FILM REVIEW OF ''CAT PEOPLE" (1942)

"Cat People" (**** OUT OF ****) qualifies as a subtle, suspenseful, 73-minute, black & white, B-picture horror movie from RKO Pictures about a delectable young thing who cannot consummate her marriage because she fears that she will change into a deadly panther and tear her husband to shreds. Russian-born producer Val Lewton, who had once served as a story editor to producer David O. Selznick, advocated the power of suggestion to forge genuine horror in the hearts of an audience. Lewton shunned the standard approach by depicting outright horror as Universal Studios did with their "Dracula," "Wolfman," and Frankenstein" franchises. When "Cat People" was made, the Production Code Administration censored movies and chief censor Joseph I. Breen worried about the implications of this sinister tale of terror. Indeed, you never see anybody get clawed and Irena (French actress Simone Simon) never actually turns into a cat. By comparison, Nastassia Kinski went through a transformation in the 1982 color remake. Nevertheless, it is the ambiguity and the power of suggestion that makes this movie a masterpiece of understatement. The themes of light/good and darkness/evil permeate this yarn as well as the women versus women permeate this impeccable nail-biter.

Director Jacques Tourneur creates a spooky sense of atmosphere and freshman scenarist DeWitt Bodeen pile up ideas that brood just beneath the surface in this memorable fright flick. Simone Simon is perfectly cast as the tender young girl who draws fashion pictures and worries about her village in faraway Serbia. The stories that she tells Oliver about King John of Serbia and the witches foreshadow her own demise. Indeed, she has a statue of the regal witch-hunter in her apartment with a cat impaled on a spear. This hearkens back to the first scene when she throws away a sketch of a panther impaled on a sword. She meets a nice, clean-cut young draftsman, Oliver Reed (Kent Smith of "Hitler's Children") at the local zoo one day while she is sketching pictures of the caged panther and Oliver helps Irena dispose of her crumpled up drawings. He accompanies Irena back to her brownstone apartment and they begin a brief courtship that end with them getting married. This is where trouble enters paradise.

During her wedding party, Irena is approached by a strange woman in a black cat suit who addresses her in her native tongue as her sister. Later that evening, Irena cannot bring herself to have sex with her husband because of her intense fears about her past and what she might do. Patient, understanding Oliver recommends that Irena see a shrink, Dr. Louis Judd (Tom Conway of "The People Vs. Dr. Kildare"), so she can come to terms with her anxieties about marriage. Dr. Judd is literally a wolf in sheep's wool and Conway turns in a brilliant but slimy performance and pays with his life for his perfidy. She never kisses Oliver and they never sleep together. Struggling to deal with her own fears, Irena turns on Oliver's office buddy, Alice Moore (Jane Randolph) who has a thing for him, but she only wants to help Irena and Oliver. Irena doesn't like what Alice is doing and one night some strange things happen. "Cat People" is a classic, far better than its graphic remake with its mind-blowing special effects. Nicholas Musuraca's black & white photography is fantastic. No, "Cat People" won't give you nightmares, but it is an effective chiller with two incredible scenes, both between the opposing women. The first scene occurs at night while they are walking down a dimly-lighted city sidewalk and a bus appears. Later, Irena follows Alice home to the latter's apartment and stalks her in the swimming pool. The swimming pool is cloaked in eerie shadows so that we cannot see Irena or the panther into which she has transformed herself. Afterward, Alice finds her clothing clawed.

"Cat People" contains many inventive touches, such as Irena parading around in a fur coat, particularly when she visits the panther at the zoo. There is another brief scene when Tourneur frames Irena in a shot with tiger lilies. Bodeem's screenplay contains many wonderfully clever lines.

FILM REVIEW OF ''ONLY THE VALIANT'' (1951)

“Only the Valiant” (***1/2 out of ****) qualifies as a gritty good western. This Gregory Peck cavalry versus the Indians oater is a solemn suicide mission without a trace of humor. Veteran director Gordon Douglas has helmed a grim, harrowing outdoors epic with an ideal cast of tough guys under considerable pressure; even Lon Chaney, Jr., registers superbly as a powerful Arab trooper. Ostensibly, “Colorado Territory” scenarist Edmund H. North & “A Place in the Sun” scribe Harry Brown drew their screenplay from western film maker Charles Marquis Warren’s taut novel about a group of die-hard cavalrymen cut off from any escape route who must prevent murderous redskins from launching a devastating raid against helpless white settlers. North and Brown stick to Warren’s novel for the most part and the last minute revelation--when it seems that there is no way that our heroes can survive another onslaught of Native Americans—is a corker! This turn-of-the-century tale develops an effective claustrophobic feeling in the second half of the action. Douglas and company take studio bound sets and make them look convincing during the nocturnal hours. The crisp black & white photography of “Going My Way” cinematographer Lionel Linden imbues this western a grim look that accentuates its tension and atmosphere. Actor Michael Ansara, who later played the chief villain in “Guns of the Magnificent Seven,” is extremely effective in a small role as the hated Indian leader Tucsos.

“Only the Valiant” opens with over-voice narration by Army Scout Joe Harmony.
“This is my stamping ground. I’m a scout for the Army. Had my work cut out for me for a long time. Behind that pass there is the whole ‘Pache nation. (There is a graphic of the territory with the Flinthead Mountains stretching across the screen with a bottleneck pass.) They used to come swarming out of the pass killing everything in sights. Then we built a fort—Fort Invincible. It plugged up the pass, just like a cork in a bottle. Things was fine for a while. But them ‘Paches is pretty smart. One day the bottle blew the cork plum apart.” We are shown the burning remains of Fort Invincible with a dead man pinned to a stockade wall and a lance sticking out of his belly. Captain Richard Lance (Gregory Peck of “12 O’Clock High”) and his men boil in on horseback and capture Tucsos (Michael Ansara), and Joe Harmony (Jeff Corey of “True Grit”) wants to shoot him on the spot. Harmony points out Tucsos is “the fella that started this whole business.” Captain Lance intervenes, “The Army doesn’t shoot prisoners, Joe.” Predictably, Harmony is aghast at this prospect. “He’s no common injun. He’s just as near to a god as a fella can get. If you shoot him now, things will quiet down. Without Tucsos stirring them up, the rest of those Indians will get reasonable, just as fast as they can. You take him in alive, you’ll have every ‘Pache in the territory coming after him. We have had three years of this, you can stop it now.” Just as predictably, Captain Lance refuses to execute Tucsos and Lance’s fateful decision to take the Indian warrior back sets into motion nothing but trouble.

Ironically, Fort Winston Commandant Colonel Drum (Herbert Heyes of “Union Station”) surprises Lance when he tells him he should have shot Tucsos. As things stand, Drum wants to get Tucsos to another post. Everybody from the troopers to Joe Harmony knows that escorting Tucsos to Fort Grant is begging to get their hair lifted. The Apaches are poised in the mountains and the fort is under strength. Meantime, we are introduced to the daughter of Captain Eversham, lovely Cathy Eversham (Barbara Payton of “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye”) and young Lieutenant William Holloway (Gig Young of “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”) and they play a part in a major narrative complication. You see, Lance and Holloway both want to marry Cathy. Clearly, Cathy wants Lance. Colonel Drum refuses to let Lance take Tucsos to Fort Grant because Drum cannot spare Lance. Drum alters the orders and Holloway is given the mission at the last minute, and everybody is shocked. Lance has never changed an order. Furthermore, Lance saw Cathy and Holloway kissing in public, and everybody thinks Lance has reassigned Holloway out of jealousy. Indeed, one officer observes that rewriting orders is about a possible as rewriting the Bible. Predictably, Tucsos escapes and the surviving troopers and Harmony bring back a dead Holloway.

Although Drum expects a relief column of 400 troopers to arrive any day, Harmony points out to Lance that Tucsos will attack. Tucsos has seen the fort and knows their lack of strength. Lance requests to take 6 or 7 men of his choosing to man Fort Invincible and prevent Tucsos from assembling a war party. The bottleneck in the mountains keeps the Indians from riding through in strength; instead, they must come through one-at-a-time. Lance believes his men can thwart them until the relief column arrives. Drum gives him permission and Lance picks the worst men. All of them hate him and would willingly kill him. Foremost among the men are Trooper Kebussyan (Lon Chaney, Jr.), Sergeant Ben Murdock (Neville Brand of "D.O.A."),
Cpl. Timothy Gilchrist (Ward Bond of "The Searchers"), Trooper Rutledge (Warner Anderson of "Objective, Burma!"),Trooper Onstot (Steve Brodie of "Return of the Bad Men"), and Trooper Saxton (Terry Kilburn of "Lolita"). Douglas builds up some scalp-itching suspense, especially after dark when Lance has ordered torches placed on the bottleneck in the pass.

“Only the Valiant” exemplifies the new breed of military western that emerged after World War II. This is not a gung-ho John Ford cavalry western, even if it does have perennial Ford actor Ward Bond. Indeed, Lance’s own men want to kill him and this foreshadows the attitude of troops during the Vietnam War when they fragged their own officers. One tries to topple a heavy rock on him while another tries to shoot him with his carbine. One of the few moments of levity in "Only the Valiant" occurs when they move into Fort Invincible. Sgt. Murdock puts the troops in the old barracks, but establishes Lance's quarters in the guard house. Lance bears the onus of all—except the few who know about the circumstances that brought about the change of orders putting Holloway in charge of the detail. The black & white photography enhances the dire nature of this western. “Only the Valiant” amounts to a last stand western until the last minute reprieve. Reportedly, Peck hated this movie, but then this is not a spit-and-polish western in Technicolor. If anything, “Only the Valiant” lives up to its Warner Brothers origins. It is small but significant and it is grubby with loads of drama and unsavory characters, virtually a “Dirty Dozen” western. "Only the Valiant" just falls short of being a masterpiece because it is such a compact western about one tiny operation. Anything that came between Cathy and Lance no longer assumes any importance when he returns to the fort to discover that she now knows the truth.

FILM REVIEW OF "3:10 TO YUMA" (1957)

"Destination Tokyo" director Delmar Daves' "3:10 to Yuma" (1957) qualifies as one of the classic suspense westerns of the 1950s. Furthermore, in the larger context of westerns, this frontier drama follows in the boot falls of "High Noon" since it concerns a showdown between hero and villain based on a time deadline. Everything about this oater is solid and realistic with strong acting by a competent cast. Composer George Duning's haunting score heightens the tension in scenarist Halsted Welles' spartan screenplay. Welles' also penned another big western "The Hanging Tree" (1959) with Gary Cooper. Welles does an exceptional job of capturing the ironic essence of Leonard's short story, the first of the bestselling author's work to reach the big-screen.

"3:10 to Yuma" opens with a close-up of parched earth somewhere in the Arizona territory. The camera tilts up to show a stagecoach crossing the landscape in long shot and then the stage swings around toward the camera and its galloping six-horse team hauls the vehicle past the camera trailing a plume of dust. Daves concisely establishes in this one take the inhospitable nature of the surroundings. One of the themes is then man versus nature. Later, we learn that a drought has devastated the area. Seasoned lyricist Ned Washington's words--as sung by vocalist Frankie Lane at his most doleful--enhances this western. An entire sub-genre of sagebrushers emerged in the 1950s that opened with images of horsemen riding through the opening credits with singers such as Frankie Lane or Tex Ritter warbling an atmospheric theme song.

Glenn Ford makes a memorable entrance as ruthless but sardonic outlaw Ben Wade. The notorious Wade gang hold up a stagecoach. During the robbery, the stage driver gets the drop on the Wade gang member atop the coach and shoves a gun into his back. The brave driver threatens to kill the Wade gang member if the outlaws don't cease and desist. No sooner has he delivered his ultimatum than Wade himself rides up and guns down his own man and the stage driver.

The hero of "3:10 to Yuma" is a small potatoes rancher, Dan Evans (Van Heflin of "Shane") who is waging a losing battle against nature for lack of rain. Dan's cattle are dying, and all our hero requires is $200 dollars so he can obtain six months water rights from a nearby rancher. Unfortunately, Dan is dirt poor. Furthermore, he is stubborn and self-reliant and balks at the idea of seeking a loan from the bank. There is nothing flashy about Heflin's performance or wardrobe. Truly, he is a hero behind the 8-ball.

After the Wade gang rob the Butterfield Stage Company of a gold shipment, they gallop brazenly into Bisbee, Arizona Territory, to alert the local constabulary about the hold-up. In the saloon, where they are drinking, they explain that they couldn't thwart the thieves. The marshal (Ford Rainy of "Flaming Star") gathers a posse, but one of them, the town drunk Alex Potter (Henry Jones of "Vertigo"), is late and rides out after the posse has left. Meanwhile, Wade disperses his gang across the border and tells them to rendezvous with him in Nogales. Wade hangs around the saloon to sweet talk young beautiful Emmy (Felicia Farr of "Charlie Varrick") and they get romantic. During this interval, the posse run into Dan and the Butterfield Stage owner. They describe the gang and the marshal realizes then that the cattle drovers back at the saloon were the Wade gang. Alex rides up and tells them that the drovers left town but one of them stayed. The posse heads back to town. Dan distracts Wade in the saloon while the marshal sneaks up behind him and arrests him. The Butterfield Stage owner (Robert Emhardt of "The Stone Killer") offers $200 to anybody that will help escort Wade to the train station for the titular three-ten to Yuma. Initially, Dan refuses but decides that the $200 dollars is worth the risk. Nobody else wants to get in on the money except Henry Potter. For the remainder of the movie, Dan and Wade share the upstairs bridal suite in the hotel while they await the train. Wade's second-in-command Charlie Prince (Richard Jaeckel of "The Dirty Dozen") rides off to prepare a reception for our hero and Wade. Eventually, the gang capture Henry Potter and string him up in the hotel. During the suspenseful wait in the hotel, Ben Wade begins to have a grudging admiration for Dan Evans. When they make dash for the train, Ben actually helps Dan out and they get aboard the train unscathed. Although this ending has been called implausible, I don't think it is anything of the sort. Ben Wade is a dangerous, egotistical killer who has the attitude of a cat playing with a mouse. He is so confident of himself that he plays along with Dan, helps him against his own gang, but ultimately you know that Ben Wade is never going to serve a day in jail. He proved at the beginning that he was willing to kill one of his own men.

"3:10 to Yuma" isn't the first time that Glenn Ford played a villainous killer. He portrayed a corrupt, maniacal judge in "The Man from Colorado," and before that he specialized in bad guys that turned good in westerns, like "Texas" and "The Desperados." Charles Lawton's stark black and white photography combined with striking camera angles that thrust us into the vortex of the action go a long way toward making the action palatable. Eventually, this drama boils down to two men shut up in an upstairs hotel room as they wait for the arrival of the "3:10 to Yuma" train. Daves and Lawton generate a lot of suspense throughout this western but none more tangible than at the end when our hero and villain approach the puffing train and are obscured by clouds of the steam while the outlaw gang stalk them