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Post by topbilled on Dec 26, 2022 3:28:16 GMT
Coming up:
James Mason Vol. 1
February 4
THE SEVENTH VEIL (1945)
...reviewed by TopBilled
February 11
ODD MAN OUT (1947)
...reviewed by Jlewis
February 18
THE UPTURNED GLASS (1947)
...reviewed by TopBilled
February 25
20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1954)...reviewed by Jlewis
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Post by topbilled on Dec 26, 2022 3:34:13 GMT
Note:
Jlewis and I had planned to do a theme on James Mason, before TCM chose him for a Star of the Month tribute recently.
He is someone that we both feel gives fascinating performances across decades. There is no way one month will be enough time to cover some of his essential films. So that is why this theme says Vol. 1, because later on, we will probably want to revisit James Mason and look at his later work from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
Since Jlewis is more of an expert on Disney films, I am stepping aside to let him review 20,000 LEAGUES on his own. For this particular month, we decided to cut the workload in half, where he is doing two Mason pictures and I am doing two Mason pictures. It's good to vary things a bit...
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Post by topbilled on Feb 4, 2023 16:15:26 GMT
TopBilled:THE SEVENTH VEIL (1945)
 This British psychological drama was both a domestic favorite in England and an international hit abroad. It’s one of those smartly assembled tales of woe that draw the viewer in and leave him a bit spellbound. Stars Ann Todd and James Mason work their magic to create a memorable motion picture. Both Todd and Mason would appear in Hollywood productions after this, Mason much more successfully than Todd. The story begins with Todd in a nursing home slash mental hospital. She doesn’t talk but suffers immensely. We see her escape the confines of the facility, make her way through a stretch of town to a nearby bridge, then jump off. It’s a very exciting way to start the film.Of course, she’s fished out and taken back. But she remains as non-responsive as ever. So a doctor (Herbert Lom) who practices hypnosis on patients is allowed to put her under and learn what the devil is troubling her. Lom’s character compares her situation to Salome’s– with a series of layers, and he intends to unveil her. He insists that once he pulls off the seventh and final veil covering her mind, he’ll be able to cure her. Some of the psychobabble is a bit much, but this is an effective way to set up the flashbacks that follow. I didn’t particularly believe Miss Todd, who was 38 when the picture was made, as the fourteen year old version of herself in the first flashback. A teenaged girl should have been used for these scenes. But we do learn how she was orphaned and sent to live with a disabled bachelor (Mason). The second sequence involves her studies in music. Mason realizes she has talent playing the piano. And as her personal Svengali, he will push this naive Trilby towards greatness. At the same time Todd falls for a brash American (Hugh McDermott, using a most unconvincing accent). This dalliance is not acceptable to Mason, who discourages his protege from pursuing such a preposterous romance with a foreigner. The next part has Todd failing to marry the American and becoming a concert pianist. Mason asserts considerable influence over her until she’s 21 (again Miss Todd looks much older). After reaching legal age, she remains under his watchful eye and “care.” It’s interesting to see how they become thoroughly dependent on each other, though the situation is fraught with complexity. During these scenes she develops a sort of malady related to the use of her hands. Is it a psychosomatic condition? Some of the drama is hysterical to say the least. We continue to cut back to the present day, where she is still under hypnosis reliving these experiences, which are both exhilarating and devastating. There is another boyfriend (Albert Lieven) in a subsequent sequence. He paints Todd’s portrait and intends to whisk her off to Italy. Not surprisingly, the Henry Higgins in Mason’s character doesn’t want to lose his polished Eliza and tries several tactics to get her to stay. When she won’t listen, he nearly cripples her hand with his cane. Our mercurial Pygmalion has tried to prevent her from leaving, but she goes off anyway…and ends up in a terrible accident which is how she came to be where she is now. As part of her ongoing therapy after the hypnosis, she is coaxed by doctor Lom into playing the piano again. The film’s story won’t end here. She has to decide which man she truly wants most, and that will happen only when the seventh veil is finally lifted. The last scene, when she makes her cathartic choice, is very emotional…and in my not so humble view, this is one of the best endings I’ve seen in a love story of this type.
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Post by topbilled on Feb 11, 2023 15:01:04 GMT
Essential: ODD MAN OUT (1947)Jlewis:
 James Mason is one of those actors instantly recognized by his voice. In this regard, he resembles Cary Grant who co-starred with him in NORTH BY NORTHWEST. The Voice is what carried him to Hollywood, although it did not happen overnight. His career in the British cinema stretches back to 1935 and it was well over a decade before his U.S. debut.However, by the late forties, he was literally all over the air waves in many popular radio programs from BURNS & ALLEN to SUSPENSE. Cartoon voice-work was also a natural for him, even though he did far fewer of those, the most notable being the Oscar nominated TELL-TALE HEART put out by UPA. Documentary narration kept him busy through the end of his career, including the excellent silent era HOLLYWOOD series produced by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill. Because his voice was so distinctive, it is easy to overlook his many other talents as an actor. ODD MAN OUT, filmed in 1946 (released ’47), was a showcase of what he was fully capable of. It was not a box-office success despite all of its critical acclaim, but it was the primary performance that got him noticed out west. Fittingly, we hear his voice on screen before we see his face.The setting of this F.L. Green novel adaptation is Northern Ireland and the antics of “the organization” (thinly disguised IRA). Mason plays Johnny McQueen who is both an outlaw and a local hero much like JESSE JAMES whom we reviewed in an essential earlier. Children play him in their street games. The main focus of our story involve his final days on the lam after a robbery with fellow comrades Pat (Cyril Cusack), Nolan (Dan O’Herlihy) and Murphy (Roy Irving) and his killing of a man. He gets seriously injured in the shoulder, a fracture that two experienced ladies with nursing credentials (Fay Compton as Rosie and Beryl Measer as Maudie) can’t fix when they help him in hiding.There are multiple characters featured in this crime drama who either side with Johnny or are against him, while others like the cabbie (Joseph Tomelty) who discovers him as an unexpected rider don’t wish to get involved. Fellow criminals Pat and Nolan later get hoodwinked by the matronly Theresa O’Brien (Maureen Delaney) and are killed outside her swank home by the police. Johnny’s friend Dennis (Robert Beatty) gets rampaged by ornery boys in the street before discovering Johnny’s hiding place from another girl sporting a single roller skate and, then, tries to hide in a packed bus before getting arrested himself for his Johnny connections.Kathleen (played by another Kathleen, Kathleen Ryan) is his love interest who goes out searching for him. One memorable scene involves her and Granny (Kitty Kirwan) hiding a revolver from the investigator (Denis O’Dea) in a montage of moves worthy of Hitchcock. She later seeks comfort from Father Tom (W.G. Fay) and shocks him when confessing she would rather help her boyfriend by killing him herself than give him up to the police. In the scenes with Kathleen, Tom is also conversing with a budgerigar owner Shell (F.J. McCormick) who compares one of his birds to Johnny “out of his cage.” The slightly comical “bird brain” later turns on Johnny after initially aiding him, but not until after he makes Johnny the subject of drunk artist Luckey’s portrait (Luckey being played by a very animated Robert Newton who gets second billing after Mason despite comparatively shorter time on screen). A would-be surgeon Tober (Elwyn Brook-Jones) makes a last ditch attempt to salvage Johnny’s shoulder during the process.Despite all of the meandering plot points, this is still a rollicking great film that keeps you entertained from start to finish. Director Carol Reed pulls all the stops with his performers, much as he would in his more famous THE THIRD MAN. In fact, fans of the latter film who view this title afterwards are often surprised at just how much gets borrowed wholesale. Robert Krasker headed the camera team in both and used this one as an experimental platform for multiple visual techniques that the latter fine-tuned, including many shadows running against night-time street scenes combined with broad daylight scenics showcasing a grimy, contemporary Belfast. Roger Furse and Ralph Binton are credited for the more studio bound settings here, full of Big Ben like clocks and very artificial looking snow.There are many avant garde moments that show Johnny’s point of view, like his dizzy spell after initially getting hit in the shoulder that is achieved by a shaky hand-held camera, along with the dream memory of his prison guard experience as he lies in hiding among the rubble of an abandoned building. Occasionally the visuals are over-the-top, like the scene following Kathleen’s visit with Father Tom and the discussion of her faith testing when we see Johnny wake up in a cemetery-like setting with a marble angel statue beside him. As Johnny’s pain increases and ultimate decline becomes evident, things get really surreal like Salvador Dali. All of the human faces he has recently confronted appear in the beer bubbles at the bar he seeks refuge in and Luckey’s paintings come alive as he gives his final soliloquy. Despite its artsy pretensions, this is still your trademark Two Cities production put out by the mighty J. Arthur Rank empire (cue the opening gong-man) and employs all of the talent that the established British Hollywood hierarchy could muster. This includes the enthralling score conducted by Muir Mathieson and the London Symphony that handled so many Rank productions and a composer, William Alwyn, who later did some popular Disney films.This particular score is still often performed today, being among the more memorable scores of the forties. As mentioned above, James Mason appeared in many radio programs including this 1952 show that shares the title and original source material but abbreviates much of the story to a half-hour format: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEw67IBmsZw
Like some of the Powell-Pressburger productions also distributed under the Rank banner, including the contemporary BLACK NARCISSUS, the ending is very un-Hollywood-ish. Kathleen is reunited with Johnny but we don’t get our traditional happy ending. After all, crime must always pay. Yet their love should continue in the afterlife…
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Post by topbilled on Feb 18, 2023 12:32:18 GMT
Essential: THE UPTURNED GLASS (1947)
TopBilled:
This is a James Mason movie, made in Britain, in which he plays a villain. But unlike his roles in THE SEVENTH VEIL, ODD MAN OUT or 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, he is a much more conflicted and daresay sympathetic bad guy. Mason plays a distinguished doctor who teaches a criminal psychology course, and during his lectures, he goes over a case with students. These pupils do not know that he himself is the actual subject of the case study.During the lecture series, we begin a series of flashbacks which detail how the good doctor got involved in a situation that will lead to murder. What’s interesting is that the students, and we the viewers, do not know the murder has not been committed yet. Mason is using the lectures to formulate a plan, because he intends to get revenge on a woman (Pamela Kellino) who recently killed his upperclass girlfriend (Rosamund John). I should provide a few notes about casting. Rosamund John, who only appears in the first 20 minutes and then has another brief scene later (a flashback within the main flashback), was one of Leslie Howard’s favorite actresses. Miss John made three films with Mr. Howard, and she was known for playing dignified women. In this story, she is a married woman who falls for a married doctor (Mason) but of course, has to do the right thing and remain with her husband for the sake of her child (Ann Stephens). As for Pamela Kellino, she is Mr. Mason’s real-life wife and the cowriter of the screenplay for this film. She has third billing, though much more screen time than John and Stephens, giving herself one of the story’s juiciest roles. Miss Kellino is playing a shrewish society woman who kills her sister-in-law (John) and makes it seem like suicide.Because Mason’s character was deeply in love with the victim, he makes it his mission to confirm his suspicions about Kellino, and once those suspicions are confirmed, he proceeds to carry out a ‘sane’ plan to kill her, making her death also seem like a suicide. There’s an intriguing scene in the lecture hall, where Mason tells his students that the man in the case had met the other woman, took her to the house in the country where she killed the girlfriend, then proceeded to kill her in the same way. As the lecture ends, we learn he’s leaving the academy to go off for a long weekend to commit that very murder. So we actually see Kellino get bumped off twice in this movie– the scene in the lecture hall, where Mason tells the students how it happened before it actually happens; then the part shortly afterward where he really does kill her. Of course the real murder is extremely grisly and it’s on par with anything that Hitchcock ever did. We see Mason take Kellino up to a bedroom inside the country house, lock the door, drop the key and start to choke the life out of her. It’s a bit surreal seeing Mason the actor throttle the living daylights out of his real-life wife on screen. Kellino is suitably horrified.Her character grabs the key, and as Mason is strangling her over an open window where John was previously killed, Kellino drops the key. Mason tries to get the key before it falls out the window, and he lets go of Kellino. So her death, while premeditated, is an accident. The story doesn’t end here. Mason manages to get out of the locked room, then retrieves Kellino’s body and stuffs her into the back of his car. He drives for a while in heavy fog and ends up on a winding road along a seacliff. He stops to pick up another traveler, who turns out to be another doctor. He takes the doctor to the site of an accident where a girl has a fractured skull and needs surgery. We see him assist the other physician with the surgery. Meaning he has just gone from taking one life to saving one life. The film’s title is explained in an interesting way. When the other medic returns to Mason’s car to find some surgical instruments, he discovers Kellino’s body hidden in the back of the vehicle. He comes back to finish helping Mason save the accident victim’s life, but he won’t rat on him to the cops. Instead, he tells Mason he’s insane, a paranoid killer, like a cracked glass upturned on a shelf that should be thrown away. After Mason leaves the accident victim, who is now expected to make a full recovery, he drives off in his car to the top of a cliff where he thinks about the justice he doled out to Kellino…before he jumps off the edge, taking his own life. We are left to ponder what he’s been through. All three of the main characters are dead by the end of the story. It’s a rather grim noir with psychological and medical elements…and a lot to consider about how life, death and everything in between is connected.
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Post by Fading Fast on Feb 18, 2023 12:54:07 GMT
I'm going to wait to read your ⇧ review until after we view this movie, this Sunday, as part of this forum's Sunday Live "Don't Be So Melodramatic" series. I haven't ever seen it and want to view it without any ideas about it in my head.
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Post by topbilled on Feb 18, 2023 13:31:09 GMT
I'm going to wait to read your ⇧ review until after we view this movie, this Sunday, as part of this forum's Sunday Live "Don't Be So Melodramatic" series. I haven't ever seen it and want to view it without any ideas about it in my head.
It's not the best film ever made, but it's still a highly engaging one. And I enjoy it more with each viewing...Mason conveys just the right blend of heroics and villainy in THE UPTURNED GLASS. |
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Post by Fading Fast on Feb 18, 2023 14:36:53 GMT
I'm going to wait to read your ⇧ review until after we view this movie, this Sunday, as part of this forum's Sunday Live "Don't Be So Melodramatic" series. I haven't ever seen it and want to view it without any ideas about it in my head.
It's not the best film ever made, but it's still a highly engaging one. And I enjoy it more with each viewing...Mason conveys just the right blend of heroics and villainy in THE UPTURNED GLASS. |
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Post by topbilled on Feb 25, 2023 7:00:13 GMT
Essential: 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1954)
Jlewis:
 For a great portion of the Baby Boom and Millennial generations that comprise much of the U.S. population today, the 1950s and ’90s will forever be remembered as Disney Decades. Virtually anything bearing that corporate stamp back then was gobbled up by the small fry like chocolate.The former decade was dominated by a post-CINDERELLA feature boom, Davy Crockett coonskin caps, the opening of Disneyland, a flood of licensed Golden Books and Dell Comics (Western Publishing had especially close ties to Disney) and the Mickey Mouse Club. The latter had a post-LITTLE MERMAID animated feature boom, the company ownership of Pixar (TOY STORY) and the Disney daytime TV empire. Appearing mid-decade like THE LION KING thirty years later, 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA wasn’t quite the same as a pop culture cornerstone in the public consciousness but it nonetheless pulled in a hefty profit as one of the top box-office earners of its day.This was a rather unusual Disney film for its time, if maybe less so in hindsight (i.e. Disney tapped Jules Verne again with IN SEARCH OF CASTAWAYS, as did rival studios with further Disneyesque offerings of their own). It became the inspiration for a theme-park ride at both Disneyland (1959) and Walt Disney World a.k.a. The Magic Kingdom (1971) that I enjoyed as a kid myself, but was sadly decimated in 1994 and replaced by a Little Mermaid lagoon and other attractions. Curiously, there was no film or TV sequel made, at least by Disney (but Columbia backed MYSTERIOUS ISLAND), and most of the nostalgic toy and book memorabilia is restricted to the fifties. It was successfully reissued to theaters three times and often shown on TV as a fan favorite, but the great promotional “making of” documentary broadcast on ABC on December 8, 1954 and awarded an Emmy, OPERATION UNDERSEA, was never officially re-aired and is still not officially available on DVD. It was directed by Richard Fleischer, the son of Walt Disney’s biggest animation rival two decades previously with Betty Boop and Popeye. Walt and Max Fleischer still admired each other, despite their past competition, and Max was given a special honorary dinner on the film’s set.However, Richard himself never directed again for Disney despite making some similar sci-fi and fantasy projects for other studios such as 20th Century Fox. Likewise, none of the four lead stars worked for Disney again either: James Mason, Peter Lorre, Kirk Douglas, and Paul Lukas. Prior to this time, Disney had only produced four fully live-action and three part live-action/part animated features that involved Denham Film Studios in England and, earlier, Sam Goldwyn’s for support. Again, the assistance of both 20th Century Fox and Universal were needed for a couple important scenes like the opening ones set in ol’ San Francisco since the Disney studio itself was only gradually expanding into live-action production with its new television series.Regarding 20th Century Fox, Walt was encouraged by fellow mogul Darryl F. Zanuck to produce an animated cartoon, TOOT, WHISTLE, PLUNK AND BOOM, in the new widescreen format of CinemaScope and debuting it alongside that studio’s HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE. 20, 000 LEAGUES was also done in that format (and best seen in a theater rather than your cell-phone or ipad) along with another accompanying cartoon, GRAND CANYONSCOPE featuring Donald Duck. The crystal clear waters off Nassau, Bahamas covered much of the stunning underwater camera work by Franz F. Planner and Till Gabbani, among others. Intriguingly, this area was also host to the 1916 silent version put out by Universal as well. Jamaica was also used for location work.Overall, it was not an easy production. The Nautilus, the star “performer,” was designed by Harper Goff but, due to his lack of membership with the demanding International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, he was denied proper “art direction” credit. Midpoint in production, the IATSE encouraged Disney to use one of their own members, John Meehan, to take command of his designs, much to Goff’s distress. There was also unrest among the performers, namely with veteran actor Paul Lukas who struggled with some memory loss reading his lines and frequently lashed out on everybody. As expected, the intricate special effects work was no piece of cake. There was much trouble creating the giant squid fight in a specially constructed-for-it sound stage with the first model failing miserably. (16mm outtakes are included in the two disc DVD.) Assistant director James Havens came up with the solution of setting it in a storm with constant wave action that helped obscure the wires needed to move the creature’s tentacles.No less than 28 crew members were employed at once and eagle-eyes have often pointed out the additional crew hands manipulating tentacles in one key scene. Although the visual results were well worth the effort, the squid is still your trademark fifties studio beastie with all of the mechanical features that modern CGI can potentially do better. As for the plot, there were some notable changes made with Jules Verne’s original, particularly in the ending that I will spoil shortly. This Disneyfied version is set in 1868 post Civil War with Prof. Pierre Aronnax (Lukas) visiting San Francisco from France with assistant Conseil (Lorre) to do an investigation on a mysterious sea monster attacking ships in the Pacific.They board a vessel called the Abraham Lincoln, along with harpoon expert Ned (Douglas) who entertains the crew with a rare but lively Kirk Douglas singalong, “A Whale of a Tale” that I still enjoy on CD and my iPod. (Even better is his later drinking singalong with Esmeralda the sea lion.) The “monster” attacks and sinks the ship but the trio survive drowning, eventually finding themselves aboard the “monster” itself: a futuristic submarine named the Nautilus.  Captain Nemo (Mason) and his crew hold them captive, but as well treated guests. Ned makes a few attempts to either escape or persuade Nemo to let him leave, making a short visit to New Guinea at one point where he is saved by Nemo at the last minute from hungry dark-skinned cannibals. (No, the Disney studio was still not finished with all of its racial stereotyping by then, but this was also in keeping with the original story too.) In return, Ned later saves Nemo’s life as well when the Nautilus is attacked by a giant squid.Nemo, however, is no fan of human life himself and frequently uses his undersea ship to attack human war ships with no more concern for casualties than a ruthless stealth bomber enjoying his electronic controls. Much of it is based on rage (hate being as powerful in one’s heart as love, according to him) against all mankind for personal family losses of his own, something that both Aronnax and Ned battle him over. Spoiler alert: When Nemo gets shot on land, he decides to go down with both his ship and devoted-to-death crew. This is a radical departure from Verne, but reflects the still shocked United States reaction to the way Japanese kamikaze pilots honored their emperor. Ned is the all-American hero who saves his two friends, along with Esmeralda.Despite all of their problems on the sets, all four lead performances are quite good here, including Lukas’ supporting role. Not that he and Lorre’s characters are as important as the great yin and yang dynamic of Nemo versus Ned. As portrayed by Mason and Douglas, these two pretty much steal the show. Disney’s Captain Nemo is far darker and more diabolical than Verne’s. James Mason also plays him very intensely, much differently than his later Verne exploratory character Sir Oliver Lindenbrook in JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. Nemo’s penchant for killing and looting his fellow man contrasts sharply from his genius in creating a technological marvel and a crew that supports it, tapping into the great resources of the ocean deep.Prof. Pierre Aronnax tries to con him into sharing his discoveries with all mankind, but Nemo is disillusioned by mankind in general. “I am not what is called a civilized man, Professor. I have done with society for reasons that seem good to me. Therefore, I do not obey its laws.” He does have some religious beliefs, however, as his casual mention of “God” at one point and the use of a cross in an underwater funeral procession suggest. As played by Douglas, Ned has a much bigger role than Aronnax on screen than in the original text, probably because the Disney staff writers viewed him as a better representative of themselves a.k.a. the official United States persona of 1954 that was optimistic about the future with plenty of compassion and support for fellow humans, if also with plenty of bombastic impulse.He expects some catering to his own needs regardless of the situation, much like a typical U.S. tourist who demands his favored fast food service in every foreign country that he visits: most memorable are his reactions in the dining scene when Nemo feeds his captive guests a menu culled directly from the sea, including (in a line that somehow got past the censors) “cream from the milk of a sperm whale.” Ned has no qualms stealing from Nemo’s valued loot even though it does not belong to either him or Nemo. This is basically the only deceitful act he commits. When Nemo allows him on shore, he is warned that “the natives over there are cannibals…they eat liars with the same enthusiasm as they eat honest men.”Ned is like your later Indiana Jones, an idol for 20th Century He-Man moviegoers to root for even if he has a bit of the rascal in his blood. Also, like Douglas the actor, he displays the womanizer flaws as personified in his “Whale of a Tale” melody even though Mermaid Minnie and Typhoon Tessie still gained the upper hand over him. As much as I enjoy the two lead performances equally, it does seem like Kirk Douglas was enjoying his role more than James Mason did. Kirk gets to perform some lively stunts despite double Gilbert V. Perkins doing much of his heavy work dressed in matching striped shirt, particularly in the squid fight.In a memorable DISNEYLAND episode aired on January 19, 1955 titled MONSTERS OF THE DEEP, which further milked the movie’s publicity, both Kirk and Peter Lorre hilariously ham it up while explaining the special effects. You can sense the great friendship these two stars had with each other, also shown on screen with Kirk’s constant head petting of Pete.This was one of my favorite movies as a kid but I will confess that it may have lost…just a little…of its luster over time. At times, 20,000 LEAGUES comes off as a bit stiff and overly poised with the then cumbersome CinemaScope framework forcing many shots to resemble the grand dinner table that Nemo holds for his captive guests and the organ he plays to satisfy his ego. The cannibal and squid battles both hold up pretty well with many impressive camera angles not often seen in other ‘Scope efforts of ’54. All in all, it is still a fun adventure if maybe slightly less fun than the later Ray Harryhausen beastie-driven MYSTERIOUS ISLAND that kinda out-Disneys Disney in its fantasy appeal.
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