Zero Hour! (1957)

Because a former war pilot (Dana Andrews) can’t get past a raid he led that went wrong, his wife leaves him. Despite being terrified to fly, he buys a ticket on her flight. When the pilot and co-pilot become incapacitated with serious food poisoning, our hero has to step up and land the plane.

Sound familiar? This is exactly the plot of Airplane! (1980), and that’s exactly why I watched it. Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers essentially remade Zero Hour! but with jokes. If you are as familiar with the classic ZAZ comedy as I am, you will spot every setup to every joke. I had to see it.

Pretty Linda Darnell plays Dana’s estranged wife. She seemed very familiar but I haven’t seen anything she was in. She would die in a house fire at age 41. Elroy ‘Crazylegs’ Hirsch, the just-retired star wide receiver for the NFL Rams, plays the sickened pilot. Gruff Sterling Hayden plays the gruff Captain Treleaven.

Despite its reputation as a forgettable aviation drama, Zero Hour! isn’t that bad. Perhaps not great but better than its reputation. Rotten Tomatoes gives it some disrespect. And if you have seen Airplane!, you by and large have already seen Zero Hour! But give it a watch anyhow. ASMR 3.5.

Johnny Guitar (1954)

Vienna (Joan Crawford) runs a saloon and expects to profit greatly when the railroad comes through. But the local ranchers are none too keen on homesteading Easterners crowding out their herd. And they are none too keen on Vienna, either. She hires old flame Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden) for protection.

Part of Vienna’s troubles stem from her association with The Dancin’ Kid, whose gang is suspected of pulling heists. The rest stems from her reputation with the rangers, particularly feisty Emma (Mercedes McCambridge) who will stop at nothing to see Vienna and the Kid dancin’ at the end of a rope.

Categorized as an early revisionist western and a camp classic, it is the story of two strong women, the manly Vienna with a past and the angry Emma, fearful of her own sexuality. They bark orders, take action, and manipulate the simple menfolk. And if you think me harsh for calling Vienna manly, consider this quote:

“Never seen a woman who was more of a man. She thinks like one, acts like one, and sometimes makes me feel like I'm not.”

Yea, that was spoken in a 50’s western. Revisionist, indeed. Vienna knows what she wants, how to get it, and is single minded in her approach. Same for Emma who may be frightened to see herself in Vienna. It is telling that they are the only two female characters in the film, including extras.

The story elements are nothing special. We hit many of the western tropes. The ranger/farmer conflict, the posse, the gunman character, constructed around a love triangle and instigated by where choo-choo go. And from a character motivation standpoint, it makes little sense.

What elevates the film are the performances. You cannot take your eyes off of Crawford, a dozen years older than lover Hayden (and twenty years older than the Dancin’ Kid). Her performance is both absurd and captivating. So too is the dialog. Regardless of the speaker, it seemed to revolve around Vienna and her wants, and it doesn’t matter that it too makes no sense. And this is not to take anything away from McCambridge, whose wonderfully unrestrained performance is delightfully outrageous. She burns with an all consuming fire.

The Kid and his gang (which includes Ernest Borgnine from back in his thug days) hide out in a secret cabin, hidden behind a waterfall. However, the view from the cabin window shows open land for miles around. How hidden could it be? And speaking of big names in small roles, John Carradine played Old Tom, even though he was two years younger than Crawford.

There is so much to say about the story that I haven’t yet got into the story behind the story. Emma’s McCambridge (the demon voice from The Exorcist) couldn’t stand Crawford, and the feeling was mutual. Hayden was disgusted with Crawford’s unprofessional behavior and she called him “The biggest pill in Hollywood”. Director Nicholas Ray would frequently stop his car and vomit on his way to the set. Oh, and apparently François Truffaut called the movie 'The Beauty and the Beast', with Hayden being the beauty.

There are members of society that will see themselves in Crawford's performance. She's a woman in a man's world, setting the rules for the macho men in her life. But still, she can't escape society's expectations of her gender. 1950's just as the nineteenth century, as Crawford wasn't the title character. The players hated making the film, the critics panned it, and the public loved it. I kinda did too. AMRU 4.

“A man can lie, steal... and even kill. But as long as he hangs on to his pride, he's still a man. All a woman has to do is slip - once - and she's a 'tramp!' Must be a great comfort to you to be a man.”

The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

A big time operator (Sam Jaffe) is released from prison and has a plan for a big score. He seeks out a money guy to finance the heist to hire a box man (safe cracker), a driver (James Whitmore), and a thug (Sterling Hayden).

Our money guy (Louis Calhern) has been in a fair number of decent movies. I’m sure our paths will cross again. He was also in a Jungle of the Blackboard variety. Here, his piece on the side is a cusp of famous Marilyn Monroe. She was quite good in the small role.

Even outside the presence of Sterling Hayden, this film bears a strong resemblance to The Killing. Big, complex heist, recruitment of people, complications and double-crossing, then things fall apart. That’s not a spoiler. Bad guys didn’t get away in the 50’s. Between the two, I prefer The Killing. The heist itself was more interesting and I like Hayden in the Boss role. Here he was a hooligan on the spectrum. Jean Hagen (Singin’ in the Rain) played his Doll.

Modern life once again has crept into this historical document. In the interest of law and order, the police chief advocates roughing up suspects and victims alike. When a cop is discovered to be a ‘bad apple’, he monologues how cops, good and bad, are necessary to fight this existential threat that is crime. It was quite strident and very close to the zeitgeist of the day. This isn’t a commentary on the present situation. Law enforcement was extremely different in 1950 and a very complex topic. It was simply a thing that made me go “huh”.

Another theme was the creepy old man. The older Calhern shacking up with the hot Monroe ("young enough to be his granddaughter") is derisively viewed by the police. Another character stares creepily at a teenage girl while she dances. That was borderline uncomfortable. I looked it up. She was twenty during filming. We’re cool. I believe the point was to keep the audience from sympathizing with the criminals too much.

The Asphalt Jungle is an entertaining heist film. It is interesting how 50’s noir has a distinctly different feel than the earlier ones. They feel more grounded in the real world. John Huston’s Maltese Falcon is a landmark in the genre and very different in tone. He would deconstruct the genre, with dubious success, three years later with Beat the Devil, and appear in, but not direct, a landmark of neo-noir with Chinatown. AMRU 4.

The Killing (1956)

Ex-con Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) is getting together a team to rob a racetrack. They could put you away just as fast for a $10 heist as they can for a million dollar job. So might as well go big.

The Killing is a pure heist movie. Cool and in command, we watch Johnny plan, organize, and execute the heist in almost documentary style. Few details are revealed until the job begins. We just see the pieces put into place. There is voice over narration that reads like a police blotter.

Many characters are introduced over the first act. Elisha Cook Jr. is here of course, ex-wrestler Kola Kwariani needed subtitles to be understood, Rodney Dangerfield is visible in a crowd scene, but most bizarre is the performance of Timothy Carey. Carey had a strange career. A method actor, he would improvise to a ridiculous degree. I’m surprised that Kubrick used him twice considering his reputation for control. A little later in his career there were directors who were afraid of him. Here he has a small role, hired to shoot a horse. He smooth-talks a parking lot attendant who starts hanging around. His line delivery is nothing short of confounding.

I struggled with this film for the first act. The storytelling and performances were odd and not very noir-like. There are many moving pieces with little explanation. The cuts from stock footage to the sets were jarring and took me out of the movie. Also the narration was distracting. But as the film progressed and the caper became clear, I became interested.

The influence of this film on directors like Quentin Tarantino is very apparent. The lunch table scene from Reservoir Dogs is taken almost verbatim. The gun hidden in the bathroom is also familiar. Here Sterling Hayden’s character gets it and in The Godfather Sterling Hayden’s character “gets it”.

I must give Kubrick some slack. The film was fairly low budget without much studio support, and the dragnet-esque narration was a studio demand. In the end, it’s a strange, complex, and interesting film, and totally worth watching again. However, maybe because of the more conventional tone, I liked The Killers a smidge better. AMRU 4.

“You'd be killing a horse - that's not first degree murder, in fact it's not murder at all, in fact I don't know what it is.”

The Godfather (1972)

Well, you see, there’s this family. And they are in business. No, not the Mafia. We don’t use the M word here. Let’s just say they take care of their friends and take care of their enemies. It doesn’t make sense for me to summarize the story as I was the last person on earth past 30 to have seen The Godfather. Goomba mobsters whacking each other? Didn’t interest me.

The Godfather takes place over many years, from the end of World War II into the 1950’s. It covers many events and does not have a consistent central character. It illustrates how characters change over time, and sometimes fail to change. It launched (or solidified) the careers of a great many actors like James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, and of course Al Pacino. Even 50 year old and victim of 2016 Abe Vigoda. But mostly it turned director Francis Ford Coppola into a directorial force to be reckoned with. He would go on to direct Part II, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, then a whole pile of shit.

Simonetta Stefanelli plays Michael’s first wife and has a delightful nude scene, if you’re into that sort of thing. If IMDb is to be believed, she was 17 when the film was released. If her scenes were done four months prior, she wouldn’t have been that. Ah, the benefits of shooting in Italy. Hey, look, there's old friend Sterling Hayden! Once again proving he's not afraid to take acting chances. The baby being baptized at the end was director daughter Sofia Coppola, who would prove to be a far better director than actress.

Make no mistake: these are not good people. They are not heroes by any measure, even if some will see them as such. But neither are their victims. It's bad on bad and one cannot feel sorry for any of the deaths. There is no pristine protagonist to rally around and you shouldn't try to find one.

At just under three hours with no singular storyline, The Godfather does not lag, never fails to keep you enthralled. I was totally wrong to ignore it for so long. It is one of those films that everyone says is great, and that is because it is great. Solid cast, great acting, great script, great cinematography, and incredible storytelling. It has crept into popular culture in so many ways, and it forever changed the genre and film making as a whole. I will never doubt a film recommendation from my wife ever again. AMRU 5.

"Leave the gun. Take the cannoli."

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

Brigadier General Jack Ripper (Sterling Hayden) has sent the codes to start a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, then barricaded himself in his base, and convinced his soldiers that anyone who attacks are Russians. His plan is to provoke a response from the USSR forcing the Pentagon to make the decision to finish the job or else withstand a Soviet retaliation. The foppish British Captain Mandrake (Peter Sellers) tries to talk him down. Sellers also plays the President and the titular doctor.

Yet another movie I knew well, but knew nothing about. I knew it was anti-war, that Peter Sellers played multiple rolls, and that it was a screwball comedy, but that was it. It shouldn't have taken me this long to have seen it.

Theory is that the US military changed some of the procedures to insure this scenario cannot happen, but that sounds like Hollywood hokum to me. Nobody knew what the cockpit of a B52 looked like but there was one published photograph. The set designers concocted what they thought it should look like and apparently weren't too far off. Obviously, the military were not going to offer any assistance.

 

The movie features George C. Scott, a very young James Earl Jones, and Slim Pickens as everyone's favorite cowboy pilot. It's nuanced enough to defy description and funny enough to see a second time. AMRU 4.

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"

Flat Top (1952)

Sterling Hayden is Commander Dan Collier. While on deck of an aircraft carrier (or a "Flat Top" in Navy lingo) he reminisces about the good 'oll days back in the war. Specifically, about one group of hotshot aviators and how they needed to learn the lesson that only a hard-ass commander can teach.

A hot shot pilot is grounded for being a hot shot, they go on missions and are successful, they go on other missions and are shot up, some die, but in the end ... you know, I don't really know. They all learn the true meaning of Christmas and we win the war. U S A! U S A!

I chose this Navy propaganda film for the most dubious of reasons. I hadn't reviewed a movie released in 1952 yet. I checked around and found that the top rated movie that year was Singin' in the Rain. Meh. High Noon! That would be cool, but not available streaming. I kept going down the list and this is what I found. Sad, because I had Kansas City Confidential in my queue and I was looking for a reason to do another Film-Noir.

Anyhow, Flat Top was consistently paced, fairly well acted, and probably resonated with audiences of the day. My teenage son, in love with all things military, ate it up. I found it boring. AMRU 2.5.