Saturday, June 28, 2008
Once I found out that Robert Mitchum starred in a John Huston movie, I couldn't resist and immediately put it on my queue. But I had been watching an unbalanced number of Huston movies at that time, and didn't feel that was in the spirit of my K2K, so I held off.
It's similar in its broad outlines to Huston's The African Queen (religious woman and uncivilized man go on WW2 adventure together), so to a certain degree it was probably trying to cash in on the success of that film. Still, Huston changes up things enough so that it doesn't feel like a rehash, and explores some very different themes. This is less of a comedy and more of a drama, and this time around the woman is a nun, making the burgeoning attraction between the man and the woman a lot more awkward. And that leads to a touch not often seen in these kinds of movies, but one that I always appreciate, where the two characters decide not to shack up. It's refreshing to see a movie where they don't contrive to kept the boy and the girl together in the end.
Showing posts with label John Huston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Huston. Show all posts
Monday, June 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Key Largo
Sunday, March 30, 2008
If there's one thing I've really been fucking up on my K2K, it's been trying to watch a broad range of movies. Instead, I keep falling into my usual nerd trap of obsessing over one actor, or director or genre or whatever. So here's another John Huston / Humphrey Bogart collaboration.
It's another pretty good tough guy flick, although I saw it under less than ideal conditions and maybe I would have liked it more in other circumstances. This one has the benefit of featuring Edward G. Robinson playing an evil bastard. In a nice, odd detail, they introduce his character sitting in a bathtub with a fan blowing on him.
This one is less un-PC than some of the other Huston films I've seen, and it in fact tries to shed a positive light on the native American characters. But they are also kind of relegated to plot device and victim roles, and it comes off as a little condescending. But it's a huge step above Bogart slapping Petter Lorre around in The Maltese Falcon because he's gay.
I wonder if this one had a different ending originally. There's a lot of talk about risking one's life to save others, and Bogart's character is reluctant to do so until the very end. He gets plugged during the final shootout, so I figured it was going to end with him dying nobly to save all the others. But then the film ends with him wounded, but alive and steering his boat back to Key Largo. Feels a little like something the studio might have insisted upon.
If there's one thing I've really been fucking up on my K2K, it's been trying to watch a broad range of movies. Instead, I keep falling into my usual nerd trap of obsessing over one actor, or director or genre or whatever. So here's another John Huston / Humphrey Bogart collaboration.
It's another pretty good tough guy flick, although I saw it under less than ideal conditions and maybe I would have liked it more in other circumstances. This one has the benefit of featuring Edward G. Robinson playing an evil bastard. In a nice, odd detail, they introduce his character sitting in a bathtub with a fan blowing on him.
This one is less un-PC than some of the other Huston films I've seen, and it in fact tries to shed a positive light on the native American characters. But they are also kind of relegated to plot device and victim roles, and it comes off as a little condescending. But it's a huge step above Bogart slapping Petter Lorre around in The Maltese Falcon because he's gay.
I wonder if this one had a different ending originally. There's a lot of talk about risking one's life to save others, and Bogart's character is reluctant to do so until the very end. He gets plugged during the final shootout, so I figured it was going to end with him dying nobly to save all the others. But then the film ends with him wounded, but alive and steering his boat back to Key Largo. Feels a little like something the studio might have insisted upon.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
High Sierra
Friday, March 7, 2008
This is a reasonably entertaining early Humphrey Bogart movie, made just before he got big, co-written by the great John Huston. It's a tough guy crime movie with a few unfortunate cheesy elements (like the cute dog) and an offensive black stereotype (seems like all the old Bogart/Huston movies had some un-PC element, be it racism, homophobia, sexism, etc.), and a really bad ending that drags on for too long. Still, worth a watch if you like these kinds of movies for the stuff that does work, especially Bogart's performance.
This is a reasonably entertaining early Humphrey Bogart movie, made just before he got big, co-written by the great John Huston. It's a tough guy crime movie with a few unfortunate cheesy elements (like the cute dog) and an offensive black stereotype (seems like all the old Bogart/Huston movies had some un-PC element, be it racism, homophobia, sexism, etc.), and a really bad ending that drags on for too long. Still, worth a watch if you like these kinds of movies for the stuff that does work, especially Bogart's performance.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Across the Pacific
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
When John Huston is on his game, he doesn't fuck around. For his directorial debut, he made The Maltese Falcon, which is not only my favorite detective movie of all time, but also probably my favorite tough-guy movie. The style and the character/performance of Sam Spade pretty much set the stage for every private eye movie to follow... almost all movie private eyes are either Spade clones, or deliberately unlike Spade. He is the epitome of the movie detective: a sleazy hardass with a personal moral code. Only Spade is way more of a bastard than other movies usually have the guts to make their lead.
So, following up on Falcon's success, he reunited with half the cast (Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor and Sydney Greenstreet), and made a fun, relatively lightweight, sexist, racist spy-thriller about Bogart trying to stop an evil Japanese conspiracy while on a pleasure cruise.
Falcon is a pretty hard act to follow, so it's no surprise that this doesn't come close to living up to it. But I'm happy to report that it's still a pretty entertaining movie, maybe a little disposable, but the (obvious) chemistry of the cast goes a long way to helping it along.
I said it was racist, and I'm pretty sure it is, because every single damn Japanese person in the cast turns out to be part of the evil conspiracy, like it's The Wicker Man on a cruise ship. But at the same time, earlier scenes seem to make a genuine (if not an entirely insightful) attempt at showing respect to some Japanese customs and attitudes... maybe Huston is trying to show that he's not racist, I guess, but when all the Japanese turn out to be evil spies it kind of undercuts any earlier attempts at diplomacy.
Or maybe, just maybe, all the earlier stuff is just so Huston can mock pussy liberals who would be offended by blatantly demonizing the Japanese. I dunno.
Either way, the racism actually makes the movie a little extra interesting.
So, not a classic, but it's got some good visuals, good action, good acting, good fun , and unsettling racism.
When John Huston is on his game, he doesn't fuck around. For his directorial debut, he made The Maltese Falcon, which is not only my favorite detective movie of all time, but also probably my favorite tough-guy movie. The style and the character/performance of Sam Spade pretty much set the stage for every private eye movie to follow... almost all movie private eyes are either Spade clones, or deliberately unlike Spade. He is the epitome of the movie detective: a sleazy hardass with a personal moral code. Only Spade is way more of a bastard than other movies usually have the guts to make their lead.
So, following up on Falcon's success, he reunited with half the cast (Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor and Sydney Greenstreet), and made a fun, relatively lightweight, sexist, racist spy-thriller about Bogart trying to stop an evil Japanese conspiracy while on a pleasure cruise.
Falcon is a pretty hard act to follow, so it's no surprise that this doesn't come close to living up to it. But I'm happy to report that it's still a pretty entertaining movie, maybe a little disposable, but the (obvious) chemistry of the cast goes a long way to helping it along.
I said it was racist, and I'm pretty sure it is, because every single damn Japanese person in the cast turns out to be part of the evil conspiracy, like it's The Wicker Man on a cruise ship. But at the same time, earlier scenes seem to make a genuine (if not an entirely insightful) attempt at showing respect to some Japanese customs and attitudes... maybe Huston is trying to show that he's not racist, I guess, but when all the Japanese turn out to be evil spies it kind of undercuts any earlier attempts at diplomacy.
Or maybe, just maybe, all the earlier stuff is just so Huston can mock pussy liberals who would be offended by blatantly demonizing the Japanese. I dunno.
Either way, the racism actually makes the movie a little extra interesting.
So, not a classic, but it's got some good visuals, good action, good acting, good fun , and unsettling racism.
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