SOYLENT GREEN (1973)

In the year 2022, the world is all kinds of fucked up.  Industrialization, overpopulation (New York City itself is over 40 million people!) and global warming has destroyed the environment and now food is extremely expensive...too bad most people don't even have a job.

One evening, homicide detective Charlton Heston is called in to investigate the murder of wealthy businessman Joseph Cotten who has been beaten to death in his apartment.  Heston thinks that everything is too convenient to be a botched robbery: the security system was down, the bodyguard and the concubine were both out shopping, plus there was nothing stolen despite the fact there was tons of food and other luxury items all over the place.  The bosses tell Heston to lay off, but he keeps investigating on his own and the further he digs the more sinister things appear.

I enjoyed SOYLENT GREEN.  Younger audiences will probably find it overly simple (and it is), but I still enjoyed it.  The set designs and special effects were that special brand of early 70's, big studio efforts that look like crap nowadays, but yet I really like them.  It's strange.

Charlton Heston is always a treat to watch and Edward G. Robinson (who died just twelve days after filming...he knew his cancer was terminal, but finished out the film all the same) is great!  I couldn't help thinking the entire movie about how much I appreciated him and his contributions to Cinema.

Anyway, the biggest shocker to me was how unshocking the ending was.  There was this big buildup and then...nothing.  I'm not going to give away the ending here, just in case you don't know, but if somebody watching this movie hasn't figured out the ending within the first 20 minutes then you have to be a moron.  It's actually comical how flat the ending is.  That said, the scenes depicting overcrowding and people not even knowing what deer or trees were are haunting.

Worth a watch.  I would love to see a hard-hitting, super depressing remake. Maybe even a limited series on HBO.

DEAD END (1937)

Interesting, but dated social commentary piece set in a NYC tenement block located right outside of a luxury apartment building.  Why anybody with enough money to buy a luxury condo would want to have their balcony overlooking a ghetto filled with nonstop screaming and shooting, I have no idea but that's what happens here.  Anyway, down in the Depression-era 'hood you got a bunch of teenage boys who yell and holler 24/7.  These fuckers never shut up.  All day long they talk shit about people and about how their gonna beat the crap out of everybody.  Then you got the sad sack adults who walk around all day like zombies.  One scumbag woman even steals a cookie from a baby!  There's also unemployed Joel McCrea who has the hots for a rich girl and Sylvia Sidney who has the hots for Joel McCrea.  Entering into this heavy drama are hoodlums Humphrey Bogart and Allen Jenkins.  Bogie is wanted for multiple murders, but risks coming out in the open to see his mom and ex-girlfriend.  Things don't go as planned and further drama unfolds in da 'hood.

The story for DEAD END is okay and the acting is passable, but it's all so dated and cliche that there's really no power left in it.  It's an interesting watch, from a historical point of view and/or from the career perspective of the stars (I was really into the scenes between Bogart and Claire Trevor since I knew they would work together again in KEY LARGO), but if you don't have the time to spend you'd be better off watching something like I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG or even GRAND HOTEL.

On a positive note: the Dead End Kids weren't as annoying here as they were in ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES, there was a strong supporting cast (including Ward Bond, Marjorie Main, James Burke, Minor Watson, Charles Halton) and the set was very impressive.  Director William Wyler wanted to shoot the film on location in the slums of NYC, but Samuel Goldwyn said no and had set designer Richard Day recreate the waterfront location entirely on a sound stage.  Day ended up receiving a Oscar nomination for his work.