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Category: Original Reviews

Responses to Peary’s “must see” movie reviews, as well as my own “must see” movie reviews up to and after 1986 (when Peary’s book was published).

King Rat (1965)

King Rat (1965)

“I judge a man by the company he keeps.”

Synopsis:
Near the end of World War II, a savvy American (George Segal) in a Japanese POW camp rules the roost with his ability to secure much-needed supplies, and convinces a Malay-speaking Brit (James Fox) to collaborate with him on key deals, much to the dismay of rule-following Lieutenant Gray (Tom Courtenay).

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Bryan Forbes Films
  • Cat and Mouse
  • Denholm Elliott
  • George Segal Films
  • James Fox Films
  • John Mills Films
  • Prisoners of War
  • Survival
  • Tom Courtenay Films
  • World War II

Review:
Bryan Forbes scripted and directed this adaptation of James Clavell’s 1962 novel, based in part on his own experiences in a POW camp. Perhaps more so than any other such film, King Rat is unrelenting in its graphic depiction of the heat, starvation, despair, craziness, lethargy, boredom, and overall sense of hopelessness pervasive in these camps:

… with Segal’s preternaturally cheerful “Corporal King” a notable exception. His hustle is so successful that he’s living a relatively easy life, able to procure fresh shirts, food, and cigarettes while his compatriots wither away in misery and/or grovel at his feet. His nemesis is Courtenay’s Lieutenant Gray, with the two caught in a cat-and-mouse tussle between pragmatism and protocol.

Front and center in the screenplay, however, is the emergent friendship between Segal and Fox, who refuses to accept bribes or “gifts” from Segal and thus quickly earns his respect.

In addition to admirably capturing the overall oppressive atmosphere of the camp, the film includes numerous memorable sequences — such as Segal slyly convincing the starving men that it’s okay to eat a beloved pet:

… Segal using Fox’s translating support to trade a watch for money:

… and Segal arranging for a medic to help Fox with a seemingly incurable medical tragedy.


Burnett Guffey’s cinematography is effectively atmospheric throughout, and the supporting performances are all top-notch. This one remains well worth a look.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • George Segal as Corporal King
  • James Fox as Pete Marlowe
  • Tom Courtenay as Lieutenant Gray
  • Strong performances by the supporting cast

  • Burnett Guffey’s cinematography
  • Fine sets and overall production design
  • John Barry’s score

Must See?
Yes, as a powerful WWII-era drama.

Categories

  • Good Show

Links:

Fifth Horseman is Fear, The (1965)

Fifth Horseman is Fear, The (1965)

“A man is as he thinks; you can’t change that.”

Synopsis:
In Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, a Jewish doctor (Miroslav Machacek) is pressured into providing care for a wounded resistance fighter, and soon finds himself searching for morphine across the city while under intense scrutiny.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Doctors and Nurses
  • Eastern European Films
  • Jews
  • Resistance Fighters

Review:
Czech director Zbynek Brynych helmed this vaguely allegorical tale of defiance during oppression — nominally about a Jewish doctor daring to treat a wounded Resistance fighter during wartime occupation:

… but perhaps really (also) about resisting repression and surveillance in a Soviet-occupied country. Meanwhile, Eddie Muller has argued on behalf of this film as a noir, given that it takes place during “one dark night of the soul” and tells the tale of difficult choices made by an individual who is tempted by fate and other forces.

While visually rich, the storyline is fairly straightforward, as described in Wikipedia’s overview:

Set in Prague during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, the film follows Dr. Braun, a Jewish doctor forbidden to practice medicine. He instead works for German officials, cataloging confiscated Jewish property.


All Braun wants to do is survive, but his pragmatic mentality is challenged when an injured resistance fighter stumbles into his apartment building. A quest for morphine leads Dr. Braun through his tortured city, where fear eats away at the social structure.

Superficially, the city might appear to be normal, but hallucinations, awkward outbursts, and nervous, self-conscious behavior make it clear that society is falling apart.

It’s all very atmospherically filmed, and well worth a look as an incisive glimpse at a particular time and place (or perhaps two) in history.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • Fine direction and cinematography

Must See?
Yes, for its historical relevance within international cinema. Listed as a film with Historical Relevance and a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary’s book.

Categories

  • Foreign Gem

Links:

Woman in the Dunes (1964)

Woman in the Dunes (1964)

“That sand just ruins everything, doesn’t it?”

Synopsis:
When an amateur etymologist (Eiji Okada) searching for rare bugs on the beach misses his train home, he stays overnight in the shack of a widow (Kyoko Kishida) eager for companionship, and soon realizes he’s trapped down in the dunes with her.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Japanese Films
  • Living Nightmare
  • Psychological Horror
  • Widows and Widowers

Review:
This collaboration by director Hiroshi Teshigahara, writer Kobo Abe (basing the screenplay on his novel), and composer Toru Takemitsu remains a one-of-a-kind masterpiece from mid-20th century Japanese cinema. We are quickly immersed in the living nightmare of protagonist Okada’s dilemma — stuck at the bottom of a sand dune with no way to scramble up and out; thus, the man who came in search of bugs to probe and examine:

… is soon trapped under the gaze of those (the villagers) who watch and taunt him for their own amusement.

Okada — likely best known to film fanatics from co-starring in Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) — is entirely believable as a man convinced he can find a way out of his dilemma, only to eventually be beaten down by forces beyond his control.

Kishida is equally effective as a young widow who seems slightly delusional (and is most certainly manipulative), but is simply responding to her own dire circumstances.

The pair form an unexpectedly sweet bond of captivity, supporting one another through work, companionship, and sensual connection.


In some ways, the less said about this movie the better, given that it unfolds in an eerily suspenseful way — and we’re not sure until the very end what will happen to the protagonists. It’s possible to enjoy this film either on its surface (albeit surreal) narrative level, or by probing into its thematic layers: Is the omnipresent gritty sand a stand-in for nuclear fallout dust? Are we all trapped in a menial existence filled with hard labor under the scrutiny of others? Regardless of how you choose to approach the story, the visceral impact of living with these individuals in their gritty, nightmarish existence is unlike what I’ve experienced with any other movie.

Note: This film made Teshigahara the first Japanese director to be nominated for an Oscar for directing.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • Eiji Okada as the Entomologist
  • Kyoko Kishida as the Woman
  • Hiroshi Segawa’s cinematography
  • Fine use of location shooting
  • Many memorable moments and sequences
  • Toru Takemitsu’s haunting soundscape

Must See?
Yes, as a truly unique and absorbing foreign film. Listed as a film with Historical Relevance and a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary’s book.

Categories

  • Foreign Gem

(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die)

Links:

Ipcress File, The (1965)

Ipcress File, The (1965)

“I want you to do a job for me.”

Synopsis:
A British army sergeant (Michael Caine) is enlisted to support a major (Nigel Green) in learning what happened to a scientist who has been kidnapped off a train.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Kidnapping
  • Michael Caine Films
  • Mind Control and Hypnosis
  • Spies

Review:
Sydney J. Furie directed this adaptation of Len Deighton’s 1962 spy thriller, featuring an unnamed protagonist who was given the cinematic name “Harry Palmer” simply to call him something. Although I haven’t read Deighton’s novel, the synopsis on Wikipedia sounds duly meaty and complex — which would explain why this film feels the same way, narratively speaking. Perhaps appropriately, we’re never quite sure what’s going on, who is on which side, or what will happen next — which feels right for a spy thriller, though Furie’s infamous choice to frame nearly every shot in either a semi-obscured, askew, or severely foregrounded fashion is, to be honest, super-distracting.

I found myself losing track of the storyline due to being preoccupied by wondering what weird and cool new shot would be coming next.

To be clear, I adore innovative camerawork — but watching The Ipcress File made me realize that it actually has its limits. To that end, an extended quote from Caine’s memoirs — as cited in TCM’s article — seems worth quoting here:

“Sid (Sidney Furie) … decided to shoot it as though the camera were someone else watching while hiding behind things. Thus there always seemed to be something between me and the camera, or else it would be very close and at an unusual angle, often shooting straight up my nose. Sid and [producer] Harry (Saltzman) had a lot of rows, with Harry’s temper living up to its reputation. I sometimes feared that he would have a heart attack, while the rest of the unit were hoping that he would — Sid, in particular. The climax to all these rows came one day when we were on location in Shepherd’s Bush, a rundown area of West London. The first I knew of it was when Sid came running round a street corner and knocked me flying. To my astonishment, I saw that he was crying. He stared at me for a moment and then screamed through his tears, ‘F*ck it, I’m off this picture,’ and with one bound jumped on a number 12 bus that was just pulling away from its stop, and disappeared in the direction of Oxford Circus.” Luckily, Furie was coaxed back to the set and completed the picture.

With all that said, this film is notable for giving Caine his second significant role (after Zulu), and he expertly embodies the cerebral, bespectacled protagonist with a criminal past.

This flick remains worth a look, though it’s not must-see viewing.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • Michael Caine as Harry Palmer
  • Innovative (though perhaps overly so) cinematography and direction


Must See?
No, though it’s recommended for those who enjoy complex spy thrillers.

Links:

That Man From Rio (1964)

That Man From Rio (1964)

“That’s no ordinary statue: it’s priceless, the relic of a lost civilization.”

Synopsis:
While visiting his girlfriend (Françoise Dorléac), a private (Jean-Paul Belmondo) on leave from the army becomes unwittingly caught up in a kidnapping tied to a deeper plot involving a professor (Jean Servais) with obsessive ties to a Maltec figurine.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • French Films
  • Jean-Paul Belmondo Films
  • Kidnapping
  • Search

Review:
Philippe De Broca directed this Bond-inspired action-adventure (with an Oscar-nominated screenplay by Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Ariane Mnouchkine, Daniel Boulanger and de Broca) that became the fifth highest earning film of the year. It’s fast-paced, colorful, and entirely innocuous thriller taking us from Paris to Brazil, with suave but goofy Belmondo performing many of his own stunts, and Dorléac perfectly cast as his carefree girlfriend.

As noted in Jeff Stafford’s article for TCM, “The James Bond film craze of the early sixties inspired an endless stream of pale imitations and parodies but occasionally a gem could be found amid the rubbish heap” — including this “tongue-in-cheek adventure tale that spoofed 007-like heroics while paying homage to everything from matinee serials like The Perils of Pauline to movie icons like Tarzan and Harold Lloyd.” The influence of Belgian cartoonist Hergé (creator of Tintin) is clear, and the final scenes — taking place in the jungles of Brasilia — evoke vibes of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Romancing the Stone (1984).

Watch for French movie icon Jean Marais in a crucial supporting role as sinister Professor Catalan, who is bound and determined to locate a specific historic figurine at any cost.

While this one isn’t must-see, it’s recommended if you’re curious to see well-crafted adventure fare from this era.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • Jean-Paul Belmondo as Private Adrien Duforquet
  • Françoise Dorléac as Agnès
  • Numerous well-crafted gags and stunts
  • Fine use of location shooting

Must See?
No, but it’s certainly recommended if this is your cup of tea. Listed as a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary’s book.

Links:

Marriage Italian Style (1964)

Marriage Italian Style (1964)

“The more the world changes, the more it stays the same.”

Synopsis:
A middle-aged man (Marcello Mastroianni) about to get married reflects back on how he met his dying mistress (Sophia Loren), who was once a prostitute — but he soon learns there is more to come in the story of their life together.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Flashback Films
  • Italian Films
  • Marcello Mastroianni Films
  • Prostitutes and Gigolos
  • Romantic Comedy
  • Sophia Loren Films
  • Strong Females
  • Suffering Mothers
  • Vittorio De Sica Films

Review:
Sophia Loren’s third film for Vittorio De Sica — after Two Women (1960) and Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (1963) — was her seventh out of fourteen made with her beloved co-star Marcello Mastroianni, and earned her a second Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. Unfortunately, the storyline hasn’t aged well, coming across like a dated romantic melodrama without the much-needed dark humor or social critique of its similarly named counterpart, Pietro Germi’s Divorce, Italian Style (1961). With that said, Loren is a dominant and glowing force throughout, from her earliest moments striding down the street with confidence:

… to later sequences when she becomes a fierce Mama Bear at all costs, wanting nothing more than to provide for her kids.

Unfortunately, Mastroianni is a real pill throughout, making it hard for us to root for their relationship in any way:

… and the narrative tension in the final section regarding Loren’s kids is forced at best. This one is primarily worth a look simply for Loren’s Oscar-nominated performance.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • Sophia Loren as Filomena
  • Roberto Gerardi’s cinematography

Must See?
No, though it’s worth a one-time look.

Links:

Station Six Sahara (1963)

Station Six Sahara (1963)

“What kind of a place is this, anyway?”

Synopsis:
At a remote desert pump station run by a dictatorial German (Peter van Eyck), the sudden appearance of a sultry woman (Carroll Baker) and her husband (Biff McGuire) stirs tensions among the bored men — including a quiet Spaniard named Santos (Mario Adorf), a recently arrived German named Martin (Jörg Felmy), and a Scotsman (Ian Bannen) who takes pleasure in baiting an Englishman (Denholm Elliott).

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Carroll Baker Films
  • Denholm Elliott Films
  • Deserts
  • Femmes Fatales

Review:
This German-British co-production about boredom, power dynamics, and sexual rivalry at a remote work station in the Sahara Desert was directed by Seth Holt, and co-scripted by Brian Clemens and Bryan Forbes, adapting a 1938 German film based on a play by Jean Martet. The first half of the movie slowly builds tension as we see how these five men manage their hours in the broiling heat under the leadership of a petty martinet (van Eyck), who insists they all play poker with him each day according to his rules.

Meanwhile, an intriguing subplot has Bannen offering Elliott an entire month’s pay in exchange for taking one of the letters he’s received from home, taunting him thereafter for having given up ownership of his own (unknown) news.

Stakes — and priorities — shift once again when Baker and McGuire come barreling up to the station, resulting in a car accident which leaves McGuire severely wounded and Baker conveniently ripe for pursuit. While Baker gives a deliciously unhinged performance as a femme fatale:

… the storyline doesn’t seem to have anywhere interesting to go with her, other than of course watching to see who may manage to seduce her (or not), and how her husband will react. It’s a disappointing trajectory for a film with such a unique setting and fine supporting performances by the cast (especially Bannen, Baker, and Elliott); this one is worth a one-time look but not must-see viewing.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • Ian Bannen as Fletcher
  • Carroll Baker as Catherine Starr
  • Denholm Elliott as Macey
  • Gerald Gibbs’ cinematography
  • Ron Grainer’s score

Must See?
No, though it’s unusual enough to check out once.

Links:

Shop on Main Street, The (1965)

Shop on Main Street, The (1965)

“I don’t understand anything any more. But I know one thing: when the law persecutes the innocent, that’s the end of it.”

Synopsis:
When a penniless carpenter (Jozef Kroner) with a disgruntled wife (Hana Slivková) in a Nazi-occuped Slovak town is given an opportunity by his Fascist brother-in-law (Frantisek Zvarík) to act as the “Aryan manager” for an elderly Jewish woman (Ida Kaminska) running a sewing shop, he develops an unexpected friendship and quickly learns how dangerous life is becoming in his country for non-Slovaks.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Black Comedy
  • Eastern European Films
  • Jews
  • Nazis
  • Race Relations and Racism

Review:
Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos co-directed this Academy Award winning Best Foreign Language Film of 1965 — co-written with screenwriter Ladislav Grosman, and funded (as all films were at the time) by the Czechoslovakian central authorities — about the absurdity of war, politics, and discrimination (specifically Aryanization). By pairing a patently uninspiring, henpecked protagonist:

… with a hard-of-hearing, perpetually cheerful old widow (who in actuality is being supported by her Jewish community):

… we are clearly able to see the insanity of the social upheaval creeping across Europe. I haven’t seen another film quite like this one in terms of depicting the gradual realization of what it means to displace others for one’s own gain — something far too easy to do when life is hard and resources are challenging to come by.

Zdenek Liska’s haunting, other-worldly score (it comprised the first Czech movie soundtrack released in the U.S.) adds an entire other dimension to the story, which builds to a horrific yet somehow inevitable climax. This one shouldn’t be missed.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • Vladimír Novotný’s cinematography
  • Ida Kaminska as Mrs. Lautmann
  • Fine production design and sets
  • Zdenek Liska’s unique score

Must See?
Yes, as a powerful foreign film.

Categories

  • Foreign Gem

(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die)

Links:

Seduced and Abandoned (1964)

Seduced and Abandoned (1964)

“It’s a question of honor – it’s always a question of honor!”

Synopsis:
When he learns his 15-year-old daughter (Stefania Sandrelli) has been impregnated by the fiance (Aldo Puglisi) of his more homely daughter (Paola Biggio), the head (Saro Urzì of a large Sicilian family vows revenge upon his family’s honor.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Black Comedy
  • Italian Films
  • Morality Police

Review:
After the success of Divorce, Italian Style (1961) — which was largely responsible for sparking the genre of commedia all’italiana — writer-director Pietro Germi helmed this second in a trilogy of dark satires about social (specifically gender-based) mores in mid-20th-century Italy. The real-life scenario presented here is truly ludicrous: Sandrelli feels guilt for “allowing” herself to be seduced by Biggio, who promptly shuns her once he’s “defiled” her: now that she no longer a virgin (thanks to him), she’s a whore. The logical consequences of such a warped ideology are played out to the nth degree here, to the extent that responses to this film were mixed. As noted in Irene Bignardi’s essay for Criterion:

There was a sense that Germi had simply gone too far in this second installment of his “baroque trilogy,” in his piling up of twists, turns, and coups de théâtre, and that the tone of his satire veered toward the grotesque and cynical. And a ghastly piece of work it indeed is: a brilliant satire of a society totally devoted to appearances and to minding other people’s business, a dark farce about the cult of gossip and honor.

It’s nice to see beautiful Sandrelli given more of a central role (and a bit more agency) here than in Divorce … (though she’s still terribly objectified):

… and Germi’s imagery of a town all-too-ready to play along with toxic patriarchy is appropriately incisive.

This one’s worth a look if you can stomach it.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • Saro Urzì as Don Vincenzo Ascalone
  • Fine location shooting in Sciacca

Must See?
No, but it’s recommended.

Links:

Diary of a Chambermaid (1964)

Diary of a Chambermaid (1964)

“Would you mind if I touched your calf?”

Synopsis:
When a Parisian maid (Jeanne Moreau) arrives at the country chateau of a man (Michel Picoli) with a foot-fetishing father (Jean Ozenne) and a frigid wife (Françoise Lugagne), she quickly learns that the groundskeeper (Georges Géret) is a Fascist; that the couple’s neighbor (Daniel Ivernel) is perpetually vindictive; and that a young girl (Dominique Sauvage) is at risk from predators.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Class Relations
  • French Films
  • Jeanne Moreau Films
  • Luis Buñuel Films
  • Murder Mystery
  • Servants, Maids, and Housekeepers
  • Strong Females

Review:
Luis Buñuel’s first collaboration with screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière was this loosely inspired adaptation of a 1900 novel by Octave Mirbeau, previously adapted by Jean Renoir (1946) with Paulette Goddard in the title role. It’s challenging to know what to make of the storyline here, which starts off as a fairly straightforward tale of a savvy working-class woman navigating bourgeois perversities:

… but takes a decidedly darker turn when one key character dies suddenly, another is brutally murdered, and Moreau shifts into an amateur detective role. Things certainly don’t end in a satisfying or conclusive manner, and we’re left (possibly intentionally so) feeling quite unsettled. Given that this is a Buñuel film, that’s not so surprising — though it’s all accomplished without any overtly surreal imagery. As noted in David Kalat’s review for TCM, “If there’s anything that ties Buñuel’s films together, it is their commitment to intellectual anarchy, their refusal to be tied down by anything so reductive as a simple interpretation.”

Note: A benefit of watching a number of foreign language titles in chronological order is feeling better able to place certain supporting actors who seemed to be cast to type — as is the case here with Françoise Lugagne playing a variation on the same kind of uptight wife she embodied in Claude Chabrol’s Bluebeard (1963).

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

  • Jeanne Moreau as Célestine
  • Fine cinematography and sets

Must See?
No, though it’s worth a look. Listed as a film with Historical Importance and a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary’s book.

Links: