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Reviews
In Which We Serve (1942)
Astoundingly long and full later lives by cast and crew.
What ensemble has surpassed this?
Noel Coward---Knighted 1970
John Mills---CBE 1960, knighted 1976
Bernard Miles---Knighted in 1969, Life Peer 1979.
Richard Attenborough---CBE 1967, knighted 1976, elevated to life peer, 1993; third president of British Academy of Film and Television Arts; Vice-president of British Academy of Film and Television Arts; Freeman of City of Leicester 1990; Fellow of King's College, London, 1993; Honorary Doctor of Literature, Universities of Leicester, Kent and Sussex in 1970, 1981 and 1987 respectively; Life Vice-President of Chelsea Football Club; President, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art; Patricia Rothermere Award for lifelong service to theater, 2003 London Evening Standard Theatre Awards; Chairman, Royal Acadamy of Dramatic Arts; Chancellor, University of Sussex.
Hubert Gregg---MBE 2002
John Ulick---Knatchbull Seventh Baron Brabourne; son-in-law of the First Sea Lord, Lord Louis Mountbatten; Governor, British Film Institute; CBE 1983
Anthony Havelock-Allan---4th Baronet
Ronald Neame---CBE 1996
Zatôichi kenka-tabi (1963)
Masterful samurai among the masterless (those hapless choppers who should have remained so)
Fierce fighter, but humble, deferential to a fault, carefully rewards goodness only when he cannot be thanked, protective of innocents --- much like our finest cowboy heroes (Shane, Coop in Noon, Clint).
My wife likes The Shield for the same reasons she likes Hollywood's version of Cosa Nostra: protect the innocent, swiftly and without recourse punish the guilty.
If Michael Corleone ran the justice system, would O.J. be playing golf? Would the beaten, threatened common-law wife be turned away from the police station with "until he actually kills you, the ACLU won't allow us to do anything?"
Just saw the first sequel episode, #2. The print I found appears to be a crude chop job by Janus Films, that marketer having rudely hacked off the correct ending.
Against All Odds (1984)
Hidden Hollywood continuity, here!
Just saw the perfect black-and-white Turner print of the film-nwahr classic Out Of The Past (1947), starring Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas, Jane Greer, Rhonda Fleming, and other soon-to-be huge stars I knew about. I clicked through on one I didn't, Paul Valentine, who played the terrific polished gunsel, and found him in this remake, as was treacherous babe Jane Greer. If you'd like to see more of the late, great Phil Hartman, check out his uncanny resemblance to Paul Valentine in Out Of The Past.
Air Force (1943)
A more important film than the latté crowd may realize.
The "Got him!" dogfight in Star Wars was practically cut-by-cut from Air Force (just as Indiana Jones lifted the Big Round Boulder scene directly from an Uncle Scrooge comic, but that's another review). Air Force's Dying Pilot scene (check-listing his crew for takeoff, job by job, and they respond) is almost unendurable to any man who has worked in danger and loss with other men. The crew's field-modifying the pre-G-series B-17 to equip it with an effective tail gun, (and stripping hulks for usable parts!) helped prepared me as a boy of the 1950s for my young manhood up on the high banks of Talladega and Daytona, and for business and traffic today. I trust our current young soldiers have found their own examples for courage and resourcefulness as they defend us today.
Phaedra (1962)
Powerful classic made perfectly modern, almost poetic in its quick, tight action.
Just as the film Forrest Gump was a finer story than the somewhat unpleasant original novel, Jules Dassin's Phaedra far outdoes Jean Racine's 1677 play, which was in turn based on Euripides's Hippolytus.
Familiar as we are with the world's new royalty (the fabulously wealthy) it makes perfect sense to set a Greek classic in the family of a Greek billionaire shipping tycoon (think Aristotle Onassis / Stavros Niarchos), and to involve other European settings, an expensive and elegant automobile (Aston Martin DB4GT, I believe: "0-100-0 in 21.8 seconds"), and a son and stepmother who are educated, move easily among commoners and the powerful, and are thoroughly likeable.
Following one of the most erotic scenes in film (although, delightfully, not at all explicit; the telephone scene in It's A Wonderful Life is also in the running), it is difficult not to feel the depth of loss as the family, indeed the entire empire, unravels.
Unforgettable, but only to those who have seen it. Are there no prints available? Isn't director Jules Dassin still alive? Isn't it about time for a DVD of this fine, intense film? If you were comfortable with Sean Connery's James Bond in Dr. No, but would have been even happier had it been edgier, less cartoonish, and in crisp, almost 3-dimensional black and white, you have been missing this movie.