DVD Review: MIRAGE / Edward Dmytryk (1965)
November 24th, 2008 by Scott Marks
Mirage (1965)
Directed by Edward Dmytryk
Written by Peter Stone from the novel by Howard Fast
Starring: Gregory Peck, Diane Baker, Walter Matthau, Kevin McCarthy Leif Erickson, Walter Abel, George Kennedy, Jack Weston, Anne Seymour, Hari Rhodes and Robert H. Harris
Photographed by Joseph MacDonald
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Running Time: 108 min.
Rating: 
Break out the champagne! This review marks EC’s 1,000th post!
Spoilers ahead!
Long before David Letterman dropped watermelons from 20-story towers, I found fascination and comfort in smashed fruit. I’m not sure how or why it began, but everyday after lunch I would bring a rotted apple or tomato with me on my patrol boy route. What kid didn’t yearn to have a dayglo orange strap flung across their shoulder and waist and the power to stop traffic? My opposite-corner crony would also bring an inedible offering and each day at approximately 12:42 pm, we would align the targets in the middle of the street. Moments later, and right on schedule, our friendly neighborhood bus driver, Ted, would bring the #96 barreling down Lunt Ave. and flatten the fruit. A two-ton public transport, complete with a driver that had squa sense of humor, became our personal steamroller. It was the funniest damn thing you ever saw. Later that year, after spending hours of quality time staring at the dangling gourds in the Ezras Isreal sukkah, we spied a couple of crates of spoiled apples parked next to the synagogue dumpster. Pulling up a curb, a buddy and me spent a good portion of the afternoon lobbing apples into the street. By the time we were through, the intersection of Lunt and California resembled a pulpy Jackson Pollack creation.
Why the talk of flattened fruit? It all came back to me during last night’s viewing of Mirage. My dad took me to see it opening week at the Adelphi and the following Saturday I cajoled a couple of neighbor kids into tagging along for my second screening. The story didn’t make much sense to me back then. Hell, even today I find myself scanning backwards to catch red herrings. An image from the film, a slow motion shot of a falling watermelon splattering against the pavement, appeared in all the trailers and TV spots as well as subsequent commercials for network airings. This four-second fragment has been rattling inside my brain for quite some time now.
In context, the squashed casaba is just another unexplained fragment adrift inside the mind of David Stillwell (Gregory Peck). Here is one cost accountant/physio-chemist that isn’t about to let a bout of amnesia get in the way of his manhunt to find himself. Stillwell’s blackout aptly coincides with a power outage in his office building. It isn’t long before semi-familiar faces begin appearing in the dark. Stillwell remembers Sylvester Josephson (Kevin McCarthy). His glad-handing colleague’s non-stop use of “bubby” and “baby” make him impossible to forget, try as one might. His ex-girlfriend Shela (Diane Baker) must not have made that strong an impression and a stairwell confrontation only adds to the frustration. To make matters worse, Stillwell trails her down four flights that he later can’t account for.
This is a key moment for our baffled hero who believes the basement stairs of The Unidyne Corporation’s L.A. plant are somehow connected to the ones at the New York office. Director Eddie Dmytryk follows his characters down several flights of stairs stopping short of the sub-basement. Instead of showing the actors descending the steps Dmytryk stylistically chose to let the sub-basement signage lead the way.
Continue reading DVD Review: MIRAGE / Edward Dmytryk (1965)
Tags: DVD Review, edward dmytryk, gregory peck. diane baker. mirage review, mirage, Movie Review, walter matthauDVD Review: CROSSFIRE / Edward Dmytryk (1947)
November 15th, 2008 by Scott Marks
Let’s go bobbing for Roberts!
Crossfire (1947)
Directed by Edward Dmytryk
Written by John Paxton from Richard Brooks’ novel The Brick Foxhole
Starring: Robert Young, Robert Ryan, Robert Mitchum, George Cooper, Gloria Grahame, Paul Kelly, Sam Levene, Jacqueline White and Steve Brodie
Running Time: 86 min.
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Rating:
With a star-powered trio of Roberts (Ryan, Mitchum and Young) sharing the one-sheet for a film noir produced by the studio that helped define the post-war style, Crossfire really should be a lot better than it is. Only one of the three same-named leads is put to good use. Robert Young’s Captain Finlay chews his pipe as he doggedly hunts down a brutal, anti-Semitic thrill-killer. In his office, Finlay appears trapped in a cage. At night, the window panes behind him mimic jail bars; even the bottom center pipe stems in their holder visually reinforce the air of incarceration. As Sgt. Peter Keeley, Robert Mitchum spends a lot of time in the background apparently waiting for the lunch bell to sound. He is wasted, and probably in more ways than one. Only Robert Ryan, in his first full-blown unveiling as a psycho-killer, rises to the occasion. Unbalanced Bob is not the only reason to see this picture, just the best.
The subject of Richard Brooks’ The Brick Foxhole was homosexuality, a public menace that privately made its way into board rooms and bungalows throughout Hollywood in the 40s. You could personally partake in so-called deviant sexual behavior, just don’t put it in the pictures.On the other hand, degrading someone on the basis of ethnicity or skin color had long been standard practice among studios. All this gay talk, and the filthy thoughts it would ultimately plant in audiences’ heads, had to go. Up the road, Fox was producing Gentleman’s Agreement, a film aimed at blowing the lid off the heretofore taboo subject of anti-Semitism. The solution was simple: substitute Judaism for homosexuality! While blue noses would undoubtedly upturn at the thought of murder in the name of wanton sodomy, surely even the most censorious among us could find room in their heart to sanction murder based solely on religious affiliation.Quickly assembling their cast, the R.K.O. production helmed by Eddie Dmytryk, was pushed through in record time and the minor-major released their version to theatres a full three and a half months ahead of the competition.
We begin on action as Sgt. “Monty” Montgomery (Robert Ryan) shadowboxes a “Sammy” to his death. The only possible witness (and fall guy), Cpl. Arthur “Mitch” Mitchell (George Cooper) lies passed out in a drunken stupor and has to be carried through the door by Monty. Much to the surprise of Capt. Finlay, the next morning finds Monty returning to the crime scene and doing his best not to acknowledge the previous night’s activities. As soon as he’s in the presence of the law, Monty instantly shatters the cardinal rule of psychopaths by offering answers to questions he wasn’t asked.
A junior member of the staff spoke up and timidly asked whether this film was released before or after Kurosawa’s Rashomon. We all had a good laugh at his expense, but the point remains a valid one. Crossfire prefigures Rashomon in it’s use of contrary flashbacks. Both Monty and Mitch are given ample screen time to present their sides of the story. Monty’s narration squarely points the finger in Mitch’s direction (and predates Hitchcock’s Stage Fright with its use of a lying flashback), while the framed G.I.’s interpretation is clouded by drink. The good news is in each version we get to see Monty overreact when his hillbilly chum Leroy (William Phipps) spills a drink on Sammy’s girl.
Gloria Grahame, Jacqueline White, Robert Young and Paul Kelly.
There’s a moment in Blake Edwards’ S.O.B. where William Holden asks if he’s ever violated a close friendship with a lie. He did and his defense goes something like “the fact that I’m telling you that I lied proves that I’m not a liar.” This form of cockeyed logic has never been put to better use than in what ostensibly appears to be a throwaway sequence featuring veteran character actor Paul Kelly. Kelly plays the part of Mr. Tremaine, a discharged soldier with a bum ticker. His young, estranged wife Ginny (Gloria Grahame) met Mitch at a local dance hall and is his sole alibi. As Mitch dries out in her (their?) apartment Mr. Tremaine, a quizzical Everyman with a world weary demeanor softened by a mischievous streak, returns unannounced to add a touch of surrealism to the day’s events. Tremaine is one of the most fascinating characters in all film noir. After every declarative statement, he pauses and confesses, “That’s a lie.” His contrary personal testimony, while in no direct relation to the murder, infuses the picture with more social relevance than either killer, victim or motive can supply. This oddball and strangely affecting scene is a standout that anticipates David Lynch by decades.
Continue reading DVD Review: CROSSFIRE / Edward Dmytryk (1947)
Tags: anti-semitism, crossfire, DVD Review, edward dmytryk, film noir, Film Review, Gloria Grahame, paul kelly, Robert Mitchum, robert ryan, robert young