Jim Long

Probably Burt Lancaster's best-known role. It's got his signature, hearty laugh and full-on physicality that sometimes veers close to parody of himself. Elmer Gantry, based on the Sinclair Lewis novel is a raucous tale of sex, greed and redemption--all the things in life that really matter to Elmer Gantry. Director Richard Brooks cast his wife, Jeans Simmons, as Sister Falconer, a starry-eyed preacher lady who knows just what Elmer Gantry needs and wants. Falconer was inspired by the real-life radio evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. The gorgeous Shirley Jones won an Oscar for her portrayal of a fallen preacher's daughter who once loved Gantry. The rest of the cast looks like they were rounded up from a top ten list of the screen's most overused character actors and they all play exactly as typed and that includes Arthur Kennedy. He's the cynical reporter who tags along to keep everyone honest. The film garnered three well-deserved Oscars including Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress (Shirley Jones) and Best Screenplay. Recommended.

Van Heflin, Everett Sloane and Ed Begley are typical captains of industry in this briskly-paced drama that details the intrigues and office politics of big business in the 1950s. This fine cast includes solid supporting turns by Beatrice Straight as Heflin's supportive wife (Ms. Straight would later win an Oscar for her supporting role in the feature film NETWORK) and Elizabeth Wilson as Begley's dedicated secretary. PATTERNS was originally written and produced for live television, hence the film's stage-bound feel. The action rarely ventures outside the confines of the corporate office settings. The characters constantly skirmish over questions of ethics vs. productivity and the impact on one's soul. Though Rod Serling's dialogue crackles, the overheated boardroom exchanges often lapse into the melodramatic shouting matches. Very much a product of its time, PATTERNS does not hold up that well but it's still interesting to see what writer Rod Serling could create before he ventured into THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

Green Fire is one of several 1950s films I saw as a kid that studios cranked out because the formula was an easy sell. I like to call them Khaki Operas....relatively low budget affairs designed to lure audiences enamored with quests for buried riches mixed with a generous helping of lusty romance. Green Fire fits that template and is very similar to other efforts released the same year, such as Secret of the Incas, Valley of the Kings and one that came out the following year, Foxfire. In each film, the delicate leading lady may be initially repulsed by the unshaven hero clad in sweaty khaki but eventually succumbs to his reckless charm. It's the same recipe that was later so skillfully reworked for the Indiana Jones series. Green Fire does not represent the best of this genre, with its thin story line and threadbare production. I'm guessing it was quickly put together to promote CinemaScope, the anamorphic wide screen process introduced only a year before( note the prominence of the CS logo on the film's poster). Leading lady Grace Kelly emotes amidst the palm fronds while resisting a heartless Stewart Granger who surely must have wanted better roles. Aiding in the misadventure is sidekick Paul Douglas, a leading man stuck in a character actor's body. Green Fire is not the best of the lot but you might find it interesting to see Ms Kelly just before she became a real life princess.

An entertaining indie film, also released as ALL THE WAY. The film serves up a tale that seems romanticized in its view of Frank Sinatra's major dust up with the Aussie press. But it actually happened. Dennis Hopper's fine performance does sell the story yet his portrayal can be a bit distracting--simply because Hopper bears so little physical resemblance to the legendary crooner. What also makes the film enjoyable is the solid line-up of Australian players now familiar to American audiences, including Rose Byrne who was so dynamic in FX's DAMAGES and Portia DiRossi, better known for her great comic turn in ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT. Hearing them emote in their native accents, reminds us how easily Aussie thespians can handle our American inflections. Another familiar face is Joel Edgerton as the young promoter who bets all his dreams on getting Ol Blue Eyes to perform down under. Worth a watch.

THE SEA HAWK, a Swashbuckling adventure, represented what was already a well-worn genre by the time the film arrived on theater screens, in 1940. It's also an Erroll Flynn vehicle, using a narrative template still beloved and likely expected by his fans. Flynn is Geoffrey Thorpe, a bad boy with a heart of gold, righting wrongs with his sword and rakish smile. In these films, Flynn's romantic lead was always a proper lady who can't resist a benevolent rogue. Audiences were also primed to expect supporting players like Alan Hale and Claude Rains to show up. And they did, having appeared with Flynn in THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER, as well as ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD. Hale (whose son would later portray the Skipper on Gilligan's Island) would do his oafish comic relief shtick as the sidekick while Rains as the heavy, usually sported an eccentric period hairstyle. His characters always exuded sleaziness with a veneer of dismissive snobbery. THE SEA HAWK didn't disappoint audiences or the studio, making it one of 1940's box office successes. I became aware of the film back in the 1960s when my parents purchased the rousing Erich Korngold soundtrack album. Korngold is a composer known to many John Williams fans since his score for STAR WARS is obviously influenced by the Korngold sound, jaunty arrangements full of triumphant brass and strings. The best that can be said about the restored version of THE SEA HAWK is that it showcases the stunning black & white cinematography of Sol Polito. The restoration really makes you appreciate the skill of the native Sicilian who shot an exhaustive but impressive list of Warner Bros' films, including Flynn's ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, a prime example of gorgeous Technicolor work. Personally, we found the film less than rousing and talkier than most action films directed by Michael Curtiz, a man responsible for a number of amazing classics including CASABLANCA. The problem may have been an unwieldy script by Howard Koch and Seton Miller, though among the best in the business, they may have been uncomfortable around period adventures set on the high seas. It seemed a very hit and miss affair, as if cobbled together by too many hands. Possibly I was distracted by the film's lengthy galley slave sequence. I half expected Flynn's character to escape from ship and make his way to Rome as a gladiator. Of course, I'm kidding but if it were re-made today, someone would pitch the idea that the protagonist slips into time warp....

We somehow missed the trailers for The Commuter when it was originally released theatrically, so we unwittingly settled in for a thoughtful domestic drama about job loss. Quicker than you can say, "I will find you," Liam Neeson's character (insurance salesman Michael McCauley)is caught up in a convoluted yet compelling mystery, on a New York commuter train. From that point, the narrative goes careening into a full-tilt, no holds-barred action caper. The Commuter (which surely must have been pitched to the studio heads as Die Hard on a train) continually ratchets up the stakes and the stunts. The latter are so over the top that we could only hold on and hope the best. When you've watched enough of Commuter-style plot driven fever dreams and if you're paying attention, the real bad guy was easy to spot the minute he arrives on-screen. Even so, The Commuter serves up laugh out loud gasps within a ridiculously entertaining hour and forty-five minutes. Those who complain about The Commuter are forgetting that ANY action film these days requires a heavy suspension of disbelief. Most in this genre are full of sequences wherein the characters are tossed about, shot at and pummeled to physical extremes that defy reality. It's only a movie, folks.