Recently in Kick-Back Friday Category
I Soliti Ignoti (1958), aka Persons Unknown or Big Deal on Madonna Street: If this farcical heist movie doesn't make you shrug, wave your hands, and argue in gibberish Italian with the nearest person, I don't know what will.
Marcello Mastroianni plays just one of several incompetent, demonstrative, thieving wannabes.
The usual nod and thanks to KTG.
The Conversation (1974): Come on. It's been how many years since you've seen this movie? Rediscover what a national treasure Gene Hackman is. It's also one of Coppola's best, and I'm including The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II.
For my part, I've watched this film, about a wiretapper with a Catholic conscience, more times than I care to admit outside a group of drooling cinephiles: There's the pulling of focus to complement audio lapses; the showing of character (Hackman picking up sidewalk trash to emphasize his character's fastidiousness); the best dream sequence on film; the confession (play close attention to the developing mismatch between the audio and Hackman's lips*); tech geeks cutting loose; the wry nod to Psycho in the hotel bathroom; John Cazale (fer Christ's sake!); a fetal Harrison Ford; the surveillance camera-like closing. Yes. YES. YES!
* This guy's so wound up he can't even tell his deepest secret to a priest in a confessional.
Pickup on South Street (1953): Cops trailing a va-voom courier of government microfilm (Jean Peters) are diverted to a subway pickpocket (Richard Widmark), who unknowingly steals it. The pickpocket then has to contend with prying visits from the courier, the cops, and loathsome pinko sympathizers at his waterfront shack.
Other than asking, "What's the moral compass of a petty thief?" the movie raises this question: "Where exactly was there a waterfront shack in Manhattan?"
N.B.--The movie also features the incomparable Thelma Ritter as a tie peddler and professional CI. Her pre-demise monologue is something, bitches.
Green for Danger
(1946): Interesting title for a black-and-white whodunit.An off-beat inspector from Scotland Yard (Alistair Sim)* investigates the surgical death of a postman and the murder of an OR nurse at a remote English hospital. The suspects are soon limited to 5 overdramatic medical personnel—2 of whom deliver a priceless over-the-top sequence of mad laughter, followed by face slap, followed by hysterical sobbing.
* Think precursor to Columbo.
The usual HT to KTG.
An Enemy of the People (1966): Oh, the days when television tried to deliver serious drama to the masses. One example is the NET Playhouse production of Henrik Ibsen's "En Folkefiende," as adapted by Arthur Miller and forever captured on charming black-and-white videotape.
In the Victorian-era play, fraternal conflict escalates to extremes over the purity of the local spring baths, a major attraction of a small Norwegian town. One brother, a physician, tries to warn the citizens of bacterial contamination; the other brother, the town's mayor, uses his political influence to convince the villagers otherwise—at the expense of his brother's reputation and safety.
With Philip Bosco and James Daly as the brothers. Other, potentially recognizable actors include Kate Reid and James Olson (both of The Andromeda Strain) and James Daly's son, Timothy (of "Wings" and "Private Practice").
The Racket (1951): Howard Hughes remakes his 1928 film of the same name, which was based on Capone-inspired play. (Unfortunately the earlier film, which is reportedly better, is not on DVD.) Certain aspects of the reworked plot don't make much sense, as commentator Eddie Muller (whose encyclopedic knowledge of film noir is just scary) admits; and Robert Mitchum pretty much phones it in as an incorruptible police captain. But Robert Ryan, as a snarly thug and the captain's longtime nemesis, is in usual top form. With an extremely laconic William Conrad as a corrupt cop and the husky-voiced Lizabeth Scott as a "tommy" "canary." Directed by, well, a number of people.
P.S. All physicians will have fun randomly quoting this line from Ryan's bully of a character: "Blow, shyster!"
The Asphalt Jungle (1950): Longing to buy back his family's Kentucky horse farm, a "hooligan" (Sterling Hayden) joins a team-driven jewel heist in San Francisco. What could possibly go wrong?
With James Whitmore, a vulnerable Jean Hagen (Singin' in the Rain), and a young Marilyn Monroe. Directed by John Huston.
Perennial HT: KTG
Murder, My Sweet (1944): Hungry for clients, private dick Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell) gets tangled up in two seemingly disconnected investigations. Based on Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely.
You won't find harder-boiled flashback narration. To wit:
I just found out all over again how big this city is. My feet hurt. And my mind felt like a plumber's handkerchief.
I don't get the simile either; but the phrase sounds oh-so-noirishly right.
HT: KTG
