Day 156: The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Movie #103 – The Maltese Falcon (1941) - 100 min, cert PG.

Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) is a private investigator who, with the help of his partner Miles Archer, runs a detective company. When an attractive woman hires them to follow her husband, Sam gives the job to Miles. When Miles is killed, Sam feels obliged to investigate further and becomes drawn into a web of intrigue based around a missing ornamental falcon, and the various interested parties who are seeking it.

It’s easy to see why this movie is seen as being so important. It is generally regarded as the original film noir. It turned Humphrey Bogart from a supporting actor in gangster films to a leading man with a wise-cracking, tough-talking role that he would forever be associated with. It also marked both John Huston’s directorial debut, and Sydney Greenstreet’s acting debut, and both would go on to have long and hugely successful careers.

Because my blog is so far behind, I’m writing this about a month and a half after I actually watched it and I’m struggling to remember the plot with any clarity. This is not because I didn’t particularly understand it at the time, or even because it is not a memorable film. It’s just that the actual plot doesn’t seem that important. This film is a triumph of style over substance. What it’s about doesn’t really matter. It’s essentially a character piece. Bogart’s performance as Spade is captivating – it’s clearly a part he’d been waiting all his career to play. But it’s not just him, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet and Mary Astor all put in great performances, indeed Greenstreet was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar on his debut.

Score – 8/10. Very watchable.

Next up is Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront. I’ve never been a Brando fan, but maybe this will change my mind.

Day 155: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Movie #102 – Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) - 129 min, cert U.

Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) is the head of the Boy Rangers, a children’s organisation similar to the Scouts. Despite his lack of political ambition, he is chosen as a replacement for a recently deceased senator due to his political naivety and wholesome reputation. He is expected to be easily manipulated by his corrupt boss. Upon his arrival in Washington, Smith proposes a bill that will allow the Boy Rangers to buy some land to use as a national camp. However this land has already been earmarked for another project which his colleagues are trying to push through under the radar. When he refuses to withdraw his proposal, Smith becomes the target of a fiendish smear campaign in an attempt to hound him out of office. In an attempt to prove his innocence he launches a filibuster whereby he attempts to talk non-stop in the senate until his reputation can be restored.

The best thing about this film is, without question, the performance of James Stewart. He was not the first choice for the whole, but is nevertheless perfect for it. He has a wonderful ‘everyman’ kind of charm, and can inject incredible amounts of passion into the roles he plays. This movie made him a star, and rightly so. The script is also very good, as are the performances of the supporting cast.

The movie caused quite a furore when it was first released. It came out at a time when America was preparing to go to war, and the last thing they needed was something that could be seen to be undermining the authority of the government. Many politicians tried to have it banned for bringing the US political system into disrepute.

Score – 6/10. Not bad but I found it a little dull.

Next up is The Maltese Falcon, classic film-noir with Bogart as Sam Spade.

Day 154: The Elephant Man (1980)

Movie #101 – The Elephant Man (1980) - 124 min, cert 15.

Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) is a surgeon in Victorian England. In a travelling freak show, he finds a heavily disfigured man (John Hurt) known simply as the Elephant Man. He rescues him and takes him back to the hospital where he works to care for him and study his case. The man turns out to be quite intelligent and fully aware of the circumstances in which he is forced to live. Treves helps him to integrate into Victorian society, taking him to the theatre and other social gatherings. It all threatens to come crashing down again, however, when the original owner of the freak show comes looking for his biggest attraction.

This film is based on the true story of Joseph Merrick, but David Lynch, the director, takes many liberties with the truth. As a result, much of the plot doesn’t quite seem to hang together very well. The film portrays Bytes, the freak show owner, as a savage man who kept him prisoner and beat him regularly. In reality, Merrick was at the freak show by choice, and was quite well paid there. He objected more to the humiliating examinations he had to endure at the hospital than anything that happened at the freak show.

When all’s said and done, I’m not really a David Lynch fan. I didn’t see the point of the opening sequence with the woman screaming over the elephant noises. Are we supposed to believe she was raped by an elephant? Or was the sheer trauma of being attacked by one enough to somehow partly change her baby into one. Either way seems utterly ludicrous. Plus it all seemed far too easy for Merrick’s abductors to wander into his house and make off with him.

It did have its moments. The performances from Hopkins and Hurt were very good. Hurt’s make-up was also very realistic. It’s also quite fun spotting the cameos from Pauline Quirke and Dexter Fletcher from before they were famous.

Score – 6/10. Good performances from the leads, but a weak plot.

Next up is Mr Smith Goes to Washington. It’s one of those classic black & whites that’s often referred to by people who know about cinema, but that I’ve never seen.

Day 152: The Sting (1973)

Movie #100 – The Sting (1973) - 129 min, cert PG.

Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) is a small-time con artist from Chicago. He and his accomplices play a hustle on some guy in the street for the contents of his wallet. Unfortunately, he turns out to be a runner for the local mobster, Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw) who puts out a contract to have them killed. Hooker leaves town and goes in search of Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman), a con artist with a reputation for playing big cons and together they hatch a plot to con Lonnegan out of a hefty sum of money.

This was always one of my Dad’s favourite movies, and I remember watching it with him when I was quite young. I was too young to really understand much of it, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, and it left a lasting impression. I watched it several more times (mostly with my Dad) over the years that followed, gradually understanding a bit more each time. It is a complicated plot, but quite brilliantly kept together by director George Roy Hill. He keeps the story moving forward at a brisk pace, but still gives the attentive viewer a decent chance of keeping up. The final plot twist that is now mandatory for these kind of films, but was much more unusual at the time, is a good one.

Newman & Redford were good friends coming into this movie, having already worked together on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (also by George Roy Hill) some four years previously, and the chemistry between them is obvious.

Score – 10/10. The original ‘caper’ movie, and still the best. Of the last ten movies I’ve seen, I think only this one deserves a place in my top ten, which now looks like this:

1.       The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

2.       Pulp Fiction (1994)

3.       Forrest Gump (1994)

4.       The Sting (1973)

5.       The Green Mile (1999)

6.       Amelie (2001)

7.       Fight Club (1999)

8.      The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

9.       Toy Story 3 (2010)

10.   The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Well that’s 100 movies watched and I’m still going, and still on target to finish by the end of the year. Although the blog is beginning to lag critically behind. Anyway, ever onwards - next up is The Elephant Man which I haven’t seen for many a year.

Day 151: Unforgiven (1992)

Movie #99 – Unforgiven (1992) - 131 min, cert 15.

William Munny (Clint Eastwood) is a retired gunfighter. He is widowed and scratches out a living for him and his two children farming pigs. When a young lad calling himself the Schofield Kid turns up out of the blue one day, asking for Munny’s help in hunting down a couple of outlaws, Munny tells him he doesn’t do that anymore and sends him on his way. After he’s gone, Munny rethinks his position, and, deciding he really needs the money, rides off in search of his old partner, Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman). Together they go after the Kid and catch him up. The bounty has been posted by a group of prostitutes after one of their number was attacked with a knife by a customer, leaving her disfigured. They live in the town of Big Whiskey which in run by a fearsome sheriff named Little Bill (Gene Hackman) who comes down very hard on any trouble, administering savage beatings on any bounty hunters who show up.

This is another of Eastwood’s best films. Having watched this only 24 hours after Gran Torino, it’s hard to believe the two were made over 15 years apart as he hardly appears to have aged in between. Unforgiven is set at the end of the Wild West era, at a time when the gunslingers of legend were starting to die out or retire. The West is gradually being tamed, and men like Munny and Little Bill are a dying breed. Their stories are read about in pulp magazines. Our trio of would-be bounty hunters are all flawed – Ned doesn’t have the heart for it anymore, the Kid can’t see far enough to shoot anyone, and Munny himself struggles to ride his horse. Of course, when the chips are down, the fire of Munny’s youth returns to him and he takes on the corrupt sheriff and his men like Clint Eastwood of yesteryear, and it’s great to watch.

Clint Eastwood learned from the masters how to make westerns. He dedicates this film to the directors he studied under – Sergio Leone & Don Siegel, and you can see their influence all over this movie.

Score – 9/10. Eastwood rediscovers the glories of his youth.

Next up is a classic and personal favourite of mine, The Sting with Robert Redford & Paul Newman.

Day 150: Gran Torino (2008)

Movie #98 – Gran Torino (2008) - 18 min, cert 15.

Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) is a retired assembly line worker from a car factory. His wife has recently dies and he lives alone, spending most of his time sitting out on his porch, drinking beer and scowling at the neighbours. The neighbours are Hmongs, a mountain people from Laos who acted as America’s allies in Vietnam, but Walt’s racist views see all Asian immigrants as ‘chinks’ and ‘gooks’. When a street gang turns up to try and recruit the studious adolescent next door, they argue and the disagreement spills over onto Walt’s lawn. At this point Walt appears with his shotgun and the gang leaves. From this point on, he is seen as a hero by the Hmong residents, and he starts to realise that he actually has more in common with these people than he does with his own family.

Clint Eastwood is an extraordinary man. He’s in his eighties, having been acting for over fifty years, and directing for over forty. Yet despite his age, he can still look mean as hell, standing on his front lawn, brandishing a shotgun. Mean enough to chase off a street gang and make it believable. How many other octogenarians could do that? I’ve said before that I’m a fan of his work, and this was certainly no let-down. Yes, he’s certainly old, but is he too old? Certainly not!

Score – 8/10. Not his best work maybe, but probably in his top ten.

Next up is Unforgiven in which Clint Eastwood plays a cantankerous, gun-toting old man. Hang on a minute, does this sound familiar to anyone?

Day 149: Oldboy (2003)

Movie #97 – Oldboy (2003) - 120 min, cert 18.

A Korean businessman, Oh Dae-Su, is on his way home to see his young daughter on her birthday, but goes out on the town and gets very drunk. He is arrested and a friend comes to bail him out. While his friend is on the phone, Oh disappears. When he comes round he is locked in what appears to be a cheap hotel room. He is fed through a small hole in the door, and every so often gas is pumped in to the room to knock him out. When he wakes up, the room has been cleaned, and his hair has been cut. He is given no explanation as to why this is happening, but there he remains for 15 years. After he is released he goes in search of answers.

I went into it with no expectations, but it turned out to be pretty good. It was quite violent in places – the scene where Oh tortures his jailer by extracting his teeth with a claw hammer I found hard to watch, and I consider myself to have a pretty strong stomach. The plot developed well, and the reveal at the end was a good twist, although I didn’t really understand the whole tongue thing.

Score – 9/10. If you’re not too easily shocked, it’s well worth a watch.

Next up is Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino. I’ve not seen it before, but I’m a bit of a Clint fan so I’m looking forward to it.