I'm writing from home tonight, off work for the next few days. Sorry I missed you last night. I had watched a movie and was starting to write about it, but I was having some pain in my leg from a varicose vein I have in my left calf (gross, I know), and the discomfort level was just enough to keep me from concentrating on my review. The movie was "Presenting Lily Mars" (1943), starring the one and only Judy Garland. I will add what I wrote about it, polished up a bit, at the end of tonight's blog.
The movie I watched this evening (May 31st) was a real dramatic powerhouse. It was called "The Hill" (1965), and was yet another title I found in my database search for "Warner Archive" films. "The Hill" was directed by the great Sidney Lumet, who made many notable films including "Twelve Angry Men", "Dog Day Afternoon", "Network" and "The Verdict". I was surprised, given Lumet's prestigious reputation, that I'd never heard of "The Hill". Could it have been one of his lesser works? IMDB said otherwise; it has a 7.9 rating at the website, a very high score for an obscure 54 year old motion picture. I began to watch, therefore, with great anticipation, especially as the star was Sean Connery. I've seen him in several of his early roles over the last few years and it must be said that he was much more than James Bond. In fact, he was a very good actor who could play a wide range of characters.
I was expecting a war movie, as that's what the imagery on the dvd box seemed to imply. I thought the title of the film might refer to a strategic "Hill" in a battle scenario. Instead, it was a prison movie. The prison was a military prison, however, so part of my expectation was fulfilled. Right off the bat, we know we are in for a brutal and torturous exercise, because we see The Hill in question : a pyramid shaped mound of dirt about 40 feet high, encased by stones and very steep. Looking at it as the movie opened, I was reminded of the hill that sits at the start of the Chumash Trail in Simi Valley. That hill is also made of soft, granular dirt, easy to slip on, and at the time I first hiked it, it was the steepest trail I had ever been on. In the movie, we see prisoners being ordered to run up one side of The Hill and down the other by a merciless Staff Sergeant. These are British prisoners, by the way. The English military authorities are depicted as ultra-macho, disciplinarian and unforgiving.
Enter Sean Connery, a rebellious soldier who has punched out his commanding officer in a combat situation. The prison captain and his sergeant are going to make an example out of Connery, and he knows it. Also arriving in the same prisoner shipment are a black soldier (Ossie Davis) and a sensitive young man who is there for some minor offense. He keeps a picture of his wife in his pocket and is surely going to have trouble with the extreme abuse about to be dished out to the group, for he is not cut out to be a soldier.
The Staff Sergeant (played by an actor named Ian Hendry) begins by running his new charges up and down The Hill, and ransacking their cell every night just to antagonise them. At first, he singles out Connery for extra punishment, but when he can see that Connery is not going to react or give in (i.e. weaken) under his sadistic direction, he then switches his attention to the soft-hearted Stevens (played by Alfred Lynch). For some small infraction involving the cleanliness of his prison uniform, the "Staff" (as he is called) orders Stevens to The Hill for an extensive workout under the broiling sun. I may have forgotten to mention that this prison is located in what appears to be the North African desert. The time seems to be just in the aftermath of WW2.
At any rate, this inhuman treatment of the prisoner ends with disastrous consequences, which must now be covered up by the "Staff" and his superior officer the Captain (played by Harry Andrews), who will report to the camp's medical officer that Steven's death appears to have been "accidental".
Sean Connery knows different, however, as do Ossie Davis and the rest of the prisoners in their cell. They've all taken the brunt of the Captain's wrath, as dished out by his demonic Staff Sergeant, who is a secret alcoholic and may well be off his rocker.
There is eventually going to be a confrontation about Stevens' death, as the "Staff"'s brutality gets so out of hand that the prisoners have no choice but to stand up to it. On their side is a another Staff Sergeant from a different cell block. He has witnessed what they've been subjected to and is willing to report it to the Area Commander. These decisions will cause matters to come to a head in a most explosive way.
I think that "The Hill" is one of the finest acting movies I've seen in quite a while, at least where the acting is in an ensemble and the context is highly charged. Sidney Lumet was known as a great "actor's director" as you can see from the list of Oscar-nominated films and performances on his resume. This movie does not feature an ever-changing plot - you pretty much know what the deal is from Scene One - and yet you can't take your eyes off the screen for the entire 123 minutes of the running time, due to the dramatic tension created by the cast members and also the emotionally evocative camerawork, which is constantly in motion, following the dialogue of each highlighted character, and the editing, which changes angles from face to face, sometimes they are shot from below, sometimes above or from the side. Lumet uses close-ups for maximum expression and the angles from which the characters are filmed suggest their dilemma or level of predicament in any given moment.
The attention to detail as regards the black and white camerawork and the editing is of the highest order. Another more conventional director could have made the same film in a pedestrian way. Lumet did a sensational job.
I give "The Hill" two Very High Thumbs Up, and I will add that I am sure that both Aaron Sorkin and Rob Reiner must have seen and love this film, for it's plotline and dramatic structure very much resemble Sorkin's "A Few Good Men".
There is no doubt he was influenced by Sidney Lumet's "The Hill", which preceded his film by 27 years.
"The Hill" is highly recommended, though it's rough going. But man....what great acting and direction.
Now here is just a smidgen from my aborted blog from last night :
(from 5/30/19) Tonight I watched Judy Garland in "Presenting Lily Mars" (1943), the story of a young woman from a small town in Indiana who dreams of becoming an actress on Broadway. Luckily for her, there just so happens to be a big-time stage director in town, played by Van Heflin. He spends most of his time in New York, where he lives, but he is from the same Indiana town and comes home from time to time to relax and stay with his mother, who is his manager. Lily Mars, the aspiring actress, knows all this. To make matters more complicated, Van Heflin's father was the doctor who delivered Lily when she was born.
I have to break away from my review just for a moment to ask "what would have happened if Van Heflin had formed a band before Van Halen"? Or what if Van Heflin had joined Van Halen? I mean, he couldn't have, because he died in 1971. Nevertheless, I feel that it's still something to ponder.
The plot of "Lily Mars" follows a variation of the "Star Is Born" formula, except that this film tends toward comedy rather than tragedy. You know The Formula : Judy's gonna be a Star no matter what. She's got the talent, she got the gumption, and her neighbor just happens to be a big time stage director!
She's also Judy Garland, which means she's gonna be a little bit goofy, a little bit vulnerable, a whole lot determined and overwhelmingly talented - so much so that even the terminally naysaying Heflin, who tries hard to ignore her and/or push her away, ends up falling in love.
That's the Judy Garland formula in a nutshell (at least for some of her movies), but let's face it, the formula works. It works because Judy Garland could do it all, from tear-jerking drama to pratfall comedy, and she could dance like Fred Astaire (or more accurately Ginger Rogers) and most importantly she could sing like Judy Garland.
Now, how many Stars do you know who could do all that? And on top of that, she had Movie Star Charisma for the ages.
"Presenting Lily Mars" was a formula picture but a lot of fun anyway and energetic all the way through. Bonus points for Van Heflin's comedic performance, a side you have never seen from him.
But mostly, you need to watch as many Judy Garland movies as you can. Not all at once, just once in a while, like "Meet Me In St. Louis" at Christmas, or "Easter Parade" for........Easter.
You get the idea. There were only a few Stars of her magnitude, and even in a formula picture, she always gave it her all. And that's what Hollywood is all about. /////
See you in the morning. Love through the night. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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