Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

Gentlemen Foretrækker Blondiner

There are two very good reasons to watch and like ”Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”. They are called Jane Russell and Marylyn Monroe.

I have arrived at one of the true classics of the mid-fifties and while I actually have not seen it before it is one of those movie most people (myself included) know of. The song “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” has been referenced so often that is has become synonymous with Marilyn Monroe and is used by anybody (like Madonna) who wants to reference her. My guess is that fewer people have actually watched the movie and that is a shame because “Gentlemen Prefers Blondes” is a glorious celebration of the musical comedy genre. There is a lot to love in this movie, also beyond the two above mentioned ladies.

Dorothy (Jane Russell) and Lorelei (Marilyn Monroe) are fast friends, what in today’s pop culture would be called BFFs, despite in many ways being each other’s opposites. Dorothy presents a strong woman, not unlike the type we saw in “The Paleface”. She speaks her mind and go for what she wants, which is sex. Dorothy is practical and honest and prefers love (well, sex actually) to wealth. She is the woman who is “on top” if you take my meaning.

For Lorelei the objective is also men, but not sex. Sex is just the tool she employs to obtain her real target: wealth. She has the looks of a bombshell, a bed chamber voice that promises anything but sleeping and the appearance of a stupid silly girl. But underneath that silly façade she is cunning and calculated and every bit as practical as Dorothy.

The two of them are show girls headed for France where Lorelei is supposed to get married to her millionaire friend and they are not idle. Dorothy is courting half the ship including the American Olympic team and Lorelei has found a rich old (married!) man, with the fitting nickname Piggy (Charles Coburn) who happen to own a diamond mine in Africa. And diamonds is such an aphrodisiac…

This is a happy and funny musical so we know that we are just supposed to enjoy ourselves and not worry too much about drama and realism and that works fine for me. There is so much to look at, so many great lines and genuinely funny gags that I for one had a great time watching this. The idea of these two man-hunters on the prowl is great and what could have been pathetic is rendered charming and fun by the actresses. There is something seedy about their attitude and outlook, but it is part of the charm of the movie. This is the 1950’ies. The ambition of women in this time is still linked to men: Want to make a fortune? Marry wealth. Your assets? Your looks and wit to entice men. It is sad, I know, but given this premise here are two girls out to get what they want and they are not afraid to go for it.

Everything in this musical centers on Russell and Monroe and good for that. They are in a word great. At first Monroe seems to outshine Russell, which is remarkable all on its own. She only has to talk in that bed room whisper and you know where Monroe’s reputation comes from. I cannot remember anybody pre-53 as sexually loaded as Monroe in that style. No wonder the marks in the movie, including her pet millionaires, are defenseless against her.

Russell however gets her comeback on the boat. As she goes around among the Olympic team, singing “Ain’t There Anyone Here for Love” she looks like nothing so much as a fox among chickens. I was thinking of a girl in a candy store, but Dorothy is a predator and the way she look at those sporty, half naked men is anything but childish. Her two tennis rackets might just as well have been two revolvers.

Speaking of songs, this movie is littered with great ones. The climax of course is “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend”, the song that made Monroe a star, but every one of them are good. In that sense I feel as spoiled as I did in “Singing in the Rain”.

But what really won me over is the joy and genuine fun that permeates every scene. I smiled all the way through except when I laughed. Lorelei running circles around Piggy, Dorothy trying to knock some sense into Lorelei, their mad scheming to get sex and diamonds respectively and, the glorious moment when the fabulously rich Henry Spofford III turns out to be a child. That reveal at the dinner table was priceless.

If there was anything negative to say about the movie it is that the supporting cast is about as weak as the leads are great. Nobody but Coburn were really worth a mention and George Winslow as the child billionaire is outright miscast (or fed idiotic lines or both). However it detracts very little from the overall impression. This is all about Russell and Monroe, they are great and that is all that matters.

Sex in the fifties? Look no further.

 

Pickup on South Street (1953)

Lommetyven

You know those spoof movies that take a genre or two and run all the tropes and clichés, but exaggerated for hilarity? If you do you would know that the crime/noir/spy theme has been a frequent victim and frankly I was afraid that I had dumped into such a movie, or worse, a movie that unintentionally was a spoof upon itself.

This is how it starts, “Pickup on South Street”. Very hardboiled, tough criminals, tougher detectives, dangerous dames and a jargon so full of hardboiled slang that is entirely incomprehensible. Oh no, I thought, this could be a tough ride.

Slowly however the uneasy feeling settled and I started to enjoy this film. The B-movie factor is still extremely high, but corny turns to cool and caricatures turn to people. This is fun, I thought, I like this.

Then, gradually, I realize the movie is transforming again. The spy theme slides into the background and as we get super close-up views of the characters the real themes come clear. This is about people, their motives and priorities. The hard necessity of life and the decisions they must make. Maybe it sounds even cornier than the hard boiled spy theme, but actually these more human themes are treated with a stark tenderness that feels a lot more real than the action hulabalu we are served as a front.

It is on this background I can say that I liked this movie a lot more than I expected and had a grand time watching it.

There are so many things happening in the plot that a synopsis would be a multi-page affair so I will be very brief. Candy (Jean Peters) is a courier for her former boyfriend Joey (Richard Kiley). She thinks she is conveying harmless trade messages, but it is actually classified information to the commies. In the subway her purse gets picked by the professional pickpocket Skip (Richard Widmark) who thereby comes into possession of the microfilm with the sensitive information. And all hell breaks loose.

Government agents (FBI?) were following Candy and needed to see who got the film so they could bust the spy. The theft throws their operation into disarray and they must get it back. Joey must deliver that film to the commie spy and is desperate to get the film back for which purpose he presses Candy into action. Both the police and Candy use a professional police informer in the form of old Moe (Thelma Ritter) to find Skip and Skip soon finds out that the wares he got are hot and worth a lot of money.

An affair evolves between Skip and Candy and when she finds out she has been working for commies she is looking for a way out for her and for Skip.

There are many more elements to the story, but the three central figures here are Skip, Candy and Moe.

Moe is tough as nails. She speaks like a dockworker and haggles like a salesman of pre-owned cars as she peddles information (and ties as a front). Is she a moral wreck for associating with the criminals and then sell information about them to the highest bidder? No, the movie tells us, she just have to make a living like everybody else and as she respect a moral code that requires that nobody get badly hurt by her information she is accepted and even liked by everybody. Behind the tough exterior she is a frail old woman whose last mission in life is to save enough money for a proper funeral so she can avoid Potters Field. We get closer and closer to her and so does the camera and with each step she becomes more naked until we stare straight into her soul.

Joey as a communist spy is outside the code of the New York underworld. He does not understand it and to the standard criminals treason is as bad as it is to the rest of us. To Joey Moe is a danger, not a fellow member of the underworld and when he shoots her he also declares war on thieves like Skip. The scene where Skip intercepts the coffin with Moe in it and redirects it to give her a proper funeral is one of the most poignant in the movie.

Candy is at first a tool for Joey to get the package back and she uses her female charms to get close to him. Those first meetings between them are so full of deceit and hardboiled lingo that is difficult to say who is taking advantage of who. Skip clearly is convinced that her objective is the package, but her feelings for him are slowly becoming real and when she realize that Joey has been using her as a commie spy she becomes seriously worried for Skip. How much is real and how much is fake with her? She changes over the film from hardboiled cool to almost desperate. She has to juggle Joey, the police and Skip. Who can she tell what and where her allegiance lies? It is a tightrope walk and the rope is getting shakier by the minute.

Skip is maybe the most complex of the characters and the one that develops the most. He starts out as a very one-dimensional bad guy. He is street smart, bad ass and with very low morals a.k.a your classical villain. But Candy’s apparent affection makes him waver. It is noteworthy that it is not the flag-waving patriotism the police come at him with that turns him over. For Skip the 25 grand is more immediate and important. It is what Joey did to Moe and Candy. That makes it personal and that motivates him. You can see that in the final showdown. He hardly cares about the guy who picks up the package, the guy the police wants, no, the delivery done just means that Joey is fair game, that Skip can beat the crap out of him.

It is telling for the movie that the micro film and the commie spy that is so important at the opening of the film has entirely gone from focus at the end. At that point it is all about Candy and Skip. That is actually a massive transformation, but more impressive when you consider the change from B-movie superficial spy and crime style to a much more elegant noir style by the end. There were scenes there that reminded me of “The Third Man” with the chase in the sewers.

This was fun. Far more enjoyable than expected.

The Naked Spur (1953)

Død eller Levende

”The Naked Spur” is the second collaboration between director Anthony Mann and actor James Stewart to make the List (the former was ”Winchester ´73) and this time the stakes are upped with some glorious Technicolor.

James Stewart is this time a rancher turned bounty hunter to make enough money to buy back the ranch his unfaithful wife sold while he was off fighting a war. The man he is hunting is an old acquaintance, though no friend, of his and it is quite impersonal. Howard Kemp, as he is called just want the money.

The movie plunges us right into the thick of it as Howard is closing in on his prey. He enlists the help of an old prospector, Jesse Tate (Millard Mitchell) and soon they have Ben Vandergroat (Robert Ryan) cornered. This is the moment where Roy Anderson (Ralph Meeker) shows up. He is an army lieutenant who has been discharged in disgrace and is certified unreliable (He got a paper saying that), but he arrives at just the right time to root out Ben. They catch him with a little bonus price as it turns out Ben has brought along a girl, Lina Patch (Janet Leigh).

The rest of the movie is essentially Ben trying to escape his captors using all the cunning of his devious mind. No trick is too cheap. Anything that can set his captors up against each other is worth a try. First shot is the reveal that there is a price on his head and a substantial one at that, 5000$ to be precise, which Howard sort of forgot to mention to his two helpers. Ben appeals to Jesse’s lust for gold and he sets Lina on to Howard and Ralph. In the end it is almost working and in the ensuing gunfight several of the characters dies. Only Lina’s rebellion saves Howard.

There are ties to a well-known theme of greed where three men strives to win a fortune. The two first dies for their greed, while the third by giving up on the price survives and win another unforeseen reward.  Howard could take Ben back to town to get his money, but decides to give up on it and go to California with Lina instead.

There are good things and less good things to say of this movie and the result is on of mixed feelings.

The very first thing you notice is the glorious filming. The mountains in Technicolor are the real stars of this movie. Every single shot is using the terrain to the utmost and in these colors the vistas are breathtaking. You would be excused to think that Technicolor was invented to showcase such landscape. The impressive thing is that almost all the movie was filmed on location. That may not sound like a big deal today but Technicolor equipment is extremely cumbersome and requires an insane amount of light. I am not sure who did the actual filming, but the only other person who could have pulled this off would have been Jack Cardiff.

I also liked the story arch. We may think that we are getting an early climax with the shoot-out, but that only marks the beginning of the trouble. Greed is the real enemy and that is a lurking disease. Of course it leads up to a traditional finale, but the way there is interesting.

Then there is the acting. Oh boy, oh boy. The acting and ultimately the direction is dilettantish on the verge of the cartoonish. Every sentence uttered is so exaggerated and staged that I fear they had a bunch of idiots in mind when they considered the target group of the movie. Ralph hitting on Lina, Lina upset about the shooting, Ben plotting against his captor, Jesse mumbling about gold and Howard crying for his lost wife and ranch. They are literally screaming these thing in the face of the audience and making themselves caricatures of their characters. This started already in the opening and they never let up. As the movie progressed I found it more and more difficult to cope with and it ended up bothering the crap out of me.

I felt sorry for James Stewart. He is an actor I always like, but with this direction he fell flat. That is quite unusual.

I know that this being a story about greed Howard had to give up on his price to save himself, but the way it happened seemed unnecessarily dumb. Ben is dead and Howard just needs to ride back to town to cash in 5 grand. Lina wants to go with him to California to start a new life and she does not even like Ben anymore. Why not go to California with 5000$? They are essentially throwing away a fortune for no reason I can fathom, except maybe a small detour and the smell of a corpse. I dare say they probably do not smell too good themselves. We are supposed to think that Howard has to choose between greed and a free life with Lina, but I do not really see that he needs to choose. If Lina had liked Ben, yeah maybe, or if there had been some curse on the money, but as it is it just seems stupid.  

While these things bothered me a great deal I must also add that the show around the dialogue was great. There is a lot of action in this movie and a lot of nail biting and those parts are well directed. Had they all shut their mouth I would have loved this movie.

“The Naked Spur” is a movie to see, not one to listen to. Maybe I should try watching it on mute.

The Wages of Fear (La Salaire de la Peur) (1953)

 

Frygtens Pris

”La salaire de la peur” goes under the English title of ”The Wages of Fear”. With that it should be quite clear that we are dealing with a very different movie from the last I reviewed “Roman Holiday”. In fact I believe this movie is almost the exact opposite. It is dystopic like hell.

In “La salaire de la peur” we meet a bunch of scumbags and drifters from all over the world who have ended up in a South American dump of a village. The only reason they are there seems to be that this is the end of the world. From here there is nowhere else to go unless you have lots of money, which of course nobody has. So they just hang around doing as little as possible.

One of these characters in Mario (Yves Montand). He is Corsican and as idle as everybody else. There is nothing really likable about him, yet he is our lead. He treats his girlfriend badly, abuse his friendship with Luigi (Folco Lulli) and thinks he is so awesome. When the gangster Jo (Charles Vanel) arrives in his smart suit and arrogant manners he is immediately Mario’s new best friend.

Jo is all pretense. He is completely broke and as stranded as everybody else, but acts like the king of the world and for that he gets respect and the enmity of almost everybody else, especially Luigi.

Out of the blue an opening materialize. An American oil company, as ruthless as they come, needs to transport truckloads of highly explosive and unstable nitroglycerine across a mountain to a burning oil well and they need drivers. This is ridiculously dangerous work and instead of using their own personnel the oil company needs expendables and this is where the drifters come in. They are desperate enough to jump at the chance to get money enough to get out of there to ignore the danger.

Eventually four drivers are selected, two for each truck. Mario and Jo drive one, Luigi and Bimba (Peter van Eyck), a Dutchman, drive the other. The idea is that even if one truck blows up the other might make it.

Now follows a painstakingly slow drive on poor roads. Any sudden movement might set off the explosives and kabooom! send off the drivers to another world. I will refrain from telling how that goes.

“La salaire de la peur” has a lot going for it and a lot against it.

On the downside are definitely the characters. They are all scum. Drifters, villagers, oil people, it makes no difference. There are very few likeable traits in anybody. Maybe Luigi and Bimba are slightly better people, but that is only by comparison. Mario and Jo are definitely not the kind of people you would like to call friend. That is actually okay except that they are placed in roles where we are supposed to root for them and as I do not really care if these people blow up it takes a bit off the excitement.

A second thing is the length of the movie. It is two hours and twenty minutes long and could easily have been compressed to say 100 minutes with no significant loss of content. It takes the movie 45 minutes to introduce the characters where absolutely nothing happens, but the arrival of Jo, a dance-off and the establishment that everybody are assholes is Spanish, French, German, English and likely a few other languages. It is simply too slow

Then there is the fact that my copy was in very poor condition. Often I could not even see the faces of the characters and when I also had to focus on the Swedish subtitles (which I understand, but not without an effort) I felt I was working hard to see this movie.

Once the two teams are on the road the movie gets a lot better. The tension is thick and the movie is cleverly made to keep this always first in our minds that these trucks can blow up any second. The challenges are queueing up for them. There are parts where they have to go slow and parts where they must go fast, there is a tight hairpin curve with a rotten wooden ramp and a big rock blocking the road and each time I are on the edge of my seat.

Jo shows his true colors as a selfish coward while Mario step it up and shows some determination, and Luigi and Bimba show some resourcefulness when needed. As in “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” it is in the face of adversity characters are made or break.

I like this part and it almost saves to movie. Had the movie been adequately compressed I may even have recommended it. As it is it is so bleak and cynical that you really have to be in the right mood to watch this. But for shear tension this is an expertly made movie.

 

Roman Holiday (1953)

 

Prinsessen Holder Fridag

In Denmark a republican is something quite different from stateside. It is a person who simply sees no point in royalty, considers royal weddings, parties and perks a ridiculous waste of money paid their royal subjects who have no other benefit than a real life glamour show. Essentially an anachronism that has outlived itself and now only survive to feed pictures and stories to women’s weeklies. I am such a person.

I make a point of avoiding movies featuring princes and princesses, especially those movies with a pink hue around the characters and the few times I have seen such trash I have struggled with gagging reflexes. It is just not my thing.

But I loved “Roman Holiday”, unabashed and completely.

This is feel good cinema of the very best kind. It is rightfully famous, even iconic and everybody owe themselves to see it.

For those few who has not seen it (which would include me until last night) you have to think something like “Coming to America” without Eddie Murphy. Ah, okay, and a few other minor details, but it is obvious where the inspiration came from.

Princess Ann (the gorgeous Audrey Hepburn) of some obscure European kingdom is visiting Rome as part of a lengthy and tiresome official roundtrip when all the ties and duties become too much for the princess. She is young and alive, but are not allowed out of her cage. So one night she runs away into the night of Rome. Unfortunately for her she had been injected with some sedative so she does not get far before she falls asleep on a fence by the sidewalk. This is where Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) finds her, not recognizing her as the princess. His attempts at sending her home are in vain and eventually he brings her home to his own apartment to sleep.

Next morning Joe discovers that she is a actually the very princess he was supposed to interview in his function as a journalist and he decides to scoop the world press with an exclusive behind the scene interview. To this end he needs his photographer friend Irving Radovich (Eddie Albert). Joe pretends not to recognize the princess as herself and that fits very well because she in turn pretends to be someone else. In fact she totally enjoys being out in town incognito, eating ice-cream, getting a haircut, seeing the sights and Joe plays along. For a full day Ann is Anya Smitty, an ordinary girl, and Joe is a fertilizer sales rep taking a day off.

They are having a blast and it is truly a day to remember. Eddie Albert is the perfect funny sidekick that gives all the events a roguish twist. Of course they fall in love, but when the day ends so does her holiday and she must return to her mansion. Joe refuses to do a story that exposes the princess. What they have together have become a lot more personal than was intended. They meet the next day for an official press conference, she a princess again and he a journalist. They share a long look, a smile and that is it. Theirs are two different worlds and what they shared is now a fond memory for each of them.

I like everything about this movie.

Audrey Hepburn was one of a kind. I frankly admit that when she does that smile I go all wobbly in my knees and as this caged-princess-discovering-life she is just perfect. There is an exuberance to her, a lust for life that I feel certain is not just an act. So is she acting or just being herself? I do not know and I do not care. I want her no other way. And that haircut makes Audrey Hepburn.

Gregory Peck is perfect as her male counterpart. He has to be both a fatherly protector and a roguish lover and I immediately thought of Cary Grant. In fact I later learned from the extra material that Grant was actually offered the role but turned it down and good for that because Peck as a Grant-light actually fits the bill even better. Thinking about it, Ann and Joe could only be Hepburn and Peck.

Then there is the tone of the movie. It is light comedy, but it avoids becoming fluff and it retains just enough tension to keep me on the toes, but must of all it projects all the joy these two are having in Rome throughout about half of the movie. This part is no filler, but actually the core of the film. They are having fun and it is so fun to watch.

There are tons of clones of this movie, but where this one really stands out is that the romantic element never goes into pink overdrive. We are not getting the Disney ending here. As much as these two people share a wonderful day together they are still rooted in reality. In 1953 this could not be more than a sweet memory, at least not where the movie ends. We are not forced to believe that one day of hanky panky leads directly to a big wedding. Something may have been seeded, but for now she is a princess and he is a journalist. Even throughout the day there is that underlying knowledge that this only works because they have given up their identity for a while. It is bittersweet, but it is what makes the story work.

Finally there is Rome itself. You could not have asked for a better set. I have been there twice and I have seen all these places, but they never looked more beautiful and romantic than here. There are times where famous locations feel forced into the story, but not here. Rome is a very natural setting for this picture. And yes, I am going to Italy this summer.

I knew “Roman Holiday” is famous and I had a feeling I would like it simply for the fact that it features Audrey Hepburn (oh dear, my knees again…), but I had not expected to be blown away. This is not my kind of movie, this is the stuff my wife watches, but I really loved “Roman Holiday”.

New Blog on Books

New Blog on Books

Ladies and Gentlemen, my blog has spawned a little brother: The TSorensen 1001 Book Blog.

Ta-Da…. (Drumroll)

I hinted at it in my New Year’s post and now it has become reality. For Christmas my wife gave me “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die” and almost on the spot I decided to extend my 1001 project to also include litterature. However I am a very slow reader, or rather I have precious little time to read so this is going to be the slowest blog in the world. I expect something like 4-5 posts per year and there is just no way I am going to read all 1001 books before I take the ticket. To me that does no really matter, I am sure it is going to be fun.

The principle is the same: I start with the first (oldest) one on the list and work my way through it.

The first book is read and the first post has been written. Let the good times roll.

From Here to Eternity (1953)

Herfra Til Evigheden

With ”From Here to Eternity” I am starting to get into known territory. This is a movie I have seen before and I remember it as being good. That was years ago, before I had even considered this project. Would it hold up now, years later?

The answer is a resounding YES.

It is difficult to compete with the rose tinted patina of fond memories, but this time I have the advantage of being deeply immersed in the movie scene of the period. I can see how superior this movie is to most, if not all, other contemporary movies. This movie is an achievement on almost every account and its 8 Academy awards (and a stack of nominations) is testament to that.

“From Here to Eternity” is taking place on ground zero for that historic day, December 7^th 1941, where Pearl Harbor was attacked and so it is easy to conclude that this is the story of that event. That is however not the case. Yes, Pearl Harbor gets bombed in the last ten minutes of the movie, but that is merely a backdrop for the real story, an accentuation of the environment and a feeling that the events told takes place at a turning point in history.

It is even difficult to put a finger on exactly what is the story. This is an ensemble movie that follows a number of soldier stationed at Schofield Barracks on Oahu, Hawaii. Their stories are intertwined but somewhat different although they have that in common that they are all about personal integrity.

Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift) has transferred into the unit after some trouble in his previous unit. He is a first class bugler (the dude in an outfit that blows the horn), but to company commander Captain Holmes (Philip Ober) he is first of all the boxer his company needs for the upcoming competition. Trouble is Prewitt does not want to fight. Since he K.O’ed his boxing friend and brain damaged him he has refused to box. Holmes as the first class assholes he is, lets his dogs loose on him and gives him hell to force him in to joining the boxing team. Prewitt stoically endures the harassment, but is ironically undone by another fight.

Maggio (Frank Sinatra) is a jovial private in the company who immediately befriends Prewitt. He loves life and party hard and in that process makes an enemy of Sergeant “Fatso” Judson (Ernest Borgnine). He is unfortunately the warden of the stockade so when Maggio as a result of his partying (leaving guard duty to go on a binge) is sent to the stockade he is in for a hard treatment. He refuses to bent, much like Prewitt, but to a vengeful sadist like Fatso that is just an invitation to cruelty and he ends up killing him.

Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster) is the assistant of Captain Holmes. It is he who in actuality runs the company since Holmes is mostly absent. Warden takes an awful lot of pride in his job and is the epitome of the army sergeant, the personified backbone of the army. At the outset he encourage Prewitt to give in to the pressure to box, but gradually he gets to respect Prewitt and the two of them becomes fast friend. This perfect soldier is however himself challenged. He falls in love with Captain Holmes pretty and promiscuous wife Karen (Deborah Kerr), which in itself is a big no-no, but he also finds himself being hypocrite of the year when is accusing her of her promiscuity, although it is that which enabled them to be together in the first place and is peanuts compared to his own transgression.

Each of these characters have to make decisions on who they are and what they believe is right and then stand by them in the face of adversity. Those are fairly big existential questions but the movies handles it beautifully. This never gets dry or theoretical, but remain all the way through interesting and relevant. It is one of those movies where time flies and all too soon you are at the end despite it being almost two hours long.

A lot of it has to do with the acting. This is a beautifully cast movie. Lancaster is spot on. Clift may not seem like your typical boxer, but he has that fifties rebellious youth about him that tells us he can be a bad boy if he wants to. Sinatra of course is a party boy as there ever was any.

The girls are a lot more than the accessory items they are made out to be. Both Deborah Kerr as Karen Holmes and Donna Reed as the dance hall prostitute have agendas of their own and will get there with or without their men. I hardly mentioned Reed, but she does have a fairly complex role as Prewitt’s girl. Is she the temptress Eve or the mother he never had? Or maybe she is just using him to fulfill her own dream of respectability?

The movie covers a lot of ground, involves a lot of characters and is fairly complex, but it all ties up in the end, though not with the traditional Hollywood happy end. It is sad but satisfying and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor seems a well-chosen metaphor for the scythe swiping through the characters of this story. They all lose something for standing up for their integrity.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It deserves all the accolade it got and I know I will get back to it frequently. Unless the rest of the decade blows me away completely I just know this one will make my top ten of the fifties.