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Month: July 2021

Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)

Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)

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“I’m gonna have to remove Chance Wayne from your life finally, and for the last time!”

Synopsis:
An aspiring actor (Paul Newman) working as a gigolo for a drug-addicted star (Geraldine Page) arrives back in his home town with plans to blackmail Page into giving him his big break in Hollywood; meanwhile, he reconnects with his old girlfriend (Shirley Knight), whose overbearing father (Ed Begley) and brother (Rip Torn) are determined not to let Newman anywhere near her.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Actors and Actresses
  • Aspiring Stars
  • Blackmail
  • Deep South
  • Ed Begley Sr. Films
  • Geraldine Page Films
  • Has-Beens
  • Mildred Dunnock Films
  • Paul Newman Films
  • Play Adaptation
  • Political Corruption
  • Prostitutes and Gigolos
  • Richard Brooks Films
  • Rip Torn Films
  • Shirley Knight Films
  • Tennessee Williams Films

Review:
Four years after bringing Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) to the big screen, Richard Brooks directed and wrote the screenplay for this adaptation of another Williams play, co-starring Paul Newman and Geraldine Page. Newman and Page reprised the central roles they played on Broadway — and from the opening sequence of Newman driving inebriated, volatile Page in the back of his convertible, we’re intrigued by the dynamic between this unusual duo:

Newman is at his hunkiest (is that even possible to distinguish?):

… and Page is note-perfect as an insecure, narcissistic diva, still gorgeous and alluring, but clearly about to pass her prime.

The rest of the storyline — primarily centered on venal Begley’s outsized political and personal influence in his town — is a tough pill to swallow but, sadly, all too believable. It’s gut-wrenching watching him bully and mistreat everyone around him, including his daughter (Knight):

… his sister (Mildred Dunnock), his staffers, and — most infamously — his mistress (Sherwood):

… not to mention seeing the ripple effect this has on his son (Torn), who it seems will follow in his footsteps:

As Bosley Crowther wrote in his amusing assessment for the New York Times:

“[Underneath] all the glitter and added motion provided on the screen… we are still up against the same dank characters that slithered and squirmed and grunted and howled across the stage… [They] are still horrendous characters, each in his (or her) separate way, oozing meanness like blackstrap molasses and trailing misery like a prisoner’s clanking chains…”

Mostly, however, we’re eager to see how things will play out between Newman and Page: each is cockily confident they will get what they want from the other, and weirdly enough, we can’t help rooting for both of them in turn. As CineSavant writes in his review for Trailers From Hell, “Not all Tennessee Williams film adaptations are successful, but Richard Brooks’ blend of romance, show biz venality and political thuggery is just too entertaining to dismiss.”

Note: Thankfully, censors demanded that the utterly bleak ending of Williams’ play be altered somewhat, leaving us with an unexpected sense of hope by the end.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

  • Geraldine Page as Alexandra Del Lago
  • Paul Newman as Chance Wayne
  • Fine supporting performances

  • Milton Krasner’s cinematography

  • Plenty of memorable dialogue:

    “Who taught you to rub desperate ladies the right way?”

Must See?
Yes, for Page’s Oscar-nominated performance.

Categories

  • Noteworthy Performance(s)
  • Oscar Winner or Nominee

Links:

Summer and Smoke (1961)

Summer and Smoke (1961)

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“If I know Johnny, he’s back here for bad.”

Synopsis:
The daughter (Geraldine Page) of a small-town minister (Malcolm Atterbury nurtures a life-long crush on the son (Laurence Harvey) of the local doctor (John McIntire), and is distressed to see Johnny (Harvey) fooling around with the daughter (Rita Moreno) of a gambling hall owner (Thomas Gomez). Meanwhile, Johnny encourages the daughter (Pamela Tiffin) of a “loose woman” (Lee Patrick) to be sent off to an edifying boarding school, and Alma (Page) must prevent her kleptomaniac mother (Una Merkel) from committing even more crimes.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Deep South
  • Geraldine Page Films
  • Historical Drama
  • John McIntire Films
  • Laurence Harvey Films
  • Love Triangle
  • Play Adaptation
  • Rita Moreno Films
  • Tennessee Williams Films

Review:
Geraldine Page reprised her award-winning role in Tennessee Williams’ off-Broadway play for this cinematic adaptation by British director Peter Glenville, and received an Academy Award nomination for her efforts.

Unfortunately, the storyline is a lesser one in Williams’ oeuvre, and we never feel all that engaged or invested in the characters’ lives. As described in TV Guide’s review, “Like so many of the works of Williams, it deals with tension, with repression, with awakening, and, ultimately, with disintegration” — but we see these playing out to much better effect in other Williams productions. Meanwhile, a potentially intriguing subplot involving Page’s kleptomaniac mother (Merkel, who also received an Academy Award nomination) goes nowhere:

… and Rita Moreno is relegated to a stereotypical role as a Latina spitfire desperate to escape her circumstances through romance with Harvey:

You can skip this one.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

  • Geraldine Page as Alma
  • Charles Lang’s cinematography


Must See?
No, unless you’re a diehard Tennessee Williams or Geraldine Page fan.

Links:

Days of Glory (1944)

Days of Glory (1944)

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“My congratulations for the death of two fascists. Now you will set the table, please.”

Synopsis:
When the leader (Gregory Peck) of a group of Soviet partisans during WWII falls in love with a famous ballerina (Tamara Toumanova) who has accidentally stumbled onto their group, his comrades worry he may get distracted from his cause; but Vladimir (Peck), Nina (Toumanova), and the other members of their team — including Semyon (Lowell Gilmore), Yelena (Maria Palmer), Fedor (Hugo Haas), and young siblings Olga (Dena Penn) and Mitya (Glen Vernon) — demonstrate nothing but loyalty and determination in their goals.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Gregory Peck Films
  • Hugo Haas Films
  • Jacques Tourneur Films
  • Revolutionaries
  • World War II

Review:
Along with Mission to Moscow (1943) and The North Star (1943), this Jacques Tourneur-directed film was made specifically to enhance American support for an alliance with the Soviet Union in our collective fight against fascism. It’s notable for featuring young, handsome Gregory Peck in his cinematic debut:

… and also Czech-born, soon-to-be-writer-director Hugo Haas in his first Hollywood appearance:

However, it’s otherwise simply pure propaganda, with plenty of pulpy romance, honorable sacrifice, and hoary dialogue:

“I try to remember when I didn’t know you; I can’t.”

Only film fanatics with an interest in the super-brief era of Soviet-allied Hollywood cinema need to bother checking this one out.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

  • Tony Gaudio’s cinematography

Must See?
No, unless you’re curious.

Links:

Air Force (1943)

Air Force (1943)

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“It takes all of us to make this ship function.”

Synopsis:
The crew of a B-17 named “Mary Ann” — including a veteran fighter (Harry Carey) hoping for news of his fighter-pilot son, a pilot (John Ridgely) and co-pilot (Gig Young), a navigator (Charles Drake), a bombardier (Arthur Kennedy), a wise-cracking Corporal from Brooklyn (George Tobias), and a disgruntled gunner (John Garfield) — arrive in Hawaii just as the Pearl Harbor attacks occur, and are forced to do an emergency landing in Maui, where they visit Kennedy’s sick sister (Faye Emerson) and pick up another fighter pilot (James Brown) before heading to Wake Island and then the Philippines.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Airplanes and Pilots
  • Arthur Kennedy Films
  • Gig Young Films
  • Howard Hawks Films
  • John Garfield Films
  • World War II

Response to Peary’s Review:
Peary writes that this “first-rate WWII action drama was the last of Howard Hawks’s films about his favorite action heroes: fliers, whom he’d featured in The Air Circus [a silent film not listed in GFTFF], The Dawn Patrol, Ceiling Zero, and Only Angels Have Wings.” He adds that “like many of Hawks’s films, it’s about how a group of men (professionals all) work together to perform a difficult mission”:

… and he notes that “the solid, exciting script was provided by Dudley Nichols, with an assist from Hawks’s buddy William Faulkner” — but “contemporary viewers may have trouble stomaching [the] finale in which our vengeful heroes mow down helpless Japanese soldiers who are stranded in the ocean” (especially given that “in other Hollywood movies our GIs always showed amazing compassion”).

What’s perhaps most impressive about this fighting-heavy, fast-talking, “macho” film is how many scenes of bonding and levity there are — as, for instance, when the group adopts a dog named Tripoli who barks furiously at the name Mr. Moto:

… or moments taken to honor the gravity of loss:

Viewers should definitely be forewarned that not only is this a propaganda film made at the height of the war effort, but there are numerous blatant historical falsehoods. As DVD Savant describes in his review:

The movie’s first half presents a version of Pearl Harbor tweaked to achieve twin political ends. With the actual details of the attack kept secret, Americans couldn’t understand how the sneak attack could have succeeded. Where were our airplanes? Air Force has a dishonest explanation: sabotage by Japanese-American infiltrators. We’re told that Japanese fifth columnists drove trucks onto the airfields to smash the planes, and blocked roads with shotguns to prevent flying personnel from getting to them. On the ground in Maui, our crew is attacked by groups of Japanese snipers. This outright fabrication of events exonerates the Army’s poor performance in keeping its squadrons on alert. The lies also serve a double duty, to justify the internment of Japanese-Americans back on the mainland. After seeing Air Force, the public could be expected to attack “Japs” on sight. I doubt that very many Japanese-Americans appreciated this poetic license in the name of wartime expediency.

[Meanwhile, the film ends with] an outrageously elaborate fantasy battle in which the Mary Ann locates an enemy task force and leads the attack to destroy it. This is supposed to be only a couple of days after Pearl Harbor, but the Army Air Corps suddenly has all the planes and personnel it needs to launch an assault so staggering that you’d think that the war in the Pacific would be won on the spot.

With these important caveats in mind, Hawks fans will certainly want to check out this tautly scripted adventure flick that represents the height of wartime enthusiasm and camaraderie.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

  • James Wong Howe’s cinematography

  • Impressive footage of aerial fighting

Must See?
No, though it’s worth a look for its value as a prime propaganda film by a master director.

Links:

Airport (1970)

Airport (1970)

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“It just so happens we’re in a hell of a mess.”

Synopsis:
An airport manager (Burt Lancaster) whose wife (Dana Wynter) is unhappy about his workaholic lifestyle is working overtime yet again alongside his beautiful colleague (Jean Seberg) when he hears about an airplane stuck on a snowy runway. Meanwhile, an unhinged passenger (Van Heflin) with a bomb boards a flight helmed by Lancaster’s brother-in-law (Dean Martin), who despite being married to Lancaster’s sister (Barbara Hale) is having an affair with a stewardess (Jacqueline Bisset). Heflin’s distraught wife (Maureen Stapleton) tries to warn authorities about her husband, but they are distracted by an elderly stowaway (Helen Hayes) who has eluded their detection once again. Will a fearless airplane mechanic (George Kennedy) be able to help save the day when the situation goes completely haywire?

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Airplanes and Pilots
  • Barbara Hale Films
  • Burt Lancaster Films
  • Dean Martin Films
  • Disaster Flicks
  • Ensemble Cast
  • George Kennedy Films
  • Helen Hayes Films
  • Jacqueline Bisset Films
  • Jean Seberg Films
  • Marital Problems
  • Van Heflin Films

Response to Peary’s Review:
Peary notes that this “lavish Ross Hunter-George Seaton financial blockbuster” — “part Grand Hotel, part The High and the Mighty” — “contains stereotypical characters, as well as a familiar plot and cliches by the mouthful, yet it manages to be as entertaining as Arthur Hailey’s novel, and surprisingly suspenseful, too.” He synopsizes the storyline thus:

“While everyone on a recently departed plan and back at the airport tries to sort out their personal problems, things become tense when a bomb explodes on the plane, causing great damage. Will the crippled plane make it back to the airport? Will George Kennedy be able to clear a runway for an attempted landing?

Will anyone in the all-star cast admit they recognize some of the other stars?”

He adds that this “polished ‘commercial’ Hollywood film… might have been really something if Irwin Allen, rather than Seaton, had been director,” pointing out that “surely a hurricane and airport fire would have been thrown in for good measure.”

I’m glad Peary has an overall positive attitude towards this seminal disaster flick — which spawned not only three (inferior) sequels but a direct spoof — since I was pleasantly surprised by it myself. Indeed, I’m tempted to coin a new term — “competence p**n” — given how mercifully competent everyone in this wild adventure is: other than the known loose cannon (Heflin) and one buffoonish troublemaker on the plane (who eventually gets slapped by a priest!):

… each character does their level best to make sure the situation turns out okay. When have we seen such collective competence? Dear goodness, in the age of COVID-19 and all manner of other ecological, national, and global catastrophes, I could watch this type of scenario playing out — and being handled oh, so competently — all day long!

I care not a whit about the fact that sly Hayes (who won an Oscar for her supporting role here) continues eluding “the authorities”:

… or about the shenanigans inevitably going on between the men and their wives and mistresses; in fact, good on Lancaster for deciding that saving lives is more important than accompanying his wife on yet another pointless charity function.

Playing “spot the star” during this flick will have your head spinning; I’ll admit I didn’t even recognize Jean Seberg until I looked at the credits afterwards (she apparently wasn’t happy about her casting in this film, and that makes sense).

Heflin is especially good (and appropriately vulnerable) in his final role:

… and Stapleton is hugely empathetic as his wife.

This one remains worth a look.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

  • Fine performances by the ensemble cast
  • Ernest Laszlo’s cinematography (including nifty use of split-screen effects)

Must See?
Yes, for its historical significance as an Oscar-winning and trend-setting disaster flick.

Categories

  • Historically Relevant
  • Oscar Winner or Nominee

Links:

Poseidon Adventure, The (1972)

Poseidon Adventure, The (1972)

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“We’re floating upside down; we’ve gotta climb up.”

Synopsis:
When a luxury liner is turned upside down by a 90-foot tidal wave, a young preacher (Gene Hackman) rallies a group of survivors — including an elderly Jewish couple (Shelley Winters and Jack Albertson), a policeman (Ernest Borgnine) and his ex-prostitute wife (Stella Stevens), a teenager (Pamela Sue Martin) and her precocious brother (Eric Shea), an unmarried health nut (Red Buttons), an injured waiter (Roddy McDowall), and a traumatized singer (Carol Lynley) — to head up towards the bottom of the boat, where they hope to break through to the outside.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • At Sea
  • Carol Lynley Films
  • Disaster Flicks
  • Ernest Borgnine Films
  • Gene Hackman Films
  • Priests and Ministers
  • Red Buttons
  • Roddy McDowall Films
  • Shelley Winters Films
  • Stella Stevens Films
  • Survival

Response to Peary’s Review:
Peary argues that this “prototypical big-budget ‘disaster’ film of the early seventies” — produced by Irwin Allen with “an all-star cast, stilted dialogue, showoff special effects, and stereotypical characters” — is “okay escapist fare, but [the] ending is a letdown because you realize all the likable characters died while only the obnoxious ones have made it to ‘The Morning After’ (the picture’s Oscar-winning song.” I disagree with Peary’s assessment of this consistently gripping, excitingly filmed thriller, which has maintained a cult following for years. Sure, some of the dialogue and performances are a little over-the-top (“You took from me the only thing I ever loved in the whole world — my Linda!”):

… but hard-core fans seem to enjoy owning these lines; and meanwhile, the rest of us can ignore these moments and appreciate the work that went into crafting this spectacle, knowing this was years before CGI and everything we’re seeing on-screen actually happened in some fashion (albeit with safety at the forefront of everyone’s minds).

Having recently watched and posted on The Last Voyage (1960), it was especially refreshing seeing Leslie Nielsen (as Captain Harrison) taking charge as the polar-opposite of George Sanders’ Captain Adams. While Adams insisted, “I have never lost a ship and I’m not losing this one!”, Harrison says (thank God!), “I can’t afford to gamble with the lives of my passengers!”

Unfortunately, nothing Captain Harrison can do will prevent his ship from total annihilation in the face of a terrifying tidal wave:

The next few minutes of panic — as the ship is turned upside down and passengers scramble for their lives — is truly harrowing.

From here, we quickly shift into an allegorical tale of whether to trust the “known” — as personified by the ship’s purser (Byron Webster), who insists that everyone should stay put and wait for help — or a “radical” preacher (Hackman) who believes they need to proactively save themselves. He wants to use an enormous Christmas tree as a bridge from the ceiling back to the floor, and sends fearless young Shea up as a “monkey” to try it out:

Once the group of intrepid climbers has assembled, they part ways with the remaining passengers below, some of whom try in vain to scramble up the tree once water starts flooding into the stateroom.

From there, the primary human drama revolves around head-to-head banter between Hackman and Borgnine, who don’t necessarily see eye-to-eye:

— and we also get to learn more about the other survivors, most notably Winters’ former award-winning swimmer; her performance of her own stunt here remains truly remarkable:

In terms of Peary’s assertion that “all the likable characters died while only the obnoxious ones have made it,” this simply isn’t true — at all. Yes, we lose some beloved folks, but those who survive aren’t “obnoxious”. Regardless of what one thinks about the storyline, this film remains of historical importance for reasons described in TCM’s article:

Before the year was out, The Poseidon Adventure proved to be a wise investment for 20th Century-Fox. Made for less than $5 million, the film grossed more than $160 million. Nominated for eight Academy Awards, The Poseidon Adventure took home one Oscar for Original Song (“The Morning After,” which became a Billboard Top 100 hit) and another special achievement award for visual effects. At the time of its network television premiere on ABC in October 1974, The Poseidon Adventure earned a 39.0 household share, which made it the sixth most-watched film ever to air on prime time network TV. The film’s biggest coup, however, was jumpstarting an action-adventure subgenre, the disaster film.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

  • Gene Hackman as Reverend Scott
  • Shelley Winters as Belle Rosen: “You see, Mr. Scott, in the water, I’m a very skinny lady!”
  • Red Buttons as James Martin
  • Harold E. Stine’s cinematography
  • William Creber’s production design
  • Incredible stunts, effects, and actions sequences
  • Stirling Silliphant’s script

Must See?
Yes, as a gripping thriller.

Categories

  • Cult Movie
  • Good Show
  • Historically Relevant

Links:

Last Voyage, The (1960)

Last Voyage, The (1960)

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“I have never lost a ship and I’m not losing this one!”

Synopsis:
While travelling on an ocean liner to Tokyo, a man (Robert Stack), his wife (Dorothy Malone), and their child (Tammy Marihugh) find their lives in danger as the ship begins to fail, and the captain (George Sanders) refuses to acknowledge the gravity of the situation. Thankfully, a pragmatic engineer (Edmond O’Brien) attempts to take charge, while a sailor (Woody Strode) supports Stack in rescuing his wife from being pinned under twisted iron.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • At Sea
  • Disaster Flicks
  • Dorothy Malone Films
  • Edmond O’Brien Films
  • George Sanders Films
  • Robert Stack Films
  • Woody Strode Films

Review:
This chock-a-block disaster flick — inspired by both the sinking of the SS Andrea Doria in 1956, and of course the Titanic — was filmed onboard the soon-to-be-scrapped SS Ile de France, and apparently provided a seriously dangerous experience for much of the cast and crew. The storyline is notable for getting to the disaster itself almost immediately, with very little time spent on character development; the only family we follow (Stack, Malone, and Marihugh) takes center stage alongside the ongoing drama of the captain and his increasingly distressed crew.

Stack and Malone — having previously co-starred in Douglas Sirk’s Written on the Wind (1956) and The Tarnished Angels (1957) — make a natural couple, though their plight is one of pure survival; Malone, especially, is put through the wringer, spending the majority of the film trapped, disheveled, hysterical, contemplating suicide, and/or nearly drowning:

As her heroic savior, Strode was apparently cast in a “colorblind” fashion, but his race inevitably heightens narrative tensions as we wonder if or when racist concerns and stereotypes will emerge:

Meanwhile, O’Brien is justifiably outraged throughout much of the film:

… due to Sanders playing yet another variation on A Man You Simply Loathe. His Captain Adams is infuriating to watch — not just because his laissez-faire attitude is wantonly killing people, but because he truly doesn’t care, surrounds himself with yes-men, and won’t listen to reason from those around him who understand the gravity of the situation much better than he does (flashback to 2020, anyone?):

Married couple Andrew and Virginia Stone (who wrote, produced, directed, and edited the film) unfortunately chose to incorporate an unnecessary, distracting voiceover throughout the movie, provided by George Furness:

She has an appointment with the scrap-yard – but it’s an appointment she will never keep – for this is the last voyage…

However, there’s enough action and disaster here to satisfy those who enjoy this type of non-stop, heart-pounding thriller.


Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

  • Truly impressive “special effects” and action sequences

Must See?
No, though fans of disaster flicks will of course want to check it out.

Links:

Madame Bovary (1934)

Madame Bovary (1934)

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“I can’t bear to look at him — I hate him!”

Synopsis:
A woman (Valentine Tessier) married to a dull country doctor (Pierre Renoir) has an affair with a womanizer (Fernand Fabre), then with a law student (Daniel Lecourtois), all while borrowing excessive amounts of money from a lender (Le Vigan) who eventually demands to be paid.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • French Films
  • Historical Drama
  • Infidelity
  • Jean Renoir Films

Review:
Peary lists 20 out of 30 sound-era films by French auteur Jean Renoir in his GFTFF, including this relatively early entry in his oeuvre — the second cinematic adaptation of Gustave Flaubert’s once-scandalous novel Madame Bovary (later filmed by Vincente Minnelli in 1949 with Jennifer Jones). Tessier (in her early 40s) seems a bit old to be playing young Emma, but nicely portrays her consternation at finding herself in a marriage which offers her no satisfaction whatsoever.

Since I’m not a fan of Flaubert’s novel (or Emma Bovary herself), I can’t speak to personal appreciation or enjoyment of the storyline — but Renoir’s strong directorial hand is in continuous evidence, making it at the very least visually interesting.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

  • Fine direction by Renoir

  • Atmospheric cinematography

Must See?
No, unless you’re curious.

Links:

Pretty in Pink (1986)

Pretty in Pink (1986)

Comments 1 comment

“You don’t understand that it has nothing at all to do with you.”

Synopsis:
When a teenager (Molly Ringwald) living with her unemployed dad (Harry Dean Stanton) falls for a rich boy (Andrew McCarthy), she seeks support from her quirky boss (Annie Potts) and her lifelong friend “Duckie” (Jon Cryer), who is hurt that Andie (Ringwald) isn’t interested in a romantic relationship with him instead.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Class Relations
  • Cross-Class Romance
  • Father and Child
  • High School
  • Love Triangle
  • Teenagers

Review:
John Hughes’ third and final collaboration with Molly Ringwald — after Sixteen Candles (1984) and The Breakfast Club (1985) — was this film (directed by Howard Deutch) in which Ringwald once again plays a savvy teenager making her way through the complexities of adolescence and romance.

At its core, this is a story about class relations — characters literally live “across the tracks” from one another — as epitomized by the unbearably snobbish, white-suited Steff (James Spader):

… and his bullying girlfriend Kate (Emily Longstreth, standing here next to Gina Gershon):

Meanwhile, McCarthy represents someone trying to navigate both sides of the coin:

… though truthfully, he simply comes across like a bland wet blanket. Much more colorful — if intentionally annoying — is Jon Cryer as Andie’s lovesick friend:

… while Annie Potts steals every scene she’s in as Andie’s slightly-older boss and friend; the sequence in which she reminisces about her prom is my favorite in the entire movie:

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

  • Tak Fujimoto’s vibrant cinematography
  • Molly Ringwald as Andie
  • Annie Potts as Iona
  • Jon Cryer as Duckie

Must See?
No, though of course John Hughes fans will consider it a must.

Links:

Jim Thorpe — All American (1951)

Jim Thorpe — All American (1951)

Comments 1 comment

“Tonight we pay recognition to a man who had more than a brief moment — a man who, during the past half-century, has carved a permanent place for himself in all our hearts.”

Synopsis:
Award-winning Native American athlete Jim Thorpe (Burt Lancaster) marries his college sweetheart (Phyllis Thaxter) and enjoys a successful career under the tutelage of “Pop” Warner (Charles Bickford) — including setting numerous records at the 1912 Olympics — but experiences a rapid decline after the death of his beloved son.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Biopics
  • Burt Lancaster Films
  • Charles Bickford Films
  • Football
  • Michael Curtiz Films
  • Native Americans
  • Olympics
  • Sports

Review:
Michael Curtiz directed this engaging biopic about Native American athlete and Olympic gold medalist Jim Thorpe, whose career trajectory and personal life were filled with both triumphs and tragedies. As the film opens, we see restless young Thorpe (Billy Gray) being convinced by his kind father (Nestor Paiva) to return to school:

“You don’t see nothing but a boy’s world. That’s all you’ll ever see here on the reservation… You can try to make something of yourself — be something! [You can be] whatever you want to be, boy; it’s all in the books, and the books are in the schools.”

Next we see grown Thorpe studying at the notorious Carlisle Indian Industrial School, where he quickly demonstrates his mettle as an extraordinary runner and track-and-field star (Lancaster is truly impressive performing his own athletic stunts here).

Soon Thorpe meets and falls for a young woman (Thaxter):

… who is also being wooed by a star football player (Steve Cochran):

… thus leading Thorpe to attempt (and succeed in!) that sport as well. Meanwhile, Thorpe wows the entire world by setting new records at the Olympics:

… only to face a major setback when his awards are rescinded based on a ridiculous technicality. He rallies at the birth of his son, but when unimaginable tragedy hits once again, Thorpe never really recovers.

The screenplay simplifies Thorpe’s complicated personal life — he was married three times and had eight children, though only one of each are shown here — but we don’t mind this narrative elision given how powerfully we understand the depths to which he sinks.

Perhaps most impressive is the attempt made to present Native Americans’ perspectives on navigating through their newly colonized land — though we must also suffer through obnoxiously stereotypical “Indian music” pounding on the soundtrack:

Regardless, this film offers a rare glimpse into the lives of Native Americans at the turn of the 20th century, and serves as a valuable semi-historical document about an enormously gifted athlete.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

  • Burt Lancaster as Jim Thorpe
  • Fine direction and cinematography

Must See?
Yes, once, for its historical significance.

Categories

  • Historically Relevant

Links: