John Grant

It’s always a pleasure to see Errol Flynn performing in a movie.  With Flynn, you can count on adventure, a big story and lots of confident humor.  Although “Kim,’ a 1950 color film, features a boy as the main character, Flynn does his usual best playing a horse trader in India during the turbulent 1880’s.  Working with the British, he fights the revolutionary efforts of northern Indian tribesman and Czarist Russian interference.  The title character, Kimball O’Hara, a son of a dead British regiment officer, lives by his wits on the streets of India.  Flynn, as Mahbub Ali, realizes Kim’s value as an informant, and pays him to deliver messages and  eavesdrop on his enemies.

The movie poster for “Kim.”

Dean Stockwell plays the energetic and curious Kim, who early on decides to devote his life to a Buddhist holy man sitting by the roadside.  The holy man, Lama (Paul Lucas), agrees to let Kim travel with him if he promises to beg for and provide all of Lama’s food.  Lama, from the hills of Tibet, wants to find “The River of the Arrow,” where the Buddha shot an arrow that formed a river.  Whoever bathes in the river washes away all taint of sin.  Kim doesn’t exactly buy the story, but travelling with Lama seems like a good idea since Kim is also looking for something — a “red buffalo in a green field.”  We find out what that really means later, and the explanation is not so strange.

Chronic stress and long-term depression cheap viagra can also lead to erection problems. This check content cheapest cialis medicine is prescribed to the men, suffering from erectile dysfunction. Therefore, it s frequently useful to be cipla cialis italia unica-web.com positive by enhancing the problem and then functioning through it collectively. Dosage and direction Physicians suggest us to take this pill 15-20 minutes before levitra side effects starting sexual activity, with meal. An intertitle at the beginning of the film thanks Indian government officials for letting the producers film in India.  I don’t think the film makes the best use of these Indian scenes, however.  Except for a few scenes at the bazaar and along the roads, the scenery looks like set design and the Indian population looks like a bunch of typical costumed Hollywood extras.  I saw the movie in full-screen format on Turner Classic Movies, which leaves out the full widescreen scope of the Indian scenes.  Also, the director, Victor Saville, uses many close-ups and two-shots of Kim and other characters, which means more of the action could have been filmed on the MGM lot.

I can’t quibble about the great Rudyard Kipling story.  The movie treats us with philosophical dialogue between Lama and Kim, who both project a child-like innocence to the historical events happening around them.  Kim wears brown make-up to blend in with the population, but the English eventually discover his true identity and force him to go to school.  As Lama says, Kim must stay with his own people.  Kim resists this plan for his education, but thankfully the film does not spend much time with him in the classroom.  Kim remains an adventurer, and that gives us the best reason to see this film.

Even the lightest of films works better with a good cast, and that’s the case with “Tom Dick and Harry.”  The 1941 film directed by Henry Hathaway stars Ginger Rogers as Janie, a ditsy telephone operator who dreams of marriage with a millionaire.  When her longtime boyfriend Tom (George Murphy) proposes to her, she accepts but wavers immediately after dreaming of life with him.  The go-getting Tom, a salesman at a car dealership, promises to provide her with the good life but she fears his workaholic habits will lead her to a life of loneliness.

Burgess Meredith, Ginger Rogers and Phil Silvers in “Tom Dick and Harry.”

Janie later meets Dick (Alan Marshall), a millionaire, and Harry (Burgess Meredith), a penniless auto mechanic.  She accepts their proposals too, which leads to the main dilemma in the movie — which one will win her hand?  She dreams about them too; a life without money with Harry or a life as a social whirlwind with Dick?  The dream sequences contain lots of special effects, and Rogers sluggish character seems to progress through life in a sea of confusion.  She possesses the power to visualize and produce interesting suitors, but has no ability to figure out which one she likes the best.

For example, yeast infections are usually treated with antifungal medications inserted into the vagina in cream or view description commander viagra gel form. Finding new ways to midwayfire.com generic levitra online keep your partner happy and sex life enjoyable. These drugs are available in chewable form and find this generic cialis online is useful for men who do not swallow the tablets for their treatment. rx viagra online http://www.midwayfire.com/?product=7754 The process might not release enough sperms or it may also cause erectile dysfunction. The talky script, penned by Director Garson Kanin, features some interesting philosophy about love and security.  After Janie meets the millionaire Dick, it seems logical that he meets her needs.  But Kanin doesn’t make it an easy choice.  The director primes us with Harry’s dialogue, which is rich with notions about romance that seem to escape her.  Janie doesn’t make her choice based on anything her suitors say, but on the basis of her fantasy life.  In that sense, the dreamy Janie seems more like a modern new-age woman than a woman courting in the 1940s.

The film opens with an interesting animated credit sequence.  The letters for Ginger Rogers name and other members of the cast and crew appear scrambled first before falling to the bottom of the screen and then straightening out into their correct spelling.  Later, Kanin uses a split three-screen technique while Janie converses with Dick and his girlfriend in her job as a telephone operator.  Merritt Gerstad provided the cinematography, which proved to be a strength at RKO Radio Pictures back then.  The story seems more like a play, but instead of opening it up, Gerstad and Kanin went the special effects route.  RKO must have been happy with the experimentation here.  Tom Dick and Harry undoubtedly did better box office that year than RKO’s “Citizen Kane,” released a few months later in 1941.

A Monte Carlo caper movie with Edward G. Robinson, Rod Steiger and Joan Collins sounds like a winner, so I was happy to watch “Seven Thieves.”  Robinson plays a disgraced professor (Theo Wilkins) who wants to do something big before he dies.  After spending years planning a casino heist, he flies his friend Paul Mason (Steiger) in from America to Monte Carlo to join his carefully-recruited gang of seven thieves.  Theo expects Paul to take charge and pull everything together, but first he must convince him to join the heist.  That proves to be difficult, since the practical minded Paul doesn’t believe in risk and won’t take any chances.

Edward G. Robinson, Rod Steiger, Joan Collins and Eli Wallach plan a casino heist in “Seven Thieves.”

Joan Collins, in a vibrant performance, plays a stripper named Melanie, whose innovative jazz dancing attracts numerous admirers.  They include an inside man at the casino, Raymond (Alexander Scourby), willing to help with the caper.  Paul shows very little respect for Melanie, and he treats her badly from the start.  Paul also tests Theo’s other cohorts with insults and general disdain.  The film spends a lot of time working out these relationships before we get a glimpse of the plan.  When the plan comes to light, it’s a very low-tech affair, with the gang acting as impostors pulling off the heist right under the nose of the casino’s security.  The casino is clearly not very good at stopping this sort of theft.
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Melanie hangs out with a jazz saxophonist named Poncho (Eli Wallach).  I sometimes find his performances a bit frenetic and annoying, but he does a fine job in this piece. The main ruse involves him impersonating an Argentinian baron who arrives at the casino in a wheelchair.  As the sickly baron, Poncho purposely overdoes his acting, and the rest of the gang fears he’s overdoing it.  Perhaps Wallach as Poncho playing such an aggressively unhinged character is a precursor to Wallach’s later acting style, which he showed in movies such as “The Magnificent Seven (1960),” “Lord Jim (1965),” and “How to Steal a Million (1966).”

Besides Robinson’s solid performance, the main reason to see this film is Joan Collins.  Her Melanie is very provocative as a stripper, but we also get enough back story on her to understand her motivations.  Her performance seems natural because Collins trained with famous stripper Candy Barr.  Caper films feature lots of male camaraderie and talking, except for the actual caper, which often happens in a silent sequence.  Collins balances out these elements and provides a sympathetic and effective female voice.

“How Green Was My Valley,” the 1941 film directed by John Ford, tells the story in flashback of a Welsh coal mining village and how the Morgan family adjusts and changes through trials of economic uncertainty, dangerous working conditions, labor troubles, loss of family through death and emigration and scandal.  Ford filmed the movie in black and white in Malibu, California.  Although Ford originally wanted to shoot it in Technicolor, the Second World War precluded him from filming in Wales.  Malibu in color could never mimic Wales, but black and white photography and innovative set design captures the atmosphere and the period quite well.

Roddy McDowall (as Huw Morgan) discusses life with Walter Pidgeon (as Mr. Gruffydd) in “How Green Was My Valley.”

The story, from a popular 1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn, begins as Huw Morgan packs his bags to leave his native village after 50 years.  A long narration follows with an extended flashback that begins decades earlier and introduces the village, the coal mines and the Morgan family — a mother, a father, 5 boys and 1 girl.  We see Huw as a wide-eyed boy in a loving family with no reason to doubt his future.  Roddy McDowell plays Huw in one of the best child performances ever put on film.  McDowall stays natural and believable throughout the movie, and performs well with co-stars Maureen O’Hara, Walter Pidgeon, and Donald Crisp.

And they are equipped with appropriate strategies to effect change for couples in abusive relationships. viagra on line cheap In order for a man to achieve an erection is not a big problem for men, because no man wants to sildenafil india no prescription sacrifice those benefits for hair regrowth. Thus, Kamagra the combination of Kama (sex) and Agra (suffix of Agra) is a perfect choice for patients try to find out more now viagra prescription who have been facing erection troubles for long and are looking for an effective solution. Hence it is easier to penetrate through the vaginal opening of your lady partner and takes her http://raindogscine.com/una-noche-sin-luna-en-el-festival-de-panama/ viagra pfizer 25mg to new heights of pleasure. The troubles that occur in the movie drive many in the village to leave for England, Canada, South Africa and America.  Huw, the first in his family to get an education and reach for something beyond working in the coal mines, maintains a boyish crush on his sister-in-law Bronwyn, played by Anna Lee.  The attraction continues and provides much of his motivation for staying in the village despite hardships and increasingly bleaker economic conditions.  This childlike sense of loyalty to Bronwyn, his family and his valley provides the thematic base for the story, but it also stifles Huw’s freedom, imagination and courage.  Huw seems to have no interest in the broader events taking place in the village, such as the labor troubles.

The plot also tells the story of Mr. Gruffydd (Walter Pidgeon), the new preacher who stubbornly devotes his life to raising the consciousness of the people in the village.  Morgan daughter Angharad (Maureen O’Hara) loves him and wants to marry him, but Mr. Morgan (Donald Crisp) brokers her off to the coal mine owner’s son.  She stays the good daughter and marries the owner’s son, but continues to pine for Mr. Gruffydd.  The whispers of the deacons at the chapel and the hypocritical townspeople about Angharad bring more troubles to the Morgan family, but only Huw gathers the strength to fight it with her.  By the time this happens, I lost any sentimental feeling for this awful village.

This unforgettable film stays in memory long after one sees it.  Ford achieves remarkable performances from the mostly British cast.  He deftly adds touches of humor that lighten the story; otherwise, it would be too bleak to watch.  Ford doesn’t move the camera much, which keeps the audience locked into the situation and emotion of each scene.  I wonder if audiences in 1941 thought that Ford really filmed it in Wales.

Grigorly Chukhray’s “Ballad of a Soldier,” a 1959 Soviet film, manages to perfectly blend an effective love story, a road picture, and an antiwar message into a poetic and moving visual and emotional experience.  The Russian language movie stars Vladimir Ivashov as Alyosha Skvortsov, a soldier assigned to man the observation point at the front.  Tanks advance against Alyosha’s position and he’s forced to run before he chances upon a bazooka and destroys two of the tanks.  His commanding officer hails him as a hero and offers a medal, but he asks instead for leave to see his mother (and fix the roof) in his home village of Sosnovka.  The commanding officer obliges his request and Alyosha takes to the road.

Zhanna Prokhorenko (left, as Shura) meets Vladimir Ivashov (as Alyosha) in a railroad car in “Ballad of a Soldier.”

Interestingly, Ballad of a Soldier does not begin on the battlefield but in idyllic village of Sosnovka, where the breeze blows gently through the trees, chickens feed along the path, and Alyosha’s mother wanders down the long road with a fixed gaze upon the horizon. A voice-over tells us that we’re about to hear a story about a son and a hero, and we become aware that it will be about the sacrifices one makes when called upon to leave home and become a liberator.  Only then does the image fade out to the battlefield.
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Once on the road, Alyosha meets people who represent various ideals of love and loyalty. At a train station, he meets a crippled soldier, who is returning to his waiting wife with serious doubts about his future.  When the soldier refuses to board the train out of shame, Alyosha admonishes him to be strong.  The later reunion of the crippled soldier with his wife proves to be one of the most moving scenes in the film.  Alyosha moves on by hopping a freight train, where he meets a beautiful young female stowaway named Shura (Zhanna Prokhorenko).  Their initial distrust of each other turns to romance as they face adventures and obstacles on their way home.  The straw-filled train car interior becomes an oasis from war as the camera shoots the bleak and war-torn landscape on the way to Sosnovka.

Director Chukhray and Valentin Ezhov wrote the screenplay for Ballad of a Soldier, which would be an excellent item on the reading list of a university film school. Cinematographers Vladimir Nikolayev and Era Savelyeva photograph the excellent lighting effects in the closeups, and they capture the extensive feeling of movement along the road from trains, trucks and cars.  The musical score sounds authentically Russian, simple and seductive, and it adds much to the emotional atmosphere of the film.

Alfred Hitchcock’s “Spellbound,” which came out in 1945, explores the psychological effects of guilt amidst a murder mystery.  Dr. Constance Peterson (Ingrid Bergman), an up and coming psychologist, wants to make a name for herself by curing patients at a rural mental institution called “Green Manors.”  The outgoing head psychiatrist, Dr. Murchison (Leo G. Carroll), is being pushed out the door after  showing signs of senility.  The incoming head psychiatrist, Dr. Anthony Edwardes, arrives but he also shows signs of mental instability.  During his first lunch at the institution, Edwardes goes into a trance after Constance draws a striped pattern with her fork into a white napkin.

Ingrid Bergman wants to cure Gregory Peck of amnesia in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Spellbound.”

Constance wants to cure Dr. Edwardes, but she also falls in love with him immediately and he feels the same way.  After a few more trance episodes, Edwardes becomes convinced he’s not the real Dr. Edwardes; he thinks he killed the doctor and has taken over his identity.  After another frightening trance episode in the Green Manors’ hospital that raises suspicion about his identity, Edwardes bolts to a New York hotel, followed closely by Constance.  The rest of the film focuses on her attempt to learn the truth of his identity and cure his amnesia while they dodge the police.
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It would be impossible for someone as unique and luminous as Ingrid Bergman to work at a mental institution in 1945 without stirring up controversy.  Her sex and her youth come into question frequently, as well as her apparent cold and overly clinical manner.  Her main nemesis at the institution, Dr. Fleurot (John Emery), constantly criticizes her motives and tactics, while lusting for her all the same.  He even kisses her in her office, an inappropriate and uninvited act that she shrugs offs in a cold but effective manner.  Her attitude changes completely when she meets Edwardes; she turns passionate in her love and in her work.  Even though Peck plays a weak and ill character, he manages to provide the chemistry with Bergman required to make the story work.

Spellbound’s scenes involve lots of background music, written by Miklós Rózsa.  He won an Oscar in 1945 for Best Dramatic Score, but I think the music is mostly too loud and unneeded.  Sometimes I find it hard to make out exactly what Ingrid Bergman is saying as while I contend with her heavy Swedish accent, her psychological theories and the annoying sound of the theremin.  A Russian actor, Michael Chekhov, plays a key role as Constance’s mentor, and some of his lines also get lost because of his heavy accent.  The producer, David O. Selznick, wanted the film’s unique score, but Alfred Hitchcock felt it interfered with his direction.