Tension (1949)

Nice guy Quimby (Richard Basehart) plots to murder the lunkhead who stole his wife (Audrey Totter), and meets nice girl Mary (Cyd Charisse) along the way. When the lunkhead turns up dead, things become complicated.

Audrey Totter was delightfully nasty as the unfaithful wife. She drips with venom. Totter built a career as a femme fatale, her look being perfect for the woman of danger. When those roles dried up she transitioned to television. I had only seen Cyd Charisse in Singin’ in the Rain, and thought of her just as a dancer. She did no dancing here, and was quite charming in her good girl role. William Conrad (TV's Cannon) has a sizable role.

The tension in the title refers to the amount of tension the investigating officer needs to apply to suspects before they break, like with a rubber band. It’s a corny but forgivable analogy. As we know what happens pretty early on, this isn’t much of a mystery. The real star here is the delicious dialog which makes every scene pop. We care about the protagonists, hate the antagonists, and the story sizzles when it needs to.

Were I to criticize, it would be how the protagonist must act stupid so that the story can progress. The entire film would have been wrapped up in the second act had they just answered the police’s question. Also, the ending wasn’t quite as smart as it could have been.

That aside, Tension was an absolute delight to watch. Tight dialog, great characterizations, and excellent acting. The whole thing simply popped. AMRU 4.

Crossfire (1947)

A man is found murdered in his hotel room. He was seen the night before with a few servicemen in a bar. Police investigate, and focus on one soldier whose whereabouts are unknown.

The film stars three Roberts: Young, Ryan, and Mitchum. Young is the police chief investigating the crime, and Ryan and Mitchum are servicemen trying to ‘help’. Gloria Grahame had a small but important role as the dance hall girl who may be able to account for the married suspect’s whereabouts. Grahame’s private life was pretty bonkers.

Jacqueline White, who played the wife who just wanted her husband cleared and didn't care where he hid the salami, was charming in her limited role. She only appeared in twenty features and retired at 30 to domestic bliss. She turns 100 this month. A highlight was a character known only as ‘The Man’. He appears at Ginny’s (Grahame) apartment to find our poor suspect. We never figure out his story because he keeps changing it. It’s actually quite amusing. I want to know more about that character. I also want that coffee maker.

The story isn’t very complicated but the movie can be confusing because I had difficulty keeping the characters straight. Also, the IMDb trivia section called it “one of the most visually impressive film noirs ever made”. Please watch The Third Man (1949). I wouldn’t complain about Crossfire's cinematography. It was just middle of the road.

Crossfire (which features no crossfire, figurative or otherwise) was nominated for five Academy Awards, including best picture, but won nothing. It isn't much of a mystery. I was certain of the killer midway through the first act. And it got a little preachy, as some post war films do. But it scores on atmosphere and some delightfully quirky scenes. I was looking for a solid noir and this hit the spot. AMRU 3.5.

Stalag 17 (1953)

Prisoners in a German POW camp suspect there is a snitch in the barracks.

I grew up watching reruns of Hogan’s Heroes, which I understood was adapted of Stalag 17. I believed this while watching. There are many parallels, for instance barracks life, the word Stalag, and William Holden’s Sgt. Sefton is not a terrible analog for Bob Crane’s Col. Hogan. They both also share a Sgt. Schultz. Obviously the show has a more comedic, family friendly tone and while you can draw a line between show and film characters, they don’t line up perfectly.

In reality, while I believe the show was greatly inspired by the film, it was not an authorized adaptation. In fact the authors of the play the film was based on sued the TV show and initially won. The judge, however, reversed the decision. They can do this.

The film is somewhat episodic. The exploits of Sefton as well as Shapiro and “Animal” provide comedic interest. But the through line of the story is the Nazi spy they are trying to find, and there the stakes are high. Sefton becomes a prime suspect.

Peter Graves has a significant role, as does Richard Erdman, who is best remembered as that guy who reviews snack foods on youtube. There are a great many notable character actors throughout.

While I had never seen this film, I was well aware of it even as a boy. Unfortunately it was spoiled for me in an unexpected way. Mad Magazine would do satirical renditions of famous movies, and Stalag 17 was one of them. I read this issue in maybe 1980 and remembered the reveal to this very day. Still, it is a greatly enjoyable film. AMRU 4.

"I see nothing!"

The Magnetic Monster (1953)

Items in a store become magnetized and behave strangely. So, the shop owner does what any reasonable person would. He calls the department of power and light to speak with the chief engineer. When the engineer hears that appliances were magnetized, he wastes no time and contacts the Office of Scientific Investigation. A-Man Jeffrey Stewart (Richard Carlson) is on the case. Magnetism, it would seem, is the same as nuclear radiation.

Never before have I watched a film with more technobabble narration and exposition. Characters literally stop walking up stairs to spout this stuff. The intent was to make a film with a scientifically viable premise. Atomic energy was a serious and significant concern in post-war America, and this is a story about an experiment gone wrong. And rather than anthropomorphize the experiment as a giant insect or whatever, they anthropomorphize the element itself. It “feeds” and “murders”, and must be “killed”.

Every eleven hours the element reacts, grows larger and stronger, and more people die. Were it to continue growing it would spin the earth off its access. It’s the size of a raisin, but, you know, eventually … Much of the story follows the horror conventions of the day. They figure things out, test hypotheses, make a plan of action, then heroically carry it out. The difference is that despite the actor’s behavior, there is no conventional movie monster. Just a dangerous radioactive sample.

The low budget Magnetic Monster earns points for trying something different. It has a unique feel compared to the usual fare, and the lady in the shop jumping out of the way of a magnetized lawnmower is unintentionally hilarious. But in the end, it is a fairly unremarkable movie. AMRU 3.

“In nuclear research, there is no place for lone wolves.”

Dementia 13 (1963)

Irish mansion, morbid ceremony, family secrets, ax murderer, big reveal, roll credits.

While working with Roger Corman on The Young Racers, a very young Francis Ford Coppola somehow convinced him to finance his own film. He used existing sets and locations, enlisted film school friends, wrote a script, finagled additional funding, and filmed during down times. The title was inspired by Hitchcock’s Psycho, but there was already a 1955 film named Dementia, so he added the number 13. You know, because 13 is unlucky.

Coppola borrowed a few actors from The Young Racers but the only recognizable face is William Campbell. He had a long film and TV career, but to me he will always be General Trelane, retired. The film’s two pretty blonds each have a sexy sexy scene (by 1963 standards) calling back to Coppola’s earlier work on nudie cuties.

A close look at this film may reveal clues of a director that would be one of the all time greatest for an eight year stretch, but without the insight of hindsight I doubt even an educated viewer could pick that out. It is at times clumsy, some of the acting is quite poor, and the story is really a mess. It feels as if a few interesting elements were awkwardly tied together into a narrative. It’s worth noting that his previous directing experience was creating additional scenes to somehow save The Terror. Coppola learned a great many things during the process, but the importance of budget and time may have been the best lesson.

Dementia 13 is a watchable and mostly interesting film, if only because of the director. But it is by no means a good or important film. There are flaws the viewer must overlook, but at least it’s brief. AMRU 2.5.

“Especially an American girl. You can tell she's been raised on promises.”

 

The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

Prince Prospero (Vincent Price) is a terrible man. He visits a small village for reasons I forget and is given an earful by two residents. He sentences them to fight to the death, but two things happen: he takes a fancy to the pretty Francesca and discovers that the village is infected by The Red Death, which is apparently some kind of plague. He orders the village burned and takes the pretty lady and two men back to his castle. There he contemplates ways to kill his prisoners, tries to woo the pretty girl (because, you know, consent), and plans a masquerade ball.

This is another of Roger Corman’s eight Poe films, of which I’ve now seen three. The teenaged Jane Asher was quite charming as the prince's captive. Prospero’s lady in waiting (Hazel Court) is jealous of this new love interest and starts operating on her own agenda. After her initial ingenue period, Court appeared in a fair number of low budget horror flicks. After Masque she moved to television and had a lengthy career there. In a side story a tiny dancer catches the eye of Hop Toad the dwarf. Turns out that actress was only eight years old at the time.

The Masque of the Red Death has an air of artificiality about it. The dialog is stilted and mannered. The sets are brightly colored, brightly lit, and very set-looking. People are locked in rooms that we don’t doubt for a moment the actors couldn’t punch their way through. There is much to pick apart if one were inclined. But this is the disbelief we are supposed to suspend. So, it is what it is. It holds your interest even if the story sometimes makes no sense. I should read the Poe story. AMRU 3.

The Face of Another (1966)

A man loses his face in an industrial accident, and his outlook and relationships are profoundly affected. His psychologist offers to create a lifelike mask, in effect a new identity.

The Face of Another is a horror film with an art house heart. It is an exploration of the self, who you are, how you are perceived, and how you believe you are. The sets of the Doctor’s laboratory are abstract, stripped down to the basic elements, and the dialog is laden with symbolism. The open question is will the mask allow Mr. Okuyama to become himself again and re-enter society or will he become what the mask wants him to be. Trippy stuff.

Emboldened by the mask, he tells his wife he is going on a business trip, and rents an apartment as his new identity. His behavior becomes more troubling.

The story essentially revolves around three characters: Mr. Okuyama, his estranged wife, and his doctor. There are, however, curious characters in the periphery. The Doctor’s nurse, a girl known only as “Yo-Yo Girl”, and the enigmatic “Girl with Scar”. They add texture to the narrative without distracting from it, and their purpose in the story is open for debate.

The Face of Another leaves me with questions. Questions I won’t explore here lest I spoil or influence interpretation. I doubt I will watch it again, but I think it will stick with me for a while. AMRU 3.5.