Classic Films in Focus: DESPERATE JOURNEY (1942)

If director Raoul Walsh's WWII action movie, Desperate Journey (1942), had been made a few decades later, it would have boasted a catchy name that more accurately describes its tone and characters, something like The Great Escape (1963) or The Dirty Dozen (1967), so don't let its vague yet somber title dissuade you. Fans of modern team movies will recognize many familiar elements, including the near-constant action, the plucky (but imperfect) group of heroes, and the snappy banter and jokes, delivered in this case by Errol Flynn, Ronald Reagan, Alan Hale, Sr., Arthur Kennedy, and Ronald Sinclair as five RAF airmen from different Allied backgrounds trying to escape Nazi Germany after crashing their plane. If you're in the mood to watch classic Hollywood stars punch a bunch of Nazis, Desperate Journey provides such scenes in abundance, with a jaunty attitude that will particularly entertain those who already love the Indiana Jones movies and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).

Errol Flynn takes the lead as the Australian Terry Forbes, who hopes to do as much damage to the Nazis as possible while trying to escape from Germany with his comrades. Regular Flynn sidekick Alan Hale, Sr., plays his Scottish pal, Kirk Edwards (with no attempt at a Scottish accent or anything like it), while future US President Ronald Reagan plays the intrepid American, Johnny Hammond. Joining the trio are Arthur Kennedy as pragmatic Canadian Jed Forrest and Ronald Sinclair as young Englishman Lloyd Hollis II, the son of a famous English pilot from the previous world war. Trapped behind enemy lines and initially captured, the group rushes to get out of Nazi territory with valuable information they've nabbed during their brief period as POWs. Along the way, they encounter constant danger from the enemy as well as unexpected help from the sympathetic Kaethe Brahms (Nancy Coleman).

Given the time and place in which it was made, it probably goes without saying that Desperate Journey is meant to be a patriotic morale booster for Americans and other Allies, with our noble heroes representing the US, Australia, Canada, England, and Scotland. Like Casablanca (1942), the movie takes place before the United States enters the war, so the protagonists are all fighting for the Royal Air Force in spite of their varied backgrounds. The peril they face is real, and several characters die to prove it, but overall it makes escaping from Nazi Germany look more like a daring adventure than a traumatic ordeal. Most of the Nazis are interchangeable goons, and some, including the one played by Sig Ruman, are buffoons, while Raymond Massey is more formidable as the main villain, Major Baumeister. The boys spend most of the movie in stolen Nazi uniforms, repeatedly blending into groups of soldiers and then being revealed as imposters, which gives them an opportunity to bash heads, grab guns, and make a run for the exit. They have little time to grieve their own dead as the action propels them ever forward, right up to the very end of the picture, but like most action teams they manage to work in plenty of quips and witticisms as they go.

Lively performances from the leads and entertaining, near-constant action prop up the simple plot and overtly patriotic message, with Flynn and Reagan splitting the best lines and scenes. Reagan deftly handles a great comedic bit where Johnny spouts technical nonsense in lieu of aviation secrets to Major Baumeister, while Flynn and Hale are very much in their element with the mix of fight scenes and banter so familiar to fans of The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and their other films together. Hale probably does the seed spitting gag a few too many times, but his character has a compelling backstory as a WWI veteran who planned to sit out the latest conflict until his son was killed at Dunkirk. Ronald Sinclair fills the obligatory "kid" role for the bunch with perfect innocence and pathos, while Arthur Kennedy plays a more restrained part as the group's voice of reason. Nancy Coleman isn't in the picture much, but her presence relieves the all-boys atmosphere for a few scenes, and there's just the faintest sense of a wrong time, wrong place romance between Kaethe and Terry. The movie spends much more of its time on the planes, trains, and automobiles that the heroes use to make a break for the German border, with an especially elaborate car chase in the third act leading up to a grand finale involving a stolen plane.

As befits an action movie of this type, Desperate Journey was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Special Effects, which it lost to Reap the Wild Wind (1942). Ronald Reagan also starred in the small town melodrama, Kings Row in 1942, before he was called away for military service - primarily making training films - for the remainder of the war. See more of Errol Flynn and Alan Hale, Sr., in Dodge City (1939), The Sea Hawk (1940), and Gentleman Jim (1942), the last of which was also directed by Raoul Walsh. For another picture with Walsh, Flynn, and Arthur Kennedy, see They Died with Their Boots On (1941). Desperate Journey was the final acting performance of New Zealand native and child actor Ronald Sinclair, who appeared in a series of Five Little Peppers movies. After serving in the US Army in WWII, Sinclair became a film editor and worked on many pictures with Roger Corman as well as later hits like Die Hard (1988) and Die Hard 2 (1990).

Audie Murphy's Grave at Arlington National Cemetery

Our family's fall break trip to DC didn't work out, thanks to the government shutdown, but I did manage to visit Arlington National Cemetery before we defected to Colonial Williamsburg for the rest of the week. Here's a photo of the headstone that marks the resting place of World War II hero and classic Hollywood star Audie Murphy.

Famous as the Army's most decorated soldier during the war, Murphy became a leading man by playing himself in To Hell and Back (1955), which was adapted from his own written account of his experiences. He also starred in Westerns like Destry (1954), No Name on the Bullet (1959), and The Unforgiven (1960). Tragically, Murphy died in a plane crash in 1971 when he was only 45 years old.

Murphy's memoir is still in print, so if you want to learn more about one of Hollywood's real-life heroes you can check out To Hell and Back on Amazon.

Classic Films in Focus: STALAG 17 (1953)

Stalag 17 (1953) is exactly the kind of war movie one might expect from Billy Wilder, the writer and director behind monumental classics like Double Indemnity (1944), Sunset Boulevard (1950), and Some Like It Hot (1959). Wilder’s darkest pictures inevitably reveal a grim sense of humor, while his funniest flirt with violence and death. Stalag 17 plays like a comedy, even though it’s set in a World War II POW camp and opens with the deaths of two of the prisoners. An outstanding ensemble of actors, led by William Holden, helps to sell this complex mix of humor and tension, and the result is a memorable story of wartime experience that stands alongside The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and The Great Escape (1963) as one of the best prisoner of war movies ever made.

Holden plays camp trader J.J. Sefton, one of a large group of American sergeants held in Stalag 17. When the Nazi guards repeatedly get wind of the prisoners’ plans and information, it becomes clear that someone on the inside is acting as an informant, and the other soldiers immediately suspect Sefton. The danger posed by the leak increases with the arrival of a new prisoner (Don Taylor), whom the Nazis will execute as a saboteur if they can get proof of his actions.

Wilder and Edwin Blum adapted the story from a stage play by former Stalag 17 prisoners Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, and Trzcinski even has a small role in the picture as the prisoner whose wife concocts a tall tale about “finding” a baby during his absence. Several of the supporting players are carried over from the play, including Robert Strauss and Harvey Lembeck as the scene-stealing Animal and Shapiro. Unlike some films adapted from plays, Stalag 17 avoids feeling overly staged and closeted because of the numerous outdoor scenes, most of which feature an incredible amount of mud.

Holden’s performance drives the story, but his jaded, opportunistic character is no hero. We have to dislike him enough to see why the rest of the prisoners suspect him, although a thoughtful viewer will also recognize the significance of his protection of Cookie (Gil Stratton), the story’s narrator and one of the most vulnerable prisoners in the barracks. The more obvious antagonists, Sgt. Schulz (Sig Ruman) and the camp commandant (Otto Preminger), are as ridiculous as they are menacing, much like the Nazis in Ernst Lubitsch’s To Be or Not to Be (1942). The other prisoners run the gamut of character types, from the heroic Lt. Dunbar (Taylor) and the shell-shocked Joey (Robinson Stone) to the boyish “Blondie” (Robert Shawley) and the camp clowns Animal and Shapiro. Take time to appreciate the solid performances of Richard Erdman, Peter Graves, and Neville Brand as the other residents of the barracks.

Stalag 17 earned three Oscar nominations, including nods for Wilder and Strauss, but Holden’s Best Actor award was the only win. For more of Wilder’s films, see The Major and the Minor (1942), The Lost Weekend (1945), and The Apartment (1960). Look for William Holden in Born Yesterday (1950) and Sunset Boulevard (1950). Sig Ruman appears in many classic comedies, including A Night at the Opera (1935), Ninotchka (1939), and To Be or Not to Be (1942). Otto Preminger appeared in very few acting roles but is remembered today as the director of classics like Laura (1944), The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), and Anatomy of a Murder (1959).

Note: A shorter version of this review can be found on Examiner.com. 

Classic Films in Focus: LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)

Like its protagonist, Lawrence of Arabia (1962) has become the stuff of legend, a film so critically acclaimed and celebrated that it is difficult to come to the picture itself without preconceived notions. It won seven Oscars in 1963, including Best Picture and Best Director for David Lean, with ten nominations in all to attest to its immediate success. It is, of course, an epic story told on a grand scale, with sweeping desert landscapes and camels silhouetted against the sun. It is also, however, a very personal and tragic account of a man who seeks greatness but finds it an excruciating burden to bear, a man whose sanity seems to hang in the balance even at the best of times. It is this aspect of the story, as much as its visual grandeur, that makes Lawrence of Arabia an enduringly compelling film.

Peter O’Toole takes center stage as the legendary T.E. Lawrence, a British officer stationed in Arabia during World War I. Lawrence sets out on an impossible quest to unite the Arab tribes against the Ottoman Empire, and he eventually becomes the leader of a surprisingly effective Arab army. His feats attract the notice of many powerful men, including Prince Feisal (Alec Guinness), General Allenby (Jack Hawkins), and the American journalist Jackson Bentley (Arthur Kennedy). Lawrence, however, struggles with the bloody experience of war and his own fame and suffers many painful losses during his time in the desert.

Lean’s direction merges characters and setting into a story that unfolds like a religious epic, with Lawrence as both messiah and madman (which might be the same thing). Lawrence’s essential difference from everyone around him and his constant, terrible suffering only increase his charismatic power, which rapidly evolves into something far beyond his control. He very much resembles Lancelot, the ill-made knight, as T.H. White imagines him in The Once and Future King. Behind the heroic posture lurks a dark side, a violent, sadistic urge that is also masochistic. All of these things are suggested in the thorniest moments of the story, when Lawrence is tortured by the Turks and later leads a massacre of retreating Turkish troops. Tragedy is ultimately his portion, which the film makes clear by opening with his death.

Peter O’Toole is justly applauded for his role as the enigmatic protagonist, but Lawrence of Arabia also features brilliantly nuanced performances from the supporting players. Omar Sharif’s Sherif Ali is the closest thing Lawrence has to a romantic interest; the dynamics of their relationship, which serves as the heart of the picture, prove endlessly complex. Alec Guinness plays Prince Feisal as a polished, calculating politician, one we aren’t meant to trust any more than we do the British leaders who see Lawrence as a PR opportunity and an expendable catspaw, while Anthony Quinn acts as foil to Guinness in the part of the rougher, louder Auda Abu Tayi. Claude Rains only appears in a few scenes, but he makes those count, and Arthur Kennedy gives a very sharp performance as the opportunistic reporter.

Come for the splendid scenery, by all means, but stay for the story. The truth about T.H. Lawrence might be shrouded in myth and rumor, as it was even in his own lifetime, but he was beyond doubt an extraordinary man, just as Lawrence of Arabia is an extraordinary film.

For more of David Lean’s most memorable pictures, try Brief Encounter (1945), Great Expectations (1946), and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). See Peter O’Toole in The Lion in Winter (1968) and The Ruling Class (1972). Omar Sharif also stars in Lean’s Oscar-winning drama, Doctor Zhivago (1965).

Note: A shorter version of this review can be found on Examiner.com.