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My movie year (so far)

Another handful of the films I've seen lately, this time it's two golden oldies and an overlooked near-masterpiece.

1) The Ghost Ship (1943), directed by Mark Robson, produced by Val Lewton. Atmosphere didn't have to cost much when it was created by Val Lewton and his RKO stable of directors (Robson, Jacques Tourneur, and Robert Wise), and this is a foggy, spooky-looking little gem. Like many Lewton fans, this is the one I'd never seen because it was unavailable for decades due to a lawsuit. (Fortunately, it and nine others are in the Val Lewton box set.) St. Paul's own Richard Dix is very good as the creepily-polite sea captain obsessed with "authority," and a very young Lawrence Tierney has a fun minor role where he gets crushed to death by a pile of chains! (P.S. For those who can't get enough of the Lewton ouevre, there is an amazing website which features, among other nice things, the shooting scripts to his films.)

2) Jezebel (1938), starring Henry Fonda and directed by William Wyler. Bette Davis' first major role (and Oscar), and she's great, but what a weird, disjointed movie. The first half is the part the film is known for, about the title character wearing a red dress to the ball and scandalizing the town. (By the way, since the film wasn't in color, the dress was really black.) But the second half becomes a drama about the ravages of yellowjack fever, and the closing shot of Davis, looking holy as she rides off with the diseased, is one of the strangest closing moments of any mainstream film. Since it was a state-of-the-art Warners production, it was written with intelligence (by, among others, John Huston) and filmed with great style, but after I finished it (for, I confess, the first time), I felt somewhat had.

3) Men with Guns (1997), directed by John Sayles. The next time you're at the video store and absolutely nothing looks good, ignore the plot synopsis on the back of the case and get this. It is a great plot-- a Central American doctor who trains med students to work in the jungles learns that they're being killed by the "men with guns" and sets off to find the ones who are left-- but a simple description of it doesn't do justice to the mood and quiet intensity that Sayles and his cast achieve (especially leading man Federico Luppi). There are many moments of tension that take unexpected turns, and the ending is tragic and uplifting at the same time. It's a riveting, fascinating, and deep story, with the kind of rich and varied characters we expect from Sayles at his best. Among his many qualities as a director and writer, Sayles is a entertainer, and it's unusual for a movie this engaging to also make you think so much about other lives and cultures as well as your own. Big enthusiastic recommendation.

Next time, who knows? I have so much stuff waiting to be seen-- African horror movies, some Frederic Wiseman documentaries, even some Czech avant-garde stuff from the '60s-- that I have no idea what to choose next. So stay tuned.

Posted by Steve Monaco at March 17, 2006 5:45 PM

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