Roman Holiday

Tags

1950's, Audrey Hepburn, Eddie Albert, Gregory Peck, Roman Holiday, Romantic Comedy, William Wyler

Film Title

Roman Holiday

Director

William Wyler

Starring

• Audrey Hepburn as Princess Ann
• Gregory Peck as Joe Bradley
• Eddie Albert as Irving Radovich

A beautifully charming, amusing yet bittersweet romantic comedy, Roman Holiday is a glorious and magical movie that weaves its charm on you from start to finish. With a career making role for the wonderful Audrey Hepburn and lovely chemistry with co-star Gregory Peck, this is a romantic comedy of a golden standard that they just don’t make like this anymore.

The plot revolves around the young Princess Ann, who is heir to the throne of an unspecified European country. She is on a tour of Europe and the latest exhausting trip has taken her to Rome. But beneath the courteous bows and wide smile, the young Ann desires freedom from stifling regulations and wants to live a life where she isn’t told what to do or where to go. One night and on the spur of the moment, she sneaks away from her royal life and ventures into the Eternal City. Unfortunately she become dazed due to being given a sedative by her doctor earlier in the night to calm her stress, and she falls asleep on a bench. She is found by American reporter Joe Bradley, who not recognizing who she is, takes her back to his apartment so she can rest as he believes that she is merely drunk. The next morning, Joe discovers thanks to his friends at the newspaper that the woman in his apartment is in fact the Princess, whose chaperons have said that she has been taken ill in order to avoid a scandal as they search for the runaway princess. Joe sees the opportunity to get a story from Ann that could fetch in a lot of money. With the help of photographer friend Irving, he charms Ann by concealing his job and takes her on a days long adventure around the wonderful city. Yet while in the beginning he intended to just get a story from the yearning princess, his heart stops him in his tracks as he falls for the beautiful Ann and reconsiders his actions. The incognito Ann also questions herself as she herself grows enamored with Joe, despite knowing that her adventure can only last for a day.

The masterful William Wyler directs Roman Holiday with a sublime elegance and a certain magic that captures the beauty of the city and the sweet but very touching romance. The way he shoots the Rome locations as a graceful attraction unfolds is a marvel to behold and features some stunning shots of the iconic city. He keeps the humorous escapades in check as well as highlighting a bittersweet undertone due to the fact that Ann and Joe are from different backgrounds and the chance of accepted romance( despite the obvious attraction that slowly grows )coming into fruition is unlikely. There is romance here, but it’s more subtle and tender rather than going overboard on overblown tragedy. It’s all superbly handled and makes the relationship between the two engaging and sublime and it certainly adds to the magical impact of the film that Hepburn and Peck work so beautifully together. In essence, Roman Holiday is a reversal of the Cinderella formula, with the luminous Ann wanting to escape her rich lifestyle and find the freedom that she craves. This subversion is a welcome change and adds to the smart script that rings true with its message of wanting to be free from constraints and wanting to live ones life as one chooses. A delightfully wistful and sweeping score gives voice to the burgeoning romance and freedom that is so yearned for as the magical 24 hours shared by Ann and Joe pass.

This was the movie that launched the young Audrey Hepburn into cinematic royalty, won her a well-deserved Oscar and it’s not hard to see why. Hepburn is beguiling, graceful and moving in her delivery as Princess Ann, imbuing her with a sympathy and charm to spare as she escapes protocol and lives life to her heart’s content for a day. You can’t take your eyes off Hepburn when she’s on screen because of how radiant and graceful she is. This is a true star making role of captivating beauty if ever there was one. She is ably supported by Gregory Peck as the opportunistic journalist Joe whose desire to get a story soon withers as he grows to understand and love the sheltered princess. In the hands of a lesser actor, the role of Joe could have become a real slime ball. But with Gregory Peck in the part, there is a decency there and he exudes more emotion with a glance than some actors can with huge lines of dialogue. Hepburn and Peck have a sterling amount of tender chemistry with one another and it shows so much on the screen. Eddie Albert is very funny as the photographer Irving, who is embroiled in events a little befuddled by what is going on.

Funny yet very touching, Roman Holiday is one of those movies that has not lost any of its nostalgic or romantic impact over the years and remains thoroughly beguiling and sublime.

 

 

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The Boys from Brazil

Tags

1970's, Franklin J. Schaffner, Gregory Peck, James Mason, Laurence Olivier, Lilli Palmer, Steve Guttenberg, The Boys from Brazil, Thriller, Uta Hagen

Film Title

The Boys from Brazil

Director

Franklin J. Schaffner

Starring

• Gregory Peck as Dr. Josef Mengele
• Laurence Olivier as Ezra Lieberman
• James Mason as Eduard Seibert
• Lilli Palmer as Esther Lieberman
• Uta Hagen as Frieda Maloney
• Steve Guttenberg as Barry Kohler

Taut, creepy and intriguing, Franklin J. Scahffner’s adaptation of Ira Levin’s novel The Boys from Brazil is filled with haunting suspense and excellent performances.

In Paraguay, a young and curious Jewish boy named Barry Kohler has stumbled upon secret meetings of former Nazi criminals. He is in contact with Ezra Lieberman, an aging Nazi Hunter who is all but retired and living in Vienna. Lieberman is skeptical of the young boy’s findings and warns him to flee. Still curious, Kohler observes none other than Dr. Josef Mengele, the infamous Nazi doctor order his followers to kill over the next two years 94 65-year-old men in various countries around the world. Unfortunately for Kohler, he is discovered and promptly killed. Before his untimely demise, he at least manages to contact Lieberman who is now convinced something isn’t right. Although obviously failing physically and feeling the effects of advancing age, Lieberman is determined to stop the plan of Mengele and takes it upon himself to discover more. Visiting widows of some of the deceased men, he notes a startling resemblance with all of their adopted sons, who all have piercing blue eyes and jet black hair. Meanwhile, Mengele realizes that Lieberman is tailing him and sets out himself to finish the job. With time ticking away, Lieberman unearths the full nature of Mengele’s horrifying plan: he has taken tissue samples from Hitler prior to his death and managed to harvest them, creating human clones of the man and trying to replicate his upbringing down to the finest detail in order to begin the Third Reich again. Now locked in a battle of wills and intellect, Lieberman and Mengele face off as the aging Nazi Hunter tries to put a stop to the potentially devastating plan.

Franklin J. Schaffner crafts a tense and slickly paced atmosphere of mounting paranoia as Lieberman makes it his duty to put an end to the twisted plot posed to the world by Mengele. The pace may be electric, but it makes the characters more interesting and the various twists all the more thrilling. On occasion, the scientific jargon can become a little confusing and you may find yourself lost, but The Boys From Brazil is so well-constructed it can be forgiven for its lapses. The backdrop of history provides a terrific crux for the narrative and the theme of cloning has a certain ring of controversial topicality in this time of ever-growing scientific power and discovery. We also get a thrilling and disturbing game of cat and mouse that builds to a violent crescendo as Lieberman tracks Mengele and the two try to defeat one another. The Boys from Brazil certainly presents an intriguing albeit horrifying what if? theme that is hard to shake off once you’ve watched this film. It may bring in elements of science fiction but regardless of this, you’re left pondering what would happen if any of the events portrayed where to actually happen. Jerry Goldsmith is on hand to provide a grand but slickly menacing score, filled with marauding brass and pounding drums to increase and accentuate the thrilling and supremely tense atmosphere.

In a convincing departure from the usually respectable and upstanding characters he played, Gregory Peck exudes menace and madness as Mengele, who sets in motion a terrifying plan. Laurence Olivier excellently imbues the role of Lieberman with a tired quality but also the determination and wit to fight against the bizarre plot posed to him and the world. When Peck and Olivier finally lock horns late into the film, it is one electrifying encounter that can’t be underestimated in terms of its effectiveness as the battle between them becomes physical and well as mental. James Mason makes an impression as the loyal accomplice to Mengele, who increasingly begins to doubt his plan as the net closes in on his friend. Lilli Palmer is used well enough as Lieberman’s concerned sister Esther, while Uta Hagen makes the most of her one scene as a former Concentration Camp guard in on the scheme by giving her character a reticence and creepy demeanor. A young Steve Guttenberg portrays the curious Barry Kohler, whose stumbling onto the plot leads to his demise.

Thrilling, disturbing and at times quite frightening, the outlandish plot given gravity by Peck and Olivier make The Boys from Brazil a haunting film of bizarre suspense and strange paranoia.

 

 

 

 

The Omen

Tags

1970's, Billie Whitelaw, David Warner, Gregory Peck, Harvey Stephens, Horror, Lee Remick, Patrick Troughton, Richard Donner, The Omen

Film Title

The Omen

Director

Richard Donner

Starring

• Gregory Peck as Robert Thorn
• Lee Remick as Katherine Thorn
• David Warner as Keith Jennings
• Harvey Stephens as Damien Thorn
• Billie Whitelaw as Mrs Baylock
• Patrick Troughton as Father Brennan

Laced with dread and filled with chilling scenes a plenty, The Omen has lost none of its original scares and continues to be a creepy film filled with doom-laden prophecies and slow-building horror that is extremely haunting.

Robert Thorn is a diplomat who is stationed in Rome. Whilst there he learns that his wife Katharine had a baby son who died in childbirth. Fearing what this may do to his wife and at the suggestion of an old priest, Robert secretly adopts a newly born orphan. The boy is named Damien and Katherine loves him dearly, though Robert is the only person who knows that the child isn’t her biological child. As Damien grows up and Robert is instated as Ambassador to Great Britain, strange events begin to occur. This begins with Damien’s young nanny gleefully hanging herself at his birthday party, exclaiming “It’s all for you Damien”. Damien reacts violently towards his parents attempting to take him into a church. When taken on a trip to the zoo, the animals run scared of the child and then proceed to attack the car. Mrs Baylock, a new nanny arrives on the scene with an alarming insistence on protecting the boy along with a sinister Rottweiler that guards him from others.  Scared and unsure by these strange and unsettling events, he is confronted by Father Brennan, who warns him that Damien is not of this world and isn’t the little angel he appears to be. He is in fact the Antichrist, who will destroy mankind and rise up into power, according to a biblical prophecy. Robert doesn’t believe these claims at first, but as time goes by he begins to see the truth in them and the fact that he will have to kill Damien in order to protect the world from apocalypse. Helping Robert along the way in this terrifying journey of discovery is Keith Jennings, a photographer who has picked up the events from the photographs he has taken that contain subtle references to death. Ominous atmosphere, religious overtones and chilling menace all combine to make The Omen a chilling horror film to watch.

Richard Donner effortlessly crafts a ghoulish atmosphere of impending doom with his excellent direction. As the story unravels little by little, the tension is amped up by the creepy revelations surrounding Damien. Donner successfully exploits every parents worst nightmare that their child may be evil and with this gives us another iconic creepy movie child in the form of the angelic-looking Damien. We also get some inventive death scenes that still generate a fright, the most creepy being an unfortunate victim being impaled by a church spire. Suspenseful moments abound in The Omen, with the highlights being baboons attacking the car in which Damien is in and Robert and Keith being menaced in a deserted graveyard by vicious dogs. No review of The Omen would be complete without mentioning the exceptional score by Jerry Goldsmith, which combines pounding drums with chilling Latin chanting to create an atmosphere of religious themes and encroaching destruction. Goldsmith also manages to create lilting themes for the opening scenes of family joy which are then juxtaposed with the menace and dread brought about by Damien’s evil origins.

Gregory Peck is outstanding as Robert, whose past misdeed has come back to haunt him. We watch as he wrestles with the knowledge that he must kill Damien in order to stop the spread of evil. Peck admirably conveys the complex emotions of his character with assured dexterity and we genuinely feel his dilemma. Lee Remick embodies the anxiety and vulnerability as his wife, who is the first to suspect there is something not right with her boy. David Warner is suitably frightened but determined as the photographer who has noticed warnings in his pictures. And then of course we have Harvey Stephens as Damien. He is nothing short of mesmerizing as we watch through subtle gestures the extent of his evil, which is belied by his angelic face and innocent curls but hinted at by his ambiguous smiles. Billie Whitelaw is menace personified as Satan’s protector in the form of a nanny who will stop at nothing to ensure that her evil charge prevails in his legacy of doom. Patrick Troughton is intense and foreboding as the priest who warns of the harm Damien will inflict on the world if he isn’t stopped.

Chilling and frightening, The Omen is a horror film that isn’t to be missed for fans of the genre.

Arabesque

Tags

1960's, Alan Badel, Arabesque, Gregory Peck, Kieron Moore, Sophia Loren, Spy, Stanley Donen, Thriller

Film Title

Arabesque

Director

Stanley Donen

Starring

• Gregory Peck as David Pollock
• Sophia Loren as Yasmin Azir
• Alan Badel as Beshraavi
• Kieron Moore as Yussef Kasim
• Carl Duering as Hassan Jena
• John Merivale as Sloane

Arabesque may not quite meet the heights of its predecessor Charade, but it is still an enjoyable, stylish spy yarn with a great cast. Backed by an ever reliable Henry Mancini score and some stunning camerawork, Arabesque is exciting and thrilling to watch.

Professor David Pollock is a an expert lecturer in hieroglyphics and is teaching in London. Out of nowhere he is contacted by Hassan Jena, a Middle Eastern Prime Minister who believes his life is in danger. Initially unsure and very reluctant, David Pollock accepts as the key to the mystery seems to lie in a hieroglyphic code. He infiltrates the organisation of Beshraavi, a wealthy man believed to be the ringleader of the plot against the Prime Minister. The mystery continues to enthrall as David tries to crack the code whilst under the villainous eye of Beshraavi, who has a pet hawk that is prone to attacking when someone disobeys the master. The plot becomes even more complicated because of Yasmin Azir, Beshraavi’s lover whose motives are enigmatic to say the least. So kick back and enjoy as the stylish, tongue-in-cheek espionage tale as it twists and turns like a serpent and sends the ordinary hero into an extraordinary web of international intrigue.

From the opening credits of geometric shapes and patterns designed by Maurice Binder, you know you’re going to get a very visually arresting film. And that’s just right as Stanley Donen employs his camera in inventive angles and makes incredible use of reflection and distortion. Nowhere is this more apparent than in David and Yasmin’s thrilling escape and subsequent chase through London Zoo, whilst being pursued by killers. The usage of reflection, cages and varying surfaces adds to the tense atmosphere as the two characters try to evade being found, whilst the reflections play havoc with the killer’s eyes. Only in one scene in which David is drugged and ends up in a psychedelic stupor does the film show it’s age, but for the most part the visual look is immensely spellbinding. Although comic in many aspects of the film, Donen still manages to crank up the suspense as mentioned prior and in later scenes. A tense Ascot sequence in which David attempts to regain the inscription whilst other men aim for it is reminiscent of Hitchcock. And a pursuit through a viaduct is also perfectly executed. Although it may become a little too complicated at times, Arabesque still retains a fun and enthralling edge as David finds himself in increasingly bizarre situations.

The other main asset to the film is the cast, led by Gregory Peck who excellently embodies the unlikely hero thrust into intriguing circumstances as a result of his gift for cracking codes. He has a sparkling chemistry with Sophia Loren, as we watch them suss whether the other is lying in the tangled web of intrigue. A particular highlight of this is when David is forced to hide in her shower and Yasmin playfully and seductively tries to get the code whilst Beshraavi prowls in search of her. Sophia Loren exudes exotic glamour and enigmatic splendor as Yasmin, looking ravishing in Christian Dior gowns while constantly testing David with her dubious methods. Fleshing out the supporting cast is Alan Badel as the sunglasses sporting, hawk loving slime ball Beshraavi, he cleverly emits oily charm as he puts his nefarious plot into motion. Keiron Moore is another enigmatic presence in the tangled web of lies and deception. John Merivale emerges as the most memorable of the many henchman in the film, enduring the put upon deeds and suffering when he doesn’t do the job properly.

If its international espionage with glamour, exotic characters and red herrings a plenty, Arabesque is a must watch for you.

The Bravados

Tags

1950's, Gregory Peck, Henry King, Joan Collins, Stephen Boyd, The Bravados, Western

Film Title

The Bravados

Director

Henry King

Cast

• Gregory Peck as Jim Douglas
• Joan Collins as Josefa Velarde
• Stephen Boyd as Bill Zachary
• Albert Salmi as Ed Taylor
• Henry Silva as Lujan
• Lee Van Cleef as Alfonso Parral
• Herbert Rudley as Sheriff Eloy Sanchez
• Joe DeRita as Simms

A powerful and brooding western about revenge and redemption, The Bravados boasts an impeccable central performance from Gregory Peck. Thrillingly scored and impressively shot, the film is a grim parable of a man driven to the extremes by the need for vengeance against those he holds responsible for the shattering of his world.

The Bravados begins with Jim Douglas, a rancher who has been hunting a quartet of outlaws for over a period of six months, arrives in the quiet town of Rio Arriba. His journey is for revenge against the four men he believes raped and murdered his wife. The four men are due to hang the next day for other crimes they have committed. After talking with the sheriff, he is allowed to see the four criminals, who are led by the crafty Bill . He observes them but none of them seem to recall his face. The arrival of Jim coincides with the other arrival of Simms, the man charged with carrying out the hanging. Jim also meets Josefa, an old flame who has wondered about Jim since she last saw him five years ago. Later that night, whilst the townspeople are at mass, Simms who it is revealed is in league with the criminals helps them escape. The quartet quickly steal a few horses and take a local man’s daughter captive as they ride away to escape justice. Jim, with the help of a few local men, shortly follows them through various gorges and mountains, all in a single-minded quest to eliminate the men he believes have caused him so much pain.

Visually, Henry King’s revenge-riddled film is a marvel containing gorges soaked in gold and dust that juxtapose with images of Jim relentlessly and violently pursuing the outlaws. Also, the scenes at night bathed in blue hues as we watch a man get in touch with his darker impulses and wrestle with his morality. The score is adventurous and contributes to the danger of the journey ahead for the characters, especially Jim. Gregory Peck turns in a powerful performance of bitterness, vengeance and determination that pushes him to the brink of madness. As we watch him hunt down the men, we are left to wonder whether they have really committed the crime he accuses them of. Peck embodies these conflicted emotions excellently and conveys a deep pain within his character as his relentless quest continues to its end and his morals are called into question. Joan Collins stars as his former love interest who still carries a torch for him, but her part is underwritten and she is miscast. Despite this, she does manage some effective moments, mainly when she gets Peck’s character to confront his loss of faith after his wife’s death. Out of the gang of outlaws, Stephen Boyd makes the biggest impression as the de facto leader Bill. He possesses a sinister smile and unnerving demeanor that come into play when he toys with the emotions of the girl they have taken captive. The many shoot outs and chases on horseback are entertaining, but what gives the film a uniqueness is the dedication to the characters as they emotionally unravel through revenge and remorse.

In my opinion, The Bravados is an underrated film that deserves more notice. It may not be up there with the best westerns, but it certainly burns itself deep into the mind after viewing it.