Desperate to save his father's ranch, cowboy Joel McCrea quietly robs a bank for
$2,000 and leaves an I.O.U. that he intends on paying the money back.
McCrea barely gets away by jumping on a train, but not before getting bitten by
a rattlesnake. A nurse onboard the train (Frances Dee) tends to his wound
and naturally becomes interested in him. Meanwhile, the banker is outraged
over the robbery and he puts a massive bounty on McCrea's head. So
now everybody in the territory is after him! Back on the train, a fellow
passenger, Monte Marquez (Joseph Calleia without his mustache), has discovered
that McCrea is wanted, but he senses that McCrea is a good man so he covers for
him on more than one occasion. McCrea narrowly manages to stays one step
ahead of the coppers, but his conscience and his desire to have a future with
Dee causes him a lot of internal conflict.
I was really surprised by FOUR FACES WEST. The only thing I knew about it
going into it was it starred Joel McCrea and his real-life wife Frances Dee
(they had been together for 13 years in 1948 and would remain together until his
death in 1990) and it ended up being a great little, slightly off-beat
western. First off the scenes between McCrea and Dee were fantastic.
There was no disguising their attraction for each other. Besides that, the
story was really good, the action moved along quickly, the acting was great, the
scenery beautiful and most surprisingly is there was never one single gun fired
or punch thrown in the entire film! I can't even recall another western as
exciting as this one that didn't even have at least a fight of some kind.
Highly recommended for classic western fans.
Saturday, May 24, 2014
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT (1940)
In the months leading up to WWII an American newspaper boss is frustrated with
the lack of reliable information coming from his foreign correspondents, so he
assigns a no nonsense crime reporter (McCrea) to the task. McCrea's first
assignment in Europe is to interview a Dutch diplomat named Van Meer.
Things happen and Van Meer is assassinated as he's talking to McCrea.
McCrea chases the killer and in doing so discovers that the victim of the
killing was a double and Van Meer is actually alive! McCrea is persuaded
to briefly hold on to this information while they try to rescue Van Meer.
Meanwhile, enemy assassins are trying to kill McCrea and suppress his story.
I wasn't all that impressed with FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT. The assassination scene and the subsequent chase scene are both well made and exciting...although the cops reaction times during the assassination were pathetic. Other than those two sections (and a few bright moments with Laraine Day as McCrea's love interest), the rest of the movie is pretty dull. Yeah, I'm sure audiences were thrilled at the airplane scene (although not too thrilled since the film lost money), but watching it nowadays it just doesn't hold up. Moderate pace that needed speeding up, average acting, a large number of distracting mistakes, lots of scenes are obviously rear projected, heavy-handed propaganda throughout including the ending. Worth a watch for those interested in Alfred Hitchcock, but it's nothing to get overly excited for.
After watching the film I did some reading up and I found this interesting quote from Joel McCrea talking about Hitchcock: "He had a habit of drinking champagne for lunch and I remember one day after lunch we shot a boring scene with me just standing there talking. After it was over I expected to hear him call 'cut', but I looked over and he was sleeping, snoring with his lips sticking out. I called for the cut, he woke up and asked if the scene was good. I said 'The best in the picture.' and he said, 'Print it.'"
I wasn't all that impressed with FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT. The assassination scene and the subsequent chase scene are both well made and exciting...although the cops reaction times during the assassination were pathetic. Other than those two sections (and a few bright moments with Laraine Day as McCrea's love interest), the rest of the movie is pretty dull. Yeah, I'm sure audiences were thrilled at the airplane scene (although not too thrilled since the film lost money), but watching it nowadays it just doesn't hold up. Moderate pace that needed speeding up, average acting, a large number of distracting mistakes, lots of scenes are obviously rear projected, heavy-handed propaganda throughout including the ending. Worth a watch for those interested in Alfred Hitchcock, but it's nothing to get overly excited for.
After watching the film I did some reading up and I found this interesting quote from Joel McCrea talking about Hitchcock: "He had a habit of drinking champagne for lunch and I remember one day after lunch we shot a boring scene with me just standing there talking. After it was over I expected to hear him call 'cut', but I looked over and he was sleeping, snoring with his lips sticking out. I called for the cut, he woke up and asked if the scene was good. I said 'The best in the picture.' and he said, 'Print it.'"
Lights above the set clearly visible.
"Excuse me sir, it appears your mustache has fallen off."
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