Raymond Benson (see also Criterion Corner)
Entries from January 2020
“ARE
YOU THERE?â€
By
Raymond Benson
Writer/director/actor
Bryan Forbes was a major force in the British film industry for several
decades, having started in the 1950s at times as an actor in films and then in other
instances as a screenwriter, and then he moved into directing (his astonishing
directorial debut, Whistle Down the Wind, was released in 1961). Forbes
made several good pictures, the most famous probably being The Stepford
Wives in the 70s.
Forbes
also had connections to the world of James Bond. Forbes’ first screenwriting
duties were for Albert R. Broccoli’s Warwick Films in the 1950s. When Forbes
began writing novels, his literary agent was none other than Peter
Janson-Smith, who had been Ian Fleming’s agent. Astute Bond fans will also spot
other connections in The Whisperers, such as a John Barry score, and the
appearance of Robin Bailey, the actor who, in the pre-credits sequence of You
Only Live Twice, plays the Foreign Secretary mediating between the Russians
and the Americans (“May I ask what motive our Russian friends would have for
wishing to destroy American spacecraft?â€).
The
Whisperers,
released in 1967, was a solid art-house hit starring Dame Edith Evans, earning
her a third Oscar nomination in the four years between 1963-1967, this one for
lead actress, the other two for supporting (for Tom Jones and The
Chalk Garden). While she didn’t win the Oscar for The Whisperers,
she did win the BAFTA, the Golden Globe, the New York Film Critics Award, and
the National Board of Review Award. Evans was a major star of the British
stage, but she made only a few films very early in her career (mostly the 30s)
and late (the 60s).
The
story is rather dreary and harkens back to the “kitchen-sink dramas†of the
late 50s/early 60s that came out of Britain. It’s shot in black and white and
focuses on a poor, working class neighborhood in a small town in the north of
England. Margaret Ross (Evans) is old, lives alone, is on her way to a case of
Alzheimer’s (a term not known then), and is delusional. Every time she enters
her flat, she calls out, “Are you there?†because she hears voices in the pipes
and walls. The place is a dump full of junk, stacks of newspapers and rotting
books, and clutter that would scare anyone away. Her scoundrel husband, Archie
(Eric Portman), ran off two decades earlier, and her grown son, Charlie (Ronald
Fraser), is a crook who is sent to jail shortly after hiding a stash of stolen
cash in his mother’s flat. Mrs. Ross continually lies to the National
Assistance agent, although she probably believes the stories she tells. Her
discovery of Charlie’s money changes things, though, and before long, estranged
husband Archie returns to take advantage of the woman. Things do not go well.
As
a statement on the condition of poverty in England at the time, The
Whisperers is a potent social problem film. Evans indeed delivers a
powerful performance as a paranoid, frightened woman at the end of her rope. Tellingly,
the National Assistance was revamped into the Supplementary Benefit around the
time the movie was made.
Kino
Lorber’s 1920x1080p high definition restoration suitably displays Gerry
Turpin’s monochrome cinematography that illustrates the bleakness of Mrs. Ross’
world. There are English subtitles for the hearing-impaired, as well as an
audio commentary by film historian Kat Ellinger. The only supplements are
trailers for this and other Kino Lorber titles.
The
Whisperers might
be depressing, but it’s also example of fine British talent in the form of both
Forbes and Evans at the top of their games.
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“IT’S
THE BUNK!â€
By
Raymond Benson
In
the year 1940, Hollywood screenwriter Preston Sturges elevated his career to
become one of the first writer/director double threats since the silent days of
Chaplin and Keaton. For a brief five years in the early 40s, his flame burned
brightly as he churned out sophisticated screwball comedies that had great wit,
intelligence, and a stock company of iconic supporting comic actors—the guys
you always recognize but never know their names (actually, they are talents
like William Demarest, Franklin Pangborn, Al Bridge, Georgia Caine, and Ernest
Truex, to name a handful who appear in Christmas in July).
After
winning an Oscar for writing The Great McGinty (1940), Sturges presented
superb material through 1945. Short, smart, and hilarious, Christmas in July
was his second directorial effort from a script based on his own unproduced
stage play. Like most of Sturges’ works, the story concerns the Everyman who wants
nothing more than to better himself—and if he must challenge authority and make
some waves while he does it, then so be it.
July’s Everyman is Jimmy
(Dick Powell), who works as a lowly office man in a major corporation. Interestingly,
the depiction of the militaristic and robotic employees and their strictly
enforced drudgery is a foreshadowing of how Billy Wilder portrayed the insurance
agency grindhouse in The Apartment, twenty years later! Jimmy dreams of
making enough money to justify proposing to his sweetheart, Betty (Ellen Drew).
In fact, he has entered a contest sponsored by a rival coffee producing company
to invent a new advertising slogan, the winner of which will receive $25,000. (His
slogan is “If you can’t sleep at night, it’s not the coffee—it’s the bunk!†Get
it?)
As
a cruel prank, three of Jimmy’s colleagues create a phony telegram, informing
him that he’s won. A further series of miscommunications and timing mishaps deliver
the real prize money to Jimmy, so he goes on a huge spending spree for Betty (a
diamond ring), his mother, and his friends and neighbors on his block. To
reveal what happens when the powers-that-be discover the mistake would spoil
the rest of the story!
The
picture is not really a “Christmas movie.†The title simply refers to the
spending spree Jimmy goes on. It’s “like Christmas†for everyone. What makes
the film unique for a comedy—and there are many laughs—is the tremendous amount
of suspense that is built. Sturges sets up the situation and then lets it
explode with one misunderstanding after another. The audience knows that
eventually Jimmy’s good fortune is going to come crashing down. We so want it
to turn out well for our hero and his girl… but will it?
It's
fabulous stuff.
Kino
Lorber’s new Blu-ray 1920x1080p restoration looks good enough (much better than
the previous DVD release in a Sturges box set from some years ago), and it
comes with an optional audio commentary by film historian Samm Deighan. There
are no other supplements other than theatrical trailers for this and other Kino
Lorber releases. (Note to Sturges fans—The Great McGinty is coming soon
on Blu-ray, too!)
Preston
Sturges was a national treasure, and anything he released between 1940-1945 is
a classic to be savored. Christmas in July is one of those delectables.
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“RISE
OF THE ANGRY YOUNG MANâ€
By
Raymond Benson
Along
with the French New Wave that kick-started in 1959, Britain had its own
informal New Wave of what was referred to as the “angry young man†or “kitchen
sink†dramas. They began on the stage with such playwrights as John Osborne (whose
play, Look Back in Anger, became one of the British New Wave’s seminal
works on film). Filmmakers like Jack Clayton, Tony Richardson, Lindsay
Anderson, and Karel Reisz are most often associated with the movement, which presented
gritty, realistic tales of domestic or socio-economic situations involving
working class families and/or single protagonists struggling to get ahead in an
England that hadn’t quite pulled herself out of the post-war doldrums.
Room
at the Top
was one of the first—and best—of the bunch, and even more remarkable is that it
was Jack Clayton’s feature directorial debut. Made on a low budget in stark
black and white (photographed by the great Freddie Francis), Room stars
Laurence Harvey as the angry young man, Joe, who migrates from a small English
town to a larger one in order to work his way to the “topâ€â€”the area of the city
where the wealthy and powerful reside. Ambitious to boot, Joe starts off with a
lowly job in the borough treasurer’s office but has his eyes on much more,
including the decidedly off-limits Susan (Heather Sears), the beautiful
daughter of the most powerful man in the community. While he’s wooing her, though,
Joe begins an at-first casual, then frighteningly serious, affair with Alice,
an older French woman (Simone Signoret) who is in an unhappy marriage. Both
Susan’s parents and Alice’s husband eventually learn what’s going on and set
out to foil Joe’s respective relationships, as well as his standing in the
societal bubble where he resides.
It
sounds dreary when capsulized in this way, but in fact Room at the Top is
an engaging, beautifully acted, and well-written drama that is as much a
character study as it is a comment on the social problems facing Britain at the
time. Its harsh frankness was shocking back then, forcing the picture to be
marketed “for mature audiences only†(it was still nine years before the U.S.
movie ratings were installed). This was adult stuff.
Nevertheless,
audiences and critics took to it, for the film became an international success.
In America, it ended up being nominated for Oscars—Best Picture, Best Director
for Clayton, Best Actor for Harvey, Best Supporting Actress for Hermione
Baddeley (in an appearance that holds the record for briefest on-screen time),
and winning the Best Actress award for Signoret and the Best Adapted
Screenplay trophy for Neil Paterson.
Kino
Lorber’s new 1920x1080p restoration looks very good, is sharp and striking, and
comes with an audio commentary by film historian Kat Ellinger and theatrical
trailers for the picture and other Kino titles.
Room
at the Top is
a relic of its time, perhaps, but it’s a classic example of fine British
filmmaking where the pizazz is in the writing, acting, and direction. Highly
recommended.
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