Another first — this time, the first film adaptation of Christie’s 1953 play. Compared to last week’s feature, Witness for the Prosecution offers much more mystery, even less noir, and plenty of comedy, albeit of a different kind. Of the three main stars, Tyrone Power is unimpressive, Marlene Dietrich is interesting enough, and Charles Laughton is truly splendid. Una O’Connor is great as a 1957 version of Mrs Doyle (eggbeater = Teamaster), and Elsa Lanchester — by then, a spouse of Laughton for nearly three decades — shines as Miss Plimsoll.
To me, this 1945 movie — the first cinematic adaptation of the classic novel — was not as much a mystery, let alone film noir, as a (black) comedy. According to Wikipedia, this is what René Clair wanted to make all along. Jolly good fun throughout.
The film is full of familiar faces; alas, I couldn’t recall where exactly I saw them.
In Rojo y negro (1942), one of the protagonists, Luisa (Conchita Montenegro), is a goodie Falangist. The problem is — or, I suppose, was, from the regime’s point of view at least — that her boyfriend Miguel (Ismael Merlo), a left-wing activist, is not exactly a baddie. The director’s affiliation with the Falange did not save the film. The Generalissimo was not amused and the movie was promptly withdrawn from the theatres. It was thought to be lost until, 50 years later, a dusty copy was discovered in some basement in Madrid.
When the film was first premiered in September 1952 in Los Angeles, it consisted of five parts, including Howard Hawks’ “The Ransom of Red Chief”.
The Hawks short was so poorly received that the studio removed it before the film opened in New York that October, leading some outlets to describe the film as O. Henry’s Four of a Kind.
Remarkable, given that the Red Chief is arguably the funniest part. For me, it is not even “arguably”. It remains a mystery why the Spanish title still refers to the “four”.
One of the films we grew up on, Strictly Business (Деловые люди) by Leonid Gaidai, also includes a brilliant adaptation of The Ransom of Red Chief, starring the great Georgy Vitsin and Aleksei Smirnov. Imprinting and stuff notwithstanding, I think I prefer the Hawks’s version. Kathleen Freeman and Irving Bacon as the parents of J.B. are the best.
And another Soviet cinema connection: the opening scene of The Cop and the Anthem reminded us the final of 1975 Hello, I’m Your Aunt! (Здравствуйте, я ваша тётя!). Considering that the latter movie quotes many classic American comedies, I don’t think it’s a coincidence.
“Was that union blessed with any issue?”
“Er... What did you say?”
“Have they got any children?”
“Well...”
“You know, those little objects people get after they’re married.”
“Yeah. Well, I reckon you could say they have in a way.”
“Yeah.”
“May I ask what you mean by that foggy response?”
“Well, I reckon you could call J.B. a child, if you wanted to.”
“J.B.?”
“J.B.”
“That’s what they call him.”
“Oh, it’s a boy.”
“I reckon you might, uh, call him a boy.”
“Yeah.”
“How old is he?”
“J.B. is nigh on to 10 now.”
“What a lovable age in a boy.”
“Where did you say the Dorsets were living now?”
“Didn’t say.”
“Down the road a piece. A little white house with broken windows.”
“You ain’t told us why did you wanna buy the land for.”
“You know, I find your conversation rather limited, but very stimulating. Thank you.”
Transformation of Valencia as documented by the newspaper Las Provincias and in works of Marta Torres, Ada Sinache, Jaume Mora, Alba García, Laura Pérez, Mario Barrachina, José Miguel Guillén, Virginia Lorente, Juanma Martínez, Ángela Salerno, Raúl Salazar, Fran Parreño, Anneta Santacreu, Dakota Hernández, Ivan Mata, Daniel García, Mario Dubla, Pau Valls, Núria Tamarit, Pablo Caracol, Tomás Ferrer-Dibujador, Jordi Ferrándiz, Sr. García, Elga Lamas, Luna Pan, Laura Castelló, Mar Hernández, Enric Ejarque, Martín Forés and Felip Ariza.
Works and installations by Marta Azparren, Ana Esteve Reig, EXONEMO, Takahiko Iimura, Inma Femenía, Jean Genet, Almudena Lobera, Aya Momose, Arata Mori, Laura Ramírez Palacio, Manuel Saiz, Kentaro Taki and Kei Uruno.
Works by Valencian designer, illustrator and sculptor Paco Camallonga.
6 February — 15 March: Exposición del Ninot 2026, Museu de les Ciències, la Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències
According to the blurb, “this exciting exhibition showcases over 700 ninots carefully selected by the Falla commissions, each competing for your vote to escape the flames. The two most popular ninots, both in the infant and adult categories, will have the honor of joining the prestigious collection of the Fallero Museum.”
This 1958 film may be (considered) a classic and an epic but it didn’t age well. Maybe it wasn’t that good to start with. Marlon Brando as a blonde German officer speaking (even to other Germans) in English with fake German accent is an embarrassment. Ditto the other protagonists. The only believable character, in my view, is cool and cynical Frau Hardenberg portrayed by May Britt.
A “fun fact” I’ve just read in Wikipedia: at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival this film “was excluded from the official selection because of its sensitive subject matter of nuclear bombs and to avoid upsetting the U.S. government”.
Hiroshima, mon amour was screened as part of the cycle Tiempo de memoria, memoria en el tiempo.
I was hoping for another great short from Normand’s vast catalogue but no. Starring both co-directors, this docu-comedy short is pretty much disposable.
Charlie Chaplin’s cinema career began in 1914. Caught in a Cabaret is just one of 36 (!) films featuring Chaplin released that year. Also starring the director, Mabel Normand. Watch for Minta Durfee as a dancer at 20:00.
Is Antoine really a “troubled youth”, “unhappy child” or “outcast”? I didn’t have such an impression. True, the teacher picks on Antoine, but he doesn’t spare other kids either. Here’s one of the IMDb trivia:
All the young actors who unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Antoine were used in the classroom scenes.
That’s it: all schoolchildren are like Antoine. And, kids being kids, they enjoy themselves even in the most boring and oppressive environments — or find ways out. A gym class scene is simply perfect.
My father and Jean-Pierre both knew this was a very important scene and they had a long time to prepare for it. My father just gave him the questions he was to be asked but then told him to come up more or less with his own answers. That worked beautifully.
“A picture as excitingly different as its title!”, said the theatrical release poster for D.O.A.
To me, this 1949 film noir was as exciting as a long joke told after you heard its punchline. But, apparently, it’s a “classic of the genre”, complete with all the clichés of the genre: femmes fatales, mobsters, nighttime driving, etc. etc. The movie has spawned at least six remakes and a musical, so probably I miss something. Or it could be that D.O.A. fell into public domain too early — to be precise, in 1978, due to a silly filing error — an easy prey for idea-starved Hollywood producers.
Edmond O’Brien stars as Frank Bigelow, a pretty dull accountant who, upon learning that he’s mortally poisoned, transforms himself into a hard-boiled detective. Halfway through I got confused with more and more characters and kind of lost interest because, well, the man was gonna die anyway. The jazz band at The Fisherman is good, shame that our accountant doesn’t appreciate live music.
The movie has its share of comic moments, most of them are unintentionally so. Like the one where Frank barges into a second hospital in search of a second opinion:
Frank: Doctor, I want you to examine me for luminous poison. Doctor: Come right in here. (A few moments later.) Yeah, you’ve got it all right.
The doctor is so cocksure because he shows a test tube that glows in the dark. Great. (It’s puzzling why we don’t have a remake yet where Frank is an ex-KGB agent and “luminous poison” is identified as polonium-210.) Be careful what you drink.
“He’s having a slight attack of rigor mortis right in the middle of my living room floor”
— this is my favourite of the bunch so far. But what’s with the title? High Tide is boring. No wonder the Spanish renamed it Ambición perversa — sure, it’s over the top but at least awakening one’s curiosity.
How come that even the observant dentist Dr. Swangron (John Qualen) failed to notice that the titular scar migrated to the wrong cheek? Never mind that. The girls are beautiful. Henreid is pretty good in a double role of a chain-smoking baddie and, er, another guy, both of them psychoanalysts. Watch out for that orchid scene.
There is no particular reason why this 1945 B-movie acquired a cult following while scores of superior films were forgotten. An unconvincing story with a few loose ends left untied, perhaps because the film creators ran out of little money they had, it is nevertheless worth watching if only for Ann Savage as Vera.
Picked up on a trip out west by a man (Tom Neal) fleeing from a death scene, she instantly and spectacularly gets on his and the audience’s nerves.
Wow. That calls for redefinition of what “villain” is. To me, Vera is a female version of Ostap Bender who, just like the Great Combinator in The Twelve Chairs, effortlessly takes control of a texbook patsy, in this case, Al. If anybody was getting on my nerves, it was this latter, on account of his incurable stupidity and repetitive voice-over narration. Against all odds, I kept hoping that Vera’s machinations would eventually succeed.
Now it’s hard to understand why in 1936 this unthrilling thriller won four Oscars. Probably the weakest of John Ford movies I’ve seen so far but hey, those were the early days of awarding. Victor McLaglen is good enough as a leading man, for a while, and there are some comic moments in this otherwise pathetically predictable feast of over-acting.
The Informer was screened at the Aula de Cine of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria as a part of the John Ford cycle (September—December 2024).
A curious 1921 silent film said to be in part based on Gorky’s На дне (The Lower Depths) although I failed to see that part. At 91 minutes, Rojō no Reikon is way too long for the message but it has its lovely and even comic moments.
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