FILM REVIEW OF ''THE GARDEN OF EDEN" (1928)

Lewis Milestone enjoyed a long, prestigious career in Hollywood. He directed over 40 films, from the Oscar-winning Best Picture of 1930 "All Quiet on the Western Front," where he won the Best Director's Oscar, to the maritime Marlon Brando epic "Mutiny on the Bounty" in 1962. Milestone made his share of good World War II movies, principally "Edge of Darkness" and "A Walk in the Sun." Milestone's eleventh outing, the silent, black & white, romantic comedy "The Garden of Eden," is a tale of initiation based on a German play. Clocking in at a minimal 78 minutes, this lightweight but flirtatious "Cinderella" saga about a single girl who discovers Mr. Right generates a lot of laughs. Watching it is like watching a 1980s chick flick as the impressionable heroine finds true love and happiness after enduring some hardship. What most people will find entertaining about this silent movie is its modern sensibility. Is Madame Bauer a bisexual? Milestone proves above everything else that he had a nimble touch when it came to comedies. Of course, bona fide film geeks will appreciate the fact that William Cameron Menzies served as art director on this amusing piece of fluff. Menzies won an Oscar for "Gone with the Wind." The Academy recognized him for his "outstanding achievement in the use of color for the enhancement of dramatic mood in the production of Gone with the Wind." Interestingly, the year before "The Garden of Eden" came out, Menzies received his first Oscar for Best Art Direction for "The Dove" (1927) and the same year that "The Garden of Eden" (**** OUT OF ****) went into release, he received his second Oscar for "Tempest."

A headstrong but naïve young woman, Toni LeBrun (Corinne Griffith), decides to pursue a career as an opera singer. Before she can realize her dream, she has to abandon the pretzel making business at the Viennese bakery where she works with her aunt and uncle and leave town. Clearly, Toni cannot discuss this career decision with her relatives because she has to sneak out of their house and catch a late train for Budapest. "The Garden of Eden" depicts what happens when this optimistic, misguided girl from the country arrives alone in the big city, and goes to a metropolitan night club, the Palais de Paris, to audition for a role. Instead, Toni finds herself having to hoist her dress so that the business savvy manager, Madame Bauer (a masculine-looking Maude George of "The Marriage Bubble"), can gaze at them. "Good! I'm sure you'll be a great success as an opera singer," Bauer observes with more than a little irony. Bauer slips the cabaret seamstress, Rosa (Louise Dresser of "Salomy Jane"), a hand written message to put Toni in the 'Seemore' outfit. When the curtains rise at the Palais de Paris, Toni is stomping around backstage having a temper tantrum because of the modest costume that she has to wear. She refuses to wear it and Madame Bauer arrives in time to hear Toni's complaints. Bauer steps forward and reprimands Rosa for giving Toni such a revealing dress. Rosa reminds Bauer that she told her specifically to prepare the Seemore dress for Toni. Bauer approves a new dress, the Puritan costume, and Toni has no qualms about wearing this conservative apparel. Although it hasn't sunk into her head yet, Toni doesn't seem to realize that the Palais is a gentleman's club, and Madame Bauer is nothing less than a female pimp. One of Bauer's wealthy customers, Henri D'Avril (Lowell Sherman of "Satan in Sables"), wants to have a drink with Toni, and Bauer provides a private room for them. Rosa watches as a cabaret waiter locks Toni and Henri in the room. Eventually, after she drinks a couple of glasses of liquor, Toni freaks out and the lights go out. Rosa is frantic about this arrangement and pulls out her key to unlock the door. When the lights come on again in the private room, Henri finds himself kissing Rosa instead of Toni. Madame Bauer fires both Toni and Rosa on the spot. Rosa's response is to embark on her annual vacation where she lives like royalty at the Hotel Eden in Monte Carlo, and she drags Toni along with her. At the hotel, she signs register as Baron her in as her daughter Antoinette.

As they settle into their luxurious hotel room, Toni limbers her fingers up on a piano. She plays music that attracts the attention of a young man, Richard Dupont (Charles Ray of "Alias Julius Caesar") and he manages to get her attention. The remainder of this introduction scene and the bedroom scene later are two of the best scenes in "The Garden of Eden." The first one involves a system of signaling each other that they discover quite by accident. In other words, they flick the lights on and off in rapid succession. Before long everybody else in the hotel mimics them, much to Rosa's chagrin. Richard calls Toni on the phone, but winds up talking with Rosa. He wants to visit Toni in person and Rosa plans to surprise him, not unlike she did Henri at the Palais de Paris. Richard opens the wrong door and sees Toni at another door facing the room where Rosa is playing the piano. This entire scene is a masterpiece of blocking. Richard winds up stuck behind a door when Rosa undresses and then he cannot leave because uncle shows up to romance the ladies. At the last moment, he appears and ends up going to eat with them. The repetitive way that Richard has to dodge back and forth behind the door is hilarious. A scene almost as funny occurs not long afterward when Toni and Richard take a sleeping powder and struggle to stay awake. Eventually, Richard persuades Toni to marry him, but problems occur when Henri D'Avril shows up for Richard's wedding and exposes Toni for who she really is.

"The Garden of Eden" is fantastic!

FILM REVIEW OF ''ADIOS, SABATA" (Italian-1971)

Gianfranco Parolini’s “Adios, Sabata” (**** out of ****) ranks as one of the top 10 Spaghetti westerns of all time. Melodramatic scripting, scenic photography, clever dialogue, marvelously choreographed gunfights, flavorful music, and harsh rugged scenery make this outlandish Yul Brynner horse opera worth watching. No, it has nothing to do with the Lee Van Cleef movies oaters “Sabata” (1969) and “Return of Sabata” (1971). The original title for this exhilarating Yul Brynner shoot’em up was “Indio Black.” Like most successful Spaghetti westerns, it adopted the name of a profitable screen hero. Scores of westerns were named after “Django,” “Sartana,” and “Trinity.” Indeed, where Lee Van Cleef’s Sabata is elegant and well-dressed, Indio adopts the garb of a cavalry scout. He wears a fringed buckskin outfit. Unlike Sabata, who relied primarily on a derringer, Indio wields a sawed-off, lever-action, repeating carbine with a sideways ammunition magazine. He reserves the last chamber in each magazine for a cheroot. After he dispatches his adversaries, he takes the time to enjoy his tobacco. Black brandishes a derringer, too, but rarely uses it to kill. In fact, “Indio Black” remains the only Spaghetti western that Brynner made, but it qualifies as a superior sagebrusher with provocative, offbeat characters, a larger-than-life, six-fisted plot with loads of narrative foreshadowing, and one of composer Bruno Nicolai’s liveliest orchestral scores. Parolini lacks the baroque visual artistry of Sergio Leone. However, he knew how to tell a good story and he could stage interesting set-pieces. Parolini co-authored the screenplay with Renato Izzo who had penned “Kill and Pray” and “A Man Called Amen.”

Oscar-winning actor Yul Brynner plays a sympathetic, sharp-shooting, American soldier-of-fortune in black. He supports the Mexican revolutionaries in their cause to expel the Austrians from their country during the post American Civil War period. Hollywood hasn’t made that many memorable westerns about Emperor Maximilian’s reign over Mexico. The best of the bunch is Robert Aldrich’s “Vera Cruz,” rivaled only by Don Siegel’s “Two Mules for Sister Sara.” As the villain, Austrian Colonel Skimmel dresses as elegantly as he shoots straight, and he behaves like an egotist. Indeed, he has commissioned a portrait of himself. Skimmel has no qualms about killing and makes a splendid villain. He detests informers, exploits their information, and then kills them. Half-way between Sabata and Skimmel is Ballantine. This soldier-of-fortune (Dean Reed of “God Made Them... I Kill Them") is an opportunist who throws his lot in with Sabata. Actually, he has no qualms about getting whatever there is for himself and nobody else. “Three Crosses of Death” lenser Sandro Mancori captures the arid Spanish landscape in all its eternal grandeur and the vistas are beautiful. Mancori and Parolini hail from the school of filmmaking that relied heavily on zoom shots. “Indio Black” has more than its share of zoom shots. “Indio Black” emerges as a hugely entertaining western epic with the usual ritualistic conventions, such as duels and gunfights, intrigue, plot reversals, and outright surprises.

The action opens at a Catholic mission as the priest Father Mike addresses a young Mexican village boy, Juanito (Luciano Casamonica of “Tepepa”) laments the descent of mankind into savagery. “There is too much violence in the world.” Juanito reminds him the Murdock brothers deserve punishment because they stole everything from them. Ever gentle Father Mike replies, “You must try to forgive. Not sink into revenge.” Colonel Skimmel, a monocled, bewhiskered, autocrat in a dress uniform. He likes to demonstrate his marksmanship with a rifle. Skimmel’s favorite practice is to turn loose prisoners below on the parade grounds and let them see if they can outrun him without being shot down. Colonel Skimmel never misses. Meanwhile, in Texas, the Murdock brothers show up at the County Hunter Agency and slap leather with Sabata. Sabata wipes them out without a scratch. Parolini does an excellent job staging this initial shoot-out. The three Murdocks ride into the dusty station. One drives a wagon with a coffin on it. “We’re all set for you to go out in style,” the oldest Murdock boasts.” A weather vane stands motionless in front of the station. Before they exchange gunfire, Sabata and the oldest Murdock display their lethal marksmanship. Their bullets turn the vane into a blur. Once the vane stops turning, they are told that they can blast away at each other. Even after Sabata has killed them, he fires more shots. A Murdock corpse clinging to a corral fence falls when Sabata’s bullets obliterate the railing. Sabata shoots the coffin lid so it falls shut on the dead Murdock.

After the gunfight, Señor Ocaño (Franco Fantasia of "The Lion of St. Mark") enlists Sabata to help them discover when the gold shipment leaves the fort at Guadalupe and what road it will travel. He is also to make arrangements with the men who will sell the revolution firearms. Ocaño informs his ally, Escudo (Pedro Sanchez of "Any Gun Can Play"), about Sabata, but Escudo hates that the revolution must stoop to a foreign soldier-of-fortune. Meanwhile, Colonel Skimmel has cooked up his own scheme about the getting the gold out of the fort at Guadalupe. He sends out a detachment with the gold wagon, and his own men gun down the detachment. Sabata intervenes and Escudo and he commandeer the gold wagon. Sabata rides to Kingsville, Texas, where he discovers Colonel Skimmel’s cohort Folgen (Gianni Rizzo of “Mission to Hell”) has wiped out the gunrunners. Sabata decides that they need to take the gold back to Ocaño. A small army of plainclothes Austrians ambush them, but Sabata turns the odds against them with his skillful shooting.

Later, they discover that the bags contain dirt not gold and that Skimmel has the gold back at the fort. Our heroes attack the fort, but they are captured and disarmed by Skimmel, except for Ballantine’s diary. Sabata has stashed two vials of nitro in the book and Ballantine throws the book at the firing squad due to execute them. They escape death and Sabata confronts Skimmel. Skimmel has him covered with two single-shot pistols and acknowledges that Sabata is the only man who has even beaten him at shooting. Apparently unarmed, Sabata waits for the right moment and hurls a deadly knife that skewers Skimmel through his portrait. Ballantine fakes his death to steal the gold wagon and our heroes pursue him toward the border bridge at Guadalupe. Sabata blows holes in the rear of the wagon and the gold pours out as Ballantine lashes the horses for the border. He crosses the bridge and hurriedly detonates the charges that demolish it. At this point, he discovers that the gold lies in trails on the other side of the bridge and he is out of luck.

Writer & director Parolini does an excellent job of setting up and paying off several situations. Colonel Skimmel’s model of a sailing vessel perched atop a dresser is wired to the highest drawer so when an unsuspecting fool opens the drawer, the movement triggers a deadly broadside from the canon protruding from the side of the ship. If you love Spaghetti westerns, you owe it to yourself to watch “Adios, Sabata.”