The Guns of Navarone (1961) - Thompson's wonderful war-adventure classic

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The starry cast encased in striking Greek columns make up this exciting poster for J. Lee Thompson's The Guns of Navarone

WWII: 2,000 British prisoners of war are set to be executed, after they have been captured by Axis powers on a Greek island, if the Navy fail to break them free; but the Nazis have two enormous cannons, which hinder the rescue operation.

 

The Guns of Navarone is written by writer/producer Carl Foreman (Young Man with a Horn (1950)), adapting the same-titled 1957 bestseller by Alistair McLean (South by Java Head (1958)), and directed by great British filmmaker J. Lee Thompson (Murder Without Crime (1950)).

The film is a rare, wonderful war adventure. Gregory Peck (Yellow Sky (1948)) as Captain Mallory get the 'impossible mission', and he and David Niven (Goodyear Theatre (1957-58)) as a pedantically philosophizing chaplain have some really good scenes together, especially when Peck, - who has one of his career's best heroic parts here, - puts Niven in his place. Anthony Quayle (Jarrett (1973, TV movie)) with gangrene, and a bitter Anthony Quinn (The Message (1976)) are also terrific in the fine cast.

The Guns of Navarone is grand, a beautiful production with a great Dimitri Tiomkin (Blowing Wild (1953)) score. Technically there are shots in the film that are lacking a bit in quality. But this is a very minor note to a really wonderful film.

Related posts:

J. Lee Thompson: Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) or, The Final Ape!
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) or, The Ape Uprising

Cape Fear (1962) - Great suspense in effective home invasion thriller 

 Writer-producer Foreman discusses the film in a 2-minute clip here

 

Cost: 6 mil. $

Box office: 25 mil. $ (worldwide rentals); likely gross of 55.5 mil. $

= Mega-hit (likely returned around 9.25 times its cost)

[The Guns of Navarone premiered 27 April (London) and runs 158 minutes. MacLean's novel was inspired by the Battle of Leros during WWII. Head of Columbia Pictures Mike Frankovich had read the novel and passed it excitedly on to Foreman to adapt. Alexander Mackendrick was set to direct but was fired a week prior to shooting over 'creative differences'. Shooting took place in Senegal, Greece, England, Mexico and in Los Angeles from February - July 1960. Niven got seriously ill and nearly died after filming in the pool of water beneath the cave elevator and was hospitalized for weeks, as production continued but under great uncertainty. He finally recovered and was able to complete his scenes. Peck's German was dubbed. Several members of the Greek royal family visited the set and were used as extras in the Mandrakos café scene. The film stays close to the novel; the island of Navarone is fictional. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip attended the London premiere. The film was a great success, grossing 28.9 mil. $ in North America, with rentals of 13 mil. $. With worldwide rentals of 25 mil. $, if multiplied accordingly, the world gross would be 55.5 mil. $. The film was the year's 2nd highest-grossing of all, after West Side Story. It was nominated for 7 Oscars; it won the Best Special Effects Oscar, and lost Best Director to Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story, Editing to West Side Story, Drama/Comedy Score to Henry Mancini for Breakfast at Tiffany's, Picture to West Side Story, Sound to West Side Story and Adapted Screenplay to Abby Mann for Judgment at Nuremberg. It also won 2/3 Golden Globe nominations, and was nominated for a BAFTA and a Grammy among other honors. MacLean's 1968 sequel novel (the only sequel he ever wrote) was adapted as the same-titled Force 10 from Navarone (1978), without any of the talent of the original film involved; it was unsuccessful. Thompson returned with Cape Fear (1962). Peck returned in that film; Niven in The Best of Enemies (1961); Quinn in Barabbas (1961). The Guns of Navarone is certified fresh at 92 % with a 7.93/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Guns of Navarone?

Roman Holiday (1953) - Wyler takes us to marvelous Rome on an unforgettable romantic adventure

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Audrey Hepburn drives Gregory Peck by the Colosseum on the back of a Vespa on the poster for William Wyler's Roman Holiday

A beautiful young princess visits Rome on her important European tour, but one night, under the influence of sleeping aids, she eludes her caretakers and comes to know an American journalist and a short-lived but invigorating adventure in freedom.

Roman Holiday is the enchanting, delicate, beloved masterpiece by American master director William Wyler (The Big Country (1958)). The film was shot in Rome in B/W during the city's glorious Hollywood on the Tiber era, - rather than at home on the Paramount lot in color. It was thought that shooting abroad, - which was very rare at the time, - would be so expensive, so that affording color stock was out of the question. Luckily, Wyler and co. made the right call; to venture to old Rome anyhow, and the city looks ravishing in B/W in any case. Wyler would also shoot his next big masterpiece, Ben-Hur (1959) in Rome, and for that epic, he was allowed the luxury of color.
Roman Holiday has such a sense of life about it, and it works on many levels. The plot may appear banal, but take a closer look. Especially the ending of the film, which in my opinion is one of the great movie endings of all time, underscores the film's mature position, as it really is a film about the adventures and follies of youth, secret experiences and romances and our keen, sometimes painful and sometimes honey-sweet memories of them.
The film's Oscar-winning script was written by Dalton Trumbo (Papillon (1973)) and John Dighton (The Good Old Days (1940)), but since Trumbo was blacklisted at the time, (due to Senator McCarthy's Communist witch-hunt), his writing colleague Ian McLellan Hunter (The Amazing Mr. X (1948)) fronted for him. Trumbo's credit was reinstated for the DVD release in 2003, and full credit for his many uncredited works were reinstated in 2011, (though Trumbo died in 1976.) 
Franz Planer (The Big Country) and Henri Alekan (A Woman of Evil (1954)) photographed Roman Holiday with a sensitive elegance, and Robert Swink (Skyjacked (1972)) edited it to perfection.

The details

Rome plays a major part of Roman Holiday, and one of the film's charms is that watching it feels very much like exploring Rome at the same time. The grand old city is caught with its atmosphere, its people and its splendor here for eternity.
Audrey Hepburn (Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)) won her only Oscar as the Crown Princess Ann, which was the first major role of hers, and which made her a star. She is delightful and believably innocent in the part. Gregory Peck (The Guns of Navarone (1961)) is the picture of a gentleman, and also above question formidable in his part. Together the two simply look like what a man and a woman must have been created to look like, it seems! They suit each other, - and the screen, - like only precious few screen couples have ever done before of after.
Eddie Albert (McQ (1974)) does well as Peck's photographer colleague, who also finds himself under Ann's spell, and the two men's conspiracy and what it will all end up with is of course a key element of this treasured film's suspense.
Roman Holiday is a film that can be enjoyed over and over again.

Related reviews:

William Wyler: Ben-Hur (1959) - Perhaps the greatest epic film of all time
The Big Country (1958) - A big western gift
Top 10: The best adventure movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Top 10: The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  

Watch the original trailer for the film here

Cost: 1.5 mil. $
Box office: 12 mil. $
= Huge hit
[Roman Holiday also won the Oscar for Best Costumes, and it captured the imagination and hearts of audiences worldwide: It made 5 mil. $ in North America (42 % of the total gross, - surprisingly little for a Hollywood picture at the time.) A sequel was in talks in the 70s, but it was wisely shelved.]

What do you think of Roman Holiday?

Cape Fear (1991) - Scorsese adds lots of stuff to remake but loses the balance

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The overly ominous poster for Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear

QUICK REVIEW:

The 30 year-old original Cape Fear gets a real lift in terms of style, violence, language and sex here, - anything that sets off the red lights at the MPAA, who rate movies in America. Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear is a colorful and entertaining thriller.

Robert De Niro and Nick Nolte wrestle good and evil in Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear

Oscar-nominated Robert De Niro's (Casino (1995)) character as the wronged former inmate, who has come out to take revenge on his ex-defendant, has gotten extra weight in the balance between him and his adversary in the remake, and Nick Nolte (The Thin Red Line (1998)) fails to make it seem an even match at all, which takes some excitement from the ordeal. Also because his part is no longer the hero (with a handicap) that Gregory Peck played in the original. In the 90's version, he comes off as a spineless whiner with a torn family.

Same still as above, only spiced up by an artist

Where the 1962 film focused on the uncontrollable, outer threat, Scorsese's film is a more moral (and Catholic) take on the story, which conclusively SPOILER reveals all humans' sinful nature. Personally I prefer the slightly more romantic view of the older film.
Juliette Lewis was also Oscar-nominated for her supporting role in Cape Fear, but lost (rightfully so) to Mercedes Ruehl in The Fisher King. Cape Fear also has stars Fred Dalton Thompson, Joe Don Baker and from the original film in cameos, Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum and Martin Balsam.
Scorsese returned to real greatness with Casino (1995), his eighth and final collaboration with De Niro. He is in pre-production at the moment with his coming Japan-set, religious period movie, Silence (2015).

Related reviews:

Cape Fear (1962) - Great suspense in effective home-attack thriller
Martin Scorsese: The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) - One helluva movie!
Boardwalk Empire - 1st season (2010) - Luxurious 1920's ensemble gangster treats
The Aviator (2004) - The grand American biopic 
The Age of Innocence (1993) or, Stayin' IN the Pants 

Watch the original trailer - which scandalously doesn't mention Juliette Lewis' name!

Cost: 35 mil. $
Box office: 182.2 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of the two Cape Fear movies?
Which do you prefer?

Cape Fear (1962) - Great suspense in effective home invasion thriller

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The lines are etched up on the exciting poster for J. Lee Thompson's Cape Fear

QUICK REVIEW:

Cape Fear presents any stone-cut patriarch's worst nightmare: An outer threat that he can't protect his family against.
Gregory Peck (Roman Holiday (1953)) is the ultimate law-abiding gentleman family father, and Robert Mitchum (Out of the Past (1947)) is simply unpleasant as the man he has once put in jail. - Very unpleasant in fact.
Something about the family roles bothers me slightly, but Cape Fear is an otherwise great suspense movie; with inventive B/W photography by Sam Leavitt (Anatomy of a Murder (1959)), perfect use of shadows and yet another classic Bernard Herrman (Psycho (1960)) score. A menacing and very good thriller.
SPOILER In Mitchum's attack on Polly Bergen, who plays Peck's wife in the film, the eggs were not scripted, and Bergen's reaction to them is real. Mitchum also really slashed his hand open, and Bergen's back was also cut, and she had back injuries for days after the intense scene was shot.
Cape Fear is directed by J. Lee Thompson, one of Hollywood's hottest directors at the time, who had made the great The Guns of Navarone (1961) the year before.

Related review:

J. Lee Thompson: Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) or, The Final Ape!
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) or, The Ape Uprising

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown

What do you think of J. Lee Thompson's Cape Fear?

The Boys From Brazil (1978) or, The Last Nazi Command

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A mysterious graphic with an ominous mass of closeups of the same boy makes up this dark poster for Franklin J. Schaffner's The Boys From Brazil

In the late 1960s, Ezra Lieberman hunts slippery Nazi war criminals. In Paraguay, Dr. Mengele, one of the worst Nazi mass-murderers of WWII, lives in relative hiding. But when a young Jew records his ambitious and mad plan to kill 94 men the world over, a puzzling challenge and a deadly game starts for the aging, but resolute Lieberman.

 
The Boys From Brazil is written by Heywood Gould (Rolling Thunder (1977)), adapting the same-titled 1976 novel by Ira Levin's (Rosemary's Baby (1968)), and directed by Japanese-born American master filmmaker Franklin J. Schaffner (The Stripper (1963)), whose 10th feature it was. Levin's fantastical premise is basically the cloning of 94 baby Hitlers. The idea is played dead-serious in the film, and in that way it succeeds in being incredibly frightening.
Staging such a grand, international thriller/murder plot as the one we get here (even with a science fiction element) must be a dream job for most any director, and Schaffner seems to have enjoyed the job and challenge of the endeavor. It certainly is an enjoyable and very entertaining film to watch. It is somewhat reminiscent of Marathon Man (1976), also with Laurence Olivier (The Betsy (1978)), who plays Lieberman here, but in a diametrically opposite kind of part.
Brazil does have a few problems: Some of the European accents of its Hollywood stars grind some in the ears at times, and Gregory Peck (The Omen (1976)) is almost too nice play the infamous monster Dr. Josef Mengele, but nevertheless is still is enjoyable for a fan of him as I.
Olivier, on the other hand, is majestic as the Nazi hunter based on the real McCoy, Simon Wiesenthal, whom Olivier met with and talked to about the part and Wiesenthal's life.
For the film, Jerry Goldsmith (Total Recall (1990)) created an amazing score.

SPOILER The ending in which vicious German shepherds attack two of cinema history's biggest actors is phenomenal, and the film has lots of good supporting roles as well.
The Boys of Brazil stands like a marble pillar in the annals of international thrillers. A solid, great film.

 

Related posts:

 

Franklin J. Schaffner: Top 10: The best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Papillon (1973) or, Devil's Island Indeed

Watch a short TV trailer for the film here

Cost: 12 mil. $
Box office: Reportedly 19 mil. $ (North America alone)
= Uncertain but likely a box office success (projected return of 3.33 times its cost)

[The Boys From Brazil premiered 19 August (Honolulu, Hawaii) and runs 125 minutes. Olivier was paid 725k $ for his performance, which was reportedly his motivation for taking the role, as he was returning from serious illness, adamant that he would provide for his wife and children, should he pass away. Shooting took place from October 1977 - March 1978 in Portugal, including Lisbon, England, including London, Austria, including Vienna, and in Pennsylvania. The film reportedly grossed 19 mil. $ in North America. Details of its international numbers are regrettably not available; only it did sell 91k tickets in Denmark, a tidy number that indicates that it was likely popular abroad as well. A 40 mil. $ world gross is projected, which would rank the film a box office success. It was nominated for Best Actor (Olivier), lost to Jon Voight for Coming Home; Editing, lost to The Deer Hunter, and Score, lost to Giorgio Moroder for Midnight Express. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe and won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Schaffner returned with Sphinx (1981). Olivier returned in A Little Romance (1979); Peck in The Sea Wolves (1980); and James Mason (The Sea Gull (1968)) in Murder by Decree (1979). The Boys From Brazil  is fresh at 70 % with a 6.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Boys From Brazil?

The Big Country (1958) - A big western gift

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Big names on a deliciously orange, sweltering backdrop adorns this poster for William Wyler's The Big Country

The Hannasseys are primitive louts, the Major says, - but what does McKay say about the matter, now that he is engaged to the Major's spoiled daughter and has bought Big Muddy, the land that the two families are fighting over?

 
The Big Country is written by Sy Bartlett (That Lady (1955)), James R. Webb (Kings of the Sun (1963)) and Robert Wilder (Flamingo Road (1949)), with Jessamyn West (Stolen Hours (1963)) and Robert Wyler (Murder Goes to College (1937)) contributing writing, adapting Donald Hamilton's (The Demolishers (1987)) Ambush at Blanco Canyon/The Big Country (1957/1958), and co-produced and directed by German-born American master filmmaker William Wyler (Lazy Lightning (1926)), whose 40th feature it was.

This is truly an astounding western from the hey-day of the genre. Co-producer/co-star Gregory Peck (The Guns of Navarone (1961)) plays McKay, the annoyingly pacifist hero, who almost seems to revel in humiliations. Some western experts say that The Big Country was the initiator of the wave of pacifistic westerns in the coming decades.
Charlton Heston (Ben Hur (1959)) and especially Burl Ives (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)) weigh up for Peck's cotton-mouthed McKay. They both play eminently.
Everything is big in Technicolor and 'Technirama', - one of the period's many new formats designed to lure people away from their new TV sets and back to the cinemas to buy tickets. The cinematography (by Franz Planer (Roman Holiday (1953))) at times leaves you breathless, as the filmmakers really succeed in capturing the feeling of 'the big country'.
Despite Wyler and Peck clashing throughout production, culminating in the latter walking off set and the former telling journalists that he would never again work with Peck, - not even for a million bucks (!), and that they could quote him for it, - the film impressively enough bears no witness of the strife.
The score by Jerome Moss (Wagon Train (1959-1964)) is also grand.
The Big Country is a swell time full of adventure, love, action and swooning landscapes. A certified classic.

 

Related posts:

William Wyler: How to Steal a Million (1966) - Wyler and stars win with Paris-set cinematic cream puff 

Top 10: Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Ben-Hur (1959) - Perhaps the greatest epic film of all time
The Big Country (1958) - A big western gift  

The Desperate Hours (1955) - Wyler's top-drawer true-crime home-invasion thriller 

Top 10: The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Top 10: The best adventure films reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Roman Holiday (1953) - Wyler takes us to marvelous Rome on an unforgettable romantic adventure

The Heiress (1949) - De Havilland triumphs in sensational Wyler adaptation (producer/director)

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Reportedly 4 mil. $
Box office: In excess of 3.5 mil. $ (North-American rentals alone)
= Uncertain

[The Big Country premiered 13 August (USA) and runs166 minutes. Shooting took place from July - November 1957 in California and Arizona. Little is available online concerning the film's commercial reception: It was reportedly a 'big hit', the year's 2nd biggest hit in the UK, - however the high cost means that it may not have turned profitable. US President Dwight D. Eisenhower called it "simply the best film ever made", screening it on 4 consecutive nights at the White House. It was nominated for 2 Oscar, winning Best Supporting Actor (Ives) and losing Score - Drama/Comedy to Dimitri Tiomkin for The Old Man and the Sea. It was also nominated for a BAFTA and won a Golden Globe, among other honors. Wyler returned with Ben-Hur (1959). Peck returned in Pork Chop Hill (1959); Heston in The Buccaneer (1958); Ives in Wind Across the Everglades (1958). The Big Country is fresh at 100 % with a 7.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Big Country?

The Bravados (1958) or, Complications of Revenge!

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A spectacularly colorful poster alluding to illicit gang on woman action and macho revenge for Henry King's The Bravados

Gregory Peck (The Omen (1976)) is the avenging Jim Douglas, whose wife has been raped and killed. SPOILER He seeks out a gang of four men and kills three of them, before he finds out that they were not the ones responsible for his tragedy.

 

The Bravados is written by Philip Yordan (Brigham (1977)), adapting the same-titled 1957 novel by Frank O'Rourke (A Mule for the Marquesa (1964)), and directed by Henry King (Should a Wife Forgive? (1915)).

The film is a solid revenge-themed western drama that is a joy to dream oneself away in for its 98 minutes. Because the simple justice served turns out to be against the wrong men, The Bravados also becomes a tale of Christianity and morals. And that doesn't make it any worse.
Lee Van Cleef (For a Few Dollars More (1965)) can be seen in an early supporting role; and Joan Collins (Dynasty (1981-89)) is the woman with a very silly cowboy-hat.
Darkness is incorporated deftly into the beautiful images of Bravados, (cinematography by Leon Shamroy (Cleopatra (1963))), in line with its dark subject matter.

Peck has stated that the film was written as an attack on McCarthyism, which he was very much opposed to. The Communist 'witch-hunt' spearheaded by Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy had largely ended by '58, (McCarthy died in '57), but the topic was still red-hot. 
Peck decided to become a cowboy himself while working on Bravados, and he bought a ranch near Santa Barbara stocked with 600 heads of prize cattle.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 2.2-4.4 mil. $ (North America only, different reports)
= Uncertain but likely a big hit (projected return of 5 times the cost)

[The Bravados was released 25 June (New York) and runs 98 minutes. Shooting took place around February 1958 in Mexico. If made on a realistic 1 mil. $ budget and projecting a 5 mil. $ final world gross, the film would rank as a big hit. It won a National Board of Review award.  King returned with This Earth Is Mine (1959). Peck returned in The Big Country (1958). 6.3k+ IMDb users have given The Bravados a 7.00/10 average rating.]

What do you think of The Bravados?