Rod Steiger

The Pawnbroker

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Sol, with the bars of his pawnbroker's shop casting a shadow on his face

The Pawnbroker used to be a prestige movie, both when it came out in 1964 and for decades afterwards. It’s lost some of its sheen over the years, for a variety of reasons. Films referencing the Holocaust are no longer as scarce as they were when the Beatles were first conquering America. Rod Steiger’s star has also waned. Once seen as a rival to Brando, Steiger is now often regarded as a ham using Method techniques to disguise overacting. And the Method itself, of course, also no longer commands the respect it once did. There is still much to admire in the film though, and in Steiger’s performance, which he promised director Sidney … Read more

The Magic Mountain

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Hans kisses the hand of Clawdia

There are two versions of the 1982 adaptation of Thomas Mann’s weighty novel The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg). One is the theatrical cut, which came in at about 153 minutes. The other is the TV cut, which weighs in at an epic 312 minutes over three instalments. That’s the one I watched yesterday, all five hours and a chunk of it, having taken heed of reviews complaining about the theatrical cut’s lack of coherence. The theatrical cut is a lousy edit is the gist of the complaints. As to the full-fat version, it was easier to digest than I’d expected. I suspect the complaints about the theatrical cut are right. In the long … Read more

The Harder They Fall

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Humphrey Bogart close up

The Harder They Fall is Humphrey Bogart’s farewell movie. He’d been diagnosed with oesophageal cancer not long before shooting started and knew he didn’t have long to live. Though he looks tired and ill, it doesn’t affect his performance. In fact it probably enhances it. Careworn individuals being something of a Bogart speciality. In a version of the character he’d been playing since The Maltese Falcon made him a superstar and Casablanca reinforced it, Bogart is a journalist down on his luck who is hired by a boxing promoter to puff his boy to the heavens and turn him into a champion. This in spite of the fact that the kid cannot fight, … Read more

The Big Knife

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Ida Lupino and Jack Palance

1955’s The Big Knife is where a lot of people turn when they fancy another wallow in the filth and corruption of showbiz and have already done In a Lonely Place or The Sweet Smell of Success. The line-up looks promising. It’s based on a play by Clifford Odetts, who co-wrote the screenplay for In a Lonely Place with Ernest Lehman. It’s directed by Robert Aldrich, who liked to hang around in dark corners (Kiss Me Deadly, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane) and the director of photography is Ernest Laszlo, a master of dramatic lighting (Stalag 17, While the City Sleeps, Inherit the Wind). The cast is promising too. What you need … Read more