Review: Ace In the Hole (1951)

IMDb Synopsis: A frustrated former big-city journalist now stuck working for an Albuquerque newspaper exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to re-jump start his career, but the situation quickly escalates into an out-of-control circus.


Billy Wilder is one of my favorite directors, who made quite a few of my favorite films- Sunset Blvd, Double Indemnity, Stalag 17 and The Apartment being just a few of them. Being a huge Wilder fan, I expected quite a lot from Ace In the Hole. I'm glad to say my expectations were met.


I'm starting to become a big fan of Kirk Douglas (and I have TCM to thank for that as I've seen several of his films since he's Star of the Month for September), and this is the best performance from him that I've seen so far. I thought it was really interesting to see him as the "bad guy" since he plays more of the hero-type in films like Spartacus. The cast itself is made up of several marvelous actors, including Jan Sterling,  Porter Hall and Richard Benedict.


Billy Wilder's direction is wonderful, but considering it's from the same man who made Sunset Blvd, I'm not surprised.  Also worth mentioning is the extremely well written script from Wilder and screenwriters Lesser Samuels and Walter Newman, which was nominated for Best Story and Screenplay at the 1952 Academy Awards.


Overall, I found Ace In the Hole to be a wonderful film noir, thanks to both Wilder and Kirk Douglas. I'll be watching this again soon.

5/5 stars

Film Noir Contest: Sunset Boulevard (1950)

..My post for Film Classics Film Noir Contest. I know this post is a bit late, as I just found out about it last night.

Two films instantly come to my mind when I hear the words "film noir": Sunset Boulevard and The Maltese Falcon.
Since I just wrote about Falcon a few months ago, I decided to talk about Sunset instead.


Sunset Boulevard is what I consider to be the best film noir to come out  of Hollywood in the nineteen-fifties. It's one of my favorites and is considered one of the greatest films of all time by many critics.

Sometimes, when discussing or reviewing a film, it's said that one certain element completes it- whether it be the acting, the plot, the direction, the score, etc. With Sunset Boulevard, it's all of these elements and more that make it the phenomenal film it is today.

William Holden, Nancy Olson, Erich von Stroheim all deliver wonderful performances (as they all received Oscar nominations), but it's really Gloria Swanson's film. As much as I loved Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday, Swanson should have won the Best Actress Academy Award in 1951, since she gave possibly the greatest screen performance of all time. I always find myself feeling mesmerized during the final scene as she says, "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up", as she descends into madness:

Sunset Blvd wouldn't be the great film it is without Billy Wilder. From his flawless direction, to his infamously quotable script ("I am big. It's the pictures that got small."). He and Swanson both make the film complete. I think Roger Ebert summed it up best when he wrote:

"...who else can field two contenders among the greatest closing lines of all time? From ``Some Like It Hot'' there is ``Nobody's perfect.'' And from ``Sunset Boulevard,'' Norma Desmond's: ``There's nothing else. Just us, and the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark. All right, Mr. De Mille, I'm ready for my closeup.'' 

credit: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19990627/REVIEWS08/906270301/1023

If you haven't seen Sunset Blvd yet, you can do so here. Also, a big thanks to David from Film Classics for hosting this contest!

Review: Dead Reckoning (1947)

IMDb Synopsis: A soldier runs away rather than receive the Medal of Honor, so his buddy gets permission to investigate, and love and death soon follow.


If you're a classic film fan, you most likely are already aware that Humphrey Bogart made a lot of film noirs. This is one of the few I hadn't seen. I don't think it's as great as some of Bogart's other films, but it's most definitely worth checking out.


As far as performances go, Bogie is still witty and clever, as he always is (and he continues to make fedoras look great). Lizabeth Scott, while not as remarkable as actresses like Lauren Bacall and Gloria Grahame, is still very promising as the femme fatale. I'd also recommend watching her in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers costarring Barbara Stanwyck and Kirk Douglas.


Again, I don't think Dead Reckoning is as great a masterpiece as The Maltese Falcon or The Big Sleep, but I did find it to be a very entertaining film noir that's worth a viewing.

4/5 stars 

Review: Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

IMDb Synopsis: Powerful but unethical Broadway columnist J.J. Hunsecker coerces unscrupulous press agent Sidney Falco into breaking up his sister's romance with a jazz musician.

I've always heard a lot about Sweet Smell of Success, especially in my last few months of blogging. Many film critics call it one of the best films of all time- and for good reason.

This film stars Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis- the former I've seen in several films recently, the latter I'm slightly unfamiliar with, which has saddened me since his death last September. I found both of their performances to be spectacular and I plan to watch and review more Tony Curtis films later this year. I also thought Lancaster was quite interesting as the villain, compared to his roles in films like From Here to Eternity and Run Silent, Run Deep. His character was voted #35 on the villains portion of the American Film Institute's list "100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains."


There's also a great supporting cast, including Susan Harrison as Lancaster's sister and Martin Milner as her boyfriend. I find it a bit odd that Harrison didn't receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.


Overall, Sweet Smell of Success is one of the great film noirs and one of the best films I've ever seen. I'll definitely be revisiting it soon. 

5/5 stars

May Noir of the Month: Double Indemnity (1944)

IMDb Synopsis: An insurance rep lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions.




This month, I'm going to be writing about one of the most popular film noirs of all time: Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity. Released by Paramount Pictures in 1944, it stars Barbara Stanwyck as sultry femme fatale Phyllis Dietrichson and Fred MacMurray as Walter Neff, the insurance salesman that gets caught in her web.




This film was based on a novella of the same name written by James Cain (one of his other novels, The Postman Always Rings Twice, was also adapted as a film noir in 1946 and starred Lana Turner and John Garfield). After it's publication in 1935, Cain sent copies of Double Indemnity to the major studios in Hollywood.  Shortly after, Warner Brothers, MGM, 20th Century Fox, Columbia and Paramount were all fighting to buy film rights. All the studios canceled their bids, however, after Joseph Breen from the Hays Office sent out a letter in which he warned:


"The general low tone and sordid flavor of this story makes it, in our judgment, thoroughly unacceptable for screen presentation before mixed audiences in the theater. I am sure you will agree that it is most important…to avoid what the code calls "the hardening of audiences," especially those who are young and impressionable, to the thought and fact of crime"- (taken from Wikipedia)


This was not unusual for Hollywood at the time, as the Hays Code had just been enforced the year before. Cain's original novel dealt with several elements, such as sensuality, adultery, and murder- things than had been almost taboo in motion pictures at the time. Eight years later in 1943, the script was edited and the rights were bought for $15,000 as a picture for director Billy Wider.

Double Indemnity was Wilder's third film as a director, and one of his best. He directed many film noirs including Sunset Blvd (my favorite noir of all time), Ace In the Hole, and Witness for the Prosecution. Some of his other triumphs include The Major and the Minor (his directing debut), The Seven Year Itch, Sabrina, and The Lost Weekend, the film that received Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Ray Milland. 


I once heard someone say that Barbara Stanwyck seems almost "miscast as the femme fatale". This was because Stanwyck had never come close to a role like that of Phyllis Dietrichson. In fact, when Wilder offered her the role, she confessed to him that she was a bit frightened of playing a killer, to which he replied, "Are you an actress or a mouse?". He convinced her to play the part, and she later said in 1972 she had "been grateful to him since". I've seen several of Stanwyck's films, as she is one of my favorite actresses, and I think this was the best performance of her career. 

Other standout performances are from Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson. MacMurray plays the man  seduced by Stanwyck into killing her husband, and Robinson is the one who discovers the secret behind their devious scheme. I haven't viewed many films starring either of these actors, but Double Indemnity is considered their best by many.

If I had to choose the one scene that stands out the most in the film, I'd probably say  the scene in which MacMurray murders Stanwyck's husband, played by actor Tom Powers. The murder is not shown, but the feel that Wilder and the actors give make it all the more real and suspenseful. (Unfortunately, I couldn't find it on YouTube, as I would have provided a link here.)


Double Indemnity is without a doubt an ultimate must-see for any classic film fan, and one of the best film noirs to come out of Hollywood in the 1940s. If you have not done so already, I highly recommend checking out this suspenseful masterpiece from Billy Wilder.

April Noir of the Month: The Maltese Falcon

IMDb Synopsis: A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.
















When I first started my 'Noir of the Month' series in January, I already predicted that there would eventually be a post on one of my all-time favorite films, The Maltese Falcon.  Released in 1941, the film stars Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre; directed by John Huston.


Falcon is remembered for a large number of reasons- it's considered to be the grandfather of film noir, it marks John Huston's directing debut as well as Sydney Greenstreet's acting debut in an Oscar-nominated performance, and it features Bogie as Sam Spade who gives some of the most memorable quotes in film history, including "The stuff that dreams are made of" and "I don't mind a reasonable amount of trouble". 


This is actually the third screen adaption of the novel  by Dashiell Hammett- there were two previous versions- the 1931 pre-code of the same name and the 1936 film Satan Met a Lady. I've seen neither, but I've heard they should both be skipped. 


The performances in this film are absolutely incredible. Bogie should have at least gotten an Oscar nom for his work, along with Mary Astor for Best Supporting Actress (although she won the award that year for The Great Lie). The lead performers are also well accompanied by Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre (Trivia- Lorre stated this was his favorite of all his films).

I absolutely must say a few words about the directing: Huston's work is just marvelous. I actually was shocked when I found out this was his first film. The effects, camera shots, and lighting in The Maltese Falcon rank him with directors like Alfred Hitchcock and Otto Preminger.

I think we can all agree that The Maltese Falcon really is "the stuff that dreams are made of."