Dragnet (1987).

Review #2427: Dragnet (1987).

Cast: 

Dan Aykroyd (Detective Sergeant Joe Friday), Tom Hanks (Detective Pep Streebek), Christopher Plummer (the Reverend Jonathan Whirley), Harry Morgan (Captain Bill Gannon), Alexandra Paul ("the Virgin" Connie Swail), Jack O'Halloran (Emil Muzz), Elizabeth Ashley (Commissioner Jane Kirkpatrick), and Dabney Coleman (Jerry Caesar) Directed by Tom Mankiewicz.

Review: 

Maybe you know what Dragnet is, but your dad or grandfather probably know it quite well in some way or form. Apparently, Webb was inspired by what he saw when filming his role in He Walked by Night (1948), specifically what he heard from technical consultant Marty Wynn involving the actual procedures and activities of police officers that he got Wynn to cooperate on what became one of the big procedurals of its time. In 1949, Dragnet was born on radio with the NBC radio network, as featuring Jack Webb and a handful of partners. Two years later went by before it went to television (now with Webb and Ben Alexander), running for eight years and also having a film version in 1954. And then of course there was the new thing for its time: a revival years later, with Webb now starring with Harry Morgan that ran from 1967 to 1970. There were plenty of routines to be had in those shows, whether that involved LSD or other types of rackets. Webb would continue to busy with making television shows involving authority such as Adam-12 (1968-75), O'Hara, U.S. Treasury (1971-72), and Emergency! (1972-77) before he died in 1982 at the age of 62.*  Apparently, Tom Mankiewicz was brought in to work on a re-write of a film script that had been done by Dan Aykroyd and Alan Zweibel (who had worked together on Saturday Night Live) involving Dragnet and was then asked to direct it himself, which was his directing debut, having famously done work as just a writer with Superman and an assortment of James Bond movies; he directed just one other movie with Delirious (1991)

I do remember, very vaguely, seeing my dad watch this movie on a VHS tape once, specifically the part where the name P.A.G.A.N is revealed (People Against Goodness and Normalcy, ha, get it). That was what, nearly 15 years ago, so I suppose it is better late than never to actually watch this movie. You get a buddy cop movie (complete with a tank and jet) that happens to have a very by-the-book person at the helm that is sometimes funny and altogether a bit stuffed at 106 minutes long. As a semi-spoof, it at least looks like it cared about the original material, although it definitely shows a bit too much willingness for the "let's put a pop song in it" idea. You can probably tell that Aykroyd had a fascination with Jack Webb in actually getting the jargon down with the calm and collected feel of someone who rolls with the punches. Of course, Aykroyd actually did work as a reserve officer with multiple police departments (no I'm not joking), so this isn't merely just a case of a long-winded bit, he just thought it would be an honor to do a Jack Webb homage, to a certain type of mixed result. According to Aykroyd, Hanks (who was cast in the film because Albert Brooks said no and Jim Belushi wasn't available) was not big on the final result of the film. Hanks (in the period between Splash [1984] and, well, Big [1989]) does fine here, maneuvering through the proceedings with a good dose of charm and you do eventually get a sense of connection between him and Aykroyd as hard (okay, maybe sometimes hardly) working cops on the beat as a team. Morgan might have been winding down in his seventies (this was his penultimate film appearance), but at least he looks happy to be around for a few scenes in experiencing some jargon said at him again. Plummer is calm enough to work as the wolf in sheep's clothing, for the most part. The rest is here and there, mainly because the movie comes up with a few softball ideas to corral the procedural (so a Playboy knockoff and a totally not evil Reverend to go with uniting them for a common goal) that probably came out of at least one too many re-writes. Sure, you can't make it all a sketch, but the movie does have most of its steam in the first half when trying to play setup rather than the inevitable sequences of action, for better or worse. I enjoyed it just enough to roll with its general pacing. As a whole, Dragnet (1987) is a fine little movie that at least doesn't come off as merely an overextended sketch idea and has a few moments worth watching. It definitely is hit-or-miss, but if you are looking for a bit of fun, you might find it here.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

*To tie this to movies a tiny bit, Webb was actually approached about playing Dean Wormer in Animal House (1979). Go figure, he turned it down.

Tomorrow: the horror season begins.

The Ox-Bow Incident.

Review #2214: The Ox-Bow Incident.

Cast: 

Henry Fonda (Gil Carter), Dana Andrews (Donald Martin), Harry Morgan (Art Croft), Frank Conroy (Major Tetley), Harry Davenport (Mr. Arthur Davies), Anthony Quinn (Juan Martínez / Francisco Morez, The Mexican), Francis Ford (Alva Hardwicke, The Old Man), William Eythe (Gerald Tetley), Mary Beth Hughes (Rose Mapen / Rose Swanson), and Jane Darwell ("Ma" Jenny Grier) Directed by William A. Wellman (#349 - Wings, #494 - The Public Enemy, #866 - Nothing Sacred, #973 - A Star is Born, #1387 - Track of the Cat)

Review: 

Once upon a time, you could come across a whole variety of Westerns in the same year. The Ox-Bow Incident was a special kind of case that seems apt to come from a craftsman director in William A. Wellman, because he had wanted to do an adaptation of Walter Van Tilburg Clark's novel of the same name, which had been published in 1940 (you might recognize Clark from the fact that Wellman would direct a second Clark adaptation years later with Track of the Cat). The novel was a distinct success with readers in ways different from one could read in usual dime store stuff or films that had covered the dangers of a mob in say, Fritz Lang's Fury (1936), for example. At any rate, Wellman's persistence in wanting to make a film based on the book paid off eventually, doing so with 20th Century Fox (on the condition of doing two films in return) that was shot mostly in studio backlots and sound stages. The film was written and produced by Lamar Trotti, who had added the latter category to his line of work beginning with Thunder Birds (1942), which incidentally had been directed by Wellman. The fact that the film went by the Production Code is interesting, because, well, it depicts a lynching in 1885. It should be noted that Fonda himself had seen a riot that soon turned into a lynching when growing up in Nebraska in 1919, and it probably isn't too surprising that he called this one of the few movies he liked doing at 20th Century Fox and in general. Released in the midst of wartime, the movie was not a hit with audiences on release (with Zanuck noting that even a Laurel and Hardy movie outperformed it), but its legacy has certainly grown in the eight decades since its release. 

What we have is a lean and mean drama of the most efficient kind. It is quite thorough in showing the perils of mob rule and what would happen in a society where the "very conscience of humanity" in law is ignored in a sweeping generalization. The uncompromising truth can hurt when it stares you right in the face because of how timeless that realization is: if you get enough people together to be complicit in an action (whether that involves actions of vigilantism or war), you can do plenty of damage and maybe be able to get away with it, at least if one doesn't mind possibly losing a bit of one's soul in the process. The system of values that we want to hold dear only work if we are willing to accept that for every action we think is "right" to do, we have to accept that there are just as many that we have to confront that are "wrong" that can't be ignored. Among the genre of the Western, it belongs to what we could call a "revisionist" Western (of course that label is more for stuff that happened after the end of the Production Code, but still) that looks upon the Old West and sees just as many cultivators of impulse as there are at the moment. There are no real heroes to be found here, but it doesn't mean the performances are lacking anyway, as evidenced by seeing Fonda play observer in the web of paranoia and impulse that is handled with simple grace that Fonda knows how to do so naturally. Seeing a town lose their soul in the shambling display of mostly unified display of "might makes right" is fit for Fonda and Morgan to waltz into. Andrews leads the group (Quinn and Ford) suffering from the eyes of impulsive fools with a worthy display of anguish worthy of a martyr for one that really was just trying to be a man in a frontier that varies in its view of them. Conroy and Eythe handle the dynamic that arises in defining "what a man looks like" and finding that action really does speak louder than words in the worst possible ways that makes for such a harrowing lesson in the nature of shame and not allowing older authority to take all heed over oneself (regardless of if it is say, a former Confederate). The film builds that gut-churning tension of what may and may not happen when it comes to a town looking for what it thinks is justice to hold to worthwhile realization in sheer audacity. Nothing is easy to find in answers or in letters, but the shame of living with what one sees is probably apt for a lesson to stew on, unless one has a reason to get out of town and start anew. As a whole, it is a pretty good Western that is a cut above a good chunk of the Westerns in its era fitting for a craftsman like Wellman in handling a tale that can still be played for eras of the present about mob rule, for better or worse.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

High Noon.

Review #2083: High Noon.

Cast: 

Gary Cooper (Marshal Will Kane), Thomas Mitchell (Mayor Jonas Henderson), Lloyd Bridges (Deputy Marshal Harvey Pell), Katy Jurado (Helen Ramírez), Grace Kelly (Amy Fowler Kane), Otto Kruger (Judge Percy Mettrick), Lon Chaney Jr (Martin Howe), Harry Morgan (Sam Fuller), Ian MacDonald (Frank Miller), Eve McVeagh (Mildred Fuller), Morgan Farley (Dr. Mahin), Harry Shannon (Cooper), Lee Van Cleef (Jack Colby), Robert J. Wilke (Jim Pierce), and Sheb Wooley (Ben Miller) Directed by Fred Zinnemann (#1377 - The Men)

Review: 

"Sheriffs are people and no two people are alike. The story of High Noon takes place in the Old West but it is really a story about a man's conflict of conscience. In this sense it is a cousin to A Man for All Seasons. In any event, respect for the Western hero has not been diminished by High Noon."

It is never a bad time for a Western, particularly ones with interesting stories beyond the camera. The film is based on the short story "The Tin Star", as seen in 1947 in Collier's magazine that was done by John W. Cunningham. Carl Foreman (the credited screenwriter of the film) claimed later that he had written an outline that apparently seemed similar to Cunningham's story, which led to him buying the rights to the story. However, Richard Fleischer claimed in his autobiography (written decades after the fact) that he had helped Foreman develop the story while they had been working together in The Clay Pigeon (1949). Anyway, let's talk about Foreman for a bit. He had studied at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign as a teenager, dropped out to seek out Hollywood, went back to Illinois to study at the John J. Marshall School of Law, and then dropped out of there to work a variety of jobs (writer, reporter, and even carnival barker) before eventually returning back to Hollywood by the late 1930s; during that time, he became a member of the Communist Party, which he left by the dawn of World War II, which saw him serve with the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Foreman had done his first writing in film with the 1941 film Bowery Blitzkrieg in an uncredited manner, but he got onto a more regular pattern of work with story/writing credits for Dakota (1945) and So This Is New York (1948) - the latter was the first Foreman made in association with Stanley Kramer (who he met when they both were serving in World War II). There would be a handful of films that Foreman made as a writer for Kramer's company, which included The Men (1950), as directed by Fred Zinnemann. At any rate, Foreman's career took a beating due to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAAC), who labeled him as an unfriendly witness after he admitted to being a party member but did not want to name names. He later called the film a parable against blacklisting, one that seems apt when considering that Kramer essentially shortchanged him when it came to having him sell his share in the company and even tried to get him booted off the production prior to the meeting with the HUAAC (because he feared he would be implicated by Foreman, assocation or not). Living mostly in London for the rest of his days, Foreman was given the cold shoulder from Hollywood for the rest of the 1950s that saw him either work on the side away from Hollywood or with modified credit that ranged from The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957); he also did a hand of producing in addition to writing for films such as Mackenna's Gold (1969); Foreman died in 1984 at the age of 69.

Fans of the Western know that Howard Hawks made Rio Bravo (1959) as a response to what he thought about this film that he felt didn't make much of a good Western, which naturally starred John Wayne (incidentally, he called High Noon "un-American", which is probably the silliest thing ever said by Wayne in the 1950s). Of course, Zinnemann years later responded by saying he wished Hawks would leave his films alone, so there's that. It seems only apt to have Cooper here, since the film that made him a key presence for bigger things in film was The Virginian (1929), which incidentally was a film that dealt with a man recently finding love in the West having to deal with the ramifications of an old foe coming into town for revenge in a shootout. The amusing point in all of this is that the two films are basically the same in quality anyways, ones that serve as being pretty good for what they are with distinct human qualities that make for a useful Western. The anguish and fear shown in its lead character (with credit going to Zinnemann and cinematographer Floyd Crosby) make a resounding effort to make a panicky piece of entertainment that makes a suitable morality tale that also is a sharp real-time thriller of conscience. In the end, a town may be a town, but it is nothing if there are no good people willing to stand side by side with folks in need of help, whether that involves men bound to their duty and honor or not. It is the kind of film that enforces the idea that beyond the one person bound to serve and protect folks sees them exposed for who they are (cowardice, resentment, jealousy, or bad timing) when the cards are down, which isn't always the easiest thing to confront when seeing human nature that leads to a man needing to make a decision (in Zinnemann's words) "according to his conscience." Cooper makes the ideal lead to make this grand quandary worth watching, which works pretty well when presented with a collection of various recognizable presences that make the lineup of human frailty (well, aside from the Quaker and an assertive presence of who stands by their man most) that even overshadow the outlaws (a quartet led by MacDonald), which somehow seems right. Kelly makes a decent pacifist in the middle, but really the most suitable presence to counter Cooper in pursuit is Bridges or Jurado, who each show the side of just what past loyalties mean when it comes to pride. The climax proves worthwhile in showing the chase of just how much pride and devotion mean when staring at a frontier where guns are in the picture rather than the idea of safety. As such, High Noon is a worthwhile effort in showing the nature of man and pride in a story that is distinct from the general Western tales and myths that arise from gunslingers and towns of man and dirt. Analyze all you want about just where the best Western lies, but this one is a pretty good one to go along with no matter where you encounter it in your travels.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

The Shootist.

Review #1453: The Shootist.

Cast: 
John Wayne (J.B. Books), Lauren Bacall (Bond Rogers), Ron Howard (Gillom Rogers), James Stewart (Dr. Hostetler), Richard Boone (Sweeney), Hugh O'Brian (Pulford), Bill McKinney (Jay Cobb), Harry Morgan (Marshall Thibido), John Carradine (Beckum), Sheree North (Serepta), Rick Lenz (Dan Dobkins), and Scatman Crothers (Moses) Directed by Don Siegel (#893 - Dirty Harry and #920 - Invasion of the Body Snatchers)

Review: 
"I think in America I'm looked upon as the equivalent of a European director--which is quite laughable. I've never had a personal publicity man working for me. So all this came out of the blue--all this publicity. The cult was not engineered. It festered, in a sense. And erupted. And it did me a lot of good."

"The guy you see on the screen really isn't me. I'm Duke Morrison and I never was and never will be a film personality like John Wayne. I know him well. I'm one of his closest students. I have to be. I make a living out of him."

Time waits for no man, where a life and a career each have a beginning, middle, and eventually an end. In a career that spanned a half century, John Wayne appeared as a star or in a small part in over 150 films in a variety of genres (with the Western and war genre being the most prominent) with plenty of collaborations taking place that would serve him and others well in too many films to list. By the time of this film, he had been survived a diagnoses of lung cancer in 1964 (which led to having surgery to remove a lung and four ribs) along with other health problems for the rest of his life, which proved especially apparent for filming here (with compromised breathing during filming in Carson City alongside influenza). He was driven to do this film because of the desire to star in the title role, which apparently had been rejected by several actors such as Paul Newman and George C. Scott. Wayne finished the film but found himself diagnosed with stomach cancer in early 1979, which led to his death on June 11 at the age of 72. The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by Glendon Swarthout with a screenplay by his son Miles and Scott Hale. At the helm as director was a careful craftsman in Don Siegel, who had started his career as a montage director for Warner Brothers before becoming a director with The Verdict (1946), the first of a career comprised of noirs, action films, and Westerns (with this being the fifth-to-last film of his career). 

Wayne helped in recruiting old friends of his to star in the film, such as Stewart (his first film role in five years, having moved his focus to television work while having a hearing impediment), Bacall (who worked with him in Blood Alley 21 years earlier), Carradine (who made several appearances in Wayne films), and Boone (who had worked with Wayne before in Big Jake but is most commonly known for his lead role in Have Gun – Will Travel). There is a great deal of familiarity and foreboding nature to this film, a quiet elegy to a time of the past when it comes to the legend of the gunfighter. We've seen these kinds of characters before in other films, and we know a good deal of where the film urges to go. And yet, there is an undeniable power to how enjoyable the final result is, buoyed by a grizzled Wayne that shows plenty of dignity that we come to expect from him without becoming wrapped in self-serving pity, an actor who lives and reacts on his own terms for consistency. He may not be known as the most sensitive actor, but one can't help but care for those moments where he stands without a gun just as much as the parts with it. Bacall follows along with reserved grace to make a worthwhile pairing in the moments with Wayne, while Howard makes a curious youthful(ish) presence to accompany Wayne with slowly-growing interest. While Stewart has just two scenes in the film, it is always nice to see him around with his stately presence nonetheless, solemn yet fitting. Boone, O'Brian, and McKinney make for worthy adversaries when the moment requires it, while Morgan, Carradine and Crothers prove amusing. There were key changes made to the script from the novel, particularly with its climax. The book had ended with Howard's character shooting Wayne after the gunfight left him mortally wounded, which led to him throwing the gun away. In the film, he shoots the bartender that shoots Wayne in the back and then throws the gun away. I like the climax and its simplicity, which accompanies a film of 100 minutes that achieves most of what it wants with a carefully sensitive nature to lead up to one more gunfight that we can't help but enjoy to see play out with the familiar faces out in play. 

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

The Big Clock.

Review #882: The Big Clock.

Cast:
Ray Milland (George Stroud), Charles Laughton (Earl Janoth), Maureen O'Sullivan (Georgette Stroud), George Macready (Steve Hagen), Rita Johnson (Pauline York), Elsa Lanchester (Louise Patterson), Harry Morgan (Bill Womack), Harold Vermilyea (Don Klausmeyer), Dan Tobin (Ray Cordette), Richard Webb (Nat Sperling), Elaine Riley (Lily Gold), Luis Van Rooten (Edwin Orlin), Bobby Watson (Morton Spaulding), and Lloyd Corrigan (McKinley) Directed by John Farrow.

Review:
The Big Clock utilizes its main actors (Milland and Laughton) to great effect, in a movie that manages to work a film noir in part due to its sharp and quick pace. Laughton portrays this villain with a great kind of villainy, in part because how mean he comes off. It's so easy to see parts of this man in other people, but Laughton manages to make him seem so compelling. You know from the gecko that he's a villain, but the way he oozes the lines makes him so watchable. Milland shouldn't be forgotten either, as he makes for a good everyman protagonist. He's a believable character who isn't overplayed from reality. It is a film noir, but it also has some good snappy dialogue along with melodrama. O'Sullivan is okay, though she doesn't really get much screen time. Corrigan is pretty noteworthy, especially around the climax, alongside Macready's effort with a sniveling character. The ending of the movie is swift, after a good deal of buildup and suspense. It's a clever film where the hunter becomes the hunted, but it also is a nifty little look into newspaper editorials of the time, with a serviceable length of 95 minutes and some nice shots (such as the clock) which work well enough for me, and I'm sure it will work well enough for you as well.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Movie Night: Inherit the Wind.

Review #228: Inherit the Wind.

Cast
Spencer Tracy (Henry Drummond), Fredric March (Matthew Brady), Gene Kelly (E. K. Hornbeck),  Florence Eldridge (Sara Brady), Dick York (Bertram T. Cates), Donna Anderson (Rachel Brown), Harry Morgan (Judge Mel Coffey), Claude Atkins (Rev. Jeremiah Brown), Elliott Reid (Prosecutor Tom Davenport), and Paul Hartman (Deputy Horace Meeker) Directed by Stanley Kramer.

Review
In the last review, I talked about Gene Kelly and what he did for singing and dancing. Here, he does none of that, but he's still good in a supporting role. Why did I add that last part? It's to mention the main two leads, Tracy and March. They play off each other well, given the proceedings. The film keeps you interested all through out, and the film can still be watched today with no real problems of age. All in all, the cast works, with no real problems. Happy belated (100th) birthday to Gene Kelly. I said it was his birthday, yet I didn't say that in the last review (I'd edit it, but it wouldn't make a difference) Oh well. A hidden gem for the age. Gloomy, but useful film.

Overall, I give it 10 out of 10 stars.