March movies

OK, these March movies have marched right into April despite what the posting date says. So Happy April Fool’s with a batch of flicks that entertained me last year:

Bob le Flambeur was slick French noir at its well-oiled best by master director Jean-Pierre Melville. The title master thief gathers group of crooks for a big score that seems doomed from the start. Pervasive air of doom fills the screen here; Neil Jordan remade it interestingly with Nick Nolte in 2002 as The Good Thief.

The Young Doctors was unmemorable except for the pretty good leading man performance of the eternal teen Dick Clark and the impressive cast, including Fredric March, Ben Gazzara, George Segal and Eddie Albert. The Big Heat was another noir classic for T’s viewing pleasure – it still packs a punch too. The Baron of Arizona was a nutty epic with Vincent Price taking an early leading role and running with it. Sam Fuller, even starting out, was determined to cram his as much of his vision into his films as possible. A trip to the Warner Archive brought out Bye Bye Braverman, a most excellent comedy with my old pal George Segal in the lead, miles away from the other young doctors at the hospital.

Around this time, we’d planned on our annual Film Noir pilgrimage but the opening night show was sold out (perhaps thanks to Jeff Miller’s plugging). So we checked out Tight Spot, a neat little thriller that was playing on the big screen and our TV. Brian Keith and Ginger Rogers make a snappy team under Phil Karlson’s direction. We liked City of Ember, a kinda overstuffed but fun fantasy YA book adaptation, with a great Bill Murray performance as a befuddled Mayor. My Name is Bruce stars the irrepressible Bruce Campbell in the role he was born to play, himself. The movie was shot on his home turf of Oregon and it’s a pleasing piece of low-fi fun. Not so fun is the strained Barbra Streisand failing as a hooker to help her feckless husband in For Pete’s Sake (1972). And the recent release Armored was disappointing from director Nimrod Antal. Too much noise and silly violence as the noirish concept got stretched to the breaking point. Cleaning the DVR, buzzing through the ever-working Ernest Borgnine, first as a thuggish blackmailer The Oscar, going after movie star Frankie Faine. Can Hymie Kelly (Tony Bennett) help his pal out again? He will but not feel good about it and Frankie might come hilariously close to the gold Oscar statue. That’s a camp classic that’s a zippy pleasure, as opposed to the incredibly boring and laughably cheap The Neptune Factor (1973). A distinguished cast must have been well-paid to sit in a underwater ship set and point at nothing. As exciting as it sounds. OK, I finally saw the Seven Samurai and I have to admit: I like about a half dozen Kurosawas better than this. It’s got incredible moments, and Toshiro Mifune is outstanding…but man is it looooong, and not nearly as action-packed as its reputation suggests.

Now, wrapping up with Sirocco, lesser but not bad Bogart from the early 50s, a return to international intrigue for the star. A.I. Bezzerides scripted but this is a lesser effort of his. A young Zero Mostel makes a good impression here before the blacklist took him down. W

ith the 14th Annual Noir Fest to enjoy this month…but here's last year’s entry live and in person: The Locket/Bodyguard double feature (and we stayed for both!). The first movie is awesomely convoluted, with a young Robert Mitchum looking ready to burst onto the A-list (despite his weakish character). The second was a lightning-paced B-movie with Lawrence Tireney kicking ass to a Robert Altman screenplay…in 1948! Altman wrote a screenplay that Richard Fleischer shot over twenty years before M*A*S*H?? Friday, April 9 – 7:30 PM Double Feature: THE LOCKET, 1946, Warner Bros., 85 min. Dir. John Brahm. This dazzling and dizzying psychodrama uses a web of interlocking flashbacks to show how a woman’s childhood obsession with a prized locket dictates the course of her life. NOT ON DVD BODYGUARD, 1948, Warner Bros., 62 min. Dir. Richard Fleischer. Lawrence Tierney is an insubordinate copper who gets framed, turns in his badge and goes undercover to expose corruption and murder in the meat-packing industry. Helping him is beautiful Priscilla Lane. This early Richard Fleischer programmer boasts a breakneck pace and a screenplay by Robert Altman! NOT ON DVD Noir again this month!

CP