My Week of Movie Watching

Unfaithfully Yours – The original Preston Sturges version from 1948 with Rex Harrison as a conductor who comes to believe his wife (Linda Darnell) is cheating on him with his secretary. Sturges was, to me, a comic genius, and this film is a good illustration of why. It uses a prolonged daydream sequence during a concert to lay out Harrison’s plan to murder his wife and pin it on the secretary. In the imagined version everything is crisp and precise. Then, the time comes to put the plan into play, and things just go to shit. The anchor of UY is a great comic performance by Harrison, who goes from being urbane and cheerful to a pompous lout as he starts to suspect the worst. I put this film in the class of Sturges masterpieces like Sullivan’s Travels and The Lady Eve. Highly recommended.

Note: Remade in 1984 with Dudley Moore and Nastassja Kinski. That version is OK, but the original is the gold standard.

After Hours – This strange comedy always gets forgotten when people talk about the films of Martin Scorcese. After Hours details the worst night ever, as spent by a guy (Griffith Dunne) who tries to hook up with a girl he meets in a coffee shop (Rosanna Arquette). AH is built on a dream-like plot where Dunne’s Paul is trying to get back home, and keeps getting foiled by illogical events and co-incidences. Certain characters keep cycling back into the plot, and gumming up Pauls plan. This includes a sculptress who seems to be into S & M, a pair of thieves, a kindly bartender, his needy barmaid, and a band of vigilantes chasing a robber. This film is really cleverly plotted, in that the events dovetail into each other in unexpected ways, and culminates in one of the most memorably comical endings ever. Recommended.

This Sporting Life – Another in the tradition of British “Angry Young Man” films, which includes stuff like Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and Look Back in Anger. Richard Harris plays a hard-driving rugby player who dreams of making the big leagues, and settling down with the woman he lodges with (Rachel Roberts). She is a widow who is unable to let go of her dead husband. Their relationship forms the heart of the movie, as Harris’ Frank alternates between brutish behavior (Their first sex is pretty much a rape), and tenderness (As he plays with her children). A bit long, and not a feel-good watch, but well worth the effort, mainly for the performances of the two leads.

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie – First time seeing this John Cassavetes number. Ben Gazzara plays a strip club owner who gets in hock over gambling debts and is forced to carry out a hit. This one was seen by the director as a bit of a departure from his normal talky character studies, but in truth, it is still very much a Cassavetes film. Gazarras Cosmo is a good-natured guy who just wants to enjoy life. When we see him squiring around three of his girls, and popping champagne in his limo, we are seeing the life he likes. When the mob puts its foot down on his debts, it’s more a sadness and resignation that fear that he feels. I loved the interaction with Cosmo and the mob guys, who are, after all, his friends. The killing is presented so as to be almost anti-climactic – It’s just a shitty chore to be done. My one quibble with this is that it is a bit long. There are a couple of scenes in the strip club that might have been pared back, but overall, I recommend this.