Aaron Loves Angela (1975)

 

AARON LOVES ANGELA (1975)

 By Ralph Santini - **½ 

Before we get into this movie, I’d like to tell a decent explanation in my own words concerning a certain film genre. Blaxploitation (as far as most of us film buffs know) is a racial and cultural subgenre of that of the Exploitation film genre and it was enormously popular in especially the 1970s. It’s actually a mix of words that combine both the word “black” (concerning in this case African American people) and “exploitation”. According to the information cited in Wikipedia from a 2018 article from the Los Angeles Times, investigated by writer Tre’vell Anderson this mix of words was actually coined by Junius Griffin, an NAACP official for the cultural organization’s Beverly Hills and Hollywood sector. That’s because Griffin cited the term with a negative reaction proclaiming "proliferating offenses" to African American people’s depictions in the films with some stereotypical traits of their criminal involvement. Even in 1976 film critic Vincent Canby described this subgenre as the following: “[S]upercharged, bad-talking, highly romanticized melodramas about Harlem superstuds, the pimps, the private eyes and the pushers who more or less singlehandedly make whitey's corrupt world safe for black pimping, black private-eyeing and black pushing”. These films are set in either the East or West coasts of the United States and focus on the poor sides of the urban African American community. Blaxploitation sometimes contain some racist insults towards Caucasians such as “honky” or to an obscure extent “cracker”. When a Blaxploitation film is set in the south it can deal with excessive slavery and cruel miscegenation. Historian Bill Lynne describes Blaxploitation films being “often bold in their statements and utilize violence, sex, drug trade, and other shocking qualities to provoke the audience”. Another anecdote I just learned from Blaxploitation is that it’s African American heroes overcome such terms as “The Man” or other insignias of Whites oppressing the heroes’ people.

The film of such subgenre I’m about to review is Aaron Loves Angela from 1975 and it stars a then 16-year-old Kevin Hooks as Aaron, the African American lovesick hero who falls for Angela, portrayed by also 16-year old Irene Cara, best known for performing both the theme song of the 1980 film musical “Fame” and “What A Feeling” from 1983’s Flashdance. The story is basically “West Side Story” only with African Americans vs. Puerto Ricans with not much dance numbers and a soundtrack composed by Puerto Rican singer songwriter Jose Feliciano. But that’s because this film and WWS are not only both renditions to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet but both films are set in New York City, the big apple.  As we all know, in the beginning of the film, there is basketball game in high school concerning a team with African Americans and their rival team of Puerto Ricans. The glitch occurs when Aaron seems to have an enormous crush on Angela and the African Americans lose the game. Aaron’s African American friends are upset but that doesn’t seem to bother him so. Aaron and Angela’s interracial romance seem to compose at lot of factors in their lives; in Aaron’s case his father (played effectively by Moses Gunn) gets rather suspicious when several things do not appear in his apartment and that’s because Aaron takes them to an abandoned building where he keeps developing his love affair with Angela. In Angela’s case her mother constantly worries about her absence of their apartment and she keeps lying that she still is dating her former boyfriend Ricardo.

This film has got some good moments but I can’t quite recommend it enough due to its rather cliched Romeo and Juliet-related traits. Good moments of the film include Moses Gunn’s terrific performance as Aaron’s domineering father, the lovely daytime views of New York City (where the movie was entirely and authentically filmed), and Jose Feliciano’s beautiful music including the lovely song “Angela”. The other moments that are so-so are the cliched chemistry between Aaron and Angela (no offense to the actors’ talent though) and many of the results concerning the danger they must face.

 

The Thief (1952)

THE THIEF (1952)
By Ralph Santini - ***½

The criminally undervalued team of filmmakers, Clarence Greene and Russell Rouse have made lots of often overlooked rare gems and their speechless 1952 Film Noir title, The Thief, is no exception. That’s right when you notice the word speechless I’m not even joking. The film contains no dialogue at all but that doesn’t mean it contains no sound. It contains plenty of compelling ringing on telephones and a very moving scene at the near-end but I’ll get to that later. The minimal cast of this film stars Ray Milland, Martin Gabel and the beautiful Rita Gam. Greene and Rouse not only produced and directed the film, respectably, but they also co-wrote this rather unique script together. It’s that genuinely interesting.

The story is about a Nuclear scientist, Dr. Phillips (magnificently portrayed by Milland) who decides to become a Spy for a gang of communist infiltrators led by Martin Gabel who secretly keeps sending private messages to Dr. Phillips concerning his mission to betray his country’s ideals. During the mission when Dr. Phillips delivers those messages it keeps passing to one different spy to another so that they can accomplish the mission. The biggest problem in this process however is that Dr. Phillips becomes so affected by the mission that he frequently becomes a heavy drinker and sometimes ignores some of Gabel’s callings on the telephone. Despite all that Gabel keeps watching Milland to make sure he doesn’t fail this mission.

Ray Milland later makes his tough decision to go on with the purpose and then infiltrate a respected scientists’ office. Milland then photographs a good number of documents in the desk so he can then continue transferring the films to other double agents in the mission. The bad news is that when one of the double agents gets involved in a traffic accident, the FBI quickly discovers this case and it’s up to them hunt everybody involved in it, including Ray Milland himself. Afterwards Gabel instructs Milland to go to New York in hiding from the FBI and his leader suggests him get refuge in a low-rent apartment where he is aided by a sexy femme fatale (Gam) involved in the case. Things don’t go well however when he eventually is chased by an FBI agent and the results are going to be more risky than ever. 

The Thief, to be perfectly honest, is truly underappreciated rare gem in it’s own right. It’s sometimes dismissed as somewhat slow but I don’t think that bothers me in the case of this very good treasure. I mean, come on, I don’t think you can go wrong with Ray Milland in many of his forgotten vehicles because even if he lost his fame since the 1950s I can still make sure he’s still got it. And this film really proves it. I really loved how the film didn’t use one single line for this unique screenplay because I think it helps it not to be too cliched nor routine. I really don’t want to give that many spoilers but I think director Russell Rouse does an excellent job of using the cast to make great emotions like for example Ray Milland crying and going out his mind when he knows that the mission is actually failing miserably. There are some shots when Milland sometimes has to go to the Library Of Congress as part of his mission to give a lot of top secret information to communist spies that would really give great impact on later spy works like The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. And I really admire how the film gets so dark when the camera uses it’s close ups to Martin Gabel looking really threatening and very stone-cold with his earnest looks on his mean eyes.

The Thief is one of those rare gems that don’t deserve it’s unfair obscurity and least needs a second look even you see it the first time. Personally I’d recommend it with very little reserve and lot of enthusiasm given the lack of dialogue the script has.

 

 

Return to form and trolling disclaimer

 

Ralphie is back! With a disclaimer alert! 

Good afternoon fellow movie lovers. It's me Ralph Santini. I know what you people are thinking. It's been 2 years since I haven't been posting that many reviews. You see the COVID-19 Pandemic not only provoked drastic effects on the movie industry but also my spirit to write reviews during it. But now that I've been considering that things are more or less getting better (even though that is not to say the pandemic is over to a strong degree) I think it's time for me to get back on my feet with this blog. However I must write a very important disclaimer. Another reason I couldn't continue writing reviews is that when I once posted my review of Joker (2019) with Joaquin Phoenix a troll called me a child. People, try to understand we film reviewers have a certain declaration of principles that tell us that we all are entitled to our own opinions and even if "Joker" is already destined to become a cult classic in it's own right, it will not change my mind about how my reaction to the film. Sure I am in a great minority of film buffs who did not care about Todd Phillips rendition to the DC comic book character but that is no reason for trolling around in my blog. On top of that I consider myself a non-political person, sure I can appreciate a story attacking The Establishment but I just don't see it that way with The Joker as a countercultural icon. Please kindly understand we are ALL ENTITLED TO OUR OWN OPINIONS! Disagree if you like but say it in a more constructive way not with insults. That's my disclaimer. 

Criminal Laywer (1951)

CRIMINAL LAWYER (1951)

By Ralph Santini - ***

After his tenure with RKO Radio Pictures has ended, screen legend Pat O’Brien’s career has begun to wane drastically. After all Television began dominating the home entertainment system which was definitely a bad sign for the major studios. But one of the very few movies he has done in this period is a little known and largely underrated Film Noir  B-film from Columbia Pictures called “Criminal Lawyer”. I know it contains a rather corny tone and the production values seem rather poor. So what? I think the story is nothing to laugh about, on the contrary, I find it intriguing.

I think Pat O’Brien does a good job of portraying an alcoholic lawyer James Edward Regan who contains a rotten reputation of handling his cases in a rather cheating sort of way. After handling another of those cases that were crawling with dubious tactics, Regan announces his firm colleagues that he has been nominated for a Judgeship. The bad news is that he eventually does not win the nomination and Regan goes on more and more alcoholic until his tough sidekick Moose (Mike Mazurki only the character’s last name is not Malloy; on the contrary he is cast against type this time) decides to simmer him down.

Moose meanwhile receives a call from Maggie (Jane Wyatt who still looked very good at 41) about a case concerning a nephew (Daryl Hickman) of a bar association’s secretary (Carl Benton Reid), who initially rejected granting Regan’s judgeship nomination, because the youth is charged with manslaughter and was even falsely accused of driving while intoxicated, in fact the secretary’s nephew said he only had three drinks but that was about all. So Regan decides to blackmail the jury by asking his employees to get involved in accidents themselves caused by the jury members. The blackmail is successful so the secretary’s nephew is thereby acquitted. However things don’t go right when the widow of the crash victim threatens to kill Regan calling him a murderer which shames him bitterly leading him to more depression before Moose gets caught in a murder he didn’t do concerning the death of a client’s nasty, self-absorbed brother (a riveting Douglas Fowley) and Regan his only hope for clearing him from the crime leading the film to many thrilling results.

My policy for major criticisms of a motion picture is generally the story and this film thankfully contains an effective one. I don’t think a film noir fan can go wrong with a lawyer like Pat O’Brien’s Regan and he really delivers as the title role mentioned here. And I’m not kidding, Mike Mazurki does a terrific job against type as a good guy sidekick who is willing to keep his boss out of trouble whatever the cost of his life. Jane Wyatt is also very good adding the feminine touch at 41 with also an effective performance as O’Brien’s fiercely loyal colleague. I don’t care if this film has a corny tone nor boring cliches, this B-Movie is first rate with an effective plot that might teach the justice system about how to handle people on Trial that are possibly presumed innocent. I also thought that director Seymour Friedman did tight job of handling the rest cast very well, including Douglas Fowley as a no good mobster brother one of O’Brien’s clients in the film and Robert Shayne in a no-nonsense role of a partner lawyer who does his best to help O’Brien despite very little tolerance for his tactics.

 I’d say even if you get confused at first with this film’s tone I’d say give it a second look. It’s that good. 

 

The Sister Brothers (2018)

 

THE SISTERS BROTHERS (2018)

By Ralph Santini - ***½ 

There have been some speculation about the reception and radar status of French director Jacques Audiard’s western with dark comic touches “The Sisters Brothers”. All I know is that it’s his first film in English and it’s a coproduction between French and American filmmakers and that the director co-wrote the script with Thomas Bidegain as an adaptation of a same name book by Patrick De Witt who’s from Canada. The title role is given by two millennium Hollywood greats John C. Reilly (co-producer of the movie as well) as Eli and Joaquin Phoenix (excellent) as Charlie. Their objective is to hunt down a young scientist (Pakistani-British actor Riz Ahmed) on the hunt for gold with the “help” of a private investigator played by the equally excellent Jake Gyllenhaal. Coming back to the film’s speculation the film apparently bombed at the box office and there have been some criticism with the film’s dark comic traits confusing some reviewers, including Owen Gleiberman, formerly who said and quote “he Sisters Brothers is too light to be a true drama and too heavy to be a comedy”. Personally I didn’t mind any of that because I think this film is brilliant from start to finish.

A corrupt commodore (The sadly late Rutger Hauer) offers two gunslingers known as the Sisters Brothers to hunt down a young chemist named Herman Kermit Warm who wants to find some valuable gold in the west. That same young chemist is not only pursued by the Sisters Brothers themselves but also Private Investigator, John Morris. We are first told that Morris wants to actually befriend the chemist by disguising himself as a journalist. It turns out that Morris P.I. job happens to be co-involved with that of the Sisters Brothers engineered by the commodore. Warm’s goal is to go on a trial headed for Jacksonville. No, it’s not the well-known city in Florida, it’s actually a roughly-similarly named town in Oregon which, yes, in fact exists. So like I said The Sisters Brothers and John Morris are both involved in this job against Mr. Warm. Morris is supposed to hand over this scientist to the Sisters Brothers, however Warm gets wise by staring at Morris’ handcuffs. So the scientist gives the private gumshoe a surprise at gunpoint attempting to escape but unfortunately he is put under restraint. We then get the answer concerning the scientist’s goal and that is to find gold so he can develop a chemical formula. The only problem is that the Sisters brothers must retrieve that formula for the absolute, no-good commodore. Morris then spares Warm then both of them leave Jacksonville. Warm then explains that the chemical formula is to free American society from all evils of mankind starting with Dallas, Texas.

Considering the unfortunate bombing at the box-office, I think this is a true miracle of 21^st century filmmaking. Both Reilly and Phoenix have terrific chemistry as the constantly bickering brothers who would make one big slappy family. There is an absolutely hilarious scene where Reilly is upset because he retorts Phoenix that he hit him, so Phoenix hysterically tells him to hit him back and Reilly punches him with pleasures. I also love the movie’s dark sense of humor because the old west was never exactly a pleasant place to live. In fact that’s what makes this film superior to Seth McFarlane’s simple but tired “A Million Ways To Die In The West”. It’s a colossal leap forward in the sense that “The Sisters Brothers” is, as the way I personally see it, a Western parody but with more intellectual traits and darker comic slapstick. Credit must also be given by the rest of the cast, particularly Riz Ahmed as the consciously aware scientist and Jake Gylenhaal as the private investigator. 

Too Many Girls (1940)

TOO MANY GIRLS (1940)

By Ralph Santini – ***

Before the extremely popular and successful landmark sitcom “I Love Lucy” stormed audiences on television, the stars who portray Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, actually met each other on the set of this underrated rare musical gem from 1940 “Too Many Girls”. That’s right the real life married couple met with each other during the filming of this movie and I like it very much. The credits noticeably begin with Van Johnson in the bottom center of an all-male chorus singing a really pleasant song called “Heroes Of The Fall”. After all this was his first film in his long career, as well Desi Arnaz himself and a favorite of Preston Sturges fandom, Eddie Bracken. The cast also includes a barely teenaged Ann Miller, the man who portrays Charles Foster Kane’s uneducated but concerned father in Citizen Kane, Harry Shannon and the protagonist himself is portrayed by future Sci-Fi icon Richard Carlson.

The film story is centered towards Carlson’s character Clint Kelly where he works with Manuelito (Arnaz) at his aunt’s Inn, The Hunted Stag, where they not only meet with Jojo Jordan (Bracken) and Al Twerlliger (Hal Le Roy in apparently his final theatrical film) but are asked to be hired as bodyguards for the Casey Allied Industries run by Mr. Casey (Shannon) in order to lookout for his daughter Connie (Lucy herself). It turns out that the college where Connie wants to go is the same one her father attended Pottawatomie, where she also has established a romantic contact with an suave Englishman (Douglas Walton). The only catch with this is that Casey has a hands off policy ordering an Anti-Romantic clause and that could result in many zany moments in which that policy can be broken. For instance, the college has a rather mediocre football team and, get this, Manuelito takes advantage on joining the team which eventually encourages the rests of his friends to all fall in.

This film contains a delightful collection of pleasant music composed by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. I have two favorites in this musical, one is “'Cause We Got Cake” performed especially by the cute Frances Langford with a chorus. I think the song was really hip enough for 1940 standards as the decade was beginning to embrace the Jitterbug years before Rock And Roll began to dominate the charts in the early to mid-1950s. My other favorite song in this film is Spic n’ Spanish with dances exquisitely performed by Desi Arnaz and sexy Ann Miller. This was a really good time where Latin music was hot and it pleased American audiences who embraced the genre in the beginning of the decade. In fact the film concludes with another joyous Latin moment which consists of a great Conga line which I’m sure my late Cuban grandmother would have enjoyed intensely.

Although there are statements that Lucille Ball could sing, RKO made an unexplained decision to have Trudy Erwin dub her singing in both songs her character of Connie uses which consist of both“You're Nearer” and “I Didn't Know What Time It Was”. I have never heard Lucille Ball’s voice in real life so I can’t discuss what I think of this. What I do know is that after this movie was finished Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz got married a month after “Too Many Girls” was released. My point for this film is that it contains an interesting storyline regarding four college boys acting as bodyguards to a young lady who wants a carefree life and exciting songs written by Rodgers and Hart. It’s one of the better campus musicals of this era that certainly needs better attention. After all it’s this movie that made the cultural phenomenon of “I Love Lucy” possible, thanks to Lucy and Desi meeting each other and quickly getting married, and every sitcom it followed through many generations.

The Desert Fox (1951)

THE DESERT FOX (1951)

By Ralph Santini - ***½

The Desert Fox is a WWII biopic that tells a rather interesting story about one of the most celebrated German generals in WWII, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, a Wehrmacht officer who chiefly commanded in the Afrika Korps unit in Northern Africa which Hitler conquered right after getting his hands on most of continental Europe and occupying it. But after the Afrika Korps was demolished by the Allied forces, Rommel was asked to command a German unit in Northwestern Europe for D-Day, which the Allies struggled to invade for a long time. But after the Allies managed to win the beachhead battles, Rommel was later suspected as a traitor to Nazi Germany and later died nearly a year before the Nazis surrendered. This film intelligently uncovers what exactly happened to the German patriot when he died and how Adolf Hitler accused him of treason against the citizens of the Third Reich.

The film begins when a group of British commandos raid a German military station rather unsuccessfully and after one of those soldiers got wounded he asks a German officer, Capt. Aldinger (a pre-Have Gun Will Travel Richard Boone) “did we get him?” and Aldinger retorts “are you serious, Englishman?”. This is one of those scenes that demonstrates that this film will become very enjoyable with a well-done screenplay and marvelous acting. We later cut to a scene where a group of British prisoners of war under arrest by German soldiers then they are later stormed by an Allied air raid and leads to a persuasion by a German Officer asking a British Officer, Desmond Young (portraying himself) to tell the R.A.F. to cease fire but refuses. This is a scene where are finally introduced to Erwin Rommel here portrayed with excellent results by James Mason. He absolutely delivers as the German general and his performance is nothing short of riveting. In fact, I think that’s what makes this movie so nearly excellent.

We later learn that Rommel catches Diphtheria and is treated in a German hospital for the disease but we later find out that the arrogant Führer insists that he returns to Northern Africa in spite of the illness. However, Rommel is unsatisfied to learn about strong supply problems and even bad reinforcement action. When Rommel even requests a retreat the cruel pretended Führer insists on Victory or Defeat, which angers the Field Marshal and that statement drives him mad causing him to even defy the Führer’s orders. After Rommel is once again seriously ill he is visited by his wife (Jessica Tandy, wonderful) and an old friend Dr. Karl Strolin (an equally excellent Sir Cedric Hardwicke) and he discuss with both of them all of Hitler’s ridiculous ideologies about winning the war. Eventually when Rommel recovers he is visited in his mansion by Dr. Strolin who suggests that it’s basically time to end the war by conspiring against Hitler. However we see that Rommel is actually reluctant simply because he considers that Politics are none of his business resulting in a rather unfriendly conversation between the friends. So, Rommel is given another chance to his active service, this time in Northern France, where there is a great debate on where the Allies will storm the beaches. When Rommel reports to Field Marshal von Rundstedt (another extraordinary role by Leo G. Carroll) outside of Paris he gets rather blunt with the commander in chief about German defenses being rather dubious. However, Von Rundstedt warns Rommel that Hitler is strictly responsible for any German military strategy and that he is under the influence of astrologers, and like the rest of the Wehrmacht leaders, he will be closely watched at all costs. After Normandy has been finally invaded by Allied forces Rommel feels that he’s had absolutely enough and Von Rundstedt somewhat agrees only he feels to old to participate against the Führer. Nevertheless he strongly wishes Rommel good luck.

But right now comes one of the most compelling scenes in the entire war drama and that is Rommel’s discussion with Adolf Hitler (a riveting performance by Luther Adler) about the declining strategies of winning the war. But the bombastic leader gets horribly riled and insists on acting very unreasonable because he refuses to lose the war. This scene is absolutely remarkable because we greatly depict one of the most dangerous lost causes engineered by one of history’s dirtiest and most psychotic leaders where he feels rather spoiled by a rather honest military officer who all he wants is a reasonable surrender who’s had enough of human carnage. Hitler has done a lot of human damage to the world and look how Rommel feels about the war, he was rather displeased on Hitler’s methods about winning a war by telling him his rigid tactics on how to win it. When we saw earlier back in the scene in Northern Africa, another respected officer, played by the mostly dependable George McCready, whom he ironically played a conversely nasty French officer in Stanley Kubrick’s excellent WWI Drama “Paths Of Glory” insinuates that the tactics are “sheer madness!”. He even compares the tactics to those used in the middle ages. I mean no wonder the war went a little on for a year after Normandy. We even use a depiction of the plot to kill Hitler, where the disabled officer, Col. Claus von Stauffenberg (Eduard Franz) initiates a bomb exploding the building the führer was present but the plain unfortunately failed and we then cut back to Rommel, months after being wounded in an air raid is resting rather peacefully at his home with his family, has been issued a call from Hitler and he is told that he is receiving a visit from Gen. Burgdorf (Citizen Kane’s Everett Sloane, again excellent) which turns out to be an arrest for Rommel for the crime of treason. Burgdoff informs Rommel that he’s got two choices, either appear before a court martial against him or take a sedative that might turn off his life forever. After Rommel leaves his family we are later informed with an excellent question mark ending.

This is one of those war docudramas, which was directed by Henry Hathaway who also directed the equally compelling “House on 92^nd Street”, that, in my opinion, honestly depicts a realistic portrayal of one of the most celebrated German generals in the history of World War II. The cast is excellent, the script is absolutely well done and the scene where Rommel bickers with Hitler needs no absolute introduction. WWII historians will love this film and I hope they agree with me. A near-excellent rare gem.