Stealers Wheel

Upon winning Best Director at the Academy Awards for his 1937 screwball comedy The Awful Truth (the highest grossing film of the year), Leo McCarey took his Oscar, turned to the applauding crowd and uttered the unusual acceptance of "I want to thank the Academy for this wonderful award . . . but you gave it to me for the wrong picture". The movie he was talking about was the powerfully emotional drama Make Way for Tomorrow. A bust at the box office, the film still brought recognition to one of the premier filmmakers of the era. Being a favourite of John Ford, Frank Capra, Jean Renoir, Ernst Lubitsch, George Bernard Shaw and Orson Welles (who called it one of the saddest films ever, claiming that "it would even make a stone cry"), as well as being the inspiration behind Yasujirô Ozu’s classic 1953 picture Tokyo Story, this is a pure piece of emotional film making. Funnily enough, though praised by iconic filmmakers and ardent film fanatics alike, it is probably one of the least known motion pictures out there. Nearly unseen, thankfully Criterion has released it, providing the movie with an avenue to finally reach a larger audience.

It would be hard not to argue that the fall of the Berlin Wall was one of the most iconic moments of the last thirty years. Dividing families, separating a city, forming a chasm between the Western and Eastern world; the Berlin Wall was a symbol of the borders that we, as humans, put in our own way, blocking us from achieving unity and peace. The fall of the wall was an empowering and supremely positive event, and Wolfgang Becker’s 2003 film Good Bye Lenin! is a heartfelt motion picture that builds an intriguing family centred story around the iconic happening. Narrated by Alex (Daniel Brühl), a twenty-something who lives in Berlin on the east side of the wall, he transports us through a tumultuous year in his family’s life. With a father that fled to the West without his wife and children, Alex has grown up with a mother, Christiane (Katrin Saß), who has become married to the Socialist Fatherland. An idealist and ardent patriot, she is enamoured with the system that she lives within. Alex’s older sister, the quirky Ariane (Maria Simon) also lives with them (she has an infant daughter).

Though we have all become accustomed to November being coined Movember, there is another moniker that is perhaps lesser known. ‘Noirvember’ has, over the last few years, gone viral, making this eleventh month of the year the perfect one to celebrate the shadowy, gloom filled, doom-laden film noirs of the 1940s and 50s. So, I thought I would start us off with a bang by reviewing the classic 1947 crime noir Out of the Past. Written by Daniel Mainwaring (he wrote the screenplay and the novel the film is based off of under the pseudonym Geoffrey Homes – titled "Build My Gallows High") and directed by Jacques Tourneur (Cat People), past mistakes meet present danger when gas station owner Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum), who has been hiding in a small California town after a torrid life, is tracked down by Joe Stefanos (Paul Valentine), a trusted henchman for a smooth but sketchy gangster named Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas).

Following in the footsteps of movies like the Taken franchise, Mel Gibson’s most recent film (I am sure some of you are surprised to hear that he has a new flick) is a formulaic, yet entertaining action thriller that hits the right spot. Titled Blood Father, the motion picture is directed by Jean-François Richet (who made the underrated remake of Assault on Precinct 13 and the sadly overlooked Mesrine movies) and starts with a young woman buying an abundance of ammunition at a superstore – enough that we know that she is up to no good. Her name is Lydia (Erin Moriarty) and she soon joins a gang of thuggish looking men in the car, with her being attached to their slimy leader Jonah (Diego Luna). A player in the cartel, he has a number of stash houses being run by ordinary looking people – one of which has stolen from him. In too deep, Lydia is forced to tag along, as she has also gypped them, though she denies it. After an egregious mistake, the girl flees, luckily escaping the group’s long, hard grasp.

Combining a touch of horror and film noir within a murder mystery, Abbott and Costello once again add their unique brand of humour to dark subject matter in the 1942 classic comedic caper Who Done It?. Directed by Erle C. Kenton (Island of Lost Souls), this flick finds straight man Bud Abbott playing Chick Larkin while funny man Lou Costello portrays Mervin Q. Milgrim; together, they are a pair of simple-minded soda jerks on the bottom floor of a popular radio station. Yet, their true dream is to become head writers for a mystery themed radio show – which is why they took the low paying jobs in the highfalutin building. Finding writer Jimmy Turner (Patric Knowles) and secretary to the boss, Juliet Collins (Mary Wickes), in their midst while working at the soda and ice cream bar, they see this as a prime opportunity to pitch their idea. Turner takes a liking to the funny friends and invites them to a live taping of his program, Murder at Midnight.