This is a tough tight, tangy exciting norish thriller about
the possibility of a plague hitting the city of New Orleans. The reason that
this is possible is because an illegal immigrant named Kochak brought it in via
a freighter and before he can actually die from it, he is shot down by some
criminal cronies of his who wants the money that he won in a card game. The
opening scene beautifully sets the action up and introduces us to the low lives
led by Walter Jack Palance in his movie debut as Blackie and his stooge played
by a bleating and sweating Zero Mostel. The two mensches of the film are a
police officer and a U.S. Public Health
official played by Paul Douglas and Richard Widmark ,who were two of Hollywood’s
finest post war actors. At first they are
at each other’s throats over what to do about this crisis, but they slowly come
around to each other. They are both wrecks because they have only 48 hours to
find the trail and the infected parties who threated the city, the country and
the world with this Pneumonic plague. Directed with beautiful style and
assurance by Elia Kazan who had already won an Oscar in 1947 for Gentleman’s
Agreement, and filmed mostly on location at night in a dark and fetid New Orleans
, this is not the city of and for tourists. Everything looks wet, dirty and diseased. Blackie who has a rundown Laundromat as a
legitimate front (he should put his black soul in one of the machines for a
good cleaning) has it in his head that Kochak’s cousin Poldi who is now also
dying from the plague has something of value that Kochak passed on to him, yeah
it’s the plague moron, and pushes and pulls at him in order to find out what
the valuable merchandise might be. There is a shocking scene in the film when
Blackie who is trying to get the dying Poldi out of his house so he can do
terrible things to him to find out what he is hiding throws him down a flight
of stairs when he is confronted by Widmark. Kazan contrasts these dark scenes with ones of
light and softness between Widmark and his wife played by the wonderful Barbara
Bel Geddes and his young son played by Tommy Rettig. Also of note is the final
chase where the rat like Blackie tries to escape his destiny and the beautiful
inky black and white cinematography by Joseph MacDonald and the pounding music
score by Alfred Newman. Winner of best original motion picture story Oscar . One
of the ten best films of the year.
This is a tough tight, tangy exciting norish thriller about
the possibility of a plague hitting the city of New Orleans. The reason that
this is possible is because an illegal immigrant named Kochak brought it in via
a freighter and before he can actually die from it, he is shot down by some
criminal cronies of his who wants the money that he won in a card game. The
opening scene beautifully sets the action up and introduces us to the low lives
led by Walter Jack Palance in his movie debut as Blackie and his stooge played
by a bleating and sweating Zero Mostel. The two mensches of the film are a
police officer and a U.S. Public Health
official played by Paul Douglas and Richard Widmark ,who were two of Hollywood’s
finest post war actors. At first they are
at each other’s throats over what to do about this crisis, but they slowly come
around to each other. They are both wrecks because they have only 48 hours to
find the trail and the infected parties who threated the city, the country and
the world with this Pneumonic plague. Directed with beautiful style and
assurance by Elia Kazan who had already won an Oscar in 1947 for Gentleman’s
Agreement, and filmed mostly on location at night in a dark and fetid New Orleans
, this is not the city of and for tourists. Everything looks wet, dirty and diseased. Blackie who has a rundown Laundromat as a
legitimate front (he should put his black soul in one of the machines for a
good cleaning) has it in his head that Kochak’s cousin Poldi who is now also
dying from the plague has something of value that Kochak passed on to him, yeah
it’s the plague moron, and pushes and pulls at him in order to find out what
the valuable merchandise might be. There is a shocking scene in the film when
Blackie who is trying to get the dying Poldi out of his house so he can do
terrible things to him to find out what he is hiding throws him down a flight
of stairs when he is confronted by Widmark. Kazan contrasts these dark scenes with ones of
light and softness between Widmark and his wife played by the wonderful Barbara
Bel Geddes and his young son played by Tommy Rettig. Also of note is the final
chase where the rat like Blackie tries to escape his destiny and the beautiful
inky black and white cinematography by Joseph MacDonald and the pounding music
score by Alfred Newman. Winner of best original motion picture story Oscar . One
of the ten best films of the year.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home