1950s movies marathon – part 77

Dementia (1955) – Graveyard visit

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Dementia / Daughter of Horror  (1955, USA)

Horror movies lost something when sound was invented, the ability to portray the world as fundamentally evil. This is one of the first movies to recapture that. It’s not scary, just perversely fascinated with the all the awfullness that life has to offer. Watched it all.

Kvinnodröm / Dreams (1955, Sweden, Bergman)

For a few moments, this is one of the most visually interesting movies I’ve seen .. and then the characters start speaking, the usual Bergman dialogue, ruining everything. Watched: 8 minutes.

Piagol (1955, South Korea)

The Communist Party of North Korea is EVIL, evil I tell you. (Well yes, actually, it was, and still is.) Watched: 14 minutes.

East of Eden (1955) – Bad, through and through

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East of Eden (1955, USA)

Preliminary hypothesis: The movies of James Dean are remembered today mostly because they were the only ones he got to act in. Hypothesis now disproven. Watched it before, and again now. I didn’t pick up on the Biblical allegory the first time, which is embarassing, considering that it’s right there in the title.

Guys and Dolls (1955, USA, Mankiewicz)

Musicals are supposed to be phony, but the right kind of phony, you know? Like this. I think Good News ruined me for musicals. Ever since I saw it, I’m always waiting for the Joan McCracken scene. And there isn’t any. She only really played in that one movie, and then she died in 1961. I miss Joan McCracken. I think I’ll go watch Pass That Peace Pipe again. Over and over again. Anyway – watched: 18 minutes.

1950s movies marathon – part 76

Ordet (1955) – Woe unto you

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Ordet (1955, Denmark, Dreyer)

If someone were to make a parody of a brilliant but slow-moving drama about God-fearing Danish farmers, it would be indistinguishable from this, and vice versa, in much the same way that this movie implies that holiness is indistinguishable from madness – and vice versa. Watched it all.  A chill builds in while I watch this. I don’t think the temperature in the room has dropped. It’s the movie, and the centuries of cultural memory it resonates with. This isn’t quite the religion of my parents, or of their parents, but perhaps of their grandparents.

To Catch a Thief (1955, USA, Hitchcock)

This movie is above all a tourist commercial for the nature and architecture of southern France, with Cary Grant stumbling about in the foreground, a gentleman thief trying to catch another gentleman thief, trying and failing to outshine his surroundings. Watched: 27 minutes.

The Rains of Ranchipur (1955, USA)

This is one of those titles that sounds impressive when you first hear it, but when you think about it, it doesn’t make any sense. What’s so interesting about the rains of Ranchipur? Are they particularly frequent, or rare, or just very unusual? Are they more so in Ranchipur than elsewhere? Explain. On second thought, don’t. Watched: 9 minutes.

The Private War of Major Benson (1955, USA)

Charlton Heston is nearly kicked out of the Army for being too manly, which doesn’t really strike me as a plausible setup for a movie. Although, if anyone can be too manly for the Army, it would be Heston. Watched: 11 minutes.

1950s movies marathon – part 75

Night and Fog / Nuit et brouillard (1955, France, Resnais)

The greatest documentary about concentration camps and extermination camps I’ve ever seen.  A visual essay that looks back on the horrors of the recent past in a way that hits you like a half-forgotten nightmare forcing you to remember it. Watched it all.

Land of the Pharaohs (1955, USA)

Evil Egyptians plot and scheme, blah blah blah. Watched: 4 minutes. In pseudo-historical epics, the obligatory decadent banquet scene typically occurs around halfway into the movie. It’s usually the only interesting scene in the movie, but is outdone in this case by the astonishing finale, a burial scene that is truly worthy of Indiana Jones, and probably a direct influence.

Mister Roberts (1955, USA)

Military humor is all the same, half light-hearted absurdity, and half deadly. This one tries a little too hard, and James Cagney certainly does. He’s no Queeg, and the movie grinds to an embarassing halt the moment he opens his mouth. Watched: 45 minutes.

The Rose Tattoo (1955, USA)

It doesn’t look like Tennessee Williams has discovered how to tell a coherent story yet. Or maybe Hollywood hasn’t found out how to film his plays. Watched: 14 minutes.

1950s movies marathon – part 74

Blackboard Jungle (1955) – Classroom fight

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Blackboard Jungle (1955, USA)

50s cultural history was a bit unclear to me before I started this marathon, so I was surprised to learn that it’s not until 1955 that you get movies that feature (actual) rock’n roll music and juvenile delinquents with (almost) stereotypical 50s hairdoes.  Watched it all.

Creature With the Atom Brain (1955, USA)

Is it very pedantic of me to point out that it makes absolutely no sense to talk about a “creature with an atom brain”, because all brains are made of atoms? Especially when the creature in question is actually a remote-controlled zombie. Watched: 5 minutes.

The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) – Quatermass takes charge

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The Quatermass Xperiment (1955, UK)

Three men go up in space, only one of them returns, and he has become .. EVIL. Watched it all before, but I didn’t appreciate then that this is one of the best SF movies of the 50s so far – and also perhaps the first genuinely good SF horror. Welcome aboard, Hammer.

Jump Into Hell (1955, USA)

“This film is dedicated to the thousands of heroic men and officers of the French Union Forces who defended the fortress of Dienbienphu. Their courage stands as a symbol and proof that free men will forever oppose slavery.” Ah yes. I don’t think it was quite that simple. Watched: 5 minutes.

Daddy Long Legs (1955, USA)

The Swing Generation, they got old. Watched: 7 minutes.

1950s movies marathon – part 73

I Live in Fear (1955) – Petition

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I Live in Fear (1955, Japan, Kurosawa)

Which is more insane: Being consumed with fear of a nuclear holocaust, or being able to live calmly with the knowledge that the world may end suddenly at any moment? Watched it all.

Quentin Durward (1955, USA)

It’s bad enough for Walter Scott to give both a novel and its main character the name “Quentin Durward”, but that is no excuse to make it worse by repeating the error in the movie version a century later. Watched: 5 minutes.

The Day the World Ended (1955, USA, Corman)

The only thing this post-apocalypse has is Roger Corman’s unique style, brutal and trashy, but never mind that just yet. Watch Five instead. Watched: 13 minutes.

As Long as They’re Happy (1955) – Married to an existentialist

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As Long as They’re Happy (1955, UK)

The British have been trying for years to copy the American fast-paced musical-comedy formula, and this time they’ve actually got it almost right, right down to the cheerful consumerist message. Watched it all. Its only fault is the music.

Killer’s Kiss (1955, USA, Kubrick)

Well, everybody has to start somewhere. Watched: 10 minutes, then fast-forwarded to .. wow!

The Dark Avenger (1955, USA)

As a rule of thumb, you are recommended to stay away from all mid-50s widescreen movies that open with a shot of a medieval castle. Watched: 5 minutes.

1950s movies marathon – part 72

5 Against the House – Life of the Party

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Five Against the House (1955, USA)

I think this could be the first ever proper college movie, with witty youths, hazing, parties and gambling. There was that one Mr Belvedere movie, but that doesn’t count, and plenty of movies that took place in colleges, but that doesn’t make them college movies. Perhaps this one isn’t either, because it morphs into a rather implausible caper movie. Watched it all.

Three for the Show (1955, USA)

Betty Grable finds herself married to two men at the same time, and decides to resolve this in the least interesting way possible: By choosing one of them. But not until toying with the idea of bigami for a while. Watched: 30 minutes.

Cockleshell Heroes (1955) – Live mine

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Cockleshell Heroes (1955, UK)

Cheerful British war movies about gangs of cheeky individualists who carry out daring raids into enemy territory are so much much more fun than thinking about what the average soldier or civilian went through. Watched it all, although it has to be said that their sabotage raid is pretty dumb, and only works because the Germans are dumber. Then again, it did actually happen, and .. er .. “shortened the war by six months”. Okay then.

Lola Montez (1955, France)

This is what happens when you give a director too much money and power. Bah, directors, what do they know about movies! Watched: 6 minutes, plus the naughty bits, of which there aren’t any, so I can’t figure out how this movie caused the scandal the intro text boasts about.

1950s movies marathon – part 71

Picnic (1955) – Strutting around like some crummy Apollo

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Picnic (1955, USA)

On youth and age, beauty and brains – and sex, which is dealt with more directly here than in any movie I’ve seen since the time of Mae West. The Hayes Code, apparently, is dying. Most of all, though, this is a snapshot of mid-50s America, honest but not cynical, and free from the preachy nostalgia you get when later generations look back on it. Watched it all.

Crashout (1955, USA)

The dangerous gang of escaped convicts includes the always-sympathetic William Bendix, which means that the Hayes Code is dying, allright. This is probably the sort of movie parents had in mind when they worried about what was becoming of their children. Watched: 14 minutes.

Gelosia (1955) – Visit from the priest

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Gelosia / Jealousy (1955, Italy)

Looks like the Italians have finally shaken off the neo-realist legacy, and are making actual movies again, with actors and scripts. Good for them! This is a nice little melodrama about passion! jealousy! murder! doomed love! etc., all leading up to: tragedy! Watched it all. It’s awful-wonderful, and I think I have a better understanding of the phrase “Catholic guilt” now. One character here literally dies from it.

All That Heaven Allows (1955, USA)

Rock Hudson doesn’t seem terribly interested in Jane Wyman, and he doesn’t seem terribly interesting himself. But I like the scenes with the daughter who has been reading Freud. Watched: 26 minutes.

1950s movies marathon – part 70

The Ladykillers (1955) – Can’t return the money

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The Ladykillers (1955, UK)

The British are nostalgic about Ealing Studios, but they didn’t make all that many good movies, and only a few really great ones. This is one of them. One of the many many great things about it is how amazingly ugly and evil Alec Guinness manages to look. Watched it all.

The Seven Little Foys (1955, USA)

Oh, Bob Hope. You’re the worst. You really are. But I don’t blame you, I blame the entire generation of moviegoers who thought you were the very definition of wittiness. Watched: 3 minutes.

The Seven Year Itch (1955) – A kind of animal thing

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The Seven Year Itch (1955, USA, Wilder)

I have a theory that makes Marilyn Monroe’s character a lot more interesting: She’s actually quite intelligent, and is just stringing Tom Ewell along for the fun of it. Watched it all before, and again now, this time slightly more attuned than before to the nuances of 1950s innuendo.

Conquest of Space (1955, USA)

So now we know what inspired the title sequence for Pigs! In! Spaaaaaace! Watched: 5 minutes. This movie is begging for a m3stking, but I don’t think it ever got one.

Summarnattens leende / Smiles of a Summer Night (1955, Sweden, Bergman)

What confuses me about Ingmar Bergman is how someone can be so talented, and at the same time make movies that feel so irrelevant. Perhaps it was a mistake for him to work in a country where he was vastly more competent than anyone else. Or maybe I’ll change my mind when I’ve seen more of his classics. Watched: 25 minutes.

1950s movies marathon – part 69

Five Guns West (1955) – Pardoned

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Five Guns West (1955, USA, Corman)

The Confederates send a dirty dozen of hardened criminals to rob the Union, and, although the movie eventually introduces some morally upright characters, you can tell that Roger Corman finds the bad guys more interesting. Watched it all.

The Man With the Golden Arm (1955, USA, Preminger)

Ex-con Frank Sinatra has a talent for drumming, but will he be able to to resis the lure of the OLD DOPE PEDDLER?!!?!  (Probably not).  Watched: 10 minutes.

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) – Fight scene

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Bad Day at Black Rock (1955, USA)

Small-town America is full of bigots, and it takes the occasional visit by big-city liberals to shake them out of their narrow-minded ways. Watched it all. It’s a classic, although with a hypocritical premise. The greatest crime against the Japanese-Americans during the Second World War was committed by the government, not by backwater hillbillies.

Battle Cry (1955, USA)

It remains true in 1955: The only good movies about the Second World War were made during it. It’s not that they were all great, but that they were made by people who bore all the weight and uncertainty of the war on their shoulders, and not these jolly late-comers. Watched: 13 minutes. The only interesting scenes here are actual footage from the battle of the Pacific. Each time I see such clips I react with new emotions, this time was with the realization that, dear God, we’ve been documenting our world in color all the way back to 1942! (Try it yourself – watch this clip, and see how you react.)

1950s movies marathon – part 68

Big Joe Turner – Oke-She-Moke-She-Pop (1955, Rock’n Roll Revue)

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Rock’n Roll Revue (1955, USA)

Well this isn’t quite rock’n roll. But it does have that swing, and it certainly makes me want to go out there and invent rock’n roll right away. Watched it all.

The French They Are a Funy Race (1955, France, Sturges)

It was sad the way Preston Sturges was forced out of the movie industry in the mid-40s, after making  the only funny movies of the entire decade. It’s even sadder to see that, by this point, his first movie in years, he has forgotten how to make them. A few years later, he would be dead – leaving behind a half-finished but enjoyable autobiography. Watched: 4 minutes.

A Kid for Two Farthings (1955) – No unicorns in London

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A Kid for Two Farthings (1955, UK, Reed)

There are movies, very rare ones, that seem not like movies at all, but a rift in space, opening up to a purer, more distilled level of reality. This is one of them. Watched it all.

Age 13 (1955, USA)

There’s nothing wrong with a teenage boy that can’t be cured with a little bit of psychoanalysis: Insecurity, juvenile delinquency, even the horrible life-sucking sadness of a mother’s death. Watched: 10 minutes.