Dad's Movies: "Random Harvest"

 I've amassed such a large number of movies on my Plex server that I resorted to hitting Shuffle on the main directory to pick what to watch next. This, from the ones I haven't seen yet, came up, uh, Randomly.

Random Harvest (1942) was probably something my Dad saw when it was released, possibly in between shifts at the factory he worked at during the war building P-51 planes. OK, I don't know this for certain but why not?

This is a pretty classic old Hollywood/MGM glossy romantic melodrama or as they often called them at the time, "Women's Pictures" or "Weepies". This one certainly earns the weepy label with its generous helpings of romance and tragedy. The now-tired amnesia plot device is actually used well in this movie and the movie is paced well enough to give you a real sense of the passage of time. 

Garson and Colman are both great and play the roles with restraint which is welcome for the time. Colman seems a bit old, if I am being picky. There's also the relationship with the much younger woman but this is not out of the ordinary for the time (or now?).

I can see some people not going for this but really for what it is, I feel like it does work. And yes, it IS a tearjerker.

Dad's Movies: Desperate Journey

 This wasn't on the original list but it should have been. 

The WW2 1942 pseudo propaganda adventure movie, Desperate Journey.

I've been watching and reading about the movies that Frank Capra and others made during the war for the US Government and this seemed like a good follow up. While it isn't strictly propaganda, it has a lot of rah rah, go team Allies posturing; typical for the time certainly. 

The characters, meant to be a cross section of Allied flyers, are mostly stock with the obligatory wise cracking American and old overweight guy who's mostly there for comic relief. This comedy is mainly in the form of spitting on Germans and constantly talking about how hungry he is. At least he has a backstory. I think, for what this was meant to be, it actually does fine, even if the whole thing looks extremely silly today. Most of the action is on a slapstick level that relies on the Germans being really incompetent. I find it interesting that movies at the time went back and forth between portraying the Nazis as this super powerful force that had to be fought to a bunch of bumbling Colonel Klink-like characters. 

Flynn is actually pretty good in this and I guess Reagan is fine though I found myself wishing one of the Germans had kicked his ass a few times. Maybe I'm biased but I found him really irritating as a smug, "clever" American character. Some of the blame goes to the script of course but Reagan puts it over. However, this might be one of his best movies. Go figure.

The whole thing seemed overlong and the cartoon-like action wore out its welcome about 90 minutes in but really, for what this movie was setting out to do, not so bad.

Dad's Movies: The Counterfeit Traitor

 Today, we have The Counterfeit Traitor (1962)

This movie, based at least partially on a true story, is a refreshing counter to most WW2 movies of the time which tended to be more action-adventure escape crowd-pleasers that didn't exactly shine in the realism department. I enjoy these as much as anyone, but "The Guns of Navarone" doesn't really shine a light into the seriousness of the war. The story, an American ex-pat businessman who is drawn into an espionage plot, is one of those less glamorous under the surface stories that has a lot going for it. Unfortunately, it's let down by some droning William Holden narration that seems to have to explain everything that's going on and the pacing/directing that really needs a different approach as this story isn't going to just jump out. 

Once the movie gets going, it improves and the cast does well though Holden seems kind of bored at times. Lili Palmer is good as the German who helps on the plot and the love interest and there's even a brief appearance by Klaus Kinski! 

I don't normally advocate for remakes of old movies but I think a modern version of this story could be really good. In different hands, this could benefit from a contemporary style with more realism which would suit the seriousness of the screenplay. And better costumes:  most of the cast looks very 1962.

I'd guess that Dad saw this one when it came out and wanted to see it again. It may very well have played better at the time and on a big screen; lots of good location work.

Dad's Movies: The Conspirators

 Did you ever think, while watching "Casablanca" that you wanted to see more of the Victor Laszlo character? Well, 1944's The Conspirators is the movie for you!

This was obviously another attempt, among others, to repeat the success of "Casablanca" with some of the same cast and similar looking locations. While Paul Henreid's lead character has a lot more action and sneaking around here, the love story lacks chemistry.  Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre are pretty much playing the same characters they were in the earlier film. The whole thing has a plot that is too complicated for its own good and feels too long with too many scenes of people sitting around explaining the plot details. So no, it's not "Casablanca 2" but they were never going to repeat what they did in that movie.

I suspect Dad watched this one when it came out and likely sought it out when it came to DVD. It has become obscure enough to day that it wouldn't surprise me if it hadn't been on video before then. It's another one I would have loved to discuss with him, mostly how it held up, watching it again decades later.

Dad's Movies: "Decision Before Dawn"

It's been slow going getting through this admittedly long list but here's another one.

Decision Before Dawn (1951)

This was a really interesting WW2 film about espionage in the waning days of the war in Europe that provides a a bridge, stylistically at least, between the older war/spy genres and the Cold War hard-edged movies that would follow. The show opens with what would have been at the time, a fairly conventional setup with German POWs and their American captors who need intelligence on the German military what has not yet been defeated. You almost expect the movie to lead in a "Dirty Dozen" direction with the commander putting together a team of German prisoners willing to basically betray their own nation but the focus becomes one of the Germans' motivations.

The movie is a little slow to get going with narration doing some of the heavy lifting exposition work but once the scene changes to German soil, the movie gets a lot more interesting. The scenes where the team goes behind enemy lines, which were actually filmed in German cities, look very real with a quality you don't usually see in WW2 movies of that era. The main focus of the movie really is Oskar Werner's young German medic who completely overshadows the top billed star, Richard Basehart. I find Werner, who was really underused in his overall career, great in anything I've seen him in. This was his First American film. 

By modern standards, this film is a mixed bag. The voice overs seem creaky now and the Germans, who were as far as I can tell, really Germans (not Brits playing Nazis as a lot of other movies seemed to do) all speak English, even when the scenes are ostensibly in Germany. However, it's unrealistic to expect a Hollywood production to have extended scenes with subtitles in 1951. However, the photography and editing pace, combined with the realism of the bombed-out locations in Germany, make the movie look ahead of its time.

I'll be revisiting this one for sure.

Dad's Movies: "Cluny Brown"

This movie wasn't on my Dad's initial list since he never got around to getting a copy. However, among the files he left on his computer was a list of "films to look for" which was his running list of movies he wanted to seek out on video that he remembered liking from long ago. He'd found most of these but "Cluny Brown" (1946) was one of them. I don't think it was on DVD before and Criterion did a blu ray just last year. There are a few others from this list I am still looking out for.

He was right to be looking for this one. This was my first viewing of this Lubitsch classic rom-com/sendup of British class and society (albeit in the 1930s) and it won't be the last.

Jones and Boyer are so charming and well developed as characters but not overplayed. The rest of the cast is just right as the fairly ridiculous and silly supporting characters. The movie doesn't make a false move or overstay its welcome. It's also an interesting contrast to Jennifer Jones' other film made around the same time, "Duel In The Sun" which can also be amusing when watched today but not intentionally. Jones is obviously working very hard on both films but the result couldn't be more different. I have to chalk this up to Lubitsch being allowed to direct Jones free of her then-husband David O Selznick who often meddled in her movies, including the screenplays. The result is clear and made me forget all about the campy and overheated performance she gave in "Duel".

Lastly, the movie holds up with the way the woman's character is so much more developed, with agency intact than so many other movies of this era so it comes off as relatively progressive (and hey, she fixes peoples' sinks!). 

Dad's Movies: The Hill

 Up today:  The Hill (1965).

I think this was part of another DVD box set so I don't really know if this is one my Dad sought out. The rest of the films don't seem to be in the same league as this one, at least emotionally. The box set is called "The World War II Collection, Vol. 2: Heroes Fight for Freedom" which is a bit of a stretch for this movie. 

I somehow had the idea going in that this was at least somewhat a WW2 combat film; the film's title is vague enough for this idea.

Instead, this turned out to be a fantastic prison drama that points its spotlight at the English military and abusive authority. The movie takes place during the war but confines its subject to the central characters and the cruel system they are all trapped in.

The film mostly takes place in one location set but never feels stagey. The screenplay is tight and Lumet really paces the film well and lets the cast do their best. 

That cast is something else. Everyone is great and yes, at times the performances are almost over the top but no one chews the scenery; the high voltage scenes and emotional dialogue are all earned.

Connery is so good here; one of his very best performances with a lot more range than he usually had in his acting. It's kind of hard to believe he did this movie while making his iconic Bond films. I picked this movie, which I'd not seen before, to mark the passing of Connery and I'm very glad I did. I like him in anything he did but this movie really stands out. 

This is one of the few times I've had to turn on the English subtitles in an English language film. The location (I assume) dialogue recording can get a little muddy and the accents get thick for me when the actors are screaming at each other.

The Hill is sometimes hard to watch and of course a very tense 2 hours but I am looking forward to revisiting. It deserves to be better known.