It's back to WWII with Command Decision (1949).
This is an interesting one: a movie about WWII bombing that doesn't really have any depiction of combat or other action. Loading bombs onto B-17s and one scene of an emergency landing make up the bulk of the action. No, this is a very talky show about the importance of strategic bombing during the war and the (according to its author at least) need to just let those military men do their damn jobs! The main idea here is that Clark Gable's General Dennis character has a secret mission: the destruction of a German facility that is working on new jet fighters that, according to the movie will tip the balance in the war (this is pretty exaggerated here as the German jet capacity wasn't nearly as large as the movie portrays). The problem is that the facilities are deep in Germany and the bombers have to fly beyond the range of fighter support, leaving them vulnerable to attack so each mission is racking up heavy casualties. Those losses and the pressure by visiting politicians and reporters to minimize the numbers of American dead are the conflicts here. Dennis truly believes in the mission but his superiors and a wary press are questioning it.
In the end, the film clearly comes down on the side of not questioning the people making the "command decisions". The reporters come off as weak and the civilian elected leaders are meddling fools who must be talked to like children. Now, I don't doubt that there is truth in this and things do change during a war setting but the film is very one sided about this. It's also conveniently free of any concern about the horrible civilian losses during the war due to the gazillion tons of bombs that were dropped on cities. I wouldn't expect this kind of perspective in a film made during the war, but this was a few years later and in that context, it seems already retrograde and a little bit propagandistic. By 1949, America was more ready to hear a better balanced story of the war (again, this is probably all present in the source play). Still, it's an interesting show and is different from most movies I've seen of the genre. I think the most powerful parts are the drama about Gable's character dealing with the pressure of having so many men in his command sent to their graves every day; the scenes where he is dealing with this are good.
This was based on a broadway play and it doesn't seem as though it was changed a whole lot for its film adaptation. Most of the movie is confined to a few static sets with the characters delivering long winded speeches. The show is slow going at the beginning but comes more alive in the second half.
Gable is actually good here, even in a non action role. Van Johnson plays a snarky, proto-Radar O'Reilly sergeant and Walter Pigeon as Gable's boss. Pidgeon rattles off his speeches well but seems exactly the same as his Dr. Morbius character from Forbidden Planet ("The Krell must not be allowed to develop jets!").
Tuesday, May 26, 2020
Friday, May 8, 2020
Dad's Movies: The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933)
Today we have The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933)
This movie came up conveniently while I am reading this book on director Frank Capra (this was one of his earlier films, perhaps the earliest important one) and it was an interesting choice as it's not really the stereotypical Capra movie like It's A Wonderful Life or Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
This is mainly an "exotic" romantic drama, set as it is during a Chinese civil war. The film is tough sledding for a modern audience as you'd expect given the time it was made, the casting of a Swedish actor to play the Chinese general, and the usual colonialist dismissal of other cultures. However, again given the context of the time, the movie does push some boundaries here and there.
The American missionaries aren't perfect and there is doubt expressed in the dialogue about whether their work in China is worthwhile (this is much more prominent in the source novel which doesn't have the romantic angle but is instead more focused on the philosophical differences between Western and Chinese culture) but the biggest thing here is the potential for a relationship between Stanwyk's character, the fiancee of an American missionary, and the Chinese general. In fact she even has a dream sequence where Yen comes to her bed in the night and is clearly meant to be sexual. This was a pre-code film so anything even suggesting of desire between a white woman and any man not similarly white was soon to be forbidden in American movies which makes this movie an interesting watch.
The performances are actually good. This was an early performance in Barbara Stanwyck's career and while she's good here as Megan, she got better in future movies with a great long-lasting run of movies and television. Nils Asther, as Yen is pretty wooden but I suspect it's the part he was playing. I will say that while he's not the most interesting guy, he does at least have some amount of depth. However, I felt it was a stretch to see what Megan finds desirable about him other than his being so exotic but maybe that's the point here. It also helps that her fiancee is sympathetic if uninteresting.
This is also one of the most artistic films Capra did before settling into his usual style which would, at least for a while, serve him well. There are interesting readings of this movie regarding Capra's mental makeup: frustrated romance and suicidal ideas emerge here and did in at least one earlier Capra movie plus several future ones (Wonderful Life being a prime example of Capra's use of suicide in his movies). The book I'm reading about Capra also mentions that Capra had been having an affair with Stanwyck that had recently ended around the time this movie was made. The implication seems to be that Capra projected his own self into the character of Yen: this thing between me and Megan/Stanwyck isn't going to be possible so I no longer have anything to live for. At least that's the idea. The film also has a lot of visual flair with a fairly dreary mood; much of the movie seems to take place on rainy nights.
So, an interesting movie that I'd tentatively recommend if you can look past the problematic issues and definitely worth seeking out for anyone interested in Capra's lesser known movies.
This movie came up conveniently while I am reading this book on director Frank Capra (this was one of his earlier films, perhaps the earliest important one) and it was an interesting choice as it's not really the stereotypical Capra movie like It's A Wonderful Life or Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
This is mainly an "exotic" romantic drama, set as it is during a Chinese civil war. The film is tough sledding for a modern audience as you'd expect given the time it was made, the casting of a Swedish actor to play the Chinese general, and the usual colonialist dismissal of other cultures. However, again given the context of the time, the movie does push some boundaries here and there.
The American missionaries aren't perfect and there is doubt expressed in the dialogue about whether their work in China is worthwhile (this is much more prominent in the source novel which doesn't have the romantic angle but is instead more focused on the philosophical differences between Western and Chinese culture) but the biggest thing here is the potential for a relationship between Stanwyk's character, the fiancee of an American missionary, and the Chinese general. In fact she even has a dream sequence where Yen comes to her bed in the night and is clearly meant to be sexual. This was a pre-code film so anything even suggesting of desire between a white woman and any man not similarly white was soon to be forbidden in American movies which makes this movie an interesting watch.
The performances are actually good. This was an early performance in Barbara Stanwyck's career and while she's good here as Megan, she got better in future movies with a great long-lasting run of movies and television. Nils Asther, as Yen is pretty wooden but I suspect it's the part he was playing. I will say that while he's not the most interesting guy, he does at least have some amount of depth. However, I felt it was a stretch to see what Megan finds desirable about him other than his being so exotic but maybe that's the point here. It also helps that her fiancee is sympathetic if uninteresting.
This is also one of the most artistic films Capra did before settling into his usual style which would, at least for a while, serve him well. There are interesting readings of this movie regarding Capra's mental makeup: frustrated romance and suicidal ideas emerge here and did in at least one earlier Capra movie plus several future ones (Wonderful Life being a prime example of Capra's use of suicide in his movies). The book I'm reading about Capra also mentions that Capra had been having an affair with Stanwyck that had recently ended around the time this movie was made. The implication seems to be that Capra projected his own self into the character of Yen: this thing between me and Megan/Stanwyck isn't going to be possible so I no longer have anything to live for. At least that's the idea. The film also has a lot of visual flair with a fairly dreary mood; much of the movie seems to take place on rainy nights.
So, an interesting movie that I'd tentatively recommend if you can look past the problematic issues and definitely worth seeking out for anyone interested in Capra's lesser known movies.
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