Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

As different eras and time periods pass, highly successful genres in Hollywood find ways to stay fresh, changing with the new times. Almost always though, there's a common tie, some link to what originally made the genre successful with audiences. Take science fiction. It is a genre that has been aided by the invention of all sorts of new technology, especially CGI. But what's the best time period for the genre? I'll watch a sci-fi flick from any decade, any time period, but for me, the genre was at its absolute strongest in the 1950s. I caught up with one classic I'd never seen before, 1956's Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Returning to his home in Santa Mira, California, after attending a two-week convention, Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) is alarmed by the amount of requests he receives from patients upon his return. Several people are complaining that their loved ones seem a little off, that the people they've known all their lives simply aren't themselves. Bennell looks into it a bit but doesn't think much of it....at first. A friend and neighbor (King Donovan) has found what he believes to be a dead body that somewhat resembles him but without any distinctive features or fingerprints to identify him. With a longtime crush and recent divorcee Becky (Dana Wynter) at his side, Bennell starts to investigate and is stunned by what he finds. Some sort of extraterrestrial race is in fact replacing human beings with almost duplicate versions of themselves, but eliminating emotion in the process. Can Bennell figure out how to stop the rapidly reproducing duplicates in time?

The 1950s were packed to the gills with everything from Forbidden Planet to The Day the Earth Stood Still, It Came From Outer Space to The Thing. As far as comparisons go, 'Invasion' is interesting because of some similarities with 1951's The Thing, but also how it impacted John Carpenter's The Thing remake. From Don Siegel, this 1956 sci-fi creeper is a gem. Based on a serial that ran in Collier's Magazine, it is smart, well-written and scary without having to resort to obvious GOTCHA! scares and thrills. Filmed in black and white, it is subtle and unsettling, Siegel using his camera in a variety of different angles, POV, and tracking shots. The shadowy black and white works well, almost like a sci-fi film noir, building that sensation of impending doom expertly. We know something isn't quite right, but what is it exactly?

An obvious influence on Siegel's film is rather timely for a 1950s audience, but now in 2013, it's easier to keep it in perspective. With McCarthyism and a Red Scare permeating the United States, Americans were worried about an ever-constant threat of Commies and Reds affecting an American way of life. What better way to translate that than in a story of a mysterious alien race that secretly and covertly tries to change who you are? The end result? An eerily similar version of what you used to be, but not quite spot-on. Now, we can look back on that secondary layer to the story and see it for what it is. I wonder if 1950s audiences picked up on it. Regardless, Siegel and the script don't overdo that angle. It is underplayed, just another subtle layer to the scares.

A really solid character actor who never quite became a huge star, McCarthy is a great lead here as Dr. Miles Bennell, a likable, smart and smooth doctor who questions things as much as anyone. But something that's hard to explain like this? How could people literally be replaced without anyone else noticing? McCarthy does a good job showing that slow burn as he figures out exactly what's going on, from a doctor who thinks things out to a man who appears unhinged when he learns the truth. Avoiding just being the pretty face along for the ride, Wynter more than holds her own as the female lead. The rest of the cast is lesser known actors, the ensemble as a whole doing a pretty cool job. Larry Gates plays a similarly questioning psychiatrist who Miles seeks out for help, Donovan and future Morticia Adams Carolyn Jones as Jack and Teddy, a couple who finds a suspicious body, Jean Willes as Miles' nurse Sally, and even future director Sam Peckinpah as Charlie, one of the townspeople affected by the quasi-alien invasion.

There really isn't a weak moment in the film, but with an 80-minute running time, things really pick up about the 35 or 40-minute mark. We start to learn what's really going on, and unlike most sci-fi movies that feature a twist, this one works. Sometimes films try so hard to really throw you for a loop that the twist comes across as laughable. Not the case here thankfully. Besides, even if you don't buy the twist/explanation, the final 30 minutes are so fast-paced you won't even notice. Siegel's camera work (including some cool tracking shots from a distance) and a race for survival provide some ridiculously tense moments. The ending is a little weak, Siegel being forced to film a prologue and epilogue (featuring uncredited Whit Bissell and Richard Deacon) that starts off well enough but ends up weakening the possible darkness of his original ending. Still a classic, still well worth tracking down.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956): ****/****

Twilight Zone: The Movie

Airing for five seasons on CBS between 1959 and 1964, The Twilight Zone is one of the all-time great television shows. A mix of horror, science fiction, paranormal and all sorts of wackiness, almost all the episodes were able to deliver some shocker/twist in the end. It's been revived several times in TV reboots, and even received a big screen adaptation, the much-maligned 1983 Twilight Zone: The Movie, a film shrouded in controversy even before its release.

The story is broken down into four separate segments, including a prologue. The first segment follows Bill Connor (Vic Morrow), a despicably racist middle-aged man who finds himself in a variety of different situations where he's the one being prejudiced against. The second takes place at a retirement home where one of the residents, Mr. Bloom (Scatman Crothers) offers his fellow residents a chance at a new life of sorts. In the third, a young woman, a teacher, Helen (Kathleen Quinlan), is on a road trip west when she meets Anthony (Jeremy Licht) with a strange hold and ability to control his family. And last, John Valentine (John Lithgow), a man who hates flying, is on a cross-country flight and struggling mightily as the plane flies through a storm. Looking out the window, Valentine is absolutely convinced that something is out on the wing, tearing up the engine. No one else on board sees it though. Is he nuts?

I loved the original Twilight Zone episodes from creator/writer Rod Serling so I went into this movie with some at least modest expectations. As a result, I was more than a little worried as I watched the prologue, two men (Albert Brooks and Dan Aykroyd) driving at night on a road trip out in the desert. The tone was okay -- feeling like a set-up -- if a little odd, but a really stupid twist (supposedly a shocker?) comes completely out of left field. If it was supposed to be a shocker, it came across as laughable. Thankfully, it wasn't a complete harbinger of what was to come. For the most part, the movie does what it's supposed to do. It's creepy, unsettling and plays like a tribute to the original show. Is it perfect? No, not at all. Of the four segments, one is really good, two only good, and one really bad.

Beyond the actual movie, 'Zone' is known for a horrific accident that claimed the lives of three cast members on-set, including star Vic Morrow. Filming the movie's opening segment, Morrow and two child actors were killed when a helicopter crashed onto them after several explosions sent the helicopter out of control. There is actually some horrifically brutal footage of the accident via Youtube if you're curious. It's sickening stuff. The accident put the film in limbo, producers and the studio debating whether to continue with the film. The first segment's director, John Landis, took a ton of heat for the accident (understandably so), even getting through a lawsuit that ruled no one was at fault for the accident. With absolutely no disrespect meant to Morrow or the two child actors, a cloud hung over the film's production and eventual release. The opening segment with Morrow is one of the "only good" segments, but it's difficult to watch it without thinking about what actually happened in bringing this portion of the film to life.

Almost as a novelty, the four segments were divided by four different directors, Landis, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante and George Miller. The odd part? Spielberg -- the most accomplished of the four by far -- delivers the weakest segment of the film by far. Apparently Spielberg was greatly affected by Morrow's death and debated even continuing the film. He did stick with it, but biographies claim the director just mailed in the effort, and it shows. While Crothers does a good job in his part, the segment plays like a happy go-lucky after school special. In other words? Nothing like the best Twilight Zone episodes, not even the average ones. Directing the prologue and the opening portion, Landis' parts are hit or miss. The Morrow story is good, but it had to be edited on the fly following Morrow's death. The end result is a rather abrupt ending.

Thankfully, the final two portions make up for the somewhat slow start. The Joe Dante portion is based off a Zone episode titled 'It's a Good Life' with the original star, Bill Mumy, making a quick appearance. Quinlan does a fine job as Helen, the young teacher thrust into something she can't even comprehend at first. 12-year old Licht is incredibly creepy as young Anthony, a boy with special powers. Also look for Kevin McCarthy and William Schallert in key parts. The highlight though is George Miller's segment, based off maybe the most well known and classic Twilight Zone episode ever, 'Nightmare at 20,000 Feet' starring William Shatner. Lithgow's performance as an obsessed, possibly paranoid airline passenger is the best performance in the entire movie. It is a truly unsettling segment, also delivering the biggest and best twist of all the four stories.

In the end, the TV show turned movie is a mixed bag. More than a movie that stands on its own, it plays like a tribute without a whole lot originality. Wrapping up at just 101 minutes, it covers a whole lot of ground. Could 15-20 more minutes have aided the cause? Maybe not, but it couldn't have hurt. Also listen for Burgess Meredith as the narrator, transitioning from story to story and keeping us mildly informed....as much as the Twilight Zone will allow!!! Imagine a dun-dun-duh!!! at the end of that statement.

Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983): ** 1/2 /****

Drive a Crooked Road

Thanks to a heavy day of programming in late December with movies I'm interested in, I've been on Mickey Rooney overload over the last week or so. That's not a bad thing because as I've pointed out in recent reviews, he's one of my favorite character actors once he grew up into an adult actor.  The latest Rooney flick I reviewed, My Outlaw Brother, wasn't a great showcase for his abilities, but an unknown noir that's slipped through the cracks over the years, 1954's Drive a Crooked Road, certainly does. 

There's nothing about Rooney that upon looking at him screams 'I'm a movie star!' He stood only 5'3 and wasn't a classically handsome guy.  For me though, that's part of his appeal.  He was the anti-star who overcame an early career as a child star to become an adult star.  In this age of failed celebrities, how rare does that actually happen?  He was capable of humor (Mad, Mad World), drama, action, and combinations of the three like his parts in Ambush Bay or The Secret Invasion where he got to ham it up with scenery-chewing parts.  Of all the Rooney roles I've seen though, 'Crooked Road' may be the best.

Working as a mechanic in a Los Angeles garage, Eddie Shannon (Rooney) leads a quiet life.  He rents a small apartment and lives alone, sometimes entering road races on the weekend for some extra cash.  Eddie has a scar across his forehead from an incident in his past, one that clearly troubles him as he goes through his lonely life.  One day, he meets the very beautiful Barbara (Dianne Foster) when she brings her car into the garage Eddie works at.  He can't explain it, but for some reason Barbara is interested in him, and they start seeing each other.  It all seems too good to be true, and it is.  After several weeks, Barbara introduces him to two friends of hers, Steve (Kevin McCarthy) and Harold (Jack Kelly) who have a business proposition for him. Steve has planned the perfect robbery, and all he needs is a skilled driver for the getaway. Torn about what to do, Eddie balances out his feelings for Barbara with the knowledge he's going down a road he can't return on.

If you're not familiar with Rooney or any of his roles, or you are familiar with him and didn't think much of him as an actor, check this movie out.  As Foster's Barbara describes Rooney's Eddie, he is a 'lonely, little animal' who is just looking for some sort of happiness.  His facial scar is left unexplained for the most part other than a throwaway line explaining it was 'part of a car accident.' Maybe that line is truthful, but there is something more to it that we never find out about it.  Was someone else in the car with him, someone he cared or loved about very much?  His Eddie Shannon character doesn't have a mean bone in his body, going about his business quietly even as co-workers (including Jerry Paris, Paul Picerni, Harry Landers and Dick Crockett) poke fun at him.   

What takes this character to another level is his relationship with the very pretty Barbara, someone he clicks with right away.  You can tell through his interactions that he's somewhat skeptical about the developments.  He's burn hurt in the past somehow and isn't quite ready to open up to someone new, even if he does have strong feelings for her.  The tragic character description comes through when Barbara introduces him to Steve and Harold, and you start to question what her motives were all along.  Was it as a favor to old friend Steve, or at any point were there genuine feelings involved?  Pushed too far and already head over heels, Eddie continues because he genuinely cares for her and thinks this is what she wants him to do. Rooney does a fabulous job bringing this character to life, a vulnerable but kind-hearted man just looking for some sort of normalcy, some sort of happiness. He sees his shot -- however slim -- in getting to that point in a relationship doomed from the start.

Something appealed to me about this movie that I can't quite put my finger on, even now a day after finishing it.  Director Richard Quine doesn't do anything too spectacular here, nothing out of left field, but everything from casting to locations to story is handled professionally and capably.  The movie is shot in black and white giving the Los Angeles locations an old nostalgic feel of a time long since passed.  Foster is the femme fatale, the female character you're just not sure of.  She seems perfect early on, basically the ideal woman even though later we find out everything isn't as it seems.  McCarthy plays the impossibly smooth friend/crook who gets Eddie involved in the heist while Kelly plays his partner and heavy doomed to meet a nasty fate.  The heist itself is nothing special and is more of a vehicle to the end than anything else although Eddie's getaway across a desert road is a highlight.

So what worked so well?  All the little pieces add up nicely, but the selling point here is Mickey Rooney.  With a B-movie, a noir like this, I think it would have been hard for Rooney to get anything in the way of recognition from the Academy Awards, but I feel safe saying he certainly deserved a nomination here.  It's an understated performance that doesn't get caught up in theatrics, and credit to Rooney for that.  Like many heist/robbery movies, the heist is actually the easy part, it's the fallout that causes the problems.  It's there where the movie goes into tragic territory. A great part, a moving, heart-breaking ending, and a movie that has been wrongfully forgotten in the years since.

Drive a Crooked Road <---TCM trailer (1954): ****/**** 

A Big Hand for the Little Lady

I looked this up to be sure -- thanks, Wikipedia -- but the game of poker has been around since the 15th Century in different forms.  It's always been there, but since online gambling became so popular and ESPN's World Series of Poker has been put on TV seemingly around the clock, poker (especially Texas Hold 'Em) has experienced a rebirth, a rejuvenation over the last 10 years or so.  Watching a card game wouldn't appear to be the most exciting thing, but 1966's A Big Hand for the Little Lady proves otherwise, among other movies like The Sting, The Cincinnati Kid, and Rounders.

This is a comedy western -- typically not my favorite thing -- that keeps the humor pretty low-key with almost all of the focus on one specific card game and its development.  The story is almost exclusively in one location, the back room of a saloon, with a few quick detours outside for more money or booze.  I'm not comparing it to 12 Angry Men as a whole, but in terms of storytelling it is very similar with the jury room changed to a saloon's back room.  I was really enjoying the movie for the first 80 minutes, and then it happened.  The movie phenomena known as....THE UNNECESSARY TWIST!  More on that later.

Riding into Laredo, a husband and wife, Meredith (Henry Fonda) and Mary (Joanne Woodward) with their son must stop for repairs on their wagon.  They're bound for San Antonio and the 40 acres they've purchased to live on.  Stopping at the saloon, Meredith hears about a high-stakes poker game going on in the back room.  Each year, five local businessmen lock themselves away and play until someone takes all the winnings.  Meredith asks if he can sit in and quickly changes his mind, thinking he could win the game judging by the players' abilities.  But his luck is not so good, and he has to use all the money the family's saved.  Then, his luck turns.  He gets the hand of a lifetime, but in the excitement of the hand, a heart attack incapacitates him.  Who can finish out the hand for him, even with a lack of funds?  Why his wife of course.

This western has the look and feel of a TV western that's entirely set on a western town set, like Gunsmoke or Bonanza.  The visual look of 'Big Hand' isn't very important though because the focus is on this poorly lit, smoky backroom where the annual card game is played out.  The five players are all recognizable faces if not huge stars and are clearly the highlight of the movie.  They include Henry Drummond (Jason Robards), a cantankerous land owner, Benson Trop (Charles Bickford), the woman-hating undertaker, Otto Habershaw (Kevin McCarthy), the educated lawyer, Dennis Wilcox (Robert Middleton), the ranch owner, and Jesse Buford (John Qualen), the cheapskate cattle baron.  The quintet has a history and a background that comes from 16 years of playing that comes across perfectly.  Robards' Drummond walked out on his daughter's slow-moving wedding to play, and McCarthy's Otto bailed on a court case where his defendant could hang.  Little touches make these characters work.

Later in his career, Fonda veered into playing darker characters, straight villains like Once Upon a Time in the West, or even deeply flawed people, like here or in The Rounders.  His Meredith has a gambling background -- an addiction to poker is hinted at -- and he can't ignore the allure of this high-stakes game.  Woodward is the angelic wife who trusts her husband implicitly even when he's made such a backslide into the life he promised he would avoid.  As he fights through a heart attack, he tells her to play out the hand.  Mary has never played poker in her life, but when Meredith tells her it is the hand of a lifetime, she trusts him.  The only problem? They're out of money so she turns to the town banker C.P. Ballinger (Paul Ford) while the town doctor (Burgess Meredith) tends to her husband.

And then there was the twist, revealed about 80 minutes into the movie but not about to be revealed here.  Looking back, I can't remember any hints of what's to come so I guess that's a testament to the twist working so well.  Maybe unlike so many other twist/revelation storylines, we're not supposed to have any inkling.  But it is such a departure from the humor of the story up to that point, it feels completely unnecessary and for me, wasted any goodwill the majority of the movie had racked up.  If that wasn't bad enough, there's about 15 minutes more after the twist is revealed that drags on and on.  Not only was I disappointed in the direction the story took, I've got to endure scenes that serve no real purpose.  Pass on that.

It's all too bad because with the cast and their impressive talents -- especially Robards and McCarthy -- this comedic western had a chance to do something great.  I was actually angry at the twist reveal.  Not because it didn't work, the story has no plot holes and looking back everything worked.  It is because the twist is stupid and unnecessary for a movie with a good story.  I would have ended the movie at the end of the poker game and been done with it instead of sitting through almost 20 more minutes of movie.  I couldn't find a trailer so the link below is a TCM-provided clip.

A Big Hand for the Little Lady <----clips (1966): **/****