Turner Classic Movies is saluting the June 30 birthday of director Anthony Mann with day of his films -- including 1949's "The Black Book" (aka "Reign of Terror") an Austro-Hungarian Expressionist film noir take on the French Revolution, photographed by one of Mann's frequent early collaborators (and one of the noirest of black-and-white cinematographers), John Alton. At Straight Shooting (bookmark it), Richard T. Jameson surveys the career of a filmmaker who
acquired a passionate cult among connoisseurs of film style for having made some of the most lucidly and powerfully visualized films in American cinema. Few filmmakers have equaled his genius for fusing landscape and dramatic action, and his heroes--in the films noir of the late Forties and his majestic Westerns of the Fifties--are a compellingly conflicted lot. [...]
Was Anthony Mann a director of the first rank? Not when the touchstones are Lang, Ford, and Hawks.... But his best work goes a long way toward making film noir and the Western our two richest genres, and his relentless pursuit of dynamic images ensures him the esteem of anyone who believes that movies should be worth looking at, minute by minute, frame by frame.
Mann brought the noir aesthetics of "T-Men," "Raw Deal" and "Side Street" to a western ("Devil's Doorway"), a tough drama about undercover INF agents in Mexico ("Border Incident"), an alt-historical suspense film about the attempted assassination of president-elect Abraham Lincoln aboard a locomotive ("The Tall Target"), and even a Korean War platoon picture ("Men in War" -- the sound of which will be instantly recognizable to fans of Pico and Alvarado on Firesign Theatre's "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers"). But RTJ gives his highest recommendation to "The Black Book":
This black-comedy treatment of the French Revolution as gangster film is like a nonstop devil-wind of shrapnel, its paranoid compositions and camerawork so charged it has to explode. The American cinema's premier production designer William Cameron Menzies is credited as producer but not as art director; yet surely his contribution was huge, working miracles to create an atmospheric period piece on little more than B resources. Philip Yordan co-wrote the script--and one pitch-dark scene between Robert Cummings and Arlene Dahl strikingly foreshadows the reunion reverie of Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden four years hence in the Yordan-written, Nicholas Ray-directed "Johnny Guitar." Still, I cherish more Richard Basehart as the phlegmatic Robespierre dismissing crony and arch-conspirator Arnold Moss: "Fouché, why don't you take a walk?"
13 Comments
Unfortunately, I saw "The Black Book" on a terrible public domain DVD I got from Netflix. It was struck from an awful, grainy print. I think it is the only DVD on the market. Wish I had TCM today. Arnold Moss was such a great character actor with that distinctive face.
But I disagree with Jameson -- I think Mann is in the first rank of filmmakers. More than any other director -- when I think of film noir, I think of Mann's films (of course Alton's cinematography gives it that ultimate noir look --he was the DP on most of Mann's noirs). And some of his westerns I prefer over most of Ford's. Actually, I think Ford, Mann and Boetticher are the top directors in that genre (of the classic period). Hawks I'd include there too, if he had directed more of them ("Rio Bravo" is one of my favorite films period. And "Red River" is right up there).
By the way, don't forget "He Walked by Night" with Richard Basehart, which was credited to Alfred Werker. But it was mostly, if not almost entirely, directed by Mann. Alton was the DP on that too. When I saw it, I just kept thinking, this is so much like a Mann noir. Then I found out that he really was -- for all intents and purposes -- the director.
Speaking of great directors -- don't forget Raoul Walsh. He should always be mentioned in the same breath with Ford and Hawks. I just saw "Gentlemen Jim." I really got what Tarantino says about Walsh being one of the masters of set pieces, along with Sirk and Minnelli. The boxing match on the docks is especially magnificent. In fact, the film is really a succession of great set pieces.
There needs to also be more tributes to Phil Karlson -- look at his body of noirs -- "Kansas City Confidential," "Scandal Sheet" (from a Fuller script), "Phenix City Story," "The Brothers Rico" and others. (Haven't seen "99 River Street" -- but really want to).
Just checked my TiVo and the TCM print of "The Black Book" looks better than any I can ever remember seeing (going back to 16mm days). I just recently watched the intense "He Walked By Night" (Richard Basehart again), which also carries a "dialogue director" credit for Stewart Stern, screenwriter of "Rebel Without a Cause." "Rachel, Rachel," "The Last Movie"...
That's fantastic that it is such a good print. Re: Stewart Stern, I saw Jeff Shannon's blog about him and "The Rack" under "Movies on Demand." That's interesting that he wrote "The Last Movie." I'll have to see that and "The Hired Hand" someday in a double feature of my own. Speaking of film noirs, John Sturges' "Mystery Street" is very good -- involving CSI-type forensics (it's on a DVD with the excellent "Act of Violence"). It would make a good double bill with Mann's "Border Incident," both of which star Ricardo Montablan, long before Tattoo and Corinthian Leather...
In at least two of Sturges' widescreen films that I've seen, such as "Bad Day at Black Rock" and "The Great Escape" -- I don't think he had a single closeup. They were all medium and longshots, if I recall correctly. But it doesn't hurt the films one bit.
By the way, I think the sewer chase in "He Walked by Night" predates (by a little bit) the one in "The Third Man." That is, if memory serves me right -- I looked it up some time ago.
Ted's insight about John Sturges' masterful use of widescreen is right on. For me, Sturges is not just a great action director but one of the all-time masters of widescreen space, which is evident in classics like BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK. But many of Sturges' lesser films like BACKLASH and THE LAW AND JAKE WADE are worth watching for his sense of composition alone.
Yes, TCM has again shown a bitchin' sharp black-and-white (not gray-and-gray) rendering of The Black Book; they also ran it about a year ago, after having used a PD smudge on previous occasions. I don't know why Sony/Columbia hasn't made this version more available--as in, a DVD release. Nor do I know why the Columbia statue lady appears at the beginning of the print; the film was originally made by Eagle-Lion, the same minor operation that had done T-Men, Raw Deal, et al. And yeah, Stewart Stern had dialogue director credit on all of them. Would love to talk with him about that.
Mann directed strong films in many genres, but, for me, his most impressive work is in the Western: MAN OF THE WEST, WINCHESTER '73, THE NAKED SPUR, THE MAN FROM LARAMIE. I'd go even further than Ted and flat out declare Mann the greatest of all American directors of Western films. Not even Ford photographs men in a landscape with such power. Mann's films are beautiful, but they aren't picture postcards.
I think many would agree with you. I love "Stagecoach" and "My Darling Clementine." I appreciated "The Searchers" much more when I saw it on the big screen for the first time some weeks ago. It's not one of my favorite westerns, but it is one of the most visually beautiful films I can think of. On the big screen, Ford's sentimentality worked much better for me. Sometimes I find it downright cloying, such as in the Cavalry Trilogy. In general, I prefer the harder edged films of Mann, Boetticher and Andre De Toth's "Day of the Outlaw." (And Leone and Peckinpah).
Speaking of De Toth, I like that Jim featured the weird opening of "Crime Wave" in a recent blog entry (in which the hoods drive up to the station during the credits, and then it is repeated in part as the first scene. Best of all is Dub Taylor poking his head up like in an arcade game, as Jim wrote about) I saw that film a year ago, and loved it. Whatever the reason for it, I like that opening simply because I've never seen it in another movie.
I remember when I was a kid in the '70's and seeing "Winchester '73" in the TV Guide and thinking, "Sounds like a really boring, old-fashioned western with James Stewart." I guess "Bonanza" and "The Virginian" gave me this view of westerns in general as being cheesy. But I know better now.
By the way, don't forget "He Walked by Night" with Richard Basehart, which was credited to Alfred Werker. But it was mostly, if not almost entirely, directed by Mann. Alton was the DP on that too. When I saw it, I just kept thinking, this is so much like a Mann noir. Then I found out that he really was -- for all intents and purposes -- the director.
Amen, Brother Ted! I'm definitely in the choir to whom you are preaching about Mann, Karlson, Walsh, De Toth, etc. (though I'm probably a little higher on Ford than you seem to be).
By the way, if Netflix Instant is available to you, you can stream 99 RIVER STREET. They're also streaming his KID GALAHAD, HELL TO ETERNITY, HELL'S ISLAND, our beloved KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL and some of his earlier work: THE SHANGHAI COBRA (a Charlie Chan vehicle) and THE MISSING LADY and BEHIND THE MASK (both featuring Lamont Cranston, the Shadow).
Not streaming, but highly recommended: 5 AGAINST THE HOUSE, TIGHT SPOT, FRAMED and the others you mentioned.
Kicking myself for missing that superior print of THE BLACK BOOK, but even the PD version shows what a remarkable film it is. Recently rewatched Mann's great BORDER INCIDENT. Its story plays out mostly at night, so it offers plenty of opportunities for Alton to show his stuff (inky blacks stabbed by harsh beams of white).
Oh, Ford is indisputably great -- a master of expressionism (as long as he kept some of the sentimentality in check). I can't think of anyone better at conveying how a character feels through his camera set-ups, lighting, etc. "They Were Expendable" is one of my favorite of his films. But sometimes I do feel like before there was Spielberg...there was Ford...if you know what I mean (especially with the use of music). So for me I connect more with Walsh, Hawks, Mann, Boetticher and others, just in terms of my personal taste.
I didn't see TCM's broadcast of Black Book, so I can't compare the quality of the print, but VCI has a version available (Classic Film Noir Double Feature Vol 3) that is much superior to others circulating on DVD. This is a picture made great by Mann and the John Alton.
Is that Robert Cummings from "Love That Bob"?
Ha! Never mind. I looked it up and it is. Now I HAVE to see that movie. I just can't imagine Love That Bob in a serious movie.
Leave a comment