The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951)
DIRECTOR: Henry Hathaway
CAST:
James Mason, Jessica Tandy, Cedric Hardwicke, Leo G. Carroll, Luther Adler, Everett Sloane, William Reynolds, Richard Boone
REVIEW:
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was undoubtedly Germany’s most famous General of WWII and continues to be regarded as one of history’s great military commanders. Gaining fame in North Africa, where his outnumbered Afrika Korps divisions pushed the British back for two years and nearly drove them off the continent, the Desert Fox was held in awe even by those fighting against him, both for his battle prowess and for his famously strict adherence to the rules of war. Recalled back to Germany before the end in Africa, he did not share the fate of his captured men, although he would have been more fortunate if he had. His star never again reaching its former heights after the African campaign, he tried and failed to defend Normandy against the Allied invasion and died a few months later, officially of injuries suffered when his staff car was strafed by Allied planes little over a month after D-Day. Only after the war did both the Allies and the German people learn the more complex and dramatic truth: Hitler had forced his once favorite General to commit suicide when information regarding his involvement in or at least knowledge of the conspiracy to overthrow him reached his ears. While Rommel has been portrayed onscreen in a number of war films, by far the best-known and most extensive depiction came in 1951, only seven years after his death, in the form of Henry Hathaway’s The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel. That such a sympathetic—indeed, practically sanctified–portrayal of Rommel could be made so soon after the end of the war is telling of the high regard in which Rommel was held even by his enemies. Unfortunately, a disjointed and episodic narrative structure, stilted dialogue and performances, and an interminable amount of WWII stock footage results in a mediocre production that doesn’t really do its subject justice. Continue reading
It’s a Wonderful Life (1947)
DIRECTOR: Frank Capra
CAST: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers, Ward Bond, Frank Faylen, Gloria Grahame
REVIEW:
Contrary to popular belief, It’s a Wonderful Life took a while to achieve its beloved status and was not an immediate hit. In fact, it received mixed critical reviews and despite being nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, it won none of them and barely made back its budget costs at the box office. But after its copyright was allowed to expire in 1974 and the film entered the public domain, the previously relatively forgotten movie became a mainstay re-running on television during the Christmas season and enraptured new generations of viewers, in both the original black-and-white version and subsequent colorizations, until 1994 when NBC obtained exclusive rights to its television broadcasts. Today, It’s a Wonderful Life is held up as such a timelessly popular Christmas movie (though only the climax actually takes place at Christmastime) that it’s strange to think it was once received lukewarmly. There’s reasons why It’s a Wonderful Life holds a timeless appeal. It’s a “feel good” movie through and through, but a well-constructed “feel good” movie that isn’t so saccharine as to avoid some darker moments (the central premise, after all, involves a man believing the world would be better off if he’d never existed and contemplating suicide) and holds some themes about the importance of the individual and the triumph of human values over penny-pinching bottom lines that feel just as timely and relevant today. Continue reading
Conflict (1945)
DIRECTOR: Curtis Bernhardt
CAST: Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet, Alexis Smith, Rose Hobart, Charles Drake, Pat O’Moore
REVIEW:
Filmed in 1943 but not released until 18 months later, directed by Curtis Bernhardt and scripted by Arthur T. Gorman and Dwight Taylor based on the short story The Pentacle by Robert Siodmak and Alfred Neumann, Conflict is a moderately diverting but routine example of one of those atmospheric black-and-white suspense noirs of the 1940s and 1950s (far from the only one to star Humphrey Bogart) that does a watchable job of keeping us intrigued with twists and turns in the moment, even if the big reveals don’t make a lot of sense in the end. It has its moments, but its series of contrivances leave it one of Bogart’s lesser films from the time period.
Continue readingThe Hitler Gang (1944)
DIRECTOR: John Farrow
CAST:
Robert Watson, Martin Kosleck, Roman Bohnen, Victor Varconi, Luis van Rooten, Alex Pope, Sig Ruman, Fritz Kortner, Tonio Stalwart, Alexander Granach, Poldi Dur, Helene Thimig, Reinhold Schünzel, Ludwig Donath
REVIEW:
The Hitler Gang is a curious (albeit highly dated) little time capsule—a docudrama about the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany made in 1944, when both still existed. Considering its production during WWII and Hitler’s lifetime, its propagandistic slant is unsurprising, but what’s a little more intriguing is that The Hitler Gang actually makes an effort to portray its subject matter with a level of seriousness and historical accuracy (to a point). The result is heavily dated by today’s standards, but retains a certain level of interest both as essentially a biopic made about Hitler while the real Hitler was still alive, and as a slice of Allied propaganda that doesn’t completely abandon the facts. Continue reading