Hello and welcome to another installment of Five Cool Things, the biweekly article where I talk about all the fun, interesting, and yes, cool things I’ve discovered since the last time. This time we’re talking about a classic film from Akira Kurosawa, a touching French drama, a pre-Code newspaper drama starring Edward G. Robinson, Basil Rathbone in his first Sherlock Holmes film, a ridiculously awesome action flick from John Woo, and a new trailer that looks super fun.
Let’s get to it.
Kagemusha
People often talk about Kagemusha as Akira Kurosawa’s test run for his late masterpiece Ran. Which seems both true and completely unfair. Both films do share a resemblance. They are both set in the Sengoku period of Japan’s history, and they feature epic battles, samurais, and thousands of extras. They are exquisitely shot and staged and deal with themes of loyalty and duty.
Buy Kagemusha (Criterion Collection)I’ll argue that Ran is the better film, but don’t sleep on Kagemusha. It is terrific. A thief is about to be executed for his crimes, but the brother of the clan’s lord notices that the thief looks identical to the lord and spares him (both thief and the chief are played by the same person, Tatsuya Nakadai).
Having a double for the chief could prove useful. He can stand in for the chief when he is not available and make appearances before crowds, etc. But then the chief is mortally wounded in battle. His last command is for the generals to not let anyone know he has died for three years. This will allow the clan to stabilize and for his young heir to learn how to lead.
Much of the film is spent with the double figuring out how to trick everyone into believing he is the real deal. He proves rather good at it. He’s kinder and more playful with the heir than the real chief ever was, and he proves cunning during clan meetings.
Interspersed between all of those goings on are battle sequences where massive armies gather and move across the screen. Kurosawa is a master at moving large amounts of people in his films, and he does it brilliantly here. His use of color is astounding. There is a scene where thousands of soldiers are moving this way and that across the screen while the sun sets behind him that is just breathtaking. In the middle is a dream sequence that is astonishingly beautiful.
It is an amazing film and should be seen on the biggest screen possible.
Port of Shadows
Marcel Carné’s early film noir is also one of the finest examples of French poetic realism. Jean Gabin stars as Jean, an army deserter who hitches a ride to the port city of Le Havre in hopes of catching a boat out of the country. There he meets a disparate and desperate group of people who become a makeshift family.
Buy Port of ShadowsHe meets a drunk who takes him to a run-down bar near the docks. He’s taken in by the proprietor, who gives him food and drink. Others welcome him like an old friend. And then there is Nelly (Michèle Morgan in her film debut). She’s young and beautiful. She’s spent half her life with the attentions of men – including her own godfather and a wannabe gangster – and has grown tired of them. But Jean is different. He is tough without having to announce it and kind without wanting anything in return.
It is a love story but also one about how humanity needs each other. Shot in stark black and white with a perpetual fog rolling in, the film looks amazing and remains an absolute classic. I’ll have a full review of the new UHD disc from Kino Lorber up soon.
Five Star Final
Edward G. Robinson stars in this pre-Code drama as tabloid newspaper editor Joseph Randall. Circulation is down, and the owner suggests they dig up an old murder case. Some 20 years prior, a pregnant woman murdered the baby daddy when he refused to marry her. The jury acquitted her, but it was quite a sensation. The owner figures finding out what happened to her will sell some papers. Randall hires an alcoholic reporter (Boris Karloff) to pose as a priest and find a way to interview them.
Buy Five Star FinalThe woman changed her name and married a respectable man named Michael Townsend (H.B. Warner). The baby grew up not knowing her past and is now set to be married in a few days. The paper writes its stories, causing a new scandal and a tragedy.
For the first half of the movie, it plays out like a pretty typical film from the time. It was pretty good, but nothing special. But when the story breaks, we see how it affects the woman and her husband. In just a few short scenes, Warner will break your heart. He is so good in this. Then Robinson takes it up a notch. Once the tragedy hits, Randall pulls out of his malaise and really lets the owner have it. That turns the film from pretty good into a certified classic.
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
Basil Rathbone played Sherlock Holmes in a series of fourteen films from 1939 to 1946, with Nigel Bruce portraying Dr. Watson. I recently found a boxed set of all the films on DVD and swooped them up.
Buy Sherlock Holmes: Classic Film & Radio CollectionThe very first film adapts what is probably the most famous Holmes story. It is my favorite Holmes story that I’ve read, primarily because Sherlock Holmes disappears for half of it. So many of the short stories have very little nuance. Someone comes to Holmes with a problem, and then he finds a solution through the magic of his deduction skills. He’ll spot a speck of ink on someone’s trousers and then deduce that they are from a particular part of England, where only a certain type of beetroot grows, and therefore they must have killed the maid because clearly she was allergic to beetroot, as you can tell by the type of lipstick she wore. Or some such thing.
That gets awfully boring. But with The Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes sends Watson ahead of him to learn what he can and doesn’t show back up for many pages. Allowing Watson to work on the case creates a much more interesting story (even if Holmes does come back and solves it for him).
Anyway, it is a good story, and the film adapts it well. I love both Rathbone and Bruce as Holmes and Watson. They very quickly develop a great rapport. The filmmaking is quite good here, with some fantastic sets out on the moors and some wonderfully shadow-filled lighting.
Face/Off
This is the first film by John Woo I ever watched, and it made me an instant fan. I’ve recently been watching some of his classic Hong Kong films and decided I wanted to revisit this one.
Buy Face/OffThe plot is utterly ridiculous. Nicolas Cage plays terrorist-for-hire Castor Troy, who is shot and knocked into a coma by John Travolta’s FBI Agent Sean Archer. The trouble is Castor Troy has planted a bomb somewhere in the city, and it is set to go off in a couple of days. Only Castor’s brother Pollux (Alessandro Nivola) knows where it is, and he isn’t talking. So Archer gets a face transplant – they literally cut off Castor’s face and sew it onto Archer – and a few other modifications to look and sound like Castor Troy.
While Archer is in prison trying to get Pollux to talk, the real Castor wakes up and puts on Archer’s face. Most of the film has Nicolas Cage taking on John Travolta’s mannerisms, and that is as fun as it sounds.
Woo fills it with some incredibly operatic action set pieces and all kinds of flamboyant silliness. It totally rocks.
Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice
I know nothing about this film except that the trailer looks like a lot of fun. Vince Vaughan plays Nick, who comes from the future to save Nick (also played by Vince Vaughan). James Marsden plays Mike, who is Nick’s partner in crime, and Eiza González is Alice, who is their friend or something. Who these people are and what their relationships are is a little unclear, but the trailer looks goofy and fun, and consider me intrigued.
