FLOATING CLOUDS (1955)

Bust out yer handkerchiefs!  This is a sad one.

1946.  Looking to escape her brother-in-law who "violated" her, 22-year-old Yukiko (Hideko Takamine) takes a job as a typist in Indochina.  While there she falls in love with co-worker Tomioka (Masayuki Mori) who's not only married, but also a womanizing playboy as well.  Eventually he goes back to his wife in Japan and Yukiko follows.  She's brokenhearted and endlessly pines away for this guy.  As the years pass they both have relationships with other people but still end up together over and over and over again.  It's kind of fascinating in a way because while they're obviously not good for each other (and they know it) they've somehow grown this unbreakable bond that prevents them from ever being apart for too long.

This is only my second Mikio Naruse film and I thought it was fantastic.  Not only was it an engaging story but it features three of the top actors from WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIRS!  Hideko Takamine, Masayuki Mori and Daisuke Kato...how cool is that?!  Now I can't wait to see what other Naruse films I can locate.  Anyway, back to FLOATING CLOUDS...I really enjoyed Naruse's naturalistic style and how he kept showing the two main characters walking side-by-side.  It almost seemed like a way to show the passage of time.  Anyway, while the direction was masterful I was once again captivated by Hideko Takamine's performance.  She conveys so much with just her face and body language.  It's beautiful to watch.  Masayuki Mori ain't too shabby either.  

Highly recommended, but very depressing.

ARMORED CAR ROBBERY (1950)

With only a runtime of 67 minutes ARMORED CAR ROBBERY doesn't mess around.  The opening scene shows the main bad guy (William Talman) casing the location for a armored car robbery: Los Angeles' Wrigley Field (later demolished in 1969).  Wrigley Field is at the end of the armored cars route and based on the phony robbery calls he's put in, they'll have 3 minutes to grab all the loot they can before the cops show up.  Unfortunately, on the day of the robbery, a passing police car (with Lt. Charles McGraw and partner in it) spoil their fun.  During the shoot-out, McGraw's partner is killed.  Now he's pissed and will stop at nothing to track down the bastards who killed his buddy.  Add onto that, one of the bad guys is banging the other bad guys burlesque dancer wife and you got yourself an exciting film!

No non-sense pace, strong direction by Richard Fleischer, nice camerawork, good acting all around by a talented cast, great script that doesn't pull any punches, awesome Los Angeles location scenery, lots of cool old cars.  Honestly, ARMORED CAR ROBBERY is just an excellent little film.  Yeah, it's dated, but I think fans of film noir and older heist films will have a blast watching it.  It would make a entertaining double-feature with Kubrick's similar THE KILLING.  Recommended.

Crew reflected in passing car.