The Red Shoes

The story follows two young hopefuls trying to get into Mr. Boris Lermontov’s (Anton Walbrook) stage productions.  Miss Victoria Paige (Moira Shearer) is a talented dancer who persistently follows Lermontov and Julian(Marius Goring) is a composer who first meets Boris when complaining that his music was stolen for one of his productions.  Both are appeased with little odd jobs for a while, until they are given the chance to rise when Lermontov decides to produce The Red Shoes.  Julian is to compose and conduct the music and Victoria is the star dancer.  Once The Red Shoes opens, it seems that the two could use their talents anywhere in the world, but when they fall in love, everything could fall to ruin.

To be honest, I never realized a film could be this artsy in 1948.  Really, if I hadn’t known, I would’ve guessed this to have been made in the 60’s at least.  Thanks to the restoration efforts of Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, this film is full of beautiful color with rich bits of red meticulously placed in nearly every scene.

The great achievement of this film is the scene showing The Red Shoes production.  At first, it’s beautiful just to watch the stage come to life.  Then it is filled with film magic that obviously couldn’t be done in a real theatrical production.   We don’t care, the suspension of disbelief is there, and it’s very cool.  The whole scene is wonderfully weird, full of color, imagination and a little creepy.   There are nightmare inspired masks, shadow hands that stretch across the stage and try to pull the dancing Victoria and creatures that I could only describe as tribal-toilet-paper-mummies.  It has to be seen to be believed.

The ballet (and the story) isn’t bogged down in idle dialogue.  We understand the plot by images shown and the movement of the music.  The image of a bird or waves crashing on rocks says more than entire conversations.  The whole film can be summed up, and is obviously foreshadowed, in the interpretation of the stage performance.

I don’t believe this film should be remade; it’s perfect as it is, but the only one who could ever tackle this project right would be Tim Burton.  At times, the film has his same sense of style and colorful oddity.  No doubt, he would cast Johnny Depp as both Julian and the shoemaker and turn ballet into something macabre.  Scorsesse has restored this beautiful gem to be enjoyed, not remade, so let’s enjoy it and pray no one gets any funny ideas.

If you’re not sure if you would like this film (it’s not for everyone), I recommend it for anyone who enjoys ballet, color, dance, music, theater or love.  For those of you really into gray people standing still in near silence and hating everything…well good luck to you.

“You cannot have it both ways. A dancer who relies upon the doubtful comforts of human love can never be a great dancer. Never.”

***For me, The Red Shoes is an obvious winner for 1948, though it was Hamlet that won the Oscar and I’d guess that the average viewers would be split between Shoes and Treasure of the Sierra Madre.***

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Based on the novel by B. Traven, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a classic tale of adventure that follows three men digging for gold in the wilds of Mexico.  The film opens with Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart) and Curtin (Tim Holt) broke in Tampico and falling victim to labor scams.  When they hear an old man telling stories of prospecting, their dreams fill with piles of gold.  They find the old man, Howard (Walter Huston), the three men set off into the wilderness in search of gold.  They find it, lots of gold, but the more they find the less they can trust each other.  It isn’t long before paranoia and suspicions start to tear the men apart jeopardizing both lives and fortunes.

This film is one of the great achievements by the legend, John Huston.  In his entire career, he was nominated for Best Director five times.  TOTSM was his first nomination and only win.  He also picked up his only screenplay win and his father, Walter Huston won Supporting Actor in his portrayal of the wise old prospector.  Considering that TTOTSM is currently ranked as # 38 on AFI’s best film’s list, this film has cleaned up pretty well.

It’s very deserving of all those recognitions.  From the beginning, we become invested in the story and as the stakes get higher with the piles of gold, we start biting our nails.  I loved this movie so much that by the climax I was yelling at Bogart and nearly had a fit when…well, I might’ve said some bad things about Gold Hat.

Bogart plays wonderfully shaggy, greasy, greedy, hotheaded and suspicious Dobbs.  When Curtin stumbles upon Dobbs’s hiding place for his gold, Dobbs nearly risks his life to check his stash.  One of my all time favorite Bogart moments comes when Dobbs is alone in the woods at night.  We watch his greed slowly turn to madness and the way he talks to himself is just mesmerizing in such a creepy way.

Of course, Dobbs would’ve snapped a lot sooner if it hadn’t been for Howard.  He’s the brains of the operation, knows where to find the gold, how to dig for it and becomes the neutral third party that can keep the peace.  He tells Curtin and Dobbs, “Without me, you two would die here, more miserable than rats.”

The most important thing Howard tells Dobbs and Curtin are the dangers of prospecting.  Not anything like lack of water or mines caving in, but greed.  Howard makes it sound like an addiction or gambling.  “Like roulette. One more turn, you know. Always one more.”  But of course, the young men don’t understand and can only dream of their piles of gold growing bigger and bigger.

This film is a real treat.  There’s plenty of action and gun slinging.  The story has a good heart without preaching.  At times, when the banditos are running around, it has a great cowboys-and-Indians feel that some westerns just can’t grasp right.  I recommend this for everyone, it doesn’t feel outdated at all, I promise.

Oh, and let’s not forget: “Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges.”

Hamlet

Today, most kids have some resentment and anger against divorced or lost parents and they just slam a few doors, blast their music or get something pierced.  Hamlet is the story of a son filled anger and resentment against his mother and uncle after they kill his father, the King of Denmark.  As if to piss on his grave, the uncle and mother marry, making the uncle king instead of rightful Hamlet.  Sorry for those intellectuals to hate to have Hamlet watered down, but this is how I would summarize it to anyone without referencing The Lion King.

This adaptation is stays very true to Shakespeare, the setting and costumes are beautiful.  The dialogue is fudged a bit in an attempt to bring in a wider audience, but unless you’ve really studied Hamlet, you can’t tell.  That means, the one thing that can make this appealing to those unfamiliar or not a fan of Shakespeare is the acting, music and camerawork.  All three are appealing, and this is one of the most enjoyable Shakespeare films I’ve seen. 

Laurence Oliver won the Leading Actor Oscar for his astounding Hamlet, bringing great life into the immortal words in so many books.  Hamlet is a sulky, wronged prince grieving for his father, perhaps more than he should to make up for his mother’s quick second marriage.  When he speaks to his father’s ghost, Hamlet learns that he was murdered by his uncle.  Hamlet promises to avenge his father’s death by killing his uncle in return.  By the rules of Shakespearean tragedy, this can only bring more and more tragedy.

Oliver also directed and produced the film.  He was the first to direct himself to an Oscar for acting, quite a feat.  Nowadays, when people see directors staring in their own films, we think it’s egotistical, but in Oliver’s case, he starred mostly to save money.  And who could argue, when for years he had been told that he recited Shakespeare as naturally as his own thoughts.  Taking awards for actor, art direction, costume design and picture, Oliver proved his worth.

I would recommend Hamlet to anyone interested in Shakespeare or Oliver’s career.  It’s entertaining enough, but if your idea of Shakespeare is Shakespeare in Love or the Romeo and Juliet from 1996, you’ll be in for a long grueling ride.

“To be, or not to be: that is the question.”

The Snake Pit

From the opening credits with loud daunting music, you realize this is going to be a heavy film.  Those set within a mental institution aren’t usually light or breezy.

We meet Virginia Cunningham (Olivia de Havilland) not long after she has been checked into the institute.  She’s usually confused about where she is, what month it is and has difficulty recalling the past.  Sometimes there’s an inner voice (the conversations seem like a less haunting Gollum) and we realize that she is rightfully there.  The film follows her journey through her time at the institute.  Doctors try to help her through terrifying remedies like shock therapy and more sedate humanizing techniques like psychotherapy.  We bare witness to her ups and downs (which correspond to what ward number she’s in) discover the mysterious past she’s hidden from herself.

The terrors and cruel treatment portrayed within the institution seem more important to Virginia’s personal growth.  The nurses order the women around and herd them up like crazy sheep in skirts.  Frail women look down through the bars with pity and no hope.  Due to overcrowding, beds are lined wall to wall with hardly room to walk between.

The best scenes come later in the film, when Virginia is in more “social” wards.  It seems that the main activity many of these woman have, is to simply wander around a room together, and hopefully stand by the window a while.  In one instance, they’re lucky enough to have a rug in their room, but no one is allowed to walk on it.  Just after a nurse reprimands Virginia for this, an elderly lady starts to sing and dance on it, just crazy enough to be creepy and funny at the same time.  Maybe that’s the only way to rebel in this place, just make sure you act crazy while you do it.

One activity within the institution seemed too odd: a co-ed dance.  Yes, that’s getting some crazy men to come down and dance with these crazy women.  Isn’t that just asking for trouble?  I didn’t want to believe that really happened.

It’s hard to compare The Snake Pit to one of my favorites, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.  Poor Virginia really is genuinely messed up, there’s not much comradery and there’s no focus on one Ratchety nurse.  They’re different sides of the same coin over twenty-five years apart.

That being said, Cuckoo’s Nest is more heartfelt and soul-stirring.  The Snake Pit is more of a focus on women in an institute and the psychotherapy process Virginia goes through.  If you’re looking for something with a more mystery/horror feel, pick The Snake Pit, otherwise, Cuckoo’s Nest can be a fine substitute.

Johnny Belinda

The story of a deaf woman being raped sounds like a bad Helen Keller joke.  Now that we’ve cleared that air, let’s not go there.

Johnny Belinda takes place in a peaceful fishing town in Nova Scocia.  It’s your typical small town, where everyone knows everyone and newcomers, like Dr. Robert Richardson (Lew Ayres) are subject to idle gossip.  Right away we see he’s a kind and generous man, who even makes a house-call in the middle of the night to help birth a baby cow, for the McDonald family, who his secretary warns, might not be able to pay.  He discovers Mr. McDonald’s deaf-mute daughter, Belinda (Jane Wyman) and takes immediate interest.  He teaches her sign language and it turns out she’s a quick learner.  Before long, she’s able to read her family’s lips and communicate like never before.  How happily life changing.

Just because she’s learning, doesn’t mean she’s free from ridicule.  She’s referred to as “the dummy”, pitied and laughed at by most.  She becomes a lewd interest of the town’s good ol’ brute, Locky.  His girlfriend, Stella warns him to leave her alone, not realizing the extent of his ill intentions.  After getting drunk at a town party, Locky stumbles over to the McDonald residence and rapes poor Belinda.  It all would’ve gone unnoticed and quiet, but she ends up pregnant with his child.  Once this scandalous news hits the village, rumors arise about who they suspect the father is.  The whole family is avoided like lepers and business drops mixing financial struggles to their heartbreaks.

Jane Wyman won the Oscar for best leading actress, without saying a word.  She stares with big innocent eyes that light up with understanding and unforeseen intelligence.  She doesn’t try to overcompensate for lack of words, like a silent film star.  Her sign language isn’t flamboyant either, she’s calm, obedient, and understanding.  The only time we ever see fear or conflict is just before her attack and in the more climactic action.

I was surprised to see such daring themes of rape and disability vs intelligence in the forties.  I don’t mean to generalize, but this seemed to be the time period for rallying war films, sweeping romances and giddy comedies.  Hard subjects like this must’ve averted quite a few eyes.  But those daring the trip to the theater must’ve been enthralled.  Many times today we still question if a disabled person can take care of a child, and that comes up in the later part of the film.  I’ll let you witness the debate with fresh eyes.

This isn’t one of those great classics everyone talks about, but it is good.  If you’re interested in deaf issues, this is a great example with many edges.  If you’re looking for a lighter film, skip it.

“There’s only one shame, failing a human being who needs you.”