Classic Coming Attractions by Barrie Maxwell

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Classic Coming Attractions by Barrie Maxwell

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Classic Reviews Roundup #14 - January 2005 (continued)

Conquest of Space (1955)
(released on DVD by Paramount on October 19th, 2004)

Chesley Bonestell was one of the premier illustrators of science fiction in the 1950s. His work adorned numerous space fiction magazines of the time including "Galaxy" and "Astounding Stories", as well as paperback covers from specialist publishers such as Ace. In the early 1950s, he collaborated with well-known space scientist Willy Ley on the science fiction tale "Conquest of Space" which recounted a flight to Mars. Given the film industry's interest in science fiction films during that decade, it was not surprising to see the book turned into a film of the same title. Conquest of Space's major success was its retention of the Bonestell look in the film's special effects. Bonestell's illustrations always seemed to glow with rich colours and accurate detail whether dealing with images of distant planets, space flight vessels, or space-suited humans. That sort of rich imagery was accurately rendered for the most part and enhanced by Technicolor.

Unfortunately, the film seems, like many such efforts of the time, crude and incredibly naïve to modern audiences in its attempts to convey the difficulties of space flight and visiting other planets. The spacecraft that travels to Mars looks fine from a distance, but the interior is little advanced beyond what Universal designed for Flash Gordon 20 years before. A crude bubble leveling-device and a speedometer that seems to consist of a strip of paper graduated in 1000s of miles per hour are but two examples. The most glaring scientific contradiction occurs when the men are on the surface of Mars. They wear helmets implying the presence of an atmosphere hostile to humans, yet their hands are uncovered and the cuffs of their shirts and jackets allow whatever gas the atmosphere is composed of free access to their heads. One might forgive all this in the face of a compelling story line, but that's lacking completely. The crew of six men that heads to Mars is headed by an obsessive general who cracks under the pressure of spending excessive time in space and attempts to sabotage the flight. His son, who is the spacecraft's pilot and forced to come on the flight by his father, intervenes with unfortunate results. The rest of the crew is the usual set of stereotypes from the wisecracking Brooklynite to the wise old sergeant and a token non-Caucasian. The cast has no major stars in it, but is peopled with the likes of Eric Fleming (later of TV's Rawhide), Ross Martin (TV's The Wild Wild West), and William Hopper (TV's Perry Mason).

Despite the film's limited appeal, Paramount must be commended for making it available on DVD. Certainly those who appreciate the work of Chesley Bonestell will not be disappointed. The 1.85:1 anamorphic image is very sharp and beautiful-looking with colours that are accurate and very vibrant. There are some stray speckles but otherwise the image is very clean. High marks indeed! The mono sound is in good shape and English sub-titles are provided. There are no supplements.

Alligator People (1959)
(released on DVD by Fox on September 7th, 2004)

Here's a film typical of the numerous, run-of-the-mill, creature features that appeared in the 1950s. No better, no worse - so, one wonders exactly what prompted this particular title's release by Fox. Of course the release date was just in time for Hallowe'en and maybe it's the only "scary" feature that Fox had in its catalog that it could get issued in time. Otherwise why would it get a DVD release when so many other more worthy Fox classic titles are going begging?

Beverly Garland stars as a young wife whose husband disappears on their wedding night. After many months, she is able to track him to what may be his childhood home in the bayou country of Louisiana. There she gets a cold reception, but the truth gradually comes out. Her husband had been in a very serious accident before the wedding and apparently survived only through the use of a serum derived from alligators. But the serum has unusual side effects that her husband is now beginning to exhibit.

The film is structured in the form of a flashback as the young wife reveals her story to two psychiatrists while she's under the influence of a truth serum. It's presented quite straightforwardly without excessive histrionics and builds suspense to a nice climax. Only at that point does it falter with some rather predictable plot turns and the inevitable appearance of an actor with a rubber mask. Beverly Garland is particularly fine as the young wife, providing her character with more grit than many similar films of the time exhibited in their female leads. She's good at screaming too. Lon Chaney Jr. (by then billed as Lon Chaney) is the other very familiar name in the cast. He has a part as a somewhat crazed handyman about the estate, always shooting off guns and waving about the hook that replaced his left hand after it was bitten off by an alligator. (He definitely does not play the young husband as the back of the DVD box states.) Other familiar faces are Bruce Bennett and Douglas Kennedy as the psychiatrists, and George MacReady as the inevitable alligator-serum-discovering doctor. The film is well paced at 74 minutes by veteran director Roy Del Ruth and overall is a routine but reasonably entertaining timepasser.

Fox provides a 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer for the black and white film. The image exhibits a moderate amount of grain and some speckling is apparent, but the effect is rather pleasing as it seems to fit the aura of decay that the story's setting projects. Shadow detail is quite good and sharpness is acceptable. Both stereo and mono tracks are included, but there's nothing particularly out-of-the-norm about either. Dialogue is clear with only a couple of instances of minor background hiss. A Spanish mono track and English and Spanish subtitles are also provided. Supplements consist of the theatrical trailer and trailers for four other horror films.

Last Train from Gun Hill (1959)
(released on DVD by Paramount on November 9th, 2004)

After the success of Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, producer Hal Wallis gathered together many of the same principals to collaborate on Last Train from Gun Hill. In a story that is somewhat reminiscent of the basic premise of 3:10 to Yuma, Kirk Douglas plays U.S. marshal Matt Morgan whose wife has been raped and killed. He tracks the killer to Gun Hill where he manages to take him prisoner. There he holes up awaiting an opportunity to get his prisoner safely on the last train out. The prisoner is the son of Craig Belden, Morgan's longtime friend but now the town's most powerful man and intent, along with his ranch-hands, on preventing Morgan from leaving.

Instead of Burt Lancaster (in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral), Kirk Douglas's chief co-star this time is Anthony Quinn who offers a strong performance as Belden, much as he had done in a vaguely similar role to Henry Fonda in the same year's Warlock. Both players have good parts with Quinn's being the more complex one. His son has raped and killed Morgan's wife. Now he must wrestle with the choice of allowing justice to be done or trying to free his son. Either way, he loses the only person (weak as that person is) who truly cares for him. The film's resolution provides Belden with the only true peace the situation could possibly afford him. Quinn conveys his character's conflicts clearly and convincingly. On the other hand, Morgan's motivation and grief is more straight-forward though no less real. Douglas plays the part with an air of grim single-mindedness that serves as an effective counterpoint to Quinn. Look for some good work by Earl Holliman and Carolyn Jones in the two main supporting roles.

The film is directed by John Sturges with an air of urgency. He builds the suspense well and orchestrates the action scenes crisply and forcefully. Sturges had really hit his stride by this time and would soon move on to direct The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape, two of the great action classics of the time. Last Train from Gun Hill is a more intimate and character-driven film than those two, but just as entertaining.

The film was originally released in VistaVision and is presented on DVD by Paramount in a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer. The image is in very good shape with good colour fidelity and fine shadow detail. There are a few speckles and a couple of instances where sharpness seems to suffer, but it's a very pleasing effort overall. The mono sound is clean and clear. There are English subtitles, but no supplements. Recommended.

Hannibal (1960)
(released on DVD by VCI on October 19th, 2004)

Not, it's not an early version of Hannibal Lecter! For those whose memory of high school history may have dimmed, Hannibal was a resourceful general of Carthage, a powerful centre located in North Africa whose interests eventually collided with those of the Romans during the 3rd century BC. The so-called Punic Wars ensued and during them, Hannibal led the Carthaginian army through Spain and southern France to attack Rome by way of the Alps guarding northern Italy. History records that he brought a group of trained elephants with him as part of his attacking force.

This story has not been told that often in the movies. On the more absurd side, the 1955 MGM musical Jupiter's Daughter has Howard Keel portraying a singing Hannibal pursuing Roman beauty Esther Williams. The elephants got to dance with Marge and Gower Champion and Esther Williams got to swim with some statues. The serious rendition was mounted in 1960 by Warner Bros. with shooting carried out in Italy under the direction of Edgar G. Ulmer. Victor Mature stars as Hannibal along with the proverbial cast of thousands - reportedly over 4000 foot soldiers, 1500 horsemen, and 45 elephants. The resulting film was a pleasant surprise to me as the material is treated with respect by both director and leading man. Ulmer is best remembered for his excellent work in mining film nuggets out of the dross of minor studios like PRC. Here he has money and production resources aplenty to work with and shows himself up to the task. He orchestrates the action scenes well, generating real excitement and imparting a good sense of realism to them.

The quieter moments of the film are shot thoughtfully with some obvious attention to camera angles and lighting that help to draw attention away from somewhat stilted-sounding dialogue. Victor Mature gives a forceful performance as Hannibal that is less wooden than many such historic portrayals in films of the period. Mature's romantic interest is provided by Rita Gam who plays a Roman beauty whom Hannibal kidnaps so that she can see the might of the Carthaginian army and report back to Rome. Of course love intervenes. Gam has nothing too strenuous to do, but she does convey sincerity and is generally more than just a pretty face. If you enjoy historic films, Hannibal is certainly a serviceable example.

As befits a large-scale production, filming was done in SuperCinescope and colour (Eastman). VCI's anamorphic presentation on DVD preserves the film's 2.35:1 aspect ratio and provides a surprisingly vibrant-looking transfer. Colours are bright with good fidelity if a touch on the red side. The image is generally quite sharp with only occasional instances of softness. There are a few instances of flicker and occasional speckles and minor debris. Overall, however, the effect is quite pleasing. The mono sound is in good shape. Dialogue is clear, but the battle scenes are as one might expect, not particularly dynamic. The supplements are highlighted by a 33-minute audio interview of Edgar Ulmer conducted some years ago by Peter Bogdanovich (it touches only briefly on Hannibal). Other items include a photo gallery, a Hannibal trailer, good biographies of Victor Mature, Rita Gam, and Edgar Ulmer, and trailers for several other films available on DVD from VCI. A few major studios I could mention could take a lesson from VCI on how to package a minor catalog title.

How to Steal a Million (1966)
(released on DVD by Fox on December 7th, 2004)

Having watched a scruffy-looking Eli Wallach recently in the likes of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly and Ace High, it comes as a great shock to see him clean shaven in How to Steal a Million. Not that it's a significant image from the film, but it's the first thing about it that struck me as really interesting and that says something about how long it takes this William Wyler film to get going. Audrey Hepburn stars as Nicole Bonnet, the daughter of an apparently reputable artist (Hugh Griffith) who actually forges works of the great masters and sells them for a living. He lends a fake statue for display in a Paris museum, but when the museum decides it must have the statue authenticated in order to have it insured while in their possession, Nicole hires a thief (Peter O'Toole) to steal it back before it's discovered to be a fake and her father's reputation ruined. The thief, however, is not exactly what he seems.

For director William Wyler, How to Steal a Million (which was his third-last picture) was not a personal project, more a job that would keep him busy. He liked the change of pace offered by doing a heist film and he enjoyed working with Audrey Hepburn. The film was shot in Paris on a more relaxed shooting schedule than Wyler was used to having and that worked well for him at that advanced stage of his career. Despite all these positive conditions and the pleasing work that Wyler was able to draw from his lead actors, the story is slight and at two hours in length, the film is a half hour too long to maintain interest. It only starts to hold one's attention in the second half which I fear may be too late for some. One can only watch the attractive images of Hepburn and O'Toole so long without much happening. Once the attempt to steal the statue actually begins, however, the pace picks up a bit. Thus even though it soon becomes apparent how things are going to play out, there is some pleasure in watching how it all occurs, farcical though it may be. Hepburn and O'Toole play well off each other on the screen; Griffith is a delight as Hepburn's father; and good support comes from Eli Wallach as an American art collector (he actually replaced George C. Scott who had been signed for the role initially). Charles Boyer has a small part as an art dealer.

The film has been released as an entry in Fox's Studio Classics series, which begs the question - when is Fox going to start releasing more of their real pre-1950s classics in this series instead of fluffy indulgences such as this one? The 2.35:1 anamorphic image is excellent - sharp with good colour fidelity, no sign of edge effects, and free of speckles and scratches. Both stereo and mono tracks are provided and both are quite workmanlike, delivering clear dialogue and some presence (although it's only really apparent when the alarms go off in the museum). Overall, there's little discernible difference between the two tracks. French and Spanish mono tracks and English and Spanish subtitles are also present on the disc. The supplements consist of an informative and entertaining though sometimes intermittent audio commentary by Eli Wallach and Catherine Wyler (the director's daughter), the A&E Biography program on Audrey Hepburn, and several teasers/trailers.

The High Commissioner (1968)
(released on DVD by MGM on November 2nd, 2004)

A little-known film from the late 1960s, The High Commissioner (known in Britain as Nobody Runs Forever) deserves better than the oblivion to which it had been consigned. Fortunately, MGM has ridden to the rescue with a spare but nice-looking DVD release. The film is a political thriller that focuses on the Australian High Commissioner to England, Sir James Quentin, who is involved in important international peace negotiations and Australian detective Scobie Malone who has been sent to London to arrest Quentin for an old murder. Malone is a fairly easy-going sort who soon realizes that Quentin may not be the villain he appears and he agrees to delay taking Quentin back to Australia until Quentin's peace negotiations have been completed. It is soon clear, however, that there are people determined to see the negotiations fail and Malone finds himself faced with several attempts on Quentin's life.

The two lead actors, Rod Taylor as the rather rough-hewn and brash Aussie detective, and Christopher Plummer as the High Commissioner, are both terrific. Taylor's portrayal is particularly likable as he gives Scobie a warm, down-to-earth persona that exudes confidence. Plummer's characterization is more reserved and formal in line with Quentin's position, but he also effectively conveys a moral strength that puts us on Quentin's side despite the murder charge hanging over his head. The film's best moments come when these two are on screen together as the script's well-written dialogue is really brought to life then. Lilli Palmer also contributes fine work as Quentin's wife. Look for Franchot Tone appearing in a small role in this his last feature film.

Under the direction of Ralph Thomas, the film moves along very briskly, effectively generating tension, and delivering some brief but well-paced action sequences. As mentioned above, the script delivers some good dialogue, but it does falter with some rather murky motivation behind the attempts to sabotage the peace negotiations. The London setting is routine in itself, but seems more exotic with the Australian slant to events. Georges Delerue's score is marvelous, particularly the stately title music.

MGM has provided The High Commissioner with a very good 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer (not the 1.66:1 framing listed on the package). The colours are subdued, in accord with the manner in which the film was shot, but appear accurate. The image is quite sharp with good shadow detail and mild grain, and appears to have been generated from excellent-looking source material. The sound track is mono, but it delivers Delerue's score with a decent sense of fidelity. Dialogue is clear. English, French, and Spanish subtitles are provided, but there are no supplements. Recommended.

George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey (1984)
(released on DVD by Warner Bros. on December 7th, 2004)

Director George Stevens died in 1975 and nine years later, his son George Stevens Jr. produced, wrote, directed, and narrated a lengthy film biography and appreciation of his father. I first viewed that effort - George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey - on laserdisc about eight years ago and was greatly impressed. It's a pleasure to see it now available on DVD courtesy of Warner Bros.

Stevens Jr.'s tribute is a marvelous, almost two-hour, retrospective of his father's films focusing on the period from the first film that George Stevens directed that has had an enduring reputation (1935's Alice Adams) to his last major film, 1965's The Greatest Story Ever Told. In between were such classics as Swing Time, Gunga Din, Woman of the Year, The More the Merrier, A Place in the Sun, Shane, Giant, and The Diary of Anne Frank - truly a filmography that few directors can match. George Stevens: A Filmmakers Diary provides meaty coverage of each of these titles and others, using lengthy clips from the films themselves and interviews with many of the stars that appeared in them including Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Joel McCrea, Rock Hudson, Millie Perkins, and Max Von Sydow. Perspective is also provided by fellow directors such as John Huston, Rouben Mamoulian, and Frank Capra. The documentary also presents the debut of selected segments of colour footage of World War II in Europe that Stevens shot while heading up the official photography unit of the allied offensive there after D-Day. This material constitutes one of the highlights of the film because of the new perspective that it provides on a major twentieth century conflict that has traditionally only been known in a black and white context by historians and by those who remained on the homefront. It alone would make the documentary essential viewing even without all the other material covered.

The DVD presentation is correctly mounted full frame. The image is in decent condition but is somewhat soft overall, lacking the sharpness of the best transfers. Much of the time is taken up with film clips that are hardly pristine in nature, but of pretty standard quality for a time when film restoration was not seen with the same urgency it is now. The overall result is but a mild improvement over the previous laserdisc version. The mono sound is clear and entirely adequate for material that is mainly dialogue. English, French, and Spanish subtitles are provided. The only supplement is a text biography of Stevens that provides nothing additional on the main events of Stevens' life, but does give a fairly comprehensive listing of the films he directed. Recommended.

George Stevens: D-Day to Berlin (1998)
(released on DVD by Warner Bros. on December 7th, 2004)

It's true that we see much of the first half of the 20th century in black and white. Newsreels, early television, photographs, and most movies were produced that way, so it's no wonder that people, even those who were alive then, tend to think in black and white when visualizing images of the time. That's one of the reasons that movies made in the present that are set in those times have such a hard time looking realistic. Certainly the Second World War was one of the major events prior to 1950 that has always been dominated by black and white imagery. Director George Stevens headed up the motion picture unit that was the official chronicler of the Allied advance in Europe from D-Day to the end of the war. That unit's record of events was shot in black and white, but there was another record - an unofficial compilation of colour wartime footage that Stevens shot himself in colour as his own personal record of what he saw and did. That record lay unused for many years among Stevens' personal belongings and it was not until 1984 that his son, George Stevens Jr., released some of it as part of his documentary on his father's career (George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey). In the late 1990s, George Stevens Jr. returned to the footage and assembled (and narrated) a documentary of his father's wartime work based entirely on it, the 46-minute-long George Stevens: D-Day to Berlin.

For those unfamiliar with George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey, the more recent George Stevens: D-Day to Berlin is a startling new view of the war's final year in Europe. The colour footage takes us from the Normandy beaches through France and Germany and gives particular emphasis to the meeting of American and Russian troops at the Elbe River, the relief of Dachau, and a liberated Berlin. The scenes at Dachau are the most memorable and haunting of all, with the colour further heightening the horror of the death and inhuman treatment that the Allied troops found there. The film also alludes to something that often gets forgotten - the war's immediate aftermath and the tremendous migration of people that took place in Europe then on all forms of transport from trucks to bicycles and especially on foot as troops were demobilized, prisoners of war were freed, and civilians returned to their homes or had to seek accommodation elsewhere in the face of the massive destruction everywhere.

Anyone who has even the slightest interest in the war will find this presentation to be an illuminating view of the war's culmination in Europe, while those well-versed in the era's events and sights will see them in a new light. The disc's image (correctly presented full frame) is very pleasing, with the colour footage in remarkably good condition in terms of sharpness, colour fidelity, and image detail. The mono sound is clear and quite adequate for the film's needs. English, French, and Spanish sub-titles are provided. There are no supplements. Recommended.

Barrie Maxwell
barriemaxwell@thedigitalbits.com

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