7 reasons why I LOVED "Way of a Gaucho" (1952)

Have you heard of the concept bio-compelled viewing? No? Well, that's OK, because I just coined it. According to my dictionary,

Bio-compelled viewing: The movies you just need to [re]watch after reading or watching a biography of someone related to cinema.

Example: this post.

I know, I know, I'm bombarding you with Gene Tierney movies, but since I watched her bio on Youtube I've been trying to check more of her films. When I heard that she and Rory Calhoun came to neighbor country Argentina to shoot Way of a Gaucho (Jacques Torneur, 1952 ), well, I just needed to watch it! That was totally a bio-compelled viewing, you know? 

1.- Well, the first reason why I absolutely loved this movie is the story it presents. Basically a gaucho is a cowboy/peasant from some regions of South America, especially Argentina. The story, based on a novel by Herbert Childs and adapted/produced by Philip Dunne (How Green Was My Valley, ETC), takes place in the 1870s: Martín (Rory Calhoun) is a gaucho, step-brother of a rich (and kind) landowner. In the very first minutes he commits a crime and is sent to the army, which leads him to face different situations. 

2.- The second reason, is that it was filmed in Argentina (at least most of it) in Technicolor. You really don't know how it feels to watch a classic movie shot in a place you can actually relate to. No, you know TOO well; I didn't know. And it was a great feeling. Watching the mountains, the pampas, South American flora and fauna...it was just mind blowing! And the fact that Rory Calhoun and Gene Tierney were playing the leads made everything cooler :)

3.- The third aspect I loved from this movie is that overall the characters weren't stereotyped. Martín is a guy that is fighting against everything, sometimes his decisions are not the best and he ends up seeing the errors of his ways . This movie is really a drama of a man that feels displaced and doesn't know how to fight against it. On the other hand, the "enemy", a major played by Richard Boone, wasn't really bad, he was doing what he thought it was correct, just like Martín. Also his step-brother isn't the usual rich guy that doesn't care about the rest, he tries to protect Martín. That makes everything more interesting.

4.- Another element that was a great surprise is that Jacques Torneur, Philip Dune and the crew really cared about presenting accurate historical and artistic details. The costumes are precise, they even included a special kind of boot wore by the gauchos that was made with horse leather; the way they depicted Tehuelches (one of the many natives that lived down here) was very accurate, using boleadoras and spears to face the enemy; the army is wearing the old typical uniform "inspired" in the French one (we copied it here in Chile too) and also using the guns of the time. They also decided to cast all but the major parts in Argentina.

5.- The fifth reason is Rory Calhoun. I just had seen him in How to marry a millionaire and didn't get my attention then. But I'll never forget his Martín Peñalosa. Rory is the kind of people that look gorgeous from certain angles. Well, the angles here are all flattering. But the most important thing is that he knew everything about horses, just like Martín. And that enriches the experience of watching this film:

In this case I didn't mind that Tyrone Power refused to play the lead.

6.- We've discussed Gene Tierney's presence on screen: she's always luminous and she's always effective. Her character, Teresa, a woman from the city, is so in love with Martín that she's willing to make all the necessary efforts to be with him. Teresa shows vulnerability in some scenes: Gene makes you suffer with her.

7.- And the last reason is that the characters almost almost almost got to Chile. At some point Martín and Teresa have to escape and they head to Chile (yay!). But when they're almost there (here)....

...a certain event occurs and they have to go back (damn it!). But at least Chile gets three (3) mentions :)

Well, I hope I've picked your interest; I invite you to know a bit more about South America by watching this film.

A very interesting study of this film can be (partially) found here (Google Books: Jacques Tourneur: the cinema of nightfall).

Movie Review: Dragonwyck (1946)

Remember when I told you I wanted to check A shattered portrait, Gene Tierney's biography on Youtube, because I needed to know a happy fact about her that made me forget all the terrible things she had to face?

(*sighs*)

WELL I DIDN'T FIND ANY!! And to make things worse, besides the terrible episode of the sick "fan" that lead her to have a mentally handicapped baby AND the electroshock treatments.... I found out that her dad stole her money; Oleg Cassini, her first husband, cheated on her; that JFK loved her and she was mad about him but couldn't get married because of his promising career; that she almost jumped from a balcony causing commotion on the streets...and she wasn't even 40!!

(*sighs again*)

So I thought, well, at least she left behind terrific movies. And I decided to see Dragonwyck (1946) directed by no other than Joseph L. Mankiewicz (if you read my People Will Talk review, you know he's one of my favorite directors). I didn't know what to expect and this is what I found:

The first conclusion of the "Dragonwyck's curve of interest" is that my Paint hand is unsteady.

The second is that it reaches a VERY interesting climax. Let me explain you why:

Gene Tierney lives with her farmer parents and her sister. One day a letter arrives: a wealthy landowner cousin nobody had heard of is inviting one of the girls to take care of his daughter. Gene Tierney is like "ME, ME, ME!!!", but the father (Walter Huston), who's very religious says no... and then yes.

Vincent Price.

We meet the famous cousin, masterfully played by Vincent Price...he's young, polite, rich and has very good manners...but there's something obscure about him. When they finally arrive to Dragonwyck castle (point 2 in the graph), residence of the rich guy, his weird wife and an unusual daughter, things start to get really interesting!

Dragonwyck (based on a novel by Anya Seton) is supposed to be "mystery" movie, but my super duper take on this is that is a great analogy about what the concentration of power and wealth can do to human beings. 

The Van Ryn family is very dysfunctional: they seem to care about the others, but that's just a masquerade. They have parties in their castle, they invite people that love gossiping...but yet the wife is always eating; the husband is always away and the daughter says she doesn't love her parents. The atmosphere is really stuffy. Meanwhile the workers are very unhappy with the conditions held by Van Ryn. At some point, he talks with Gene's dad about the workers living in his lands:

Dad: Don't they own their own land?

Cousin: No, it belongs to me. It belonged to my father and his father back to the first patroon

that took title in 1630. I permit the farmers to work my land and they in return pay me a yearly tribute and a share of their produce.

Dad: But they can buy the land they've been working if they want to.

Cousin: No.

Dad:  Why not?

Cousin: Because it belongs to me (angry face)

Dad: As a farmer, I'd rather own one half acre of barren rock free and clear than work the richest land in the world for someone else.

I thought about the feudalistic system on the Middle Age; I thought about the French and Russian Revolution and I even thought about the land reform that took place in the 60s in my country. They all have the same core: uneven distribution of wealth, powerful people that's not willing to make things better for the common people. If you look it that way, there's nothing mysterious about this film: it's just a metaphor about how awful, how vicious people become when there's too much power in their hands, when they live thinking only in their titles and their own comfort.

Van Ryn is prepared to do anything to have a heir. And when I say anything I really mean it. Your interest in the story starts increasing (points 2-3), especially when Gene makes an unexpected move, something dramatic happens and then something creepy happens. Yes, creepy things happen in this movie, but I could take them, so can you. Maybe you won't even find them creepy. I don't want to give all away, but believe me, this portion of the film is the best.

Jessica Tandy and Glenn Langan have secondary but very important characters, both Gene's allies. I hadn't seen Jessica in an old movie, but she plays a lame servant in a very convincing, touching way. And Glenn is effective in his role of a doctor. 

One thing I didn't like is that one of the elements that, according to the movie/novel, make a difference between a good person and a bad person is religion. Van Ryn doesn't believe in God and the movie makes you feel that because of that (and other characteristics) you can expect the worst from him.

Although I like the way it ends for Van Ryn, a very metaphoric scene, I didn't like the final minutes of the movie, sooo not metaphoric . That's why the interest at point #4 is a bit lower.

Well, that's it. I enjoyed watching this film and if you're in the mood for a "fantasy/mystery" film with very real/historical interpretations, this one is a good option. 

(On a side note that maybe you shouldn't read if you haven't seen this movie yet.........There's a scene in which Gene cries over her dead baby, and just having watched her bio, I found it really heartbreaking!)

Movie Review: Heaven Can Wait (1943)

Last night I wanted to see a Classic Movie with my parents. My mom suggested Rebel without a case and my dad said he'd prefer a "light comedy". I haven't seen Rebel... but it's probably very dramatic and I didn't want to see something sad on Friday night, so I decided to pick a comedy.

Well, I remembered that Heaven Can Wait (1943; Ernst Lubitsch) was very good when I saw it like 2 years ago and I wanted to re-watch it. I didn't exactly remember all the events, but I did remember a scene in a bookshop, a cool Devil, a nice grandpa and Gene Tierney and Don Ameche growing old. And because it was directed by Ernst Lubitsch I thought it had to have some funny scenes.

My mom loved this cross-stitch presentation :)

Old Don Ameche dies and goes to Hell. But before he enters, he starts chatting about his life with Mr. Devil himself. He remembers his whole life, which was marked since his childhood because he was an incurable Casanova. This fact didn't change when he met the love of his life, Gene Tierney; not even when he grew old. Is this enough to go to Hell? Devil will tell.

This movie has some memorable scenes and characters. I like when Don pretends to be a bookshop salesclerk to talk with Gene. She's about to get married and she's (embarrassedly) looking for a book called How to make your husband happy...

I also love Charles Coburn as the kind grandpa. He's always making funny remarks, supporting his grandson and trying to help him with Gene. Eugene Pallette (I always think of him as Carole Lombard's dad in My Man Godfrey, but he's great in many movies of course) and Marjorie Main were good too as Mr. and Mrs. Strable, Gene's folks from Kansas. 

But there's a secondary character that steals the movie and he only has two scenes: Clarence Muse as Japer, the Strable's buttler. Enjoy:

My gosh, the funny papers :) 

But there are also things that I don't like. I can't stand the main character as a kid or teenager. I know he is supposed to be a spoiled brat, but the whole thing with Mademoiselle is pretty boring and the actor is over the top, in my opinion. That's why I found myself waiting for Don Ameche to appear ASAP.

The other thing I don't like is some parts of the dialog: at some point it gets very...(opens a dictionary in a new window)...pompous, for example, when Don is explaining what he felt when he met Gene:

Mother...when you saw Father for the first time, did you feel that unmistakable something? Did you feel an electric spark from your head right down to your toes that swept over you like a hurricane and threw you to the ground but you bounced up again and floated over the treetops?

Yeah, pretty poetic, but nobody talks like that and it made poor Don having to accompany the dialog with some facial expressions that were equally over the top.

Don's cousin, the nerd lawyer, is another thing that distracts me, because he's very stereotyped. I hate stereotyped characters. 

The final thing I don't like...is Gene's hairstyle when she's old. Is it historically appropriate? Probably. Makes her look like a wagon passed over her head and distracts you all the time? Definitively. 

She also looks like Minnie Mouse.

Heaven can wait is a memorable movie, nevertheless. I love the way it presents Hell (at least the "reception hall") and the Devil; it has a wonderful cast (if you don't count the kids); great scenes and an entertaining story. My dad liked it, but he said that it wasn't really a light comedy. It dawn on me that older people might experience it different, since it deals with aging, death, etc. And my mom fell asleep (she's a morning lark), so I couldn't tell.

On a side note, watching Gene Tierney is always bittersweet when you know how much this gorgeous woman suffered in real life. Tonight I'm going to watch Biography Channel's Gene Tierney: A shattered portrait on Youtube to see if I find a happy fact in her life that makes me forget the rest. I wish I could get a copy of her Self Portrait. 

Well, that's all folks! Hope you have a great weekend. 

Haikus # 8 & 9: "Key Largo" and "Leave her to heaven"

I didn't post my haiku yesterday, so I give you two for one :) Remember that yesterday I created the FB Fan Page for this blog, you can like it if you please (there or in the sidebar button). Well, here we go:

Credits: DoctorMacro

Key Largo (1948)

"Remember our first
date? A hotel, a storm
a kidnap, the Mob? "

Leave her to Heaven (1945)

"You shouldn't go sailing
with women hiding her look
behind dark glasses."

This is an entry for the Best For Film Hollywood Haikus blogging competition. Enter now.

Haiku # 2: "Laura"

Laura (1944)

"Dreaming of Laura
near her portrait; then, I swear...
 I swear she was there."

This is an entry for the Best For Film Hollywood Haikus blogging competition. Enter now.

Super fun: "Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake" (1942)

According to Leading Couples, TCM's book guide to some famous on-screen pairings, Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney were "the prettiest screen team in history" (the discussion is open), their pairing in this movie "a faultless match" and of course Son of Fury... (John Cromwell; 1942) one of their essential team-ups.

I had seen That Wonderful Urge (Robert Sinclair, 1948), another of their movies and didn't enjoy it that much, it was kind of boring and the story didn't catch me. But I really liked this one: I started watching it at 3.30 AM (really) but never felt sleepy or lost interest in what was going on. Tyrone and Gene are cute and effective together, even when they appear in the same scene for the first time like half way through the movie. 

The story, based on a novel by Edison Marshall, is appealing and classic and this time I'll have to tell it lengthily to include Gene Tierney in the synopsis: a poor boy, Ben Blake, is the real heir of a fortune, position and titles, but he can't claim them because the marriage of his dead parents was never proved. The bad guy, played masterfully by George Sanders, occupies Ben's position and not only that, he forces him to leave his grandpa to be his servant and beats him whenever he wants. When Ben grows up becomes Tyrone Power, who's in love with George Sanders' daughter (no, she's not Gene Tierney, but Frances Farmer) and is also fed up and wants to kick Sanders' ass. Are you still with me? So he tries to do it but it doesn't work out well and now he must escape or die. He goes in a ship to explore the most remote and austral waters (a map of my country is shown, yay!) and at some point he and a friend (John Carradine) find an island and meet, yes now you're right, Gene Tierney, playing a native girl.

Phew! That was a long paragraph to write. Tyrone and Gene look beautiful, have great chemistry and make you want them to stay together. But you also want Ty to go back with his poor old grandpa and occupy his real position.

Besides the story and the chemistry, there are more positive aspects: the villain is one of them. George Sanders gives his character such a domineering attitude, such confidence and resentment that you really fear for Tyrone's character. And he also is physically strong: he's shown boxing bare chested at the beginning of the film and looks very powerful. 

There are some characters that also are interesting even when the part is small, like the prostitute that helps Tyrone to escape played by Elsa Lanchester aka The Bride of Frankestein. She's like in one scene, but you get the idea that the main character changed a bit her life by treating her well. There's also interesting technical aspects. I loved the sea footage, with whales and dolphins in real open waters, which made the trip more real.

There are a few aspects I didn't like. One: at the beginning, the sudden and "epic" speeches of revenge given by the boy. Not because of the content, but the timing, like in one second he's planning to escape and the next is all serious looking to the horizon and saying he will stay. Second: George Sanders' daughter behavior. She's supposed to be spoiled and all, but the decision she makes at the end was weird. Third: the end. I won't give it away, but look what happen with grandpa. Not cool.

Anyway, I recommend this movie, pure fun.

 Interested in this film? More reviews of movies directed by John Cromwell :

• Anna and the King of Siam (1946) starring Irene Dunne & Rex Harrison
• Caged (1950) starring Eleanor Parker & Agnes Moorehead
• In name only (1940) starring Cary Grant & Carole Lombard
• Made for each other (1939) starring Carole Lombard & James Stewart
• Since you went away (1944) starring Claudette Colbert & Joseph Cotten. 

(The Son of Fury is available on Amazon.)

Movie Genres Workshop: Class #1 "Film Noir"

I didn't tell you that last Saturday I went to my first session of a Cinema Workshop about Movie Genres. It's given in a Hoyts movie theater and the assistants are 40 people of all ages. The first class was dedicated to "Film Noir" and I think that maybe you'd like to read my notes to refresh your knowledge or whatever. 

FILM NOIR 

• According to a radical vision Film Noir are just the American films from the 40s-50s. 
• Background: War and Postwar (negative vision about the world), Economic Crisis, Black Novel.

• Characteristics: 

·     Ambiguity in the way the story is approached.

·     Involves a crime.

·     The main character is a guy with his own moral code.  

·     Introduces the character of the femme fatale, a woman that leads the main character astray. They fall in love which changes their destinies. Love destroys the logic of the main character (Romanticism). 

·     Lust and greed as motivations.

·     Aesthetic: dark passages, use of the light (=Photography) as instrument. This would be an Ethical category, because it expresses something from the soul. 

• There are Expressionist characteristics in Film Noir coming from the European directors that emigrated to the US (ex. Fritz Lang). 

Examples of Film Noir: Double Indemnity, The Postman always Rings Twice.

Screening #1: Scenes from "The maltese falcon" (dir. John Huston)

Comments: We criticize remakes today, but this film was the third version of the story. This is the first main role for Bogie, who got it after George Raft declined to accept it. In the first scenes you can see how in a few lines the characters are described. The main character has his own moral code. 

Discussion about "The big sleep" (dir. Howard Hawks). He introduces a new element: femme fatale is a woman from the upper class, a class that has private vicious, an inner disintegration. This is also seen in "Chinatown" (dir. Roman Polanski). Also comments about how women in these films tended to use sex as a way to equal the cultural power of men and get what they want. 

Discussion about how actors can be type-casted: movies that show an actor in a different role are not likely to have commercial success. There are many movies that were good but today are not known because when they were released the audience didn't like it.

 Screening #2: "Laura" (dir. Otto Preminger). Scene when Laura arrives.

Comments: "Twin Peaks" and a movie from Pedro Almodóvar (sorry, I didn't get the name) have characters names inspired in this film. The action in this movie is on the dialogs (there are just two gun shots during the film). Through the lighting and the way the scene is composed the painting of Laura has its own presence. There's an oneiric element: Gene showing up while Dana is sleeping (comment about how in this movie the leading man has a woman name and the leading lady has a man name). There's also an element of necrophilia, the love for the dead people; this is also poetic, because Dana loves Gene above everything, even the logical explanations. Connection with "Vertigo" (dir. Alfred Hitchcock).

Screening #3: Scenes from "Gun Crazy" a.k.a. "Deadly is the female" (dir. Joseph H. Lewis)

Comments: Joseph H. Lewis was a director of B-movies, recently rescued by people like Scorsese and Tarantino. This movie initiates the sub genre of "couples that cross the country robbing banks and stores and shooting people"  (yeah, like "Bonnie and Clyde") This also inspired French movies like "Le mepris" (dir. Jean-Luc Godard) and "Badlands", a film by Terrence Malick. These kind of movies have different scenarios, they occur not only in the cities, but in open fields. Stars in John Dahl, the guy from "Rope" (dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

1960s, France: a group of filmmakers whose inspiration is between Nouvelle Vague and Film Noir adopt the codes from the American Film Noir. Their films take place in contemporary France. Important names: Jean- Pierre Melville, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol. They also venerate movies from John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles.

Screening #4: Scenes from "Le samourai" (dir. Jean-Pierre Melville)

Comments: Starring Alain Delon, French actor whose expressionless face worked fine for this movie (my only personal note: he must be from the same Acting School of Kristen Stewart). There are obvious codes taken from American Film Noir, like the way the guy dresses. 

Final comments (final for me, because the class extended beyond the official time and I had to leave). Some modern movies that contains elements of this genre: "Blade Runner" (dir. Ridley Scott), "The big Lebowski" (dir. Coen Bros.) and "Blood Simple" (dir. Coen Bros)

End of the notes.

-----------
PS: Remember to choose your favorite director from the poll list on the sidebar.