Trailers From Hell - THE NAKED SPUR (1953)

The great Allison Anders talks about the fantastic Anthony Mann western and gets right at the reason it is so effective and affecting. 

Anthony Mann's Westerns

Last night I was channel surfing for a few minutes and saw that one of the movie choices was Anthony Mann's MAN OF THE WEST (1958). A watched it for a little while and was reminded of its high quality and was taken with the urge to find a partner to watch all of his westerns for future podcasting. I think I'll have to do that sometime later this year just to scratch my itch to learn and talk more about Mr. Mann's excellent film output.

A list of his westerns shows how impressive his body of work is in the genre. 

WINCHESTER 73 (1950) 

BEND IN THE RIVER (1952)

THE NAKED SPUR (1953) 

THE MAN FROM LARAMIE (1955) 

THE FAR COUNTRY (1954) 

THE TIN STAR (1957) 

And there are more that I haven't even seen yet. Add to this his brilliant Noirs and his fantastic historical epics made in the 60's and Mann may just be one of the greatest Hollywood directors of all time. Maybe a new series for The Bloody Pit focused on his career is needed? I certainly need to make more people aware of his excellent film THE TALL TARGET (1951). 

If you haven't seen MAN OF THE WEST do yourself a favor and spend the 99 minutes. You won't regret it. And don't watch the trailer first- it ruins some of the story's surprises that are best left discovered as the film plays. 

THE BLACK BOOK (1949)

Turner Classic Movies recently showed one of the increasingly rare films directed by Anthony Mann that I had yet to see. Of course this thrilled me because I have yet to see any film directed by Anthony Mann that was not at least very good. He's one of those guys back during the days of the studio system who seemed to be able to move comfortably between genres and produce good films no matter what was asked of him. Oddly, this movie was being shown on TCM not because of the Mann pedigree  but because it was produced by the great William Cameron Menzies. Now I've been a fan of William Cameron Menzies ever since I discovered who he was (andI've even talked about him here on the blog briefly before) but I'm going to focus on this film from the perspective of being an Anthony Mann film.

THE BLACK BOOK (1949) is also known under the title REIGN OF TERROR and focuses on the rise of Robespierre during the French Revolution and his attempt to install himself as the country's dictator. The cast includes Richard Basehart as Robespierre and Robert Cummings as his foil. The film follows the broad outline of the historical events but plays fast and loose with details, as you might expect from Hollywood. Villain Robespierre takes hero Charles D'Aubigny (Cummings) into his confidence when the dastardly scoundrel loses his little black book. But this isn't a list of potential dates with Parisian floozies! This black book is filled with the damning evidence that keeps the ambitious politician's rivals fearful of him and without it Robespierre's chances of becoming the next ruler of France is over. The film very quickly becomes a fast and smart chase story with D'Aubigny in constant mental and physical battle with various groups as he tries to maintain his cover identity (which is keeping him safe from Robespierre's people) and trying to prove his real identity to those opposed to the scheming and powerful man while he frantically hunts for the book that will save both him and his beloved country.

This movie is tight, intelligently moving from scene to scene so fluidly that it's 90 minutes seem more like 60. Mann uses tight shots to hide the relative poverty of the production which was pulled together by Menzies get more use out of the sets built for the box office bomb JOAN OF ARC (1948). Mann cleverly frames most of his images so that the foreground provides information that adds to the main action taking place in the middle of the screen. The cinematography is incredible using light and shadow to great effect exactly as was becoming the standard in Noir crime films of the era. He and Menzies also use some effective back projection to increase the number of extras in crowd shots and to, along with smart sound design, give the often cramped sets much more depth.

In a lot of ways THE BLACK BOOK's plot is a variation on a classic Film Noir storyline but placed within the French Revolution. If you squint you can see the outline of DOA (1950) story played out her a full year earlier and in fancier clothing! This film is very much in line with the others Mann made around the same time such as T-MEN, RAW DEAL and RAILROADED (all released in 1947) and the brilliant BORDER INCIDENT (1949). He knew how to build suspense and he seems to have been able to coax great work out of his actors. I am never disappointed with one of his movies and I need to see the rest of them. I guess I need to find a copy of  MOONLIGHT IN HAVANA (1942)!

Mann of the west

I just caught up with MAN OF THE WEST (1958) and I just have to say-- DAMN!
Seriously- is there any more rock solid a guarantee of quality than the three word phrase 'Anthony Mann Western'? I mean DAMN! Look at the list of his westerns-

WINCHESTER 73
BEND IN THE RIVER
THE NAKED SPUR
THE MAN FROM LARAMIE
THE FAR COUNTRY
THE TIN STAR

All of them great with BEND being the weakest and it is STILL good. And there are more that I haven't even seen yet. Add to this his brilliant noirs and his fantastic historical epics made in the 60s and Mann may just be one of the greatest directors of all time.

But if you haven't seen MAN OF THE WEST do yourself a favor and spend the 99 minutes. You won't regret it. And don't watch the trailer first- it ruins some of the story in a way that I think stinks.

What a film!