RAMROD (1947)

Made at pretty much the height of Hollywood's classic film noir period, RAMROD shares a lot of similarities with film noir: stark B&W photography filled with deep shadows, a sexy femme fatale, brutal violence and a grim story.

Veronica Lake is the daughter of a rancher (Charles Ruggles) who himself is under the thumb of an even more powerful cattleman, Preston Foster.  Her father wants her to marry Foster but she wants nothing of it.  When the film opens yet another rancher (and the man Veronica loves) is being ran out of town with his tail between his legs.  Before he leaves he signs his ranch over to Lake since he believes that she has a better chance of making it work than she does.  The first thing she does is hire local ranch hand Joel McCrea to be ranch foreman.  He knows this is the beginning of a violent range war so he only agrees if Veronica swears to play on the side of the law and make the other sides out to be the bad guys.  She agrees, but soon tires at McCreas slow pace. She starts using her feminine ways ("From now on I'm gonna make a life of my own.  And being a woman I won't have to use guns.") to speed up the process, but it only ends up creating more bloodshed.

RAMROD is a interesting western.  The story is complex.  In fact, when the film starts there's so much stuff going on it almost feels like you just walked in on the middle of the picture.  The casting is brilliant.  I especially liked the casting of the normally comedic Charles Ruggles as Lake's serious father.  The direction by Andre De Toth (who was Lake's real life husband at the time) is confident and the camerawork by Russell Harlen is very impressive and a joy to watch.  Recommended for western fans. 

My only reservation is Veronica Lake herself.  She does a fine job, but I think somebody like Barbara Stanwyck would have brought much more depth to the character.

Boom mic shadow.

Blink and you'll miss Jeff Corey as a hotel employee.

THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH (1955)

Publishing executive Tom Ewell has a very active imagination.  So when his wife and kid go on a summer vacation, leaving him in NYC as a "summer bachelor" his imagination goes wild thinking about all of the woman who are just dying at the chance to sleep with him.  His mind then goes into ludicrous speed when perky Marilyn Monroe moves in upstairs.  Can't really say that I blame him though cause Marilyn is about as adorable, cute and sexy as I can ever remember seeing her.

THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH could have gone all kinds of directions, but since this was 1955 it goes the safe route and ends up being kinda disappointing.  Writer/Director Billy Wilder later called the film "a nothing picture" because of the censorship that prevented him from having Ewell's character sleeping with Marilyn, but I still like it.  Yeah, if it would have been made a decade later the subject of adultery wouldn't have been forbidden, but it wouldn't have featured Marilyn either.  And Marilyn is, far and away, the highlight of this movie.  Sadly though she doesn't have near the screentime that Ewell does.  His overactive imagination is humorous, but after a while it starts to wear thin.

Multiple fantasy scenes, 50's fashions, Robert Strauss cheesing it up as usual, Donald MacBride yelling the word "hootenanny", Morticia Addams dressed up as a horny nurse, references to RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and a small reference to homosexuals ("...and two guys on the top, interior decorators or something.") that somehow slipped through the cracks.  Worth a watch for classic movie fans and if you happen to get bored during the non-Marilyn scenes you can pass the time trying to figure out where little Ricky's bedroom is in that cramped apartment.