Spartacus (1960)

Ho-hum.

Director Stanley Kubrick's fifth feature film won four Academy Awards, including best supporting actor for Peter Ustinov, but this 1960 epic didn't dazzle this movie-goer.

Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) is a slave in Rome. After working for the Romans on a mountainside, he is purchased and sent to gladiator school. There, he falls for Varinia (Jean Simmons), a sex slave for the gladiator hopefuls.

Spartacus' rebellious streak - he knawed on a Roman guard's leg while carrying rock - rises up again. He leads a rebellion of gladiators. The pushback against Rome picks up speed. Other slaves join the gladiators. Their goal is to reach the ocean and sail back home.

The Roman senate, not keen to see slaves succeed in their freedom quest, seek to stomp out Spartacus and the other rebels.

What's most interesting about this film is Ustinov's role as Batiatus, who purchases slaves. Batiatus is a coward and opportunist. He easily spots chances to make money and make sure when trouble comes up, he's nowhere to be found. Batiatus kisses a lot of backsides to get his way. Nice job, Peter Ustinov!

Spartacus isn't too subtle in contrasting the slave leader's bid for freedom and efforts by his Roman counterpart Crassus (Laurence Olivier) to curtail freedom of Romans as part of his plans to be Roman leader.

The romance between Spartacus and Varinia shows promise when both are captives, but gets bogged down in standard lovey-dovey scenes once they're free.

For a movie about two opposing forces, there's not a lot of time spent fighting in this film. What is interesting is how Kubrick handles large crowd scenes, especially as Roman solders fill a field in preparation for a final showdown with Spartacus and company.

RATING: 6/10

FUN FACTS: Jean Simmons was in Guys and Dolls. She was also a harpist in Caesar and Cleopatra.

Kirk Douglas will celebrate his 100th birthday in 2016.

John Gavin, who appears as Julius Caesar, was Sam Loomis in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

Spartacus was Charles Laughton's second last feature film.

The War Wagon (1967)

I won't go on the warpath praising the virtues of The War Wagon.

This 1967 western from director Burt Kennedy has its moments, but its so-so entertainment at best. For movie fans itching for a western fix, there are much better choices reviewed on this site including My Darling Clementine and The Searchers.

Taw Jackson (John Wayne) is out of prison after three years. Gold baron Mr. Pierce (Bruce Cabot) has taken over Jackson's ranch and the gold on his land. Pierce is also eager to finish Jackson off for good, offering sharp shooter Lomax (Kirk Douglas) a handsome payday if he kills off Jackson.

Jackson isn't planning on dying. He's scheming to rob Pierce's armoured wagon, filled with gold but also protected by a couple of dozen armed men and a rapid firing Gatling gun. Jackson wants Lomax on his team, a small group dedicated to getting the gold for a rich payoff. How big? $500,000. That sure seems like an awful lot of money by 19th century standards.

There's no real tension between Jackson and Lomax, wondering if one will cross the other for more money. That's a missed opportunity to give this film some spark. Instead, they trade the occasional barb and witty lines.

Example: Jackson and Lomax shoot two men who tried to kill them.

Lomax: "Mine hit the ground first."

Jackson: "Mine was taller."

The War Wagon also waits too much time setting up Jackson and Lomax with another member of the team, Levi Walking Bear (Howard Keel!). A group of men take target practice on glass bottles perches on a rock above Walking Bear's head. Again, there's no suggestion he could be killed. Might he not get cut by broken glass flying around? Apparently not. His rescue goes on, and on, and on some more. Yawn.

Add in a young explosives expert, with a taste for heavy alcohol consumption, Billy Hyatt (Robert Walker, Jr.), and an old coot with a young lady as his companion, Wes Fletcher (Keenan Wynn), and the gang is formed.

The actual heist has its moments, including an impressive explosion of a bridge. There's also a nice nod to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre with what happens with the gold Jackson and his crew so desperately want.

Kennedy sets up some very sharp looking scenes. The Mexican countryside is beautiful. But The War Wagon often shoots blanks.

RATING: 6/10

FUN FACTS: Film's production notes are an interesting read. The War Wagon marked Wayne's 162nd movie. Douglas and Wayne filmed advertisements for, and against, Ronald Reagan's bid to become governor of California. Keenan Wynn snagged Leslie Howard's Confederate hat used in Gone with the Wind and wore said headpiece in all his movies.

Director Kennedy, who died in 2001, went on to direct Support Your Local Sheriff! and Support Your Local Gunfighter! with James Garner.

That's Ed Ames singing Ballad of the War Wagon.

A Letter to Three Wives (1949)

This drama delivers.


Email would make the premise of this film obsolete, so let's hear it for the storytelling merits of the United States postal system.


Deborah Bishop (Jeanne Crain), Lora Mae Hollingsway (Linda Darnell) and Rita Phipps (Ann Sothern) have a few key factors in common.


TROUBLE IN PARADISE?


They're all friends and get together regularly with their husbands to socialize at a country club.


Each has boarded a ferry to help chaperone a picnic for a whack of youngsters on the same Saturday morning.


All their husbands have more than passing interest in Addie Ross (Celeste Holm), described but never seen as a ravishing woman with a solid head on her shoulders.


Just before the ferry is about to leave, the three ladies get a letter from Addie herself. When you come back later today, she says, I will have left town with one of your husbands.


How's that for hitting an iceberg before even leaving dock?


JUMPING SHIP

As we learn through flashbacks, each woman has reason to worry it's her husband who's jumped ship.


Deborah's the farm girl who grew up in a cash-strapped family. She's finding it hard to adjust to the upper-middle class circle her husband Brad (Jeffrey Lynn) calls home. The confidence she experienced in the navy during the Second World War, serving alongside other women in the same boat, is gone now that she's rubbing shoulders with the well-to-do of this unnamed American town.


Rita writes scripts for radio shows. She's so busy with her career she forgets about the birthday of her husband, George (Kirk Douglas). But, Addie remembered. She even sent him an album of one of his favourite classical recordings. George isn't keen about the dreck Rita writes to pay the bills. Rita's a little upset at the suggestive comment Addie penned in her card to her better half. There's some tension over her salary being bigger than his.


Lora Mae spends most of her time bickering with her husband, successful businessman Porter (Paul Douglas, Panic in the Streets (Fox Film Noir)). Funny how he never found the time to move Addie's portrait from his living room. Porter is convinced Lora Mae married him for his cash, not love.


YOU'LL LAUGH, YOU'LL CRY


A Letter to Three Wives doesn't get caught up in just hand-wringing among the three women. There are plenty of laughs too.


Thelma Ritter is a delight as Sadie Dugan, maid to the Phipps and best friend of Lora Mae's mother. Her wisecracks are a hoot.


George does a slow burn as he's forced to listen to cruddy radio show after cruddy radio show when his wife invites a powerful industry type over for dinner. Hold on when said power magnet asks him for his impression of the shows he's just suffered through.


Joseph Mankiewicz won two Oscars, direction and screenplay, for A Letter to Three Wives. The 103-minute black-and-white drama was also nominated for best picture.

This, folks, is a film well-worth seeing. Highly recommended.


RATING: 9/10


FUN FACTS: Jeffrey Lynn appeared alongside James Cagney in The Roaring Twenties.

Barbara Lawrence, who appears as Lora Mae's younger sister, is still alive. Her other credits include the original Unfaithfully Yours and Oklahoma!

Wow, Carl Switzer (Alfalfa in the Our Gang shorts) has a small role in this film. Did you know he was murdered in 1959 over an argument about $50?


Celeste Holm appeared in the Oscar winner for best picture, Gentleman's Agreement

Champion (1949)

Watch this film and you may feel a little punch drunk yourself.


Champion earned six Oscar nominations, winning one for best editing.


Decide for yourself if this early Kirk Douglas effort from director Mark Robson (Earthquake, Von Ryan's Express) deserves to be crowned or send back for some much-needed conditioning.


TWO BROTHERS, ONE DREAM


Midge Kelly (Douglas) and his brother, Connie (Arthur Kennedy), are riding the rails and hitchhiking to Los Angeles. The pair bought a share in a restaurant.


These boys have grown up poor. Their new business venture doesn't turn out well when their supposed partner dupes them out of their cash. Instead of owning the joint, the siblings are clearing tables and washing dishes.


Midge takes a shine to the greasy spoon's waitress, Emma (Ruth Roman). When he puts the moves on her, restaurant owner, and Emma's father, Lew Bryce (Harry Shannon) gets angry. Real angry.


UH, WHAT JUST HAPPENED AND WHY?

In one of Champion's first strange, head-shaking moments, he pulls a gun on the lovers. Really? If that wasn't strange enough, moments later the pair are getting married. What??? She's not pregnant. There's no suggestion they've been sleeping together. Midge wants nothing to do with the marriage and leaves. Connie follows.


Midge earned a few much-needed dollars when heading west by filling in at the last minute as a boxer. He gets smacked around, delivers a few good punches himself and catches the eye of boxing manager Tommy Haley (Paul Stewart). Haley sees potential in the young buck. The pair reunite.


Cue the montages of Midge training and beating up on his opponents as he becomes known in the boxing world.


MIDGE'S MANIFESTO


Midge makes good on his earlier vow to Emma. "Nice guys don't make money. I'm going to get somewhere. I'm not going to be, "hey you," all my life." He becomes the champ. The money starts to flow. Nice meals and sharp fashions follow, not to mention more than just keeping an eye on some fine looking dames.


When Midge refuses to throw a fight, he gets beat up by folks who lost their shirts betting on the wrong man. Here's another strange moment. Manager Haley warns him to get moving pronto after the fight fearing what's to come. Even after scrumming with the press (hey, these guys are on deadline, interviews wouldn't last hours), the arena is dark and absolutely devoid of humanity except for said thugs. No cleaners? No fans wanting an autograph? No one taking down the ring? Security? Very strange.


But to reach his goal, Midge is quick to dump anyone who threatens to slow him down or not deliver results. Don't blink or you'll miss Midge dropping one bombshell, Grace (Marilyn Maxwell) for another Mrs. Harris (Lola Albright). By this point, I needed a score card to keep track of the women in Midge's life.


Emma is back with Connie in Chicago to take care of his ailing mother (Esther Howard). Grace is fuming at being left behind. Jerome Harris (Luis van Rooten), who just happens to be Midge's new manager, is less than impressed his wife is seeing his talent on the side.


Heading into his fifth defence of his title, there are suggestions Midge is enjoying the good life too much and not spending enough time training at the gym. He's spending more cash than he's earning. Will he buckle down and remain the champ or will he take a licking from his hungry opponent?


MIDGE, YOU'RE A LOUSY HUMAN BEING

Champion is no Rocky. Both characters are underdogs. But Midge isn't a nice guy. He's a user with a quick temper who threatens to beat up his ignored wife. It looks like he rapes her too.


Dimitry Tiomkin earned an Oscar nod for best music, but I found his contributions distracting. Better efforts were to come from Carl Foreman with High Noon and The Guns of Navarone.


RATING: 7/10


FUN FACTS: Douglas and Albright are the only principal actors from this production still alive. Tiomkin also scored It's a Wonderful Life, High Noon and Dial M for Murder. Van Rooten's film debut was as Heinrich Himmler in The Hitler Gang. Kennedy starred with Michael Douglas, Kirk's son, in Hail Hero. Stewart and Shannon appeared in Citizen Kane.

Out of the Past (1947)

Wow, that Kirk Douglas fellow can act.

This super film noir offers an early glimpse of Douglas' talent. It's only his second role after making his debut a year earlier in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers.

KIRK DOUGLAS SHINES IN EARLY ROLE

Douglas never lays a hand on anybody as Whit, a rich gambler in Out of the Past. But he's a menacing presence on the screen. Mess with him at your peril.

"I fire people, but nobody quits me," he suggests.

Whit and his dame, Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer), have a disagreement. It ends with the lady taking a few shots at Whit. Some connect.

"It amazes me how she missed so often," Whit recalls when he hires gumshoe Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) to find her and the $40,000 she took.

"Maybe you were moving," Jeff suggests.

Bailey finds Moffat in Mexico. They fall in love. Bailey decides he's not so eager to report her whereabouts to Whit. The pair slip away to San Francisco to start their lives together until Bailey's old partner, Fisher (Steve Brodie), finds them.

FRENCH DIRECTOR EMBRACES AMERICAN FILM NOIR

That discovery, and Bailey being found again three years later and tapped for another job by Whit, drive this powerful film from director Jacques Tourneur (Cat People, Wichita).

Mitchum smokes up a storm as the private eye who's messed up with a woman of suspect loyalty and a gambler eager to escape the attention of the U.S. Treasury. He looks great in a trenchcoat and fedora as he tries to figure out how he can get himself out of a mess from his past and return to be with his lady love, Ann (Virginia Houston). Jeff gets into one good slug fest. Otherwise, he uses his brains and his mouth as his weapons of choice.

RATING: 9/10

FUN FACTS: Director Jacques Tourneur directed a Twilight Zone episode, Night Call, in 1964.

Virginia Houston's Hollywood career was brief, from 1946 to 1954. Out of the Past was her second film. She died in 1981 at age 55.

Out of the Past was one of six films released in 1947 featuring Steve Brodie. Others included Thunder Mountain and Crossfire.

Lee Server's work, Robert Mitchum: 'Baby, I Don't Care', was published in 2001. He dedicates 12 pages of Mitchum's biography to the making of Out of the Past.

Some interesting facts:


a) Daniel Mainwaring, author of Build My Gallows High, which was the basis of Out of the Past, suggested Humphrey Bogart for the leading role;


b) Kirk Douglas, with a pay stub of $25,000, was the highest paid actor who worked on Out of the Past. Mitchum earned about $10,300;

c) Jane Greer was sought after by Howard Hughes, but married Rudy Vallee;

d) Director Jacques Tourneur worked with cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca on Cat People. Musuraca also shot Stranger on the Third Floor, often considered to be the first film noir.