Key Largo

I stepped back into the black and white world of classic Noir and watched:

Key Largo (1948).

Directed by the prolific John Huston who also directed The Maltese Falcon and starring Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Lionel Barrymore and Claire Trevor this is a simple premise and a superb study in tension at the same time.

Frank McCloud (Bogart) a retired army major travels down to the Florida Keys to visit James Temple, the father of a good friend, George, who died at Monte Cassino during WWII. There he also meets George's widow Nora (Bacall). They run a hotel which is currently closed as it is the off season. Despite that fact, a small group of shady people are staying there, ostensibly to do some deep sea fishing. Every synopsis of the movie informs us that this group are gangsters, led by the vicious but charismatic Johnny Rocco (Robinson), so no spoiler warning needed. With a brutal hurricane hurtling towards the Keys, tensions rise to an almost intolerable level.

Key Largo is listed amongst the classic noir films, but is not a regular noir. If Rocco and his gang weren't in it, it would be hard to call it noir. There are no private detectives, no mysteries to solve, no mcguffin to retrieve etc. This however doesn't mean it isn't good. Key Largo is in fact excellent.

The cinematography and sound are good. Huston knew what he was doing, and there is a scene that took me by complete surprise technically speaking. First class for 1948, and still laudable in this day and age.

However, it is the actors that make the film. Bogart is unusually vulnerable but with hidden strengths and a deep sadness, Bacall is poised and classy but still manages to portray both fear and hopelessness and then swing it over to hope and joy with style. The legendary Lionel Barrymore who by the way is the great uncle to Drew Barrymore, does a standout job. Confined to a wheel chair due to crippling arthritis (both for real and in character), he still manages to be a strong presence in every scene he is in, but it is Edward G. Robinson who steals the show. He is amazing as the cruel gangster boss Rocco. If you have ever seen a gangster parody, maybe Bugs Bunny, maybe someone else, that goes “Nyaa, we're going to rob the bank, see. Nyaaa, they'll never take me alive, see?” That is Robinson being parodied. As Rocco he doesn't chew the scenery but he takes over every scene he is in, and as the principle danger to the other characters, that makes sense.

The final character I want to mention is Gaye Dawn (Trevor). She won an academy award as the alcoholic former lounge singer and love interest to Rocco. They had a thing back in the day before he was exiled and now that he is back so is she. However, he is disgusted by her drinking and is consistently spiteful and cruel towards her. Claire Trevor did an amazing job portraying Gaye.

So do I recommend this movie? Absolutely! Key Largo grabs you and will not let go until it is all over. The tension is almost too think to cut at times without ever getting melodramatic. I would even go so far as to call it a masterpiece in its simplicity. I guess you might have to be in the right mood for it, but I urge any cinema fan to give this a go if you haven't seen it already, just be aware that the neckties of the 40's were horrendous. Almost as wide as they were long, I'm grateful that fashion has changed.

That is that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great and safe week!

American Made

Back in 1972, a commercial airline pilot called Barry Seal lost his job since he was arrested for smuggling. In time he created a huge smuggling operation, flying cocaine for the Medellín Cartel. He smuggled drugs, weapons and anything he could fly around in a small fast plane. He was also apparently working for the CIA, although that has been denied by the agency. It seems to be one of those cases where everyone knows he freelanced for the CIA, but since they deny it, there is no official evidence for it.

The reason I'm bringing up Barry Seal is that I watched American Made (2017).

American Made is directed by Doug Liman who said of the movie “it is a fun lie based on a true story”. This is absolutely correct, both the lie and the fun part. Also I guess the true story part...

Tom Cruise stars as Barry Seal and does an amazing job. The movie starts when he is still a pilot for TWA, then he gets an offer from the Agency and seeing as he is incredibly bored being an airline captain he takes it and never looks back. Soon enough he is also freelancing for the cartel and starts to make stupid amounts of cash. Something in the vein of $60 million in and around 1980. At this time he is also collecting intelligence from Noriega and before you know it, he is involved with the whole Contra-Sandinista catastrophe. Like all such rags to riches stories, things inevitably goes down the drain. It is worth noting that both the manner of his death and its location is how it happened in real life.

The cinematography is amazing in this film. The shots of the breakneck piloting, of which there are plenty, are so nice and the general way in which it is shot is solid and highly entertaining to watch.

Cruise gives American Made the same intense commitment he gives all his movies, he even flies the planes as he can actually fly. I'm sure the crazier stunts were done by stunt pilots, if for no other reason than to appease the insurance companies. Then again, Cruise is known for doing a lot of his own stunts, so what do I know...

The other actors are all good as is everything else in here. I can actually not point out a single thing to complain about. As long as you remember the “entertaining lie” part, you're going to have a great time. Sure, Seal didn't have a brother in law called JB who was a complete screw-up and he was not arrested by four different agencies at the same time, but it doesn't matter. The movie is actually really funny and charming, which is no mean feat considering the subject matter touches on things like the Medellín Cartel and the war between the Contras and the Sandinistas, and those things aren't funny!

If you watch or have watched American Made and want more, the Netflix show Narcos deal with the same stuff at the same time. In fact the crew for American Made kept bumping in to the Narcos crew as they both filmed a lot in Colombia. Just remember that Narcos is definitely not trying to be funny.

So do I recommend this movie? Yes, absolutely. I had a blast from beginning to end and have nothing to complain about. If you haven't seen it and what I said above doesn't seem like a complete snooze then go watch it. You can even amuse yourself by spotting all the American Presidents (present and future) that are either shown or mentioned in the film. There are more than you might think.

 

 

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

A simple bit of fun

I just had one hell of a weekend, thanks to a stomach bug, but the less said about that the better.             

It has however left me short on time to work on this blog, so this week I'll have to keep it short and sweet.

Presenting Lonely Ialand:

 

Created and starring  Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone. They all have acting/writing experience on Saturday Night Live, and Andy is well known from Brooklyn 99. 

Anyway, Lonely Island is a comedy music act that sometimes guest-stars some very big names. Content warning though, some of the song are very racy, so don't listen to it in public without headphones.

Here is the channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/thelonelyisland/featured

I'll embed a couple of songs below for you to get started with. That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!

 

 

  

 

The Heroes of Telemark

During the week I decided to watch another war movie, this time:

The Heroes of Telemark (1965).

Based on real events, The Heroes of Telemark stars Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris as Rolf and Knut, both members of the Norwegian resistance against the German occupation during WWII. Other cast members include Ulla Jacobsson and Michael Redgrave (father of Vanessa Redgrave).

The main point of the story is the sabotage efforts against the German production of heavy water at the local hydroelectric plant. The Germans needed it for their atomic weapons research program. Obviously the Allies were very worried about this and helped however they could. If you want to read about what actually happened, here is the Wikipedia link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_heavy_water_sabotage

The movie isn't exactly accurate even though it does follow most of the major points fairly well. I found it to be a compelling movie rather than a fun or exciting movie. For being two hours long, it does unfortunately plod along quite a bit. There are several scenes between Rolf and his ex-wife Anna that aren't really necessary. Yes, it is important to build up the characters in order to help the audience connect with them, but the overall balance of the movie is a bit off. A common element is the fear and paranoia of the German occupiers. In a sense this is more of a spy movie than a regular war movie, but they don't really lean in to this aspect enough.

That said, there are several really exciting moments throughout the movie, including a really good ski chase. The commando raid on the plant was good, but interestingly enough the end of it is fictional. In the movie, guards shoot at the escaping commandos, but in reality they couldn't find the switch to turn on the lights and the commandos escaped easily in the dark.

The Nazis are interestingly enough fairly believable. General Terboven is a bit bombastic and shouts a lot, but they aren't over the top villains or mustache twirling cartoon villains. It feels real and that's a plus.

Prop wise, there are some issues with clothes and skis that weren't available in the 1940's but unless you are eagle eyed you can't tell. What you can tell is that none of the women have accurate hairstyles. Much like Hogan's Heroes, all the ladies have 60's hairstyles which is a shame. It can't have been that hard to get a hair stylist to create the right styles. The men's hair is fine. Short hair is pretty much short hair whether slicked back or flattened by a woolen cap.

The most important “prop” has to be the landscape. It is filmed in Norway and it shows. If they had chosen to pretend to be in Norway it would have been immediately apparent and that would have ruined the feel of the movie.

Finally, a lot has been written about the Nazi atomic research program with different opinions on how far along they were. The consensus seems to be that they were far away from successfully creating an atomic bomb. This would make the heroic efforts to stop the manufacturing and transporting of the heavy water a lot less important. However, no one knew how far along they really were, and with the technological advances they did possess, the fears of the Nazis creating an atomic bomb were very real indeed. This is why it was so important to stop them from getting the heavy water.

So do I recommend this movie? Hard to say. There isn't really anything wrong with The Heroes of Telemark, but it isn't that great either. Where Eagles Dare is completely fictional and over the top at times, but it is a much better 60's war movie. I'm not sure I can really recommend Telemark, but I won't warn anyone away from it either.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time, and until then, have a great and safe week!