Down to the Crossroads: Clapton Plays Dem Ol’ Blues

Eric Clapton: Sessions For Robert J
Wea/Elektra Entertainment // 2004 // 97 Minutes // Not Rated

Reviewed by Steve Evans

Opening shot…
Guitar legend Eric Clapton pays tribute to his idol, bluesman Robert Johnson.

What’s Goin’ Down?
Part jam session, part musical history lesson, this impressive DVD/CD combo features Clapton and a tight backing band performing the greatest blues laments by Robert Johnson, who died in 1938 under mysterious circumstances at the age of 27. Some of his biographers believe he was poisoned; others say he was stabbed by a jealous husband and died days later. But they sing in unison on one score: Johnson was the most influential musician who ever sang the blues and a mind-bending genius on acoustic guitar. Clapton, of course, is up to the challenge in this excellent homage.

Sessions for Robert J is an essential testament by a virtuoso guitarist honoring his roots while acknowledging Johnson’s influence on at least four generations of rock and blues musicians.

Filmed during concert rehearsals in London and Dallas, the DVD presents an intimate look at a laid-back Clapton, gigging with blues musicians in a studio setting—free from the pressures of a concert performance and the inevitable need to strut like a rock star before an audience. Clapton seems totally immersed in the music, some of which was also recorded in Dallas in the warehouse and a now-abandoned hotel where Johnson cut his final recordings in 1937.

What’s on the Disc, Steve?
I’ll tell ya. Divided into four sessions, the first half of the DVD features Clapton and a backing quintet rehearsing songs for their 2004 tribute tour. Fans will smile to see longtime Clapton associates Nathan East thumping four strings and Steve Gadd pounding the drums. Legendary session man Billy Preston shows up to lay his hands on the mighty Hammond organ, and the keys are soon smokin’ (Preston, who worked with everyone from the Rolling Stones to the Beatles, from Little Richard to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and who died in June 2006, is sorely missed). The second half of the disc is all acoustic with Clapton performing solo and dueling with guitarist Doyle Bramhall II.

Songs are interspersed with Clapton’s ruminations on Johnson, the hardships of his life, and the enduring impact of his legacy. This is a great bonus to a fabulous program, as it is fascinating to hear a genius like Clapton speak in awe of a musician who died in relative obscurity eight years before the British rocker was born.

Video and audio are superb, affording a totally absorbing musical experience.

The accompanying audio CD is a welcome bonus, containing 11 tracks of studio-polished songs from the DVD.

Set list:
• Kind-Hearted Woman Blues
• They’re Red Hot
• Hell Hound on My Trail
• Sweet Home Chicago
• When You Got a Good Friend
• Milkcow’s Calf Blues
• If I Had Possession over Judgment Day
• Stop Breakin’ Down Blues
• Terraplane Blues
• Hell Hound on My Trail
• Me and the Devil Blues
• From Four until Late
• Love in Vain
• Ramblin’ on My Mind
• Stones in My Passway
• Love in Vain (acoustic)

Bonus tracks:

• Little Queen of Spades
• Traveling Riverside Blues

Coda
This is a fine R&B package lovingly produced and performed by one of the greatest guitarists—alive or otherwise. The DVD shimmers on home theater; the CD makes a worthy travel companion when wanderlust takes us farther on up the road.

Copyright © 2009 by Steve Evans // dba Cinema Uprising. All rights reserved.

Crossfire: Classic Noir, Sterling Cast

Crossfire
Warner Bros. // 1947 // 86 Minutes // Not Rated

Reviewed by Steve Evans

“Hate is like a loaded gun!” ~ From the Promotional Poster.

Opening Shot
RKO Pictures became the first studio to deliver a dramatic condemnation of racism in America with this taut film noir attacking anti-Semitism. A fine cast of tough, cynical actors and an insolent femme fatale breathe life into the tawdry material. Warner Brothers delivers a nice package in this lesser-known noir.

A Bit of Plot…
Investigating the murder of a Jewish man, police investigators and an Army sergeant at the nearby military base come to suspect enlisted men.

Homicide Capt. Finlay (Robert Young, Father Knows Best) narrows his inquiries to three soldiers, including the brooding Montgomery (Robert Ryan, The Wild Bunch), who was in the victim’s room the night he was beaten to death. The detective is, by turns, aided and impeded in his investigation by Sgt. Keely (Robert Mitchum, Night of the Hunter), who wants to protect his soldiers when it becomes apparent that circumstantial evidence could send one of the men to the electric chair.

But soon Finlay and Keely realize they are investigating a hate crime. They join forces to capture a murderous bigot on the Army base.

Trashy barfly Ginny Tremaine (Gloria Grahame, It’s a Wonderful Life) plays a pivotal role in the climax, providing an alibi for an innocent man. Because he is married and dallying with this woman, the soldier initially refuses to talk. The resulting complications threaten to derail the investigation and let a killer go free.

Historical Context and Significance
Oscar nominated for Best Picture in 1947, Crossfire is based loosely on the novel The Brick Foxhole by Richard Brooks, a prolific writer whose wildly divergent screenwriting credits include Key Largo, The Last Time I Saw Paris, and The Blackboard Jungle, which he also directed. Decades later, he would write and direct Looking for Mr. Goodbar, starring Diane Keaton the same year she made Annie Hall.

The Brick Foxhole, Brooks’ first novel, was actually about the pick-up and murder of a gay man by a group of drunken GIs. RKO Pictures wouldn’t touch that theme in the 1940s, which is explicitly stated in a studio memo reprinted on the special features section of this disc. Instead, the script was written as a screed against racism, specifically anti-Semitism, with a noir overlay to give the story added bite. In an old video interview included on the disc, director Edward Dmytryk (Murder, My Sweet) says he opted for a noir lighting style because of its inexpensive simplicity. Quick lighting setups allowed Dmytryk and his crew to complete principal photography in a mere 20 days, the director says, which enabled RKO to beat other studios to the market with the first major Hollywood production dealing with racism.

The film features an interesting narrative structure, with Act One unfolding mostly in flashback, Act Two cross-cutting between the killer’s plans to cover his tracks and flashbacks from his perspective, and concluding in Act Three with a game of cat-and-mouse leading to the final confrontation and chase.

There’s fine acting all around, especially from the sensuous, enigmatic Grahame and sleepy-eyed Mitchum.

The Contrarian View
There’s no whodunit aspect to the film, as most viewers will correctly guess the killer well before Act Two (indeed, he is all but identified on the back cover of the DVD keepcase). On the upside, the detectives devise an elaborate trap to catch their suspect. One of the film’s great pleasures is watching this clever scheme unfold — but to a rather perfunctory ending.

Coda
A tense noir, Crossfire throbs with tough, baleful characters spitting vicious invective and throwing punches around like compassion went outta fashion. Terrific, nihilistic entertainment. Watch it with your favorite misanthrope tonight.

Copyright © 2009 by Steve Evans // dba Cinema Uprising. All rights reserved.

Seldom-Seen Holocaust Film Influenced Spielberg

Naked Among Wolves
First Run Features // 1963 // 119 Minutes // Not Rated

Reviewed by Steve Evans

Opening Shot
Based on actual events, Nackt Unter Wölfen was the first picture about the Holocaust to be filmed in pre-unified Germany. That distinction alone earns the film an important place in world cinema.

Italian actor-director Roberto Benigni studied this intense drama of life in a Nazi concentration camp before he made the Oscar-winning La Vita è Bella (Life is Beautiful). Steven Spielberg has evidently seen it a few times, too. And that speaks highly of Nackt Unter Wölfen, a harrowing look inside a place of despicable evil, where the will to survive is the only weapon against inhumanity and despair.

A Bit of Plot…
Polish prisoners in Buchenwald concentration camp hide a four-year-old boy from their Nazi captors. Born in Auschwitz, the Jewish child escapes death when he is smuggled into Buchenwald inside a large suitcase. The boy’s innocence moves the hearts of these captive men, even though his very presence threatens them all. Höfel (Armin Mueller-Stahl, Avalon) urges his fellow prisoners to hide the young innocent, knowing that discovery means death for the child—but also for the men hiding him. The prisoners are unable to spirit away the little boy to freedom, so they move him instead from one secret spot to another within the grim confines of the camp. Soon, the Nazis realize a child is in their midst, and vow to locate and murder him. Torture and random executions fail to coerce the prisoners into delivering the child to these wolves of the SS.

When radio broadcasts report the Allies are rapidly advancing through Poland and may soon reach the camp, the struggle only intensifies between the prisoners of Buchenwald and the tyranny of evil men.

The climactic riot, though it rewrites history, is a small masterpiece of action montage and emotional catharsis.

Historical Context and Significance
Naked Among Wolves was directed by Frank Beyer whose thematically similar Jakob, der Lügner (1975) would be remade with mixed results in 1999 as Jakob the Liar, starring Robin Williams.

The picture before us is reputed to be the first film shot in East Berlin (a quarter century before the fall of the wall) dealing with World War II concentration camps. It is an intense, brutal film based on an autobiographical novel by Bruno Apitz, who is also listed in the credits playing a bit part. Apitz was a prisoner at Buchenwald from 1937 until the camp was liberated in 1945; his 1958 novel, which won the National Prize of the German Democratic Republic, bears the stamp of authenticity.

The film is not entirely historically accurate, although in the interest of avoiding review spoilers I leave it to the interested reader to research the history of Buchenwald in the final days of the European conflict in World War II. Suffice it to say that the ending as filmed is emotionally satisfying and more dramatic – strictly from a cinematic standpoint.

Comparisons to Schindler’s List may be inevitable. Those who watch both films could easily conclude that Spielberg has seen Naked Among Wolves many times. There is a direct parallel between the little girl in the red coat whom Oskar Schindler spies from a distance in the Krakow ghetto, and the small boy in this film, whose wide eyes are devastating. Sturdy performances by German actors are a hallmark of the picture, although only Mueller-Stahl will be familiar to most contemporary audiences.

What’s on the Disc Steve?
I’ll tell ya. Some edge enhancement and chroma-crawl are evident in the digital transfer of this black and white film, presented in anamorphically-enhanced 2.35:1 (that’s my careful measurement; the specs are not on the box). Overall, the framing and video presentation lend themselves to the stark subject matter. Even the occasional graininess contributes to a documentary feel, heightening the tension. The mono soundtrack in German is crisp and dialogue-centric, although there is no evidence of Dolby filtering and the laboratory’s logo is nowhere on the keepcase.

First Run Features delivers a rich package of extras, including biographies and filmographies, a selection of historic newsreels and essays that bring context to the film, a preview of the company’s forthcoming documentary Verdict on Auschwitz, a photo gallery, and more. Only the absence of a commentary track precludes a perfect score for the added-value content on this DVD. The keepcase contains an illustrated catalogue of the company’s other offerings, by turns grim and mostly high-minded titles.

Caveat Lector
As if it needed to be said, this is not the feel-good hit of 1963. Naked Among Wolves is as bleak as any of the more familiar films dealing with similar themes of inhuman cruelty and the shockingly casual nature of evil.

Coda
If not as emotionally devastating as Schindler’s List or the climax of Life is Beautiful, Beyer’s influential and important film remains a provocative cinematic experience, all the more daring for its production in then-Communist East Germany. The horrors of the Holocaust have scarcely faded 60 years on. But when this film was released in 1963, barely 18 years after the war, the experience of seeing it must have burned like fire in an open wound.

Copyright © 2009 by Steve Evans // dba Cinema Uprising. All rights reserved.

“Suds:” Shhh! A Classic Silent with Mary Pickford

Suds
Milestone Films // 1920 // 64 Minutes // Not Rated

“Who could love me? Who could? Nobody never won’t.” ~ Mary Pickford’s in-character lament.

Reviewed by Steve Evans

Opening Shot
Silent film star Mary Pickford plays a lovelorn laundry woman in this bittersweet comedy released 89 years ago with three different endings.

A Bit of Plot…
Lovesick Amanda (Pickford, Little Lord Fauntleroy) works in a London laundry, daydreaming about handsome Horace Greensmith, who brought in a shirt “eight months and sixteen days ago” and never returned for it. Amanda insists that the unclaimed shirt belongs to her fiancé and that he is a nobleman. The romantically deluded girl tells anyone who will listen that Horace will return some day for his shirt and for her, though neither seems likely. She regales her coworkers with tall tales of dukes and lords and unrequited love, presented in elaborate fantasy sequences.

While she waits and scrubs clothes, Amanda confides her sorrows to the laundry’s delivery horse, later saving the poor brute from a glue factory. She takes the old horse home to her tenement, with slapstick results.

Horace eventually arrives to claim his shirt and conclude the story. A trio of different dénouements, all on this disc, illustrates Hollywood’s uncertainty when tinkering with time-tested tropes.

Historical Context and Significance
(Mild spoiler ahead) Suds originally ended with Amanda abandoned by her would-be fiancé as she laments, “Who could love me? Who could? Nobody never won’t.”

Audiences decried this sad conclusion as unfit for “America’s Sweetheart,” as Pickford was known, so two happy endings were hastily filmed for domestic and international screenings. Milestone includes the various versions on this handsomely produced DVD. The original ending — Amanda abandoned and weeping — remains intact on all versions of the film, with a happy epilogue attached as the final chapter.

Pickford plays her customarily plucky heroine in a serio-comic role that borrows as much from Chaplin as it does the German expressionists of the period (check out that cinematography and the often-stunning chiaroscuro lighting).

Equally interesting, Pickford was trying to expand her acting range by portraying an essentially pathetic character, yet audiences refused to accept that their beloved Mary would be so unlucky at love. So Pickford decided to give the people what they wanted. Director John Francis Dillon (Don Juan’s Three Nights) dutifully reshot the ending to put a joyful spin on this soap-operatic story — pun firmly intended.

What’s on the Disc, Steve?
I’ll tell ya. The production of this disc exceeds all reasonable expectations. Milestone is rapidly earning a reputation among film lovers that will put it on par with The Criterion Collection for a devotion to film restoration and the release of first-class DVD product. Milestone unearths archival footage and production information that date to the dawn of cinema. Bonus features routinely include stills galleries, extensive production notes, rare documentaries, new musical scores — yes, this boutique company truly delivers added value. Milestone upholds the promise of the DVD format by making available unique material that, a few years ago, could be seen and enjoyed only by making an appointment with the custodians of the film — in this case, the Mary Pickford Institute. The only alternative would be to consult the rare collections specialist at a major metropolitan library or the Library of Congress, if the materials could be found at all. Film lovers could wait a lifetime praying for an old silent like Suds to land on the schedule of some classic movie channel.

But more than showing a dedication to keeping old movies alive, Milestone does it with style. Here’s a film company that quotes from the diary of Anaïs Nin on the DVD keep case, in praise of an obscure silent film. This is the sort of casual delight that restores a cynic’s faith in humanity. There are some seriously cool people working at Milestone.

The restored prints on this disc, which include both domestic and international versions of the film, still show their age. Blemishes, inevitable scratches, and apparent fading of the existing film elements used for the transfer to DVD — all are abundant. Curiously, though, these imperfections are part of the charm of viewing silent features. The Dolby mono audio track is clean and free of hiss.

Extras include an intriguing side-by-side comparison of select scenes from the U.S. and foreign versions of the picture. A stills gallery and 26-minute documentary about Pickford and her husband Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., round out the package.

Given the historical significance of this picture and a suggested retail price of $30 for the DVD, a commentary track by a film historian would have been a welcome addition to the extra content.

The Contrarian View
Suds may not be Pickford’s best picture — the comedy is punctuated by maudlin and jarringly overwrought moments — but it is important both as cinematic artifact and as an interesting example of the artist trying to reach beyond the expectations of her public. Instead, she relented and delivered what they wanted all along. The film plays stronger with the original ending, as it gives some balance and realism to the simple story of a poor girl who is emotionally unmoored from the reality of her situation. As one of the founding partners of United Artists, Pickford should have put down her powerful foot and left the original ending alone.

For a textbook example of how to handle heart-rending poignancy within the context of comedy, view the last five minutes of Chaplin’s City Lights. The ambiguity of that final sequence is the mark of a courageous genius.

Coda
As early evidence of Hollywood pandering to the lowest common denominator, an unfortunate trend that would mar cinema for generations to come, Suds merits a spot on the shelf of serious film students and collectors.

Let us now praise Milestone for helping to keep the legacy of silent pictures alive in superb DVD editions of important films.

Copyright © 2009 by Steve Evans // dba Cinema Uprising. All rights reserved.