Angels Over Broadway (1940)

 
  ANGELS OVER BROADWAY (1940)

By Ralph Santini – ***½ 

Before we go to this review, let’s get something straight concerning legendary screenwriter Ben Hecht and his involvement with his 1940 directorial effort Angels Over Broadway. It’s not exactly his first one. Hecht and his longtime career partner Charles McArthur had a short-lived production company of their own that made films located at the Kaufman Astoria Studios for Paramount release in the mid-1930s. Four years after Hecht and McArthur’s company disestablishment, Ben Hecht decided to make a solo directorial career starting with Angels Over Broadway which is the movie that I’ll be discussing right now. 

Co-directed with the film’s cinematographer Lee Garmes, the screenplay tells the story about an obstinate hustler Bill O’Brien (A terrific portrayal by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) who is about to brainstorm his next promotion for organized crime involved in gambling. Meanwhile a financially desperate embezzler Charles Engle (John Qualen, superb) is caught and accused by his boss Hopper (Character actor Charles Watts, electrifying) demanding that he gives the money he stole back with a great threat to put him and his wife together in jail. Engle committed embezzlement because his wife was blackmailed by a lover she has been secretly dating. After being fired from his job Engle is on his way on a rainy night to a club where he wants to get drunk. And that’s where the fun all begins with Bill O’Brien’s idea of looking at Engle knowing he might be good for his next exploitation with the corrupt gamblers. 

After Bill already thought of bringing Engle to the club, a woman of Russian descent Nina Barona (The ever beautiful Rita Hayworth, looking sexier than ever than in her previous works) wants to find work in the club; before that she decides to have a charming chat with Engle, but she is interrupted by Bill with his obnoxious exploits to make fun of Nina. We are later introduced by another fine character, this time a bad playwright Gene Gibbons (an excellent Thomas Mitchell) who also decides to join a conversation with Engle; he is later baffled by his suicide note and then decides to help the desperate man to earn him back the $3,000 he stole from Hopper. The only problem with that is that Bill needs Engle for his “promotion” with the mob and he wants no part of Gibbons’ honest methods of helping Charles. 

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Rita Hayworth develop brilliant chemistry as Taming Of The Shrew type of romantic leads. Fairbanks is just terrific an anti-heroic hustler who won’t stick his neck out for nobody, not especially the incompetent playwright that Thomas Mitchell plays fantastically. However that doesn’t seem to prevent him from ruining Nina’s chance of getting a job in the club. She simply tells him to “dismiss his hearse” because she’s angry at Bill’s goals to show off. Hayworth’s role of Nina Barona seems to be an innocent young lady who wants to become famous but she is constantly rejected from showbiz because of her spoiled goals constantly damaged by Bill O’Brien. He actually needs her for bait against Engle so he could be involved in the gambling joint run by the movie’s main villain Dutch Enright (Ralph Theodore). The problem here is that Nina wants no part of being involved in criminal activities and she even implores Bill to bow out of his obsessions with organized crime. This is truly an amazing character study because we never know whether Bill is in love with Nina or not.

My next topic for this analysis is the Charles Engle character with a portrayal nothing short of excellent by John Qualen. He knows how to play his characters with great focus on his vulnerability as a mere character actor and Charles Engle is definitely no exception. He is one of those financially desperate characters who embezzle’s Hopper’s money in order to save his marriage from the wife’s scheming lover who wants to develop a Beauty Parlor. The scene where Hopper catches Engle knowing about the embezzlement is an amazingly dark brooding moment for 1940 standards. It’s one of the most harrowing and eerie movie experiences that makes you want to look at this movie with great enthusiasm because this is the story. In fact I consider this movie more about the Charles Engle character than it is about Bill O’Brien. In other words John Qualen does steal the show magnificently.

My next topic goes to Oscar® winner Thomas Mitchell, majestic performance in this movie. He is simply brilliant as the incompetent playwright who made three “horrible” plays in a row and intents to make in a row. Gene Gibbons has been out of luck because his stage plays were so bad that people don’t even want to see them. Take a lady (Constance Worth, charming) who admits being sorry not being able to attend his latest play and nearly becomes a victim of Gibbon’s rather fake pickpocketing of a jewel that eventually turns out to be paste. Gibbons is drunkard that gets involved in many misadventures including annoying the audience in the club, lying to Charles Engle about promising the security he took from the blonde lady, and even luring Bill O’Brien into honesty by taking him, Nina and Engle to a closed theatre where his plays had been on stage. Bill stills distrusts Gene and goes on insisting on taking Engle to his exploits with Dutch Enright. 

Of the miscellaneous stuff I want to discuss for the analysis, the movie contains some brilliantly realistic shots of rain in the city. I think the rain here represents the most tempestuous moments of city life particularly the gloomy moment when Charles Engle plans to commit suicide because of the guilt he feels after committing the crime of embezzlement from Hopper. The movie also seems to focus a lot on interiors like it was a stage play on the screen. That’s seems pretty obvious coming a screenplay by Ben Hecht who specialized in many movies acting like brilliant stage plays. Talking about photography, Lee Garmes black and white cinematography is brilliant. He actually co-directed the movie to give enough dark tone this drama and that really works because this film gives everything that stands for thanks to its rich camera shots. 

Angels Over Broadway is certainly one of the most underrated films ever made, and definitely needs a lot more reevaluation. It is largely ignored and I think we need to do something about its obscure nature. Sure John Qualen steals the show, but my criticisms are generally story rather than sometimes main character use related. I think everybody should try giving this a second look.

An American Werewolf In London (1981)

 

AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981)

By Ralph Santini – ***½

John Landis’ tribute to the 1941 classic The Wolf Man is simply amazing and downright funny. He is really a genius in making a good horror story contain a brilliant sense of humor since his specialty is slapstick comedy. I mean he is the guy behind two of the 1980s finest movie comedies ever “The Blues Brothers” (1980) and “Trading Places” (1983) (not to mention his legendary and raunchy gem 1978’s “Animal House”). “American Werewolf” is pretty much his first mainstream adventure in horror since making the lesser known horror film Shlock which in fact is his first movie in his directorial career. Since this movie has also decided to direct the amazing 1983 music video “Thriller” with Michael Jackson which is a tribute the horror film in general. 

The exciting storyline concerns two American college students, David Kessler (David Naughton) and Jack Goodman (Griffin Dunne, terrific) travel on the upper side of England where they are constantly warned not to approach the moors because of Lycanthropic (Werewolves in general if you want plain English) superstition but when they do approach the moors they are suddenly attacked by a Werewolf which terribly wounds David and maliciously kills Jack. David is transferred to the hospital where he eventually falls in love with a nurse (the gorgeous, 28-year-old, Jenny Agutter) and in spite of being later discarded from the hospital is constantly warned by a decaying, little by little, corpse of his buddy Jack. Jack warns him that he will become a Werewolf and must commit suicide before it’s too late. 

This movie has many great issues that I’d like to discuss about and that is especially Rick Baker’s amazing job of scary horror makeups not only for the transformation of David from man to wolf but also for the hilarious use of the corpses in this film, particularly the ones given for Griffin Dunne himself. Let me add another good observation about his performance. He is absolutely fantastic in the whole movie, in fact he more or less steals the show from David Naughton who by the way is also very good as the main protagonist. The biggest tragedy behind Naughton however is that he has been horribly typecast since this movie was made. That’s a shame because he does an excellent job as a Werewolf victim who doesn’t want to live anymore and he becomes more and more of a martyr since he feels guilty for letting his closest friend Jack die in the hands of the werewolf that attacked both him and David. One other brilliant thing about this movie is the chemistry between both David Naughton and Griffin Dunne. It’s absolutely wonderful because these two actors do an amazing job of sticking their characters together with great respect. 

Here is another topic for this analysis and that is the fantastic creepy nightmares that David suffers after being attacked by the previous Werewolf itself. All he can be seeing is constant butchery and terror caused by many hideous monsters and that’s really good because the film shows the main character being a victim of Lycanthropy; not really being a villain just a tragic hero caused by horror Lycanthropic circumstances. Another thing that makes me feel cool about this movie is that these scenes are not only scary but also very funny. That’s why this movie is so brilliant and so well-made and why, at least in my opinion, holds up very well. 

 The filmmakers of “An American Werewolf In London” do a brilliant job of making this movie both fantastically frightening and unexpectedly funny. Writer/director John Landis is one true genius behind mixing tragic horror tales with sharp slapstick comedy that he knew how to blend them with “American Werewolf”. This a movie that deserves an increase of bigger cult status and demands many viewings from horror fans that want to have fun a witty and scary film and that’s what makes it absolutely nothing short of exciting. It’s also absolutely comparable to “The Wolf Man” with Lon Chaney, the movie that Landis gives great tribute to. 

The movie apparently inspired a sequel 16 years later, “An American Werewolf In Paris” which I have not seen, but I heard about a rather dubious reputation about it. The point is that this movie deserves to be an eternal cult classic.

Ambush (1950)

 
AMBUSH (1950)

By Ralph Santini - ***

                Sam Wood’s final film “Ambush” opens with another of those opening texts that describe the premise of this film; in 1878 a brave prospector Ward Kinsman (Robert Taylor in his first canonical Western after 9 years when he appeared in the Technicolor 1941 sagebrusher “Billy The Kid”) is offered a manhunt to capture a vicious Indian whom they call “Diablito” (a terrific performance by Charles Stevens) because his remaining hostage is a white lady who turns out to be another young lady’s sister Ann Duverall (the ravishing Arlene Dahl), both of them daughters of a high-class General. The only problem is that Kingsman, at the beginning doesn’t want any part of it. Meanwhile young army officer, Lt. Linus Delaney (Don Taylor in the wake of appearing as Liz Taylor’s beau in Father Of The Bride) who loves Martha (Jean Hagen, a couple of years before playing Lina Lamont, the high-pitched voice actress from Singin In The Rain), the wife of a psychotic enlisted man Tom Conovan (Bruce Cowling). 

                Getting back to Taylor’s story he would later accept the manhunt for Diablito only because of his crush with Ann while he develops a sharp rivalry between himself and a stubborn army captain, Ben Lorrison (John Hodiak), simply because they both love the redhead. Suddenly the commanding officer of the port (Leon Ames) is being injured by Conovan after escaping his arrest ordered by Lt. Delaney. Lorrison is now in command and he intents reprimanding the young lieutenant holding him responsible for his C.O.’s injury which makes Kinsman very sore and they have a rather strenuous conflict even If wouldn’t last long since Lorrison is informed about the Ambush ordered to the United States Army.  So Kinsman and Lorrison with his company of soldiers are on their way for Diablito.

                When this western first came out, it was well-received and it green lighted Robert Taylor’s career to concentrate on the film genre. Today it has become an underrated Western to currently get indifferent reactions. That’s not fair because I always find Robert Taylor so much fun to see in a western and what I like about it is the surprisingly effective acting I’ve seen here, particularly those of (Robert) Taylor as the self-sacrificing hero, (Don) as the honest officer who is falsely accused of being responsible for his romantic rival’s attack on the C.O. and especially that of Hodiak as the anti-heroic Captain who wants to be a better man than Kinsman. It also has a refreshing cinematography by Harold Lipstein and a rousing story, uncommonly written by a female, Marguerite Roberts. What this film needs nowadays, I think, is definitely a second look, which I have done after first seeing this film. I do recommend it even for what it seems.

               

Against All Flags (1952)

 

AGAINST ALL FLAGS (1952)

By Ralph Santini – ***

                Of all the many “unmemorable” Errol Flynn features he appeared in the 1950s, Against All Flags is probably the best he ever made in the decade. Sure it’s got plenty of flaws, but that doesn’t prevent me from recommending it to collectors who enjoy vintage escapism. It is also the only film that co-starred fellow swashbuckler favorite Maureen O’Hara who is absolutely gorgeous wearing those beautiful black boots she wears. It also co-stars Anthony Quinn who also appeared opposite O’Hara in the Tyrone Power pirate film “The Black Swan” and his character of the main villain is quite possibly the most flawed in this script. Quinn has never been hammier and the way his character was written, particularly under George Sherman’s quick direction seems no better than ordinary. But never mind that, it’s Flynn’s chemistry with the fiery redhead O’Hara that shines in the picture in spite it’s minor nature. After all Errol Flynn is no Tyrone Power nor especially a John Wayne when it comes to the traditional leading man Maureen O’Hara needs in a movie but I think it was nevertheless about time they appear in a film together for the first, and, like is said, only time. It is also the surprisingly effective storyline developed for this movie that lets me have a soft spot for this one.

                The plot is basically Errol Flynn playing Lieutenant Brian Hawke being at the beginning flogged and revealed that it was to use the scarred back for his espionage adventure against Anthony Quinn’s arrogant, quick tempered Roc Brasiliano who plots to conquer the Indian Ocean and it’s rulers. When Hawke shows up in Libertania, the hot-headed, arrogant Brasiliano mercilessly suspects him that he is a spy and he won’t take any chances with him. Fortunately Maureen O’Hara’s Spitfire Stevens decides to persuade Brasiliano by bringing Hawke to the meeting of the “Captains of the Coast” that includes Captain Kidd (Errol Flynn fellow cohort himself, Robert Warwick) and three more pirate ship captains. Kidd and Stevens argue with the overly suspicious Brasiliano about his joining them with the pirates, so it’s decided to put Hawke to fight with a supposed traitor with boarding pikes. The fight is nearly won by the traitor but it turns out he was cheating with a rum bottle that was luckily shot broken by Stevens. Although still not satisfied with Hawke’s affirmed victory against the traitor he reluctantly hires him for ship to sail in order to attack and Indian ship boarded by a Scottish governess (Mildred Natwick, satisfying) large group of beautiful women including a well-known Indian princess (the youthfully charming 19 to 20 year old Alice Kelley) who seems to have a large crush with Hawke, our film’s hero. After this rescue, one thing leads to another ranging from jealous rages from Spitfire Stevens, more espionage and more trouble, and, well you get the idea.

                The movie relies on plenty of action, a lukewarm story, Errol Flynn’s one-shot chemistry with Maureen O’Hara, beautiful Technicolor cinematography by Russell Metty and reasonable calling shots by George Sherman. It is weakened however by Anthony Quinn’s hammy portrayal of the overly arrogant villain, plus every scene involving the Indian princess, especially when annoyingly asking Flynn to kiss her again, saying “again?”. In the case of Quinn’s performance, consider every scene his villain is seen, especially in his first appearance when he arrogantly confronts the traitor before fighting Errol Flynn with Board Pikes; Quinn knows the traitor is lying saying he took no booty until he tortures him with knives size by size until he whines and confesses that he meant no harm. That scene is pretty much pretentious and annoying. 

                But can there be a worse thing than Anthony Quinn’s hammy performance as the villain? Yes I do think so. That would be Allice Kelley’s empty performance as the Indian princess who all she cares about is being in love with Errol Flynn. Flynn looks like he is in very little mood to flirt with teenagers, after all, there is some strong gossip in Flynn’s real life past about a scandal involving him and two teenage girls and I’ll bet that Flynn really didn’t want to remember such horrible experience in his life. And the more I see her saying “Again?” the more I find the film to be quite flawed.

Other moments in this film include a rather interesting torture scene where Flynn is pretending to scream in a desperate way before the crabs come to his feet. I really like how he pretends to be in serious agony in order to fool his enemy because at least, in my opinion, it shows that Flynn’s character shows very little weakness, unlike some of the other swashbucklers from around the same time as Against All Flags. I also don’t mind Mildred Natwick’s portrayal of the Scottish governess, she seems be an old lady who won’t take any chances in order to see that the Indian princess is saved from Anthony Quinn’s villainy. She also seems very scolding with the princess which can make me see how she feels about her the way I do, annoying, indiscreet and overly flirtatious. One more thing I might like to add is that the film seems to contain more comedy than most of Errol Flynn’s swashbucklers. I personally find the comedy to be very good natured in the sense that Errol Flynn and Maureen O’Hara play a sort of “Taming Of The Shrew” chemistry formula that I personally find very funny with satisfying romantic touches.

Against All Flags is one of those swashbucklers that seem more like a parody than it is a serious swashbucklers, but that doesn’t prevent me from recommending this film, because I personally think this is actually Errol Flynn’s best color film of the 50s. With his satisfying chemistry with Maureen O’Hara it can be easily be regarded as just a minor gem and that’s mainly because of the flaws that I’ve mentioned for Æneas MacKenzie and Joseph Hoffman’s likeable screenplay directed by George Sherman who was at that time making mainly Westerns for Universal Studios who coincidentally happens to release this film. If Quinn’s villain would have been more psycho, and the film excluded the Indian princess from the screenplay I’d rate it three and a half stars but since these elements actually happened I’m only going for only the three stars that you have noticed at the beginning. I can also conclude that Flynn and O’Hara themselves are reason enough to enjoy this little piece of escapist entertainment.

Adrift (2018)

 

ADRIFT (2018)

By Ralph Santini - **

Icelandic filmmaker Balthazar Kolmakur’s new film Adrift stars the absolutley cute Shailene Woodley, along with Sam Claflin, and is based on a true story of a loving freethinking couple in 1983 where they want to set sail on a grand journey but as the two competent sailors set out on a journey they suddenly get surprisingly stuck into one of the most dangerous hurricanes in natural history. After the storm caused plenty of trouble to our movie’s heroes, Tami (Woodley, with pretty decent acting in the role as the female lead) seemingly finds her beau Richard (Claflin who has a surprisingly inferior performance by the way) horrendously injured with possible gangrenous infections. Tami seems to have very bad feelings towards the survival so she struggles to find force and willpower to save herself and the biggest beau of her life. 

Okay, right now I’m about to be very blunt about this particular survival melodrama. Shailene Woodley does a rather good job of portraying the main strong female lead of the real life Tami Oldham who still continues to sail up to this day. Her character has real brains and real guts because she seems to belong to the wild nature of the ocean and knows how to survive the real dangers of cyclonic hurricanes because it’s not at all easy to survive one. In fact she is the movie’s biggest asset. On a more so-so angle I couldn’t find anything spectacular about her romantic chemistry with Sam Claflin. What’s worse is that the dramatization of the story seems to focus too much on that. It seem that the rather far-fetched screenplay Kendall brothers and David Bransom wants the movie’s viewers to care about that particular romance but, with the heavy critical, analytical eye I’ve got I just couldn’t. 

And the way the movie uses flashbacks after the movie opened where we see Ms. Woodley wake up in the hurricane aftermath is what really tones down the movie altogether. What’s more these flashbacks that concentrate on the romance between Woodley and Claflin are basically longer than the more compelling scenes where Woodley is lost at sea struggling to go on living. Another winning asset for this movie is actually Robert Richardson’s stunning cinematography that make the movie look like were actually exploring some pleasant paradise that reflects the pacific island’s demure nature. 

My overall feeling for this movie is that it might be one those crowd pleasing films that somehow do not give a satisfactory result with a story that could deserved to be told but with the way the movie dramatizes the romance between the characters by Shailene Woodley and Sam Clalflin it just doesn’t really do it for me.