The 1956 John Ford film, The Searchers, isn’t perfect but it’s riveting. To me it seems longer than two hours and I’m glad of it, since the plot is sturdy and the Monument Valley and San Juan River scenes are gorgeous. John Wayne, even so, tries to make main character Ethan Edwards a hero, but the man is not a hero. It is Ward Bond‘s Reverend/Captain Clayton who is a largely decent soul; Ethan, a narrow-minded monster until the end, isn’t. . . As for the acting, Wayne is simply too limited, and most of the other actors rant and fret excessively. Bond, I think, is fine, but I dislike Jeffrey Hunter.
Category: Movies Page 3 of 47
In Tom Perrotta‘s short story “Backrub” (from the book, Nine Inches), the teenaged Donald stands up to a middle-aged, homosexual cop who wants to give Donald a backrub. Good. All the same, the young dude is proving to be a moral disappointment—to his parents and, well, even the world. He backs away from a commitment to travel to Uganda and help orphans there. Eventually he gets into big trouble with the police.
Donald senses that he can afford to be an “asshole” or a rebel of sorts. This is a “backrub” he can live with. He’s wrong, though. This seems to be a coming of age story (in an oh-so-liberal world)—a rich and assuredly not-boring one. The “Steinbeck of suburbia,” as Perrotta has been called, has done it again.
The Saturday Night Kid, from 1929, is yet another old, old movie based on a play. Dealing with a romantic rivalry between two sisters, its chief interest lies in how well Clara Bow did in owning a part in a talkie. She has a not-bad voice and gives a grounded, energetic performance in a forgettable comedy-drama. Jean Arthur, with her Betty Boop voice, is serviceable. Kid almost sells us charm the way a Rene Clair French film did, but not quite. Still, I recommend it.
Cover of Top Hat
I’m no judge of choreography, but that involving Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in 1935’s Top Hat strikes me as palatable, not silly or clumsy or pretentious. More appealing are the Irving Berlin songs, all of which have decent melodies, one of which (“Cheek to Cheek”) has an outstanding one.
Directed by Mark Sandrich, Top Hat is a delicious musical comedy, as are other Astaire-and-Rogers musical comedies, and one which takes the comedy in its genre seriously, however trivial these nonstop jokes may be. No, they’re not Oscar Wilde but at least they’re funny. As for the actors, they form a rather remarkable comic ensemble, even the two dancing stars: beau-less Ginger, blurting out, “I HATE men!” holds her own. Always, of course, she held her own as a dancer, though with fewer sparks than Astaire, who has among other things the “damn-your-eyes violence of rhythm” (Otis Ferguson).
Top Hat was nominated for an Oscar for best interior decoration, but I’d rather see the damning-your-eyes. The interior decoration is dated now; Astaire’s dancing isn’t.
Related articles
- Gateways To Geekery: Elegance meets feistiness in the Astaire-Rogers musicals (avclub.com)
- Top Hat (myoldaddiction2.wordpress.com)
Starring Joel McCrea as Bat Masterson, The Gunfight at Dodge City (1959) is a smart Western about loss. The crux of the story is the loss of Bat’s brother Ed to violence, but the gunslinger loses—or else is on the verge of losing—much else besides. But Westerns aren’t pessimistic; he also gains before the movie ends. The film’s weakest link is the stuff about Billy the “half-wit” (Wright King), who does seem to know the difference between right and wrong no matter what his bro Ben says.
McCrea has a monotonous voice, but he believes in the role; and is manfully pleasant. Julie Adams fails to have her heart in it; not so Nancy Gates (Lily). Don Haggerty knows what he’s doing as an unconscientious sheriff. I said McCrea is pleasant. Gunfight is a pleasant Western in color. It does a fine job with flying fists and flying bullets. Directed by Joseph M. Newman.