The Man Inside

One of Britain's great character actors, Anthony Newley was honored on Turner Classic Movies recently with a day devoted to his films.  A familiar face who often play sidekicks and partners to the star, Newley was always a welcome face when I stumbled upon him in cast listings. While he provides some odd yet still funny comedic timing in 1958's The Man Inside, even Newley and an impressive cast can't save the movie.

Having planned the robbery for 15 years, Englishman Sam Carter (Nigel Patrick) walks into a diamond exchange in New York City and steals a diamond worth over $700,000.  The success comes from the simplicity of the job, and now no one -- including the police -- know where to start looking for Carter or the diamond. Milo March (Jack Palance), a private detective, is called in to see what he can find trying to pick up the crook's trail. March finds himself globe-trotting, following Carter to Lisbon, Madrid, Paris and London, always one step behind him. He keeps running into a mysterious Austrian woman (Anita Ekberg) who similarly has an interest in acquiring the diamond, and that's not all. Some very bad, very hard men don't care who gets hurt as they search for the rare diamond.

As I found out afterward, 'Inside' is not available on VHS or DVD so I was glad to stumble across it on TCM's schedule. It's nothing special and drifts along with its story more than a pointed, driven effort. Still, director John Gilling keeps it interesting if not always hugely entertaining. There are villains, but the type you assume will never successfully hurt a good guy. Said good guys betray each other, but you know they'll end up working together in the end. Part film noir, heist, and European tour guide, 'Inside' never really decides what it is. Drama? Comedy? Never great and never awful, decent enough way to spend 97 minutes.

Newley didn't get a mention in the plot review because like a lot of sidekicks, his part isn't essential to the story. The very British Newley plays the very Italian Ernesto, a taxi driver and guide in Madrid who meets Palance's March and ends up helping him around the city. He plays surprisingly well off the always intense Palance, providing some lighter moments with some running comedic bits that just shouldn't work, but well, they end up working. It's a good supporting part for Mr. Newley who always seems to be having fun no matter the role he plays.

It always feels like a cop-out when I write about this in a review, devoting an entire paragraph to this particular aspect, but as was the case here in 'Inside' it is really good. Yes, here I go again with on-location shooting, Gilling filming much of his movie in Lisbon, Madrid and Paris. Filmed in a very stylish black and white, this very visual movie helped me as a viewer slog through some of the slower portions. And while it sounds obvious, a movie is just better when you see the actors actually in the locations, not a poorly done green screen effect. It's always pretty clear when the actor isn't actually in those glamorous European cities. To some, maybe it's a little thing, but it's a major selling point for me, and 'Inside' doesn't disappoint on that level.

The good and bad here is that the cast assembled is a good one, but they're not always given anything to do. Lots of travel scenes, lots of pointless talking that waste an otherwise talented cast. Palance's March is a step back from his usual psychotic character he perfected over his career. Still intense, but pulled back a notch or two. Human Barbie doll Ekberg is the femme fatale, playing all sides for her own gain. Patrick is the shifty Carter, the diamond thief who we know little about. Some more background would have been nice about the character, his motivations, his reasoning, something. Also look for Donald Pleasance as a Spanish organ grinder, Sid James as March's friend and supervisor Franklin, and Bonar Colleano and Sean Kelly as two hired guns after the diamond.   

All things considered, a pretty forgettable movie. The cast is above average though, and it's a great movie to look at so there's just enough to recommend here. Barely, but still recommending it.

The Man Inside (1958): **/****

Zarak

When I think of Victor Mature, I think of a lot of different things. I think of his far from accurate but highly enjoyable performance of Doc Holliday in John Ford's My Darling Clementine. I think of an accurate who was most at home in big pictures, historical and biblical epics where his on-screen presence was given a chance to shine. His biggest successes though came in the late 1940s and early 1950s so by the second half of the decade he was taking movies that just aren't that good, including 1956's Zarak.

There I go again contradicting myself, saying Mature was most comfortable in historical epics -- The Robe, Samson and Delilah, Demetrius and the Gladiators -- which he usually was. This qualifies then as a quasi-epic...I guess.  It certainly has some impressive scale with a considerable budget spent filling out a cast of thousands (okay, maybe a couple hundred), but Zarak is such an obviously over the top attempt at an epic that it doesn't quite work. The scale is there, but at the sacrifice of story and character if that means anything to you. The best epics, the ones that stand the test of time are those that blend all three. Maybe it isn't fair to judge Zarak on that level because it doesn't aspire to be a classic, but some effort would have been appreciated.

The eldest son of an Afghan chieftain in the 1860s, Zarak (Mature) is caught kissing Salma (Anita Ekberg), his father's favorite and most beautiful wife. Instead of killing him for the betrayal, his father banishes him, forcing him to leave the tribe where he quickly becomes a notorious outlaw who becomes a huge thorn in the side of the country's British rulers.  His gang of bandits continues to grow until finally a high-ranking, highly respected British officer, Major Ingram (Michael Wilding), is called in to deal with the issue. Zarak thinks little of the new challenge, joining forces with a powerful chief, Ahmad (Peter Illing), to take the attack to the British. All the infamous bandit's plans may go for naught though as betrayal lies around every corner as the bounty on his head increases with his growing notoriety.

Because I'm a fan of Mature, let's start there. A role is a role, especially when your star isn't as bright as it once was.  A few years later in 1961, he would play a Viking, but this is one of the oddest choices I've seen. A very Italian looking Mature playing a young Afghan warrior/prince? It just doesn't work. That's the least of the problems here. The script never really decides what it wants to do with this character. Is he a wrongfully punished and banished son looking for redemption and forgiveness? Is he the notorious, murdering bandit he's made out to be? Is he both? Whoo, lots of questions, none of which are answered when they really need to be. As a viewer, I don't mind figuring things out for myself, but some help is appreciated. The movie needed to make a stance on this character and to whether we should side with him or against him. You can only chalk up so much of the blame to Mr. Mature.

Physical differences aside, Mature's acting is the least of the movie's problems. Swedish beauty Ekberg, God bless her little heart, was one beautiful woman, but she just could not act. Her character also does a two or three minute stripper's routine, even grinding on a pole and two lucky court attendants and is usually in various stages of undress.  Check out part of her dance routine HERE. Like Mature, she doesn't exactly look like a woman who lived in 1860s Afghanistan with her immaculate hair and make-up. Her scenes that require acting and not sexy dancing fall far short too. The rest of the cast is okay if underused or underutilized. Wilding is dull as Major Ingram, Eunice Gayson unnecessary as Ingram's wife, Bonar Colleano and Eddie Byrne not used enough as Zarak's treacherous brothers, and Bernard Miles making the most of a smaller part as the loyal Hassu, Zarak's right hand man. Look for a young Patrick McGoohan as a British officer in Ingram's command, making an early appearance in one of his first speaking film roles.

Director Terence Young -- later of the early James Bond films -- does not skimp on the scale of this attempted epic filmed in Morocco.  The battle sequences are just that; epic, with hundreds of riders and soldiers doing battle on the Moroccan/Afghan landscape.  For an otherwise moderately budgeted movie, the battles are well choreographed and don't disappoint. But in his zest for scale, Young goes overboard. His movie is just 99 minutes long, and I watched it in a little over an hour. Thank you fast forward button. Repeated scenes of a long column of riders making their way across the land is impressive the first two or three times before it quickly gets tedious. The actual story is so disjointed and all over the place that I wondered what had happened to put characters in these spots (I'm sure the fast forwarding had something to do with it). Young wants to 'Wow!' you with the scale of Zarak, but it comes at an expense.

For all the big, sweeping shots accompanied by composer William Alwyn's obnoxious, blaring and overbearing score, there are quick shots to clear examples of indoor studio shots. One second a stand-in is attacking a rider in a big wide open, and then the next, Mature is in a studio pulling someone off a horse. Painfully obvious, and one of my biggest pet peeves. Nowhere is it more evident than the ending, Mature's mysterious and still undecided folk hero/mythical bandit deciding whether to go through with a difficult decision. The ending doesn't come as much of a surprise -- it's been telegraphed half the movie -- but not much does surprise here. Any entertaining if not particularly well made historical epic. Decent, worth a watch, but that's it.

Zarak (1956): **/****

Blood Alley

As a huge fan of John Wayne, I can still say that I didn't always agree with the man's politics.  He was a staunch Republican who didn't really care who he pissed off with his beliefs, and often enough these beliefs made their way into his films.  Some were good movies unaffected by a message delivered, like Rio Bravo, but others fall short partially because of these rather odd insertions.  In one of the more tumultuous times in American history in the 20th Century as the U.S. dealt with McCarthyism, Communists, and the Cold War, Wayne used his stardom in a handful of movies that now seem incredibly dated as they attempt to demonize Russia and Communists.

The movies range from straight propaganda like Big Jim McClain -- a movie so bad that it is good -- to others that were slightly...slightly...more subtle.  A not so thinly veiled at Communism and everything negative about it, 1955's Blood Alley isn't completely done in by the attempt, but it sure doesn't help. Lack of subtlety aside, it's just not a very good movie.  Through the 1950s maybe more than any other decade he worked in, Wayne was very much so a hit or miss star.  For every 'The Searchers' or 'Rio Bravo' there was The Conqueror where he played Genghis Khan or Jet Pilot, another dig at Russia and those clever Commies.  'Alley' certainly is a change of pace, but not a good one.

After two years in a Chinese Communist prison, ship captain Tom Wilder (Wayne) escapes with some unknown, outside help only to find he's being recruited.  A village under Communist control is seeking to escape from its life of misery, and all they can come up with is one desperate plan.  Wilder will hijack a ferry that travels up and down the rivers, transporting all 300 villagers to Hong Kong where they will be out of the grasp of the Commies.  The plan is basically suicidal, but Wilder for some reason agrees to help, maybe because of the pretty daughter (Lauren Bacall) of an American doctor working nearby.  The odds are against any sort of success on the mission, but given a crack at doing something right, Wilder takes his chance, odds be damned.

A story set in 1920s China is nothing new to movies, but one example -- a much better example -- kept coming to mind, 1966's The Sand Pebbles.  There was an epic scope, a huge cast, a worthwhile message, all working toward the same goal.  Here with Blood Alley, director William Wellman just never puts it all together although I question if all the composite elements were every really there to be molded.  There isn't so much a story as a series of scenes with Wayne and Bacall talking, followed by some efforts to obtain the ragged-looking ferry, and then an hour or so of said ferry going down the river to safety.  There's no conflict, no bad guys pursuing them, no real threat of danger so what's the point of it all?

In another case of the odd casting department, Wellman goes all out both in terms of actual casting but then how the Chinese are portrayed.  White actors Paul Fix, Mike Mazurki, and Swedish cutie Anita Ekberg all play...you guessed it, Asian characters, awful eye makeup and horrific accents included. I've asked before, and I'll probably ask again, but there weren't any Asian actors available for these laughably bad parts?  The few Asian actors actually cast, like Joy Kim as Susu, Bacall's maid, and Henry Nakamura as Tack, the ferry engineer, are definitions of what playing an Asian stereotype is in older movies.  These portrayals aren't offensive or anything of the sort, but you just feel embarrassed watching them just the same.

Wayne and Bacall would reunite a little over 20 years later in The Shootist for Wayne's last movie.  The duo showed off a perfect chemistry as the two pros played off each other like peanut butter and jelly.  Their scenes carried the movie, and it was a treat watching them do their thing.  Some 20 years earlier, that same chemistry just ain't there yet.  Wayne seems to be sleepwalking here and just doesn't deliver one of his better performances.  Bacall was as sexy as ever and is a great actress, but a poorly written part has her doing nothing but looking worried or distressed.  In The Shootist, their almost 15 year age difference wasn't an issue, but here Wayne looks much too old for the 31-yard old Bacall. There's also Wayne's address to the villagers, imploring them to think for themselves and not listen to "the old man"....cough Communism cough.  Subtle it is not, more like a sledgehammer landing.

As for winding this bad boy up, one more complaint.  With a story set in 1920s China, a fair amount of Chinese is spoken.  Makes sense to me.  No subtitles are there as the "bad Chinese navy" mumbles and screams through their lines (comic relief maybe?) or as any of the Chinese characters interact.  So on top of the long, unedited sequences of a ferry going down a river, there's also long shots of characters speaking in a language where no explanation is offered.  This is one of the few Wayne movies I'd never seen before, and I'm kinda glad it's out of the way now.  Pass on this stinker.

Blood Alley <---trailer (1955): */****