5/5/16 Crossfire at The Heights Theater, nominated Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Writing - Adapted Screenplay, 1947
I have to thank my friend for asking if I was interested in seeing Robert Mitchum in Crossfire, although to be honest, she didn't ask me that, she asked if I was a member of Minnesota Public Radio or Twin Cities Public Television. Both, I said. Oh, good because there is a two for one at The Heights Theater. That's how I found myself in Anoka County on Thursday night, listening to organ music waiting for the movie to start. Crossfire stars Robert Young ("Father Knows Best", "Marcus Welby, M.D.") as Investigator Finlay (not like his television roles); Robert Mitchum as Sergeant Peter Keeley; Robert Ryan in his Oscar nominated role as Montgomery and George Cooper as Corporal Arthur Mitchell. They are all characters in a well laid out mystery that took a social twist I didn't see coming. The movie is set at the end of World War II in what I believe is an East Coast city, maybe Philadelphia (Finlay references being from there) or Baltimore, and Corporal Mitchell is having a tough time. We're not exactly sure why, but his friends describe him as a gentle guy, not really the fighting type (he seemed to have a desk job), and maybe lonely for his wife. He connects with a civilian in a bar, Samuels, and his girlfriend and goes back to his apartment for a few drinks. Hanging out with Mitchell are Montgomery, Leroy and Floyd. Montgomery and Floyd force themselves into the party. It opens with a man being murdered and is told in flashbacks, but with the different characters' perspective. I just saw Mitchum in Night of the Hunter and totally expected a bad guy. I don't think it ruins anything to say not only is he NOT the bad guy, he has some of the best lines in the movie. The story follows Finlay and Keeley as they spar with one another, try to find Mitchell and figure out who the killer is and why. What unravels is that the man who was killed was killed because he was Jewish and the stain of anti-Semitism runs through the last part of the movie. Robert Ryan is totally unlikable as Montgomery, he's a bully and likes to make fun of the smaller, less assertive guys, and nothing good can come of that. He lost the Best Supporting Actor award to Edmund Gwenn in his role as Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street. It would be hard to find two more disparate roles. Coincidentally, Crossfire lost the Best Picture Oscar to Gentleman's Agreement, starring Gregory Peck, focused it's whole story on anti-Semitism. Edward Dmytryk directed and he was part of the blacklisted Hollywood Ten, who originally refused to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee. I really did like this movie and enjoyed seeing it in a classic theater like The Heights. It's a movie you have probably never heard of and I don't know if it's available from the library or anywhere, but I would recommend it.
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| Welcoming the audience to The Heights with organ music - The Heights Mighty Wurlitzer |
5/7/16 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Best Supporting Actor, National Film Registry, 1945
I had no idea what this movie was about, it was just on the list and I wanted something unfamiliar. Sometimes I think this elicits the most honest and fresh reactions. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is based on the novel of the same name by Betty Smith, and even though it was published in 1943, it is set in turn of the century Brooklyn around 1912. The main character is Francie Nolan (Peggy Ann Garner), a young girl who has aspirations and dreams and thinks the sun rises and sets on her father, Johnny Nolan (James Dunn), a singing waiter with a drinking problem. Francie and her brother, Neeley (short for Cornelius) help their long-suffering mother, Katie (Dorothy McGuire), with household expenses by collecting rags and scrounging around the neighborhood. Johnny Nolan loves his family, but he has a hard time providing for them; Katie loves her husband, and occasionally remembers back to their early days and why she fell in love with him, but she spends a lot of time resenting her husband's carefree attitude. Francie wants to go to a nicer school, one that allows her to grow, but the one she wants to attend is a long walk and requires Francie to fib about her real residence. Katie doesn't support her bookish notions, but Johnny cannot say no. Francie loves her new school and seems to thrive. Neeley and Francie graduate from their schools (not sure if it's high school, the timing wouldn't be right, but perhaps at that time, even graduating junior high school was a huge accomplishment). Even though Francie is older, Katie thought it would be good to hold her back so she could keep an eye on Neeley. Katie and Francie have an interesting mother/daughter relationship, probably not all that uncommon, and it goes through bumpy patches, and evolves into something beautiful to watch. There is no huge story line driving the narrative (no quest for gold or a ring, no grudge match, no space alien to defeat), just the story of a young girl and her family doing the best they can under occasionally very difficult circumstances. I think it was just this simplicity and the real emotions that had me in tears, completely unexpectedly. It all seemed so honest and closer to real life than say, Meet Me in St. Louis which was set in roughly the same time period. James Dunn won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and young Peggy Garner won the Juvenile Oscar (it's not really clear if it is for this film or all her work that year), they were both wonderful, but Dorothy McGuire was also very strong as Katie Nolan. Peggy Garner definitely did a lot of heavy lifting in this movie, and it's a shame that she didn't have a more successful career as an adult. This isn't one of those family movies that you watch and laugh, but it's a family film in the way that "Little House on the Prairie" was a family TV show - there's no swearing, no nudity, sex or violence which makes it appropriate for all ages, and gives a family something to discuss. I think it would have been a good movie to watch with my dad, and I'm surprised he didn't bring that up when I was younger. I encourage you to check out this movie.
