Midnight Oil:Movies and More

“I Confess” (1953) with Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, and Karl Malden makes for a rather melodramatic situation where the real murderer uses the silence of the confessional as the perfect cover-up for his crime. Alfred Hitchcock’s direction on site in Quebec City gives this film a bit of a different perspective. Once you realize that the setting is supposed to be Quebec City during the 1950’s in the pre-Vatican II Duplessis era, it all starts to make a little more sense – the film, that is, not the murder mystery plot. The murder, cover-up, romance, blackmail and dénouement are all very predictable. What else can we expect when two excruciatingly beautiful people such as Anne Baxter and Montgomery Clift are caught up in a thoroughly impossible situation? It is all completely incomprehensible and implausible in today’s world until you remember that this is supposed to be Quebec in the 1950’s. The prominent landmarks and buildings seen in the film are still there today. (Our family visits quite regularly.) The social and religious landscapes that make this film believable are not. C’est quoi encore le dicton en anglais? “Much Ado About Nothing”?

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See the film trailer for "I Confess" (1953).

“Local Hero” (1983) is an offbeat film about an offbeat oil magnate (Burt Lancaster) who sends his lackey boy (Peter Riegert) to buy a sleepy little fishing village on the coast of Scotland in order to accommodate some of his latest industrial projects. What with the aurora borealis, a pretty biologist named Marina, a canny lawyer slash innkeeper, a roving Russian songster and an odd assortment of townspeople, things get quite off track in short order. Amongst my favourites from the cast of local characters was the right Reverend MacPherson, a pillar of the community who happens to be a black man from Africa. Equally unexpected is the colourful character of Ben Knox, the eccentric beachcomber whose wise words and unflappable tenacity get the whole show moving in a completely different direction. Thanks to old Ben, it turns out that we see that there might just be something more important in life than money after all.

This film was screened with "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town", also reviewed on Midnight Oil.

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See the video trailer for "Local Hero" (1983)

"West is West" (1987) is a bit of an unusual mix. A young Indian man from Bombay shows up in San Francisco intent on gaining admission to the country and to the University of California. Things go terribly amiss and Vikram (Ashutosh Gowariker) ends up living the less than desirable version of the American dream as an illegal immigrant. Bollywood and its stylized vision of life in India is never far away from Vikram's imagination. The American girlfriend, played by Heidi Carpenter, somehow gets incoroporated into the mix (or should I say mix up) and goes from gothic to glamourous (Bollywood style). But it all works somehow.

It should work because Ashutosh Gowariker has been able to make a success of himself back in India going from actor to writer/director/producer with much critical acclaim. While "West is West" may not be the greatest movie ever, it certainly tells an important story about the immigrant experience that is perhaps not heard often enough in North America.

View the TVO Saturday Night at the Movie Interview segment dealing with the immigrant experience "East Meets West" featuring video clips from "West is West" (1987)

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"Philadelphia Story" (1940) IMDb stars Katharine Hepburn whose ex, played by Cary Grant, complicates her present wedding plans enormously, as recorded by a tabloid reporter, James Stewart. The star-studded cast goes down in film history in this classic romantic comedy. The broadway hit, which also starred Ms. Hepburn in the lead female role, was recycled into a highly successful film adaptation thanks to great casting and wonderful dialogue. Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) takes us all on a roller coaster ride leading up to the big day of her society wedding accompanied by a great assortment of annoying relatives, expensive wedding gifts, a knock-out wardrobe, interfering members of the press and a bothersome ex-husband or two hanging around in the wings. Cary Grant is perfectly understated until just the right moment as C.K. Dexter Haven (I just can't resist letting that lovely name just roll off the tongue). Plans come more than slightly unraveled as a result of prying eyes, a drink or two too many and general foolishness and pride. But, all's well that ends well. Everyone, including the audience, is most content with the state of matrimonial bliss by the film's finish.

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Catch the video clip for "Philadelphia Story" (1940) here.

“Coal Miner’s Daughter”(1980) IMDb employs the considerable singing and acting talents of Sissy Spacek along with those of Tommy Lee Jones. As might be expected, the biopic of singing star Loretta Lynn contains a full dose of country and western music. I’m with Doo on this one. I’m normally not partial to country, but I do like Loretta’s singing in this film. Of course the music is not the whole story here in this recounting of the ups and downs of Loretta’s life, but the singing obviously cannot be minimized. The film demonstrates that Loretta Lynn had a wealth of material to draw on from her own life’s experiences to both write and sing from the heart with all those "hurtin’ " songs you heard coming out of the radio.

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Catch the video trailer for “Coal Miner’s Daughter” (1980)