Uninspired but still fun departure for Harold Lloyd

 THE CAT'S-PAW (1934)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

The role of a naive missionary from China travelling to the U.S. is perfectly tailored for Everyman Harold Lloyd. During the 1930's Lloyd was performing less physical stunts and gags where he was running around engaging in all sorts of tomfoolery, and more character parts. "The Cat's-Paw" is a strange movie experience because it feels as if Lloyd should be jumping out of his skin and yet he's been directed by regular Lloyd director Sam Taylor to be remote and closed-off. This is only a fitfully funny comedy and, like most Lloyd pictures, it is fun but it is not great fun. 

When Ezekiel Cobb (Lloyd) arrives in the U.S. in the fictional California city of Stockport, he is looking for a wife (though one must wonder, where are all the women in China?) Almost immediately he runs into the "so dishonest that you must be honest" Good Government League boss, Mayo (George Barbier), who wrongly assumes that a milquetoast like Cobb will lose the mayoral election quicker than any quote from Chinese poet Ling Po. Naturally, Cobb takes the job seriously and becomes mayor and all hell breaks loose. He fires the police commissioner, vetoes bills left and right and is keenly aware of all the graft and corruption which he tries to eradicate. As I said earlier this is the perfect role for Harold Lloyd yet he is far too unassuming and all hell doesn't break loose enough, not until the dramatic finish where all the crooks and gangsters are gathered inside the cellar of an Asian antique shop. For those who admonish the racial attitudes of filmmakers and/or films of the times, be prepared for racist quips and the regular use of a certain racial epithet towards Asians.

There aren't too many lulls in "The Cat's-Paw" but there is no real comic fire in this picture - it should explode with comic fireworks and it mostly keeps itself restrained. So is Lloyd who is still charming and funny in his calm demeanor and his frequent spouting of Asian quotes (not by Confucius, but by Ling Po). The scene where he tries to use the telephone for the first time is hilarious yet this movie never quite becomes a fish-out-of-water picture - there is not enough of that culture shock considering Cobb has been living in China for 20 years. Even the presence of Una Merkel as a cigar-counter clerk is seemingly truncated - she knows the guy is naive and dumb yet she holds out for his Capraesque idealism to rid the city of corruption. Lloyd and Merkel unfortunately have too few scenes together. "The Cat's-Paw" is still a minor delight and worth seeing for Lloyd fans but it is largely an uninspired effort. 

The Little Tramp's selfless act of love

 THE CIRCUS (1928)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

There is a melancholic and hopeful spirit about the Little Tramp, the most famous character created during the silent film era by the great Charlie Chaplin. Here is a guy who is homeless and trying to get by and his needs are not great. He is a sentimentalist, not unlike the actual Chaplin, and believes in love and humanity which also makes both creator and character one of the great humanists of cinema. "The Circus" has such a deeply melancholic yet upbeat finish that I am almost ready to say it rivals his "Modern Times" or "City Lights" but I am not sure - it is certainly his finest and funniest achievement during the silent film era.

Right from the start of this rollicking comedy, the Little Tramp is already causing a ruckus. He inadvertently finds himself the butt of all jokes at a traveling show circus where he's chased by the police and a pony! The audience is doubled over with laughter especially in a priceless gag (an old one but it stands repeating if it is done well) where the cop and the Tramp are on a revolving platform yet neither can move very far. There's also the Tramp eating a hot dog belonging to a child, the hall of mirrors gag and the terrifically timed gag where Chaplin pretends to be an automaton (it is so good that I can see myself being fooled by this as well). This whole opening sequence occurs like a comic maze of epic funny gags because the Tramp is wrongfully accused of being a pickpocket, and all this is in the first 14 minutes!

The rest of "The Circus" has Chaplin as the new comic wonder of the circus, easily making the seasoned clowns look like amateurs. Of course, the Tramp is no seasoned comic or clown - it is all pure happenstance and the joke is that he cannot summon laughter by studying the clowns' routines like the William Tell bit involving an apple. The Tramp eats the apple and angers the circus owner (Allan Garcia) immensely since the little guy cannot do the routines and has no comic timing. Of course, love is around the corner when the Little Tramp falls for the owner's own stepdaughter, Merna (Merna Kennedy), an acrobat who sometimes fails to receive applause and has to be punished by not being fed by her mean stepfather. Merna likes the Tramp but then there's the handsome tightrope walker who steals her looks. 

"The Circus" is simply a wonderful, sprightly and delectably made romantic comedy with unbelievable stunts and scenes of impending terror that will have you grabbing your seat. The tightrope walking moment with Chaplin and a couple of intrusive monkeys on him will be enough to make you fall out of your chair laughing and terrified as well. A lion cage scene has to be seen to be believed, and all this is further proof that Chaplin has better comic timing than the Tramp himself. The last image of Chaplin doing his famous awkward walk to the sunset after giving up his love for Merna and for any further circus misadventures is about as sad and lonely a moment you will find in most silent cinema. I loved him for being that selfless and for Chaplin to have given us such a glowing comic creation and persona in so many films. Bravo!       

Names have been changed to protect the innocent

 HE WALKED BY NIGHT (1948)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Forget "The Naked City." "He Walked by Night" is an explosive, no frills thriller packed with enough action, solid performances and striking cinematography to render Jules Dassin's crime story as obsolete. Of course, history proved that "The Naked City" is better known and itself inspired a TV series. Well, this film not only stars Jack Webb in a small role as a forensics expert, it practically inspired the TV series "Dragnet," so there!

Richard Basehart is the lone gunman, Roy, who kills a policeman in the opening sequence while trying to rob a TV/radio store! For 1948, that is incredibly shocking violence! This killer gets away like a black cat in the night, robbing any kind of store and hiding out in the L.A. storm drains that covers many miles before returning to his bungalow with a barking dog. Roy shoots to kill but sometimes he uses the gun only as a threat in some robberies and his M.O. keeps changing. Roy works for a Mr. Reeves (Whit Bissell) as a technician and invents more elaborate electronics (of course, he had been pilfering all the electronic parts). This guy is also a step ahead of the police since he listens in on their frequency! How on earth are the cops going to catch up with him?

Truthfully, "He Walked by Night" is not a psychological profile of Roy nor is there any real depth to the cops (other than Scott Brady as Police Sgt. Marty Brennan who does a lot of the detective work in the latter half and Basehart's depiction of how antisocial Roy is). No, actually the film is a rip-roaring semi-documentary of a real-life case and it keeps you on edge through the workings of the multiple murders of cops and the forensic details. "He Walked by Night" is meant to be shallowly conceived and unglamorous, to evoke the tedious work cops must do to catch a criminal though not one frame of the film is tedious (the drawing of the suspect piece-by-piece by the witnesses is enthralling). The shootouts are crisp, brief and alarming especially the one in Mr. Reeves' office (courtesy of the sharp shadowy camera angles by DP John Alton) and of course the storm drain finale which is exceptionally done (allegedly it inspired Carol Reed's similar finale in "The Third Man" though I think that is yet to be proven). Exciting and first-rate all the way. 

Virginia Grey is a runaway

 SECRET VALLEY (1937)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

An unusual blend of western and gangster movie genres though about as perfunctory and silly as they come, "Secret Valley" is an obscure Western picture with its only real saving grace being Virginia Grey. 

Virginia is Joan who has married someone in Reno for only two hours (!) before realizing her husband is a gangster, meaning more of a ruthless businessman than a regular businessman. Joan consults two different attorneys to file a divorce. Geez, was she so ditsy as to not realize who her husband was? Apparently, the first attorney is aware of this man's reputation but says no to helping her. The second attorney is a go and sets her up in some dude ranch rather than a hotel. The dude ranch's owner, Lee Rogers (Richard Arlen), wants nothing to do with her. When Joan goes out for a cattle drive, he insists she wash dishes rather than ride a horse. Joan is so ditsy that she inadvertently opens the fence and lets all the cattle out roaming the desert. 

So we get shots of cattle being hoarded up (something B westerns have featured ad nauseam), lovely Virginia Grey acting foolish yet loving the outdoors, Lee Rogers losing his cool with Joan's presence, and a climactic shooting also involving fistfights with the gangsters, Lee, and the FBI while Joan yells "Watch out!" Added to the mix is an Asian cook (Willie Fung) occasionally barking in Chinese and cackling with laughter and you've got one ridiculous western that is fun in a very remote, childish kind of way.

Beer and Blood

 THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

For sheer villainy with very little charm and a purely (and intentionally) misogynistic bent, "The Public Enemy" is the James Cagney gangster picture of the 1930's era. There were many others but this one has steam rising and emanating from the screen - it is raw, visceral and accepts no substitutes. Though not exactly the best of its kind, it does show the Pre-Code danger and edge in these types of gangland pictures and it makes no apologies.

Divided into chapters showing an onscreen title of the year, "The Public Enemy" charts the rise and fall of Irish-American and Chicagoan Thomas Powers (James Cagney) who has no compunction as a youth to steal. He steals roller skates for his friend's sister and she refuses them when she finds out he stole them. Tom's father, a policeman, is a brute and heavily beats his son with very little reaction from the tot. Over the years, the kid and his childhood partner, Matt Doyle (Frankie Darro), become embroiled in petty theft crimes (one goes awry with regards to the theft of furs), work as streetcar drivers and eventually rise to the level of wealthy businessmen while bootlegging. Of course, murder by getting even percolates when Tom decides to kill Putty Nose (Murray Kinnell), the man who helped the kids in the past and decided to flee after that fur snafu. Sensible people started to see that Tom was up to no good.

Tom's mother (Beryl Mercer) loves him like a baby yet Tom's brother (Donald Cook), a World War I vet, sees through him and has heard and disapproves of his "beer and blood" enterprise. Even Tom's girlfriend Kitty (Mae Clarke) hates him and he decides to squish a grapefruit in her face in one of the most famous scenes in American cinema! In one scene, drunken Tom is seduced by a woman (Mia Marvin), who helps him and his crew hide out from a rival mob, and he smacks her the following day learning of this seduction he slept through. Leaving aside women (and a thankless though sparkling role by Jean Harlow), not even horses are safe around this guy.

"The Public Enemy" is rough and tough and a completely unsentimental picture though not especially illuminating (unless you were unaware of the notion, as served in prologue and epilogue title cards, that being a gangster was anything but a solid career choice). Still, I have to give the film credit for painting these criminals without an ounce of romanticism. There is none evident in a single performance, especially Cagney. As I said earlier, the film makes no apologies for its in-your-face violence and raw nerve. Neither did James Cagney.

Proletarian noir mixed with chipped glass

 THIEVES' HIGHWAY (1949)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Jules Dassin's "Thieves' Highway" is a curious noir picture because all the usual elements are forged and in place for a tough, tightly-paced picture and yet it gives us more than the expected. The noir trappings are there but we also get lost in the lonely world of truckers, golden apples, waterfronts, Italian prostitutes and in the minutiae of dangerous truck driving, the money at stake, who's robbing whom to make a buck and so on. In 2022, in a proposed world of driverless truckers, there is much here that almost makes it a docudrama of the rough terrain of truckers.

The fabulous Richard Conte is perfectly cast as Nick Garcos, a man who returns to his family in Fresno bearing gifts. Everything seems idyllic until he discovers his father (Morris Carnovsky), a former trucker, was bilked of wages during a bad accident where he lost his legs. The bilking was done courtesy of the corrupt Mike Figlia (Lee J. Cobb, a punchy and vibrant performance), who runs a produce market in San Francisco. Nick wants the money owed to his father so while partnering with the dubious truck jockey, Ed Prentiss (Millard Mitchell) who bought Nick's father's truck, a bargain is struck and the two hit the road with the shipment of apples to deliver to Figlia. None of this will be accomplished so easily.

It is clear from the plot that this could've been fairly standard, clockwork noir with the tension being whether Nick can get the money owed from Figlia or die trying. Being that this is a Jules Dassin flick and based on the A. I. Bezzerides' proletarian novel "Thieves' Market," the film is also far more invested in the relationships between the truckers, Figlia's manipulative ways that involve violence and the machinations of charging people whatever price floats in his head, and Nick trying to be righteous and realizing this world is amoral at best. But there is also the curious Italian prostitute Rica (Valentina Cortesa) who seems intent on manipulating any man to befit Figlia's corrupt ways but she may also be duplicitous. Curiously Dassin and writer Bezzerides keep us guessing as to her motives - is she money hungry or will she do right by Nick? Does she have to do right by him since men lunge themselves at her all the time. An early funny scene shows her at the cafe with a cigarette asking for a light and several men offer at the same time - an old joke that only shows she's capable of summoning and stealing a man's heart through his wallet, or their lighters. 

I don't buy the happy ending of "Thieves' Highway" nor does it feel warranted (a surprise coming from Dassin who later on created one of his darker noir endings in "Night and the City"). Still I was pulled in by the cast and especially Richard Conte's proletariat-led idealism - he is jovial in the beginning and slowly such joy dissipates till he has some sort of implied rebirth. The idealism is etched on his face, and you can feel it - he is somehow the perfect postwar worker type that you might ever see during this era. Valentina Cortesa is excellent in her low-key performance, never pushing for any extremes yet we are never too sure of her intentions (Nick refers to her as chipped glass, a great line). The low-keyedness is also evident with Millard Mitchell as Ed and we discover through him that, hey, we all have to make ends meet somehow on these treacherous roads. Speaking of treacherous, there are two thrilling truck scenes, one involving a deadly crash, that have to be seen to be believed - Dassin was quick on the trigger when it came to making these scenes realistic and snappy. Tension-filled in every frame and often sprinkled with a touch of empathy towards characters you least expect to get any, "Thieves' Highway" is, dare I say it, truly evocative proletarian noir. Try saying that three times.  

One of the most lushly romantic love stories ever made

 THE QUIET MAN (1952)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Lush, wonderfully colorful and vibrant in tone and rhythm, "The Quiet Man" is one of John Ford's best films. It is a purposely rocky, humorous romantic story set in Ireland that is about as unusual a romance as you might expect. It's not just a romance between two stalwart acting titans like John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, it is the romantic vision of Ireland as a place where true blooming love can exist. Not that it is easy for love to bloom there.

John Wayne is an Irish-American ex-boxer named Sean Thornton, who returns to his birthplace of Ireland, specifically Inisfree, to buy back the cottage he was born in. Naturally there is a heated disagreement through his neighbor, an embittered Red Will  (Victor McLaglen), who doesn't want Thornton as a neighbor. Red Will also wants Sean to stay away from his Irish lass of a sister, the spinster Mary Kate (the truly wonderful, spirited Maureen O'Hara). Of course, you can't keep a fiery redhead and a headstrong Irishman apart for long (this culminates in Wayne and O'Hara's famous first kiss while the wind blows in the background and through the cottage. It is a scene that can stop time, not to mention a strong moment of intimacy in a rainstorm by a graveyard). 

There are Irish traditions of courting that are at odds with Thornton's American traditions. For one, there is to be no physical contact during the courting, which is accompanied by the horse carriage driver and matchmaker Flynn (Barry Fitzgerald). Sean must not put his arms on Mary Kate if he is to lift her off of the carriage, a simple clasping of hands will do. The other tradition is that the brother must give away his sister (their parents are no longer around), and Red Will refuses simply because he himself is not married and needs a woman to run the house. There is a set-up during a horse race that is better seen than explained (it involves bonnets) and it shows how difficult it is to marry a woman - the process seems a bit grueling.

The cast works to perfection. Wayne and O'Hara make one of the best silver screen couples ever and it shows how much love there is despite the rocky roads (quite literally). Wayne shows a more gentle tough guy at first - later on, this guy is rather rough when dragging Mary Kate over 5 miles of rough terrain for a climactic fight with Red Will. O'Hara also shows gentleness yet a fierce demeanor at the same time - she will not bow down to just any man (she can deliver a punch and is forthright about her emotions). I can see why O'Hara thought of this movie as her favorite - after all, it probably helped that she was born in Ireland as well.

It was a great casting coup to get the boisterous Victor McLaglen as the stubborn Red Will, who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders and through his bulky physicality. Also worth mentioning is Ward Bond as a priest, Father Peter Lonergan, who hates to be interrupted when catching a fish. And let's not forget Barry Fitzgerald as the chaperone and matchmaker Michaleen Flynn - he also imbues the spirit and sweetness of himself and the townsfolk yet he clings with an iron hand on upholding tradition.

"The Quiet Man" may have its Irish stereotypes (the guys at the bar singing and drinking to their heart's content, the betting over a fistfight) but they add immeasurably to the proceedings - you believe them as a fun-loving group who only want to be content. Same with Sean and Mary Kate and though the romance takes its time beyond their marriage and a little matter involving her dowry, the same richness and optimism of their very souls gives us something to aspire to. The Irish setting (astounding Technicolor cinematography by Winton C. Hoch who later lensed "The Searchers") with its rock beds, rocky bridges, the slightly grayish sea, the rolling green hills, and the cottage with its green doors makes this one of the most beautiful and lushly romantic love stories ever made. "The Quiet Man" is one of the greatest, most pleasurable entertainments ever produced by a Hollywood studio.