Dogs Bark

Socially Distant - - Nosferatu (1922, Germany, B/W, 94 min) - - 30 October 2021

An essential. This viewing of Nosferatu accompanied the opening night of the restored “Mighty” Wurlitzer pipe organ at Tucson’s classic Fox Theater. While the premier was a public - - and personal - - delight, it was an odd crowd. The scholarly interpretation of Nosferatu, the original vampire movie, go beyond its racist tropes and note that screenwriter, Henrik Galeen (The Golem) was Jewish and director F.W. Murnau never publicly demonstrated any anti-Semitism. These writers note that the European concept of the foreigner as plague-carrying rodent evolved in parallel to anti-Semitism. Given this, I wondered why the audience seemed LOL amused by every image of Count Orlok! But, it wasn’t the pictures; it was the Wurlitzer, as played by the talented-but-clueless organist/composer . . . camping things up with ironic musical insets. The original orchestral score (see below) is as unsettling as the movie. Maybe in these times scaring people about germ-infested, blood-sucking foreigners might be unwise.

https://youtu.be/inqH0kHluyI

They Run By Noir - - You Only Live Once (1937, USA, B/W, 86 min) - - 28 October 2021

Recommended. Fritz Lang made his first three Hollywood movies with Sylvia Sidney (Fury) and a trio of leading men, drawn very dark and very good. Lang was only five years past M and steeped in German expressionism, with a strong sympathy for the fox. Arguably, Lang imported film noir. You Only Live Once is frequently cited as the antecedent of the “love on the lam” pics but this confounds Lang’s critique of bourgeois brutality. Ms. Sidney plays the “good girl” who goes bad for love but, unlike Bonnie Parker, she’s never a true criminal and a very young Henry Fonda (Jezebel) foreshadows Tom Joad, although a meaner and shorter-tempered version. Barton MacLaine (The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre) gives nice support as a compassionate lawyer. The cameraman’s cameraman Leon Shamroy, (Leave Her to Heaven) didn’t get one of his fifteen Oscar nominations (and four wins) here . . . but he could have.

Running On Fumes - - The Harder They Come (1956, USA, B/W, 109 min) - - 5 October 2021

Recommended. So what happened to Rick Blaine after Casablanca? We don’t know . . . but Eddie Willis, Bogart’s character in The Harder They Come, might be the logical result. Like Rick, Willis is thoroughly disillusioned but surviving. The Casablanca-corrupt, New York boxing world now pours his bourbon. The later Bogart provides his most gritty, complex, and interesting characters and this is one of his best. Bogart was suffering cancer, dying less than a year later. Rod Steiger plays the heavy with much less finesse than On The Waterfront, another Budd Schulberg (A Face in the Crowd) story. This film was one of cameraman Burnett Guffey’s (Bonnie and Clyde) five Oscar nods. The Hollywood ending is a disappointment. The saddest and strangest sequence is when fight reporter Art Leavitt, excellently played by Harold J Stone (The Wrong Man) introduces Willis to punch-drunk ex-boxer, Joey Greb, played by the real - - also punch-drunk - - Joe Greb.