#385: Ace in the Hole (1951)

Director: Billy Wilder
Cast: Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling & Richard Benedict



Journalist Chuck Tatum, who was fired from his previous big-city gigs, has landed a new job in Albuquerque. Not used to being in the small town, Tatum detests the stories he covers, nothing being as juicy as he’d like. He finally gets his big story when a cave-in at an ancient Indian burial ground traps Leo Minosa, a worker at a rest stop. Tatum learns that he could be saved within only 12 hours, but instead convinces the sheriff to dig through the rock from the top, giving time for the story to develop. While Mr. Minosa waits, trapped under the rock, a throng swarms to the site to witness the action firsthand.

Not much stuck out in this film for me. It was a film that just had to be made in the 1950’s – the film industry probably wouldn’t be complete without a criticism of the extraordinary measures journalists may take. But it wasn’t really a great film. The only performance that is worthy to be mentioned is Kirk Douglas, who makes a great sleaze.

The movie was a failure in its time, as you can see by the all-negative Fun Trivia section to follow. It seemed to have had a second wave in the past 15 years or so, having critics praise the film for having a real ‘bite’. Yes, it’s scathing… but I also found the whole thing a point that’s been made too often, and it’s lost its importance. People know not to trust the media at this point. An hour-and-a-half film just wasn’t necessary to tell me that in gross exaggeration.

I give it a C.

Fun Trivia (Stolen from IMDB):

• When the film was released, it got bad reviews and lost money. The studio, without Billy Wilder's permission, changed the title to "The Big Carnival" to increase the box office take of the film. It didn't work. On top of that, Billy Wilder's next picture Stalag 17 (1953) was a hit and Billy Wilder expected a share of the Stalag 17 (1953)'s profits. Paramount accountants told him that since this picture lost money, the money it lost would be subtracted from the profits of Stalag 17 (1953).
• Actor Victor Desny brought a lawsuit against this film while the script was being written. He claimed the film was an unauthorized version of the Floyd Collins story. Collins was actually stuck in a cave years earlier, as mentioned in the film. Since Desny owned the rights to the Collins story, he claimed copyright infringement. Desny prevailed, although Wilder appealed. The California Supreme Court ruled in Desny's favor. (Desny v. Wilder, 46 Cal. 2d 715, 299 (Cal. Sup. Ct. 1956).)
• The studio constructed a replica cliff dwelling at a cost of $30,000. The set was located behind the Lookout Point Trading Post on U.S. Route 66, west of Gallup, New Mexico. After filming was completed, the set was left intact and the owner of the trading post used it to draw tourists to his store.
• Residents of Gallup, New Mexico were hired as extras. They were paid 75 cents an hour for a ten-hour day. Extras earned an additional three dollars if they could bring an automobile to the set.

#422: A Man Escaped (1956)

(Original Title: Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut)

Director: Robert Bresson

Cast: François Leterrier, Charles Le Clainche, Maurice Beerblock & Jacques Ertaud

In April of 1943, French resistance member André Devigny was arrested by the German authorities and brought to prison in Lyon. In his cell, nothing but escape was on his mind. Using the bare furnishings inside his cell, he conceived a plan - but has to carry it out before August 28, the day set for his execution.

The film is designed for the viewer to be forced to endure just a glimpse of the patience and determination required to even stay sane while detained in such horrible conditions. We grow an understanding of how much we overlook the opportunity to treasure the smallest of things, taking full advantage of their uses. Much of the success of this film is thanks to the advice from the man himself, André Devigny, who gave many details of his travails to director Robert Bresson. The film gets even more credibility by having a majority of the piece filmed inside the actual prison, Fort Montluc.

The minimal use of music, script or even visual detail gives a sense of dread to this film, leading us to have just the slightest of ideas of the horrendous state of affairs in Occupied France.

You should most certainly watch this film, considered one of the classics of French cinema. Even Paul Dano agrees with me.

Fun Trivia (Stolen from IMDB):

• Bresson insisted on complete authenticity. Original author Andre Devigny served as adviser on the film, which was actually shot in the same Montluc prison where he was incarcerated. Devigny also loaned Bresson the ropes and hooks he had used in his escape.
• After seeing the film, Jean-Luc Godard said that Bresson was "to French cinema what Mozart is to German music and Dostoevsky is to Russian literature".
• Robert Bresson himself had been a prisoner of war during WWII.
• The first film of Bresson's where he used a completely non-professional cast.

#459: Ikiru (1952)

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Cast: Takashi Shimura, Miki Odagiri...

Kanji Watanabe is in a waiting room when another patient tells him what symptoms characterize stomach cancer, and what the doctor always says to cover up this fact: "it's a mild ulcer" and "eat whatever you like as long as it's digested easily". Watanabe is ashen-faced as he listens, hearing his very own symptoms listed. When the doctors tell him it's a mild ulcer, Watanabe knows he only has a year left to live.

His work at Tokyo's town hall consists of stamping files without looking at them to prove that they've been examined. Nothing is ever done, and nobody seems to want to change this. Watanabe has worked there for thirty years, and only now realizes that though he is going to die, he's been dead his whole life. He encounters a fellow employee, Toyo, who hates working at the office, which doesn't match her vibrant personality. Watanabe is inspired by her energy, though he can't seem to find any for himself. When Toyo explains that she keeps her energy by doing something that she loves and helps others in doing so, Watanabe is determined to make changes at the office.

The second act of the film takes place at Watanabe's wake. The employees are pondering Watanabe's change in personality in the last few months of his life, unsure what caused such an abrupt turn of character. Through flashbacks, we see Watanabe's trials to make a change in the office, and the impact it made on his co-workers as well as the residents of Tokyo.

This is an incredible film. It's the first on the list that received 100% on RottenTomatoes, and there's no doubt why. The film is like a combination between Citizen Kane, Atlas Shrugged and It's a Wonderful Life. Although it's apparent how far behind Japan was from Hollywood at the time as far as the quality of the image goes, this really deserves to be better known.

One of the things that is just mind-boggling about the film is its place in a historical perspective. This was made just seven years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and in those few short years the country made huge strides towards the empowerment of the individual. Ikiru's story must have simply melted hearts - even more so than it does today.

The great thing about the acting is how ordinary Watanabe is. He could be just about anyone, and that's what makes this film so strong. Watanabe is in no way extraordinary aside from his extreme desire to be useful to the community. Any one of us could be that, and in doing so, we have the potential to inspire others. However, this takes a surprisingly realistic twist. A description of the final scenes, starting at Watanabe's wake, from the fantastic analysis by blogger "Mystery Man on Film":

The mourners know the events immediately leading up to his death but not his inner mind. Kurosawa depicts drunken mourners disparaging the bureaucratic system, usurping credit for the playground from Watanabe, and finally claiming superficially, “I’ll work at it like I’m a man reborn…sacrifice the self to serve the many.” However, the next scene presents a mirror image of the opening scene: the chief officer, sitting in Watanabe’s place, passes off a potential project to the Engineering Department. One man stands up in silent protest, only to be submerged behind stacks of paper. Such an explicit failure to internalize and act on Watanabe’s lesson provides the strongest incentive to viewers to avoid such similar fate.

I'm extremely excited to watch more of Kurosawa's films, which allegedly are all just as brilliant. Two huge-ass thumbs up.

#464: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

Director: Stanley Donen

Cast: Howard Keel & Jane Powell

It can be hard living in the wilderness of America's northwest in the 1850's, especially with out a missus around the house. Adam Pontipee is determined to take the long ride into town and find a bride by the end of the day. Somehow, he succeeds when he finds Milly. When she returns to his house, she is surprised to find that not only is she a bride, but she is also responsible for serving Adam's six younger brothers (each biblically named in alphabetical order based on age: Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephraim, Frankincense [or Frank] and Gideon). Milly unsuccessfully attempts to civilize these rugged men of the outdoors and help them find themselves brides. Instead, they all kidnap women from the town and cause an avalanche to keep them at their home for the winter.

This is one of the cheesiest, strangest musicals I've ever seen. The plot is absolutely absurd, and the songs - while catchy - are remarkably cliché. The sets are also nothing to brag about. Most of the scenes have a painted backdrop, thanks to MGM's low faith in this film and sourcing most of their budget towards Brigadoon.

The choreography is what anyone should watch this film for. Michael Kidd may not have choreographed many well known films, but this film as well as his hit Hello, Dolly! are undoubtedly a great credit to his name. He uses the story and set to their fullest by actually using the dances to continue the story in the famous scene in which the six younger brothers are trying to impress their brides-to-be. I would include a clip here. But I can't find one.

From what I hear, this film is really best known by kids who grew up on this film. For me, it was just kind of weird.

Fun Trivia (Stolen from IMDB):

• The censors weren't too happy about the line in the song "Lonesome Polecat" where the brothers lament "A man can't sleep when he sleeps with sheep". By not showing any sheep in the same shot as the brothers, the film-makers were able to get away with it.
• Rehearsals for the barn-raising sequence took 3 weeks.
• For the brides costumes, designer Walter Plunkett went to the Salvation Army, found old quilts and turned them into dresses.
• Caleb says, "There was no 'F' names in the Bible, so Ma named him Frankincense, 'cause he smelled so sweet." However, there are in fact three "F" names in the Bible: Felix (referenced in Acts 24:27); Fes'tus (referenced in Acts 24:27, 25:1, 25:4, 25:9, 25:12, 25:13, 25:14, 25:22, 25:24, 26:24, 26:25, and 26:32); and Fortunatus (referenced in 1 Corinthians 16:17).

#477: Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

Director: Nicholas Ray

Cast: James Dean, Natalie Wood & Sal Mineo

A true classic, and far ahead of its time, Rebel Without a Cause centers around three teenagers who each are without proper parent figures. The main character, Jim, has two conformist parents. His mother controls the household with an iron fist, while the father habitually backs down to her. Judy's father refuses to allow her to kiss him at the dinner table as she once had, because now she is "too old for that kind of thing" - which has been the case since she started wearing her red lipstick. John ("Plato") is considered an orphan whose father abandoned the family, and the mother constantly leaves him while she travels.

Without going into much detail, Jim is new to the school, where Judy's friends target him immediately. John, who is clearly (but not outwardly) represented as a homosexual, is attracted to Jim's sincerity and friendly demeanor. Judy is friendly toward Jim, except for when she is around her friends. After a fight on a school trip, Jim finds himself participating in a chicken run against Judy's boyfriend, Buzz. When the game runs awry, Buzz plummets to the bottom of the cliffs.

In this setup, we see Jim struggling to be an honest man and turn himself into the police, while his parents insist on his silence. Judy's conforming ways are arrested with the death of Buzz, and John sees Judy and Jim as replacements for his parents.

There's so much to take in with this film. Symbolism is hidden in every corner, and I'm struggling to write this without making it an all-out analysis. The use of color was extremely important in the creation of this film, from Judy's red lipstick to John's unmatched socks. The score by Leonard Rosenman is great, as well, using a central theme similar to "nanny nanny poo poo".

If you haven't seen it before, get your ass in gear and rent it. The outdated-ness of it slightly takes away from the entertaining value of the film, but it's a great flick if you want to try to break it down.

Fun Trivia (Stolen from IMDB):

• For the knife fight between Jim (James Dean) and Buzz (Corey Allen), the actors used real switchblades and protected themselves by wearing chainmail under their vests.
• T-shirt sales soared after James Dean was seen to wear one in this film
• All three lead actors, (James Dean, Sal Mineo and Natalie Wood) died under tragic circumstances. Dean died in a car accident, Mineo was stabbed and Wood drowned. All three died young.

#491: Ben-Hur (1959)

Director: William Wyler

Cast: Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Haya Harareet

First of all, I'd like to say... whoever at Empire decided that Ben-Hur isn't as good as the latest Indiana Jones film deserves a spanking. I'd also like to say that finally, after 23 years, you've all lost your opportunity to punch me in the face for never seeing this film before.

Ben-Hur is a historical epic about a Jewish nobleman who encounters an old childhood Roman friend, Messala, for the first time in years. Messala is a new Roman representative in Jerusalem, and urges Ben-Hur to persuade his fellow Jewish countrymen to accept Roman authority. Ben-Hur refuses, and declares his loyalty to his culture. This leads to Messala's arrest of Ben-Hur and his family after Ben-Hur's sister accidentally loosens a tile from her building's roof, hitting the new Roman governor as he parades down the avenue. The next three - yes, three - hours of film show Ben-Hur's trials to escape from imprisonment and find his family.

There is so, so much to admire in this film. There is no question that the film deserves its 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Cinematography, and Best Music. The picture quality is outstanding. Despite its slightly Technicolor features, the shots could easily be mistaken to be from twenty years later. The music by Miklós Rózsa is astounding, using a full-sized orchestra including chorus. And of course, the famous chariot race is renowned as one of the most exciting scenes in cinema history.

I'm pretty much flabbergasted. There's just too much to say about this film. Despite its tremendous length at three and a half hours, I never felt bored, and only paused the film when I felt really really thirsty when Charlton Heston was being led through the desert. The film has everything, and I can't emphasize this enough: if you have never seen this film, SEE IT. NOW.

Fun Trivia (Stolen from IMDB):*

*Note: There are a lot more of these than usual, but I highly recommend reading them, because they're really interesting or really funny.

• MGM wanted an authentic-looking Roman boat for the live battle scenes. To design the boats, they hired a person who had spent his whole career studying Roman naval architecture. When he presented his designs to the MGM engineers, Mauro Zambuto(set engineer) exclaimed, "But this is top heavy! It will sink!" They built the boat anyway and launched it in the ocean, and at first it seemed to float. Then however, a little wave came along, a wake from another boat, splashed against the highly unstable boat, and tipped it over. MGM then put the boat in a large pond with a huge painted sky backdrop. To steady the boat, they ran cables from the bottom of the boat to anchors on the bottom of the pond.
• Another problem concerned the color of the water in the pond holding the boat; it was too brown and murky. They hired a chemist to develop a dye to color the water Azure Mediterranean blue. The chemist dumped a huge sack of some powder into the pond, which, instead of turning the water blue, formed a hard crust on the surface of the water, which had to be chiselled off the boat at great expense. They finally found some dye that would make the water blue. During one of the battle scenes, an extra who fell into the water and spent a bit too much time there turned blue, and was kept on the MGM payroll until it wore off.
• When it came time to film inside the boat, it was discovered that the large 65mm cameras wouldn't fit. The boat had to be taken out of the pond, cut in half lengthwise, and placed in an Italian sound stage. The oars wouldn't fit in the sound stage, so they had to cut them off just beyond the hull. This resulted in an extremely light oars which, when rowed by the actors, didn't look believable, since you could move them with one hand. To solve the problem, Mauro Zambuto sent an army of production assistants to all of the hardware stores in Rome to buy the kind of spring-and-hydraulic piston mechanisms that are normally attached to doors to force them closed but to keep them from slamming. Placing these devices on the oars and the hull gave enough resistance to make the rowing scenes look realistic.
• The film used over 1,000,000 props.
• Over 300 sets were built for the film.
• Featured more crew and extras than any other film ever made before it. There were 15,000 extras alone for the chariot race sequence.
• Charlton Heston was taught to drive a chariot by the stunt crew, who offered to teach the entire cast. Heston was the only one who took them up on the offer. At the beginning of the chariot race, Heston shook the reins and nothing happened; the horses remained motionless. Finally someone way up on top of the set yelled, "Giddy-up!" The horses then roared into action, and Heston was flung backward off of the chariot.
• The chariot race has a 263-to-1 cutting ratio (263 feet of film for every one foot kept), probably the highest for any 65mm sequence ever filmed.
• Paul Newman was offered the role of Judah Ben-Hur but turned it down because he said he didn't have the legs to wear a tunic.
• Besides Burt Lancaster, Rock Hudson was also offered the role of Ben Hur. Hudson seriously considered accepting the part until his agent explained to him that the film's gay subtext was too much of a risk to his career.
• According to Gore Vidal, as recounted in The Celluloid Closet (1995) one of the script elements he was brought in to re-write was the relationship between Messalah and Ben-Hur. Director William Wyler was concerned that two men who had been close friends as youths would not simply hate one another as a result of disagreeing over politics. Thus, Vidal devised a thinly veiled subtext suggesting the Messalah and Ben-Hur had been lovers as teenagers, and their fighting was a result of Ben-Hur spurning Messalah. Wyler was initially hesitant to implement the subtext, but agreed on the conditions that no direct reference ever be made to the characters' sexuality in the script, that Vidal personally discuss the idea with Stephen Boyd, and not mention the subtext to Charlton Heston who, Wyler feared, would panic at the idea. After Vidal admitted to adding the homosexual subtext in public, Heston denied the claim, going so far as to suggest Vidal had little input into the final script, and his lack of screen credit was a result of his being fired for trying to add gay innuendo. Vidal rebutted by citing passages from Heston's 1978 autobiography, where the actor admitted that Vidal had authored much of the final shooting script.
• During the 18-day auction of MGM props, costumes, and memorabilia that took place in May 1970 when new owner Kirk Kerkorian was liquidating the studio's assets, a Sacramento restaurateur paid $4,000 for a chariot used in the film. Three years later, during the energy crisis, he was arrested for driving the chariot on the highway.
• This is believed to be one of only two MGM films where the studio's trademark Leo the Lion did not roar at the beginning of the opening credits, apparently because of the religious theme in the film. The other was "The Next Voice You Hear" (1950), another film with a religious theme. (The lion used in 1968's "2001: A Space Odyssey" was the illustrated lion from MGM's record label, not a real lion, and so doesn't count.)

#495: Jailhouse Rock (1957)

Director: Richard Thorpe

Cast: Elvis Presley, Judy Tyler & Mickey Shaughnessy

Considered Elvis's greatest film, Jailhouse Rock gives us a little glimpse into the music industry of the 50's. The story is of Vince Everett, a beatnik with a bit of an anger problem, who gets thrown in jail for committing manslaughter. His cellmate, businessman Hunk Houghton, teaches Vince to sing, and they agree to perform together once they're released. However, between Everett's and Houghton's release dates, Everett has already become a star with the help of Peggy Van Alden.

Although there's not much to say as far as cinematography, the film's still got a certain charm. Of course, a part of it is Elvis's songs (most memorably the title song, performed as a show within a show while Everett records for NBC). There's also a great sequence in the record studio where Everett finally finds his own true voice. A bit like a manned up version of Do-Re-Mi, it helps demonstrate just how unique Elvis's voice was at the time.

This was my first Elvis film, and it's really given me a better appreciation for The King. It is an incredible achievement that he reached stardom so early on with his dangerous persona. Forget the hip-swinging that all the mothers were so concerned about - he portrayed a truly aggressive character in this film while still acting as the protagonist.

All I have to say is, All Hail the King!

Fun Trivia (Stolen from IMDB):

• Elvis Presley refused to watch this movie because of Judy Tyler's tragic accidental death in a car wreck July 4, 1957, three days after filming was completed.
• In the listing of the American Film Institute's "100 years, 100 Songs" the song "Jailhouse Rock" was voted #21.
• Originally the choreographer, Alex Romero, created a dance for the song "Jailhouse Rock" that was in a style that was apropos for a more classically trained dancer than Elvis. When Mr. Romero realized that his plans for the number were never going to work, he asked Elvis how would he normally move to the song; thus, this is how Elvis became the uncredited choreographer for what could be considered his most famous dance number in all of his movies.