WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS (1956)

Solely based on the lurid posters and DVD cover, you would think that WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS was a straight up pre-PSYCHO horror movie about a serial killer preying on innocent women. But, just like how Jesus says in Matthew 7:46: “And Jesus said unto Asmodeus, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover.’”, so should you not judge WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS by it’s artwork.

After a mildly startling opener featuring a poor woman who just wants to take a bath without getting murdered, we’re introduced to media mogul Robert Warwick who’s so attached to his job that he has his literal death bed in his office! He has two regrets in his life: one, his shitty douche of a son (played brilliantly by Vincent Price) and two: not officially naming faithful TV anchorman Dana Andrews as the person to take over his empire when he croaks…which he does like 5 seconds later. His death puts Price in charge and his first order of business is pitting his main bosses into an all out war with each other. And that includes one dude who’s long-dicking Price’s own wife! Goddamn! Added to all this (don’t forget we still got a serial killer running around) there’s a subplot about Andrew’s fiancé, Sally Forrest, who also works at the news network and happens to live across the hallway from Price’s wife’s fuck shack! And, if that wasn’t enough, you have writer Ida Lupino getting in the middle of everything. It’s awesome.

As always, I went into the movie totally blind and I ended up having a lot of fun. I was straight-up shocked by the star-power in the movie (both in front and behind the camera) and very impressed by the maturity of the script. Overall, I found WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS to be a great discovery (to me, at least) and recommend it to fans of older Hollywood. The only thing that really stood out as a negative was Sally Forrest's hair.

Not part of the review, but a few interesting(?) things that I discovered while reading about the movie: the original 1953 novel, named "The Bloody Spur" (no clue what the fuck that means) was written by Charles Einstein who is the half-brother of both Albert Brooks and Bob Einstein! The killer was played by John Drew Barrymore, who is the son of John Barrymore and the father of Drew Barrymore!

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)

Jimmy Stewart has lived his entire life in the small town of Bedford Falls, New York.  As a child his main goal in life was to escape the town and explore the world.  That never happened.  Life and Fate prevented his ever leaving, but maybe that wasn't so bad because he ended up marrying the beautiful Donna Reed, having some cute children and giving the townsfolk a banking alternative to the wicked Lionel Barrymore who is a slumlord and runs the towns biggest bank. (I always get a kick out of seeing Lionel play an evil character, since, in my mind, I always see him as Kringelein from GRAND HOTEL.)  Things are actually going pretty good for Stewart...all the way up until Christmas Eve, 1945.  That's when Stewart's banking partner, Thomas Mitchell, makes a foolish mistake which could destroy Stewart's life and pretty much the hopes of the entire town.  Stewart is beside himself with fear and decides to throw himself into the river to make it look like an accidental drowning.  That way his family could cash in on his life insurance.  But then, right as he's about to jump, some blinking star creatures send an angel down to talk some sense into him and show him what life would be like if he had never been born.

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE is a wonderful film with great acting from an impressive cast.  It also looks really nice, but one of the things that always bothered me is when Stewart turned down his childhood friends offer of investing in plastics.  His friend ends up filthy rich and Stewart ends up literally one mistake away from suicide!  I felt that twist in the story was unneeded.  Another thing that bothered me: the last act went completely over the top with the unrealistic sentimentality.  And Lionel Barrymore never got any punishment for being a total asshole for decades or for stealing the other banks money!  And while the "never been born" part was very entertaining, it was (for somebody like myself who cannot see that my being alive is beneficial to anybody) kinda depressing.  If an angel-in-training was ever sent to talk me out of suicide with this "never been born" bullshit, he'd probably slit my throat and walk home defeated and wingless.

That said, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE is still required viewing for anybody who loves Cinema...mainly because of the acting.  Also (for anybody keeping score), I fully believe that THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES was the correct choice for Best Picture of the Year.  It's simply a better film than IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE.