The General Died at Dawn.

Review #2055: The General Died at Dawn.

Cast: 

Gary Cooper (O'Hara), Madeleine Carroll (Judy Perrie), Akim Tamiroff (General Yang), Dudley Digges (Mr. Wu), Porter Hall (Peter Perrie/Peter Martin), William Frawley (Brighton), J.M. Kerrigan (Leach), Philip Ahn (Oxford), Lee Tung Foo (Mr. Chen), and Leonid Kinskey (Stewart) Directed by Lewis Milestone (#901 - The Racket, #1336 - The Front Page, #1709 - Ocean's 11)

Review: 

Okay, it might sound a bit odd to pick this film out in the middle of a career, but Lewis Milestone is a pretty good one to spotlight again. If you can do films such as Two Arabian Knights (1927) and All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), one wouldn't be surprised to see him here with a melodrama action film. Of course, anyone was a student of Columbia University's School of Military Cinematography within the Signal Corps would have a good knowledge of photography. He started in comedy but took on various genres, one of which included adventure-melodrama. He needed it after his last two films (both musicals) in Paris in Spring (1935) and Anything Goes (1936) flopped. While he later considered The General Died at Dawn a film "of little consequence", it ended up being a pretty noted feature in his lengthy career. The film was written by Charles G. Booth and Clifford Odets. Odets was a noted playwright for his social dramas who did a handful of scripts (some without credit) while Booth was just starting out as a screenwriter (one of his future stories with The House on 92nd Street (1942) would win him an Academy Award).

So, we have a tale of a man who likes to root for the underdog and therefore has decided to help people from their oppression. In that sense, it reminds one of the real-life figure Two-Gun Cohen, a British/Canadian adventure with Jewish roots that basically became a soldier of fortune for Chinese-related efforts (such as the National Revolutionary Army). Some of this plays out pretty well in cynicism in the portrayal laid out by Cooper more so than anybody else for a film made in a time where Armenian actors are put out in latex to play Asian characters. If you enjoyed the exploits of train adventure involving warlords with Shanghai Express (1932), you will find plenty to partake here, although obviously they don't have the same dynamics. Cooper and Carroll make an adequate pair together, mostly since the latter isn't given as much to do despite being quite engaging, but their last scenes together around the climax do the job. Tamiroff, Hall, and Kerrigan are the general adversaries, although obviously attention is focused on the first one (since he was the one actor to receive an Academy Award nomination here). Tamiroff accomplishes the main goal with worthy timing and edge, while Hall makes a quality fool and Kerrigan makes a most useful sinister toady. This is basically a "wham-bam and figure the plot eventually ma'am" kind of movie, where you kind of just have to go with whatever the film is laying out and hope things play out to satisfaction. Like other adventures for others to identify, it is the kind of movie where one might as well be asking, "why not just shoot him?". Aside from its final conclusion, the movie does work out to expectations. And what I mean by that is the part where the lead character has to convince the villain to save their lives...so that they can tell others about the General's exploits due to their impending death. And, well, since you already read this, the General then orders his men to kill each other for the honor. No, really. If you can take the film seriously enough for most of its 98-minute runtime, even an ending that may verge on "convenient" may work fine enough to not ruin the general experience. I will go with what the movie is running with its attempts in the general sense of romances and adventure at dawn and call it a pleasant one to recommend. With a director like Milestone, it is a quality mission for one to accept.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

That Night in Rio.

Review #1357: That Night in Rio.

Cast: 
Don Ameche (Larry Martin / Baron Manuel Duarte), Alice Faye (Baroness Cecilia Duarte), Carmen Miranda (Carmen), S. Z. Sakall (Arthur Penna), J. Carrol Naish (Machado), Curt Bois (Felicio Salles), Leonid Kinskey (Monsieur Pierre Dufond), and Frank Puglia (Pedro) Directed by Irving Cummings (#1328 - In Old Arizona)

Review: 
Everybody needs a bit of musical comedy flair now and then. It does help to have a good trio at hand to deliver a few musical numbers and laughs, complete with Technicolor and a bit of worldly charm that makes for a moderately decent time. It was the second of three adaptations of the play The Red Cat, which Fox Film had adapted as Folies Bergère de Paris (1935) while 20th Century Fox would do it over again with On the Riviera (1951). This was the sixth and final pairing of Ameche and Faye in a film together along with the second film of Ameche with Miranda (after Down Argentine Way, also directed by Cummings). Miranda had arrived to the United States in 1939 from Brazil (where she had made a few appearances on film), making her way onto Broadway that year before making her American film debut with Down Argentine Way the following year. She appeared in numerous films for Fox over six years, and she was one of the highest paid entertainers of those years, although she soon went into decline and tragically died at 46 in 1955. With her fruit hat and absorbing personality, she certainly captures your attention fairly well. Her and Ameche certainly have a few moments to get a few laughs with quirky chemistry together and a diverting number or two. Ameche does fine with a double role that goes pretty much exactly as you might expect (it's the journey that counts, one would argue), a double-act that can be diverting to see the differences. Faye carries off her part with fair timing and singing to go alongside a storyline (done by five writers in George Seaton, Bess Meredyth, Hal Long, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Jessie Ernst) that gives a few by-the-book things that she does without too much trouble. The rest of the cast do just fine, making things go by with casual timing for a casual film. If one needs to kill time for 91 minutes with something flashy and fairly charming, I suppose one can't go wrong with something like this. It may be a bit predictable, but it is the kind of escapist entertainment that can deliver a smile or two at times for the curious, if one is into that sort of thing. The 1940s have plenty of films to pick from in musicals, and That Night in Rio has a fair standing as average yet useful to recommend to others.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.