Movies A to Z: Angels with Dirty Faces

Angels with Dirty Faces (1938 dir. Michael Curtiz) is Warner Brothers social conscience movie making at its best. Pat O’Brien and Jimmy Cagney are perfect as the boyhood friends whose lives take opposite turns. One couldn’t run fast enough to escape the cops after a bit of childish stealing and ends up in reform school, prison and a life of crime. The other becomes a reformist priest, Jerry Connolly, ministering to the Dean End Kids of his parish and pitting himself against corruption, determined to weed it out of his city even if it means turning against the friend he still loves, despite his criminal ways. Cagney is brilliant in the role of Rocky Sullivan. He’s wound up like a spring as he delivers his snappy liners (“Waddya know? Waddya say?”). “It girl” Ann Sheridan is great as street-smart Laury Ferguson, caught between her love for Rocky and her innate sense of justice. Humphrey Bogart, on the verge of becoming a leading man in his own right, is at this point in his career still in the role of sideman to Cagney (as in other classic Warner gangster films such as The Roaring Twenties). His performance as the menacing, scheming and slippery James Frazier shows the charisma he will soon take into leading roles in such films as The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep. Michael Curtiz does not get the attention he deserves as one of the great Hollywood film directors (Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood). His use of shadows during Cagney’s walk to the chair (see the still below) and the way the camera tracks with the anti-hero’s every step leads to a dramatic climax you will not soon forget. Rocky’s final act of selfless service redeems him and Father Connolly leads the Dead End kids up the stairs out of the basement and into the light of heaven. Highly recommended – four stars. You can enjoy the trailer by clicking here.

Movies A-Z: The African Queen

The African Queen (1951, dir. John Huston) is what classic Hollywood is all about. Based on C.S. Forester’s novel of the same name, it’s both a rollicking adventure and a touching romance. It reels back and forth between laugh-out-load humour, and lump-in-the-throat sentiment, and you just can’t help yourself; it grabs you by the heart strings every time. Humphrey Bogart received his long overdue best actor Oscar for his pitch perfect portrayal of happy-go-lucky adventurer Charley Allnut. His chemistry with Katherine Hepburn as straight-laced missionary Rose is perfect. The dialogue is whip-smart and watching their romance slowly develop through one adversity after another on their wild river wide is a delightful experience. John Huston took the actors on location to Africa (Bogart already dying of cancer wearing wigs to hide his hair loss from medical treatment) and frustrated the studio by going way over time and way over budget. (For a fascinating semi-fictional retelling of the making of the film see Clint Eastwood’s Black Hunter White Heart). But the location shooting pays off, even though there is clearly also stock footage in use here and there.

For all its brilliance, there are a few false notes. Bogart’s character is Canadian but there isn’t even an attempt at a Canadian accent. The script drops the ball on historical accuracy when Morling’s missionary demonstrates envy at a former junior classmate who has been promoted to bishop. Rose and her brother (played well by Robert Morling) are English missionaries and only American Methodists had bishops. A small error perhaps and lost on the average moviegoer I’m sure. Rose and her brother serve “1^st Methodist Church Kundun” in German East Africa in September 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War. There is some nice historical detail. As “the Brother” is taking tea he is reading a Methodist newspaper and the camera shows us the titles of two articles adorned with portraits of their subjects. One is “Charles Wesley’s Masterpiece: Wresting Jacob” and the other is “In Praise of [John] Wesley’s Literary Style.” There is even an advertisement for “Wesleyan Wind Pills” a humorous nod to Charley Allnut’s uncouth stomach rumblings at the tea table.

The film takes us on an exciting journey down the river as Charley and Rose decide to wager all on an attempt to do their bit for the British Empire and sink a German cruiser guarding the headwaters of the river. Their leaky little river steamer is faithful and unreliable in turns, much like its captain, but with Rose’s can-do attitude both the boat and its pilot are kept ship-shape. Bogart really convinces in every aspect of his role – whether drunk or angry, sceptical or positive, fed up with Rosie or madly in love with her. In one particularly harrowing scene the horror and revulsion he feels for what look like real leeches suggest that it may not all have been acting! Hepburn’s performance as the prissy but slowly thawing “old maid” is equally good. Her line about riding the rapids ("I never dreamed that any mere physical experience could be so stimulating!") is a classic double entendre as her character warms up to the joys of romantic love. Just as the film appears to end on a tragic note an unexpected turn of good fortune resolves all in a hilarious way that leaves us on a feel-good high.

If you have not seen this film, do yourself a favour and view it; you won’t be disappointed. The poor quality transfer of the only available DVD (available at a budget price from MRA Entertainment) is scandalous. A film like this deserves better treatment than it has been given. It’s a Technicolor film but presently looks drab and murky. A restored version is long overdue and hopefully there is an original camera negative out there somewhere for the restorers to work their magic on. The film was made by independent film company Romulus Films, so I’m not sure whether Warner Brothers or some other major studio has the rights. The kind of treatment that other Bogart films such as Casablanca and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre have been given, would really be wonderful along with a decent set of special features to do justice to this landmark of a film. A Blue-Ray disc would be a revelation. [Stop Press: See the article at the end of this post for news on a Blue-Ray edition!] Until then the next best thing would be a screening at the Astor Cinema the next time it appears on the calendar. This film gets five big stars from me.

Here's a ten minute excerpt for you to enjoy, one of the film's more lighthearted interludes:

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• Hollywood Classic The African Queen Restored For Blu-Ray (undercover.com.au)

Movies A-Z: Action in the North Atlantic (1943)

This is not a bad actioner if you can get over the gung-ho propaganda. The special effects are good for the period. The strategy was so accurate this was used as a training film in the Merchant Marine. The problem is the film feels like a training film. There's some pretty snappy dialogue, but the relentless propaganda is so unforgiving that a sailor who simply expresses a wish to be home with his wife and family is made to feel like an unpatriotic coward. Needless to say he has a change of heart and signs up for another tour of duty. I actually preferred the brief civilian scenes when Bogie goes on shore leave and gets himself a wife after getting into a scrap in a bar with a poor bozo whose loose lips threaten to sink ships. Raymond Massey as the ship's captain hams it up considerably. There is a great funeral aboard ship where Bogie leads in the Lord's Prayer, reads from the Scriptures and says, "Now that's God's Word. And it's good." That's worth the price of the DVD! The cover said it was 102 minutes; it was actually 120 and it does drag a bit. Two and half stars from me. Here's the trailer:

Movies A-Z: Across the Pacific

I'm watching my DVD collection from A-Z and have decided to post my reviews here at The Batcave for your reading pleasure. Across the Pacific is a good little espionage movie with witty dialogue and Bogart in fine form as the weary cynic who is more than he appears. Mary Astor and Sydney Greenstreet, who also costarred with Bogart in The Maltese Falcon (also directed skillfully by John Huston) are good here. Astor takes a more comedic turn in this than the ingratiating manipulator she plays in The Maltese Falcon. The racial stereotyping of the Japanese (seen clearly in the trailer below) is what one might expect from a propaganda film of this sort. No doubt it was films like this that fed into the sentiment that saw many even second and third generation Japanese-Americans interred in prison camps for the duration of the war. The "Warner at the Movies" special features make their usual appearance and gaurantee a great immersion experience, of going to the movies in the 40s with a trailer for a film on the Royal Canadian Airforce starring Jimmy Cagney, a wartime newsreel, a half-hour long American military propaganda film on pilots, interesting because it's in colour and a war-themed Loony Tunes cartoon. Rating: 3 and a half stars.

Palms or Passion?

Worship leaders are told that we have the option on this day of celebrating the Liturgy of the Palms that focuses on Jesus’ triumphal entry or a Liturgy of the Passion that focuses on his impending suffering and death. It’s a hard decision to make. Obviously the Liturgy of the Palms is more of a celebration but this seems somehow out of step with the more solemn services of Holy Week.
We don’t want to get to Easter Sunday too soon.

They call the walk from the condemned prisoner’s cell to the place of execution, “The Green Mile.” Jesus is not quite there yet but that time is approaching. All the more wonderful too him, therefore, knowing he had not much time left, must the joyous shouts of praise have been – “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” This is the focus of the Liturgy of the Palms. But the story has within it hints of the Liturgy of the Passion also.

One of the great westerns is the 1952 film High Noon starring Gary Cooper as embattled Marshall Will Kane who one by one loses the support of the townspeople so that he has to face the outlaws alone. They are coming into town on the noon train having sworn to kill the sheriff when they arrive. The film is shot roughly in real time and the director Fred Zinnemann masterfully builds the suspense by returning to two shots – the clock on the wall approaching twelve and the long railroad track stretching off into the distance and which will convey the bad guys into town. Every one has deserted him – his deputies, all the menfolk of the town, even those who boasted early that they could help him face the bad guys even his new bride has left him. One of the great lines in the film is when Kane replies to the question of why he has to go the final showdown he says, “I've got to, that's the whole thing.”

Well Palm Sunday is the last hurrah before people start deserting Jesus and he will have to face his High Noon alone just like Will Kane. Only here the stakes are much higher. Kane was facing his fears to protect his own dignity and self respect and for the protection of a small frontier town. But Jesus was facing his High Noon alone for the salvation of the world. Barclay reminds us that this…"was an act of glorious defiance, and of superlative courage. By this time there was a price on Jesus’ head (John 11:57). It would have been natural that, if He was going into Jerusalem at all, He should have slipped in unseen and hidden Himself in some secret place in the back streets. But he entered in such a way as to focus the whole lime-light upon himself, and to occupy the centre of the stage. It is a breath-taking thing to think of a man with a price upon his head, an outlaw, deliberately riding in to a city in such a way that every eye was fixed upon him. It is impossible to exaggerate the sheer courage of Jesus.” [William Barclay, The Gospel of Luke: Daily Study Bible (Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 1953), 249.] This was a well planned dramatic prophetic action in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets who sometimes acted out their prophetic messages in dramatic action. Barclay again…"Jesus entered Jerusalem in a way that deliberately set himself in the centre of the stage and deliberately riveted every eye upon himself. All through his last days there is in his every action a kind of magnificent and sublime defiance; and here he begins the last act with a flinging down of the gauntlet, a deliberate challenge to the authorities to do their worst."

In one sense Jesus is walking into a trap but it isn’t really a trap because he knows what will take place. “No one takes my life,” he says, “I give it.” Jesus started this journey to Jerusalem with a crowd, but he will end it alone, or all but alone, with only his mother and the beloved disciple staying by him.

Do you find when you watch a favourite movie, even though you know the outcome, you feel like you want to influence the players toward a different one? You know Rick is going to say to Ilsa in the final scene of Casablanca that she should get on that plane and leave with her husband. When Bogie says “it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.” You know what’s coming; you’ve seen it all before. She’s going to get on that plane just the same as she has done every time you’ve watched the film. But there’s a part of you that wishes she wouldn’t.

In the same way the story of Easter is familiar to us. We know there is an inevitability to it and yet it still draws us in. There may not be real suspense any longer, because we’ve seen the ending, but there is still involvement and dramatic power. But there is one sense in which we can affect the outcome of the story – in our response to it. What if we were to walk with Jesus and share these experiences to some degree with him this week? Yesterday and today we have enjoyed time with friends and family – with the community of believers. This is what Jesus did before entering jeruslanm, he was with his friends at Bethany. We all have our Marys, Marthas and Lazaruses. Today we shout “Hosanna” and wave our Palm branches welcoming the King. What if tomorrow we were to drive out some money changers of our own as Jesus did when he went up to the temple? Perform some act of righteous indignation – sign a petition, write to our local member, challenge some injustice. During this last week Jesus taught several parables including the parable of the talents. On Tuesday we could ask ourselves whether we are utilising the talents we have been given, and whether we are ready to give our account to God. Charles Wesley wrote in 1762 -

A charge to keep I have,
A God to glorify,
A never-dying soul to save,
And fit it for the sky.

To serve the present age,
My calling to fulfill:
O may it all my powers engage
To do my Master’s will!

Arm me with jealous care,
As in Thy sight to live;
And O Thy servant, Lord, prepare
A strict account to give!

Help me to watch and pray,
And on Thyself rely,
Assured, if I my trust betray,
I shall for ever die.

Jesus spent Wednesday alone in prayer. What if on Wednesday we set aside some special time to be with God and to think about Jesus’ betrayal, and what ways we continue to betray him in our own lives? The early church fasted every Wednesday and every Friday, and John Wesley adopted this practice also - Wednesday in commemoration of Jesus’ betrayal, and Friday in commemoration of his death.

On Thursday we will have the opportunity to gather with the Lord and remember the institution of the Lord’s Supper in our Maundy Thursday service.

Friday will be a day of mourning, a day of deep agony, when sorrow and love will flow mingled down upon the most perfect brow of the Son of God. Will we be with Mary and John watching with them at the cross or will be trembling in hiding with the other disciples? I’m not asking, “will we be in church?” but something much more important, will we watch with Jesus, standing by him?

On Saturday the tomb will be sealed shut. Will we stand vigil and allow ourselves to let the tragedy of the death of Jesus really sink in?

When Sunday comes, we will be back here as we are each Sunday – but it will be a Sunday with a difference because the story has a twist. From Palms to Passion, and then...what?