A Law Unto Themselves

Arguably one of the most scandalous narratives to come out of the pre-code era, Alfred E. Green’s notorious 1933 romantic drama Baby Face was one of the films that was so very controversial that it ended up giving the Motion Picture Production Code (Hays Code) its bite – the reigning moral guide for the next thirty plus years. With a story from Darryl F. Zanuck (yes, the powerhouse studio head of 20th Century Fox – written under his pseudonym, Mark Canfield), the story follows Lily Powers (Barbara Stanwyck), aptly described by the bawdy tagline – “she had it and made it pay”.

Ah, classic Hollywood – no, not one of those gems of yesteryear, rather, I’m talking about their love of remakes. . . specifically, A Star Is Born – this being the fourth time it has been remade (following the 1937 original starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, you have the 1954 version with Judy Garland and James Mason, then the 1976 rock musical version featuring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, and lastly, at least until this year, was the 2013 Bollywood effort led by Shraddha Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur). All sarcastic joking aside, despite this 2018 story having been reworked more times than the excuses students have tried to come up with when showing up to school without their homework, it is one of the main Academy Award hopefuls this awards season. Co-written and directed by Bradley Cooper (his first directorial effort, his co-scribes are Eric Roth – Forrest Gump, and Will Fetters), Cooper himself plays the role of Jackson Maine, a country rocker with an affinity for pill-popping, and, if you notch that up a few more levels, you’ll find his addiction to alcohol.

A unique take on the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sleuth, Billy Wilder and longtime co-writer/producer I.A.L. Diamond, take the viewer inside the reclusive world of the enigmatic detective, or as the title suggests, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Released in 1970, it was originally intended to be a three hour Road Show epic (with intermission in the middle), featuring three shorter vignettes and one larger narrative driving the story forward – sadly, the final product found only the main portion as well as one mini-segment (United Artists having a run of flops in 1969, they felt the best way to market the film was to cut it back to its present two hour, five minute runtime – Wilder’s thoughts upon seeing it, “when I came back [from Paris], it was an absolute disaster, the way it was cut. The whole prologue was cut, a half-sequence was cut. I had tears in my eyes as I looked at the thing. It was the most elegant picture I’ve ever shot.”).

Imagine the scenario: a striking woman gets rolled into the hospital – an attempted suicide; a shapely mystery for a young doctor – with windswept hair and eyes that are as mesmerizing as a pool of slowly moving water. . . when he finally revives her, they look at each other. . . and time stops! Take one quick glance at the poster for Where Danger Lives, a thrilling 1950 film noir written by Charles Bennett (a man known to work with Hitchcock quite often in his earlier days – think The 39 Steps and Foreign Correspondent) and directed by John Farrow (Around the World in 80 Days and father of Mia), and you’ll know. . . the pair are in for quite the tempestuous roller coaster ride of a love affair.

You’ve gotta love a great film noir opening: “I’m Collier Bonnabel. I’m a cop. I’m a lieutenant detective in, uh, Homicide. That’s a fancy name for murder. We get plenty of tough cases. Solved most of them, sure. But how? I only know one way, one thing that breaks them wide open. Tension. I work on people, on suspects. Play up to them. Play up to their strengths, pour it on their weaknesses. Romance them or ignore them. Kiss them. Press them. But whatever way. . . keep stretching them. And when they get stretched so tight they can’t take it any longer: TENSION.” 1949's Tension, directed by John Berry, is narrated by Bonnabel (Barry Sullivan) – a hard-boiled, driven narrative that provides us with an intimate view into the detective’s mind. After this intriguing monologue (in which he speaks directly to the camera while playing with a rubber band), Tension opens with a prototypical film noir shot – a nighttime big city street, neon lights flashing, a pharmacy the main focal point.

Catch Me If You Can, octogenarian-style, 2018's The Old Man & The Gun, written and directed by David Lowery (A Ghost Story), is a fitting final tribute to the great Robert Redford (who will be retiring from acting after this role), a film that, despite its dramatic crime roots, has a certain sweetness, an old-fashioned, often poignant based-on-true-events tale about finding your inner child as well as your lifelong passion, and then living it. For those of you who have seen A Ghost Story, there is something immediately recognizable about The Old Man & The Gun – though they are completely different. Edited in a similar manner, Lowery’s mesmeric rhythm, unique pacing and efficiently simple style (with some nice cinematography from Joe Anderson) allows the charming characters to tell the story.