Storm brewing over America

 CONFESSIONS OF A NAZI SPY (1939)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

The narrative is two-fold in "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" and although the first half is heavy-going and repetitious, the second half is quite thrilling and definitely shows the investigation into a Nazi spy circle getting tighter by the minute. These FBI government agents did a thorough job nailing them, in this fictional adaptation and in reality, yet they couldn't see the grim future. Hell, it was only 1939. 

The movie begins with a narrator warning about the Nazi Party infiltrating America in various cities and towns. We see a giant swastika used as a wipe transition frequently, sometimes emerging in animated style over maps of Germany and the United States. Various Nazis do their "Heil Hitler" salutes, and one of them is even played by George Sanders! Their various inner circles try to listen in on Germans who dare to criticize Hitler's plans, economic and otherwise, planting agents of their own to determine who is obedient and who isn't. Some of this can go a long way and, though I imagine some of this is partially true, I doubt that a majority consensus was taken at clubs, restaurants, etc, but perhaps history professors might prove me wrong. Whoever dares to question Hitler's authority is sent back to Germany, possibly a concentration camp! It is true that as early as 1933, political prisoners were sent to the camps such as German Communists, Socialists, and Social Democrats so there is a speck of truth to this.

Once we are settled into the FBI investigation itself, with America historically still deciding not to join World War II, "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" really picks up steam and holds our attention. Edward G. Robinson is one of the FBI agents on the tail of the Nazi spy ring. The FBI has gotten ahold of irate German spy Kurt Schneider (Francis Lederer) and a sinister Dr. Kassel (Paul Lukas) thanks to an alert postman handling mail for Mrs. McLaughlin - she operates out of an unassuming Scotland house where she mails contents from the spy ring to certain Nazi Americans. Most of this second half of "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" is quite absorbing and we see just how deep these sinister connections are. Easy way to digest this crude form of entertainment - partly propaganda, partly fiction, mostly sinister and ends with flag-waving resolution. Of course, it turns out that the Nazi Party succeeded in the most harrowing genocide of the 20th century. The filmmakers could not have seen that coming. 

Hollywood always had it this bad

 THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (1952)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Kirk Douglas as a headstrong, hot-shot movie producer would've been welcome in any movie but in "The Bad and the Beautiful," he is also egotistical, arrogant, showy and an irredeemable backstabbing son of a gun. The truth is that his character of a movie producer known as Shields wants to hurt people...and he can't help it. This movie could've been harder to take had the hard-as-granite charisma of Kirk Douglas not been cast.

Vincente Minnelli's star-studded production (how could it not be?) with writer Charles Schnee ("They Live By Night") has a flawless, unusual flashback structure. It begins with a writer who's both novelist and screenwriter with a cool detachment (perfectly cast Dick Powell), a spurned actress (Lara Turner) and a movie director's crooked history with Shields (played by Barry Sullivan) meeting with a Hollywood honcho (Walter Pidgeon) to discuss all three signing up for a new film project. This project is not what they expect since it means dealing with Shields, whom they all hate. Each of them tells of their different collaborations with Shields, none of which are memorably good experiences.  

Amiel, the director, is hired as one of many extras for Shields' father's funeral (no one would have attended otherwise) and he meets Shields (Douglas) whom he follows to an empty mansion. They sort of hit it off, becoming partners in B movies (one of them is based on the actual B-movie "Cat People") until Amiel wants to direct a serious picture that no studio wishes to finance. Shields, ever the clever producer, gets the financing yet backstabs Amiel by hiring someone else to direct. 

Meanwhile, there's the actress, Lila (Turner), who has a festering alcohol problem and performs bad screen tests. Nobody wants her to star in a film except for Shields. The film in question is some sort of period piece romance and it makes her into a major movie star. Then Shields walks out on her after presumably falling in love with her and we see him bedding a bit player - you know, how Hollywood normally works. They hire you, bed you, make false love promises and then abandon you. 

The novelist, Bartlow (Dick Powell), is indifferent to Hollywood and its machinations and has no interest in adapting his own best-selling book for Shields. Money talks and Bartlow proceeds but he is not the least bit dazzled by Hollywood glamor or parties - his Southern belle of a wife (Gloria Grahame in an Oscar-winning performance) is more than just dazzled. Tragedy does strike and Shields' manner of handling the tragedy will leave you wanting to strangle him. 

"The Bad and the Beautiful" is not a love letter to Hollywood - it is too acidic and dark to really do anything other than strike a nerve. It is an anti-Hollywood film in the sense that you are taken in by the riches of La La Land in terms of big, ostentatious parties and mansions and lots of booze but little else other than the cold, sterile emptiness of it all. Showbiz stories are almost always scandalous and scatalogical. Kirk Douglas embodies that frigid cruel demeanor and its both tantalizing and pathetic and yet, despite all the betrayal and dishonesty bestowed upon these three creative people whom we are sympathetic to, Shields still finds a way of entrapping them. Bad, beautiful and entrancing.  

Hooks On the Waterfront

 EDGE OF THE CITY (1957)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Gritty New York City dramas shot in black-and-white always made me ecstatic. "Edge of the City" also fits the bill with strong, empathetic performances by John Cassavetes and Sidney Poitier in a story told simply and without much flash yet with ample enough verve to keep us riveted. Considering this is director Martin Ritt's astonishing debut, it is nothing short of a miracle in cinematic debuts - it is a bona fide treat.

Cassavetes is Axel Nordmann who wallows in a stupor as he jumps on board a boat headed somewhere, though we don't know where. He is visibly torn, unsure and uncertain of himself and his surroundings as he is looking for work as a longshoreman and is told to wait around till the following day. He tries opening a truck door and a freight container and we don't know what he's up to - are we following the story of a man who becomes helpless and homeless? The following day he is woken, sleeping between two containers, by Tommy Tyler (Sidney Poitier) a jokey, hard-working supervisor who works the waterfront hauling boxes with cargo hooks (he loves to actually break the monotony of the work with some tomfoolery and so do the workers when they throw his lunchbox around). Axel doesn't have the essential hook needed to haul these heavy boxes and is eventually given one. However, a rough supervisor named Malick (fantastic Jack Warden), "the blackest heart in town," who got Axel a job wants Axel working under his command - Malick hates Tommy and calls him and Axel "wise guys." The tension between Malick and Tommy is especially jolting and you feel it in every shared moment they have. Watch out for those hooks, I say.

Axel comes from Gary, Indiana and wishes not to reveal much of his past to Tommy or anyone, including a potential love interest introduced by Tommy named Ellen Wilson (Kathleen Maguire). Axel is nervous about talking to his mother or father back home, feeling shame and guilt over the loss of his brother. When he is unable to talk to his parents, he feels free talking to Tommy and they become fast friends. When it comes to Ellen who is attracted to Axel, the Indiana man freezes up and is reserved and has to be cajoled by Tommy into walking Ellen to her apartment after a night of dancing.

"Edge of the City" is riveting entertainment, always keeping us on the edge to the point where one feels they would lose their balance while watching it. Cassavetes was a gifted actor and plays this role perfectly with razor sharp often unblinking eyes that keep zoning in on others when they already have turned their backs or move away. I would say Cassavetes was as great an actor as Brando was during this 50's period (our sympathy for him grows when he tells the tragic story of his older brother and you can't help but gravitate towards him). Sidney Poitier cuts through with blazing energy and enough humor to make us see a man we would all want to befriend. Jack Warden exudes a rough demeanor, an imploding, bigoted man with no real values other than hard work. And it is a delight to see Ruby Dee as Tommy's wife - her final emotional wreck of a scene is as honest as movies get. For the 1950's, "Edge of the City" is tough but never cynical and just as shrewdly involving as the similarly themed "On the Waterfront."