Category Archives: 1950s

Some people will tell you The Italian Job is the premier Brit heist flick of the 20^thcentury. Some people are ninnies: while the Ealing films have long since become a by-word for cosy thrills, there’s a genuine transgressive charge to The Lavender Hill Mob, the studio’s much-loved tale of white collar crims pining for a better life.

The setup’s perhaps a little familiar but here’s the skinny: Alec Guinness is a frustrated bank clerk and Stanley Holloway the souvenir-maker with whom he hatches a plan to smuggle pinched bullion across the channel. It’s marvellously bittersweet: the grubby stain of post-war austerity is elegantly captured and the pall of stunted lives lingers. There’s also a thrilling car chase, a jumble of familiar faces and a moment of pure cinematic exhilaration as Guinness and Holloway tumble giddily down the steps of the Eiffel Tower. Never has grand larceny seemed so supportable.

The Lavender Hill Mob . 1951 . Charles Crighton

Reviewed by Nick Garrard

‘Prepare your minds for a new scale of physical scientific values.’

It’s early in the 23rd century and humanity’s mission is to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly kiss where no one has kissed before.

This film was a huge influence on Star Trek and Lost in Space, and its sets and props were reused in episodes of The Twilight Zone.

The robot, Robby, gets his own billing.  He’s the greatest artificial intelligence of his age, even though his thought processes sound like an old cash register.

There’s a terrible monster that lurks in the depths of the mind.  And it turns out the beast within looks a lot like Taz.

For me the incidental music is as much an icon of this film as Robby and the monster.  The bubbly ‘electronic tonalities’ appear to have been generated using a drowning stylophone

Screen 1: Mindful

Forbidden Planet . 1956 . Fred M. Wilcox

Reviewed by John Andrew Hutchison

16^th century Japan: a village of farmers hire seven samurai to help defend against marauding bandits.

So, what’s the big deal?

The deal is that Seven Samurai revolutionised storytelling in filmmaking and it continues to influence films to this day – and I’m not talking about The Magnificent Seven remake. Seven Samurai introduced Japanese cinema into Western culture, it was the first film to use the ‘group of adventurers’, the ‘hero introduction’ which we see in most action films; slow-motion action scenes, hordes of bad guys coming over the hill, the list is endless.

Without Seven Samurai there would be no Star Wars Jedi, no Ocean’s Eleven or Dirty Dozen, and Bruce Willis would be asking if you want fries with that.

Seven Samurai is also complex: class divide, unrequited love, honour (of course), and ultimately it questions the morality of good versus evil.

The farmers have won. We have lost.

Screen 1: Revolutionary

Seven Samurai . 1954 . Akira Kurosawa

Reviewed by Craig Pay

…and when it’s as hot as this, I like it as well! Some elements of the comedy may have dated a little, but there is still enough wit that tastes fresh and performances from the main duo Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon to revel in. And then of course, there is Marilyn. As she jived and giggled and swayed through her scenes, it was easy to see why she captivated so many during her brief life. The sexual chemistry sizzles through the celluloid and it’s all thrust from her – with Curtis and Lemmon on the very lucky receiving end. But there’s much more going on besides; a light-hearted but deft polemic on gender difference, a cautious approach to exploring beyond heterosexuality (that may poke fun, but never ridicules) and a perfect lesson in Hollywood narrative structure that is in dire need of reiteration for those dabbling in modern rom-com.

Screen 1: Sizzling!

Some Like it Hot . 1959 . Billy Wilder

Reviewed by Screen150

The premise is simple and devastating; two strangers meet on a train and swap murders. It’s deliciously Hitchcockian, however, it is Hitch himself that rather ruins proceedings. Like I mentioned with Saboteur, he is clearly still rising to the ‘Master of Suspense’ tag, but a little too much; digging around in banal things such as the sun and an overlong tennis match to try and draw it all out. In terms of narrative, it just doesn’t hold weight. And the laughable ending on the merry-go-round (complete with a stupid aside featuring a child) doesn’t help things. The first carnival scene is fabulous noir, as is the whole Bruno character, but these masterful scenes are fleeting. The music, too, is woeful. Ten years later, Hitchcock is making films like no other. However, his learning curve is clearly playing out here and two key elements are still lacking; restraint and Bernard Herrmann.

Screen 1: Training

Strangers on a Train . 1951 . Alfred Hitchcock

Reviewed by Screen150

After the first two minutes, which are pure cinematic excellence, it is Welles himself who manages to prevent making this excellent film into a masterpiece. After the bomb which triggers the narrative of Charlton Heston’s Mexican cop versus Welles’ corrupt American counterpart and their trans-border frictions, the following half hour is difficult to get to grasps with. The characters talk fast and over each other, the dialogue becomes a wall of sound that’s hard to penetrate. Our attention is forced upon Welles as if we are supposed to swoon over this God of cinema, the result being a plot which struggles to catch up. When the medium eventually meets with the ego the synthesis becomes perfection and the later scenes are worth any ticket price – especially the final climatic pursuit – but the downsides mean this film cannot match Citizen Kane, Chimes at Midnight or Carol Reed’s The Third Man.

Touch of Evil . 1958 . Orson Welles

reviewed by Screen150

I’m giving Westerns a chance and started here with High Noon, the 1952 classic starring Gary Cooper and the beautiful Grace Kelly. It’s a cracking narrative, zipping along in a real-time format, long before a certain Mr. Bauer took up arms. It’s the steady progress of the various clocks in the town, slipping with inevitability to the eponymous time that gives the film its grip. Will Kane is to face off to an old enemy to protect the town he is dutiful too, and yet the townsfolk are not so grateful, leaving Kane to fight the incoming threat entirely alone. That crane shot; the town, the man, the space is a thing of cinematic beauty. But it has aged; the climax is a little bit anti- for the build-up, and a pro-guns message is snuck in there through Grace Kelly’s pacifism failures. Nevertheless, an admirable fable with a solid heart.

High Noon . 1952 . Fred Zinnemann

reviewed by Screen150