Compulsion (1959)

“In those years to come, you might find yourself asking if it wasn't the hand of god dropped these glasses... And if he didn't, who did?”

            Compulsion is based off the famous crime of Leopald and Loeb. They tried to pull off the perfect crime but of course even in the 1920s when the crime was committed there is no such thing as the perfect crime.

            Judd Steiner and Arthur Straus have left a home where they think they have committed the perfect crime stealing from a house. Judd says he wants to take orders from Arthur. Arthur tries to make Judd run over a bum in the road but Judd cannot do it. They had made a deal with their frat brothers they could pull off the perfect crime without getting caught. Judd comes up with the idea to pull off a bigger crime together.

            Sid Brooks, a fellow student of Judd and Arthur’s, works for the local newspaper. He is sent to report on a kid who was found drowned according to police. He also hears about a kidnapping. Sid goes to the morgue and he realizes it is the kidnapped kid from his description. A pair of glasses falls off of the dead boy. A Mrs. Kessler comes to identify the boy. He was her nephew Paul. She tells the police he did not wear glasses. Later that night Sid meets up with his friends including Judd and Arthur. Sid tells them that a pair of glasses were found on the boy. Arthur is furious with Judd for dropping his glasses.

            Arthur walks around the school that Paul attended. He also attended the school when he was younger. He talks to the police lieutenant about recess times and some suspicious teachers. The lieutenant gets an anonymous tip that they saw someone throw something in a drain in front of Arthur’s house. One reporter says the typewriter has been identified. With this information Arthur gets rid of the typewriter.

            The police trace the glasses to Judd after Arthur found out there were thousands just like it and told his friend they could not be traced to him. The police talk to Judd about his glasses and he says to question Arthur. Both give the alibi that they were with two tramps named Mae and Edna the Wednesday Paul was killed. The detectives realize the two of them have been lying and try to break them. The one detective gets a confession out of Judd by saying Arthur confessed and he blames Judd for killing Paul.

            Judd’s father hires a powerful attorney named Jonathan Wilk (Orson Welles) to represent the boys. Even with Wilk’s fame and influence the boys are proven guilty of murder.

            Compulsion was not a bad film. I found it a little tedious to sit through because you know the two boys were the murderers and were waiting for them to get caught. The whole story of the film comes from Arthur who thinks he is clever and manipulates everyone around him. Orson Welles does not come into the film until about the last half hour of the film. I am not a huge fan of Orson Welles because to me he always over acted and that is exactly what he did here. Compulsion is good to see at least once.

 

The Third Man (1949)

“Go home Martins, like a sensible chap. You don't know what you're mixing in, get the next plane.” 

            The Third Man is considered to be one of the quintessential Noirs to see. When I read a synopsis of the film it sounded very interesting. And how could a film go wrong when the stars include Joseph Cotton and Orson Welles? The Third Man is a well made film but there were some things that I was not too thrilled with that kept it from being a really good film for me.

            Holly Martins (Cotton) is a writer who has fallen on hard times. His best friend Harry Lime (Welles) is living in Austria after World War II and has written to Holly saying he may have a job for him. On the day Holly arrives he finds out his best friend has been killed in an automobile accident. Holly cannot understand how his friend just died in a simple auto accident the whole thing seems suspicious to him. When he goes to look into his friend’s death he is told to go home by British Major Calloway who knew Harry in some capacity.

            Holly goes to the apartment building Harry was living in. He questions Harry’s porter who was a witness to the accident. The porter tells Holly that there were three men around Harry when he died. This information does not mix with what Holly has been told up to then. He was told by another of Harry’s friends that there were only two people around him when he died, his doctor was just on the other side of the street and that Harry’s own driver was the one who hit him. Now Holly is on a mission to find the other witness, this third man.

            The deeper into Harry’s death Holly explores the more he finds out his friend is someone he barely knows. Calloway tells Holly that Harry was a notorious racketeer selling stolen penicillin and selling it on the black market. The penicillin Harry has been selling is killing people not helping them. Until faced with all the evidence Holly cannot believe that his friend who he always thought was so nice and charming and wonderful is a thief whose product is killing and hurting innocent people.

            In between this is Harry’s girlfriend Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli). Anna was in love with Harry. She knew what he was doing but never said anything. Holly has been dropping in on Anna and asking her about his friend. He also wants to help her with her fake passport that Harry made her, the international police got a hold of it and now she is in a bit of trouble. One night he goes to her house and sees a cat. She says the cat was only friendly to Harry.

            While walking back to his hotel Holly sees the cat cuddling up to figure in the doorway. The light of the moon shifts and Holly sees the face of his old friend. He gives chase to the figure but as quickly as he had seen Harry the man is gone. Holly goes to Calloway who does not believe him at first until they find a passageway leading to the sewers of Vienna.

            Alright so my explanation of the plot is not too great. For some reason I cannot fully explain I could not get into this film. I did not have any expectations for this film all I went into it with was that it is considered one of the best Noirs ever made and it had a good story. The story is good I liked the mystery but there was just something about the film I was not too crazy about. The one thing I will say I did not like was the music. I thought the music ruined what could have been amazing dramatic scenes. When the music came on to me it almost felt like I was watching a comedy not a dramatic mystery.

            The best aspects of this film were the direction by Carol Reed and the cinematography. Reed made some of the best camera angles and shots I have ever seen in films before. I was in awe of them. The cinematography is incredible especially the scene where Holly first sees Harry and when he chases his friend around dark corners of the streets. The chase, too, at the end was incredibly lit. The ending was great it fit the story so well and was so wonderfully filmed. 

            The cast was very good. Joseph Cotton there can be nothing bad said about him I have yet to see him give a bad performance. He could play any kind of character and just be amazing. Alida Valli was gorgeous and did such great job as Anna. Orson Welles was barely in the film and I am not too crazy about him but I will say he played his part perfectly.

            The Third Man is a film I was not too crazy about but I am glad I sat through it. It is a film that every film buff should see at least once.

 

The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

“When I start out to make a fool of myself, there's very little can stop me. If I'd known where it would end, I'd never let anything start... if I'd been in my right mind, that is. But once I'd seen her, I was not in my right mind for some time.”

            There is no denying that Orson Welles contributed greatly to film history. The man knew how to pick and write a good story and create a fantastic world the story takes place in. It is just a shame that the studios he worked for never let his films come to full potential the way he envisioned them to be. One film Welles made where he was writer, producer, director, and star that suffered because of the studio system is The Lady from Shanghai.

            The story is told through a flashback through a narrative by the main character Michael O’Hara (Welles). One night while walking through the park he sees a beautiful lady taking a carriage ride by herself. Michael says he never would have talked to her if he had known she was trouble. But at the time he was so taken with how beautiful she was he did. When he leaves the carriage the woman and the driver get attacked by robbers in the park and Michael saves them. The woman’s name is Elsa (Rita Hayworth). He tells Elsa of all his travels around the world and how he had been in prison in Spain for killing a man. Elsa tells him “If you’re a sailor Michael I may have a job for you. Would you like to work for me? I would.”

            The next day while at an employment agency a man comes looking for Michael. The man is Arthur Bannister and he wants Michael to work on his boat. Michael is hesitant because Bannister is a well known criminal lawyer who gets his clients off no matter how guilty they are. The two men and some of Michael’s friends go out for drinks where Bannister winds up drunk. Michael does not want to leave the man alone so he takes him back to his boat. He sees that Arthur’s wife is Elsa and he cannot understand why he took the job only that he was a fool. Elsa and Michael begin a small affair. One day they are caught kissing by Arthur’s law partner George Grisby.  

            The plot is a little complicated and I am not about to go into an explanation. I understand it because it was neatly explained at the end but as I was watching it I was like, what the hell. Sometimes when a plot gets complicated and I cannot understand it I get bored and distracted but I could not stop watching this film. Orson Welles’s direction is brilliant he uses so many different camera angles and different kinds of close ups that just keep your attention.

            The world knows Rita Hayworth as a red head but in this film she is platinum blonde. I think she looked absolutely stunning in this film she is the reason why I could not look away and my attention was held. Harry Cohn the head of Columbia was furious that Welles was able to influence Hayworth to dye and cut her hair. He ordered Welles to go back and film close up “glamour shots” of her and I have to say they were some of the best shots of the whole film. She looked incredibly gorgeous in the close up on the boat and in the court room near the end. Hayworth to me is known more for her beauty than her acting but I thought she was excellent here this is the best film I have seen her in yet. I am not a fan of Orson Welles as an actor but he did a very good job. I have read some reviews that slam him for his bad Irish accent but I cannot fake one very well so to me he did a good a job. I find Welles to be too much of a ham but here he was just right. Also some reviewers said there is no chemistry between Hayworth and Welles, at the time they were still married but estranged. I think you can see some chemistry between them.

            Welles created one of the greatest film endings when his character gets thrown into a fun house at an amusement pier. At the end of his journey through the fun house Elsa is there waiting for him and brings him into a house of mirrors to talk. Arthur shows up and he and Elsa have a shoot out. The way this ending was filmed was incredible especially the way she filmed Rita Hayworth at the end was genius.

            The Lady from Shanghai flopped upon its release. Whenever Orson Welles would bring up the film people would go quiet or would change the subject. Harry Cohn delayed the release of the film a year and felt the reason for the flop was because Rita Hayworth dyed and cut her hair. I liked The Lady from Shanghai I did not find it slow at all as some reviewers will say the beginning is. The story and the double crossing are great. The Lady from Shanghai is one of the best directed films I have ever seen and one of the best noirs to have been made. This is a great testament to Orson Welles as a filmmaker. 

Jane Eyre (1943)

“Are you always drawn to the loveless and unfriended?”
“When it's deserved.”

            The novel of Jan Eyre was written by Charlotte Brontë in 1847 under the penname Currer Bell. The novel was very successful when it was first published. It was only natural that in Hollywood’s Golden Age that the novel should be adapted to film with Joan Fontaine playing the title character and Orson Welles as the mysterious Edward Rochester.

            Jane Eyre’s early life was not easy. Her parents had died when she was young and she was raised by an aunt who lied and said that the girl was evil. The aunt put Jane in a strict Catholic boarding school for girls called Lowood. Ten years later Jane is given a job as a teacher in the school but she declines, she has put an ad in the paper for a position of a governess.

            Jane receives a job in an old English home called Thornfield owned by a man named Edward Rochester. When she arrives the man of the house is nowhere to be found the maid tells Jane that Mr. Rochester frequently leaves and no one knows for sure when he will return. Jane is governess for Rochester’s little girl Adele (Margaret O’Brien). One day Jane was walking the ground surrounded by heavy fog. A man comes riding furiously on his horse but is knocked off when the horse is frightened by her. The man is angry but for some reason Jane seems drawn to him. The man gets on his horse and rides off. Back at the house Jane sees the man on the horse is Mr. Rochester.

            A month goes by and all seems to be going well except sometimes at night Jane hears strange noises and a piercing screech. Everyone tells her it is nothing or it must be one of the house workers who has a tendency to be a little crazy. Later on Rochester confides who the screams and screeches come from.

            Not to give too much of the plot away, Jane and Rochester do fall in love as they are strangely drawn towards each other for he carries mystery and she innocence.

            Now I really do not know what to think of Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles as the main characters. I have yet to read the novel so I do not know if they acted the way the characters did or just did their own thing. As much as I adore Fontaine I think she gave too little a performance but I will say she had an excellent way of showing great emotion through her facial expressions. I thought it was interesting that her sister, Olivia de Havilland, played Charlotte Brontë in the very good film Devotion about the Brontë family, it is another link the sisters have in Hollywood history (Warner Bros. wanted Fontaine to be in Devotion but Selznick would not loan her out. It kills me to think what could have been). Orson Welles is alright I am not a huge fan of his and just the opposite of Fontaine I think he gave too much and was a little over dramatic. I did like the two actors together; however, I wish they had done another film together.

            Peggy Anne Gardner plays the young Jane at the beginning and is quite adorable. Elizabeth Taylor goes uncredited as Jane’s young friend at Lowood. Right off the bat you know the girl is Elizabeth Taylor she never changed only she was much cuter.

            The cinematography deserves much attention. It added so much to a somewhat bland film. It brought a creepiness and a feeling of unease to Thornfield and the story. The best scene was when Jane and Rochester unknowingly meet outside Thornfield.

            Jane Eyre has an interesting and intriguing story with many twists and suspenseful moments. I in no way find it to be a great love story but that is how I have found most Gothic novels I have read to be (Rebecca is also considered Gothic and it is not in any way a love story). I found the film to be a little bit boring but it did have some good points. After seeing the story of Jane Eyre on film I cannot wait to sit through the novel.

            Jane Eyre is available on DVD is available to view on Youtube.