A poor country girl moves to the city, where she expects to find a rich husband. She marries a miner who is indeed rich, but almost as uneducated as she is. She wants to become a respected society lady whereas he is more at ease among folks like him. Loosely based on real persons.
I seem to differ from many people in that I found this mostly a failure. The story is interesting as an x-ray of the American ethos, but I found the musical parts occasionally annoying and the main character excessively romanticized towards the end of the movie. The production values are good, and the film, apart from those annoying parts, is mildly agreeable.
Rating: 40
A gang of confidence artists pick a rich rural type as target. The scam is explained by the title ("Tramway car for sale").
Agreeable short. The demand for complex staging in many sequences is met beautifully. Surprisingly, the director only directed one film besides this one (he worked mostly as production manager).
(I don't rate shorts.)
A newspaper editor has a low opinion of journalism schools, because, lacking a formal education, he thinks experience is the only way to learn the trade. Under a false identity, he enrolls at a journalism class taught by a beautiful professor.
This film starts out as a serious discussion of the comparative merits of experience and education. I suppose this line of drama would prove commercially unviable, so after the first act the film shifts to a sex comedy with a disguised identity element. It keeps inserting new elements throughout its length, until it "remembers" how it started and tries to tie the loose ends, so to speak. It's all very unsatisfatory, but also moderately entertaining through its set-pieces.
Rating: 46
A deputy marshal specializes in bringing fugitive outlaws to justice. In this occasion, he has to arrest a man accused of armed robbery before the only witness against him is executed. The problem is that he has never seen the accused one and only has a basic description of his features. He locates a woman who knew him and offers her money to identify him in a town where he is reportedly living.
(spoiler herein) This Western has what seems to me a fatal plot hole right in the middle of it: it is not clear why the man who is being executed would falsely testify against someone who helped him unwittingly. Anyway, aside from that, the script has a cerebral playfulness whereby the protagonist must find ways to ascertain that the man he suspects is the one he is after. The moral of this overly contrived story is ultimately trivial.
Rating: 43
The last months in the life of a notorious financial crook in 1930s France. He has politicians and police officers under his thumb, and lives a life of luxury. He is planning a major operation with forged bonds. His story will intersect with that of Trotsky's exile in France.
This is a historical movie with lavish production values. The connection with The Great Gatsby (whose third filmic version came out the same year) was pointed out by Christopher Mulrooney in a review he later rewrote dropping that comparison among other changes. Stavisky... makes interesting facts into not so interesting cinema.
Rating: 45
A man agrees to represent his friend in a proxy wedding, and falls in love with the bride.
Sexual comedy with a very predictable plot and a frequently annoying development. The lawyer in charge of the paperwork is possibly the funniest character in this otherwise unfunny movie. The title refers to the protagonist's only possession and means of livelihood: a breeding bull; he appears only in the beginning of the movie and has no connection with the plot.
Rating: 25
English titles: The Two of Us; The Old Man and the Boy
During World War II in occupied France, a Jewish boy is sent by his parents to live in the country with a Catholic family. They are not told the boy is Jewish. The old man, who is an anti-Semite, develops an affection towards the boy, and vice versa.
This fictionalization of true events in the filmmaker's childhood is touching yet a bit monotonous. The actors are very good in this.
Rating: 50
The premise is loosely based on The Prince and the Pauper. A foreign prince is visiting Brazil for a trade agreement. However, he is more interested in enjoying the Brazilian Carnival. He switches places with a local lookalike. Concurrently, some Republicans are plotting to kill the prince.
Musical comedy. This is strictly routine, with no visible distinction from the many other comedies which were produced in Brazil in the 1950s and early 1960s. Some famous singers of that era perform numbers, and the comicity is bland and predictable as usual. But there is some liveliness to the proceedings which makes it watchable.
Rating: 34
English titles: Marie-October; Secret Meeting
The former members of a Resistance organization reunite 15 years after a meeting of theirs was raided by the Gestapo and their leader was killed. It has surfaced that they had been denounced by one of their own. The purpose of the meeting is to find and punish the culprit.
Whodunit without much cinematic or even literary value, but which entertains mildly.
Rating: 38
Based on the play by William Shakespeare, probably written c. 1592-1594.
In 15th-century England, Richard covets the throne, which is currently occupied by his brother Edward. He will do anything to get it.
This is a free adaptation of the play where some characters (e.g. Margaret) are absent, scenes are shortened, and their order altered. The major merit of the play is its verbal brilliance, which is considerably diminished in the film because many dialogue exchanges were cut. There would be justification for those alterations if it were a trade off between verbal and cinematic elements, but to my assessment the film does not offer much in the way of visual creativity.
Rating: 48
English title: The Crucible
Fictionalization of the Salem witch trials in the 17th century. One of the film's central plot drivers is the case of a woman who covets a married man and tries to frame his wife as a witch. It all begins by the initiative of the local pastor, but things acquire a new dimension when the deputy governor arrives and takes matters into his own hands.
If viewed as an attempt to depict and explain the real events on which it is based, this should not be taken seriously. Both the author of the source play and the screenwriter were more interested in lending the proceedings a leftwing bias. The extensive fictionalization which was undertaken in the script is effective dramatically, but departs considerably from the historical events. Aside from that, there is an obvious (but seldom acknowledged) problem when reading this as an allegory of mccarthyism: communism is a real thing, whereas witchcraft is not.
Rating: 52
A baby photographer takes a detective job of rescuing the uncle of a young woman. She gives him a map to hide. She is staying at a mansion whose owner tells the detective that his client suffers from schizophrenia.
Parody of detective movies. It has some funny one-liners and a few comic visual sequences. The plot does not make any sense (if the uncle is with the good guys, how does a photo revealing him to be an impostor help prove the protagonist's innocence?), which is supposed to be funny too, but frankly isn't very. Overall it's watchable, but far from brilliant.
Rating: 47
(87 minutes version)
An elderly woman meets a professional killer and asks him to kill her. She soon finds other people interested in the same kind of service.
This film apparently couldn't make up its mind on whether it's a reflection on euthanasia or just a madcap black comedy. I'm afraid it isn't very good as either, but it's eventful enough that it rarely becomes truly annoying. It is reported that a better version than the one I have seen exists, and that it was put together by the film's screenwriter. The notion of a suicide club is not an original one; Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a book comprised of three short stories around that same idea ("The Suicide Club", 1878).
Rating: 34
A bandit hijacks a train in Mexico with American and Mexican passengers. He says he is going to kill all passengers if his brother, who is in a cell waiting for his death sentence to be carried out, is not freed. Two mercenaries are hired to rescue the passengers.
This is a television movie which spun off a television series named Bearcats!. It is well made on a passably well written script. Overall, it is slightly entertaining but not very memorable. One performance should be singled out for its excellence: Lamas as the leader of the bandits.
Rating: 38
Englisht titles: The Road to Shame; Women Disappear
A jealous boyfriend follows his girlfriend one night and uncovers a ring of women traffickers.
Quite implausible crime thriller. Those who mind vulgarity should steer clear of it. Others will probably find it moderately entertaining.
Rating: 37
Biography with fictional touches of a priest who set up a town for abandoned boys. He has a liberal way of running the place. The endless financial problems never discourage him. A particularly problematic teenager becomes a kind of a test for his motto that there is no such thing as a bad boy.
The kind of edifying story which Hollywood made very entertaining as well. I am not sure one could really make a reliable assessment about Boys Town from the film. The principle seems OK; I guess the details should be sought in other venues.
Rating: 53
Millionaire keeps his mistress in a corporate apartment; a man who is trying to do business with him is directed to the apartment by the company's secretary. Trouble ensues, later compounded by a visit from the millionaire's wife.
The script, based on a play, is a routine adultery comedy. It is nevertheless well filmed and flows nicely enough overall.
Rating: 45
Based on the novel by Lew Wallace, first published in 1880.
(spoilers) Judah lives in Judea around the first century of the Common Era. As a child he used to be friends with Messala, a Roman. The latter becomes a Roman officer. An accident during a parade causes Judah, his mother and his sister to be wrongly accused of a crime, and they are arrested by orders from Messala. Judah gets a life sentence and is sent to the galleys. When his ship is attacked by pirates, he saves the Roman admiral's life, and the latter adopts him as a son. Judah becomes a renowned athlete. A chariot race is his chance to avenge himself on Messala. His mother and sister have contracted leprosy in prison. Jesus cures them. Judah converts to Christianity.
The plot is mostly garbage, but the visuals are sumptuous, and the overall experience of watching the film is less painful than it perhaps should be on a purely intellectual level.
A side note: the Wikipedia page for the source novel contains an error. I detected it because it is in contradiction with another passage from the same page, and, upon reading chapter 14 in Book 5, I confirmed that it is indeed wrong, whereas the other passage is correct. The error is in the following sentence:
"Messala deliberately scrapes his chariot wheel against Judah's and Messala's chariot breaks apart, causing him to be trampled by other racers' horses."
It should instead be:
"Judah deliberately scrapes his chariot wheel against Messala's and Messala's chariot breaks apart, causing him to be trampled by other racers' horses."
This movie is faithful to the novel in this respect, except that in the novel Messala's provocation consisted in whipping Judah's horses once (if I remember correctly) and in the film Messala whips Judah, repeatedly.
Rating: 44
Rafael, a coalminer, has a beautiful voice and sings during his working hours, much to the delight of his fellow miners. He has an invalid wife to which he is devoted and with whom he has children. One day the new owner of the mine drops by and, upon hearing Rafael, invites him to sing in Madrid. Rafael accepts. In Madrid he meets a beautiful singer who wants them to tour Europe together.
This is a vehicle for a Spanish singer who sang in a high-pitched voice and was very popular in Spain at the time. Apart from his singing qualities, the film is typical of 1950s Spanish cinema in ideology: contented workers and benevolent capitalists getting along just fine, family values above everything else, simplistic solutions for complex problems, etc, etc.
Rating: 18
