What movies did you see last week? (5/6-5/12)

Have you seen Paranoia Agent? TG is my favorite Kon movie, but PA is his masterpiece.

Mogambo (1953) - sexy John Ford safari love triangle. Lots of golden hour sexual tension with our lovers cavorting in tents framed against the African sunset or embracing near lush waterfalls, all exquisitely captured by Robert Surtees (HOW did this not get a cinematography nod??). Kelly and Gardner are drop dead gorgeous, Gable the macho man they're fighting over. 7.5

The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) - was lowkey expecting a disaster given its infamously troubled production but it was surprisingly delightful, with sharp quick jokes and Monroe at her most charming and naturally funny. The comedy refreshingly doesn't rely on her being a dumb blonde but rather her self-aware rebellious playfulness. She matches Olivier's stick-in-the-mud Prince with wit and mischief and even does some behind-the-scenes political shenanigans (it's not that she doesn't understand the rules, she just chooses to ignore them). The largely one-set location makes the film function like a play, relying mainly on long talky takes (no wonder Monroe struggled with it) to drive forward the story and jokes and at just under two hours it feels slightly too long, but I had lots of fun with this one. 7.5

Career (1959) - Anthony Franciosa plays a struggling actor in this "dark side of Hollywood" movie. Self-aware and bleak, with Fransciosa slowly losing nearly everything on his doomed quest for success. A predecessor to Inside Llewyn Davis. Talent isn't enough. The film sort of loses itself in the ending but comes close to greatness a few times in getting there. 7.5

Tiger Bay (1959) - suspense thriller directed by J. Lee Thompson. Hayley Mills is a lovably incorrigible brat who witnesses an accidental killing and John Mills plays the police investigator who investigates. The film takes a surprising turn when Hayley meets and strikes up a friendship with the killer. Thompson does an excellent job making you feel sympathy for the killer played by baby-faced Horst Buchholz who looks like he wouldn't even swat a fly. When we first see him in the opening scenes he's wearing a huge boyish grin and pushes kids on the swings on his way to meet his girlfriend. Upon becoming his friend, Hayley decides she'll do or say anything to help him escape justice. Really like John Mills too, and he gets a couple scenes toward the end where he has to interrogate little Hayley about her obvious lies. Those scenes must've been fun for them to film. 8

The Hanging Tree (1959) - LOVED this movie! A redemptive Delmer Daves western set in a backwater Goldrush town. Everyone's come to strike it rich except for Gary Cooper who's just come to escape his past. Cooper plays a doctor but looks more like an undertaker all dressed in black with a vacant scowl and a short fuse. All that changes when Maria Schell arrives in town injured from a stagecoach attack and burnt by the harsh Montana sun. He takes her under his wing to rehabilitate and protect her and in so doing begins his own slow process of healing. Schell is outstanding in this. She has such a beautifully expressive face and her smile is like a beam of sunshine but there's also so much strength in her resolve. I've loved discovering her work in the 50s, especially Le Notti Bianche and Brothers Karamazov and this in the same league as that excellent work. The cinematography by Ted D. McCord is wonderful too, and the music by Max Steiner is rousing and poignant. One of my new favorite westerns. 9

The Fall Guy (2024)
Hard to Kill (1990)
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)
Alpha Dog (2006)
If Looks Could Kill (1991)

Montmartre-sur-Seine
Mark of the Tortoise
The Ambush
Ahed's Knee

There's just too much plot and characterisation in Montmartre-sur-Seine to dismiss it as no more than an excuse for Édith Piaf (apparently also an actress) to sing a few songs. Still, this is very much Édith Piaf: The Movie. Her star rose under the Nazis, and it's clear that by the time this film was released (November 1941) her myth was fully formed. She plays a poor, uneducated and plain working girl who starts performing in the streets and then in increasingly sophisticated nightclubs. She doesn't look like a star, but the audience becomes transfixed as soon as she begins to sing. She even wears a blouse bearing the initials "E. P.", though she's called Lili Talia in the movie. Given the above, I wonder what the audience made of Henri Vidal's character, the handsome object of Lili's (unrequited) affection. She employs him as an accompanist to keep him close to her (and away from the girl he loves) in the hope that he might eventually fall into her arms. Considering that this was Vidal's film debut and that he was selected by Piaf herself after winning the "Apollo of 1939" contest, I suspect it caused quite a bit of gossip.

Feel exactly the same way. The only complement I have for this one is that it's a step up from Maud. Giving kudos to Rose Glass for going from a 5/10 film to a 6/10 film. She's getting to the promised land ever so slowly.

I see you are on a Ken Russell kick. Crimes of Passion truly is berserk. I really don't think it worked at all outside of Kathleen Turner and Annie Potts, but it was certainly a bold experiment. And it probably gave the MPAA a major headache.

And Music Lovers and Savage Messiah are both some of Russell's strongest hours.