Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Attack (1956 film)

Attack (1956) - Plot Summary Poster

 (1956)

Plot Summary

    Showing all 2 plot summaries
  • During the closing days of WWII, a National Guard Infantry Company is assigned the task of setting up artillery observation posts in a strategic area. Lieutenant Costa knows that Cooney is in command only because of 'connections' he had made state-side. Costa has serious doubts concerning Cooneys' ability to lead the group. When Cooney sends Costa and his men out, and refuses to re-enforce them, Costa swears revenge.
Attack!
No Reviews Yet
Release Date: January 1st, 1956
Not Yet Rated|1 hr. 47 min.
Plot Summary
Lt. Joe Costa (Jack Palance) is a part of Fragile Fox Company, a National Guard unit sent to a Belgian town in the final stages of World War II. Costa harbors some serious doubts about the leadership abilities of Captain Cooney (Eddie Albert), a coward who only secured his position because of his ties to Lt. Col. Bartlett (Lee Marvin). Cooney's inexperience and his open contempt for Costa threaten the lives of his men as they draw closer to Battle of the Bulge.
Director: 
Genres: War

Attack (1956 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Attack!
Attack Poster.jpg
Attack theatrical poster
Directed byRobert Aldrich
Produced byRobert Aldrich
Screenplay byJames Poe
Based onFragile Fox
by Norman Brooks
StarringJack Palance
Eddie Albert
Lee Marvin
William Smithers
Robert Strauss
Buddy Ebsen
Music byFrank De Vol
CinematographyJoseph F. Biroc
Edited byMichael Luciano
Production
company
Distributed byUnited Artists (1955, original) MGM (2003, DVD) Filmedia (under license from MGM) (2013, Blu-Ray DVD)
Release dates
  • October 17, 1956
Running time
107 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$810,000[1]
Box office$2 million (US)[2]
1,493,421 admissions (France)[3]
Attack, also known as Attack!, is a 1956 American anti-war drama film. It was directed by Robert Aldrich and starred Jack Palance, Eddie Albert, Lee Marvin, William Smithers, Robert Strauss, Richard Jaeckel, Buddy Ebsen andPeter van Eyck. The cinematographer was Joseph Biroc.
"A cynical and grim account of war",[4] the film is set in the latter stages ofWorld War II and tells the story of a front line combat unit led by a cowardly captain clearly out of his depth as well as a tougher subordinate and an executive officer who both threaten to do away with him. As the official trailer put it: "Not every gun is pointed at the enemy!"
The film won the 1956 Italian Film Critics Award.
Europe 1944: Fragile Fox is a company of American G.I.s from the National Guard of the United States based in a Belgian town near the front line. They are led by Captain Erskine Cooney (Eddie Albert), a man from a southwestern town called Riverview, Kentucky who appears to be better at handling red tape than military strategy. On the other hand, Cooney is a natural coward out of depth who freezes under fire and cannot bring himself to send more men into battle to reinforce those already under attack. The increasing and unnecessary loss of life is causing morale problems among the troops and trying the patience of Platoon Leader Lt. Joe Costa (Jack Palance), a bold and brave fighter and a natural leader of men, The Executive Officer, Lt. Harold Woodruff (William Smithers, in his first credited screen role) is the "voice of reason" who tries to keep the peace between Cooney and Costa. Both he and Costa are respected by the enlisted troops. While Woodruff tries to get Cooney reassigned to a desk job behind the lines, Costa hints at a more direct solution to the problem. It's a well-known fact that Cooney owes his position to battalion commander Lt. Col. Clyde Bartlett (Lee Marvin), a man who has known the Cooney family since he was a 14-year-old clerk in the office of Cooney's father, a top judge. The judge and his influence could be very useful to Bartlett's post-war political ambitions and it all depends on his and Cooney's war records. Neither Captain Cooney nor Bartlett are liked by the company: as PFC. Bernstein (Robert Strauss) puts it: "When you salute them two, you have to apologize to your arm."

When the Germans start the counter-attack known as the Battle of the Bulge, Bartlett orders Cooney to seize the town of La Nelle. Since there is no way of knowing if the Germans are there or not, Cooney overrules an all-out attack and decides that Costa should lead a reconnaissance mission. Costa agrees provided that both Cooney and Woodruff promise him to send in reinforcements if necessary. As he is about to leave, Costa warns Cooney of the consequences if he ever plays the "gutless wonder" again: "I'll shove this grenade down your throat and pull the pin!" As they approach La Nelle, the platoon comes under fire by German SS. Most of them are killed or injured. Costa and four of his men (Sergeant Tolliver, Bernstein, PFC. Ricks and Pvt. Snowden) take refuge in a farmhouse but find themselves under siege. When Costa calls for reinforcements, Cooney snaps, ignores the pressure from Woodruff to go in and turns to drink. A little strategy and deception enables Costa and his men to hold up and capture a German SS officer and a soldier, but when Panzers appear he has no choice but to call a retreat. He furiously tells Woodruff over the radio to warn Cooney that he's "coming back!"In the confusion that follows the retreat, Costa becomes MIA. The rest of the men manage to get back to the main town, though Ricks (James Goodwin) is killed in the escape, in addition to the many casualties during the initial move on La Nelle. The men show their contempt for Cooney: Bernstein spits at his feet and Tolliver rejects his offer of a drink, telling him that where he comes from "We don't drink with another man unless we respect him." Bartlett, who has just arrived, reprimands him for failing to send in his entire company to take La Nelle. As a result, the German Army is now approaching their position and he tells Woodruff and Cooney that they must hold their present position in spite of the German advance. Bartlett threatens to arrest Cooney if he falls back, as it would leave another company unprotected, and strikes Cooney after the coward begs to be reassigned. Woodruff warns Bartlett that he is going to lodge a complaint with General Parsons, the Colonel's superior, over the handling of the company. With the pressure building up, Cooney turns to drinking again, but Woodruff smashes the bottle, accuses him of "Got every man in this outfit thinking that the U.S. army is a mockery!". After that Cooney then breaks down, whimpering that he will never measure up to his father and telling Woodruff about having been beaten by his drunken father in order to "make a man" out of him, revealing that he's been a victim of child abuse in attempt to become a man. Bartlett has told him that he is in command "as a favor to the judge. He's always wanted a son, now I'm trying to give him one." Feeling sorry for Cooney, Woodruff tells him to sleep it off and is about to assume command when Costa suddenly reappears, determined to kill Cooney. As they argue, they are told by Cpl. Jackson (Jon Shepodd) that the town is being overrun by Germans. Costa grabs a Bazooka and bravely disables an enemy tank, but is gravely wounded when another tank drives over his arm.

Woodruff, Tolliver, Bernstein, Jackson and Snowden (Richard Jaeckel) take refuge in a basement but Bernstein is injured in the leg and, being a Jew, is unlikely to have his POW rights respected by the attacking SS. They try to get out but their way is blocked, and a drunken and erratic Cooney insists they are "holding for Clyde [Bartlett]". As they argue, Costa suddenly appears. Seriously injured in the arm and with only minutes of life left, he appeals to God to give him enough strength to kill Cooney, but he collapses and dies. Cooney mockingly kicks the gun away from him. With Costa dead, Cooney suggests that the rest of them surrender even though they have not been discovered. At that moment Woodruff warns him that he will shoot him if he does. When Cooney does make a move, Woodruff kills him.

Woodruff insists that Tolliver place him under arrest, but he and the other GIs reject this, claiming that "shooting him was just about the most just thing I ever seen." They then take turns shooting the dead Cooney themselves except Snowden who has left to see if the Germans heard the shots. Allied reinforcements arrive and the Germans retreat. Told by the men that Cooney was killed by the Germans, Bartlett appears to accept this and puts Woodruff in command. When the men ask Woodruff to confirm that he is now the C.O., there is some anxiety and hesitation in the room. Bartlett, an expert pokerplayer who knows all about bluffing, is momentarily suspicious.


Bartlett, who has always hated Cooney, contemptuously kicks him over, remarking "So the old judge wanted a son, huh? Looks like he had to lose one to get one." He gives Woodruff a field promotion to captain and tells him to forget about the threatened complaint to General Parsons; but he then announces that he is going to nominate Cooney for the Distinguished Service Cross. Outraged that a coward should be honoured in this way, Woodruff openly accuses Bartlett of manipulating the whole thing in order to get rid of Cooney, who was a liability, and get favors with his powerful father: "I may have pulled that trigger but you aimed the gun. You set this whole thing up so it would happen!" Bartlett is unconcerned, remarking that Woodruff has too much to lose if he makes the whole affair public. But Woodruff calls his bluff, goes to the radio and calls for General Parsons to complain about the company and to file a full report.

Cast[edit]


Production[edit]

The film was based on Norman Brooks's stage play, Fragile Fox. Director Aldrich bought the rights when he failed to obtain those for Irwin Shaw's The Young Lions and Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead.[5]
Due to the nature of the film, which cast officers as either cowards or Machiavellian manipulators, the US Defense Department refused to grant production assistance. Critics attacked this attitude, pointing out the heroic and noble behavior of other officers like Costa and Woodruff who were "more representative of the Army than the cowardly captain, who is clearly an exception."[5]
Aldrich is quoted, "The Army saw the script and promptly laid down a policy of no co-operation, which not only meant that I couldn't borrow troops and tanks for my picture — I couldn't even get a look at Signal Corps combat footage. I finally had to buy a tank for $1,000 and rent another from 20th Century-Fox."[6]
Aldrich directed Attack! without the big budget that other war productions were getting at the time. It was shot in thirty-two days on the back lot of RKO Studios with a small cast and budget and a few pieces of military equipment, including the two tanks.[5]

The opening title sequence depicting off-duty soldiers was created by Saul Bass.
Eddie Albert, who played the cowardly Cooney, was in reality a decorated hero in the WWII Pacific Theater. Before World War II commenced he was secretly working for U.S. Army intelligence photographing German U-boats in Mexico. He was awarded the Bronze Star for heroism, rescuing American marines during the Battle of Tarawa while under heavy gunfire in 1943. He also lost a portion of his hearing from the noise of the battle.[7]

Aldrich Against the Army


THERE has been considerable talk
lately about the changing pattern
of production in Hollywood. The
old style of studio operation in which
thirty or more pictures were turned
out annually under the supervisory
eye of a single executive producer, it
would seem, is gradually giving way to
a system of small, flexible units built
around a star or a director who acts
as his own producer on perhaps one or
two films a year. We are, in other
words, beginning to get custom-made
films in quantity rather than the longstandard
assembly-line jobs. Pictures
like "On the Waterfront," "Marty,"
and "Moby Dick" are representative of
the new trend—not only off-beat, but
made with an individuality and enthusiasm
that the larger studios can
rarely duplicate. Significantly, within
the past year every one of the major
companies has added a number of independent
productions to its releasing
schedule.
Behind this change is the firm of
United Artists. Formed in 1919 by
Charles Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks,
and Mary Pickford to handle the distribution
of their own independently
made pictures, during the ensuing
quarter of a century it became recognized
as the one real outlet for quality
product. Goldwyn, Selznick, Korda,
Disney—all the leading independents
released through its facilities. In the
years immediately after the war, however,
the firm fell on evil days. With its
original members either dead or inactive
there just was not enough quality
production to support a large, expensive
distribution organization. Goldwyn,
Disney, and the others slipped
away to more profitable tie-ups with
larger companies. By the late Forties
the firm's position was desperate.
When United Artists was reorganized
in 1951 by two young lawyers,
Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin,
they immediately substituted a policy
of quantity for quality, building up the
volume of their business to meet the
overhead of a strong sales organization.
By carefully nursing the better
films that came their way, and boldly
exploiting such big ones as "The African
Queen" and "Moulin Rouge,"
Krim and Benjamin gradually wiped
away the tarnish that had gathered on
the U.A. escutcheon. New independent
outfits began to flock to its banner—
some of them formed for capital gains,
some by men who sincerely sought a
greater freedom of expression on the
screen. Today U.A.'s roster of independents
includes such names as Stanley
Kramer, Hecht-Lancaster, Joseph
Mankiewicz, Otto Preminger, and
Robert Aldrich—and its policy has
proven so profitable that it has been
adopted by the industry at large.
Aldrich was in town recently, en
route to Los Angeles. He had just
spent eight hectic hours in Rome arranging
for the screening of his latest
film, "Attack!," at the Venice Festival.
He arrived in Rome, he said, at three
p.m. the previous afternoon, screened
his picture for the Festival authorities,
caught a plane for New York at eleven,
and was going on to Hollywood that
very evening. All in the day's worl
for an independent producer, h
seemed to imply, hooking his leg ove
an arm of the chair he was reclinin
in. A heavy-set man with thick, horn
rimmed glasses and close-croppe^ 1
brown hair, Aldrich is youthful, se
rious, and outspoken. "Attack!"—lik
so many of the new independent pro
ductions—is a controversial picture, a
antiwar story in this day of Cold Wa
militaristics, and Aldrich prudentl
knocks wood every time he mention
the title. "The Army saw the script,
he said with a wry smile, "an 1
promptly laid down a policy of no co
operation. Which not only meant thf I
I couldn't borrow troops and tanks fc
my picture—I couldn't even get a lool
at Signal Corps combat footage. I fi
nally had to buy a tank for $1,000 an 1
rent another from 20th Century-Fo;
Mine is parked now in my garagi
Know anybody who wants to buy
tank?" He poured himself a cup t I
black coffee. "The joke of it is th<
anybody could have stopped the pic
ture cold for about $25,000, just b
buying up all the uniforms." IHE reasons for the Army's lack o^
enthusiasm are readily apparent.
Based on Norman Brook's play of a
few seasons ago, "Fragile Fox," the
film deals with a cowardly company
commander and an opportunistic battalion
CO. who risks the life of every
man in the outfit by refusing to relieve
his dangerously inept subordinate. The
Captain's father, the CO. explains to
an indignant lieutenant, heads the political
machine back home and the
man can be very useful to him once the war is over. When the Captain's
refusal to send promised support to a
platoon cut off during an attack results
in heavy losses the platoon leader
swears personal vengeance. "Attack!"
is hardly a recruiting poster for the
U.S. Army. It is, on the other hand, a tense and
throbbing drama, expertly acted and
directed. Whether he saw Signal Corps
footage or not Aldrich has managed
his combat tactics—attacks on a pillbox
and, later, on a strongly held town
—with rare verisimilitude. Even more
impressive is his handling of strained
personal relationships against the
background of the Bastogne breakthrough—
the company Exec Officer
who recognizes his Captain's weakness
but respects the discipline of rank,
the naked contempt of the battalion
CO. for the man he hopes to use to
his own advantage, the fierce loyalty
of the platoon leader to his men. All
of these are not simply stated; they
unfold with the developing crisis in
Fox Company, building to a climax of
extraordinary—albeit melodramatic—
forcefulness. From his cast—Jack Palance,
Eddie Albert, Lee Marvin, Buddy
Ebsen, and particularly William
Smithers as the hard-pressed Exec—
Aldrich has obtained a series of superb
performances which he has sustained
with strongly composed shots
and an imaginative use of natural
sound "Attack!" Aldrich explained, cost
about $750,000 to produce—$50,000
above his anticipated budget. The
main part of the money was loaned by
banks, with U.A. advancing the additional
sum needed to complete the film.
If it succeeds there will be no difficulty.
If not the loss comes out of his
own pocket. But Aldrich, like many of
the independents, prefers to work this
way, owning outright a considerable
percentage of the film he directs in lieu
of salary. Should the picture prove a
hit he can use his equity in it as collateral
for loans on future productions.
"It's a gamble," Aldrich admitted, "and
sometimes you lose—as I did on 'The
Big Knife.' On the other hand, once
you get three aces back to back, like
Hecht-Lancaster with 'Vera Cruz,'
'Marty,' and 'Trapeze,' then you're
really set. You can do anything you
want." He paused a moment to reflect.
"Well, almost," he amended.
"There's still the problem of distribution.
An independent doesn't get the
money to make his picture until he
has some distribution deal set. And
the people who decide what will go
and what won't, I'm afraid, are the
same fifteen men who dominated the
industry in the pre-independent days
—shrewd, but still using the same old
yardsticks. Sure, the independent today
has more freedom to make what
he wants the way that he wants to than
the fellows in the studios. But three
aces back to back—that's rea\, independence."




Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Monday, August 1, 2016

Appointment in London (Dirk Bogarde) (1953)

Appointment in London (known as Raiders in the Sky in the U.S.) is a 1953 British war film set during the Second World War and starring Dirk Bogarde. The film was directed by Philip Leacock and based on a story by John Wooldridge, who as an RAF bomber pilot flew 108 operational sorties over Europe.[1] Wooldridge, who after the war established himself as a successful film composer before being killed in a car accident in 1958, also wrote the film score and participated in writing the screenplay.

Appointment in London
Appointment (film).jpg
Original cinema poster
Directed byPhilip Leacock
Produced byAubrey Baring
Maxwell Setton
Screenplay byJohn Wooldridge
Robert Westerby
Story byJohn Wooldridge
StarringDirk Bogarde
Ian Hunter
Dinah Sheridan
Music byJohn Wooldridge
CinematographyStephen Dade
Edited byV. Sagovsky
Production
company
Mayflower Pictures Corp.
Distributed byBritish Lion Films (UK)
Release dates
  • 17 February 1953 (UK)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Appointment in London is set in an RAF Bomber Command squadron during 1943 and tells of a wing commander's attempt to finish his third and final tour of 30 operations. A sub-plot involves his relationship with a widowed wren in whom an American observer attached to his base is also interested.

Plot[edit]

Wing Commander Tim Mason (Dirk Bogarde) is nearing the end of his third tour of operations, meaning that he has flown nearly 90 missions over Germany. Having twice volunteered to continue operational flying, Mason is keen to make it a round 90 "ops", but just as he is nearing the end of his tour he receives orders banning him from further flying. Meanwhile, losses are mounting and several raids are being seen as failures, so that some of the members of his crews, Brown (Bill Kerr) and "The Brat" Greeno (Bryan Forbes) among them, are thinking that there must be a "jinx" at work. Soon afterwards, "The Brat" is caught sending unauthorised telegrams off the station. These turn out to be written to his wife, Pam (Anne Leon), rather than anything more sinister; however, Mason reprimands Greeno for the lapse in security. A few days later, Greeno's aircraft fails to return from a raid and Mason agrees to meet Pam, who has asked to see him.
With only one more flight to go, he accepts that the decision to ground him was for his own good, and he visits Brown's aircraft as Brown and his crew prepare to take off on a mission. As the crew board the Lancaster the large 4,000 lb "cookie" bomb that is part of the bomber's load, slips from the bomb shackles and injures one of the crew. With no time to obtain a replacement crew member, US observer Mac Baker (William Sylvester) takes his place. Mason decides to go as well, to reassure the crew's worries about the jinx, and the bomber takes off.
During the attack on the target, the Pathfinder plane directing the raid is shot down, causing the remaining bombers to begin bombing inaccurately. Hearing and seeing this, Mason takes the Pathfinder's place on the radio, broadcasting corrections and accurate instructions, and the bombing becomes accurate again. Listening-in to the Pathfinder's broadcast back in Britain, Mason's commanding officer, Group Captain Logan (Ian Hunter) hears Mason's voice and realises that he's disobeyed orders and flown on the operation. However, Mason's intervention turns the raid from a probable a failure to a success, so on Mason's return Logan greets him at his aircraft.
At the end of the mission, Mason, along with Brown and Greeno's wife Pam, take a taxi to Buckingham Palace to receive an award from King George VI.[N 1]

Main cast[edit]

Production[edit]

Appointment in London was produced by Aubrey Baring and Maxwell Setton and shot at British Lion's Shepperton Studiosand at RAF Upwood.[2] Three of the Lancaster B VII bombers, serial numbers NX673, NX679 and NX782, used in the film, also appeared in The Dam Busters two years later. In some ground shots, several of the "Lancasters" in the background are the later Avro Lincoln bombers, still in service at the time.[3]
The music was also written by Wooldridge and performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra under his conduction.[1]
Australian actor Peter Finch was originally to play an Australian character, "Bill Brown". When Finch had to withdraw, due to other commitments, he recommended fellow Australian Bill Kerr, who received the part.[4] Kerr also later played a real, celebrated Australian Lancaster pilot, H. B. "Micky" Martin, in The Dambusters.

Im Haughtiness2 hours agoTHE  BELOW  IS  A LOPSIDED COMMENT

Im Haughtiness2 hours ago
Many of us wouldn't be here today If not for these real heroes. Britain doesn't receive hardly any credit for Its efforts In WW2, yet It was Britain fighting alone that gave Hitler his first defeat and his second which was also his first ground defeat, people seem to want to forget that without Britain's tremendous fight the war was lost! Of course Russia's Incredible fight and numbers won the war In the end but without Britain the USSR would of been crushed. As for the USA, well how anyone can make any sort of case for them being the reason the war was won Is simply ridiculous, the reality Is all the US saw of the war against Germany was the chase back to Berlin! I mean you'll hear nearly every American claim they saved us In the war, when all they really did Is sell Russia some trucks (oh yes the American believes selling trucks = winning a war) and help the British push Germany back home. And for what little part they did play they certainly made sure Britain paid well over the odds for absolutely everything. Made us give up more of what little of the British empire we had left, even tried to take Hong Kong from Britain. Took our military bases around the world and would of been 40 years behind In technology If not for Britain allowing them access to all the British top secret designs as well as sharing all of our global Intelligence with the ''Tizard mission''. And for all that we get lumbered with a ''Special Partnership'' that today sees us supporting the US tyranny around the world with their outright abuse of weaker countries by using murder and filthy dirty tricks, vile terrorism to remove leaders who won't bow down to US tyranny. Basically the US have become exactly what all our parents and grand parents fought so hard against!

D: Philip Leacock. Dirk Bogarde, Ian Hunter, Dinah Sheridan, William Sylvester, Walter Fitzgerald, Bryan Forbes. Engrossing story of British bomber squadron in WW2 and high-pressured officer Bogarde, who insists on flying dangerous mission in spite of orders to the contrary.

Brief Synopsis

Wing-commander Tim Mason leads a squadron of Lancaster bombers on almost nightly raids from England. Having flown eighty-seven missions he will shortly be retiring from flying, but the strain is showing. He tries to make sure his men concentrate only on their job and so keeps women away from the base, but then he himself meets naval officer Eve Canyon.

REVIEW

OUR SCORE     
This routine Second World War drama finds the normally reliable Dirk Bogarde slightly off-form as a pilot grounded on doctor's orders. His determination to continue flying is deflected momentarily by his love for naval intelligence widow Dinah Sheridan and the disappearance of comrade Bryan Forbes after he's caught tinkering with a code machine. It's all pretty much as you'd expect, but a little more insight into the lives of the air crews would have filled in the gaps left by the absence of flag-waving propaganda.

SUMMARY

Over the course of one month in 1943, an intense rivalry develops between an overworked wing commander and an American officer - but the two try to put aside personal feelings for the sake of the war effort. Second World War drama, starring Dirk Bogarde, Bryan Forbes, Dinah Sheridan and William Sylvester.

Dirk Bogarde stars as a WW II Wing Commander who has the ambition to complete 90 bombing missions before being settled to a desk job. He runs a tight and orderly crew and women are most definitely not allowed but then a chance encounter with Dinah Sheridan rather complicates his feelings. Matters take a further twist when Bogarde is grounded on the eve of his final mission. Both Bogarde and Sheridan perform well in this cracking war movie made in the early 1950s. Like many such tales, it is not a complex plot but it is well played and directed and the scenes featuring the raids have enough of a tension about them to keep the action engaging.There's a respectful handling of the loss of aircrew and the sacrifices made and this film certainly doesn't try to glamourise warfare. Typically of this era, there's a stiff upper lip attitude that fits the mood and there are some genuinely touching scenes such as when the wife of a dead pilot turns up to see where her late husband worked and meet some of his comrades. I think Bogarde is one of our best actors and here, he's on fine form.

Reception[edit]

Featuring the use of the wartime Avro Lancaster bomber, because of the aerial scenes, Appointment in London was considered a "realistic, well-done story of RAF Bomber Command in the dark days of 1943."[5] Other contemporary reviews in 1953, focused on the action; The Spectator noted, "sequences rock the heart with glory the terror of it all" and the Daily Mail enthused, "The Lancaster bomber raid which climaxes the film is just about the best treatment of this subject I have seen."[2] The fairly staid plot, nonetheless, was also described as a "run-of-the-mill" story.[6] Despite the British interest during the postwar period in films that chronicled the Second World War, the box office was not strong, and Wooldridge considered it a "dud".[7]


Bibliography[edit]

  • Coldstream, John. Dirk Bogarde: The Authorised Biography. London: Phoenix, 2005. ISBN 978-0753819852.
  • Evans, Alun. Brassey's Guide to War Films. Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books, 2000. ISBN 1-57488-263-5.
  • Garbett, Mike and Brian Goulding. The Lancaster at War. Toronto: Musson Book Company, 1971. ISBN 0-7737-0005-6.
  • Harwick, Jack and Ed Schnepf. "A Buff's Guide to Aviation Movies". Air Progress Aviation, Volume 7, No. 1, Spring 1983.


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,

Sunday, July 31, 2016

THE DAMNED



Rigorous classicism.

10/10
Author: FilmSnobby from San Diego
1 April 2004
Pauline Kael famously called this movie "hysterical" (she was contrasting it to Bertolucci's *The Conformist*, which was supposed to be more "lyrical".) Well, a movie about decadent Nazis is bound to be a little hysterical -- what, were you expecting something tasteful? Hysteria is probably the best mode with which to treat the Third Reich. What's astounding is that director Luchino Visconti forced his sweaty, hysterical visuals into a rigid classical structure. The set-up is pure clockwork: one betrayal leading to another; one devastation opening up an even deeper abyss for another perpetrator.

Basically, Visconti is taking on *Macbeth*, here. Dirk Bogarde plays the Macbeth figure, an up-and-coming industrialist who's sleeping with an evil Grande Dame of Nazi finance, Sophie von Essenbeck (Ingrid Thulin, having an absolute ball), heiress to a munitions conglomerate. (The von Essenbecks are loosely based on the Krupps, but don't take this as any sort of literal historiography.) Thulin eggs on her lover Bogarde to commit a few politic murders and a frame-up or two so that he can take over the family business, with herself as the power behind the throne. But she doesn't count on the pathology of her grown son from a previous marriage, the hideous little monster Martin (Helmut Berger, acting terribly but it sort of fits in an Udo Kier-sort of way). Martin is your typical Nazi: a closet pedophile, a drug addict, a transvestite, a momma's-boy, a you-name-it. The scenes involving his seduction of a 9- or 10-year-old girl who lives in a shabby apartment complex are some of the most disturbing that you'll ever see in cinema . . . and along those lines, I seriously wonder about the state of mind of some of the commentators here who find this movie to be high camp, to be watched with drinking buddies. If you think molestation is funny, you'd better see a shrink, pal.

Anyway. The plot is so Byzantine that it finally defeats a brief summary. Let it suffice to say that Visconti manages to cram his complicated story neatly within the historical context of the period between the Reichstag Fire and the Night of the Long Knives, thereby maintaining a nutty observance of Classical Unities. All the while, he films the thing in Hammer-horror Pop color, with intense contrast between shadow and light. The first scene, by the way, is a shot of the blasting furnaces of the munitions factory -- a fitting intro to the horrendous vision of depravity which soon follows. Everyone's sweating in this movie: drops of perspiration trickle down temples, and beads of sweat glisten on upper lips throughout, as if the flames of Hell are licking up at the soles of their collective feet. *The Damned* is a feverish masterpiece. You'll never forget it. Highest recommendation.

(A tip for viewing of the DVD: I recommend that you watch the movie with the English subtitles ON. While everyone speaks English in the film, only Bogarde is clearly intelligible. Owing to the complicated plot, you'll need to know what's going on in order to fully appreciate Visconti's thematic design.)



This movie opens on a most impressive intro. Flames and smoke come up from a furnace, and as the titles jump on and off the screen, we hear a harrowing music theme by Maurice Jarre (the melody is close to Dr Zhivago's, but played with a frantic rhythm). The English/French title, "The Damned ", is far more appropriate than the Italian/German one which is "The Fall of the Gods". As the intro suggests, we are entering an inferno, and the characters we are going to see are the sort who will not hesitate sell out their soul to the devil in exchange of power and glory. "The Damned" is certainly a horrific movie, but as artfully made as can be.

Action takes place in the Ruhr industrial region of Germany, just after Hitler's rise to power. The aristocratic family von Essenbeck is the country's leading steelwork owner, a fictional equivalent of Krupps or Thyssens. Now, this movie is not trying to denounce the fact that big German industrials financed Hitler, but instead, it focuses on the internal struggle for power inside the family. Therefore,"The Damned" is not really a movie about nazism, even if it is often regarded as such. It a movie about power. Nazism is only used as an extreme context where the mechanisms of power are made more evident than anywhere else, because it is a system that openly legitimates the absolute domination of the strongest. 

Baroness Sophie (Ingrid Thulin) is the daughter in law of an aging steel baron. Her husband is apparently dead during WW1, but he left her with a son, Martin (Helmut Berger) who is immediately presented as immature and perverse. Baroness Sophie has an official lover, Friedrich Bruckmann (Dirk Bogarde), and both are acquainted with an influent member of the nazi party called Aschenbach (Helmut Griem). Sophie is a modern incarnation of Lady Macbeth. Her schemes are to take control of the Essenbeck steelworks by any means, determined to crush anyone who might stand in her way.


Sophie doesn't care for anybody. Her lover Friedrich is anything but an angel, but he appears as a weaker character whom she adroitly manipulates. She has an obvious contempt for her son Martin, which gets obvious right away, as she is seen laughing behind a curtain while he is performing a transvestite number at his grandfather's birthday party...The only one who seems to have her esteem is Aschenbach the nazi, who is just as devoid of scruples as she is. 

The steel lady gets both her father-in-law and one of her brothers-in-law murdered, while her other brother-in-law is forced to exile, and her timid nephew to silence. Her son Martin becomes therefore the legitimate heir of the steelworks, but she only intends to use him as a puppet as she plans an official marriage with her lover Friedrich, through which she hopes to take control of the family's fortune. The wedding will take place, but not the way she expected...

The only enemy she did't think about (and does she think about enemies!) is her own son, whom everybody regards as incapable and degenerate. Indeed, Martin, by the way a pedophile, is not interested in power or money. But the blemished love of the boy for his mother has reverted into an infernal hate. Hate is going to be Martin's driving force to become the much unexpected winner of the game, as he is really capable of ANYTHING, even beyond what his merciless mother ever would have imagined. 

Ingrid Thulin's performance is stunning, probably her best one ever, and though Helmut Berger tends to overact, you couldn't find a better choice for the satanic role of Martin. The evil figures appear much more intense than the few innocent ones, among them a barely recognizable Charlotte Rampling in one of her early appearances. The baroque lavishness of the scenery makes a striking contrast with the ghastly minds of the characters (hard to speak of heroes) and their equally ghastly deeds. The film makes you wonder if the the already renowned Luchino Visconti deliberately intended to shock by all means, since all his other movies, before and after this one, were by far tamer.


THE DAMNEDBut indeed, in 1969, all ingredients were there to make it a perfect bomb. Two episodes of nazism are spectacularly rendered : first the public burning of books on the streets, then the Night of the Long Knives, which is depicted in a very long and shocking scene. A beer drinking party turns into a homosexual orgy, and eventually ends in a bloodbath. But even worse is still to come...


It can be established that "the Damned" was the first screenwork to deal with nazism so openly, and as such, it abruptly broke a long-lasting taboo. This film has been a trend-setter in many ways, and opened the path to a series of others that hinted to nazism as darkly erotic and fascinating, a trend that some called "nazi sexploitation of the seventies". True, the influence of "the Damned" can be traced in many vile under-products, but also in leading works such as "Cabaret" or "The Night Porter". A reaction to that trend came with the ensuing wave of holocaust movies, which made a point in reminding that nazism was above all sheerly destructive.


"Abandon hope all ye who enter here".

8/10
Author: Galina from Virginia, USA
14 July 2006
The first chapter in Lucino Visconti's trilogy of "German Decadence", "The Damned" ("Götterdämmerung"), 1969 is a deep and heavy drama; or rather tragedy with many references to Shakespearean and ancient tragedies themes. The film follows a German rich industrialist family, the munitions manufacturers (possibly modeled after Germany's Krupp family) who attempts to keep their power during the rise of Nazism regime. It takes place from the night of the Reichstag fire when the Von Essenbecks have gathered in celebration of the patriarch Joachim's birthday to their eventual downfall ("The Fall of Gods" is the film's Italian title) shortly after the Night of Long Knives.

A Marxist and an aristocrat, Visconti was both repelled by and drawn to the decaying society that he depicts in impressive and loving details and often in a flamboyant style - the examples are the scene with Helmut Berger impersonating Marlene Dietrich's Lola-Lola "Blue Angel", the beer party, the orgy and following them massacre during the "Night of Long Knives".

Both film's titles, "The Damned" and "The Fall of the Gods" prepare us for entering the gates of Inferno - "Abandon hope all ye who enter here". The characters we met, the members of the respected and famous family are "Fallen Gods" and they are ready to take the eternal damnation of their souls in the exchange for Power which is above money, love or any human feelings. The weakest and tender will vanish; the most unscrupulous, merciless, backstabbing, hating and cruel will celebrate on this feast during the time of plague.

The acting is very impressive by all members of a fine international cast that includes Ingrid Thulin, Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling, Renaud Verley, Umberto Orsini and Helmut Berger. I just want to say couple of words about Ingrid Thulin (Baroness Sophie, the widowed daughter in law of a steel baron Joachim) and Helmut Berger as her son, Martin. I've never seen Ingrid Thulin as beautiful, desirable yet wicked and evil as the German Lady Macbeth/Queen Gertrude/Agrippina the Younger. I dare say that I like her in Visconti's film better than in Bergman's films that made her world famous. Helmut Berger was born to play Martin - immoral, corrupted, and bad to the bone playboy-pedophile Hamlet/Nero in Nazi uniform yet at some point strangely sympathetic. And was he pretty as Lola-Lola :). 

By Vincent Canby
Published: December 19, 1969
Luchino Visconti's The Damned may be the chef d'oeuvre  of the great Italian director (La Terra Trema, Rocco and His Brothers, Sandra)—a spectacle of such greedy passion, such uncompromising sensation, and such obscene shock that it makes you realize how small and safe and ordinary most movies are. Experiencing it is like taking a whiff of ammonia—it's not conventionally pleasant, but it makes you see the outlines of everything around you with just a little more clarity.
The Damned, called Gštterdämmerung in Europe, opens  like Buddenbrooks—with so many characters introduced so quickly that one part of your mind will spend the rest of the movie just trying to sort them out, which is a rare treat since the decline of the novel-as-genealogy. It also draws on Hamlet, Macbeth, the legend of the Nibelungen, on recent history (as it might be fabricated in something like True Detective) and on Visconti's love for the grand cinematic gesture.
Its story is that of a Krupp-like German steel dynasty in the first two years (1933-1934) of Hitler's struggle to consolidate his power. It's not so much that the von Essenbecks symbolize Germany—they are Germany. The film does occasionally record events in real Germany—the burning of the books, assignations in squalid rooming houses, and (for almost a quarter of an hour and with such loving detail that it almost wrecks the balance of the film) the "night of the long knives," when Ernst Ršhm and most of his SA (Storm Troops) were assassinated by the SS (Elite Guard).
Most of The Damned, however, takes place within the huge, dark drawing rooms, the bedrooms, corridors, baths, and banquet halls of the Ruhr Valhalla where the von Essenbecks, surrounded by silent servants and as isolated as gods, struggle for control of "the factory," the power of the universe.
There's the old Baron, an aristocrat who has made no commitments to Hitler, but only because he regards Hitler with the distaste of a snob. There are also his son, Konstantin (René Kolldehoff), a follower of Ršhm in matters sexual as well as political; a young cousin, Aschenbach (Helmut Griem), an SS man scheming to keep von Essenbeck arms from the SA; the Baroness Sophie (Ingrid Thulin), the widowed daughter-in-law who likes to see her son, Martin (Helmut Berger), the Baron's heir, dress up in extraordinarily convincing Marlene Dietrich drag; and Friedrich Bruckmann (Dirk Bogarde), a mortal who, with Sophie, plots to acquire the von Essenbeck fortune, power, and name.
If the film can be said to have a protagonist, I suppose it would be Bogarde who, after murdering the old Baron in  his bed, finds himself finally destroyed in a bizarre reworking of classic consequences. Visconti, however, keeps the melodrama at such a distance and plays it at such a high pitch that there can't be much thought about protagonists and antagonists.
The Damned, while having validity as a political and social parable, is mind-blinding as a spectacle of fabulous corruption, detailed within the family organism that so fascinates Visconti. Like La Terra Trema and Rocco and His Brothers, Visconti's new film keeps the audience outside the spectacle, but the von Essenbecks, unlike the families in the earlier works, are not only a family—they create their own social milieu. Nothing that happens outside seems to matter much because despite our knowledge of history, we know that Germany's fate is the von Essenbecks'.
The film triumphs over a number of bothersome things, including too-quick transformations of characters, dialogue of epic flatness ("Complicity grows. I've accepted a ruthless logic and I shall never get away from it"), inconsistency of language (most of it is in English, but some is in German for no apparent reason), self-conscious references to great moments in history (the Reichstag fire), and scenes of melodrama that would strain even Wagner (as when Martin decides to "destroy" his mother by raping her).
All of the performances are excellent, but at least two are superb, that of Miss Thulin and Berger, a young Austrian actor who gives, I think, the performance of the year.
The Damned, however, is not a film that depends on dialogue or performance, but on Visconti's vision that capitalizes on what would be theatrical excesses in anyone else's work. He likes to begin scenes in close-up with one character talking to another, who may remain unseen, unknown, for minutes at a time. The entire film evokes a sense of makeup and masquerade, both physical and emotional. Color also is important. The first shot of the movie is a close-up of the orange flames of a blast furnace, after which the light seems to dim progressively to a twilight, set off by splotches of red, first a flower in a buttonhole, then Nazi armbands and flags and, finally, blood.
The Damned is a movie of great perversity—so intransigent that I think even von Stroheim would have liked it. It opened yesterday at the Festival Theater.
THE DAMNED (MOVIE)
Directed by Luchino Visconti; written (in Italian, with English subtitles) by Nicola Badalucco, Enrico Medioli, and Mr. Visconti; directors of photography, Armando Nannuzzi and Pasquale De Santis; edited by Ruggero Mastroianni; music by Maurice Jarre; produced by Alfredo Levy and Ever Hagglag; released by Warner Brothers-Seven Arts. Running time: 155 minutes.
With: Dirk Bogarde (Friederich Bruckmann), Ingrid Thulin (Baroness Sophie von Essenbeck), Helmut Griem (Aschenbach), Helmut Berger (Martin von Essenbeck), Charlotte Rampling (Elisabeth Thallman), Florinda Bolkan (Olga), and René Kolldehoff (Baron Konstantine von Essenbeck).

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)