NFR Project: 'An American in Paris' (1951)

 

NFR Project: “An American in Paris”

Dir: Vincente Minelli

Scr: Alan Jay Lerner

Pho: Alfred Gilks, John Alton

Ed: Adrienne Fazan

Premiere: Oct. 4, 1951

113 min.

Was this picture really better than A Place in the Sun? A Streetcar Named Desire? Academy voters thought so, for they awarded this film with Best Picture in 1952, as well as with Oscars for best screenplay, score, cinematography, art direction, and set design. It even won a special Oscar for its choreography.

However, this film won plaudits on the strength of its final, 17-minute dance sequence, one of the most elaborate and expensive in MGM history. That consummate musical director Vincente Minnelli was at the helm, and his finishing extravaganza in this film is rightly considered his signature film creation.

The film is really more of a tone poem than a story. It takes place (natch) in Paris, where Gene Kelly plays Jerry Mulligan, an aspiring ex-G.I. who seeks fame and fortune as a painter. (Don’t look at his work too closely – it’s not that good.) He lives cheaply in a garret, next to his pal, aspiring composer Adam (Oscar Levant, playing his usual acerbic-friend role). Jerry captures the attention of rich cultural maven Milo Roberts (Nina Foch), who wants to sponsor him as a patron – and to get in his pants as well.

However, Jerry sees a young girl, Lise (Leslie Caron), in a café and falls for her immediately. Through persistence, he captures her heart. She, however, is engaged to the older musical star Henri (Georges Guetary). Can the two find happiness together? The script is gossamer-thin, and the ending is a foregone conclusion. What animates the story are the musical sequences imbedded within it, featuring the music of George and Ira Gershwin.

The initial dance numbers are very small-scale and informal, not requiring agreat deal of directorial thought. Gene taps for children and for his pal. Levant gets a bravura showpiece of him performing the final movement of Gershwin’s Concerto in F – in which he plays not only the piano but the conductor, violinists, and the appreciative audience as well. Kelly and Caron have a tender pas de deux by the banks of the Seine.

The final sequence is the highlight of the film. Set to Gershwin’s “An American in Paris,” the extended ballet features Kelly and Caron cavorting among a crowd of elaborately dressed dancers who move through sets designed after the paintings of French artists such as Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec. Explosively vibrant, the exuberant passage sums up the themes of the film, focusing on Kelly’s yearnings for Caron.

Gene Kelly’s inimitable dancing takes the spotlight, of course; Caron’s ballet training makes her an ideal partner. The massive resources of major film studios made such a film possible.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Day the Earth Stood Still.

NFR Project: 'The African Queen' (1951)

 

NFR Project: “The African Queen”

Dir: John Huston

Scr: James Agee, John Huston

Pho: Jack Cardiff

Ed: Ralph Kemplen

Premiere: Dec. 26, 1951

105 min.

Do you see how John Huston’s name keeps popping in the National Film Registry?

There’s a reason for that. He knew how to tell a story on film. A versatile artist, he changed his style from movie to movie. There are few distinctive Huston-isms in his movies; Huston is always taking a direct, clear path through whatever material he has decided to master. He gives the story what it needs.

He gives the actors what they need, too. Huston's characters define themselves through action, but Huston always gives the players time to work out their feelings on the screen. Thus, he garners many acting awards for his performers. For this film, Bogart won his only Oscar.

The tale is, on its surface, simple. Take two contrasting natures, put them in a life-or-death situation, and watch what happens. A man and a woman take a perilous boat trip. She’s “respectable,” he a bit of a lout. They fall in love. Do they make it to their destination?

It is 1914. In German East Africa, a middle-aged brother (Robert Morley) and sister, Rose Sayer (Katherine Hepburn) run a mission. Bringing them their mail and supplies by his little steamboat The African Queen is Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart), one of those incessantly wearied by feeling put upon, washed with the genial glaze of the alcoholic. A long early scene shows the three interacting awkwardly together. Charlie’s lack of manners, and self-consciousness, contrast comically with the siblings’ genteel aspirations transplanted to the African bush.

World War I begins. The Germans attack, the village is burned, the brother is killed. Charlie returns to aid the situation. He buries the brother, and takes Rose with him on the boat.

They begin to travel down the Ulanga-Bora Rivers to freedom. That the two are a mismatched pair is to be expected. She is prim and proper, he is rough and coarse. Charlie explains that the Germans command a warship on the lake that is their destination. Rose has an inspired idea. Taking the supplies on the Queen, they could fashion torpedoes and ram into the side of the German warship.

Charlie reluctantly agrees, and down they go, shooting the rapids. Rose loves it. Charlie angrily refuses to continue, and berates Rose as he drinks heavily. She rebels, and pours out all his alcohol as he sleeps it off, leaving a trail of empty bottles in their wake. “A man takes a drop once in a while, it’s only human nature,” argues Charlie. “Nature,” replies Rose, “Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above.”

Once again, Charlie gives in. They sail successfully past a German fort, and joyfully embrace – which turns into a clinch. It is implied that they sleep together. They go down a second set of rapids, more destructive than the first. They are forced to fix the ship’s drive shaft and propeller blade. The fight their way through mosquitoes, and pull the boat through a leech-infested swampy part of the river.

Finally, they make it to their destination, and prepare to ram the German ship. However, in a night storm the boat sinks. Charlie and Rose are picked up by the Germans, who are intent on hanging them. They ask to be married first. The captain of the German boat does so. Suddenly, the Queen surfaces and drfits into the German ship, exploding and  sinking it. Charlie and Rose survive, and swim off together.

This was Huston’s (and Bogart’s and Hepburn’s) first color film, but he keeps his colors muted, working in greens and grays. There is extensive location shooting in Africa, combined with some excellent in-studio tank work. A little miniature work and some dummy boat work complete the effort. Given the excellent script and the sheer watchability of Bogart and Hepburn, the result is a compulsively engaging film.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: An American in Paris.

NFR Project: 'Ace in the Hole' (1951)

 

NFR Project: “Ace in the Hole”

Dir: Billy Wilder

Scr: Billy Wilder, Lesser Samuels, Walter Newman

Pho: Charles Lang

Ed: Doane Harrison, Arthur P. Schmidt

Premiere: June 14, 1951

111 min.

In 1949, director/screenwriter Billy Wilder’s long and highly successful collaboration with screenwriter Charles Brackett ended. Together, they created classics such Ninotchka, Ball of Fire, The Lost Weekend, and Sunset Boulevard. His first project after the end of their partnership was this film, a corrosive and cynical examination of the American way of life. It failed at the box office; however, it stands up today as a great film – albeit one that’s relentlessly downbeat.

The film’s premise is based on the famous 1925 incident of Floyd Collins, whose fatal entrapment in a Kentucky cave prompted a media frenzy and won the reporter covering the event a Pulitzer Prize. Here the setting is New Mexico, and the reporter in question is Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas), a cynical and opportunistic newsman who’s been fired from 11 different papers and finds himself washed up with a job at the Albuquerque Sun-Bulletin.

Tatum prays for a story that will send him back into the limelight. He gets his prayer answered when pothunter Leo Minosa gets trapped in a cave-in at the site of an ancient cliff dwelling. Tatum sees the value in exploiting the story immediately. He befriends Leo, makes a deal with the crooked sheriff to cement a monopoly on the story, and begins to pump out copy.

Soon thousands of the curious are drawn to the site. Tatum deliberately delays the rescue operations so that he can make more of the story. He convinces Leo’s slatternly wife (Jan Sterling) to play the part of the bereaved spouse. Soon Leo’s roadside cantina and store starts raking in the bucks. Admission is charged to visit the site. A carnival sets up. Musicians make up songs about Leo, and people flock to buy the sheet music. The out-of-town papers struggle to get the story, but Tatum has a lock on it, quitting the Sun-Bulletin and making $1,000 a day. Everyone around poor Leo is on the take; Tatum is the ringleader. It is implied that he sleeps with Leo’s wife.

But then Leo sickens. The delayed rescue operation won’t get to him in time to save his life. Tatum gets into a fight with Leo’s wife, who stabs him with a pair of scissors. Tatum, wounded, fetches a priest, who administers the last rites to Leo. Tatum lets the story go and Leo dies. Everyone else gets the scoop but Tatum, and he is fired. The crowd disperses; all that is left is a trash-strewn roadside. Tatum goes back to the Sun-Bulletin, where he collapses and dies.

Wilder’s take on American society is blatantly caustic. Everyone is out for their own interests. Death and danger are merely ways to attract the gruesome public’s disgusting, vulturous attention. Everything is reduced to the simple equation – what will sell the most newspapers? Douglas is ruthlessly energetic as Tatum. Character actor Porter Hall has his greatest role as the publisher with a conscience.

Nobody liked Wilder’s blunt assessment of the behavior of the masses and the news game. Later decades would bring a reevaluation of the work, acknowledging it as an unvarnished pan of American culture.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: The African Queen.