Kick-Back Friday: August 2008 Archives
You're a has-been loser on the small-town boxing circuit.
How much of a has-been loser?
So much of a has-been loser that your manager doesn't even let you in on the fix that you'll go down in the third round. He's relying on your clued-in opponent to clean up when the time's ripe.
That's the end-of-the-road life for aging boxer Stoker Thompson (Robert Ryan) in The Set-Up (1949), a tight-as-a-drum noir story from director Robert Wise (The Andromeda Strain, The Sound of Music). Wise, a former editor,* constructs the night of Stoker's rigged fight in real time—cutting between Stoker, his dispirited wife (Audrey Totter), and great shots of nutty boxing fans.
Among the many quotable lines from the film is this Sisyphean warning: "You'll always be just one punch away." Story of my life.
P.S. Boomers will recognize Stoker's manager, played by George Tobias, as Abner Kravitz on "Bewitched."
* Of Citizen Kane, for example.
Young and Innocent (1937): a not-terrifically-well-known-but-still-terrific Hitchcock joint, in the style of The 39 Steps.
A constable's daughter (Nova Pilbeam) comes to champion the innocence of a young writer (the nicely coiffed Derrick de Marney) in a starlet's murder. The film version of Westlake Entertainment's DVD could stand some audio and visual restoration, though nothing can be done about a swing band in wince-inducing* black face. Ouch.
* Ha. Watch the movie, and you'll realize that's kind of a double entendre.
Poster image (NB: The Girl Was Young was the US title) from Wikipedia and reproduced under fair-use law.
Affecting a w-for-r accent,* Sir Alec Guinness is an unassuming banker who attempts a bullion heist in The Lavender Hill Mob. The movie climaxes in (or degenerates into, depending on your viewpoint) a farcical police chase. Oh, cwazy English bobbies wunning awound! How dwoll!
P.S. Don't blink or you'll miss Audwey Hepbuwn.
* Or is that just Alec Guinness?
Kitty Foyle
: A hypnotic melodramedy of women's liberation and class distinction circa 1940—which means not a whole lot of liberation and a substantial amount of class distinction. Starring a remarkably versatile Ginger Rogers.Poster image from Wikipedia and reproduced under fair use law.
Get Carter: Michael Caine is smokin' hot as a ruthless hitman who investigates his brother's murder. There's still plenty of England's Swinging Sixties in this 1971 film—micro-minis, sexual promiscuity, bad teeth...no paisley, though.
Poster image from Wikipedia and reproduced under fair use law.
