Algiers (1938)

Plot:  A Jewel thief, hiding out in the Casbah of Algiers, risks all for a Parisian Beauty.

Stars:  Charles Boyer, Hedy Lamarr, Alan Hale, Sigrid Gurie 

A remake of the French Film-noir Pepe Le Moko, it keeps the same location shots, main characters and overall story.  However, the actors are different, there's more humor and romance, and its less tragic. Its also much inferior to the French original.  

Pepe Le Moko's casting makes sense. Its a French movie with French actors in French Algiers.  

However, Algiers gives us a French Lead,  an Austrian leading lady, a Norwegian "Gypsy", British detectives, and uber-Americans Hale and Gene Lockhart (actually Canadian) as supporting characters. Its ridiculous!

Other problems:  Lamarr can't act - and neither can Gurie. And the 30s American tough guy slang (hat-tip: James M. Cain) and humor seem completely out of place. Is this the Casbah - or 42nd Street? Charles Boyer is nice mixture of menace/charm but he's no Jean Gabin to say the least.  Incredibly, Joe Calleia's fake, oily Detective, won an Acting award.   

Summary: If you must see Algiers, see it before Pepe Le Moko - otherwise you'll be very disappointed. A big hit in 1938, it hasn't aged well, with bad casting and bad acting. 

Pepe Le Moko (1937)

Plot:  French Film Noir.  A French gangster, hiding in the Casbah of Algiers, risks all for a beautiful woman.
Stars: Jean Gabin , Mireille Balin
Best Quote:  Le Moko? The prince of the plunders! Fifteen convictions, 33 daylight robberies, two bank hold-ups and how about burglaries? We haven't enough fingers in this room on which to count them all! How could he not be admired? 

Later remade as Algiers with Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamar.  Pepe is the better of the two. While the story is pure formula, the excellent acting, direction, and set design, all make up for it.  And then there's Jean Gabin, who along with Cagney, was the greatest gangster ever.  The film does a superb job of recreating "the Casbah", a wretched hive of scum and villainy, where the police are unwelcome.  Balin, France's most popular prewar actress, is very beautiful.

Summary:  Its not perfect, it drags in spots and has a familiar story, but Pepe Le Moko is one of the best gangster movies.

Miller's Crossing (1990)

Plot:  Based on various Hammett Novels. An advisor to a 1920's crime boss gets caught in divided loyalties
Stars: Gabriel Byrne, John Polito, John Turturro,  and Albert Finney

Best Quote: It's gettin' so a businessman can't expect no return from a fixed fight. Now, if you can't trust a fix, what can you trust? For a good return, you gotta go to bettin' on chance - and then you're back with anarchy, right back in the jungle.

The Coen Brothers are hit and miss with me.  Especially the serious ones. Miller's Crossing was a miss. It has some great scenes, some great dialog, some great acting but there was something unsatisfactory about it.  The plot is vaguely based on Hammett's "The Glass Key" and "The Red Harvest".  And that's part of the problem. Like those Hammett novels - none of the character's are likable including our "hero" - so there's no one to root for. We get betrayals and double-crosses galore, but when *everyone* is a cynic and a heel, - who cares?  The Love(?) affair is particularly dull. 

The other problem - too many character's have that Coen Brother's Cartoon quality to them.   And the silly over-the-top violence reinforces that.  I half-expected John Goodman to pop up and spout some comic lines from "Barton Fink". And the dialogue doesn't sound real - these guys are the most eloquent, witty Gangsters, ever.

Having said that, there's some great acting and set design. Props to John Polito as "Johnny Casper" and John Turturro as the slimy bookie. 

Summary:  An elegant riff on the Gangster genre, Miller's Crossing's good acting and direction can't disguise a cynical, uninvolving story that's all sizzle and no steak. 

Bob Le Flambeur (1956)

Plot:  French film noir. A gambler in the Paris Montmarte district, down on his luck, decides to rob a Casino of millions.
Stars: Isabelle Corey, Roger Duchesne

Plenty of great atmosphere (50s Paris) and "Bob" is an interesting character, but the "Heist" part is rather dull, and the movie takes too long to get going.  85 minutes of story stretched out to 102.  Like many of Melville's movies the whole thing is very stylish - but unreal.  Isabelle Corey shows flashes of beauty.

Summary: An early Melville Film-noir. Not bad - but Melville does the same thing better, in the 1960s.

Little Big Man (1970)

Plot:  A 121 year-old man recounts his adventures in the Old West  including Custer's Last Stand.
Stars:  Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway,  Chief Dan George
Best Quotes:
- Nothing in this world is more surprising than the attack without mercy! 
-Your miserable life is not worth the reversal of a Custer decision.

A childhood favorite, this was a big disappointment on re-watch.  I still laughed at Richard Mulligan's pompous, half-mad, General Custer, but the rest of the humor hasn't worn well.  The 48 year-old revisionist humor is now old hat.  Things that were fresh and funny, like: cowardly gun-fighters, Jewish Indians,  Gay Indian warriors, and hypocritical bible-thumpers - are now tired cliches.  Other things that annoyed:

• Mostly a comedy, we get massacres and deaths in-between the jokes. Its like watching "Seinfeld" with murders before every commercial break. 
• Its too long (2.5 hours) and rambling. We get lots of padding and dead-space. 
• It looks cheap. The costumes, sets, lighting, and stunts reminded me of the TV Show "Bonanza". Epic it ain't. For example,  Custer's last stand is 50 guys on horseback - and they play both the Indians and 7th Cavalry. Penn shows the horsemen in long-shot to disguise this.
• Dustin Hoffman is a very good actor, but he's not very funny. Nor is he very "Western" unless you mean "West Hollywood". 
• The Anti-white viewpoint is blatant and unhistorical.  The amount of hate against Custer and the 7th Calvary is incredible. Pauline Kael slammed the Director for putting Anti-Vietnam war propaganda in a Comedy. 

 On the plus side, Mulligan and Chief Dan George are still hilarious.

Boy's Night Out (1962)

Plot: Four married Executives rent a Manhattan "bachelor Pad" and then hire a beautiful housekeeper for romance. But she's actually a PHD candidate using them for research
Stars: Kim Novak, James Garner, Howard Duff, Tony Randall

This movie is supposed to be a comedy - but it made me sad instead. What a waste of Kim Novak! She's lovely and shows a flair a comedy, but she (and everyone else) can't overcome a witless, overlong script. Weirdly, the movie takes screen time from Garner and Randall and gives it to mediocrities like Howard Duff and Howard Morris.

Summary:  Some great acting talent is wasted in this unfunny 60's comedy. Its not just dated - its from another planet.  Poor Kim Novak. After slogging through this mess, Kiss Me Stupid  was on the horizon.

The Killing (1956) - Kubrick

Plot:  Thieves plan to rob a Race Track of $2 million
Stars:  Sterling Hayden, Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook
Best Quote:
Clay: Alright sister, that's a mighty pretty head you got on your shoulders. You want to keep it there  - or start carrying it around in your hands?

Sherry: Maybe we could compromise and put it on your shoulder. I think that'd be nice, don't you?

The only real problem with The Killing is the ridiculous hype from Kubrick fans.  Like every Kubrick film, it comes with over-blown testimonials to the "great man" and pretentious discussions of the film's "deep" meaning.  That aside, its an enjoyable, fast moving, heist movie that runs with the precision of a Swiss watch.  The enjoyment comes - not from the standard story - but  from the skilled casting, direction and editing.

Full of film-noir vets, Kubrick lets these old pros strut their stuff. There's Hayden as the tough, smart leader. Windsor as the smart-mouthed, duplicitous Dame,  Cook as the fall guy, and Timothy Carey as the  weirdo sharp-shooter. 

Criticism?  Like many Kubrick films there's a coldness to the film.  Kubrick views his characters objectively, without pity.  Unlike, say "Asphalt Jungle." 

Summary:  This low-budget heist movie was Kubrick's big break.  Its well-done - but the story is routine.

Seminole (1953)

Plot: In 1835 Florida, an evil Army Major sabotages a Lieutenant's efforts to bring peace with the Seminole Indians.
Stars: Rock Hudson, Barbara Hale,  Anthony Quinn, Barbara Hale

Another one of those big, dumb, 1950's pro-Indian Westerns.  This one stars Rock Hudson (who's incredibly stiff) as the peacemaker, Quinn is the noble Indian chief, and Richard Carlsen is the dastardly "injun-hating" Major. Barbara Hale shows up in Petticoats and looks pretty.  Its completely mediocre  - but wins points for covering an unknown Everglades Indian war  -in technicolor.

However, its as phony as a 3-dollar bill. Where are the snakes, mosquitoes, humidity and heat?  Everyone wears clean clothes, no one breaks a sweat, and the Indians are so noble, you wonder why they aren't in Seminary. Or why the Seminole's fight so hard to stay in their big swamp, when they could move elsewhere. But the film's heart is in the right place - it just needed a brain.

The Swimmer (1968)

Plot:  Based on the John Cheever Short Story.  A man decides to return home by swimming in every pool along the way.
Stars: Burt Lancaster, Kim Hunter, Marge Champion, Janet Rule
Best Quote:  I'm a very special human being. Noble. And splendid. 

It bombed in 1968, but today The Swimmer is a critics favorite and considered of one of Lancaster's best movies. But I can't join in the high praise, despite liking parts of it.

First, even at 95 minutes, its feels padded with too many nature shots. And we get two ridiculous scenes:  In one, Lancaster races a horse - in his swim trunks-  and at race's end, the horse bows to Lancaster as if to say "Well done, Biped". In the other,  Burt and his young ex-babysitter jump over fences like horses. Where does all this horsey nonsense come from? Its not in Cheever's short story.

Secondly, the movie seems pointless.  At the end - after all the talk and twilight zone vibes - we realize Lancaster's character isn't a rich, successful suburbanite - but a womanizing cheat, bankrupt, and fraud.  Perhaps having a mental breakdown. And..so what?  Maybe, this hit home in 1968, but now, its seems very dated.

Positives?  Well Lancaster does well enough but its a role that William Holden or Glenn Ford could have done better. Supporting actor standouts include Janet Rule and Janet Landgard. And there are some good dramatic moments, including: the Confrontation in the Public swimming pool, and his scene with the former mistress.

Burt Lancaster - or a Good Man who Didn't Know his Limitations
To give Burt credit, he wasn't satisfied with being just a Hollywood leading man, he wanted to be a great actor.  Up there with Marlon Brando or Laurence Olivier - not just a taller, better looking, Kirk Douglas.  So, he constantly got himself cast in in quality dramatic roles: the Swimmer, Separate Tables, The Rainmaker, Come back little Sheba, Rose Tattoo,  and All my Sons.  Or tried to extend his range by playing non-white American characters like : an Apache Warrior, Mexican American lawman, Italian Aristocrat, or a French train engineer.

The tragedy is he wasn't good enough to pull it off  - he was good actor - for  a Hollywood star.  Sometimes he did OK - like in the Rainmaker. But too often, his ambition took away roles that should have gone to better actors.  For example, Rose Tattoo should have been played by Ernie Borgnine. And all those ethnic/foreign parts should have been played by Italian, French, Mexican, or Indian actors.