Midnight Oil:Movies and More

Compulsion (1959) - INDb is an interesting twist on the infamous thrill killing "Crime of the Century" by Leopold and Loeb. Dean Stockwell and Bradford Dillman play the rich young  degenerates who engage in the most shocking of crimes while Orson Welles plays the Clarence Darrow figure who is responsible for helping them to avoid the hangman's noose.   The award winning performances  lead  one through a thorough workout for  the moral faculties on issues of captial punishment. 

Catch the video trailer from TVO for Compulsion

James Dean gives an exceptional performance in this now classic film of John Steinbeck’s classic novel of the same name. A movie well worth seeing, “

They were at it again - my two munchkins brawling in the backseat: “She did it to me first!” – “But he said that I was a . . .” – “She has her stuff on my side!” – And on and on it goes. Often enough it comes to blows before the emotions of the moment blow over. Sibling rivalry, common enough phenomenon that it is, can be so draining for a parent. . . .

<<Read the rest of the archived entry for "East of Eden" on Midnight Oil

 >>On to "Who's Directing Your Life?" 

Video preview from TVO here.

Catch the video trailer for "East of Eden" here. 

"Bad Day at Black Rock" (1955) INDb Spencer Tracy shows up as a mysterious one-armed stranger in an isolated desert town.  It soon becomes clear that people have something to hide. Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin and Walter Brennan are just some of the shady (or should we say "in shades of grey") characters that inhabit the town.  An interesting study of group dynamics and social problems in the post-war era.

<<Back to Midnight Oil main journal 

>>On to "Who's Directing Your Life?" 

See the TVO video preview here. 

Catch the video trailer for "Bad Day at Black Rock"  here.
 

"To Sir With Love" (1967) INDb makes me remember  why I never became a high school teacher . . .  and why I'll never be able to get teaching out of my soul. Sydney Poitier's dynamic performance in this film portrayal of E.R. Braithwaite's novel gives glimpses into some of the challenges of the classroom environment and glances of an era. My, those dresses and dos are something to behold! I wish though, that we had been permitted to behold a most interesting interview that I remember with the original author, Braithwaite, that TVO must have stashed in their archives somewhere.

View the TVOntario video preview of "To Sir With Love" here.

<<Back to Midnight Oil main journal 

>>On to "Who's Directing Your Life?" 

Catch the video trailer of "To Sir With Love"

"The Ox-Bow Incident" (1943) INDb is quite an unusual Western looking at some of the social, psychological and ethical problems arising from rough and ready frontier justice. Dana Andrews along with Anthony Quinn are ordinary folk who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time as victims of a lynching party. Henry Fonda and his sidekick Harry Morgan give voice to the doubts that ordinary folk caught up in the mob madness  might have while at the same time being powerless to stop "the course of justice".

<<Back to Midnight Oil main journal 

>>On to "Who's Directing Your Life?" 

Catch the video preview of "The Ox-Bow Incident" from TVOntario here.