Kick-Back Friday: January 2010 Archives
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").
