RED DESERT (1964)

Giuliana (Monica Vitti, at left), married to Ugo (Carlo Chionetti), an upper-level manager at a chemical plant, has recently spent some weeks recovering, both physically and mentally, from an auto accident. As Ugo puts it, her gears aren't quite meshing yet. We discover later in the story that she also tried to kill herself. We first meet her as she takes her son to visit Ugo at his plant, in a landscape that is gray and muddy and littered with junk. In some ways, she seems like an upper-class pampered wife: a nanny takes care of her young son, she has a nice wardrobe, and she is working on opening a shop. However, the shop is in an oddly rundown neighborhood and she can't decide what to sell there, or even what color to paint its walls, and she spends her days walking randomly through a grimy industrial landscape. A visiting executive, Corrado (Richard Harris, pictured with Vitti below right), is looking to hire men to work at a plant in Argentina, and he becomes smitten with Giuliana, visiting her frequently. She seems attracted by his interest, but her demeanor is mostly that of a bored or depressed person sleepwalking through life. For his part, Corrado also feels a little off, a little low-key, letting Giuliana set the (slow) pace of their growing relationship. Eventually they do have sex but it doesn't really change things for either one. Giuliana finally admits, "There's something terrible about reality and I don't know what it is." The movie ends like it began, with Giuliana and her son at Ugo's plant. She sees yellow smoke coming out of the smokestacks and tells her son that it's poisonous. He asks if it will kill the birds, and she says that the birds have learned to stay away from it.

Michelangelo Antonioni became internationally famous for three black & white movies in the early 1960s (L’AVVENTURA, LA NOTTE, and L’ECLISSE) starring Monica Vitti. They become known as the Alienation Trilogy because they seemed to deal with our estrangement from our surroundings and from other people, but they could also be called the Lethargy Trilogy (people tend to be wandering through life without purpose) or the Ambiguity Trilogy (nothing much happens in terms of plot and little is resolved by the end). But like the Star Wars movies and the Indiana Jones movies, a trilogy wasn't enough. Antonioni made one more alienation movie with Monica Vitti but shot it in color. Critics note that the color palette seemed more important to Antonioni than the drama; despite being filmed in drab industrial locations, there are a lot of bright colors—reds, yellows, blues—and he even had grass and vegetation dyed to make it stand out, or in at least one case, where a peddler's fruits are painted gray, not stand out. Like the other three films, there is the promise of a traditional plot though things again end in mystery and uncertainty. Despite all the colors, I find the movie to have an ugly look. For example, the stripes of bright red that run through shots of huge industrial equipment just serve to emphasize the grunginess of the setting. Critics claimed he was exposing our modern world as ugly, but Antonioni went on record as saying that he wanted to show the beauty of industry (and maybe decay) and the necessity of adapting to circumstances. I say, trust the tale not the teller. It may be that we're supposed to see Vitti as slowly accepting her place in her industrial milieu—maybe like a bird, she will learn to avoid the poison—but for me, I don't really see her as much different in the end than she was at the beginning.

Vitti, as always, is beautiful and totally commits herself to her role. Richard Harris tamps down his usual vigor and is quite good (and quietly attractive) as Corrado who seems genuinely concerned with Giuliana but has no idea how to help. At times, you can practically see him biting his lips to avoid expressing too much emotion. The other actors rarely make much of an impression. A lengthy sequence in the middle of the movie has Ugo take Giuliana and Corrado to an odd little party in a rundown shack on an industrial shoreline (which set me thinking of the B-52s "Love Shack"). A mini-orgy seems about to break out in a tiny room, but they're all too enervated to do anything about it. The scene ends with a ship carrying a critically ill person pulling up near the shore and Giuliana freaking out as her companions disappear into fog. At one point, Giuliana's boy loses the ability to walk or stand up, and she fears he has polio, but it turns out he was faking it—why, we don't know; will he be punished, we don't know. As usual with this director, the backgrounds are interesting, sometimes more so than what’s happening in front of them. At two hours, this movie frequently drags. If you only want to sample the alienation movies, go for L'AVVENTURA or LA NOTTE. If you love Monica Vittii, see it. [Criterion Channel]

JENNIFER (1953)

Agnes Langley is hired by Lorna Gale to be the live-in caretaker at the currently unoccupied Gale estate, to replace Jennifer, a cousin and previous caretaker who has vanished. When Agnes stops at a gas station to ask for directions, the attendant warns her away from the mysterious mansion but for no solid reason. Agnes moves in and local store owner Jim Hollis agrees to check on her from time to time. Agnes finds Jennifer's diary which records her unease in the house, and Agnes begins to feel that unease, like she may not be alone in the house. (The tension in these early scenes relies a bit too much on some overdone spooky music used as the background score.) Orin, a college student who works as Jim's delivery boy and handyman at the Gale house, comes off as harmless and innocent, but his prattling on about the mystery of Jennifer adds to Agnes's worries. A bankbook belonging to Jennifer is found and Agnes sees several large deposits in the weeks before she disappeared, and discovers that she may have been involved in a scandal in Los Angeles in which a businessman she worked for committed suicide. This makes Agnes think that Jennifer was blackmailing someone, and that perhaps Jennifer has been killed and her body is somewhere in the house. Slowly, almost despite herself, Agnes begins to fall for Jim, but she's also suspicious that he knows more about Jennifer's disappearance than he lets on, especially when Orin plants seeds of doubt about Jim in her mind. Encouraged by Jim to fully explore the mansion, she finds a wooden crate full of water in the basement, and when she looks in, she sees Jennifer. Or does she?

This is a decent psychological thriller; though engaging for much of its length, the solution to the mystery is surprisingly bland; everything could have been cleared up in the first twenty minutes, but then this would be an Alfred Hitchcock Presents half-hour show instead of a 73-minute B-movie. It does have a low-budget feel (the house in particular looks cheap and plain), but the polished cinematography by James Wong Howe gives it a nicely atmospheric look. The acting is a bit too low-key at times, but ratcheting things up too much might have led to a campy tone. Ida Lupino (above left) carries the movie well as Agnes, who is in almost every scene. She's a little highly strung (the reasons for which aren't explored) but mostly stays grounded. Howard Duff, Lupino's real-life husband (pictured with Lupino at right), is casually masculine and understanding as Jim, though leaving open the possibility that he may indeed be dangerous. In some ways, Robert Nichols gives the best performance as Orin whom it is difficult to get a handle on. Is he just a slightly goofy kid or is there more under the surface? Is he actively threatening to Agnes or just accidentally stirring her paranoid fears? His only problem: he's supposed to be 19 but was almost 30 at the time; he doesn’t look like a teenager but he does mostly act like one. The classic jazz standard "Angel Eyes," sung here in a piano bar by its composer, Matt Dennis, went on to become a standard, perhaps best done by the fabulous Ella Fitzgerald. In the movie, it sounds a bit bland, but Ella makes it mysterious and heartbreaking. This movie has flown beneath my classic movie radar but it's worth a look. BTW, there is a strange final shot that seems to indicate something mysterious, but it's not clear what. Ignore it. [Blu-ray]

THE CRIME OF MONSIEUR LANGE (1936)

Monsieur Lange and his mistress Valentine stop at a village inn for an overnight stay. The locals at the bar realize that Lange is on the run from a murder charge. As they debate whether or not to inform the police, Valentine tells them his story. In Paris, Valentine flirted with Lange, an employee of the Batala publishing house. It comes to the attention of M. Meunier, who has loaned a great deal of money to Batala, that the money, intended to shore up the company, was used by Batala for personal items, and he's ready to call in Batala's debt. Lange shows Batala some pulp western stories he's written featuring a cowboy called Arizona Jim, and Batala signs him up for a stand alone magazine, though he gets Lange to sign away all his rights to the character. Arizona Jim is a big hit and soon Batala is putting product placement bits into the stories. Batala has also taken advantage of Estelle, girlfriend of the young and innocent Charles, a buddy of Lange's, and gotten her pregnant. When Batala goes on the run to escape the claims of Meunier, his train derails, killing many passengers. Batala survives and switches clothes with a priest so Batala is reported dead. At the publishing house, Lange leads a movement to keep the business going by running it as a collective. It becomes a success, with Arizona Jim the leader in sales, but soon Batala returns, intending to take back the company. When he tries to assault Valentine, Lange shoots him dead. Will the village drinkers side with him and let him escape?

Though ultimately a crime story, director Jean Renoir has come up with a frothy little concoction of romance, politics and satire. Though Lange (Rene Lefevre) is the title character, this is mostly a kind of slice of life ensemble piece. No other characters come into sharp focus, but in some ways, Lange doesn't either; he's just another nice-guy employee who gets a lucky break. Valentine (played by the single-named Florelle) is even less developed. Batala (Jules Berry) is almost the central character by virtue of his change from a garden variety bad boss to a cheat to a criminal. Charles (Maurice Baquet), another mild nice guy, stands out partly due to having a broken leg for a chunk of the story. The acting is fine but the movie is carried by its tone, story, and vigorous camera style. Some viewers see this as rabble-rousing socialist propaganda, but Renoir himself denied that it was meant to be taken that way, though it's difficult not to see the success of the collectivization as being important to the plot. I liked that Lange became a sort of real-life Arizona Jim, saving the publishing company and killing the would-be assaulter. Pictured are Florelle and Lefevre. [Criterion Channel]

LOVE HAS MANY FACES (1965)

Our theme song, sung by Nancy Wilson, includes the line, "Love has many faces and I mean to kiss every one," so this might be a long movie. We begin on a beach in Acapulco as the body of a young beachside gigolo, Billy Andrews, washes up on shore. The police assume suicide—his last words the night before as he headed out to sea were, "I want to find where the sun goes down"—but leave open the possibility of murder. He's wearing a bracelet with the words, "Love is thin ice" engraved on it, which is traced to rich American socialite Kit Jordan (whom we discover later made headlines years ago as Kathryn Lawson Chandler when she got an abortion) who lives in a gorgeous house above the beach. She admits to having had a fling with Kit before her recent marriage to Pete Jordan, himself a former golddigging beach boy who lives off of Kit's money. In fact, it seems that the entire beach is filled with tanned, well-built, Speedo-clad beach boys out to give rich American women a good time, for a price. Kit and Pete are unsettled and snarky to each other. She notes that when there are others around, "we don’t zing, zing, zing each other." He replies, "We just drink, drink, drink." Hank is another beach boy (maybe beach bum is a better word as he is near 40) who is currently mentoring the young (20-something) Chuck. Hank latches onto the vacationing middle-aged Margot which leaves Chuck with her friend Irene. The group is soon joined by Carol, Billy's fiancée, searching for answers concerning Billy's death. Kit resents her presence (as Carol verges on blaming Kit for Billy's death) but Pete takes a shine to the innocent young Carol and the two embark on a dragged-out "will they or won’t they" game of guilty flirtation. Back at Hank's place, he seduces the very willing Margot then snaps a picture of her sleeping naked in his bed to use as blackmail to get more money out of her. For her part, Margot lets him know she was willing to bankroll him indefinitely, but his tactics have turned her against him. Chuck, who is not as hard-edged yet, gets disillusioned seeing what Hank has resorted to. Our central triangle (Kit, Pete, and Carol) gets sorted out in a climax which involves all concerned present at a matador training session which turns potentially deadly.

I was having a hell of a lot of fun during this movie's first two-thirds: sun, sand, ocean, cocktails, women in bikinis and, most importantly, men in bathing suits. It's prime soap opera material and the actors are all game. Lana Turner, in one of her last big movie roles, still looks great and is perfect as the bitchy but suffering rich lady. It's a little unclear how much we're supposed to like or dislike her, but ultimately I think she has to suffer a bit too much by the end (mild spoiler: Pete finally does reform and agrees to get a paying job). Cliff Robertson (Pete), only a couple of years younger than Turner, is just as good as the "hero," accepting of being kept by his wife but also restless and, once Carol enters the picture, a bit ashamed. The manly, hairy-chested Hugh O'Brian (Hank) walks a nice line between being proud of being a gigolo and coming to realize that he may be getting a bit old for the part. Stefanie Powers (Carol) comes up a bit short, partly because the role is not fleshed out very well. Also, as a supporting player, she comes in second to Ruth Roman (Margot) who gives an excellent performance in a role she probably could have phoned in. Ron Husmann is very cute and sweet as the newbie Chuck, and Virginia Grey is fine as Irene. Ricardo Montalban's brother Carlos has a small role as a matador.

I was never quite able to decode the Kit/Pete relationship. It seems like the screenwriter, Marguerite Roberts (who later scripted True Grit) couldn't decide if one or the other was to blame for their mildly decadent entanglement. Traditionally, we'd blame the woman for emasculating the man, but here, both come off as rather numb to their situation, and Pete's traditional masculinity doesn't really seem threatened. Partly due to this, the movie doesn't, for me, hit the camp mark; it's all a little too serious with no one, not even Turner, going over the top (even though Turner has a dozen fabulous costume changes and was dressed by the legendary Edith Head). However, as other viewers have noticed, the film could be mined today for queer content as Hank and Chuck, usually seen together, chests glistening in their Speedos, come very close to coming off as an on-the-lowdown gay couple, with Chuck giving Hank some worshipful glances now and then. The only real misstep is the last fifteen minutes—the bull training segment drags on and on and provides an overly melodramatic climax. But I'm just quibbling here; I quite liked this and could make it regular summer viewing. At top right, Turner and Robertson; at left, O'Brian and Husmann. [Amazon Prime]

ISLAND OF LOST MEN (1939)

In Singapore, nightclub singer China Lily (Anna May Wong) is noticed by Gregory Prin (J. Carroll Naish), a Malaysian plantation manager. He invites her to join him on a trip upriver to visit his digs. His interest, most likely, is sexual, though nothing seems to happen between them; for her part, she notices that he wears a medallion that belonged to her missing father. We eventually learn that her real name is Kim Ling and she is looking for her disgraced father Ahn Ling who is assumed to have embezzled $300,000 from the Chinese government meant to purchase arms. She finds out that Prin hires mostly outlaws and men on the run from their pasts to work as overseers along the river, and she thinks she might find her father there, though she doesn't tell Prin her motive. At the main outpost, we meet Prin's primary overseers: the Chinese Chang Tai (Anthony Quinn) looks young and healthy, but the middle-aged white men Frobenius and Prof. Senn seem a little the worse for wear. We also meet Prin's valet Herbert (and his annoying pet monkey Egbert), who may be a bit obsequious but also maybe smarter than he comes off. Kim and Chang recognize each other; he is a secret service member who is also looking for Kim's father. As they secretly work together, another man, Ballister (Broderick Crawford), shows up, oozing slime that he tries to pass off as charm, and, knowing the situation, is looking to engage in a little blackmail of Prin, keeping quiet in exchange for a chunk of the stolen money. Signs of native uprisings begin to appear. The man in charge of a large trading post at Tenwek quits; Prin lets him, but then has him killed on the river. Chang Tai, suspecting that Ling is being held there, gets himself sent up to Tenwek to investigate. Soon Prin learns Kim's real identity and seems to have the upper hand against Ballister, but Kim finds the stolen money, Chang finds Lin, and when Prin cruelly shoots and kills Herbert's beloved pet monkey, the tables turn.

This B-melodrama (no, dear fellow bloggers, it's not noir) is a remake of 1933's WHITE WOMAN, following the main plot beats with lesser stars in the lead parts, but the supporting cast in particular here makes this one worth seeing. Wong is weak and wooden as usual, and practically disappears into the background, both as an actor and a character. Naish, usually an asset, overacts and uses an outrageous accent that sounds exactly like the one Peter Sellers adopted satirically years later when he lampooned Charlie Chan in MURDER BY DEATH. But the movie is saved by others. Anthony Quinn is young and sleekly handsome and in control as the initially mysterious Chang Tai; Eric Blore gets a little more to do than usual as the valet Herbert—he is mild comic relief but also plays an important role in the climax. Ernest Truex (Frobenius) and Rudolf Forster (Senn) underplay their roles while still bringing their characters to life just enough to make us care a little bit about them. Best of all is Broderick Crawford, pictured, as Ballister. For starters, he's far more appealing looking than he usually was; he's beefy but not yet obese, and in some shots is almost handsome. His character is interesting; he appears as a spoiler to Prin's plans but he has to fight to keep the upper hand. The exciting climax plays out between Ballister and Prin, and we're not really sure who we want to win. It's sort of fun to realize about a third of the way in that none of the characters like each other, except Kim and Chang, and they seem more bonded by circumstance than anything else. This comes fairly close to being as good as the original; the presence of Charles Laughton and Carole Lombard in the 1933 film gives it the edge. Not to be confused with Island of Doomed Men or Island of Lost Women or Island of Lost Souls or Isle of Missing Men. [YouTube]

THE MURDERERS ARE AMONG US (1946)

Berlin, 1945, just after the Allied victory. The streets and buildings are ravaged and full of rubble. Hans is a former doctor who has been mentally damaged by the war. Because of trauma—we discover later that he witnessed an atrocity involving murdered children—he can no longer practice medicine and stays drunk as much as he can, having taken up residence in an apartment with broken windows. Susanne, former occupant of the apartment, has just been released from a concentration camp where she's been since 1942. She had a long-term lease on her rooms and returns to take up residence, but Hans refuses to leave so she agrees to let him stay. Slowly, the two become friendly, and he expresses hope that someday, he will be capable of loving her. Mondschein, an ailing optometrist who lives in the building, has been waiting for the return of his son, a German soldier, and goes to a medium to see if she can tell him if his son is still alive. She has a vision of the two of them meeting on a bridge so he keeps hoping. Susanne discovers that Bruckner, a soldier that Hans knew and assumed was dead, is still alive and she encourages him to visit. He is reluctant and when he does, he takes a gun, intending to shoot Bruckner, who was responsible for the massacre that Hans witnessed. He is interrupted by an emergency request for help for an ill child who is having trouble breathing. Hans overcomes his aversion to doctoring and successfully helps the child. It would appear that he is starting on a road to recovery. He and Susanne become a couple and he gets a medical job, but the arrival of Christmas leads to a tragedy for Mondschein and a renewal of trauma for Hans (the massacre happened at Christmas), and on Christmas Eve, Hans sets out to exact revenge against Bruckner.

This was the first feature film to come out of Germany after the war. It has been labeled as the first in a series of "rubble films" which were shot on location in the bombed-out streets of German cities. They usually addressed issues of reconstructing both cities and lives, and often involved the avoidance or acceptance of collective guilt over the war. Directed by Wolfgang Staude, the movie has astonishing visuals, using what I assume are actual sites of destruction for an authentic atmosphere (though it's possible that the apartment scenes were shot in a studio), and a style which invokes German expressionism of the 1920s—lots of shadows and tilted camera angles. An atmosphere of dark gloom hangs over the whole film; near the climax, there's a gorgeous shot of snow in a ruined church, and a remarkable shadow effect as Hans approaches Bruckner. The ending is cautiously optimistic but does not wipe away the darkness that has built, in the film or for the characters. Both leading actors are excellent. Hildegard Knef (Susanne) went on to a successful career in both Germany and Hollywood; Wilhelm Borchert (Hans) continued acting in Germany and also did a lot of German-language dubbing of Hollywood films. Neither of them (both pictured above) strike a false note in their performances. [Spoiler:] The director's intended ending has Hans killing Bruckner on Christmas Eve, but the final version instead has Susanne talking Hans into turning Bruckner into the authorities, which dramatically is probably the better ending. If there's a fault in the script, it's that neither lead is fully fleshed out—that's especially a problem with Susanne who begins as the central character. We learn nothing about her camp stay and she seems remarkably unscarred by her experience. The focus shifts to Hans who is given more backstory as Susanne recedes into the background. But this isn't a major flaw. This noir-flavored melodrama is well worth searching out. [TCM]

THE GREEN HORNET (1974) / FURY OF THE DRAGON (1976)

After the untimely death of Bruce Lee in 1973, followed by the huge success of his posthumously released martial arts film Enter the Dragon, anything with Lee’s name attached was guaranteed an audience, so 20th Century Fox released a theatrical feature film drawn from the 1960s Green Hornet superhero TV show. The lead role was taken by Van Williams, but Lee, as the Hornet's sidekick Kato, employed impressive kung fu moves to kick ass and became a breakout star, even though the show only lasted one season—and he is first billed here. The movie was a rather artless editing together of four TV episodes. The backstory, which is not featured in the film: The Green Hornet, a Batman-like crimefighter, is actually Britt Reid, a wealthy newspaper publisher. With his martial-arts trained valet Kato (the two wear small masks that barely hide their identities, as pictured at left), he comes off as a villain to the public but actually helps the police with tough cases. In the first episode, the Hornet discovers the existence of a list of racketeers being targeted for murder by a group headquartered at the high-class Explorer's Club, then finds out that he is next on the list. A two-part episode follows in which a UFO lands and shiny-suited space aliens (or so they seem) are after a new atomic bomb devised by a Dr. Mabuse. Though it's an interesting plotline, it's difficult to get past chuckling at the rather chunky bad guy in an unflatteringly tight silver outfit, although the more dangerous alien is an attractive woman in gold. The last story centers on a tong rivalry in Chinatown. There are no transitions between episodes, and instead of commercials, there are just fadeouts to the next scene. 

The Green Hornet series was played straight, not as camp like the Batman show, but even with TV budgets and cheap sets, this is fairly fun to watch, mostly to see Bruce Lee enliven the fisticuffs scenes with his martial arts moves. A couple of familiar faces crop up, including Tom Drake (the Boy Next Door in Meet Me in St. Louis), Frank Gerstle (a very busy tough-guy character actor) and Mako (a Japanese actor who was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for The Sand Pebbles). The Hornet's car, which Kato drives, is called the Black Beauty but it's a plain old sedan with green headlights and a small handful of tricked-out features. A second theatrical compilation, Fury of the Dragon, came out a few years later. Again made up of four episodes, this is more of a cheat on the moviegoing public, as the TV source for the movie is not in the title and is indicated nowhere in its marketing (see a New York city ad at right). Instead it's presented as though it's a kung fu adventure like Lee’s later films. Rather than coming from Fox, it was released by producer Laurence Joachim who worked on the original series. In addition to being a major league cheat, it's shoddily put together with most of the episodes chopped off at the end with no resolution to the storyline. This is especially egregious with the second episode involving a young cop who is trapped into a theft ring with his older partner. We never find out what happens to either cop. There is also an assassination attempt against Prince Rafia from Kahara, an art heist which targets Britt Reid, and some dope smugglers on a ship. If you just want to see Bruce Lee in action, you'll see some of that, and even the Hornet gets in a few moves, but overall the movie is a shambles. The best moment is when the Green Hornet commands Kato to "activate the Hornet Mortar," a powerful mini-missile shooter on the car. The TV shows have never been released to home video, but these films were released on DVD. Only for Lee fans and those curious about the TV show. Don't confuse with the 1940 serial. [YouTube]

THE MURDER MANSION (1972)

The first fifteen minutes or so of this Italian/Spanish gothic thriller is a confusing mish-mash of incidents that wind up being largely irrelevant to the rest of the movie. On the road to Milan, two people in a green car wind up racing with a motorcyclist, and a couple in a VW also get involved. They all end up lost in fog and take refuge at what looks to be an abandoned mansion near a cemetery. The group includes Fred, the handsome motorcyclist; Laura, a young woman he picked up; the goateed Mr. Porter, driver of the green car who had been coming on to Laura before she switched cars; Tremont, a lawyer, and his wife; Ernest and his mistress Ellen; and Elsa who is meeting Tremont to (I think) finalize her divorce from Ernest, from whom she needs a signature. These folks enter the mansion and discover it’s inhabited by its owner, the sexy but aloof Marta, who tells them that a vampire epidemic caused most of the nearby villagers to leave town. Bolstering her story is a creepy witch and her apparently zombified chauffeur who are wandering around in the fog. The visitors soon discover that the mansion is about as creepy as the foggy exterior, with odd paintings of an occult bent hanging on the walls and mysterious noises coming from the cellar. The witch, who might be Marta's late aunt, and the chauffeur put in apparitional appearances, people start dying (though at least one person, found dead on a meat hook, later shows up alive), and Elsa seems to be going mad.

The first part of the film is so off-putting, I almost quit watching. But once everyone is in the house to stay, things become easier to follow. Though hints of supernatural happenings are everywhere, this is really a gothic old dark house mystery with elements of Agatha Christie and Scooby-Doo. That may seem like a spoiler, but it's fairly obvious from early on that the witch and the chauffeur aren't ghosts. What I won't spoil are the identities of the bad guys and the motivations for their dastardly plans. Even if you think you have it figured out, there are some nice surprises near the end. Visuals are good even if the script has its problems, and the acting is about par for the course. Best are Analia Gade as Elsa (pictured) and Ida Galli as Marta. Everyone else seems a bit stymied by their underdeveloped characters, but that doesn't hurt the film much. The musical score is a bit bombastic at times but effective—cackling shrieks are part of the score. Dubbing is poor (again, par for the course). On balance, I'd say this is worth seeing. Some critics call this a giallo, but fans of that genre will be disappointed. [YouTube]

DARK MANHATTAN (1937)

L.B. Lee's office has a plaque that refers to him as a real estate expert, but he's actually a numbers banker running a kind of clearinghouse for the daily numbers game in Harlem. As such, he has various bookies that report to him. One day, while investigating a fall-off of money from Jack Johnson's account, a pool hall down in a rough area known as The Jungles, he sees young Curly Thorpe breaking up a fight. Curly is talked up by Johnson, so Lee hires him as an assistant, letting him know that, though the numbers game is illegal, he operates in an aboveboard manner. On his first day, Curly shows up dressed to the nines, to the amusement of some of the number runners, but he proves such an asset that Lee's lawyer suggests that Lee follow his doctor's advice and relax, perhaps by traveling. Lee is reluctant to leave his main squeeze Flo who sings at the Club Congo, but after he suffers a heart attack, he stays in bed and lets Curly take over daily operations. Unfortunately, Curly takes a gangster attitude to the business; instead of talking to a bookie who is underperforming, he goes into the storefront with a couple of goons and busts it up good. This leads to gang battles and a police crackdown. He also begins seeing Flo on the side. Lee, called into a meeting of other numbers bankers, vows to end this "reign of terror," though it’s not clear if he knows that it's largely Curly's fault. When Curly announces that he is now Lee's full-fledged partner, Lee leaves for a rest in South America. The cops find numbers slips in Curly's possession and, though he's not arrested, a cop takes down his personal information in what he calls a DOA (dead on arrival) document, implying that Curly will wind up dead if he doesn't watch it. By the end, that document will come in handy.

This Poverty Row race movie is considered the first Black gangster film, though any viewer expecting much in the way of action will be disappointed. Until some gunplay in the last five minutes, the atmosphere is placid, stagy, and fairly artificial, and the sets are bare bones, especially disappointing in the Club Congo scenes. I make a couple of assumptions in my summary because some plot points were a bit unclear. But I found this worth sitting through for the solid acting, especially from Ralph Cooper as Curly. Known as the Dark Clark Gable, he only appeared in a handful of movies (including THE DUKE IS TOPS) but was handsome and projected a confident persona. He's in almost every scene but his character remains fuzzy. His movement from being almost sweet-natured to being violently aggressive isn't motivated, it just seems to happen. The character of Flo (played flatly by Cleo Herndon) adds almost nothing to the narrative. Clarence Brooks is fine as L.B., though he more or less vanishes from the last part of the story. Sam McDaniel, Hattie McDaniel's brother, is Jack Johnson, and Rubeline Glover is the numbers office secretary. I fault the director, Harry Fraser, for the slow and overly emphatic dialogue delivery of much of the cast. This is a bit slow going but different enough in content to make it worth seeing for race movie fans. Cooper is pictured in the center of the photo above. [YouTube]

DORIAN GRAY (1970)

This 1970's update of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray follows the original plot (using the same character names) fairly well. The young and handsome playboy Dorian Gray has his portrait painted by high society artist Basil Hallward. Art dealer (and general bad influence) Henry Wotten encourages Dorian to live a life of giving into temptation while he's young before he turns into "an old and hideous puppet." Dorian takes that advice and wishes out loud that he would stay young and his portrait would grow old instead. Over the years, Dorian becomes a decadent wastrel but remains beautiful while everyone else ages. Wilde leaves most of Dorian's immoral actions unclear, but he leads women to ruin and eventually commits murder. In the end, he slashes up his painting which has become ugly then drops dead; when he's found, his body is old and ugly but the painting again is beautiful. This version, which was promoted as almost softcore porn, would seem to be able to make more explicit what Dorian's decadence consists of, and it does a bit—in addition to ruining women, he ruins some men as well (and has what seems to be a one-off encounter in the shower with Henry, after he's slept with Henry's wife). But though there is some nudity, there is nothing even approaching porn here. The beautiful Austrian actor Helmut Berger is absolutely right in terms of looks as Dorian, but he's too restrained in his performance, just as Hurd Hatfield was back in the 1945 MGM version. The cheap looking portrait features a shirtless Berger in hip-hugging jeans which fails to capture any of Berger's beauty. 

Dorian's first step toward evil, as in the book, is his casual acceptance and rejection of young actress Sybil Vane—when he first sleeps with her, she's a virgin—and she falls so hard for him that her acting suffers. When Dorian sees how bad her performance in Romeo and Juliet is, he cuts her loose, causing her to kill herself, an act about which Dorian feels nothing. The character's gay side, which is only hinted at in the book, is a bit more clearly drawn here, but generally we still have to take the word of others that Dorian has become mad, bad and dangerous to know. Herbert Lom (pictured with Berger) is quite good as Henry, if not quite as good as George Sanders was in 1945, and he gets a handful of Wilde quotations to spout, though not nearly enough to come off as especially witty. Richard Todd is fine as Basil and Marie Liljedahl makes a decent updated Sybil. An actor named Stuart Black is fine as Sybil's brother but he did not go on to an acting career. The look of the film is problematic; though many years are supposed to pass, the whole movie looks like it's set in the mid-sixties. For some reason, the ending here is changed. Instead of stabbing the portrait and falling dead, he stabs himself and falls dead before the restored portrait. I agree with the critics who wish this had been a sleazier feeling movie. Because Dorian mostly remains a handsome cipher, we don't much get concerned with his journey. Aka The Secret of Dorian Gray. [YouTube]