Midnight Oil:Movies and More

"My Sister Eileen" 1955 INDb is chock full of a sunny optimism and great dance moves courtesy of Bob Fosse. Fosse as the underdog suitor of the highly attractive Eileen (Janet Leigh) is entirely unremarkable - until he puts on his dancing shoes, that is. Eileen's older sister, played by Betty Garrett, isn't a bad hoofer either as she tries every trick she knows to get published while in the Big Apple. My only regret is that we don't get to see Jack Lemmon graduate from charm school into a dance number. A song will have to do.

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Catch the video from the Interviews by TVO about "My Sister Eileen"

This film was screened with "Sweet Charity" also previously reviewed on Midnight Oil.

See Bob Fosse's wonderful coreography in this video segment from "My Sister Eileen" (1955)

“Panic in the Streets” (1950) starring Richard Widmark and Jack Palance as directed by Elia Kazan, makes for a scary combination. I’m not sure which one you should take your chances on; the menace of the totally deadly pneumonic plague (a form of the Black Plague) or the totally creepy Jack Palance as the villain. The hero, Richard Widmark, as Lieutenant Commander Clint Reed, runs around New Orleans with his syringe, prepared to do battle with either culprit. (Apparently, it is true that the totally deadly effects of pneumonic plague can be forestalled with a dose of antibiotics within 24 hours.) This highly potent concoction of gangsters, bioterrorism, post-war anxieties with a bit of romance thrown in, thanks to Barbara Bel Geddes as the good doctor’s wife, makes it a highly watchable film more than 50 years later. It may not be Elia Kazan’s best film ever, but it’s worth a look. And it’s so comforting in this crazy post-SARS world of ours to think that there is some nice, upstanding medical man out there who has everything under control with his syringe, if he could just get all those nasty miscreants rounded up.

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Are you ready to "roll up your sleeve"? See the video excerpt from "Panic in the Streets" (1950)

“ Sweet Smell of Success” (1957) IMDb starring Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster reveals a side of life in the big city that is anything but sweet and sunshiney. Lancaster’s unsavory character, J.J. Hunsecker, is said to be based on real life New York columnist, Walter Winchell. Throughout the film, Lancaster and Curtis as the sycophantic Sydney Falco perform a dangerous dance reminiscent of the mating ritual of the black widow spider. The machinations of the corrupt columnist and equally despicable publicist are accompanied by the cool jazz numbers of the Chico Hamilton Quintet and the rapid-fire dialogue of screenplay writers Lehman and Odets. This kind of film-noir might not be everyone’s cup of tea making it worth staying up for the late show, but I sure thought it was a film worth seeing again. It was just as smooth and searing hot on the way down this time around.

View the SNAM preview of “ Sweet Smell of Success”(1957)

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Catch the video trailer of "the cat in the bag scene" for “Sweet Smell of Success”

“The Who Never Was” (1956) IMDb with Clifton Webb spins an intriguing yarn about British military intelligence during WWII. Apparently based on actual events, Lieutenant Commander Ewen Montagu (Clifton Webb) finds himself with the challenging and somewhat gruesome task of diverting the attention of the German High Command away from a planned invasion of the continent through planting misinformation on a dead body. Montagu and his team are indefatigable in their efforts to serve the national interest. In contrast, the cost of the war in terms of personal loss is depicted through the part of the grieving father of the dead man and the distraught girlfriend (Gloria Greene) who is told that her beloved is dead. Though perhaps not the greatest spy thriller every made, I find this film to be interesting enough to be watchable. The fictionalized account of actual spy stuff certainly makes this movie of historical interest for WWII film buffs.

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See the TVO SNAM preview for “The Man Who Never Was” (1956)

Catch the video trailer for the opening credits of “The Man Who Never Was” 1956. I believe that the dramatic reading in the opening is from a poem by H.G. Wells.

"To Catch a Thief" (1955)IMDb Hitchcock's romantic thriller packs in the glamour on the French Riviera. Always the gentleman, Cary Grant plays the super suave ex-cat burgler, Monsieur John Robie, opposite the exquisite and exciting Grace Kelly. Cary Grant, as Robie, is fingered for a series of robberies which he didn't commit and finds himself obliged to solve the mystery with the aid of the beatiful Ms. Kelly.

 

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 Catch the TVOntario video preview for  "To Catch a Thief" here.