Mubi Monday: Brute Force (1947)

Director Jules Dassin has a number of classic films scattered throughout his filmography, he is certainly someone that you should become familiar with if you’re exploring cinema, but it took me far too long to get to this one, despite having owned it on shiny disc for years.

Brute Force is a bleak and nihilistic look at prison life, showing the battles between the inmates and the guards, the battles between inmates and other inmates, and the battles that men have with their own willpower. Although you get an interesting mix of cast members, the focus is on a prisoner named Joe Collins (Burt Lancaster) and Captain Munsey (Hugh Cronyn), the former wanting to escape prison life and the latter wanting to be promoted to the position of warden.

Based on a real-life incident, a futile battle between prisoners and guards at Alcatraz after a failed escape attempt, the screenplay by Richard Brooks has numerous moments of unflinching violence throughout. I am not going to say that this remains as powerful today as it would have been when first released, but it certainly still packs a punch. There are familiar prison movie tropes, but it’s arguably more interesting because of the bleak perspective. Even the presence of Sir Lancelot, a calypso musician given numerous small movie roles at this time, doesn’t lighten the mood.

Lancaster and Cronyn are superb in their roles, portraying the typical unbreakable prisoner and unrelenting prison guard that we have seen in so many other prison movies. Neither are good men, but Cronyn’s character has the power, and the sadism, making him the ultimate enemy of those onscreen. As for the rest of the cast, they’re all excellent, and everyone gets a moment to shine (even if they’re reminiscing about how they ended up doing time because of a woman . . . yeah, all these poor prisoners were just suckers for a pretty lady, apparently). Jack Overman, Jeff Corey, John Hoyt, and Art Smith were favourites of mine, but you also have Yvonne De Carlo, Charles Bickford, Sam Levene, and many others to enjoy.

Dassin does his usual great job as director. The pacing is perfect, the thin line between what is depicted onscreen and what is heavily implied is always judged well (although I am sure that was also helped by knowing what would be permitted by the censors), and the weighty exploration of morality, and the different codes applied to different groups of people, is never allowed to slow down a film which rattles along like an unstoppable locomotive heading towards a “track ends” sign.

Not a film to watch when you want something to cheer you up, Brute Force is nevertheless a classic that easily stands the test of time. It’s smart, it still packs a punch, and the ending is unforgettable. 

9/10

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Mubi Monday: Rope (1948)

Alfred Hitchcock once said something about how an explosion will give audiences a fright but showing a ticking bomb under the chair of some unsuspecting potential victim would have them on edge right up until the explosion. I'm paraphrasing but I remember the essence of his message. He liked to scare people, but he equally enjoyed making them tense.

Rope starts with a murder, committed by Phillip (Farley Granger) and Brandon (John Dall). The body is hidden in a chest and, for the rest of the movie, there it stays while the two murderers host a small dinner party, all the while hoping that nobody suspects that they're sharing a room with a hidden corpse. The one person who may suspect is Rupert Cadell (James Stewart), an old schoolteacher they believe would actually enjoy their whole plan. Of course, they cannot tell him what they have done. The only thing they can do is enjoy watching Cadell mull over how strange the evening is.

As famous for the way it was shot as for the content, Rope is a film unfairly viewed by some (including Hitchcock himself, and I should mention that it was he who directed it) as nothing more than a gimmicky experiment. There's no denying that the lengthy takes, the logistics of how every shot was set out, and the manipulation of the main environment (including a wonderful display showing the city skyline turning from day to night), is technically impressive, but that's only part of the reason to enjoy the film. The script, by Arthur Laurents (from a play by Patrick Hamilton), is a lot of fun, allowing viewers to watch two nasty individuals grow increasingly edgy as their own arrogance starts to bite them on the backside.

Granger is the more agitated of the pair, tense from the very beginning and only getting worse when alcohol is added to the mix. Dall gets to have more fun, unflappable throughout, even as it looks more and more unlikely that their "perfect crime" will be discovered. Stewart, despite the fact that he didn't think himself suited to this role, is his usual good self, a smart and sophisticated man who is equally happy chatting to the other guests as he is joking with the maid (Edith Evanson). Joan Chandler and Douglas Dick are both enjoyable enough as the other, younger, guests,  and both Cedrick Hardwicke and Constance Collier are very good as the two older attendees, with Collier a particular delight.

Although it would be easy to confuse Rope with the attitudes of the two main characters - smug, self-absorbed, interested in creating something audacious and impressive just for the same of being able to say it was done - I think it holds up as a fine piece of thrilling cinema. Few other films spend the entire runtime showing you that ticking bomb under the chair. This one does, and to great effect. The ticking bomb just happens to be in the shape of a stashed corpse.

8/10

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The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

Based on a novel by James M. Cain, The Postman Always Rings Twice is a very enjoyable tale of love, hate, treachery and misfortune. It hits all of the beats that noir fans will expect, but it does so in a way that's enjoyably different from the other movies of the era.

John Garfield stars as Frank Chambers, a man with a bad case of itchy feet. He is finally persuaded to settle down when offered a job by the kindly Nick Smith (Cecil Kellaway). It's not Nick's kindness that persuades him, however, it's the beauty of Nick's wife, Cora (Lana Turner). The two don't immediately get along, but when the cool lady starts to warm up to Frank it becomes clear that the husband will have go go.

The screenplay here, by Niven Busch and Harry Ruskin, isn't the sharpest, with only a few barbed exchanges sticking in the memory, but the direction from Tay Garnett is good enough and the cast is, well, it's a mixed bag, but with plenty of treats.

Garfield is one of the weaker leads, but Turner is much more memorable as Cora. Like every other aspect of the movie, she's not the best archetype seen in the subgenre, but she's one of the best onscreen. Kellaway is very good as Nick, a very kindly soul, oblivious to plans being made for him. Hume Cronyn and Leon Ames are both great as legal eagles on opposing sides.

Although the events unfold onscreen in a fairly unpredictable manner - with most of the developments signposted in advance for eagle-eyed viewers - it must be said that the bigger twists are a bit out of left field, and enjoyably so. The whole final act, in particular, is a fun attempt to repeatedly blindside the viewer, though most of the events that occur do so with at least a little foreshadowing to help people expect the unexpected.

Well worth a watch, but it never quite reaches greatness, in my opinion.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Postman-Always-Rings-Twice/dp/B0001EYSX0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384195127&sr=8-1&keywords=the+postman+always+rings+twice