You've gotta love Monty Woolley, whose screen persona was that of the Endearing Curmudgeon, the kind of man for whom every intrusion into his life or belief system is an affront, but whose outrage comes across as charming bluster. Including tonight's picture, "The Pied Piper"(1942), we've only seen him twice (the other time being in the Christmas classic "The Man Who Came to Dinner"), but I have a feeling he was always cast to play the same type of character, and boy was he good at it. In "Piper" he stars as an Englishman on vacation in France in the Spring of 1940. He's there on a fishing trip, when suddenly the country is invaded by the Germans. It's not mentioned in the movie, but I imagine there were people at the time who thought Hitler would confine his war to Poland and Czechoslovakia. Monty is at his hotel when he sees Heinkel bombers in the sky, and the BBC comes on the radio saying that France has been overrun.
The hotel patrons gather in the lobby, making plans about what to do next. Among them are two children (played by Roddy McDowell and Peggy Ann Garner) with whom Woolley is having a dispute. His character is of course not fond of kids, nor comfortable around them. To keep them busy and distract them from the news, someone asks the children to name five American states. McDowell names Texas and California, but then Woolley butts in. He can't stand to be upstaged by a child, so he names "Rochester". This backfires on him when little Roddy informs him that it's only an American city, not a state. So begins his relationship with not just McDowell, but his sister Peggy Ann Garner and several other youngsters as well. He's about to become their guardian, against his wishes at first, but of course beneath his crotchety exterior is a caring heart of gold. As I say, you've gotta love Woolley, with his brushed, white beard and indignant but easily bruised facade.
As German bombs are falling near the hotel, an evacuation begins, and the childrens' mother asks Woolley to take McDowell and Garner to England, where they'll be safe. Though his aversion to kids rivals that of WC Fields, he reluctantly agrees, after the mother swears she'll reclaim them when the war is over. "It shouldn't be more than a few weeks". En route to a Paris suburb, they pick up three more orphaned children who're all fending for themselves. This sequence is played as a fable, in keeping with the film's title.
Monty is exasperated by having to shepherd the kids to safety, but in reality he's the right man for the job. The orphan kids choose him in the same way a lost dog will follow a trusted human. Though he shoos them away each time one approaches, the orphans know by instinct he's hiding his kindness beneath a shell. And while he's ornery towards them initially, he can't resist their doe-like expressions, and their smiles in response to his jibes. Over the course of their journey, he'll become their staunch protector, in a curmudgeonly way of course.
He takes them by train to the house of his son's fiancee (his son being an RAF pilot who was killed in action). She in turn agrees to take all of them to meet a man from the French Resistance, who can get Monty and the children on a boat that will take them across the Channel.
But the night before they are to leave, they're all at a cafe when two of the children begin arguing over possession of a cat. Woolley and Baxter have instructed them never to converse in English, but one child lapses and a German guard hears her speak. Later that night, when they are down at the waterline waiting for their boat to arrive, the same guard suddenly appears, with Nazi adjutants, to take the them all into custody.
The Nazis take the group to local Gestapo headquarters, where a "Major Diessen" is waiting to confront them. The Major is played by Otto Freaking Preminger, he of the monocle and shaved head. Along with the similar-looking and equally Teutonic Erich von Stroheim, Preminger was perhaps the ultimate Nazi portrayer, with the added irony that both actors were Jewish! Both were also talented and famous directors; Preminger would make a big splash with the noir classic "Laura" two years later.
Major Diessen at first thinks Woolley is a spy, and doesn't believe his story about the children. "That would be a perfect cover story for you", he tells Monty, whom he threatens with torture if he doesn't come clean. This is where Woolley's overbearing personality comes in handy - he's so insulted that Preminger doesn't believe him that he thoroughly denounces the Major in a state of high dudgeon. Preminger is so impressed, not to mention stunned, that anyone would have the hutzpah to talk to him that way (while insulting Der Fuhrer in the process), that he does a 180. Now he accepts that Monty really is the childrens' guardian, and instead of threatening him further..........he asks a favor.
Of course I can't tell you what it is, but the remainder of the story will hinge on it. Keep in mind the earlier scene in the hotel, where Monty and Roddy McDowell were arguing over American states.
"The Pied Piper" is a sweet-natured tale overall, with a few mean-spirited Nazis thrown in for confrontational purposes. The movie thrives on Woolley's performance and his relationships with the children, and later with Otto Preminger's sneering Gestapo chief. I loved it and you will too. Two Big Thumbs Up. ////
The previous night, we took a slight detour from our spate of war and spy films with "Man in the Dark"(1953), a noir starring Edmond O'Brien as a jailed career criminal who, in exchange for his parole, agrees to undergo an experimental brain operation that the prison doctors believe will render him an upstanding citizen. The operation is initially a success. O'Brien is left with total amnesia of his past, and given a new name. He's even subjected to a polygraph test that the medical staff hopes will prove he has no memory of his crimes.
All goes according to plan, but then as he is being escorted from the prison, he's abducted off the sidewalk by a trio of thugs - the hoodlums from his former gang - who last saw him when he was escaping from a heist with 130 grand in cash, which they believe he stashed and is sitting on. These mugs want their cut of the dough, and when O'Brien - in his newly amnesiac state - tells them he has no idea what they're talking about, it doesn't fly. One of the mooks, a big SOB named Lefty (Ted de Corsia), thinks he's faking it and threatens to knock his block off if O'Brien doesn't fess up. But O'Brien genuinely doesn't remember anything about the money, or the robbery that netted it, and has to suffer the threatened beating from Lefty until Audrey Totter comes to his rescue. She's his former girlfriend, whose affections have been usurped by Lefty. But now that O'Brien isn't a criminal anymore, she wants him back. As long as he has no memory of his past, she'll stick with him.
But when he does suddenly recall the robbery - during a feverish sleep - he decides he wants the money after all.
I found "Man in the Dark" somewhat formulaic, akin to those other "Man in Jeopardy" movies like "D.O.A.", in which O'Brien (again) has been poisoned and has 24 hours to find his killer. Or the ones starring Richard Basehart, like "14 Hours", or "He Walked By Night". Those were actually good movies, and this one is okay, but it spends too much time in the company of the thugs, with Ted de Corsia constantly threatening to pound O'Brien. That gets old after a while, though the story picks up again in the last half hour when O'Brien's nightmare sequence begins. It takes place on the carnival midway of the Santa Monica Pier, and is very well done. That's enough to counterbalance the dull parts and earn the flick Two Regular Thumbs Up. If you're in need of a Noir, you might give it 70 minutes of your time. Not great, not bad, but alright. ////
That's all for today. Have a nice evening. Tons of love as always! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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