Tag: warner archive

They Drive By Night (1940)

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Humphrey Bogart is my all-time favorite actor. He was one of the biggest stars of Hollywood’s golden age. But he didn’t start out that way. He actually languished for over a decade before becoming a star. He spent most of that time being billed third or fourth in gangster pictures. They Drive By Night helped push him into the spotlight. It was not a gangster picture, and while he was still third-billed the movie was a big hit and it showed off his range. A year later he’d star in The Maltese Falcon and the rest is history.

George Raft is the star of the picture. And Ida Lupino. The film is a mix between a social message movie and film noir. It’s pretty good.

You can read my full review here.

Devil’s Doorway (1950)

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Obviously, I love a good Western. For the last two years, I’ve dedicated the month of March to the genre. A great Western is transcendent. Even a bad one can be a lot of fun. But there is no getting past the casual racism that is found in a great many Western. This is especially true in Westerns from the 1930s into the 1940s. Hollywood thought nothing of making Native Americans nameless, blood-thirsty savages who wanted nothing more than to rape the women, kidnap the children, and murder the men.

Slowly, Hollywood changed. By the 1950s they sometimes (but not always, not even all that often) made films that depicted Native Americans with an ounce of empathy. Devil’s Doorway is a film that points to the realities of how Native Americans were treated by white folk. Even ones who fought valiantly in the Civil War.

Unfortunately, the lead Native American is played by a decidedly white fella.

Were the film really good, I might be able to forgive that lapse in judgment. But as it is, the film isn’t great and so that bit of indiscretion stands out like a racist thumb.

You can read my full review here.

Friendly Persuasion (1956)

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Gary Cooper has a reputation for playing tough characters – the very epitome of the strong and silent type. I always assumed that meant he was rugged and manly. An alpha male. But the more I watch his films the more I find his acting has a vulnerability to it. Yes, his characters are strong, but it is an inner strength – a strength of character rather than might. He is often silent, but that silence signifies a thoughtfulness.

In Friendly Persuasion, he plays a Quaker living on the brink of the Civil War. When the war comes to him and his family he must decide whether or not to fight. How deep does his faith go?

It is actually a much sillier movie than that sounds. It makes a lot of playful fun with Quakerism and their “strange ways.” Honestly, that kind of rubbed me the wrong way. It isn’t a bad movie, as you can read in my full review, but not a great one either.

Wichita (1955)

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Wyatt Earp stands tall amongst figures of the Old West. He’s one of America’s great old legends. There have been a lot of movies made about his life. Wichita is kind of an origin story for the legend as it begins before he became a lawman and tells the story of how he wound up being a Marshall.

It isn’t particularly good, but if you like westerns I’d recommend it. You can read my full review here.