1948--The Year in Review

So far, my choices as to best of the 1940s have included John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath, Orson Welles' Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity, Marcel Carne's Children of Paradise, Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life and Charles Chaplin's Monsiuer Verdoux. But, out of all these splendid films, I return to this year's winner again and again nowadays--I find I never get tired of it, it so fills me with excitement. Whenever I begin John Huston's dazzling examination of human greed called The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and hear Max Steiner's wonderful score blasting away again, I feel like I'm settling down for the most beefy, appetizing dinner imaginable (complete with beans--ya gotta eat your beans). It's the kind of work that could get people who've never before seen a black-and-white film immediately enthusiastic about old movies (if I were teaching a course on movie history, this would be the one I'd program instantly--it's just impossible to get restless with this masterpiece). The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is everything a great work of cinema should be--weird, dangerous, radically engrossing, insightful, and crafted with fussy visual detail from top to bottom. The acting here is sublime, with each of the three leads play off each other to sensational effect (there are few supporting performances in film history more gripping, more hilarious and true, than Walter Huston's show as Howard, the straight-talking miner who acts as the film's iron moral compass; it should be noted, this film stands as the first that won Oscars for a father-and-son team in the same year (only the Coppola's have matched it, in 1974 with The Godfather Part II). And, man, how great is Humphrey Bogart in this movie? His Fred J. Dobbs is a lush, grubby, regally besmudged madman, deluded and bent on self-destruction; whenever I see him covered in that Mexican dust and grime, almost looking like a crazed, hairy monkey (50s' TV host Dave Garroway's chimpanzee TV-cohort J. Fred Muggs was probably named after Bogart's character), I say to myself  "This is easily Bogart's most daring, without-a-wire performance." And I love Tim Holt, too, elegantly gentle as the one relatively sane member of this batty trio. Even Bruce Bennett as the sad, laconically wise interloper Cody and Alphonso Bedoya as the film's villainous Gold Hat are unforgettable (Bedoya gets the movie's most famous line: "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges"). Huston's heart-pounding quasi-western really places the viewer right there, pick in hand, toiling in the heated grime, suffering beneath that sun-soaked, gold-stuffed mountain...so much so that you feel like having a cool shower after watching the low dealings happening in this sierra's shadows. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is fun and smart and disturbing in equal measure, and I can't imagine anyone in the Academy voting against it for Best Picture (especially since it ended up winning three of the year's major awards).

But it happened, and instead, the Academy decided to finally give much of its acclaim to the British film industry, which had been toiling in unfair obscurity for decades before being cited for Lawrence Olivier's abbreviated version of Hamlet, which is fine but far from the best of the year (now, it really stands as a living document of Olivier's talents as an actor, and less as a show of his directing aplumb--his earlier Henry V was easily more astonishing, and I suspect this Best Picture choice was a make-up award for ignoring the legendary actor for so many years). Still, there are so many better 1948 UK movies the Academy could've lauded--Carol Reed's tense The Fallen Idol, Michael Powell's dizzying The Red Shoes, or David Lean's perfect adaptation of Oliver Twist, for example (then again, aside from The Red Shoes, which won a few accolades this year, maybe these movies weren't seen on US shores for years to come--the releases of non-American movies back then were a bonafide mess, and that's also why colossal titles like Italy's Bicycle Thieves and Germany Year Zero weren't considered for 1948 awards). Though Sierra Madre captains a major sweep in this overview, there's still room for the brilliantly colored images of Powell's The Red Shoes, a film too vibrant to ignore. Oliver Twist and The Fallen Idol still come into play here, too, and my choice for best Live Action Short film of the year was also a British film--a taut 40-minute photoplay called To The Public Danger, only the second production directed by future James Bond auteur Terrence Fisher. And, once again, the wildly funny and creative animator Tex Avery contributed another masterpiece involving a hilariously dyspeptic cat. 1947 might have been a dud of a year, but 1948--on US and other shores--more than made up for it. I mean...wow...such a period for film noir (They Live By Night, The Naked City, Raw Deal, Force of Evil, Key Largo, Call Northside 777), comedy (Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, Unfaithfully Yours, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein), musicals (Easter Parade, The Pirate, Romance on the High Seas) and westerns (Red River, Fort Apache, Yellow Sky). It was a time of ridiculous riches--a gold mine, if you will. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold.

PICTURE: THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (US, John Huston)
(2nd: The Red Shoes (UK, Michael Powell), followed by:
The Fallen Idol (UK, Carol Reed)
Bicycle Thieves (Italy, Vittorio De Sica)
Germany Year Zero (Italy/West Germany, Roberto Rossellini)
Red River (US, Howard Hawks)
Oliver Twist (UK, David Lean)
Letter from an Unknown Woman (US, Max Ophuls)
Raw Deal (US, Anthony Mann)
They Live by Night (US, Nicholas Ray)
He Walked By Night (US, Alfred Werker and Anthony Mann)
Yellow Sky (US, William A. Wellman)
Force of Evil (US, Abraham Polonsky)
Key Largo (US, John Huston)
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (US, H.C. Potter)
The Naked City (US, Jules Dassin)
Hamlet (UK, Lawrence Olivier)
Call Northside 777 (US, Henry Hathaway)
I Remember Mama (US, George Stevens)
The Snake Pit (US, Anatole Litvak)
Portrait of Jennie (US, William Dieterle)
The Search (US, Fred Zinnemann)
Macbeth (US, Orson Welles)
Louisiana Story (US, Robert Flaherty)
Sorry, Wrong Number (US, Anatole Litvak)
Unfaithfully Yours (US, Preston Sturges)
Fort Apache (US, John Ford)
Easter Parade (US, Charles Walters)
Rope (US, Alfred Hitchcock)
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (US, Charles Barton)

ACTOR: Humphrey Bogart, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (2nd: Ralph Richardson, The Fallen Idol, followed by: Alec Guinness, Oliver Twist; John Garfield, Force of Evil; John Wayne, Red River; Lawrence Olivier, Hamlet; Lamberto Maggioranni, Bicycle Thieves; Cary Grant, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House; Richard Basehart, He Walked by Night)

ACTRESS: Olivia De Havilland, THE SNAKE PIT (2nd: Joan Fontaine, Letter from an Unknown Woman, followed by: Barbara Stanwyck, Sorry, Wrong Number; Irene Dunne, I Remember Mama; Jennifer Jones, Portrait of Jennie; Jane Wyman, Johnny Belinda; Myrna Loy, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House; Moira Shearer, The Red Shoes)

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Walter Huston, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (2nd: Robert Newton, Oliver Twist, followed by: Montgomery Clift, Red River; Edward G. Robinson, Key Largo; Tim Holt, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; Walter Brennan, Red River; Oscar Homolka, I Remember Mama; Thomas Gomez, Force of Evil; Melvyn Douglas, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jean Simmons, HAMLET (2nd: Anne Baxter, Yellow Sky, followed by: Ethel Barrymore, Portrait of Jennie; Barbara Bel Geddes, I Remember Mama; Kay Walsh, Oliver Twist; Mary Clare, Oliver Twist; Claire Trevor, Key Largo; Betsy Blair, The Snake Pit; Barbara Lawrence, Unfaithfully Yours) 



DIRECTOR: John Huston, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (2nd: Vittorio De Sica, Bicycle Thieves, followed by: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger, The Red Shoes; Carol Reed, The Fallen Idol; David Lean, Oliver Twist; Howard Hawks, Red River; Roberto Rossellini, Germany Year Zero; Max Ophuls, Letter from an Unknown Woman

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Roberto Rossellini, Carlo Lizzani, Max Colpet, and Sergio Amadei, GERMANY YEAR ZERO (2nd: Albert Maltz and Malvin Wald, The Naked City, followed by:  Lamar Trotti and W.R. Burnett, Yellow Sky; Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours; Richard Schwizer, The Search) 

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: John Huston, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (2nd: Oreste Biancoli, Suso D'Amico, Vittorio De Sica, Adolfo Franci, Gherardo Gherardi, Gerardo Guerrieri, and Cesare Zavattini, Bicycle Thieves; followed by: Graham Greene, Leslie Storm and William Templeton, The Fallen Idol; David Lean and Stanley Haynes, Oliver Twist; Borden Chase and Charles Schnee, Red River; Abraham Polonsky and Ira Wolfort, Force of Evil) 

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: TO THE PUBLIC DANGER (UK, Terrence Fisher) (2nd: In The Street (Helen Levitt); The Dim Little Island (UK, Humphrey Jennings); Meditation on Violence (Maya Deren); Mother's Day (UK, James Broughton) ANIMATED SHORT FILM: THE CAT THAT HATED PEOPLE (Tex Avery) (2nd: Back Alley Oproar (Friz Freleng; Sylvester and Porky Pig), followed by: Pecos Bill (Clyde Geronmi and Walt Disney); The Foghorn Leghorn (Robert McKimson; Foghorn Leghorn); Half-Pint Pygmy (Tex Avery); Haredevil Hare (Chuck Jones; Bugs Bunny and Marvin the Martian); Gorilla My Dreams (Robert McKimson; Bugs Bunny)) BLACK-AND-WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY: Joseph H. August and Lee Garmes, PORTRAIT OF JENNIE (2nd: William Daniels, The Naked City, followed by: John Alton, He Walked Bu Night; Joseph MacDonald, Yellow Sky; Guy Green, Oliver Twist) COLOR CINEMATOGRAPHY: Jack Cardiff, THE RED SHOES (2nd: Harry Stradling, Jr., Easter Parade, followed by: Winton C. Hoch, William V. Skall and Joseph A. Valentine, Joan of Arc) BLACK-AND-WHITE ART DIRECTION: THE FALLEN IDOL, Oliver Twist, Johnny Belinda, I Remember Mama, Portrait of Jennie COLOR ART DIRECTION: THE RED SHOES, Easter Parade, The Pirate BLACK-AND-WHITE COSTUME DESIGN: OLIVER TWIST, Hamlet, Letter From an Unknown Woman, The Fallen Idol, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre COLOR COSTUME DESIGN: THE RED SHOES, Easter Parade, Romance on the High Seas FILM EDITING: THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, Red River, The Naked City, He Walked By Night, The Red Shoes SOUND: THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, Red River, The Snake Pit, The Naked City, Yellow Sky ORIGINAL SCORE: Max Steiner, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (2nd: Dimitri Tiomkin, Red River, followed by: Brian Easdale, The Red Shoes; Alfred Newman, The Snake Pit; Dimitri Tiomkin, Portrait of Jennie) ADAPTED OR MUSICAL SCORE: Johnny Green and Roger Edens, EASTER PARADE (2nd: Lennie Hayden, The Pirate, followed by: Victor Young, The Emperor Waltz) ORIGINAL SONG: "It's Magic" from ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS (Music by Jule Stein, lyrics by Sammy Cahn) (2nd: "Buttons and Bows" from The Paleface (Music by Jay Livingston, lyrics by Ray Evans), followed by: "Be A Clown" from The Pirate (Music and lyrics by Cole Porter); "A Couple of Swells" from EASTER PARADE (Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin); "Steppin' Out With My Baby" from Easter Parade (Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin)) MAKEUP: THE RED SHOES, Oliver Twist, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Film #128: White Hunter Black Heart

White Hunter Black Heart may not be a movie that many people consider a classic, but I certainly do: in fact, it may be producer/ director/ actor Clint Eastwood's most overlooked film. Released in 1990, screenwriter Peter Viertel's kinetic adaptation of his roman a'clef novel chronicles his mercurial relationship with uber-macho director John Huston while on location in Africa filming (or not filming) 1951's The African Queen. None of the real names are used here--Eastwood's John Huston is named "John Wilson"--but you'll easily spy all the players (including Marisa Berenson as Kate Hepburn/"Kay Gibson" and Richard Vanstone as Humphrey Bogart/"Phil Duncan").

Plopping two of the biggest Hollywood stars ever out in the middle of the Dark Continent was considered abject madness back in the era where verisimilitude in setting often was achieved on studio backlots or in front of a rear-screen projection system. But Huston wouldn't agree to film former critic James Agee's script until it was rewritten (by he and Viertel), and until the producer Sam Spiegel agreed to shoot it in color and on location. This alone ballooned the original budget, but Spiegel's troubles were just beginning. Once Huston's plane landed in the Congo, it was clear he had things other than filmmaking on his mind. In fact, Huston was wholly disinterested in the project, and was instead obsessed with downing Scotch, pissing everybody off and, especially, bagging his first African elephant on safari. As portrayed in White Hunter Black Heart, Huston viewed the trip as an opportunity to come face-to-face with the primal forces of nature, and emerge victorious. He saltily goads Viertel (a bright-eyed Jeff Fahey) into joining him on the hunt, even as the writer is desperately trying to do his work on the script. Meanwhile, Spiegel (George Dzundza) bleeds money trying to keep the cast and crew--and the African extras--ready for the first day of shooting (the fact that they arrive during the region's rainy season doesn't help matters).

Though, as usual in an Eastwood film, I don't feel the supporting characters are really all that well-played (including the rather limp Fahey), I do find Eastwood's performance so overwhelmingly impressive, the script (by Viertel, James Bridges and western auteur Burt Kennedy) so engaging, and the African locales so rapturously photographed (by Jack Green) that, for me, this becomes one of the director's most vivid efforts. In a complete departure from his usual persona, Eastwood is brusque and rather lovingly offensive as the perplexing, frustrating "John Wilson." The squint is still in evidence, but Eastwood does a pretty snazzy imitation of John Huston's distinctive drawl (it's still delivered through a pure Eastwood prism, though). It might be a little off-putting to viewers expecting to see Clint treading familiar waters, but Wilson's cruel rants are terrific material for this icon to sink into, so any doubters will quickly be won over. Wilson is one of Eastwood's most despicable characters eventually, but he does have possess an overpowering respect for the natives (he makes his African hunting guide an advisor on the film) and an admirable sense of honor. My favorite scene in the film has Wilson elegantly, imaginatively reading the riot act to a anti-semitic Englishwoman who's just insulted Fahey's Jewish character. Including the menacing dialogue from this scene will not dampen its effect onscreen in any way:

John Wilson: I would like to tell you a little story.
Mrs. MacGregor: Oh, I love stories.
John Wilson: Well, you mustn't interrupt now, because you're way too beautiful to interrupt people. When I was in London in the early 40's, I was dining one evening at the Savoy with a rather select group of people, and sitting next to me was a very beautiful lady, much like yourself.
Mrs. MacGregor: Now you're pulling my leg.
John Wilson: Now, just listen, dear. Well, we were dining and the bombs were falling, and we were all talking about Hitler and comparing him with Napoleon, and we were all being really brilliant. And then, suddenly, this beautiful lady, she spoke up and said that was the thing she didn't mind about Hitler, was the way he was treating the Jews. Well, we all started arguing with her, of course. Though, mind you, no one at the table was Jewish. But she persisted. Are you listening, honey?
Mrs. MacGregor: Mustn't interrupt Daddy.
John Wilson: That's right. You're way too beautiful for that. Anyway, she went on to say that that's how she felt about it, that if she had her way, she would kill them all, burn them in ovens, like Hitler. Well, we all sat there in silence. Then finally, I leaned over to her and I said, "Madam, I have dined with some of the ugliest goddamn bitches in my time. And I have dined with some of the goddamndest ugly bitches in this world. But you, my dear, are the ugliest bitch of them all." Well, anyway, she got up to leave and she tripped over a chair and fell on the floor. And we all just sat there. No one raised a hand to help her. And finally when she picked herself up I said to her one more time: "You, my dear, are the ugliest goddamn bitch I have ever dined with." Well, you know what happened? The very next day, she reported me to the American Embassy. And they brought me in for reprimand. And then when they investigated it, they found out she was a German agent. And they locked her up. [smiles] Isn't that amazing?
Mrs. MacGregor: Why did you tell me that story?
John Wilson: Oh, I don't know. It wasn't because I thought you were a German agent, honey. But I was tempted tonight to say the very same thing to you. I didn't want you to think I had never said it before. You, madam, are the--well, you know the rest...I think this is just a good a snatch of Eastwood-speak as anything that Dirty Harry ever said. Even if he is the textbook Ugly American, Eastwood forces us to root for Wilson despite his fistfights, insults, temper tantrums, deathly personal failings, and sturdy narcissism. Our morbid curiosity lasts right up to the film's unforgettable final dolly-shot, which always jolts me into even higher regard for White Hunter Black Heart.