THE OUTRAGE

Paul Newman

THE OUTRAGE (1964). Director: Martin Ritt.

In the late 19th century in the southwest, three men take refuge from a rain storm at a train depot: A priest (William Shatner), a prospector (Howard Da Silva) and a con man (Edward G. Robinson), with the first two telling the third the conflicting stories they heard at a murder trial. The trial centers on the notorious bandit Carrasco (Paul Newman), who is accused of raping a southern woman (Claire Bloom) and murdering her wealthy husband (Laurence Harvey). The bandit, the wife, the dead man (via an Indian medium) and then the prospector all tell their stories, but trying to figure out which is the correct one will drive you crazy. The Outrage is an interesting remake of the much more famous Japanese film Rashomon, and while it's generally a good picture (it helps if you're unfamiliar with the original), it's also a mixed bag. On the plus side is a charismatic and quite adept performance from Paul Newman, who's much better in what is essentially a character part than you might expect. Newman is on top of things in every scene. The next best performance is from Edward G. Robinson, whose expert acting skills are on marvelous display in his winning performance as the not very likable con artist. Although Claire Bloom [Three Into Two Won't Go] could be accused of being a little stagy and overly theatrical at times, she's playing many different interpretations of the same person and playing them well, with near-perfect line readings. Howard Da Silva scores as the prospector, and Laurence Harvey is fine in an underwritten part in which he is tied up and gagged for most of the running time. Shatner tends to overact a bit as he did as Captain Kirk -- he always seems to think he's doing Shakespeare -- but he's effective enough in the part.  James Wong Howe's cinematography is typically outstanding. While Alex North's score has some lovely things in it, it also seems inappropriate at times given the subject matter, but then again, The Outrage has several sequences that border on black comedy (which in of itself is inappropriate). Still, whatever its flaws, The Outrage is absorbing, good to look at, and features several excellent performances. Whether it has the kind of attitude towards rape that you might find today on, say, Law and Order:Special Victims Unit, is debatable. Martin Ritt directed Paul Newman in Hud the previous year.

NOTE: Apparently I had already reviewed this film on Great Old Movies eight years ago.  I liked it a little better this time around, and think it might even have more emotional impact than the original.

Verdict: Newman gives a striking performance in an unusual role for him. ***. 

CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS

Woody Allen and Mia Farrow

CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (1989). Written and directed by Woody Allen.

"When I grew up in Brooklyn, nobody committed suicide. Everyone was too depressed."

Opthamologist Judah Rosenthal (Martin Landau of Mission: Impossible) has a wife, Miriam (Claire Bloom), and children, as well as a mistress, a stewardess named Delores (Anjelica Huston of Manhattan Murder Mystery). Delores is making noises that she wants to "have it out" with Miriam, and keeps pressuring Judah to leave his wife, which Judah will simply not do. Fearing that his life and reputation will be shattered, in desperation Judah turns to his much less respectable brother, Jack (Jerry Orbach), who suggests a certain final "solution"... As this plays out, we also meet documentary filmmaker Cliff Stern (Woody Allen), who has an unhappy marriage to un-supportive wife, Wendy (Joanna Gleason), and finds himself falling for producer Halley Reed (Mia Farrow), who is working with Cliff on a film about his brother-in-law, a borderline obnoxious TV personality named Lester (Alan Alda of Same Time, Next Year). Crimes and Misdemeanors is in some ways an odd and very Allen-like movie, with the two different story lines never quite merging, but the picture is still compelling, amusing, and ultimately horrifying. Its exploration of moral complexities is a little uneven because Judah's solution to the "problem" of his mistress is on a much darker level than Cliff's contemplation of an affair when it is clear that neither he nor his wife are in love with each other. Still, the picture features some wonderful performances (from virtually everyone, although Landau and Huston are cast stand-outs), Allen's typically trenchant dialogue and observations, and a depressing but sadly realistic wind up. Initially seen as a benevolent figure, it is clear that Judah is a selfish and self-justifying monster. There are no dramatic fireworks or revelations concerning his immoral actions, but the ending is nevertheless sickening. The theme of the film seems to be, as Judah states, "only in Hollywood are there happy endings."

Verdict: One of Allen's more memorable and entertaining pictures. ***.

THREE INTO TWO WON'T GO

Rod Steiger: lover boy?

THREE INTO TWO WON'T GO (1969). Director: Peter Hall.

43-year-old serial cheater Steve Howard (Rod Steiger) works in sales and goes off on frequent business trips. On one of these he picks up 19-year-old Ella (Judy Geeson of Berserk), a free-living, promiscuous, borderline hooker, installs her in a nearby hotel, and sleeps with her. Steve wants to keep seeing Ella -- no wonder! -- but then she shows up at his house when he's away and becomes friends with his wife, Frances (Claire Bloom). Frances buys Ella's story, takes pity on her, and invites her to stay in the guestroom. Then Ella announces to all that she is pregnant -- with Steve's child! Three Into Two Won't Go is halfway between a trashy exploitation picture and a serious marital drama and doesn't quite work as either, although the acting by all three leads helps put it over. Bloom [The Chapman Report] and Steiger [The Sergeant] were a real-life married couple at the time of filming although they were divorced this very year (after ten years), which may be why they don't quite come off as a realistic match in the picture. Or maybe it was Steiger's unappealing semi-nude scenes! Peggy Ashcroft certainly scores as France's mother, Belle, whom Frances brings home from a retirement village. One gets the feeling that the more interesting parts of the story happened after the end of the picture, and a lot is left unsaid.

Verdict: Several excellent performances help create a fairly interesting and not bad picture. ***.

THE CHAPMAN REPORT

THE CHAPMAN REPORT (1962). Director: George Cukor.

"The one thing we must remember: we must be sensible."

"Why?" 

Researcher Dr. Chapman (Andrew Duggan) and his assistant Paul (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.), interview several women about their sex lives. These include Sarah (Shelley Winters), a married woman who is having an affair with a theater director named Fred (played by who else but Ray Danton); Naomi (Claire Bloom), whose nymphomaniacal activities doomed their marriage; Teresa (Glynis Johns), who is happily married but requires one fling with a really hot man (Ty Hardin of Berserk); and Kathleen (Jane Fonda), a widow whose late husband complained of her frigidity. In an unlikely development Paul finds himself drawn into a romantic relationship with Kathleen. While the movie is obviously inspired by the Kinsey report (and a trashy potboiler by Irving Wallace), the types in this movie are no different from women in countless other movies and the really eyebrow-raising stuff in Kinsey's report is avoided. So what we're left with is a reasonably entertaining soap opera with some fine acting. Zimbalist is no better than he ever is, Duggan has nearly a bit part, but the ladies offer something more. Bloom gives an affecting performance as a lonely, semi-alcoholic woman who is gang-raped in one chilling sequence. Winters is excellent as the wife with an unattractive husband (Harold J. Stone) who needs passion in her life with a handsome partner. Johns is okay in a sequence that is played primarily for laughs (John Dehner is her unsuspecting husband). Jane Fonda, always more talented than her father, gives another wonderful performance. Chad Everett shows up briefly as a hunky water man who appears at Naomi's house, and Corey Allen [The Big Caper] is very effective as the slimy musician, Wash Dillon, who casts a sick spell over Naomi. Perhaps the best performance comes from Henry Daniell [The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake], a psychologist who fears that Chapman may be setting things in motion without the appropriate follow-up.

Verdict: Laughably unscientific but entertaining. ***.

RICHARD III

Laurence Olivier as Richard the Third

RICHARD III (1955 ) Producer/director: Laurence Olivier.

"A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse."

"Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York."

Desiring the throne of England, Richard III (Laurence Olivier) schemes and plots to do away with any one who might impede his progress or limit his chances of ascending. His victims include his brother, George (John Gielgud); his little nephews, the princes; his associate, the Duke of Buckingham (Ralph Richardson), who balks a bit at the idea of murdering little boys; and others. Richard covets and seduces The Lady Anne (Claire Bloom), the widow of a man he killed on the battlefield, and suggests that the widow of the king has cast spells against him. He lies, manipulates, and agitates behind the scenes. He is a royal monster. Richard III, based on Shakespeare's masterpiece and preserving most of its text, is itself a masterpiece, a stirring drama that excels in performance, music (Sir William Wharton), direction (Olivier) and photography (Otto Heller). Gielgud and Richardson are superb, Bloom is radiant and excellent, and there are notable performances from Cedric Hardwicke as King Edward; Mary Kerridge as Queen Elizabeth; Laurence Naismith as The Lord Stanley; Michael Gough [Black Zoo] as the murderer Dighton; Alec Clunes as Hastings; Andrew Cruickshank [The Stranglers of Bombay] as Brakenbury; and others. The only problem with this wonderful movie is, oddly, Laurence Olivier [Carrie] in the title role. He plays Richard like a malevolent pixie, humorous and above it all, finding everything funny, an interpretation that isn't necessarily wrong, as such, but doesn't work for everybody. In love with the language and his own voice, he tends to rush through many lines, making them musical but obscuring their meaning, to the detriment of his character. Some will find him flamboyant; others hammy. Still, Olivier is by no means bad -- his performance, whatever its flaws, doesn't detract from the film's brilliance -- and he is so obviously having a ball that it's hard not to settle back and simply enjoy him as this nasty creature, Richard. His death scene is extremely well-played, as is the death of George in the tower; oddly the death of the princes was handled more powerfully in the 1939 Tower of London. Richard has also been played on film by Vincent Price. who was rather good, and Basil Rathbone, in the aforementioned Tower of London. Al Pacino also played the role in a few scenes in Looking for Richard and was also creditable. Modern-day adaptations of the play have to dumb it down for the audience by setting it in fascist fantasy lands or other more contemporary milieus.

Verdict: Who dares say Shakespeare is dull? ****.

THE KING'S SPEECH

THE KING'S SPEECH (2010). Director: Tom Hooper.

"Bertie," the Duke of York (Colin Firth), who eventually becomes King George the 6th of England, has a stammering problem that is especially noticeable whenever the poor man has to give a speech. In desperation his wife (Helena Bonham Carter) takes him to an Australian speech therapist named Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), who has unusual methods of dealing with the problem. As strong-willed in his own way as the King, he and Bertie seem to become both friends and adversaries as the years progress. This is a superb film, completely absorbing from start to finish, that gives us an insider's view into a neglected aspect of history and does so brilliantly. Firth and Rush are magnificent, and there are also notable performances from Bonham Carter, Guy Pearce as Bertie's brother, Edward, who abdicates, Claire Bloom as Queen Mary, Derek Jacobi as the Archbishop, and others. In addition to the great acting, the film's direction, photography and editing are also all first-class. Deservedly won Best Movie Oscar for 2010.

Verdict: Yes, they can still make great movies. ****.