The Eternal Breasts (Kinuyo Tanaka, 1955): Earlier this week I watched Kinoshita's The Ballad of Narayarma starring Kinuyo Tanaka as the crone Orin. Just a few days later I find myself taking my first plunge into her work as a director with the 1955 melodrama The Eternal Breasts. Fumiko Shimojō (Yumeji Tsukioka) is a put upon housewife to a philandering husband and mother of two young children. Early on she summons the courage to leave her husband, but soon receives a breast cancer diagnosis. She undergoes a double mastectomy which is shown in remarkable detail (including a pair of bare stunt breasts--something I don't remember ever seeing before in a Japanese film from this era), and takes up poetry during her recovery. As her fame as a poet increases, so does her illness. In her final days she begins a relationship with a younger reporter, Akira Ōtsuki (Ryōji Hayama). The two fall in love, but with Fumiko deathly ill, their happiness is short lived. This was a remarkable film, with a frank exploration of female desires (the main character asks her lover to make love to her--again, groundbreaking for its time). Unfortunately, the only edition I could find of it was extremely soft, and sepia toned with subtitles that blended in with the background. That meant that there were quite a few times where the subs were unreadable. What I could understand was fantastic though. I'd love to catch this with a proper release someday. It's also worth noting that Tanaka didn't have an easy time as a woman director in the 50s. No less than Kenji Mizoguchi, who had cast Tanaka in some of his most famous films, blocked her from having membership in Japan's Director Guild on the grounds that no woman should be allowed to direct a movie. Thank goodness she got the chance, because this film is excellent.
Funny Face (Stanley Donen, 1957): I'd long heard of the film, but never payed much attention to it until it came on my radar due to a recent article on women in philosophy. Like the character of Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn), the author dealt with the sexual advances of older men in the field that she wanted to study under. It's shocking how little has changed since this portrayal, but the field is overwhelmingly ossified in white heterosexual patriarchy. Anyway, in the film photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) finds himself wanting a more intellectual model than the one he's currently working with, so magazine editor Maggie Prescott (Kay Thompson) and him take over a local used bookstore operated by Jo. Despite wanting nothing to do with them, Dick frequently kisses Jo without her consent, and whisks her off to Paris where she becomes the new face of Prescott's fashion line. Despite being at least thirty years older than her, Jo falls for Dick as they explore the romantic city, but complications abound. The film seems to revel in the message that no woman is complete until her inner beauty is revealed on the outside, and that things like philosophy are silly pursuits for women and distractions from finding their man. There are some terrific song and dance numbers in it from Hepburn, Astaire, and Thompson, but the regressive nature of the film stood in my way of enjoying it.
Godzilla Raids Again (Motoyoshi Oda and Ishirô Honda, 1955): Having seen the original Godzilla and none of its sequels, I wondered how they got around
Kaagaz Ke Phool (Guru Dutt, 1959): My knowledge of Bollywood isn't very deep, but this romantic dramedy from actor/director Guru Dutt has been on my radar for a while along with a handful of other Indian films from the 50s. As a representative of what Bollywood has to offer, this isn't bad at all. Dutt plays troubled director Suresh Sinha, whose chance encounter on the street with the beautiful Shanti (Waheeda Rehman) leads to her becoming the lead in his new film. A la A Star is Born, she reaches the heights of fame, while his career takes a nosedive. With frequent musical interludes, the story is told in a refreshing perspective including some neat tricks with overlays. After watching this one, I'm really looking forward to checking out some other Indian films on my to-see-list for the project.
Machine Gun Kelly (Roger Corman, 1958): By the time that Roger Corman made the biopic of gangster Machine Gun Kelly (Charles Bronson), he had already cut his teeth on eighteen prior exploitation flicks made in just three years! This time we join the action as Kelly's gang have just robbed a bank and are making a get away. Before long we meet his moll, Flo (Susan Cabot), who acts as a kind of Lady Macbeth, egging her beaux on to ever increasing acts of brutality. Cracks in his gang give way to Kelly finalizing their split in a permanent manner, as he and Flo branch out into more profitable crimes. Soon they kidnaps a nine-year-old oil heiress and her nanny in an effort to extract a large ransom. But Kelly's own cruelty to his associates and underlings ultimately leads to his downfall in dramatic fashion. Corman knows how to get the most for the least amount, and did an admirable job with this flick. Bronson, who I'm usually not a fan of, does an excellent job here in the titular role. It's not high art, but it is good cheap fun.
No Way Out (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950): Sidney Poitier plays new doctor Luther Brooks in this race-tinged noir by Joseph Mankiewicz. While on duty, the racist brothers Ray (Richard Widmark) and George (Harry Bellaver), come in with leg wounds after they were both shot in a failed robbery. George exhibits other symptoms and dies in the middle of a spinal tap performed by Brooks. Unwilling to accept that his brother died of natural causes, Roy refuses to allow an autopsy and vociferously accuses Brooks of murder. Soon enough, Roy causes a race riot to breakout from his hospital bed. When Brooks concocts a plot to clear his name, Roy engineers his escape to get his revenge on the doctor. You wouldn't expect a film from 1950 to have the most progressive race politics, but here the black Brooks is shown as a brave professional with a loving wife played by the great Ruby Dee (her real life husband, Ossie Davis, also makes his debut here). While this is undoubtedly Poitier's film, no one plays a heavy like Widmark, and he really shines as the film's villain. It's definitely worth watching, but be warned. There are a LOT of uses of the n-word here, along with other anti-black slurs.
The Ogre of Athens (Nikos Koundouros, 1956): This light as air Greek comedy of mistaken identities was an interesting find. Thomas (Dinos Iliopoulos) is a meek bank clerk who's resemblance to a gangster known as "The Dragon" leads him to him being mistaken as the criminal by the police, the underworld, and the citizenry at large. The set up sounds like a remake of John Ford's The Whole Town's Talking, but the two movies couldn't be more different. While Edward G. Robinson's doppleganger shows up for wacky hijinx, we never meet the real Dragon. Instead the comedy comes from the character's anxiety over how deep he enters Athen's criminal world over the course of a night. With near constant diagetic music, the film is always airy and never overstays its welcome.