Harper (1966)

I'll take The Hustler and Hud over Harper.

American actor Paul Newman made the three films between 1961 and 1966.

Hustler offers a great cast and some fine dialogue, but its tone ranges from comedy to sadistic torture, action and romance.

Los Angeles-based private investigator Lew Harper (Newman) is hired to find a missing rich man, Ralph Sampson. Harper can thank old buddy, and Sampson's lawyer, Albert (Arthur Hill) for the recommendation. Sampson fools around on his wife (Lauren Bacall) and runs with some rough company in the City of Angels. "Water seeks its own level and that should leave Ralph bathing happily somewhere in a sewer," his wife observes. Right, so the relationship between husband and wife is strained. "I only intend to outlive him," Mrs. Sampson suggests. "I don't like him drunk on the loose."

Her relationship with her stepdaughter, Miranda (Pamela Tiffin) is lousy too. Miranda is keen to chase after whatever good looking fella crosses her path. There's Allan Taggert (Robert Wagner), Sampson's private pilot, for one. She is also drawn to Harper. The dysfunctional relationships continue. His wife, Susan (Janet Leigh), wants a divorce. Pronto. Miranda doesn't pay much attention to the middle-aged Albert. He pines for the young lady.

Harper figures Sampson is kidnapped. He tries to figure out who has a hand in his disappearance. Harper soon finds out there's a team of perpetrators who have a hand in his absence. Possible suspects include past-prime Hollywood starlet Fay Estabrook (Shelley Winters), now eager to dance and down as much booze as she can.

Newman doesn't strike me as the private eye type. Harper is cynical, smart and, with regards to his soon to be ex, cold. Leigh's character doesn't get to do much. Miranda is nowhere to be found near the film's end.

Movie special effects have come a long way since 1966. Those fake backdrops when Newman is driving his sports car are really, really distracting.

This is good, not great, Newman.

RATING: 7/10

FUN FACTS: Frank Sinatra was going to star as Harper.

Director Jack Smight also directed Midway, Airport 1975 and four episodes of the original Twilight Zone series including The Night of the Meek.

Lauren Bacall wouldn't make another movie until Murder on the Orient Express in 1974.

Arthur Hill was the narrator of Something Wicked This Way Comes.

The Drowning Pool was Harper's sequel.

A Patch of Blue (1965)

Guy Green has created a small miracle with A Patch of Blue.



The British-born director (Great Expectations, Oliver Twist) took Elizabeth Kata's novel, Be Ready With Bells and Drums, and made a powerful film about friendship and acceptance. This 1965 release is not as well known as other movies that came out the same year such as The Sound of Music, Cat Ballou and Doctor Zhivago, but it packs a punch and still deserves to be seen nearly 50 years later.





Selina D'Arcey (Elizabeth Hartman) is a young, blind woman who continues to live with her dysfunctional family. Her mother, Rose-ann (Shelley Winters in an Academy Award winning performance), beats and neglects her. They share a tiny one-room apartment with Rose-ann's drunk father, Ole Pa (Wallace Ford, in his last screen performance). It's because of Rose-ann that Selina lost her sight when she was five and, about a decade later, raped. Ole Pa is more in love with the bottle than doing what is right to help his grand-daughter.



Selina has little, if any, schooling ("I ain't been taught nothing," she notes early on), can't read braille and doesn't have the living skills to get by outside her home. She strings beads for Mr. Faber (John Qualen) to earn money.





It's when she's working with the beads in the city park that she meets Gordon Ralfe (Sidney Poitier). He helps her right from the start of their relationship when she gets upset when a caterpillar lands on her. Again, Selina has no idea what's on her skin. Her time in the outside world is limited.



A friendship develops. Ralfe gradually learns about Selina's troubled background and wants to help. He starts to teach her how to get around by herself by recognizing the sun's location and using crosswalks.



"It's wonderful to have a friend," she tells Gordon. Her feelings intensify. She's falling in love with the kind man who does so much to help. He's interested, but is more concerned about offering her a new start to her life.



It's during a conversation between the two that Gordon learns Rose-ann, years earlier, cut off contact between her daughter and a black girl who also tried to help her out. Selina doesn't know about the colour of his skin.



A race against the clock starts when Gordon tries to get help for Selina while Rose-ann schemes to take her daughter, desert her father and open what sure sounds like a brothel with her friend Sadie (Elisabeth Fraser).



A Patch of Blue reminds me of 2009's Precious which featured an even more horrifying relationship between mother and daughter (Mo'Nique and Gabourey Sidibe). Selina is also living through hell, but still sees beauty in the world and appreciates the kindness of others.



"It's great eating and talking," she tells Gordon during lunch at the spacious apartment he shares with his brother Mark (Ivan Dixon). There's nothing but a cheap transistor radio to listen to at her apartment. The brothers Ralfe have a record player and a selection of classical records. Selina becomes enchanted with a musical box owned by Gordon's grandmother. She too saw an important relationship affected because of racism. Composer Jerry Goldsmith (Seconds) deserves a nod for composing a great score.



Poitier is solid as a decent man who makes the effort to help Selina. Many others walk by her when she's in distress. He didn't.



A typical Hollywood approach to such a story would be to focus on a romantic relationship between the leads. That's not the big focus here. A Patch of Blue, just like later films like Educating Rita and Green Card, may not give some viewers the tidy wrap-up they want. Good for Guy Green.



A Patch of Blue is about stepping up to help someone else. It's about appreciating people for who they are, not damning them for what they look like. A Patch of Blue is a great film.



RATING: 10/10



FUN, AND NOT SO FUN, FACTS: Ivan Dixon is best known as James 'Kinch' Kinchloe in Hogan's Heroes. He also appeared with Poitier in A Raisin in the Sun and Porgy and Bess.



Elizabeth Hartman earned an Academy Award nomination for her film debut in A Patch of Blue. But life didn't end well for her. She committed suicide in 1987. She was 43.



What a resume. John Qualen also appeared in Casablanca, The Searchers and The Grapes of Wrath.

The Big Knife (1955)

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.



The Big Knife cuts deep in its depiction of the studio system of Hollywood's Golden Age.



There's not much happiness in these parts, as depicted by director Robert Aldrich (The Flight of the Phoenix) in this powerful 1955 effort.



Charles Castle (Jack Palance) is at a crossroads. His studio contract is up for renewal. Boss Stanley Hoft (Rod Steiger) wants him back for seven more years. Castle is disillusioned with the roles he's given. His wife, Marion (Ida Lupino), has left him. There's signs of a possible reconciliation, but only if Castle leaves Hollywood. His wife is tired of his cheating and is getting serious with another man, Hank Teagle (Wesley Addy).



TWO IDEALISTS Teagle and Castle are both idealists. Castle sold out for success. Scriptwriter Teagle stayed true, but his works never make the screen.



Castle's leverage in negotiations is limited by a nasty incident in his past that Hoft, and a floozy who he was with at the time, Dixie Evans (Shelley Winters), have in their arsenal. Evans is a potential powder keg to Castle's future. She drinks too much and starts talking too often at parties about what happened a few years back. Castle's next starring role could be as a prisoner in jail.



DIXIE IS IN TROUBLE



Smiley Coy (Wendell Corey) is the studio's fixer, just like George Clooney was for a law firm in 2007's Michael Clayton. Charles is concerned Coy's not joking when he describes what he'll do to make sure Evans stops yapping.



"Sorry to throw the meat on the floor," he offers when he explains what he'll have done.



The Big Knife offers many fine performances. Palance, known to today's audiences for his work in City Slickers, is explosive as Castle. He's shown sparring in the film's first scene, but it's him who's being beaten down at work and home.



Steiger is a powerful force as Hoft. His screen time is limited, but he dominates the screen. Corey's quiet, deadly authority is chilling.



Dixie shares Castle's disillusioment with Hollywood, but not his success. She's offered a studio contract to keep her mouth shut about Castle's indiscretion. But her roles are limited with studio bosses more interested in her shapely figure than her acting talent. "I'm a deductible item," she laments.



GREAT CAST, BUT LOTS OF TALKING



The Big Knife is based on a play penned by Clifford Odets. The film's stage origins are noticeable with most of the action set in the living room of Castle's swanky Bel Air home. Viewers be warned, there's a lot of talking and not much action. The musical score is often obtrusive too.



Movies offer occasional glimpses at Hollywood with efforts such as Sunset Boulevard and The Player. The Big Knife is a knockout.

RATING: 8/10