Last night, we watched "The Pursuers"(1961), a Veddy Brrrittsh Nazi Hunter movie made the year they captured Eichmann. As it opens, a team of male Auschwitz survivors meets in secret in London. Their leader has called them together on a tip that a commandant from the death camp named "Karl Brochmann" (Cyril Shaps) is living and working in the city under an assumed name. They aren't certain it's him; no one has actually seen the man now calling himself Karl Luther. He has an office and secretary, though it isn't specified what he does. The group leader says they won't be able to apprehend and extradite him, as was done with Eichmann in Argentina: "The English won't allow it, they'd try him themselves, and we can't kidnap and sneak him out, too risky with MI5 around. Still, we must believe in justice if it is indeed Herr Brochmann."
He's insinuating they'll have to liquidate him and then hightail it out of the country. The first order of business is to get a look at Luther and decide if he is Brochmann. A team member named "David" (Francis Matthews) volunteers for the job, having been a prisoner at Auschwitz when Brochmann was commandant. He goes to Luther's business, observes him and believes he is Brochmann, then he breaks into his apartment, trashes it to spook him, and draws swastikas on Luther's mirrors and windums to spook him even more.When Luther gets home and sees this, he calls the cops, who show up, inspect the scene (Luther has wiped away the swastikas) but write it off as nothing more than a run of the mill burglary. But Luther/Brochmann knows otherwise. Eichmann has just been caught. Nazi hunters are in the news. When the cops won't provide him a 24 hour guard ("for a burglary? I can't spare an officer", says the captain) Luther appeals to several of his compatriots, other ex-Nazis who are hiding in plaint sight in London under new identities. One owns a restaurant. another has a business, a third is a TV director, but none of them will help or hide him. In fact, they want no association with Luther because they aren't the ones being hunted. Luther is on his own.
Scared, he ditches his car in a lumberyard and goes to a club for a few drinks to calm his nerves. There he meets the club's singer "Jenny" (Susan Denny), who at first appears to be a prostitute on the side. Luther offers her money if she will take him home, and when they get there she starts taking her clothes off. In older movies, "nightclub singer" usually signifies "prostitute", so that's the insinuation, but Luther tells her he just wants to talk. "I'm on the run. I can't tell you all the details, but some men are trying to kill me."
Jenny can sympathize and there's the rub: "I know what that feels like. I am Jewish and was in Auschwitz during the war. I will gladly help hide you." And she does, right up til the end of the movie. It's an hour long. and very well done, the only problem being that it's all about the pursuit, hence the title. There's little mystery about the identity of Luther, if he is or is not Commandant Brochmann, and we never see the other team members again, only David. The movie starts by saying "we aren't sure if it's Brochmann", which leads you to ex-schpect a mystery element: "is it him, or isn't it?" But then we go straight to "it IS him" when David ransacks his home. After that, it's just a matter of time til he is caught by his pursuer, so the movie is all about the character being on the run, and the irony of a Jewish lady hiding him.
But it's really good in that way, and the paranoia level is high, so Two Big Thumbs Up for those attributes. An Elstree Studio production, technically sound and with an early '60s jazz score, it's recommended and the picture is very good. ////
The previous night, we found a good pre-Coder called "Discarded Lovers"(1932), starring Natalie Moorhead as a movie star who goes through men like wardrobe changes. As the movie opens, she's making a movie (isn't that nifty?). Her co-star is her current husband, a former leading man who's become a drunken shadow of himself after years of Natalie's cheating. On set, the director admonishes him following several flubbed takes. He finally gets his lines right, but then slaps Natalie after the scene is over. "Now you all know why I'm getting a divorce!", she announces to the crew and storms off. But when you see what she's like, you feel for her husband. Boy is she a tramp, and an arrogant one, too.
Now, an ex-friend of Hubby's is her sideline boyfriend. This guy is so enamored with Natalie that he puts up with her teasing promise to "enjoy" as many men as possible when she goes on her next publicity tour. Man, is this ever some super pre-Code stuff. The new boyfriend doesn't care who she sleeps with, just as long as she comes back to him, which she does not promise to do. Then there's the screenwriter of her current film. She's got him on the hook too. He tailors her dialogue, gives her all the best lines, and she throws him crumbs of attention.
An entertainment reporter is also on the set. He doesn't fall for Natalie but for her pretty secretary "Valerie" (Barbara Weeks), a nice gal who serves as a witness when Natalie turns up dead in her car about halfway through the film. She cheated on so many guys, and was so haughty to everyone she worked with, that anyone in the movie could be the killer. A big, brutish Keystone Cop takes over the investigation. He seems to be channeling Curly Howard, but is even dumber. When the killer is finally revealed, you'll think "it made sense all along". Featuring Jason Robards Sr. as the boyfriend, "Discarded Lovers" gets Two Big Thumbs Up. The picture is very good. ////
And that's all for this Friday evening. I'm on a big Van Der Graaf/Peter Hammill kick for the past couple of weeks. I've had four such "immersions" this year, beginning with Cream. Then it was The Nice, then Traffic. That one was major league, and turned Traffic into one of my favorite bands. Now it's VDGG, who have been one of my favorite bands since I heard "Godbluff" in 1975. I'll always remember taking the bus to Moby Disc in Van Nuys to buy a copy of that album. Me and the late, great Mike B. thought "The Undercover Man" was just about the greatest song ever made. I bought "Still Life" the following year, and that was a great album, too. Somewhere in between or afterward, I bought "H to He: Who Am the Only One", another Van Der Graaf classic. But after 1977, progressive rock started to die out, due to punk and the commercialization of the music industry. ELP broke up. I got into Rush and Van Halen, then metal in the 80s, and 90s music in the 90s. But something about Van Der Graaf Generator always stuck with me, even though I barely listened to progressive rock for twenty years. In about 2000 or so, when I got back into it, one of the first things I did was re-acquire the three VDGG albums I mentioned. Then, needing more, I took a chance and bought "Pawn Hearts." Would it be as good as the others? Holy smokes.
When I originally got into the band, I stopped at the three albums I mentioned. Don't know why, but it was probably that I wasn't aware of their other albums and there were so many groups in those days and limited funds to buy albums. And "Godbluff" was so great, maybe I was worried they couldn't match it, I don't know. But anyhow, I bought "Pawn Hearts" in 2000, then "The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other", and finally "The Aerosol Grey Machine", the band's first album, made in 1969, when Peter Hammill was 20 years old. David Jackson was the band's old man at 22. Those early albums are so freakin' great. Not only do they match the band's best work, they hold up 50-plus years later and I can't stop listening to 'em this week. It's safe to say that Hammill and Co. have six certified masterpieces under their belts, and there's just something about the VDGG sound (even besides Hammill's incredible voice and lyrics) that stays with me. I never get tired of listening to them. The same goes for Peter Hammill's solo work. And it all goes back to that first time of hearing "Godbluff" and "The Undercover Man", and being gobsmacked, as the Veddy Brrrittish say, by the Shakespearean-ness of it all.
My blogging music tonight is "The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other" (especially the song "White Hammer"), my late night is Handel's Aetsi Opera, I wish you a good weekend and I send you Tons of Love as always. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment