This Is Cinerama

This Is Cinerama is cool for being what it is: the first Cinerama movie. The views of the United States are the best part, and so the second half of the movie is much better than the first. I was also into the Venice sequence. But all of the indoor sequences are really boring, I’m afraid. And this film’s US nationalism is also distasteful. The lengthy Cypress Grove, Florida sequence is another of the film’s fun highlights. 

(As for the movie’s restoration, the work on The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm is far superior to what they’ve done with This Is Cinerama. I’m interested to see what the restoration looks like for South Seas Adventure, which I’ll check out at some point in the future.)

Navajo (1952)

I don't know what this ridiculous tagline on the poster for Navajo is supposed to be about with this boy and his eyes on my heart, but this is a really lovely movie. It begins a little dry and boring, but by the end of the film (which is no more than 70 minutes long), I was seriously worried about the characters, and the film took a dangerous, exciting turn. Even more notable is the absolutely gorgeous cinematography. 

Oh, I have read in several places that this is a documentary. It absolutely is not. It's not even  "documentary-style". This is a narrative feature about a young Navajo boy learning to deal with loss, learning to speak with his ancestors, and learning compassion.

I watched this movie via the Cave of Forgotten Films.

The White Reindeer

Richly atmospheric and spooky, Erik Blomberg's film Valkoinen Peura (The White Reindeer) is beautifully shot and an extraordinary achievement (Blomberg was a cinematographer before he was a director). It takes place in the Finnish Lapland, far, far north, and it adapts a Sami folktale into a quietly troubling monster movie. I watched this with my unseen movie club, and this is a weird, little-seen gem.

Affair in Trinidad (1952)

Affair in Trinidad is a kind of reboot of Gilda six years later, with a similar location, a similar antagonistic relationship between Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth, and a similar sinister film noir plot. None of the magic is gone. This is the best way to reboot. Affair in Trinidad is sexy and fun and mysterious. I had a great time. Hayworth does two night club numbers – both of them are sensational.

And the gowns. They're by Jean-Louis and they're stunning. Of course, Hayworth is wearing them, so that doesn't do any harm at all, but Jean-Louis is doing superb work in the early 1950s. Affair in Trinidad also boasts an excellent performance by Juanita Moore! It's so good.

The Sniper (1952)

The Sniper is a very strange movie in many ways. In the first place we follow a serial killer for most of the movie. We watch him lose his mind and fight with his own murderous tendencies, we watch him try to stop himself from killing. And then we watch him kill many times. The camera even occasionally takes the point of view of the rifle – of course it does.

The other thing that is very interesting about The Sniper is its emphasis on a kind of delinquent mapping of the abnormal person who can kill, the case history that can predict who will become violent. This is the kind of thing Foucault was describing in his lectures in the early 1970s. And then there is the ending – which doesn't end with a shootout, just a crying serial killer, sitting on his bed and clutching his rifle. It's a very strange end for a crime film like this.

God Grant Me the Serenity...

For reasons that defy all logic, I watched two movies by Daniel Mann about alcoholism in a row. Come Back, Little Sheba and I'll Cry Tomorrow were released in 1952 and 1955, respectively, and both were also released on December 25th of their respective years.

I was honestly stunned by how good the mid-century play-cum-film Come Back, Little Sheba is. William Inge wrote the original play, and I have always made fun of William Inge's particular brand of Americana (I have been particularly derisive about Bus Stop, if I'm honest, and I take none of it back.) But Come Back, Little Sheba is good; it is a stunning portrait of small-town terror caused by prejudices and mistakes and awful suburban malaise.

Furthermore, Shirley Booth is extraordinary in this film. Burt Lancaster is, of course, excellent as well, but Booth's performance, which won the Oscar in 1953, is a powerhouse of Method work. It's just fantastic.

I got lucky and came across this film the night before it rotated off of the Criterion Channel, and I was blown away. It would deserve to be watched if only for Booth's brilliant performance, but it's also just a really great script.

And then the next night I somehow came across I'll Cry Tomorrow and watched it. (Apparently Susan Hayward, once she was hired to play the main part, hired Daniel Mann to direct. I'll Cry Tomorrow is good.

This story was filmed on location... – this film promises – inside a woman's soul! Dear lord.

This is a preachy film, of course (it is about alcoholism in 1955, of course), but it is well made. And Susan Hayward is at her absolute best. Otherwise I'll Cry Tomorrow is a typical sort of thing. Susan Hayward can sing, though! It's crazy because she was dubbed for so many movies, and yet her voice is really lovely. Jo Van Vleet is really good in this too. I am very surprised she wasn't nominated for supporting actress for this movie. (She won a year later for East of Eden, so I guess it's water under the bridge, but still!)

The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)

I am not totally sure why I was as bored by The Snows of Kilimanjaro as I was, but it struck me as an extraordinarily static film with only melodramatic content. Its much vaunted cinematography and its beautiful images of Africa and its fauna were only there for decoration, and what they were decorating wasn't interesting at all. It's a shame, too, because I basically Ava Gardner is perfect in everything. Truth be told, she is also great in this, but the film is worthless.