edfitzgerald Reviews

The Outfit (1973)

Entertaining, engrossing, well-crafted...

[7/10 · 11 November 2006]

...and totally disposable. This is the kind of film that keeps your attention throughout, is very nicely put together, with good, understated, performances and action scenes that seem completely realistic and not overblown, but when you finish watching it, it's over. It doesn't prompt you to want to see it again or to wish you had recorded it, nor does it have any really memorable scenes or characters. If it comes by again, I might well take the time to watch it, but I doubt I'll seek it out. It's the perfect entertaining, engrossing, well-crafted disposable film.

(And I agree with the earlier commenter who disparaged the score, which is trite and not nearly of the caliber of the other production elements.)

The Man Who Never Was (1956)

A fine, understated film with some unfortunate flaws

[8/10 · 22 May 2006]

"The Man Who Never Was" is a fine film, made and performed in an understated style quite unlike most war films. The story is interesting, and based on a true incident, and it is fairly compelling to watch. (I, for instance, was only planning on sampling a bit of it and was instead pulled into watching it all the way through.) Because it is generally quite good, it is disconcerting that there are some flaws in it. Fortunately, they are not fatal, but they do detract somewhat from the experience of watching it.

-- Since they took great pains to make Major Martin's backstory as believable as possible, it's inconceivable to me that they didn't take steps to providing as much supporting evidence for it as possible, to cover the possibility of someone investigating it. For the Germans, the stakes in believing that Martin is genuine are immense, so it was to be expected that they would do whatever they could to check out the story. Nevertheless, Montagu leaves a number of holes which could, if discovered have disastrous effect. Whether this is a flaw in the plot of the movie, or a flaw in the real-life plan is unknown to me.

-- For instance, they took pains to give Martin a membership in a club, but didn't take the relatively obvious step of having his name entered on the rolls there. With high military and naval officials being involved in the implementation of the plan, certainly it would have been easy to get someone to add Martin's name to the club's list of members.

-- Similarly, their use of the photograph of the roommate as Martin's fiancé seems poorly thought out, especially since her address is also used on the letter he carries from her, and a photograph of her is included, making it quite easy for her to be traced. The use of a real person is fine, but since they did not brief her, the story relies on a tremendous coincidence -- the death of Lucy's fiancé on the same day -- to provoke her into behaving the way the German agent would expect her to. Wouldn't it have been better to use the secretary herself as the girlfriend, or someone else who could be briefed about what to say if they were approached about "Willie"? Again, it's impossible to know, without reading the underlying book, if this is an error in the plot of the movie, or a mistake made in real life.

-- Lucy's serendipitous performance as a emotionally devastated, and somewhat drunk, woman whose lover has died is not only an amazingly lucky thing to have happened, but is also somewhat unbelievable, since she makes clear reference to "Willie Martin" throughout, making it difficult to believe that what she's saying arises from her confusing Willie Martin with her dead lover. If this is what happened in real life, then I'd say that the screenplay does a remarkably poor job of presenting this scene in a believable fashion.

-- As opposed to the rest of the performances, Gloria Graham's as the roommate is all flash and no nuance, totally out of place by comparison.

-- After giving out his address to the two women, the German agent sends a message to his controller that Martin may be genuine. If they hear from him in one hour, he's real, if not, he isn't. This is clearly ridiculous, since it implies that the agent is absolutely certain that the authorities will come for him within the hour. What, for instance, if they came in 90 minutes, because someone had trouble reaching somebody else for authorization to arrest the agent? If they missed the one-hour deadline, the agent sends the message that Martin is real, and then, when he is arrested, he finds out he was wrong, but he can no longer let his masters know. More likely, he would have told them something on the order of that he would report in every hour up until the time he had to leave London. If he reported in every time, then Martin is real, if the messages stop, it's probable that Martin in false. Perhaps that's what happened in the real story, and what we see is a necessary cinematic condensation, but, if so, it should have been better done.

-- Finally, the scene at the end where a map of Sicily is shown, and lurid voiceovers say "Martin genuine, 6 flotillas of boats will leave Sicily for the Aegean" and so on is completely out of character with the style of the rest of the film, and is therefore quite grating and annoying.

As I wrote, this is a good film, well worth tracking down and watching, in spite of its minor faults.

The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938)

Two Doctors

[7/10 · 18 December 2005]

It's interesting to muse about the similarities and differences between "The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse" and Fritz Lang's "Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse". In both, medical doctors become underworld bosses, and both main characters are mentally unbalanced.

Although they are vastly different films -- "Mabuse" is dark, almost noirish, with a stylistic debt to German Expressionism, while "Clitterhouse" is more straightforward and less stylistically defined -- it's almost as if "Clitterhouse" was intended to be the lighter, comic, Americanized version of "Mabuse", which predated it by 5 years. At the very least, I wonder if "Mabuse" was the initial inspiration for writing "Clitterhouse."

I found "The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse" to be entertaining, if not among the best of the period's films.

Bullitt (1968)

Excellent sound

[9/10 · 1 June 2005]

I haven't read through all the comments, but I've yet to see one which points out that along with the exemplary and minimalist use of music, the sound work in "Bullitt" is extremely good, especially in the use of environmental sound. It's something to pay particular attention to if you see if for a second or third time. The vivid and ultra-realistic (sometimes almost, but not quite, to the point of stylization) but never superfluous sound allows the long passages without dialogue or music to exist and not seem empty.

As with many other aspects of this excellent film, current practitioners could learn more than a few lessons from the sound in "Bullitt."

For Me and My Gal (1942)

One to keep coming back to

[14 August 2003]

I keep coming back to this film for many reasons. The vaudeville-based story is an attractive look at a bygone era in American theatrical history, and, while it's almost certainly been romanticized in the process, the feel of it and many of the details seem right to me. Then there's the way Kelly and Garland work together onstage. I wouldn't say there was an inordinate amount of "chemistry" between them -- you don't see sparks flying or feel any real sexuality in their relationship -- but they blend extremely well, and look and sound good when they're performing together, despite Garland's obvious lesser dancing skills compared to Kelly. Other reviewers here have commented on the propagandistic nature of the film, and it's impossible to deny the truth of that, and yet, despite that ulterior motivation, and the thinness of the plot's conceit, the film inevitably, after many viewings, provokes me to tears at the end.

I wouldn't say that this film is one of my top ten, or a standout piece of cinema, but it certainly is a sentimental favorite, and I would heartily recommend it to anyone who is interested in vaudeville, enjoys seeing a good song-and-dance routine, likes either of the two stars, and who will, occasionally, allow themselves to be moved by a simple, somewhat corny, story. For those people, as it is for me, this film will be a delight.

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

On the killing of non-combatant civilians

[25 July 2003]

Regarding the question of the killing of non-combatants civilans:

Soldiers are indeed required to avoid civilian casualties whenever possible, but they are also required to not put civilians into harm's way. Also, the use of civilians as shields is forbidden. Since the German facility is clearly a legitimate military target, and since the Germans brought the civilians there, the fault here is not primarily with the Dirty Dozen, it's with the Germans, who put those civilians in danger.

Crimson Tide (1995)

Unbelievable ending, overwrought music mar OK film

[1 December 2001]

I was captured by the dramatic tension of this film, but, at the same time I was bothered by the overwrought score, some of the portrayals of crew members as being unable to do their jobs without shouting or overreacting to difficult situations, and the very conventional (and quite unbelievable) happy ending, which seemed to have been tacked on to avoid resolving the very difficult quandary that the screenplay sets up, i.e. who was right?

Other commentators have written that the situation central to this film's scenario could never happen, that an Executive Office and a Captain on a submarine would never find themselves at loggerheads like this, and that may be true -- I have no military experience to say otherwise. But once the writers have set up this conflict, they should at least have the honesty to tell us who *they* think was right, and who was wrong.

There are a number of ways they could have done this. The Navy board of inquiry could have recommended punishment for one or the other, Gene Hackman or Denzel Washington, and the writers could then have easily indicated whether they agreed or disagreed with that judgment. But to have the Navy make a completely unbelievable Solomon-like decision that *both* men were both right and wrong is a complete cop out.

If other commentators here are correct in saying that Hackman was within Navy regs to continue with the firing of the nuclear missiles, then what Washington did was wrong and deserved punishment. If the Captains's attempt to replace the XO when he refused to confirm the firing order was out of line (as George Dzundza character says it is), then *he* should be punished. Bureaucracies, especially hierarchical ones such as the military, generally prefer to pick a hero and a goat in any situation, and this one would have been no exception. In fact, a film about the court martial which followed these events might have been as interesting as The Caine Mutiny.

It seems possible to me that the writers could not bring themselves to let Washington be punished because he was "right" in that he avoided starting World War III, but, given the seriousness of his actions (which are not properly a "mutiny" *if* they were justified by the regulations), the Navy would not shy away from dishing out *some* sort of punishment, even if it was only to bury him in some non-combat administrative post.

Taxman (1998)

Interesting, realistic characters anchor engaging indie cop film

[8/10 · 28 October 2000]

I caught this on HBO while channel surfing and was almost immediately pulled into it -- it was so refreshing to see a cop film that was realistic, with believable characters who weren't superheroes, the kind of cops who get winded when they chase after a suspect and manage not to kill everyone in sight (in slow motion and utilizing more moves than the entire Romanian Olympic gymnastic team). The two main characters were real human beings who screwed up, went down blind alleys, made wrong assumptions, exploded in frustration when they should have stayed silent, did the right thing for the wrong reasons, and yet, in the end, did some good. I've noted in some of the other comments that people were put off by the fact that these guys were flawed, but that was exactly what attracted me about them.

I thought the direction of the film was very understated, yet avoided the kind of studied casualness that's considered stylish these days. The story was engaging and kept me involved. The film moved along at a good clip, but took time out for the lead character to contemplate the situation as it developed. Although there may have been a few holes in the plot, I wasn't overly aware of them, and they certainly weren't as egregious as those we've grown used to in most blockbuster films.

This was not a perfect film, and the elements from which it is put together (outcast cops buck the system, persevere and triumph) border on the cliche, but it's a film I would gladly watch again, and perhaps even want to keep in my permanent collection