Stephen McNally) of Silver City who wants to defeat the claim jumpers. Both men fall for woman, Tyrone for the treacherous Opal Lacey (Faith Domergue), who is secretly in league with the claim jumpers, and Cromwell with tomboy, Dusty Fargo (Susan Cabot).

Standard western fair, nothing that interesting or original about it, but it was well executed and as a result likable. Interestingly Audie Murphy is only the secondary lead, Stephen McNally is really at the center of events and gets probably a little more screen time. The fact that this film was shot in color helps it, its a pleasant looking picture. Some times an uncomplicated Louie Lamour-ish story just hits the spot. **1/2

Rain (1932)

This is one of several film versions of the W. Somerset Maugham story Miss Thompson. More specifically Rain is an adaptation of the 1923 play of the same name that was adapted from Maugham's story, and like many films of its time that come from plays this movie feels oddly stage bound (especially for a story set in the south seas) and very talkie. The story concerns the passengers of an ocean liner who are unexpectedly forced to stop and stay in American Samoa after something happens to their boat (the movies not real clear on what happened with the boat but I read on line that it might have been a cholera outbreak on board).

Among the passengers put ashore is the prostitute Sadie Thompson (Joan Crawford) who is fleeing legal troubles in the States, and the party of Alfred Davidson (Walter Houston) a "moral reformer" and missionary and Dr. Robert MacPhail (Matt Moore) and their wives. These characters all end up staying in the same lazily decaying hotel in Pago Pago, where Davidson becomes obsessed with either saving Miss Thompson, or ensuring that she gets severely punished for her life of sin. Dr. MacPhail tries to calm Davidson down and intercede for Miss Thompson, who was on her way to (I think) Tahiti to take up a legitimate job working for a friend. Davidson however will not budge and uses his political influence to force the governor of the island to agree to send Sadie back to the States where she expects to go to prison. The stress and trauma of this is enough to  cause Sadie to have a breakdown and become extremely pliable to Davidsons wishes. But by this time his reformers zeal has given way to baser desires, and things will not end well for him.

I'd have to agree with what the Motion Picture Herald said about this film:  "Because the producers have made such a strong attempt to establish the stern impressiveness of the story, it is rather slow. In its drive to become powerful, it appears to have lost the spark of spontaneity....Joan Crawford and Walter Huston are satisfactory." Crawford is playing a role kind of similar to Bettie Davis's in Of Human Bondage and Huston plays the kind of excessively moralizing role he was often expected to carry in films of this time such as Gabriel Over the Whitehouse and Dodsworth.  Everyone does what they can with this material, director Lewis Milestone even manages to work in a few interesting tracking or angled shots, and the seat design is appropriately moody (the constant rain effect even works for the most part). However I don't think that film is the right medium for this story, on the stage or the page this was likely more satisfying stuff. **1/2

The Landlord (1970)

A year before gaining cinematic immortality with his cult film Harold & Maude, Hal Ashby directed his first movie, an adaptation of African-American novelist Kristin Hunters 1966 novel The Landlord. Prior to directing Ashby had made his mark as director Norman Jewison's editor of choice, earing an Oscar for his work on 1967's In the Heat of the Night. As a lapsed Mormon from Ogden, Utah the anti-establishment themes of his directorial work may well have stemmed from an unhappy childhood. Watching this film I couldn't help but think what a middle finger it was to Mormon racial dogma of its time. This is not to say that racism is anything near a Mormon monopoly, though the films boldness in pointing out racial insensitivities is pronounced in a way that would have rubbed many contemporary Mormons, white southerners and others 'the wrong way'. Though not entirely uncritical of the urban black populace as regards a stream of self pity, the films big satiric guns go for the white establishment, most memorably conveyed in uneasy scenes at a costume party, and one of a wealthy white family having an argument with strong racist overtones as their black servants serve them the various courses.

The plot of the film centers on Elger Enders (Beau Bridges in one of his few screen roles in which he rivals his brother Jeff in lackadaisical coolness) the younger son of a respected, wealthy, WASP family, who at 29 finally purchases his own place, a tenement house in Brooklyn. At first Elger intends to evict the current tennets and dramatically remodel the building to his own tastes, but his contact with said tenants changes his mind. The story conceit of a man raised in a closed off society coming to embrace members of another social strata, and different race seems kind of trite and obvious when we think about it today, but then, and particularly in the way this movie does it, it was bold, so non-schmaltzy or romanticized, it is something to behold. This is not a movie about minimizing cultural differences, those differences are there and they matter, this is not a movie about making 'blacks' seem more 'white' for white audiences (as say Guess Whose Coming to Dinner largely was), but a movie about acknowledging those differences and then telling the white audience members to take care of the beam in there own eye before worrying about the mote in the others.

This is a bold film, but its also a clever one, its got unique editing flourishes, including the kind of  'peak into the characters mind' cutaways that wouldn't become main streamed until say Alley McBeal in the late 90's. The characters are often ideocentric but full (see again the works of David E Kelly). The aura of the film is kind of proto-hipster, but without trying to be. This is what distinguishes the work of Ashby and makes it to my mind superior to his later imitators, especially Wes Anderson who always seems to be trying too hard, Ashby makes this look easy, almost off the cuff. As impressive a first film as your likely to find out of any director, though sadly it seems to have been largely forgotten. A real find. ***1/2

Killing Kennedy (2013)

Based on the best selling book by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard, this is a television movie made for the National Geographic Channel, yes apparently they do air the occasional TV movie. Anyway the format is a dual biography, covering roughly the five year period ending with the first Kennedy assassination. The Kennedy part of the film we've all seen many times before, a largely hagiographic greatest hits real of Jake (Rob Lowe) and Jackie (Gennifer Goodwin, now the second Big Love wife to play this particular first lady) , who really do love each other in spite of everything. The really interesting part the film is the lesser know story of  Oswald (Will Rothhaar, who nails the grandiose self obsessiveness of his character) and his Soviet born wife Marina (Michelle Trachtenberg, who is a better actress then you might expect her to be). I now feel even more sorry for Marina then I did before watching this film. I also think that its important we remember that Lee Harvey Oswald was a communist, a haunting fact when seen in the stories cold war milieu, and one that is often overlooked in the wider conspiracy mania now associated with this turning point event in American history. Better and more informative then expected. ***

The Untouchables (1987)

Directed by Brian De Palma and written by David Mamet this film has a fine pedigree. Based loosely on the 1957 ghostwritten memoirs of Elliot Ness, which in turn served as the inspiration for the popular late 50's early 60's TV show of the same name staring Robert Stack. The Untouchables movie is a kind of reboot of the entire prohibition gangster genera, grittier and better written then what came before, but still conveying the essence of what constituted the genera and made it popular. It is hard to imagine there being a Boardwalk Empire (currently one of my favorite shows on television) with out there first being 1987's The Untouchables.

Even with its pedigree and cast, which included Kevin Costner at the height of his popularity and Robert De Niro having a ball as Al Capone, there apparently was some trepidation from the studio about the film. That didn't last long however as the movie was very well received by audiences and critics and went on to be one of the most successful films of 1987, which itself was a pretty good year for movies. This may also have been the film that started Sean Connery's late career renaissance.

The film has a lot of memorable actions pieces in it, the most iconic of which is 'the baby carriage sequence' that was later parodied in the 3rd Naked Gun movie and doubtless elsewhere. While its name is The Untouchables its characters aren't, or at lest not fully. The good guy stay committed to certain general principles, but even more to each other and take some legal liberties along the way. One aspect of the film which lends it an air of moral complexity is that 'The Untouchables' are enforcing a law, Prohibition, which they know to be untenable and don't really agree with, yet it is the law. Ironically they will break other laws to enforce it, I like's me some good moral complication. A very solid film that is everything it could be, very enjoyable both as action and drama. ****