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Synopsis:
Jazz composer W.C. Handy (Nat “King” Cole) goes against the wishes of his religious father (Juano Hernandez) in joining forces with a dance hall singer (Eartha Kitt); meanwhile, his loyal girlfriend (Ruby Dee) waits in the wings.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• African-Americans
• Biopics
• Father and Child
• Juano Hernandez
• Morality Police
• Musicals
• Musicians
• Ruby Dee Films

Review:
This biopic about “Father of the Blues” W.C. Handy is notable for starring Nat “King” Cole in a leading role, as well as featuring many other famous black musicians (including Eartha Kitt and Cab Calloway):

… and offering up plenty of fine musical numbers. Unfortunately, Cole isn’t quite up to the task of such a major acting role; he’s clearly at his most comfortable when singing and playing the piano (a personal favorite is his rendition of “Morning Star”). The storyline, while based on facts — Handy was indeed quite religious, and his father even more so — is thin and poorly structured, with sudden-onset blindness appearing as an odd and inexplicable narrative crutch. With that said, film fanatics may still be curious to check this one out, simply for its historical value as a film with black actors in all leading roles, and for the musical performances.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Many enjoyable musical numbers
  
  

Must See?
No, though it’s worth a look for its historical relevance and the fine music.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• TCM Article

Synopsis:
Accused of participating in a murder, ex-convict Barbara Graham (Susan Hayward) awaits execution at San Quentin while the media hovers in the wings.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Biopics
• Courtroom Drama
• Ex-Cons
• Prostitutes and Gigolos
• Robert Wise Films
• Strong Females
• Susan Hayward Films

Review:
Peary doesn’t review this Oscar-nominated film in his GFTFF, but agrees with the Academy’s decision to name Hayward Best Actress of the Year in his Alternate Oscars, where he discusses her performance in depth. He writes that the picture — “which takes a strong stance against capital punishment” — “supports Graham’s innocence, contending that she was convicted in the press before her trial began”, and notes that “a major source for the strong Oscar-nominated script by Nelson Gidding and Don Makiewicz were articles written in the San Francisco Examiner by Ed Montgomery (played in the film by Simon Oakland), who first thought her guilty and then became her chief advocate.” Hayward purportedly “took the role without having read the script” because she related to Graham’s hard-scrabble upbringing and challenging adult life. Peary explains that “like Graham, who had a difficult childhood, was a target of the press, separated from her husband, and lost her child when she went to prison, Hayward was a tough woman who fought for her own survival, mostly against men (her husband, reporters, agents, judges, studio executives).”

As depicted by Hayward in this film, Graham has “volcanic energy” and is “always moving about, dancing (she loves jazz), hugging and kissing men, mingling with her wild crowd… She takes her lumps, willingly making sacrifices and taking raps for irresponsible men, even going to jail on their behalf.” Meanwhile, “because she is a woman on death row, she is big news, and is exploited unmercifully”, though she’s a “tough cookie [who] doesn’t crack”. Peary argues that while Hayward “is convincing showing the gutsy, rough side of Graham”, “some of her finest moments come when Graham calms down and speaks forthrightly to someone she is fond of”: while “all the men in the picture seem to have conspired against her” (at least “until late in the film”), she does have “some well-played, tender scenes with women”. Ultimately, as Peary argues, “Hayward’s heartfelt performance in the last few scenes makes us see the cruelty and criminality of the death penalty, as well as the lack of dignity accorded to those who are about to lose their lives.” With all that said, this isn’t an easy film to watch by any means, especially knowing Graham’s outcome from the start; I recommend watching it once for Hayward’s performance, but not feeling any obligation for a revisit.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Susan Hayward as Barbara Graham
  
• Lionel Lindon’s cinematography
  

Must See?
Yes, for Hayward’s Oscar-winning performance.

Categories

• Oscar Winner or Nominee

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• TCM Article
• TV Guide Review

Synopsis:
An earnest new doctor (Robert Donat) meets his wife (Rosalind Russell) when working and researching tuberculosis in a hard-scrabble Welsh mining town. With assistance from a friend (Rex Harrison), he soon finds himself living a more luxurious existence serving wealthier clients — but when his old friend (Ralph Richardson) suffers grave consequences from medical neglect, Donat begins to rethink his goals.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Do-Gooders
• Doctors and Nurses
• King Vidor Films
• Ralph Richardson Films
• Rex Harrison Films
• Robert Donat Films
• Rosalind Russell Films

Review:
King Vidor’s adaptation of A.J. Cronin’s semi-autobiographical novel tells a compelling tale of how easily youthful idealism can shift to settled complacency within the medical field. As noted in TCM’s article:

In many ways, The Citadel is the missing link between idealized medical biographies like The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936) and strong, socially conscious films like John Ford’s How Green Was My Valley (1941). The only reason American doctors didn’t raise a fuss over the film’s often negative view of the medical profession is probably because the story takes place in England and not the United States.

However, despite being very specifically about a doctor, The Citadel’s take-aways can easily be translated to countless other spheres. When faced with the choice between a hard-scrabble life fighting for social justice versus enjoying a career of ease and comfort, it’s hard to say how many would willingly pick the former. Donat imbues his complex role with authenticity and pathos, and Russell is admirably resolute as his loyal (and razor-sharp) wife. This one is worth a look.

Note: It’s impossible not to notice the parallels between this and the previous year’s Oscar-winning Best Picture, The Life of Emile Zola (1937), also about tensions between the comforts of fame and fighting for what’s right.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Robert Donat as Dr. Manson
  
• Rosalind Russell as Donat’s supportive wife
  
• Fine cinematography
  

Must See?
Yes, for Donat and Russell’s performances.

Categories

• Noteworthy Performance(s)
• Oscar Winner or Nominee

Links:

• IMDb entry
• TCM Article
• TV Guide Review

Synopsis:
After steadily growing fame and fortune, French author Emile Zola (Paul Muni) — enjoying a comfortable life with his loving wife (Gloria Holden) — is called to action when a Jewish captain (Joseph Schildkraut) is falsely accused of treason, and his wife (Gale Sondergaard) seeks Zola’s help.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Biopics
• Courtroom Drama
• Donald Crisp Films
• Falsely Accused
• Louis Calhern Films
• Paul Muni Films
• William Dieterle Films
• Writers

Review:
William Dieterle directed this Oscar-winning biopic about France’s most famous “naturalist” author, who gained both infamy and renewed respect after speaking out against the French government on behalf of falsely accused Jewish military captain Alfred Dreyfus. Indeed, only the first half-hour of this film is focused on Zola’s meteoric rise from a penniless artist sharing quarters with his childhood friend Paul Cezanne (Vladimir Sokoloff) to a best-selling author who appears to have “sold out” and settled into a life of comfort and riches. At this point, we abruptly switch to the Dreyfus Affair, and viewers unfamiliar with this historical travesty may well wonder what’s going on with the film’s pacing and narrative focus. Naturally, Zola steps up to save the day — where else could the story be headed? — and is appropriately honored as a hero.

Peary doesn’t discuss this movie in GFTFF, but in Alternate Oscars he admits that while “Muni was terrific” as a “man with the courage of his sometimes foolhardy convictions”, the “film [he] loved so much as a kid is quite tiresome today”, and he questions how the Academy could consider “honoring this biography in which there is no verbal mention that Alfred Dreyfus was Jewish.” Along those lines, as DVD Savant writes in his review:

At only one point in The Life of Emile Zola is Alfred Dreyfus identified as Jewish, and I’ll bet that the writers and producers of the movie had to fight to keep that reference, seen only as a fleeting word on a statistical blotter.

The script emphasizes the incompetence and corruption in the French general staff but barely touches on the heinous anti-Semitism that was at the heart of the Dreyfus affair.

I’ll agree that even a brief glimpse of the words “Religion: Jew” on a piece of paper — after which Dreyfus is accused of a crime without any evidence — remains a minor but laudible gamble on the part of the filmmakers at a time when European anti-semitism was so rampant. While the film focuses on military corruption more broadly, the point is clearly made that celebrities with pulpits should be brave enough to use them.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Paul Muni as Emile Zola
  
• Tony Gaudio’s atmospheric cinematography
  

Must See?
No, though it’s recommended for its historical importance as an Oscar-winning feature. Listed as a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary’s book.

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

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• TV Guide Review
• TCM Review
• DVD Savant Review

Synopsis:
A vaudevillian (Dan Dailey) and his wife (Betty Grable) perform together on stage until Grable becomes a mother. When she eventually decides to return to her performing career, her oldest daughter (Mona Freeman) is mortified by how their family will be perceived by her boarding school classmates.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Betty Grable Films
• Class Relations
• Dan Dailey Films
• Historical Drama
• Musicals
• Vaudeville

Review:
This innocuous turn-of-the-century musical was 20th Century Fox’s most successful movie of the year, and Grable’s highest grossing film to that point. Unfortunately, the storyline is slim to none, hinging almost exclusively on class tensions and conventions (mother once wore tights! on stage!) that don’t feel relevant today. For post-WWII Americans seeking escapism and portrayals of family cohesion, this film — featuring vivid Technicolor cinematography, enjoyable dance numbers, and a pleasing couple (Grable and Dailey) — probably fit the bill quite nicely; but it hasn’t held up particularly well for modern audiences.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Some colorful, nicely danced musical numbers
  

Must See?
No; this one is only must-see for Grable fans.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• TCM Article
• NY Times Original Review

Synopsis:
A young woman (Lina Romay) imprisoned for killing her incestuous father (Jess Franco) joins a cell with a babbling redhead (Beni Cardoso) who has gone off the deep end; a blonde (Martine Stedil) who killed her brother; and a nymphomaniac (Peggy Markoff) obsessed with Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella. Will they be able to withstand the wrath and torture of their evil female guard (Monica Swinn) and her henchmen?

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Corruption
• Jess Franco Films
• Prisoners
• S&M

Review:
Fans of the sadistic degradation on display in Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (1975) are surely the target audience of this “companion piece”, made just a few years later by exploitation-maestro Jess Franco. Franco had shown cinematic promise earlier in his career with atmospheric films such as The Awful Dr. Orloff (1962), but this kind of WIP (Women in Prison) trash is what he had reduced himself to just a decade later. Several reviewers have noted the film’s most infamous scene — a flashback shot in real-time slo-mo, which is rather morbidly fascinating to watch.

Otherwise, get your remote ready to fast-forward through this purely exploitative flick which features near-constant female nudity, gratuitous sexual violence galore, and no redeeming qualities at all (other than perhaps a brief moment of genuine female bonding and comraderie between Franco and Stedil).

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:
Nothing, unless this is what you’re into.

Must See?
Nope. Listed (appropriately) as Trash in the back of Peary’s book.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• Exploitation Retrospect Review
• Spinning Image Review

Synopsis:
A controversial fashion photographer (Faye Dunaway) known for her graphically violent and sexualized imagery begins seeing murders of her colleagues and friends take place through her mind’s eye — though no one believes her. Can a police chief (Tommy Lee Jones) help Dunaway determine the identity of the killer — who may be her jealous ex-husband (Raul Julia), her ex-con driver (Brad Dourif), or someone else entirely?

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Faye Dunaway Films
• Horror Films
• Murder Mystery
• “No One Believes Me!”
• Photographers
• Psychic Powers
• Tommy Lee Jones Films

Review:
Based on a source story and original screenplay by John Carpenter, this American giallo film is high on atmosphere but low on credibility and genuine tension. The potentially intriguing psychic angle — Dunaway sees murders in her head from the unseen killer’s point of view — is used simply to show she might be going off the deep end, and the potential suspects are too broadly drawn to be realistic contenders. Meanwhile, we’re meant to engage with a broader exploration of whether violent, sexually exploitative imagery somehow has an impact on society or vice versa — and/or might be fueling the killer’s moralistic rage — but it all comes across as simply an excuse to show off models in various states of undress, as Dunaway and her assistant (Rene Auberjonois) offer prissily precise feedback on stylized details. The ending comes out of nowhere, leaving viewers not only full of empty imagery but lack of any narrative satisfaction. And the romance between Dunaway and Jones? Well, let’s just call it contrived.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Fine cinematography and on-location shooting in New York
  

Must See?
Nope. You can skip this one.

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• Spinning Image Review
• Roger Ebert’s Review
• Moria Review

Synopsis:
A housekeeper (Ethel Waters) cares for a sickly young boy (Brandon de Wilde) and his 12-year-old cousin Frankie (Julie Harris), who wants nothing more than to join in the excitement and romance of her brother’s (Arthur Franz) marriage to his fiancee (Nancy Gates).

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• African-Americans
• Coming of Age
• Deep South
• Fred Zinnemann Films
• Julie Harris Films
• Play Adaptation

Review:
Carson McCullers adapted her own 1946 novel into a Broadway play, which was then turned into this screen adaptation, directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring much of the original cast. It’s notable both for the poignant screenplay — Frankie’s high-pitch coming-of-age angst is beautifully captured — and for 26-year-old Harris’s performance as a gangly 12 year old, which some considered a challenging translation to the scrutiny of the camera (though I think she remains sufficiently believable). However, what struck me most upon recent viewing is the richness of Waters’ role and performance; as noted in TCM’s excerpt from Donald Bogle’s book Blacks in American Film & Television: An Illustrated Encyclopedia:

“… there is more here of black lives in disarray and in control than in most films of the period: it’s hard to think of any other movie of that time in which black actors had a chance to relate so tenderly and sensitively with one another.”

While “some viewers may be put off by the fact that [Waters’] character Berenice expends most of her energies and wisdom on two white children”, she is a rich and full character in her own right, given a complicated past and a challenging current context — as well as the movie’s final image and words.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Ethel Waters as Bernice
  
• Julie Harris as Frankie
  
• Fine direction and cinematography
  

Must See?
Yes, for the strong lead performances — especially Waters’.

Categories

• Noteworthy Performance(s)

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• TCM Article
• DVD Talk Review

Synopsis:
In 19th century Paris, a sickly courtesan (Greta Garbo) whose bills are paid by a wealthy baron (Henry Daniell) falls in love with a young admirer (Robert Taylor) whose father (Lionel Barrymore) fears for his reputation.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Cross-Class Romance
• Feminism and Women’s Issues
• George Cukor Films
• Greta Garbo Films
• Henry Daniell Films
• Historical Drama
• Lionel Barrymore Films
• Morality Police
• Robert Taylor Films
• Star-Crossed Lovers

Review:
Greta Garbo inhabited one of her most iconic roles as the title character in this adaptation (by George Cukor) of Alexandre Dumas fils’ novel about the moral policing of love in a class-driven landscape of sexual politics. Garbo is continually reminded by her bawdy advisor (Laura Hope Crews):

… that earning her keep through charm and allure while living in high fashion must be her aim — but when Taylor falls head over heels in love with the consumption-ridden Garbo and the couple experience an idyllic summer together in the countryside, Garbo knows her goals for life (albeit the limited amount she has left) have shifted irrevocably. Only her complete devotion to Taylor can convince her to give him up — supposedly for his own good, though that proves to be utterly wrong-headed on every count. Cukor nicely directs numerous scenes of the couple reveling in each other’s company:

It’s easy to believe in their mutual infatuation, and (of course) challenging to watch Camille sacrificing her future on behalf of propriety — though viewers should rest assured that this adaptation allows the lovers a sweet form of reconciliation.

Note: Watch for an unexpectedly powerful and startling moment, as Daniell responds to Garbo’s request for $40,000 to cover her expenses.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Greta Garbo as Camille
  
• Lush cinematography
  

Must See?
Yes, for Garbo’s Oscar-nominated performance. Listed as a film with Historical Importance and a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary’s book.

Categories

• Noteworthy Performance(s)
• Oscar Winner or Nominee

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

Links:

• IMDb entry
• TCM Articles
• FilmSite Review
• Tired Old Queen at the Movies Video Review