Movies I love: Johnny Guitar / North to Alaska

A western double bill!







JOHNNY GUITAR was the very first film I saw, aged 8 - what a vivid introduction to cinema, I was mesmerised by the woman in white about to be hanged, and that other woman in black shooting down the lamps and setting the place on fire. Then of course later when I knew which film it was repeated viewings made it more delirious and desirable than ever. I just simply love it. Nice now to have good dvd showing that odd Republic Technicolor, with an introduction by Marty Scorsese, no less (as good as his one for EL CID).





Then there are those tales of the feud between Joan and Mercedes on set, it is all though oddly poetic as directed by Nick Ray. Joan is perfect as Vienna "sitting at her piano in her own home" waiting for the railroad to come so she can sell out. McCambridge is Emma Small the vicious town boss who is oddly drawn to the Dancing Kid, or perhaps it is Vienna she is drawn to and cannot act on it? The men - even Ward Bond - are just stooges here, as Emma and Vienna dominate. Events move at a pace as the two women face up to the climax. Sterling Hayden is sterling again as the quiet Johnny - his scenes with Vienna as they try to recapture their lost love are just so perfect. Then the lynch mob arrive ... For a child of 8 it was a marvellous experience and led to my being taken to other westerns that year: THE COMMAND, DRUM BEAT, SITTING BULL and other movies like A STAR IS BORN. Looking at it again now the architecture is fascinating: Vienna's large casino, the waterfall hiding the way to the mountain cabin - and what a perfect cabin it is... one almost wants to live there.



Moving on to 1960, that perennial comedy western NORTH TO ALASKA is thankfully a tv staple - one simply never tires of it. Henry Hathaway directs and 20th Century Fox producton values ensure it looks good - that early sequence with the tree loggers at their picnic is not really necessary at all but all part of the lazy rambling structure of the film. Wayne here, after those iconic roles in THE QUIET MAN, THE SEARCHERS and RIO BRAVO the previous year (and those perfect 50s programmers like THE SEA CHASE and LEGEND OF THE LOST), is having fun as is Stewart Granger - good to see them together, Fabian is the younger brother (he was cute then after HOUND DOG MAN in '59) and there is the running joke of him continually being manhandled by exasperated Wayne, especially when Capucine arrives as the replacement girlfriend. Cap is delightful here and holds her own well with Wayne and joins in the knockabout.







That muddly climax at the end has them all fighting in the mud - with Ernie Kovacs as the shady operator and lots of fun all round. It shows frontier life then almost as well as in McCABE & MRS MILLER! So, a fun film with people I like! Wayne and Granger are as adroit as ever at this late stage of their careers but they were not winding down yet - while Capucine and Fabian show comedy skills and provide the eye candy. What's not to like?

Edit: It won't let me reply to the Comment, so here is what I wanted to add:



Indeed - Johnny Guitar is so vivid it plays almost like a cartoon - very accessible for a child seeing his first movie!

Capucine is indeed a very independent woman in Alaska, holding her own with the men, even if she is playing a haughty "saloon girl" but she is not a pathetic one like Lee Remick was in the '59 western "These Thousand Hills".

Fantasy double bill: The Moonspinners / Moonfleet

Here's an antidote to grey wintry snowy skies: THE MOON SPINNERS, a 1964 Walt Disney confection set in sunny Crete - its still a delicious entertainment. One of Walt's Hayley Mills films it boasts an incredible cast of various acting styles from silent star Pola Negri to method man Eli Wallach, plus cute young leads Hayley and Peter McEnery, intense Greek actress Irene Papas (who is wasted here in a nothing role), marvellous British stage and movie actress Joan Greenwood (whom I have rhapsodised about several times here, see label) and English farcuers John Le Mesurier and Sheila Hancock - now one of England's great dames.

Directed by Disney regular James Neilson from a Mary Stewart adventure story, it has Hayley as the sweet young thing travelling in Greece with her Aunt (la Greenwood) who is collecting local folksongs for the BBC!, and becoming involved with strange young chap McEnery who it turns out is spying on local crook Wallach as he (Peter, that is) lost his job at the bank due to some missing jewels which it turns out Eli is going to sell to the reclusive wealthy Madam Habib (Pola - who makes a splendid late entrance with her pet leopard) - dependable Andre Morell (Mr Greenwood) captains her yacht where everyone converges for the climax. Add in escapes from locked windmills and lots of local colour, plus of course Hayley's first proper kiss! So it is all sweetly amusing.



A grimmer view of Crete was also on view that year, in Cacoyannis's ZORBA THE GREEK, which at least had an iconic role for Papas. McEnery (who was the boy in VICTIM) went on to an interesting career, he did another Disney THE FIGHTING PRINCE OF DONEGAL, and Vadim snapped him up for LA CUREE (THE GAME IS OVER) with sex kitten Fonda, he was with Glenda Jackson in NEGATIVES, and well as ENTERTAINING MR SLOANE (as the enterprising Mr Sloane) and THE ADVENTURES OF GERARD etc. He was the first Hamlet I saw on stage in 1967, and also in an 80s revivial of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC. I always liked Hayley back then, but she grew up to be perfectly ordinary as an adult - it was nice seeing her recently as the mother in law in an African medical tv series WILD AT HEART.

This is really a Joan Greenwood double bill - she is also fascinating in Fritz Lang's 1955 adventure MOONFLEET - which is totally different from the children's classic novel by J Meade Faulkner. It is also filmed in California but captures perfectly late 18th century England among the smugglers of the Dorset coast. Jon Whiteley is the little boy sent to stay with Jeremy Fox (Stewart Granger, at his most dashing) who of course is the leader of the smugglers. Add in churchyards, deserted tombs, a missing diamond, and intrigue with villains George Sanders and Joan Greenwood and one has a perfect period entertainment. Viveca Lindfors is also present. This is one I enjoyed as a child and still do now, its one of the high points (like ADVENTURES OF QUENTIN DURWARD) of the MGM '50s costume drama.

People We Like: Joan Greenwood

English actress Joan Greenwood [1921 – 1987], one of those ladies for whom superlatives are not enough. She is “a rather dotty, genteel sexpot” according to David Thomson in his invaluable A Biographical Dictionary of Film, whereas David Shipman in his equally indispensable The Great Movie Stars comments on her “sex appeal, style and striking individuality”, and Variety once described her voice as “one of the wonders of the modern world”. Exquisite is the word that sums up Joan’s allure both vocally and personally. No wonder she voiced the Evil Queen in Vadim's BARBARELLA!

In movies since the early 40s, early roles included THE GENTLE SEX (43), THE OCTOBER MAN (47), SARABAND FOR DEAD LOVERS (48), those Ealing classics WHISKEY GALORE and her naughty, seductive, adorable minx Sybilla in KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS, 1949. She was also Lady Caroline Lamb in the dreadfully enjoyable THE BAD LORD BYRON.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST in 1952 by Anthony Asquith remains the definitive film of Oscar Wilde’s play, a wonderful staging preserving the great performances of Edith Evans, Margaret Rutherford, Michael Redgrave and Joan’s considerable star turn as Gwendolyn. Her every appearance is a joy here, full of vocal inflections and marvellous readings of lines like, when asking for bread and butter with her tea “as cake is never seen in the best houses these days”. Above: MOONFLEET with Stewart Granger.

She is very touching in the French KNAVE OF HEARTS (MONSIEUR RIPOIS) opposite Gerard Philipe in 1954 (left), and with Guinness again in FATHER BROWN. Joan then went to Hollywood in 1955 to appear in Fritz Lang’s MOONFLEET – one of the high points of mid-50s costume dramas. Other roles were in STAGE STRUCK (57), MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (61), and as the very demanding Lady Bellaston in Richardson’s TOM JONES, the big hit of 1963.

Other roles included Disney's THE MOONSPINNERS where she was rather wasted, in '64. I saw her on the stage in 1971 in a revival of THE CHALK GARDEN as Miss Madrigal [above] opposite Gladys Cooper’s Mrs St Maugham. (programme page at left, click image to enlarge text, detailing Joan's extensive theatre career).

Joan by all accounts was a very unaffected leading lady, quietly married to reliable supporting actor Andre Morrell (who died in 1978) with whom she had a son.

She is also the subject of a fascinating website: http://www.silversirens.co.uk which feature her and Margaret Lockwood, with great galleries of photos, stills and much more on their films. Joan Greenwood, like Kay Kendall, will always be a leading light of the English cinema.

My full appreciation on Joan is on IMDb at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0339343/board/nest/136932896?d=136932896#136932896

People We Like: Stewart Granger

Back in the '70s the London National Film Theatre ran an occasional series "People We Like" being mini-retrospectives on varied performers, which was always a treat. Here is their Stewart Granger one. [click images to enlarge]

Stewart was of course marvellous in those '40s Gainsborough melodramas like MADONNA OF THE SEVEN MOONS (you need a certain elan to carry off that ritzy harlequin costume...) and CARAVAN - there is a terrific 12 disk boxset of these '40s roles. The swooning romanticism of SARABAND FOR DEAD LOVERS with Joan Greenwood in 1948 is also a choice item. Then of course after the move to Hollywood with wife Jean Simmons came those MGM staples like SCARAMOUCHE, THE PRISONER OF ZENDA, KING SOLOMON'S MINES and the like, with westerns like THE LAST HUNT and the great MOONFLEET for Fritz Lang. I like him in the routine programmer GREEN FIRE (where Grace Kelly is very tailored down in the South American jungle) and Cukor's BHOWANI JUNCTION with Ava - he, Ava and Niven must have had fun making the dreary LITTLE HUT in '57. He and Simmons both play against type in the thriller FOOTSTEPS IN THE FOG. Granger always disparaged his work but must have provided as much fun as Flynn or Power at their peak. He and Wayne guy their images and have a lot of fun in Hathaway's NORTH TO ALASKA, and he hit the Euro trail in the '60s, SODOM AND GOMORRAH being particuarly choice. He and pal Michael Wilding also had that feud with Hedda (or was it Louella?) - his biography "Sparks Fly Upward" is as good as any by Niven. They just don't make them like that anymore.