SOLDIER IN THE RAIN (1963) Allied Artists. Director : Ralph Nelson.

Aside from having the elements aforementioned, this gentle-hearted film contain one of the most brutal and sadistic fight scenes ever witnessed "until that time." McQueen staged it for director Ralph Nelson. Kudos to film editor Ralph Winters, Co-fighters Ed Nelson ans Lew Gallo, And the Blake Edwards and Maurice Richlin screenplay.


The releasing company, ALLIED ARTISTS (formerly Monogram Pictures) was one of the small independent studios of the 50's and early 60's to release a great percentage of great films which still are watched today. FRIENDLY PERSUASION,  55 DAYS AT PEKING, EL CID, THE BIG CIRCUS...Etc. Also the films of Roger Corman like NOT OF THIS EARTH (finally given a a DVD release after years of having the horrid remake with Traci Lords out there), Caltiki, the Immortal Monster (1960 Riccardo Freda & Mario Bava, only from Italy and letterboxed on an out of print Italian DVD) and others.

SOLDIER IN THE RAIN (1963) Allied Artists. Director : Ralph Nelson.

There can be little doubt that this still largely unknown little film is one of the most moving I have ever seen...Whenever I mention it to people they are first of all surprised to know that there's a film Starring Steve McQueen, Jackie Gleason and Tuesday Weld that they haven't seen or heard of, OR if they HAVE SEEN IT,  the memory of it has stayed with them throughout the years.


Where can I begin....what starts out as if it's going to be in a typical service comedy in the vein of a NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS goes in distinctly different and off beat directions. The plot is not as important in this film as are the CHARACTERS, their relationships to each other and the numerous subtle touches from the entire cast and all concerned in making the film. Not mention the bittersweet feelings generated that are peculiar to this film which is totally UNLIKE any other...and for all these reasons and the contributions I will enumerate below is my own personal top favorite film. All the other films I have cited in this blog, in one way or another have already been written about extensively elsewhere and have become universally recognized in varying degrees as classics. Beyond one appreciation in AMERICAN DIRECTORS (edited by Jean-Pierre Corsodon in the 80's) I have never seen that happen with THIS film, "surely far and away the best film Ralph Nelson ever signed as a director," I believe was the quote in the monograph in the aforementioned book.


His direction here is almost totally out of character with the rest of his oervre. The other films of his that I still like include REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT, LILIES OF THE FIELD, DUEL AT DIABLO, ONCE A THIEF, CHARLY, FLIGHT OF THE DOVES and THE WRATH OF GOD and less so SOLDIER BLUE which is hampered by excessive violence and a truly terrible pair of performances from Candice Bergen and Peter Strauss . Other films include his only sci-fi/horror title EMBRYO (which so little is thought of that only has had public domain releases from horrible pan and scan prints). The IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT clone ."..tick...tick...tick" with a great cast given little to do (including George Kennedy, Frederic March and Jim Brown), FATHER GOOSE (with Cary Grant and Leslie Caron and Cy Coleman's amateurish score), and THE WILBY CONSPIRACY.
This film almost universally dismissed as a service comedy gone awry (admittedly true...because the service comedy is a mere pretext for something much better) needs to be seen by more people who I'm sure would be similarly affected if they'd seen it.  I must make mention of the contributions of DP Philip A. Lathrop who's cinematography has always been underrated and one of Henry Mancini's finest scores which UNFORTUNATELY in it's CURRENT video incarnation is severely altered from the main title sequences musical substitution. (more below).

The ORIGINAL video release of this title from ALLIED ARTISTS video in the earliest days of VHS contained the original score INTACT. There is possibly the MOST HAUNTING and SOMBER piece of music he ever wrote, that was the main title and it's absence is achingly missed. It is a trumpet lead (perfectly chosen as the lead instrument for the melody which foreshadows the later sadness in the film) which is over a primary chord of the minor ninth which is AUTOMATICALLY gonna hit one instinctively to the heart. Additionally the harmonic movement behind the melody is unlike anything I have ever heard anywhere else. 

The current WARNER VIDEO ARCHIVE collection DVD contains what is a television reissue print struck sometime in the eighties after the video release. It was reissued by 20th Century Fox's subsidiary VHS label by KEY VIDEO with a LORIMAR sub-ownership and I have no idea which print this was. But chances are it is the same reissue print with the substituted main title music because I have seen this print on televison with that LORIMAR LOGO and every subsequent issue of the film has been this way. I have never understood what could be behind this. It can't have been a "rights" problem, as is often the case because the rest of Mancini's score is in place. Let me be more specific. The piece of music that has been substituted is from later in the body of the film. On one of Mancini's RCA compilations of themes, the cue itself is entitled "Bird Brain." It is much more typical of a comic film in substance, tone and effect than the original piece which is much better for any number of reasons even INHERENTLY better. Hopefully I am not boring you all with this but for those who have seen the film and DO LOVE IT this can only be some corporate a**hole that decided the film needed to have a "jokier" musical opening and axed Mancini's original theme  as "too sad"and replaced it with the cue as I've just described. I am being kind when I tell you I would like to tar and feather this cretin whoever he/she may be. This music was so distinctive to the experience (and inherently marvelous on it's own) that only someone with no sensitivity could have done such damage in thinking "they know better" than the filmakers who originally made the film.


Every subsequent telecast (including on TCM, along with FOX MOVIE CLASSICS the last bastions of respectful film broadcast on cable) has been with this unforgivable alteration. I had posted this lamentable fact on TCM's Message board after it was last telecast and it was abruptly gone the following day! All this controversy notwithstanding, PLEASE TRACK THE FILM DOWN and SEE it. It is a truly amazing little film. And as usual reading is cool, but post if you so desire, to this blog...I'D LOVE TO HEAR from people who have seen these films and appreciate them too. Or even if you hate them for whatever reasons.

Another favorite film that isn't generally well thought of....

GARDEN OF EVIL (1954, 20th Century Fox) Director: Henry Hatahway...(or as he was better known "The Toughest sonavabitch in Hollywood with the possible exception of Otto Preminger who LOVED TO SHOUT and belittle his actors).

This may strike most everyone as an odd choice to list which is why I picked it. It has a great cast; Gary Cooper, Richard Widmark, Cameron Mitchell, Hugh Marlowe and Rita Moreno years before fame in West Side Story....AND Susan Hayward for who the score may be as great a one as it is. It almost single handedly makes everything on the screen seem much more than it is. Of course it is the work of Bernard Herrmann. And although not generally known for Westerns (he DID do another a year later for Burt Lancaster's only directed film "THE KENTUCKIAN") this is not your normal everyday western anyway. Give it a look either on DVD or on Fox Movie Channel WIDESCREEN Cinemascope ONLY PLEASE. Milton Krasner's scope images are wonderful! See if this doesn't stay with you.Will post more later.

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Antichrist the movie: morphing the blog to something more inclusive...ALL FILM FANATICS UNITE!

All of this under the heading of ANTICHRIST: The MOVIE was intended as an experiment in blogging to which I am totally new. If you want to read about those films which have affected me most deeply throughout my life, whether by and single element (acting, direction, screewriting, cinematography, scoring, special effects, etc., READ ON! I promise a few things. Not to bore you silly with "pre-fab" film critics pretentions, discussions of esoteric and anyodyne directorial florishes which ultimately mean nothing, films so obscure that NO ONE beyond the cognoscenti has seen them, and worst of all well-meaning but ultimately UNREWARDING talk of enuii and the MTV stle of editing which infests todays' so called movies to the point of distraction from ALL else. It's like watching a visual SLEDGE HAMMER aimed at one's eyes without relief!
So let's start with an ad hoc favorite film list....NIGHT AND THE CITY (Jules Dassin's 1950 20th Century Fox) Classic film noir with Richard Widmark {in the performance of his career} Gene Tierney, Herbert Lom. Stanislaus Zbyszko, Googie Withers, Hugh Marlowe, Mike Mazurki. As EXPRESSIONISTIC AND AFFECTING as they come. 
SOME CAME RUNNING (Vincente Minnelli, 1958, MGM) Minnelli's flair for artisitc and decorative flourish is at it's most inspired peak here, as are truly underrated performances by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin (what a shock THIS MUST HAVE BEEN AT THE IME), Shirley MacLaine, Martha Hyer, Arthur Kennedy (the last 3 all Oscar nominated). William Daniels superb cinematography (Sinatra's long association with him began here...witness the number of films thereafter he associate produced with Sinatra), Elmer Bernstein's grandly romantic and original score, and the fine script by Cy Howard. And so damned entertaining!
FORBIDDEN PLANET(Fred MacLeod Wilcox, 1956 MGM)...Yes I know...Old school to todays' cretinous MTV style film viewers but still an astoundingly inventive sci-fi twist on Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST with Leslie Nielsen at his most square-jawed, Anne Francis at her pre-HONEY WEST sexiest, Walter Pidgeon at his most charismatic and unknowingly evil villainous best. With Art Direction and Special Effects beyond anything imagined at the time, and of course the ELECTRONIC TONALITIES of LOUIS AND BEBE BARRON, very much in the style of Karlheinz Stochausen's CONTACTE. GROUND BREAKING and still influential. STAR TREK would NEVER have existed without it. 
FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION; JAILHOUSE 41. (1972, TOEI Studios, Shunya Ito)...The most visually inventive and stylish film from the Japanese at that time in the low-rent exploitation film genre. A simple revenge story becomes a tour de force through sheer inspired invention of direction, cinematography and performances. If you never see another Japanese film see this one to know where Quentin Tarantino's KILL BILL 1 and 2 were REALLY COMING FROM!

TOYS IN THE ATTIC (1963, Geroge Roy Hill, United Artists). The single best Lillian Hellman adaption on the screen woefully trounced at the time critically. The film is continually wonderful and packed with great performances and direction. Geraldine Page may overdue the "tics" that were part of her acting style all her life but she is just wonderful in this part of the sister who sercetly harbors feelings of incest for her brother (Dean Martin)....Dean Martin...what to say of him. He was a "limited actor"...Yeah RIGHT! That's what Some Came Running, Rio Bravo, Kiss Me Stupid and this film are just great...His roles in all of the aformenetioned films plus ROUGH NIGHT IN JERICHO (Arnold Laven's 1967, Universal western where he plays the nastiest role of his career) are just PERFECT performances. The Panavision cinematgraphy of Joseph Biroc (who
worked most often with director Robert Aldrich) is superb in it's use of the frame. And George Roy Hill's direction is commited and consistantly so far and away above his later films like BUTCH CASSIDY and THE STING that it doesn't look like the work of the same man. A stellar score from George Duning rounds out a great movie. And although attacked at the time for this it IS NOT WATERED DOWN! The incest angle is very explicit but subtle.

TOUCH OF EVIL (1958, Universal-International, Orson Welles) Entirely possible NOW that Welles' universally admired classic and ground breaking masterpiece CITIZEN KANE has overstayed it's welcome due to simple overexposure and imitation, and that this even MORE baroque masterpiece is more entertaining, more inventively directed, and more instinctively involving. Wonderful perfomances from Charlton Heston (way better than he was in his same year Oscar winning performance in Ben-Hur), Janet Leigh (so sexy and yet so unthreateningly so in this), Akim Tamiroff as a sleazy Mexican villain, Mercedes McCambridge as a lesbian druggie, and best of all Dennis Weaver as the precursor to Anthony Perkins in Hitchcock's PSYCHO, as a mentally "challenged" sex-obesssed but REpressed hotel "night man." Scary, frightening and hilarious often at the same time gotta wonder how he managed to play such straight roles for most of his career. With the boomshot from hell opening of cinematographer Russell Metty this is an astounding piece of work.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968, Paramount, Sergio Leone) What a cast (Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Jr., Claudia Cardinale and Henry Fonda who was Leone's FAVORITE actor cast as the worst of all possible villains...hell he shoots kids!), what direction (Leone), cinematography (Tonino Delli Colli, in Techniscope), and possible the very APEX of achievement in film composition as Ennio Morricone (who is without a doubt the most prolific and inspired and  consistent composer in film history {more than 500 scores!!}. Score composed BEFORE the film was SHOT. Name me one of todays' corporate directorial a**-lickers who could do this and have a composer of this accomplishment take on the project. A financial flop here and subject to drastic recutting over the years due to this...(SEE Tim Lucas' Video Watchdog back issues for the complete story). For me it is just the finest Western ever made.

 Could go on with a few other titles and will before long. ALL POSTS ARE WELCOME HERE and SO are recommendations disagreements etc. My blog is your blog!