THE UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH (1989), TRUST (1990)

 Adrienne Shelly and Robert Burke

seek out The Unbelievable Truth

Director Hal Hartley's three decade (so far) career as an indie film director began with his 1989 film The Unbelievable Truth in 1989. It's a story about a mechanic named Josh (Robert Burke) who returns to his hometown after a stretch in prison for a murder he may or may not have committed. He gets involved with Audry (Adrienne Shelly), the daughter of the owner of the garage where he lands a job. It's a nice little film with interesting plot twists and characters and I really have to give credit to any film with a budget of $75,000 (even in 1989 dollars).

Adrienne Shelly and Martin Donovan 

learn to Trust each other

Trust is Hal Hartley's low-budget romance about a pregnant high schooler named Maria that accidentally kills her dad, gets banished by her mother, dumped by her boyfriend, survives an attempted rape in a store...before hooking up with a electronics repairman named Matthew whose main character flaw is that he is too ethical to hold a job. Matthew has parental problems of his own with his oddly controlling father. The characters of Maria and Matthew grew on me after awhile (especially Adrienne Shelly as the girl) and the film has some nice touches of dark humor and some poignancy as well.

Leading lady Adrienne Shelly later became a director in her own right (Waitress), but her promising career was cut short by her tragic death in 2006 at the age of 40.

Adrienne Shelly in Waitress

A QUESTION OF SILENCE (1982), CAROL (2015)

Three women converge of the shop owner
in A Question of Silence

A Question of Silence is a story of three women. One is a seemingly happy, plump middle aged waitress. But is she really happy? She's alone and perhaps she isn't really as contented as she seems. Another is an attractive office assistant. Her boss relies on her to run the office, but seems to have little respect for her ideas. The third is a housewife with a family. The three women don't know each other but find themselves at a dress shop one day. The housewife attempts to steal a garment and is approached by the owner. The three women converge of him and...well, they beat him to death.

The women are in custody and are interviewed by a female criminal psychiatrist named Janine. Janine tries to understand them at first and actually comes to sympathize with them as time goes on.

A feminist parable to be sure. What is the director/writer Gorris trying to say? And should a man watch this with a different eye than a woman? I'm not sure, but I don't think anyone watches A Question of Silence and says, "Wow, that was entertaining!" Of course, it wasn't meant to be.

Carol (Cate Blanchette) meets Therese (Rooney Mara)
in Carol

We recently read the 1952 novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith for my book club. It is the story of a young lady named Therese who slowly becomes enamored by an older married woman named Carol. It is a book that really delves into Therese's thoughts and somehow makes intricate details and mundane thoughts interesting. I actually liked this book more than some of the women in my book group who thought she relied on this detail too much and neglected getting on with the story.

Having read the book makes the praised film adaptation Carol interesting. I've seen it before, but looking at it right after reading the book makes it seem somehow less than when I first saw it. Granted, film is a different medium and taken as a stand alone without knowing about the book, it is a pretty good study of these two women. It also recreates the time well and Cate Blanchette and Rooney Mara are good in the lead roles.

Overall, the story is about a clear love between two women that can not be expressed because of the time and the situation they are in. But the end surprisingly does give them and the reader (or viewer) hope that they can both ultimately be happy.

The Price of Salt
(listed under Highsmith's alias
Claire Morgan)

ECSTASY (1933, CZECHOSLOVOKIA), SAMSON AND DELILAH (1948), BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMARR STORY (2017)

Hedy Kielser naked and afraid
 in Ecstasy

The Czech film Ecstasy is a somewhat puzzling film to watch. It is about a bride named Eva who is on her honeymoon with her older husband named Emil and suddenly realizes she doesn't love him and leaves him to go back to the comfort of her family. While swimming and chasing a horse before she is able to get her clothes on she meets a builder who eventually becomes her lover. Emil eventually comes back to try to reconcile with Eva and complications ensue.

Ecstasy director Gustav Machaty and his cinematographer definitely have some cinematic skill with their often offbeat camera angles and slow pacing. The film itself often plays like a silent, with minutes between dialogue even though sound had been around for several years when this film was shot! It's not a bad film now that I think about it, but there's really only one reason it's remembered today.

Heddy Lamar: Eva is played by Austrian Hedy Kiesler, who later became famous in America under the name of Heddy Lamar. Her scene when she is running after her horse in the nude was considered quite scandalous at the time, but it did give her some attention which later led to her emigration to the United States and becoming a star for MGM studios in the 40's.

Heddy Lamar using her body 

in Sampson and Delilah

Samson and Delilah was one of the biggest hits MGM and director Cecil B. Demille had during the 1940's.

Heddy Lamar played the seductive temptress Delilah and she did indeed have looks to kill for...or at least get your haircut for. I actually liked this film more than I thought I would (I think I'm just growing soft for old movies). The final destruction of the temple as well as other action scenes (such as Samson kicking ass with the jawbone of an ass) makes for a pretty good spectacle and Lamar's co-star Victor Mature is able as the mighty Samson. We also have on hand a young Angela Lansbury as Delilah's sister and the always wonderful (to me) George Sanders as the Saran.

 

Heddy Lamar using her brain
in Bombshell: The Heddy Lamar Story

The last film of my Heddy Lamar triple feature is the documentary Bombshell: The Heddy Lamar Story. This film shows Heddy's rise from a Czech ingenue to a major Hollywood star, her many marriages and the many peaks and valleys of her career before becoming a recluse later in life. 

One of the noted aspects of this documentary is showing Heddy's...brain. She is credited (or maybe not credited enough) with the development of "frequency hopping"to prevent enemy subs and such for picking up on messages delivered to allies during World War II. She and George Antheil were awarded a patent on this in 1942 and was used as a valuable tool in keeping transmissions secret in subsequent years (and wars.)

DIVA (1981, FRANCE), SABOTEUR (1942)

Jules the postman (Frederic Andrei) 

shares his love of the Diva with a friend

Diva is the story of a young Parisian postman who literally bumps into a prostitute with an incriminating cassette tape that she hides in Jules's moped. The prostitute is killed and Jules finds he is quickly in over his head in a situation not of his choosing. The plot of the film also involves Jules's obsession with an classical singer named Cynthia Hawkins who never lets herself be recorded. Ah! But Jules has a bootleg recording of her, which he listens to constantly. So essentially Jules has one recording he loves and another one that he wants no part of.

This engaging French thriller reminds me a great deal of some of Alfred Hitchcock's movies that feature an everyman that gets involved in a situation way over his head, such as The Man Who Knew Too Much. That film also had a similar musical tie-in in the plot.

Diva Cynthia Hawkins (Wilhelmenia Fernandez) 

sings live...so don't record her!

I wanted to team Diva up with a Hitchcock film that I hadn't seen before, so I chose Saboteur, a 1942 film which also features an average guy that gets involved in a situation over his head.

Aircraft factory worker Barry Kane (Bob Cummings) is an average Joe that is falsely accused of setting a fire at the factory that killed a friend of his. He is sought by police and ends up on the run, but has a clue about the identity of the real culprit, a man named Fry (Norman Lloyd). The acts of sabotage turn out to be much bigger than just Fry, which Barry discovers a little bit at a time. He also picks up a blonde (Priscilla Lane) along the way who wants to turn him in at first, but of course later becomes an ally.

The film culminates with a memorable scene with Fry dangling from the Statue of Liberty with Barry unsuccessfully trying to save him.

Saboteur isn't top twenty Hitchcock, but it's not bad either. It does seem like a bit of a test film in retrospect for Hitch's later North by Northwest. Bob Cummings and Priscilla Lane aren't Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, but they're likable and effective enough. And the conclusion on top of the Statue of Liberty is good, just not as good as the Mount Rushmore finale of North by Northwest.

Bob Cummings and Priscilla Lane have issues
in Saboteur

As in many Hitchcock films, we do have many memorable supporting players. I especially like the truck driver looking for excitement that helps Barry escape from the police. Otto Kruger plays a sophisticated villain here...Otto seemed to played a sophisticated villain a lot. Also on hand are Vaughan Glaser as a blind man that also helps Barry and a train full of circus performers who debate between themselves whether or not to turn in our fugitives.

My favorite of all of the supporting players is Norman Lloyd as Fry. Norman became a frequent Hitchcock collaborator throughout his career. I know him best in later years as Dr. Auschlander from St. Elsewhere. Norman provided insights on the commentary track of Saboteur and he mentioned that Hitchcock felt it was a mistake to have the bad guy in peril at the end of the movie because the audience isn't really invested as much on whether or not he falls as they would be if it were the hero. This is another improvement the director made in North by Northwest.

As of this writing, Norman Lloyd is still alive at age 105 and comes across in his commentary as an extremely charming guy.

Norman Lloyd hanging on to the Statue of Liberty
for the moment is Saboteur

Norman Lloyd as Dr. Auschlander
in St. Elsewhere