A Slight Case of Murder.

Review #2370: A Slight Case of Murder.

Cast: 

Edward G. Robinson (Remy Marco), Jane Bryan (Mary Marco), Allen Jenkins (Mike), Ruth Donnelly (Nora Marco), Willard Parker (Dick Whitewood), John Litel (Mr. Post, banker), Edward Brophy (Lefty), Harold Huber (Giuseppe 'Gip'), Eric Stanley (Mr. Ritter, banker), Paul Harvey (Mr. Whitewood), and Margaret Hamilton (Mrs. Cagle) Directed by Lloyd Bacon (#562 - It Happens Every Spring, #898 - Larceny, Inc, #1340 - 42nd Street)

Review: 

Edward G. Robinson doing comedy isn't too out of left field, really. Actually, Roy Del Ruth had directed him in 1933's The Little Giant (which dealt with a bootlegger trying to go into the legit business) and John Ford had directed him in a crime comedy with 1935's The Whole Town's Talking, which dealt with a lookalike killer. A Slight Case of Murder is based on the 1935 play of the same name, which had been created by Damon Runyon (the famed writer and his one attempt at making a play) and Howard Lindsay (who actually became noted for his work in Broadway plays and musicals with Russel Crouse beginning in 1935). Earl Baldwin and Joseph Schrank were credited for the script behind this movie. Incidentally, Bacon (a very busy director in the 1930s, he apparently made over three dozen movies in that decade)* and Robinson would team up again with a gangster-related comedies with Brother Orchid (1940, which had Baldwin as a writer) and Larceny, Inc (1942), which is probably the more famous Robinson movie about a convict trying to go straight. Incidentally, Roy Del Ruth would direct a remake of A Slight Case of Murder with Stop, You're Killing Me (1952), which starred Broderick Crawford.

With a plot involving a bunch of corpses turning up in the middle of foreclosure and a cop for a possible son-in-law, you've got plenty here for a neat little comedy, even with the apparent age on display in terms of its subject matter. Every so often, I have to remember that there was some pretty crappy beer people had to deal in the old days (as opposed to now, I suppose). To be honest, even with the amount of movies that I've seen with Robinson in the cast (ten, now), I sometimes think I haven't given him his proper due as an actor, and this is saying something for a guy who honed his talents for several years on Broadway and thrived when it came to dramas, particularly since he had the temperament to sell damn near anything, from the tough guy role to the biopic (sure, that doesn't include dancing, but who's asking?). He clearly seems to be having fun here, having the talent to make the hijinks bounce off him with useful timing without turning it into straight farce or just being the straight man to strange stuff, he just happens to be involved in a silly little dark comedy that won't have too much violence but will have enough silly shifty people for 85 minutes. Donnelly pops into the action with attempts at playing natural class that results in a few chuckles, although the cast of goons-turned-assistants such as Jenkins and Brophy are worth a few laughs as well. The buildup to resolve the dead body problem is pretty amusing if not a bit abrupt (seriously it goes from calling the cops to fainting like that). These are the kind of movies that could be stamped out a dime a dozen in the old days that will work exactly for those who like something that will deliver most of the time with colorful enough people and execution in a specific age and place (dated or not) that you could call the epitome of "quick yarn". Hit or miss, you won't have your time wasted here, suffice to say. As a whole, if you are in the mood for Edward G. Robinson and a bit of silly fun with a quick pace and resourceful company around him, you will find a neat little movie here to enjoy from the old years.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

*Welcome to the four-timer club, Lloyd Bacon.

A Lady to Love.

Review #2054: A Lady to Love.

Cast: 

Vilma Bánky (Lena Shultz), Edward G. Robinson (Tony), Robert Ames (Buck), Richard Carle (Postman), Lloyd Ingraham (Father McKee), Anderson Lawler (Doctor), Gum Chin (Ab Gee), Henry Armetta (Angelo), and George Davis (Giorgio) Produced and Directed by Victor Sjöström (#1327 - The Wind, #1731 - The Phantom Carriage, and #1771 - He Who Gets Slapped)

Review: 

Well, the foundation is tempting for this Pre-Code film. It is based on the 1924 play They Knew What They Wanted by Sidney Howard. The play won him a Pulitzer Prize for Drama that year while the production ran on Broadway for nearly 200 performances that featured Richard Bennett, Pauline Lord, and Glenn Anders as the key stars. There has been various restaging of the play since, at least when one isn't busy trying to stage The Most Happy Fella, a musical first done in 1956 based on the Howard play. There are two other film adaptations of the play with The Secret Hour (1928) and They Knew What They Wanted (1940). Die Sehnsucht Jeder Frau, a German-language version of this film, was produced and directed by Sjöström with Robinson and Banky retained. This was the penultimate film appearance for its star in Banky, but The Rebel (1933) is obscure enough to not even have its own Wikipedia page, so keep that in mind when talking about Banky and her varying surviving films (which is just a bit over a half dozen, and her one previous effort in sound were sequences in This Is Heaven, which has yet to be found). As for Robinson, this was his third major appearance in a film after The Hole in the Wall (1929) and Outside the Law (1930). Lastly, let us talk about Victor Sjöström. This was the first sound film for the director, who you might already recognize from his silent classics such as The Phantom Carriage (1921) and The Wind (1928). He would go on to direct two further films: Father and Son (1930) and Under the Red Robe (1937) before he retired to back to his native Sweden to act within the theater again.

You may be a bit confused when it comes to this film on the idea that a director like Sjöström could be constrained so hard with the standards that come with making a sound film. Banky apparently left film not because of anything to do with her Hungarian accent but instead to focus on spending time with her new husband, whom she married a couple of years prior. I can only imagine that the result of this film probably did not help matters, and this isn't to say she has a bad time here (the accent is obviously fit for films). It just so happens that in a film with two actors playing folks with distinct roots (one Italian), Robinson chews the scenery away from everything. There is probably supposed to be some sort of tragedy within her being trapped within this triangle of affection, but maybe it actually fit better when packed for a stage rather than what is presented here, because it just seems hollow. Robinson can only carry so far when playing to the seats with whatever is meant to play in this blustery act that is spent two-ways: before and after he is put in bedrest (yes not only is it a film about a woman discovering her soon-to-be husband looks different from the picture, but she also first sees him after he suffers an injury where he broke both legs). Ames (who died the following year from "delirium tremens" at the age of 42) happens to be in the middle as the "American" in the middle of this certain triangle, but he might as well be playing a block of wood with his lack of drawing power, no matter how much they try to make the eventual wooing of Banky seem inevitable. By the time the actual resolution happens, one can only throw up their hands. The attempt at cultivating a romance that starts with deception (heh, let's get a mail-order bride by showing my handsome buddy) only results a long and winding road of middling meandering. The fact that the film seems bound to stay firmly in the same place you usually see things only results in a very drawn out 92-minute runtime. Asking oneself "how does one go from The Wind to this?" is not a promising statement when trying to assess the quality of a very average movie, and yet here we are. As a whole, since this is a movie you can only find online rather than home video, the best way to enjoy it is for those who like to seek out these kinds of things and hopefully enjoy what they see, because I can't call it anything other than just a bit too average. It has a future star and a future retired star to go with a director who had seen better days, so take that for what it is worth.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Double Indemnity.

Review #1825: Double Indemnity.

Cast: 
Fred MacMurray (Walter Neff), Barbara Stanwyck (Phyllis Dietrichson), Edward G. Robinson (Barton Keyes), Porter Hall (Mr. Jackson), Jean Heather (Lola Dietrichson), Tom Powers (Mr. Dietrichson), Byron Barr (Nino Zachetti), and Richard Gaines (Mr. Norton) Directed by Billy Wilder (#106 - Some Like It Hot, #194 - Ace in the Hole, #422 - The Fortune Cookie, #641 - The Apartment, #809 - Sunset Boulevard), #1384 - Stalag 17, and #1390 - The Seven Year Itch)

Review: 
"I never heard that expression film noir when I made Double Indemnity  ... I just made pictures I would have liked to see. When I was lucky, it coincided with the taste of the audience. With Double Indemnity, I was lucky."

If you can believe it, this was only the fourth directorial effort from Billy Wilder (along with his third since moving to America), who had more experience with scriptwriting (such as Ninotchka (1939), for example). It would also be his first notable effort, one that received considerable attention from audiences and critics (nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture) that he later called one of his best films. It was an adaptation of the crime novel of the same name by James M. Cain, which was first published in serial form for Liberty magazine in 1936 before being published in 1943 alongside two other stories (Career in C Major and The Embezzler were those stories); he based his novella on a 1927 murder by Ruth Synder, who had her boyfriend kill her husband after having him sign an insurance policy (with a certain clause), with the novel having an insurance agent as the inside man, inspired by conversations had with insurance men. Cain was a journalist before he was a writer, which he started with his first novel in The Postman Always Rings Twice in 1934 (which has had numerous film adaptations). His other most notable work was with Mildred Pierce (1941), which was adapted into a film as well. The plot changed slightly from translation onto the film screen, most notably with the final fate of its main characters, since it wasn't exactly something the Production Code would approve of (of course in the novella, the leads almost escape on an ocean liner together). In fact, the story was mired in development hell for years because of it being deemed "thoroughly unacceptable for screen presentation"; one of the biggest objections made by the Hays Office was to the omission of a gas-chamber execution scene (Wilder did film the scene, but he felt that the closing scene between the two male leads served as a more fitting one). The writers tasked to adapt the film was none other than Wilder and Raymond Chandler, a noted crime fiction writer who dabbled as a screenwriter; Wilder guided the structure and some of the dialogue while Chandler (in Wilder's words) comprehended the dialogue and start his own construction (i.e., not simply just incorporate Cain's words into dialogue). Cain was quite proud of the final result, one that he loved for the changes made because he wished he had thought of those himself.

It may be a cliche to say this by now, but this is one of the prime film noirs of its time (amusingly, not even a moral panic complaint by Kate Smith could stop audiences). It has all the aspects of a great film that would become a habit for its director in later years, one with tight execution and a solid acting trio. It is the kind of movie where 107 minutes runs so smoothly, doing so with great arrangement from Wilder and cinematography by John F. Seitz that capture the shadows one requires from a movie filled with such compelling people and dark corners. One can see the pulpy dialogue from Chandler and Wilder come across with such vivid effectiveness, one that glides across the screen with how it moves the process along in terms of pulp brilliance. MacMurray was generally known for his work in "nice guy" roles (at one point, the filmmakers actually considered George Raft, and yet it is this role that proved one of his most memorable in a lengthy career, one that sees him work so well in cultivating malleable curiosity, driving the story along with dutiful energy (not exactly just a "weak-willed guy", for example); one will find something interesting about the final scene before the climax in the little scene that happens afterwards, where MacMurray tells another character about going to the person they love. Stanwyck (as with her co-star) had a bit of reluctance in doing the role, but she makes it count for such alluring double-sidedness, one who glides across topics like murder without batting an eye, smoldering the screen in a way that makes the interactions between the two of them all the more interesting, right down to their fateful last scene; truly, she exemplifies the femme fatale role to a T. Robinson proves the contrast in a character role that has plenty of time to share with MacMurray in a mentor role that is graceful along with making a bond just as interesting as the MacMurray-Stanwyck sequences. The others (such as Powers as the limp mark) do fine in sharing the stage with the key three. As a whole, the movie is balanced in its aspects that work for any viewer (with or without experience in the noir sense), maneuvering through its quick setup (a man confessing his story on phone) with no cheap tricks that result in a kinetic success. There are a handful of interesting noirs but only so many that are really considered great, and this one belongs firmly in the latter category with no question, serving as one of Wilder's finest achievements in effective casting, music, and all-around atmosphere. 

Overall, I give it 10 out of 10 stars.

Little Caesar.

Review #1701: Little Caesar.

Cast: 

Edward G. Robinson (Caesar Enrico "Rico" Bandello), Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (Joe Massara), Glenda Farrell (Olga Stassoff), William Collier Jr. (Tony Passa), Sidney Blackmer (Big Boy), Ralph Ince (Pete Montana), Thomas E. Jackson (Sergeant Flaherty), Stanley Fields (Sam Vettori), Maurice Black (Little Arnie Lorch), and George E. Stone (Otero) Directed by Mervyn LeRoy (#596 - Random Harvest)

Review: 

There is an interesting curiosity one can find from movies made in the pre-Code era of Hollywood filmmaking. Sure, there were boards of censorship all across the country since the silent era, but one generally finds more interest in looking at the era of filmmaking when sound become prevalent in feature films. In other words, one sees things differently in film when you can hear the action to go along with it, regardless of the fact that public pressure would soon mount a Motion Picture Production Code that would soon oversee features for three decades. But that was in 1934, so let us jump back to 1931. This was the same year that saw the release of The Public Enemy (featuring James Cagney in the role that also made him a star) which came out three months after this feature, with each being based on written experiences in Chicago near gangster types, with this film being based off the book of the same name by W. R. Burnett (a novelist and screenwriter for decades who had resided in the city as a hotel desk clerk), with a screenplay written by Francis Edward Faragoh and Robert N. Lee (each nominated for an Academy Award for their work here, which they lost to the writers for Cimarron), with un-credited work by Robert Lord and Darryl F. Zanuck. Incidentally, Robinson and Cagney would star together in a feature together in Smart Money (1931), a crime drama that was the first and only time they starred together. For all the speculation about inspirations within the gangster Al Capone for either The Public Enemy or this feature (which drew not so much entirely on Capone but also criminals such as Salvatore "Sam" Cardinella), this was also the same year that he was charged and convicted of tax evasion that saw him put in jail. At any rate, those aforementioned films also made stars of their lead actors; Robinson had emigrated to the States from Romania as a child, but his first interest was in law before acting. Years spent in the theatre served him well when he started to make regular appearances in film with The Hole in the Wall (1929), which would be one of a handful of films he appeared in that ranged from second to supporting role (primarily in the crime drama genre). Of course, the gangster film did not entirely start with this film either, since one could argue that Underworld (1927) as the proto-gangster movie, and Lights of New York (1928), the first all-talking feature (which alongside Public Enemy and Little Caesar was released by the studio) also had elements of the crime drama in it. At any rate, Burnett was also one of the writers behind Scarface (1932), which also has stood as one of the lasting key pieces of the gangster film, particularly in the pre-Code era. 

At the helm for this feature is LeRoy, who had graduated from a brief stint in acting to writing comedies to directing his own features in the 1920s. Little Caesar is one of over thirty features that he would direct in the 1930s for a decade with plenty of audience appetite for films. As a whole, it might not be as devastating in raw entertainment as The Public Enemy, but its lead performance by Robinson essentially carries it enough to the point where it does not matter too much because one is having too much fun with the gripping interest generated in 79 minutes. LeRoy was one of the hardest working directors of his time, and it certainly shows in both his successes and missteps presented here, one that has some fairly well captured shots from cinematographer Tony Gaudio to accommodate some static moments (as is the case with early sound films, and this even has a few intertitles) without seeming too constrained or too apart while serving as a blunt instrument of efficient filmmaking. There would be a variety of gangster films over the next few years, but Little Caesar managed to stay its welcome with its reasonable edge for the subject that didn't go straight for easy tricks such as indulging in violence or confusing its message in simplified or complicated gobbledygook - it helped to build the clichés to gaze upon in the gangster film for years to come, if you think about it. You get a tale of someone rising the ladder in organized crime that doesn't pull punches, and Robinson is at the forefront of making this role his with no complication. He would find himself typecast in a variety of tough guy roles over the next few years (even taking a role in Larceny, Inc (1942) to offset his image with a comedy, which I fondly remember enjoying), and it isn't too hard to see why, owing to his voice and mannerisms that make him undeniably interesting to view through the film, whether spent trying to strong-arm Fairbanks Jr or strong-arm himself into the next big thing; everybody needs a good death scene in a gangster film (no matter how prepared/un-prepared one is for it), and he makes that final line stick with the right sense of doom and folly required. Fairbanks Jr and Farrell are meant to match him in sensibility, which generally works out fine in useful engagement without detracting from the general experience. The supporting cast prove worthy enough in setting the seedy atmosphere required in terms of grimy strength (ones that could be thought of as faceless brutes). Jackson plays the authority with coarse charm that doesn't serve to make this a straight moral tale. As a whole, its portrayal of the rise and fall of a crime lord proves quite interesting in cultivating a worthy atmosphere and tension within a great lead performance and fair support from others in a proven feature that has endured well for itself after eight decades since its release, a fitting marker for a star and director that had plenty of time to follow up their successes in their field.

On the board for the Count to Ten Project, updated.

1921: 5, 1922-23: 8 each, 1924: 9, 1926: 7, 1929: 5

1930: 6, 1934: 4, 1935: 5, 1936-37: 6, 1938: 5

1940-41: 8 each, 1944: 7, 1948-49: 8 each

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

The Stranger (1946).

Review #1366: The Stranger.

Cast: 
Edward G. Robinson (Mr. Wilson), Loretta Young (Mary Longstreet Rankin), Orson Welles (Franz Kindler / Professor Charles Rankin), Philip Merivale (Judge Adam Longstreet), Richard Long (Noah Longstreet), Konstantin Shayne (Konrad Meinike), Byron Keith (Dr. Jeffrey Lawrence), Billy House (Mr. Potter), and Martha Wentworth (Sara) Directed by Orson Welles (#200 - Citizen Kane)

Review:
Who better to deliver a film noir with a sense of nightmarish style and purpose than Orson Welles?
Welles had come from stage productions (making his debut at 16) and a notable radio performance with The War of the Worlds (1938) to make his way onto film through RKO in 1939 with a chance to make two of his own films with complete creative control in terms of writing, directing, and performing. He proceeded to have one of the greatest debuts on film with Citizen Kane (1941), which he directed, performed, and co-wrote with Herman J. Mankiewicz, and it was his work on the script that led to his only Academy Award win. His second effort was The Magnificent Ambersons the following year, but his contract was renegotiated to revoke having final cut privilege, with a change in the RKO board eventually leading to the film being dramatically re-cut to fit what they believed would be a more commercial film. Neither were particularly big successes, but they both received praise for the time with critics and Citizen Kane is now generally considered one of the greatest films of all time. He also did work on Journey Into Fear (1943), doing parts of the script along with directing and producing that were left un-credited. He spent the war years primarily in radio (after a failed attempt of making a Latin American anthology film) before being brought into making this film after intended director John Huston left to join the military. He didn't have complete control, but he did try to give the film his own kind of tone, helping to give re-writes (as Huston did, with both un-credited) to Anthony Veiller and Decla Dunning's script alongside doing long takes to hinder edits. The film was one of the first to show documentary footage from the concentration camps, as Welles had seen this footage prior to the war ending in 1945.

It shouldn't be surprising in any case that Welles managed to make such an entertaining film, one with plenty of thrills to deliver with timely fashion that prevails just as much now as it did in the postwar era. One has likely seen a film or two before involving a murderous stranger trying to hide their true presence amongst the others of a small town (with the most immediate film coming to mind being Shadow of a Doubt, released three years earlier), but Welles infuses enough energy in stoking a chilling atmosphere, whether when directing or when on the screen. He succeeds with conviction, filled with charisma in a capably chilling performance. Young plays it just as carefully, where one can believe in the chemistry between her and Welles, a presence caught in the middle of a cat-and-mouse game of truth. Robinson reels in quite well as our focus, filled with desperation in pursuit that comes to a head with the dinner sequence, where they both are carefully studying the other. The rest of the cast are fine, filling in the details where needed, most notably with House, who gives off a few amusing but needed moments. The former vaudevillian was liked enough by Welles that he had expanded his role as production went on (much to Robinson's chagrin). The film moves on its own careful pace, moving along at 95 minutes with a clear vision towards making a web of deceit and descent come true through long takes and good cinematography by Russell Metty, and the climax pulls itself off swiftly. The film came slightly underbudget and early on schedule, although International Pictures did not make any further pictures with Welles, supposedly because they believed the film would be a flop, which of course was proven wrong (becoming Welles' first audience hit). Over the prevailing decades, Welles would go on to make numerous films in Europe and America, ones that received varied noticed from audiences and critics along with their own distinct production cycles,  with his last film coming years after his death with The Other Side of the Wind (2018), which spent years in production and decades in legal trouble. In any case, one should be naturally inclined to include this among others when it comes to film noirs to view as a good example of craftsmanship and cast to go with a capable story, and the fact that it is in the public domain makes it especially worthy.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Scarlet Street.

Review #1365: Scarlet Street.

Cast:
Edward G. Robinson (Christopher Cross), Joan Bennett (Katherine March), Dan Duryea (Johnny Prince), Margaret Lindsay (Millie Ray), Rosalind Ivan (Adele Cross), Jess Barker (David Janeway), Charles Kemper (Patch-eye Higgins), Anita Sharp-Bolster (Mrs. Michaels), Samuel S. Hinds (Charles Pringle), and Vladimir Sokoloff (Pop LeJon) Directed by Fritz Lang (#333 - M and #500 - Metropolis)

Review: 
"Each picture has some sort of rhythm which only the director can give it. He has to be like the captain of a ship."

One can't forget about Fritz Lang when it comes to his diverse career of films, both in Germany and abroad. Born and raised in Vienna, Lang had a lengthy career, starting as a writer for film in 1916 before debuting as a director with Halbblut (1919). He met writer Thea von Harbou the following year, and they later married in 1922. They worked together in film for over a decade, which include films such as Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922), Metropolis (1927), M (1931, his first talking picture), and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933). However, the two divorced due to an affair by Lang that same year. He would soon leave Germany owing to the rise of the Nazis, going to France (where he made one film in Liliom) before going to America. He made his American debut with Fury (1936), with his last in the country being Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956) before he returned to Germany (after thinking about retiring due to tough conditions to make further Hollywood films and growing age), where he made three films between 1959 and 1960, with his last being The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse before his death in 1976 at the age of 85. He was noted for his Expressionism (more so for his German films) alongside his talent in doing numerous genres, particularly with film noir.

The film was adapted (written by Dudley Nichols) from the French novel La Chienne by Georges de La Fouchardiere, which had already been played on the stage and in film in 1931 under its title by Jean Renoir (who notably disliked this film). This was the second time that Lang utilized this trio of actors, as they had appeared together in The Woman in the Window a year earlier. Both films had Robinson play a lonely middle-aged man and Bennett and Duryea play a criminal duo, and they even had the same choreographer in Milton R. Krasner. Robinson for his part did not like his experiences with either film, finding this one to be monotonous to do, although Lang found it to be one of his favorites to do. To each his own, one suppose - both of course do tremendous jobs in making a capable noir tick well. It goes to show how one can make something that plays numerous hands of deception to the benefit of its audience through 109 minutes, a clever experience with some psychological depth to it. It shouldn't prove too surprising that local authorities in three cities for censor boards objected to the content of the film, calling it many things besides "obscene". After all, it isn't exactly a noir with a happy ending, nor is it one that requires so. Just the idea of a character getting away with a murder was in some minds enough to object to, beyond portraying some sort of sordid life or illicitness with love. In other words, one needs a bit of risk sometimes to make things work better than a conventional film would do, with the best noirs utilizing imagination to give the viewer something to look into without needing things spelled out for them. Robinson does well with making an ordinary presence come into focus that we can follow along with to a point as a meek man that doesn't seem cartoonish or underplayed. Bennett and Duryea make for a conniving duo, ones with some luring power alongside a rough nature with chemistry. One can follow the film along without too much trouble, wrapped with a few twists that keep the viewer wanting more without displeasing them with where it needs to get to with its daring ending, where one can certainly find a prison for themselves without needing a conviction to do so. Lang certainly made plenty of memorable films, and this is one that is good to highlight, particularly since it is readily available through the public domain for anyone to view for themselves, a worthwhile little gem for the decade.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Larceny, Inc.

Review #898: Larceny, Inc.

Cast:
Edward G. Robinson (J. Chalmers "Pressure" Maxwell), Jane Wyman (Denny Costello), Broderick Crawford (Jug Martin), Jack Carson (Jeff Randolph), Anthony Quinn (Leo Dexter), Edward Brophy (Weepy Davis), Harry Davenport (Homer Bigelow), John Qualen (Sam Bachrach), and Barbara Jo Allen (Mademoiselle Gloria) Directed by Lloyd Bacon (#562 - It Happens Every Spring)

Review:
A mix of comedy and gangster films, Larceny, Inc. manages to be a fine combination of the two genres by being itself with enough snappy charm from its cast along with some fine lines as well to make for a fine little gem. Easily the best part of the movie is Robinson, in part because of his great screen presence, in a movie all about timing and straight-laced fun. Crawford and Brophy are good accomplices to Robinson, with their own quirks and lines that make them so endearing. One fun scene is their exchange about one of them having a walk onto moving traffic as part of a quick scam...and having him show them how he would bounce off a bumper. Wyman and Carson have some bit of chemistry, but they aren't given too much to do (outside of contributing to the plot), though they certainly don't hurt the movie. Quinn proves to be a decent little villain. Davenport is also pretty decent in a small but key role as a shop owner, with one good little scene where he keep reminiscing over and over as he leaves the store after selling it. Jackie Gleason (of "The Honeymooners" fame and other things) makes a brief appearance as a soda shop clerk, getting a bit of time to be involved in the background. There is something so interesting about seeing how the plot threads of the heist and the business wrap themselves so cohesively, where the laughs never seem to cease up (and even when they do, not for very long). This is an easy movie to have a good time with, in part because even when the movie isn't about getting laughs it still manages to have its own kind of talent and sort of finesse. This is a fine little spoof of gangster films with the right kind of fun and sensible writing that surely delivers on its premise.

Countdown to #900: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2...

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: Soylent Green.

Review #453: Soylent Green.

Cast
Charlton Heston (Thorn), Leigh Taylor-Young (Shirl), Chuck Connors (Fielding), Edward G. Robinson (Sol Roth), Joseph Cotten (Simonson), Brock Peters (Hatcher), Paula Kelly (Martha), and Stephen Young (Gilbert) Directed by Richard Fleischer.

Review
Soylent Green has been considered as a film to be reviewed in the past, and I do vaguely remember having a chance to seeing it right around last year, but I decided to take a good night sleep instead. So...After feeling a bit under the weather, carrying a death wish and not wanting to do a lame pun by reviewing a Friday the 13th film on the most over hyped superstitious day, I decided to watch Soylent Green. The film was adapted from the novel Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison, who died just last year. This film has probably one of the more notable last lines which essentially gives the film new spin, but even still this doesn't validate all of the film. Heston is fine and Taylor-Young is okay, but the main actor that I seem to connect with is Edward G. Robinson, in his final film role, with his last scene of his last movie being both sad and ironic in approach. He does a good, if not great film, even if he isn't in the film too much. This feels like it could've been a Twilight Zone episode, especially with the twist ending and such. The future is grim bleak, and looks more like 1973 than 2022 at times. It's an okay film, highlighted with a fair twist and one or two great scenes, it's an alright science fiction film for the most part, just take it for what its worth.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: Key Largo.

Review #419: Key Largo.

Cast
Humphrey Bogart (Frank McCloud), Edward G. Robinson (Johnny Rocco), Lauren Bacall (Nora Temple), Lionel Barrymore (James Temple), Claire Trevor (Gaye Dawn), Thomas Gomez (Richard "Curly" Hoff), Harry Lewis (Edward "Toots" Bass), John Rodney (Deputy Sheriff Clyde Sawyer), Marc Lawrence (Ziggy), and Dan Seymour (Angel Garcia) Directed by John Huston (#081 - The Maltese Falcon (1941), #094 - The Misfits, #224 - Casino Royale (1967)

Review
Once again I have the chance to review a film directed by John Huston, and one with Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson, who I loved in The Cincinnati Kid (#273), with Laura Bacall and Lionel Barrymore, who I last reviewed in America (not everyday you review a star who stars in silent and talkie films), so this was irresistible. And it did not disappoint. The main four (Bogart, Robinson, Bacall and Barrymore) all do respectable jobs, but Claire Trevor stands out among the rest, especially when she sings a capella in front of everyone, a moving scene. This film has a tense pace going, never letting go of its roots, having a climatic ending and a good directing job by Huston once again.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: The Cincinnati Kid.

Review #273: The Cincinnati Kid.

Cast
Steve McQueen (Eric "The Kid" Stoner), Edward G. Robinson (Lancey "The Man" Howard), Karl Malden (Shooter), Ann-Margret (Melba), Rip Torn (Slade), Tuesday Weld (Christian), Joan Blondell (Lady Fingers), Jack Weston (Pig), and Cab Calloway (Yeller) Directed by Norman Jewison (#127 - Rollerball)

Review
Based off the novel by Richard Jessup, the Cincinnati Kid is a good ol' flick. Interesting enough, this is my first film review with Steve McQueen and Edward G. Robinson (Karl Malden has already been reviewed here before: #109 - A Streetcar Named Desire and #110 - On the Waterfront) How are the main leads? They are, without a doubt, good. You feel for both of the characters, not really wanting either one to lose, though the supporting cast's portrayals of the others do help out make the film more defined. It makes poker a bit more interesting then usual in a film that fits in as a good classic.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.