All hope is lost

 IN A LONELY PLACE (1950)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

None of Nicholas Ray's films could be considered average genre pictures that fulfill the needs of the specific genre. "Rebel Without a Cause" could've been a juvenile delinquent picture yet it rises above the surface of teens in trouble with its firm handling of disillusioned teenagers who are trying to figure out their place in the world. "In A Lonely Place" is one of Ray's best films, a sordid picture of Hollywood in the 1950's where making a buck and staying relevant matter more than anything. When it comes to struggling screenwriter Dix Steele (Humphrey Bogart), his displeasure with B "popcorn" pictures is due to having recent flops on his record and not because he doesn't want to make them. He is not interested in high art, just doing his diligent job of writing a sentimental, average movie. His own life is anything but sentimental. 

Dix Steele frequents nightly at Paul's restaurant, a regular hangout for all screenwriters, actors and Hollywood execs where getting noticed is the deal. Dix needs a comeback but his outbursts of violence and aggression can get the best of him. He has temperamental issues but they are not enough to deter anyone from working with him - his long-suffering agent, Mel (Art Smith), always makes excuses for Dix. One night, Dix invites a very perky hatcheck girl, Mildred (Martha Stewart), to his apartment to work out the details of the book he's adapting - she has already read it and dictates the plot to him. Dix couldn't be less interested and probably even less interested in Mildred, whom he sends home with 20 dollars to take a cab. The next day, Mildred is found murdered. Did Dix do it? He is a likely suspect, though his new alluring neighbor, Laurel (Gloria Grahame), did not see him leave with Mildred. She supposedly observes his every move since their apartments face each other in the courtyard.

"In a Lonely Place" finds Dix and Laurel getting romantically involved. She cooks for him and provides solace while he works on the script - she types the pages he writes. This relationship is doomed because as much as Laurel loves Dix, she catches his frequent temper fits. One night, he nearly kills another motorist by almost crushing his head with a rock! Dishonesty can set Dix off - he strikes his agent in the face at Paul's, and he takes off like a bat out of hell after it is discovered that Laurel met with one of the police detectives. He is rash and far too impulsive in his rage without being able to control it - he unsurprisingly has a history of violent episodes. Who can doubt that he killed Mildred especially when he reenacts it ("artistic temperament" he calls it) in front of his buddy, Brub (Frank Lovejoy), a police detective who is working on the case, and Brub's frightened wife, Sylvia (Jeff Donnell).

This all leads to a frighteningly intense ending where Dix confronts Laurel. First, she doesn't have her engagement ring on and he starts to get angry. Then she tries to shield his eyes from her bedroom where she has packed some belongings and has left an envelope for him (she's ready to take off to New York). It is so suspenseful and so tension-filled that you may find yourself trying to cover your eyes (Bogart gives a scary, tantalizing performance). Where can all this lead and did Dix kill Mildred? The beauty of "In a Lonely Place" is that its noir elements are not as significant as Dix's impending rage that can be set off at any time, anywhere. Laurel sees the beast in Dix and when the final truth is revealed, it doesn't matter whether he committed the crime or not - all hope is lost.   

We have all the time in the world

 ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE (1969)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Watching George Lazenby take on tough superspy James Bond can run a bit hot and cold. Lazenby (in his film debut) is suave, has the right physical build for a spy and ample presence - the guy knows how to throw a punch and how to fire a gun. I still do not buy him as James Bond because there is no danger to him and I do not sense that killer instinct. Sean Connery is the obvious comparison and Lazenby doesn't carry much in the way of adult charm either - he has boyish charm and remains resolutely calm around the ladies but that is it. In one scene, under disguise, he looks like Sherlock Holmes and I could see him as Holmes without question.

The story that matters most in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is Bond's search for Ernst Stavro Blofeld, his main arch-nemesis (this is Operation Bedlam). After Bond rescues a Countess from committing suicide in the Portugal sea, there is an elongated fight scene on the beach that is fairly witty in its payoff. The Countess is Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo (the luscious Avenger herself Diana Rigg, who only figures in the action during the opening and closing passages). She is the sole daughter of Marc-Ange Draco (Gabriele Ferzetti), the head of a powerful Corsican crime family, who wants Bond to marry her hoping she will be dominated and obey a husband (this would not go well in 2025). Bond declines the offer but he hopes that Draco will help locate Blofeld. It turns out that Blofeld (a very engaging Telly Savalas) is living in the Swiss Alps and is claiming the title of Count Balthazar de Bleuchamp through the London College of Arms! This is, of course, an attempt by Blofeld to disguise himself from being killed by Bond yet the archvillain also has a dastardly plan. Blofeld, or Count Balthazar, runs a clinic concerned with allergies and has a bunch of women used as test subjects. The truth is that the women are guinea pigs who are being brainwashed into spreading biological warfare agents to Britain and Ireland. The supervillains always had harebrained world domination and destruction plans, but wouldn't it have been easier to distribute such agents through gas exhaust or some other technological means?

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" has some well-oiled action scenes and a breezy one or two ski chases which is something early Connery films did not have until Moore's "Spy Who Loved Me" (though Blofeld skiing through the Alps merits a few chuckles). Lazenby's Bond also has some great physical fistfights that are truly mind-boggling and keep you on the edge of your seat (when he knocks out a bunch of Draco's men and you hear ricocheting sound effects, it really does startle your senses). I also enjoyed Bond's attempts to escape a maintenance room with the monstrous gears controlling the cable cars - my hands got sweaty so I know it works. And we also get a marriage sequence that is followed by a tragedy - very unusual for a James Bond flick. Speaking of unusual, we are treated to a rare visit to M's house!

Lazenby is not quite the James Bond I love to see - he just doesn't have that edge but his romantic scenes are wonderful and he's acceptable playing cards at a casino. He isn't bad so I have to grade him against latter-day Bonds - he's miles ahead of Timothy Dalton but he's no Connery or Roger Moore. The movie is still fun and engineered with maximum skill by debuting director Peter Hunt. Still, in light of what Connery could get away with or even Moore, neither would pass muster disguised as a Holmes type or a genealogist wearing a Scottish kilt! 

I won't play the sap for you

 THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Sam Spade can love women like any hardboiled detective, but can he forgive himself after loving someone who may killed someone close to him? That is the real question and one that stays with you long after watching John Huston's astonishing directorial debut, "The Maltese Falcon." 

Based on Dashiell Hammett's classic mystery novel (adapted twice before), Sam Spade is our man of the hour (Humphrey Bogart), a tough detective who doesn't sugarcoat anything and pedals hard when he wants information. His partner, Miles Archer (Jerome Cowan), is more than a bit enchanted by their newest client, a certain Miss Wonderly (Mary Astor), who wants protection of her sister from a malevolent boyfriend named Thursby. The private detectives know what to do and when Archer allegedly confronts Thursby, the pleasant detective is shot dead. A half-hour later, Thursby is gunned down. The police and Archer's wife suspect foul play from Spade but Spade is nobody's murderer or fool. Spade is eager to find Archer's shooter and he has a good hunch that Miss Wonderly, who is actually Brigid O'Shaughnessy, might hold some clues. It turns out her story was a fabrication, which Spade had already suspected, and he can sense almost everything coming out of her mouth is a lie. 

Then we get to the business of the Maltese Falcon, a sought after statuette of a black bird that holds encrusted jewels. The effeminate Joe Cairo (Peter Lorre) is interested in acquiring it and thinks Sam has it. Then there's the "gunsel" Wilmer (Elisha Cook, Jr., known at the time in Hollywood as the "lightest heavy") who is trailing our detective and whom Spade can easily spot a mile away. Wilmer works for a most jolly, cultured fellow known as Kasper Gutman, the "Fat Man" (a marvelous Oscar-nominated performance by Sydney Greenstreet), who relays the history of the "black bird" that goes as far back as the Knights Templar. Before long, Spade is embroiled in a search for a statuette that is of little significance to him, other than his growing love for Brigid and the mystery killer who shot his partner and Thursby.

"The Maltese Falcon" is so alarmingly fast-paced that, not unlike say "His Girl Friday," you have to keep up with these characters' rapid-fire dialogue to make sense of everything. That is the beauty of a jewel of a movie like this - it never hesitates to keep moving, to keep us on our toes wondering what else will be uncovered and what other double-crosses are headed our way. The clean, crisp dialogue is full of delicious memorable lines like "When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it!" or "Don't crowd me" or even the film's last Shakespearean line delivered by Bogie's Sam "This is the stuff dreams are made of" (a line not in the original novel). Every scene is sumptuously acted and crackles with excitement (further proof that a room full of people talking can be thrilling and suspenseful) - no shot is ever wasted and no scene ever feels out-of-tune. Watching Humphrey Bogart have his way with everyone, and completely fearless, is truly divine cinema. Greenstreet's girth says just as much as his soft Brit accent - such a man with a wicked smile can only spell danger around the corner. Bug-eyed Lorre as Joe Cairo also keeps you on your toes - he threatens Sam with a gun twice in the same scene! Then there's Elisha Cook, Jr. whose eyes well up when he realizes he will be the fall guy for this black bird mess. And, finally, there is the equally divine Mary Astor who is also fearless in her own right, playing one of the most duplicitous femme fatales I've ever seen. And when Sam confesses he loves her and knows that he has to send her away to jail, you feel his regret. Astor's Brigid can't even look at him in the final scene. This is juiced-up, fantastically entertaining noir and it would make a hell of a double feature with "Out of the Past." An American classic.