four_star_diva Reviews

In a Lonely Place (1950)

A Nicholas Ray Classic

[10/10 · 16 November 2002]

Could almost be a precursor to Antonioni's Blow Up" as this film deals with a character circumstantially caught up in a brutal murder, whose bouts of uncontrolled anger and depression make him immediately suspect because he was the last person to see the girl alive. However, the film rather than zoning in on the crime, the victim, the investigation revolves around an unlikely budding relationship between a good Samaritan `guardian angel' who appears in the nick of time to alibi Bogart's character and may stay on to rehabilitate him, but then maybe not ...

This film gives us that rare view of the sometimes unglamorous business of making films and the individual tolls taken on some by the process. `Sunset Boulevard,' `The Player,' and `The Bad and the Beautiful' are three others among many excellent films on the subject.

Nicholas Ray remains one of films least revered Directors, yet he gave us some of the greatest, including `Rebel Without a Cause.'

Vertigo (1958)

A Genius at Work

[10/10 · 25 August 2002]

So many of Hitch's films deal with physical vertigo - high, revolving camera shots, monumental manmade structures from which so many erstwhile Hitchcock characters periliously hang. However, in this one, not only does the hero struggle with his physical vertigo, but he becomes hopelessly mired in a mental verigo from which there is no reprieve. No hand will ever reach into that darkness to pull him to safety.

Scotty's inability to release Madeleine mirrors the obsessive madness of Mrs. Danvers as she stirs up the ghost of Rebecca. And like Mrs. Danvers, the obsession eventually tragically overtakes and consumes him.

Psycho may well be considered Hitch's best film, but Vertigo is certainly his most stylish and stylized.

Out of the Past (1947)

A Little Cold Around the Heart

[10/10 · 25 August 2002]

Quite simply, at the very top of the film noir genre. Mitchum as the wise cracking PI who falls hard for femme fatale plus Jane Greer tries to live not to regret it.

Keep this film close at hand. It is one you can pop in the Video player or DVD and become transfixed and transported immediately.

Gilda (1946)

Put the Blame on that Dress

[8/10 · 25 August 2002]

And to think there used to be movies without graphic sex scenes that still got the point across, and how. The sexual tension between Ford and Hayworth in this movie is enough to make you run for the cold showers.

Hayworth is gorgeous and so is Ford. They are so good together and in this movie they are positively great. When great screen lovers are mentioned, I've often wondered why Ford and Hayworth aren't among them.

This is one of my absolute favorites.

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

Worthy of Fellini

[10/10 · 24 August 2002]

There is so much about this film that is great, one hardly knows where to begin. Fonda's performance as perhaps the vilest villain to grace the screen went far beyond Oscar caliber, Claudia Cardinale removed forever the stigma of being known as a B Italian actress with the remainder of the cast comprised of no less than the finest character actors of the time.

Leone in a grand style put forth a nitty gritty daily existence giving a sense of how the real West must truly have been. Yet throughout maintained a mythical quality so necessary to the telling of these stories. For the opening and settling of the West is the stuff of legend.

That it was an instant classic is not the case, as it was not lauded in the United States at first, although Europeans loved it. It was considered too long and probably too wordy for the average American moviegoer. However, there were many, myself included, who knew upon leaving the theater that they had seen a masterpiece.

Dario Argnto's script was unexpected and quite simply remarkable. And what could we say about this film if Ennio Marricone's exquisite score was not mentioned - music so haunting it brings you to tears when heard.