Christopher Lee is tantalizing in draggy drama

 ALIAS JOHN PRESTON (1955)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Forgettable, cheaply made Elstree Studios effort that will be only of interest to Christopher Lee fans. At 66 minutes, it is still an endurance test.

Lee is a wealthy businessman, John Preston, who arrives in the English town of Deanbridge. He matriculates himself in this sleepy area rather seamlessly as he buys a vast amount of real estate. Preston also has his eye on the bewitching Sally (Betta St. John) who is rather frigid with her former beau (Peter Grant), an amateur golf player. Sally is taken by Preston yet something is off about him - he snaps at her, snaps at the maitre-d of a local restaurant, and is always nervous, sweaty and anxious. Preston claims to have fought in World War II and hates France - the assumption being that he was a soldier during its German and Italian occupation. He intends to marry Sally yet is inclined to see a psychoanalyst (Alexander Knox) to deal with his recurring nightmare of a murder he may have committed under a different identity.

It does not take a genius to see where this is headed and thus suspense for this cumbersome drama is minimal. As an albeit brief psychological study of a man slowly losing his marbles, "Alias John Preston" has some tantalizing moments thanks to Christopher Lee's towering performance - he seems too big for this TV-style play yet is sometimes terrifying to watch. Alexander Knox is dead-on as the analyst who sees a lot more than he lets on. The film does drag a bit and most of it is as visually flat as a desert, yielding little surprise or imagination with its predictable story structure. For Christopher Lee completists, well worth checking it out at least once. Drink plenty of caffeine. 

Sleuthing through planes, cows and greenhouses

 NANCY DREW...TROUBLE SHOOTER (1939)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Bonita Granville has the charm, the spirit, the joy and pure liveliness to play the favorite female sleuth of murder mysteries, Nancy Drew. Though Granville starred in only four Nancy Drew films, they are all fun and infectious. Although she is a little more ditzy than in the books, Granville still holds her own and has enough intelligence to find the clues to solve a mystery.

In "Trouble Shooter," she wants to clear her "Uncle" Adams, a farmer, who is suspected of murder. Naturally, stubborn Uncle Adams knows he is innocent and procures help from attorney Carson Drew (John Litel). Carson pretends to be going on vacation out in the country until the tight-lipped housekeeper lets the cat out of the bag to the curious Nancy (Granville). Nancy spends time uncovering a rare tropical plant on the grounds where the murdered victim, a ranch owner, is found. She and her semi-boyfriend Ted (Frankie Thomas), a typical klutz, go off gathering information on this darn plant that leads to a burning greenhouse and the pair trying not to fly a crop duster plane into the ground! There is also Nancy trying to clumsily make dinner for her father and his guest, a practically next-door neighbor he has a romantic interest in.

"Nancy Drew...Trouble Shooter" has enough laughs and action overall to please anyone, though the plot is rather flimsy and the whodunit is not exactly something that will leave you scratching your head. The racist caricature of Willie Best as the farm hand who steals chickens is obviously done for comic effect but it will prove deleterious and cringe-inducing to most (he was used to far more execrable effect in Harold Lloyd's "Feet First"). "Trouble Shooter" is still a pleasant diversion with the added treat of an angry cow.

Farewell to Arms

THE UNKNOWN (1927)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Tantalizing, magnetic intensity fills every frame of Tod Browning's powerful and incendiary "The Unknown." Contributing to its power is no less than the legendary Lon Chaney, the Man of a 1000 faces who uses his own chiseled face, free of extreme makeup changes, to denote every note of his armless knife thrower "Alonzo the Armless."

Wait a minute, so how can an armless man throw knives and shoot a rifle with precision and never hit the woman, his partner? With his feet, of course, except Alonzo has a little dark secret. You see, he is not actually armless. Alonzo is a fugitive, a criminal whose crimes remains a mystery, and he has a different kind of disfigurement; a double thumb! Alonzo is a fantastic knife thrower working at a carnival where he has a deep love for Nanon (Joan Crawford), his partner who adores and cares for him but is not in love with him (she's also unaware that he really does have arms). Nanon's own devotion to Alonzo is put to the test by Malabar (Norman Kerry), the circus strongman who clearly has an affection for her. Nanon, though, has a fear of men's arms but she eventually gives in. This drives Alonzo crazy with jealousy and when Lon Chaney is the actor to drive home his character's deteriorating mental state, you know you are in for one rollercoaster ride.

"The Unknown" holds you in a vise-like grip from the first frame to the last, and you are left with a man of unsuppressed rage who can give you discomfort and the heebie-jeebies. Yet the fiercely captivating Lon Chaney shows humanity in his Alonzo - he really loves Nanon and you somehow hope she will see him as more than just a circus partner despite what we know of his unspoken criminal past. Then there is a haunting, devilishly gory twist that you will not see coming - let's just say, Alonzo opts to prove his love for Nanon in a way that might give you nightmares. Heavy, dark themes for a 1920's flick. 

Courage of his ignorance

 A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Andy Griffith's mammothly entertaining and animalistic debut performance as Lonesome Rhodes is unlike anything he's ever done, especially his noble Andy Griffith Show. In Elia Kazan's biting and ultimately lacerating portrait of celebrity in all its pitfalls and promises, Rhodes never stops selling himself, never shortchanges himself and is always aiming high beyond his reach. The nagging question is does Lonesome Rhodes have an ounce of sincerity to him? 

An enthusiastic Arkansas radio producer, Marcia Jeffries (thrilling played by Patricia Neal), is interested in capturing real folk of her town, real talk as it were. She's looking for authenticity and finds it at a small jail where the boozing, womanizing Larry (Andy Griffith) sings with his guitar and brings such a heavenly tinge of joy into the place that the other prisoners get excited. So does Marcia who marvels at Larry's gusto and country-boy spirit that far exceeds anything you might see in the Andy Griffith Show. She gives him the nickname of "Lonesome" and pretty soon Larry's TV antics and put-downs of politicians lands him in Memphis and beyond. He stands tall, loves and practically makes love to the camera, gets high ratings and becomes something of an institution (partially based on Will Rogers, Jr.). Lonesome Rhodes makes false promises to Marcia (who is intoxicated with him) and marries a baton-swirling teenager (Lee Remick) without thinking about it (it turns out he's already married to someone else and simply forgot). 

Andy Griffith's Lonesome Rhodes is the anchor of this somewhat satirical movie and Griffith makes every scene count. Kazan doesn't any stylistic flourishes or roving cameras because this guitar-playing, wise-cracking hillbilly is already a force of nature - he is in a whirlwind tornado of his own and he's spreading himself across the entire world. Everyone seems to love him because he is on TV and uses that box to manipulate his audience - he knows how to make people move from the comforts of their own home to swing to his animated presence. I am not sure there is another film about a TV celebrity that conveys those aspects as well as this one does. 

Director Elia Kazan and Budd Schulberg's screenplay evokes Lonesome as a tireless promoter of his own self-image - he has little regard for anyone else though he pretends to be interested in common folk and in tired politicians who could use his high-energy charisma. Lonesome Rhodes is lost in the world of his own making - he is an attention-getter but he is not very interesting beyond that with a scant educational background. Marcia starts to see it (she practically created this monstrous figure) and Lonesome's own writer Mel Miller (Walter Matthau) is tired of his shenanigans and see that there is a facade...and nothing else. That may be the most pointed brutal point "A Face in the Crowd" makes...a man like this is easy to make into a star and just as easy to take down a man with no inner life who may not even know it. That is the tragedy of Lonesome Rhodes.  

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."