NFR Project: 'In the Street' (1948)

 

NFR Project: “In the Street”

Pho: Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb, James Agee

Ed: Helen Levitt

Premiere: 1948/1952

14/18 min.

Slice of life.

That’s the best way to describe this short film. Taken in Spanish Harlem on the island of Manhattan, it’s the work of three filmmakers who wanted to preserve the look and feel of everyday life in the New York City of their day.

The trio hit the streets, focusing on children at play, passersby, older women maintaining storefronts. The movie is black-and-white and silent; there is no narration to contextualize what we are seeing, no explanation, just plain witnessing.

This agenda-less exercise is of interest to the quiet observer, the unassuming audience member.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Letter from an Unknown Woman.

NFR Project: 'Force of Evil' (1948)

 

NFR Project: “Force of Evil”

Dir: Abraham Polonsky

Scr: Abraham Polonsky, Ira Wolfert

Pho: George Barnes

Ed: Art Seid

Premiere: Dec. 25, 1947

76 min.

It turns out the film noir could bear the weight of social commentary. Abraham Polonsky (1910-1999) wrote the screenplay for Body and Soul (1947), a popular prize-fighting picture starring John Garfield. He was then given the chance to direct as well as write. The result was Force of Evil, a thinly disguised critique of capitalism that later got its director and star in hot water with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).

The story is simple: Garfield plays a crooked lawyer, Joe Morse, who protects a crime combine that runs the numbers racket in New York City. One of the smaller “banks” that run the numbers is owned by his older brother Leo (Thomas Gomez in his greatest role).

Joe and his gangster boss Tucker (Roy Roberts) come up with a scheme to bankrupt the smaller betting parlors so that everyone has to do their gambling through them. This ruthless corporate consolidation means that all the little players squeezed out, including Leo. Joe tries to get Leo to take a position in Tucker’s organization, but Leo refuses.

The scheme works, and soon the police and a rival gang come down hard on Leo. Meanwhile, it becomes apparent that Joe is being surveilled by the government. Joe packs up some cash and a gun and prepares to leave town. Meanwhile, Leo is tricked into meeting an informant at a restaurant, where a rival gang swoops in and kidnaps him, killing his bookkeeper at the same time.

Joe finds out, and rushes to Tucker’s, where he finds Tucker making a deal with the gangster that kidnapped Leo. The rival gangster Ficco reveals that Leo has been murdered and dumped under the George Washington Bridge. Joe lifts the receiver on a tapped phone, allowing the law to hear Ficco confess that his men killed Leo and the bookkeeper. A gun battle breaks out; Tucker and Ficco are killed. Joe leaves and goes to find his brother’s body, then turns himself in to the police.

There is a slight romantic plot between Joe and a young secretary, Doris, but the film is concerned with the mechanics of what is basically a hostile corporate takeover. Crooks will fix the numbers game to get their way; nothing matters but the expansion and domination of the primary criminal enterprise in the city.

Garfield is stellar as Joe, as the film tracks his disillusionment to the bitter end. Joe’s world is nasty, dark, and bristling with hidden weapons that come into play at the end of the film. Crooks are merely shadows of the ruthlessness and disregard for human feeling of the stock market. Money and the system of its distribution inherently corrupt anyone involved with it.

There is a lot of location shooting in New York; Joe’s office is close to Wall Street and the parallels between legitimate banks and numbers banks is made clear. The gangsters are after the cash flow and nothing human is factored into their machinations. Joe gets wise to himself – but too late to save his brother.

In 1951, Polonsky and Garfield were summoned before HUAC but refused to “name names” of American Communists; both were blacklisted. Garfield died of a heart attack at the age f 39 in 1952. Polonsky wrote under pseudonyms until 1959. Never again would Hollywood let someone with anti-capitalist sentiments get behind a movie camera.

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

NFR Project: 'Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein' (1948)

 

NFR Project: “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein”

Dir: Charles Barton

Scr: Robert Lees, Frederic I. Rinaldo, John Grant

Pho: Charles Van Enge

Ed: Frank Gross

Premiere: June 1948

82 min.

It’s not their best film, but it’s their most memorable. It contains none of the wordplay routines for which they were famous. The duo was hostile to the whole concept of the film. They had just completed their 17^th film in six years; the country was seemingly tired of them.

But this film made an enormous amount of money for Universal; supposedly it “saved” the studio. The combination of horror and comedy proved to be a potent concoction. People went nuts about Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were the best-known comedy duo between the reigns of Laurel and Hardy and Martin and Lewis. Lou was the roly-poly, mischievous little comedian; Bud was the tall, thin straight man. They had impeccable timing together, and rose to fame in 1938, when they did their famous “Who’s on First?” routine on the radio. Soon they had their own radio show, and a lucrative film contract.

By 1948, their humor was wearing thin. Their radio show was canceled and it looked like they were going to stop making movies. Then this film came along and revived their fortunes, leading to more movies, a TV show, and general renown.

In the film, Lou and Bud are Wilbur and Chick, two baggage clerks in Florida. A museum owner ships two crates through them – crates that contain Dracula (Bela Lugosi) and Frankenstein’s Monster (Glenn Strange). Larry Talbot, the Wolf Man (Lon Chaney Jr.) tries to persuade the duo that Dracula plans to control Frankenstein a take over the world, and that he must be stopped.

Chick is skeptical, but Wilbur is exposed to the monsters and reacts in humorous panic. “Ch-Ch-Ch-CHIIIIIIIICK!” he exclaims frequently. By the time Chick shows up, the monsters are gone. This continues throughout the film. Meanwhile, a sexy surgeon (Lenore Aubert) plans to take Wilbur’s brain and put it into the Monster to make him more docile. Wilbur, being a moron, has a perfectly susceptible brain.

What follows is an up-and-down story of chases and close calls. Chick and Larry set out to save Wilbur. The good guys go up against the bad guys and defeat them – Dracula, the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein are all destroyed. A final gag featuring the Invisible Man (voiced by Vincent Price) closes things out. It is rather sad to see the Universal monsters used as punch lines.

If you are an Abbott and Costello fan, this film’s for you. If not . . . this film will not change your mind about them. The duo would go on to create many more “Meets” films; Lou’s stammering cowardice and Bud’s cynical pragmatism would carry them through these increasingly poor films.

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

NFR Project: Cab Calloway's home movies (1948-1951)

 

NFR Project: Cab Calloway’s home movies

1948-1951

Once again, an entry for which I have practically no data, and no footage I can find to review. Evidently the famous bandleader took both black-and-white and color home movies of his home in Long Beach, New York and of his travels around the Western hemisphere during the 1948-1951 period. These film undoubtedly shed light on the life of a Black performer in the mid-20^th Century.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.

NFR Project: 'The Way of Peace' (1947)

 

NFR Project: “The Way of Peace”

Dir: Frank Tashlin

Scr: Frank Tashlin

Pho: Wah Ming Chang

Ed: Stuart O’Brien

Premiere: April 23, 1947

18 min.

This short puppet animation was commissioned by the American Lutheran Church. It sought to inculcate Christian values in its viewers. Frank Tashlin, its director, started out as an animator; he would shortly move into making live-action comedy features, many starring Jerry Lewis.

The movie tells a theological pocket story of mankind – how man was once one with God, and how that relationship has been destroyed by people putting up walls between themselves and Godlike attributes such as justice and mercy. It retails the story of man exploiting and mistreating his fellow man.

The movie ends with a prolonged sequence showing the world destroyed by atomic missiles. This pessimistic conclusion is meant to serve as a warning. The dangers of atomic combat were just beginning to sink into the collective consciousness, and the anxiety-provoking spectacle of cities destroyed forms an unsettling coda to the project.

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

NFR Project: 'Out of the Past' (1947)

 

NFR Project: “Out of the Past”

Dir: Jacques Tourneur

Scr: “Geoffrey Holmes” (Daniel Mainwaring), James M. Cain, Frank Fenton

Pho: Nicholas Musuraca

Ed: Samuel E. Beetley

Premiere: Nov. 25, 1947

97 min.

This is the hardest of all hard-boiled film noirs, with crackling dialogue, plenty of angst, and the most impassive hero of the genre – the great Robert Mitchum.

The incredibly strong script, combined with the talent of director Jacques Tourneur, son of the great silent director Maurice Tourneur, makes this movie a stark meditation on greed and fear and delusion. Add to this Nicholas Musuraca’s exquisite cinematography, and you have a movie that still shines and compels, decades after its creation.

Here Mitchum plays the taciturn Jeff Bailey, a small-town gas station owner who is recognized by a passing thug and ordered to report to a crime boss, Whit Sterling (a delightfully frightening Kirk Douglas in a breakout role), we know not why. Jeff is attracted to a nice girl in town, and on their way to see Sterling he confesses to her his past.

We are swept into an extended flashback. Jeff was a private eye, hired by Sterling to track down a young woman who shot him and stole $40,000 from him. This Jeff does, traveling down to Mexico. There he finds who he is looking for – Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer). Unfortunately, he almost immediately falls in love with her. Ignoring his mission, he plans to get away with her.

Sterling surprises him in Mexico, and he barely gets free of him without revealing his alliance with Kathie. He and Kathie move to San Francisco . . . where he is spotted by his former partner, now working for Sterling. He follows them and tries to shake them down. Kathie shoots him dead. Jeff and Kathie split up and flee.

Back in the present, Jeff arrives at Sterling’s place and finds Kathie there. She claims that she had no choice but to return to Sterling, and that she couldn’t help murdering Jeff’s old partner. (She smokes; he smokes; everybody smokes in this movie, all the time. The characters are always seen through a fog of cigarette smoke.)

Scornful and bitter, Jeff takes on a job for Sterling involving stopping a blackmailer. Jeff suspects that he is being set up to take the rap for the blackmailer’s murder; he is correct. Kathie is out to eliminate him and save herself. He outfoxes Sterling and Kathie, staying one jump ahead of them, but not before Kathie guns Sterling down and blackmails Jeff into leaving with her. Jeff agrees, but maeks a phone call we are not privy to.

Jeff and Kathie are stopped by a police roadblock. Kathie realizes Jeff has called the cops on her and shoots him to death. The cops kill Kathie. The “good girl” Jeff was enamored of asks his deaf-mute employee, the Kid, if Jeff was really planning on fleeing with Kathie. The Kid lies and indicates yes, sparing her feelings.

It’s not so much the twisting of the plot that is remarkable about this film – it’s the characters. Sterling is a genial, relaxed maniac who compliments his guests in one sentence and promises them a slow, painful death with the next. Jane Greer’s Kathie is a ravishing monster – incredibly beautiful, she lies with every breath she takes, making every move only to protect herself and advance her own interests. She is the perfect femme fatale.

It’s Mitchum who anchors the film, though. His droll indifference to the lies, the schemes, the twists and turns of the other players at first seems too monotone to be believed. However, watch Mitchum’s face closely. It reveals his subtle and complex feelings and state of mind at every instant, disguised under a sleepy-eyed, sarcastic demeanor. Jeff has a sense of honor, but he is also wise to himself. In the end, he delivers himself and Kathie to the fate they deserve. He is doomed, but he is resigned to his fate.

And the dialogue! “I don’t want to die.” “Neither do I, baby, but if I have to, I’m going to die last.”

“She can’t be all bad. No one is.” “Well, she comes the closest.”

“You can never help anything, can you? You're like a leaf that the wind blows from one gutter to another.”

Jeff is so self-aware that his observations border on parody. He is bemused by everything, and makes light of all going on around him. His death is a tragedy, inevitable. All the plans the characters make come to nothing, and we are only slightly mollified by the film’s ending. Only we the audience know that at heart, Jeff was a good guy.

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

NFR Project: 'Motion Painting No. 1' (1947)

 

NFR Project: “Motion Painting No. 1”

Created by Oskar Fischinger

Premiere: 1947

This is a difficult film to tackle, as no copy exists of it to watch and analyze – at least, not online.

Fischinger was a pioneering German animator, who began to create a series of color-filled abstract pictures synchronized to classical music excerpts. He was summoned to Hollywood in 1936, and continued to create his unique offerings . . . but eventually found little support for these activities. (He worked on Disney’s Fantasia [1940], but quit due to artistic differences.) Eventually, he turned to oil painting, giving up on filmmaking except for commercial projects.

Motion Painting No. 1 was his last great independent project. He created the film by applying oil paint to Plexiglass, carefully shooting frame by frame to create a breathtakingly beautiful concoction of swirling, darting images that pulsed with the musical soundtrack, here Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. Fischinger’s obscure efforts would survive, and wound up influencing future generations of animators.

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

NFR Project: 'Miracle on 34th Street' (1947)

 

NFR Project: “Miracle on 34^th Street”

Dir: George Seaton

Scr: George Seaton, Valentine Davies

Pho: Lloyd Ahern Sr., Charles G. Clarke

Ed: Robert L. Simpson

Premiere: June 11, 1947

96 min.

It’s an enduring little fantasy picture, penned by one of Hollywood’s better screenwriters and lovingly crafted by one of its most dependable directors. It imagines what would happen if there really was a Santa Claus.

Valentine Davies was just starting out when he wrote this story, and it’s a winner. It’s Thanksgiving Day in New York City, and the Macy’s parade is about to start. The man playing Santa for the end of the parade is drunk. Macy’s employee Doris Walker (Maureen O’Hara) desperately needs someone to replace him. A jolly old stranger (Edmund Gwenn) shows up and fits the bill perfectly. Doris hires him to be Macy’s Santa in the mammoth department store.

Unfortunately this “Kris Kringle” asserts that is he really is Santa Claus. This perturbs Doris, as well as her child Susan (Natalie Wood), who has been brought up not to indulge in make-believe. Kris wins them over, even as he gets Macy’s to refer customers to other stores for presents if they don’t have what they’re looking for. It is only when Kris assaults a very un-Christmasy store psychologist that he is committed as a loony.

Lawyer Fred Gailey (John Payne) is sweet on Doris and Susan, and he decides to let Kris go to trial to prove that he is Santa Claus and that therefore he cannot be committed. Despite lots of testimony, the judge demands that an authority certify that he is the real thing.

That night, the post office sends all the letters to Santa to the courthouse. The next day, Fred has mailmen deliver sacks and sacks of mail to the judge’s desk. The judge interprets that this means that the federal government recognizes Kris as Santa Claus and sets him free. Doris and Fred get together; with Susan they find a house for sale that’s curiously close to Susan’s seemingly impossible wish for Christmas. The find Kris’ case tucked behind the front door.

The perfect little story chugs along, playing out all its premises with cheerful efficiency. Kris convinces Susan to take up make-believe and have a more childlike attitude toward life. Fred falls in love with Doris, and saves Kris. Doris finally breaks down and believes in Kris as well. By film’s end, it’s obvious that Doris, Fred, and Susan will be creating a new family together.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Motion Painting No. 1.