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Tag Archives: Burt Lancaster

Sorry, Wrong Number

30 Friday Jun 2017

Posted by vinnieh in Movie Reviews

≈ 32 Comments

Tags

1940's, Anatole Litvak, Ann Richards, Barbara Stanwyck, Burt Lancaster, Ed Begley, Film Noir, Harold Vermilyea, Sorry Wrong Number, Thriller, Wendell Corey, William Conrad

Film Title

Sorry, Wrong Number

Director

Anatole Litvak

Starring

  • Barbara Stanwyck as Leona Stevenson
  • Burt Lancaster as Henry Stevenson
  • Ann Richards as Sally Hunt Lord
  • Wendell Corey as Dr. Alexander
  • Harold Vermilyea as Waldo Evans
  • Ed Begley as James Cotterell
  • William Conrad as Morano

A well paced and inventively structured film noir thriller, Sorry, Wrong Number makes fantastic use of its setting and unfolding of dark mystery to form a tight and tense movie. Expanding on a famous radio play yet keeping a certain flair for drama in a limited setting, plus a fine cast headed by Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster, Sorry, Wrong Number is recommended viewing for noir and thriller fans who will no doubt find it very satisfying.

Leona Stevenson is a demanding, selfish heiress who is largely bed-ridden and when we meet her, alone in her Manhattan apartment. She gets more than she bargained for when she accidentally overhears a phone conversation(thanks to a telephone glitch) between two men, plotting and arranging a woman’s murder that very night. Leona has been trying to reach her husband Henry, who works for her father’s pharmaceutical chain, but hasn’t been able to locate. Panicking over the horrible plot she overhears, she becomes desperate to stop it happening. The fact that she only caught little bits of the conversation doesn’t help when she calls the police, due to a lack of clear evidence. Calling whoever she can think of for attempted help or news on Henry, through various flashbacks, revealing events and machinations fall into place regarding everyone it covers. We see Sally Hunt Lord, who was once romantically linked with Henry, Leona’s Doctor Alexander who holds important information about her, her controlling father James, a chemist named Waldo Evans, a mysterious gangster Morano and of course Henry himself, who we glimpse as feeling emasculated and weak thanks to his overbearing spouse. An underhand and malevolent scheme is also found here, but just how does it link to Leona and the planned murder? Growing more anxious and distressed as pieces slowly come into fruition but still remain confusing, Leona is left to decipher them before it is too late.

Anatole Litvak dials up the suspense with skill, letting the film play out largely in real-time and lets us discover many alarming things without spoon-feeding them to us. His control over ambience is also evident in how the mystery is gradually evinced and how it turns out differently than one might have wondered. Often times in some movies, flashbacks can often feel more than a bit redundant and overused. The same can’t be said of Sorry, Wrong Number, as the dips into the past are crucial to our understanding of the characters and their reasons for actions that may come back in some dark form. Sorry, Wrong Number provides a great exercise in visual style with panoramic and gliding camera shots that take in important details that tell parts of the story in a teasing but imperative way. The characters have a sense of change in them from the flashbacks to present, further giving a level of both distrust and curiosity. There is a heightened paranoia and isolation as Leona is prone to overreacting but thus time is telling the truth and all alone in her apartment. The home is often somewhere we consider safe which is reversed here. Then again, the nefarious and murky atmosphere of outside as the various facets of the puzzle come together is equally as dark. There is no real place of safety, which plays beautifully into the sinister heart of film noir and allows the film to have the feelings of a pitch-black noir. The twists are complex and unexpected, yet only sometimes confusing, thankfully the shocking nature of it all is intact and on display. Drama and genuine menace can be heard in the fine score by the amazing Franz Waxman, who really knew how to ramp up tension and suspense with his music.

Barbara Stanwyck impressively heads the cast as the pampered heiress Leona, whose night is turned into waking hours of terror once she hears the murder plot. Stanwyck strongly gets across the various mood swings and changes from past to present of the character, that are very intriguing to watch. Moving from self-absorbed and entitled to terrified and near mental collapse as everything unravels, Stanwyck covers it all with the assurance of the great pro she was. Her biggest achievement is that she telegraphs that Leona is not just some innocent victim in all of this, but a manipulative and petulant woman who we still feel some form of sympathy for in her time of horror. Burt Lancaster plays with his somewhat tough guy image to find something spineless and tired within husband Henry. While there is darkness to him, we aren’t quite sure to what extent it will emerge, mainly due to the excellence of Lancaster in the part. He may just be misunderstood or possibly to easily lead into something fishy , Lancaster suggests a mixture of both. There is a good ensemble of supporting characters played by great actors, who somehow or another slot into this mystery. Ann Richards is quietly convincing as a former flame of Henry’s, while Wendell Corey supplies us with much knowledge as the doctor. Probably the most sympathetic character is the chemist who is somehow sucked into the dark web of dealings, and played with understated gravitas by Harold Vermilyea. Ed Begley and William Conrad flesh out the other two people who have bearing on the complex story.

A tense and efficient noir, Sorry, Wrong Number is just the ticket for when you want some murky thriller of complex motives, nice performances and atmosphere to watch.

Judgment at Nuremberg

02 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by vinnieh in Movie Reviews

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

1960's, Burt Lancaster, Courtroom Drama, Judgment at Nuremberg, Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Maximilian Schell, Montgomery Clift, Nuremberg, Nuremberg Trials, Richard Widmark, Spencer Tracy, Stanley Kramer

Film Title

Judgment at Nuremberg

Director

Stanley Kramer

Cast

  • Spencer Tracy as Judge Dan Haywood
  • Burt Lancaster as Ernst Janning
  • Richard Widmark as Colonel Tad Lawson
  • Marlene Dietrich as Madame Bertholt
  • Maximilian Schell as Hans Rolfe
  • Judy Garland as Irene Hoffman Wallner
  • Montgomery Clift as Rudolph Peterson
  • Werner Klemperer as Emil Hahn

Synopsis: At the end of World War II, a New England judge is sent to Nuremberg,Germany to preside over the trial of four men accused of carrying out Nazi crimes.

Judgment at Nuremberg is the riveting, shocking and powerful courtroom drama that presents a fictional account of one of the many Nuremberg trials. Stanley Kramer, who was known and sometimes decried for his so-called message movies, proved that he could direct a film with real meaning and careful handling of an extremely controversial issue with this film that was nominated for eleven Oscars. The film won two, one for Best Actor for the then unknown Schell and one for Abby Mann’s script. As director and also producer Kramer assembled a once in a lifetime cast headed by Spencer Tracy; no matter how big or small the role is in the movie each actor brings something special to the part.

What I liked most about the film was the way in which it presented a controversial issue and didn’t leave out anything important or cover it up. Whereas some courtroom dramas can drag on and become monotonous, Judgment at Nuremberg kept me glued to the screen throughout its lengthy running time.

Courageous Cameos

One of the most important things that drew me into the film was the various performances. For a movie with a starry cast it didn’t relegate anyone to the side lines but let each member give something unique to the film. In Imagea performance that lasts for around ten minutes, a barely recognizable Judy Garland gives an emotional and heart wrenching weight to the film as Irene Hoffman, a German woman whose friendship with a Jewish man had her imprisoned and him murdered.  The moment, in which she breaks down after being intensely questioned during the proceedings, is sad to watch, one needs only to look at her eyes to see the pain it is causing her.

Montgomery Clift also gives an equally harrowing and poignant performance as Rudolph Peterson; a man considered feeble-minded who was sterilised for this reason by the Nazis. When I viewed the scene in which Clift nervously recounts what happened to him, and vehemently tries to deny that he is not feeble-minded, I was shocked and repulsed at how things such as this could have happened to people.

Image

 Opposing Views

Another aspect of the film that I found interesting was the clear difference of the two men in charge of the proceedings, the American Colonel Lawson and the German Hans Rolfe. One of them wants every Nazi to pay for what they did while the other says that the men accused were merely following the orders given to them.  This presents an interesting point as there are no easily identifiable bad guys in the film and the proceedings that follow are enthralling because of this.  Both Widmark and Schell are outstanding as polar opposites who often verbally clash during the Trials. Marlene Dietrich is also outstanding and convincing in a role not usually associated with her; her general role was as the femme fatale or the seductive cabaret girl. But in this film she portrays a German widow whose Nazi husband was killed during another trial. I think her character is interesting as she is the flip side of what people saw at the time as the stereotype of German people and she tries to convince Judge Haywood that Germans are not all monsters. Although he doesn’t talk a lot in the film (except his two highly dramatic monologues) Burt Lancaster is amazing and barely recognizable as one of the four men accused of carrying out the atrocities. Star Trek fans should look out for William Shatner in a small early role as a captain.

Stereotypes and Identity

Nuremberg investigates the theme of national identity. At the time of the film’s release, German’s where not seen in a good light. This is why the character of Madame Bertholt is featured in the film. She is there to show that not all German’s believed in Nazism during the World War.

Identity is also apparent throughout the court proceedings, it is examined in the case of Irene’s friendship with a Jewish man that had tragic and horrific consequences. The court looks at the way in which Jew’s were treated during the Holocaust.

The horror of the Concentration Camps

The main scene that has stayed with me is when Lawson shows real footage from concentration camps as evidence in the court proceedings; it is a haunting and extremely dramatic scene that lives long in the memory.  Up until this point in time, hardly any footage from the Camps had been shown, so one can imagine the audience reaction when the film was shown in 1961.  I remember how shocked I felt when I watched this scene; it was one of those moments where something is so shocking that you must continue watching it. I thought that it was a bold and brave move to feature this footage as the Nuremberg Trials and the Holocaust where issues that needed to be addressed. The film didn’t shy away from dealing with the issue honestly and the results are fantastic and extremely realistic.

The real star though for me is Tracy, he brings a dignity to the character of Judge Haywood who the burden of the case lies on.Tracy brings his usual understated personality to the part and he is the person who is most conflicted throughout the proceedings. In the end the difficult decision falls upon his old and wise shoulders.

Judgment at Nuremberg is a fantastic courtroom drama that deserves to be better known. This film is a prime example of how a drama about a serious issue can still be enthralling and thought-provoking without being boring.

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