Month: August 2013

By Joe Bendel. Georges Simenon remains one of the best known Belgian writers, but his signature detective, French Police Commissaire Jules Maigret, has been played by French, British, Dutch, Italian, Armenian, Czech, Russian, and Japanese actors. British born Hollywood legend Charles Laughton also picked up Maigret’s trademark pipe for a memorable one-off, The Man on the Eiffel Tower, directed by the Burgess Meredith, which screens as part of Anthology Film Archives new retrospective, Cine-Simenon.

It is post-war Paris, where expat Bill Kirby has a wife, a mistress, a rich but prickly old aunt, and an aversion to work. After he complains about the old dear’s longevity in a crowded café, a mystery man slips him a note. His problem can be solved for 100,000 Francs. He need only mail her key to an anonymous postal drop—and so he does.

For Maigret, the most suspicious aspect of the crime scene is how thoroughly it implicates Joseph Heurtin. The bespectacled knife-grinder simply does not strike Maigret as a killer. Playing a hunch, the Inspector allows Heurtin to escape, hoping he will lead the police to the master criminal pulling his strings. Maigret soon concludes the real murderer is the Czech Johann Radek, a dissolute former medical student. However, proving it will be a trickier matter. Thus commences a game of cat and mouse that will indeed take both men to the famous Parisian landmark.

All AFA screenings will be in 35mm, which is good to know, since there are some pretty scruffy prints of Eiffel in circulation. Evidently it was one of the few films shot on a certain brand of color stock that has not aged gracefully. Nonetheless, it is a jolly good little suspenser, as well as an evocative time-capsule of post-war Paris.

Frankly, it is a shame Charles Laughton went one-and-done as Maigret, because he fits the part like a comfortably rumpled suit. It would make a good double feature with his classic performance as the not-quite-as-crafty-as-he-thinks-he-is Sir Wilfrid in Billy Wilder’s Witness for the Prosecution. In addition to helming with economy and style (reportedly with the occasional assist from his two big name co-stars), Burgess Meredith is effectively squirrely as Heurtin, even foreshadowing hints of Henry Bemis in the classic Twilight Zone episode Time Enough at Last. Yet, perhaps the greatest revelation is Franchot Tone’s diabolically manic Radek.

Indeed, Laughton’s shrewd persona, Simenon’s clever plotting, and the still impressively dizzying climax promised by the title are a hard combination to beat. An all-around entertaining classic, Eiffel does right by the source novel, which was also the basis for an earlier French adaptation duly included in Cine-Simenon as well. Highly recommended regardless of the condition of its surviving prints, The Man on the Eiffel Tower screens this Friday (8/9) and Sunday the 18th at the Anthology Film Archives.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on August 8th, 2013 at 1:39pm.

By Joe Bendel. Georges Simenon led a colorful life. There might have been a few women and some fast living. After the war, he also faced allegations of collaboration, but his defenders always maintained he was too self-absorbed for such matters. Harry Baur was one of a multitude of actors to play Simenon’s signature detective, whose wartime experience is tragically above suspicion. Imprisoned and roughly interrogated after ill-advisedly appearing in an early 1940’s German film, Baur either succumbed to injuries sustained or was helped along the way shortly after his release. His biographic details add further tragic context to Julien Duvivier’s A Man’s Neck, which screens during the Anthology Film Archives’ Cine-Simenon retrospective.

Willy Ferrière has a rich aunt who refuses to die, but a mystery pen-pal offers to help the old dear along for 100,000 francs. The freelance killer also has a scapegoat lined up to take the fall: the clueless Joseph Heurtin. Yes, this is the Maigret case Burgess Meredith later adapted as The Man on the Eiffel Tower, but it is simultaneously similar and different in intriguing ways.

As it happens, both films also serve as time capsules of Paris, pre- and post-war. Not surprisingly, though, the earlier French film is darker and somewhat franker than the RKO production. The stories run along parallel lines, but diverge on key points, such as the complicity of Ferrière’s mistress in Duvivier’s film. Indeed, there is little innocence per se in this distinctly dark crime drama.

Both Baur and Laughton look like world weary civil servants, but the latter could not help playing the part with panache. He was Charles Laughton, after all. In contrast, Baur’s Maigret is a down-trodden bureaucrat often at risk of fading into the background, until roused to outrage by the psychotic Radek. It is a close call, but in a head-to-head match, Laughton probably takes it by a jowl.

Likewise, Meredith’s Heurtin is a truly unique portrait of a man made vulnerable by his acutely anti-social nature. Alexandre Rignault’s Heurtin is also quite effective, but we have seen such simple-minded hulks before and since. However, Valéry Inkijinoff’s frenzied and lusty Radek is something else entirely. Franchot Tone exceeds expectations in Eiffel Tower, but the Russian Inkijinoff is truly creepy.

In fact, both are very good films.  Duvivier shows an eye for procedural detail, giving viewers an unromanticized look inside the Paris gendarmerie. While more naturalistic and generally jaundiced in his portrayal of human nature, Duvivier also shoehorns in small, elegantly telling moments, as when Maigret and Radek take time out from their verbal sparring to listen to his Chanson-singing neighbor.

Neck is a lean, mean film noir that packs surprising punch. It depicts a deeply flawed world, but not one in which moral judgments are impossible. Recommended by itself or in conjunction with Meredith’s Eiffel Tower (showing separately), A Man’s Neck screens this Saturday (8/10) and next Wednesday (8/14) as part of Cine-Simenon, now underway at Anthology Film Archives.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on August 8th, 2013 at 1:36pm.

By Joe Bendel. To give credit where it is due, the underground bouts produced by a shadowy criminal syndicate are not fixed. On the other hand, they often end with a fatality. Three of their up-and-coming wrestlers have a distinct advantage. After all, they are not wearing that headgear for Lucha Libre style points. The cult 1960’s wrestling manga and anime series gets a darkly super-heroic facelift in Ken Ochiai’s The Tiger Mask, which screened yesterday as part of the 2013 Fantasia International Film Festival.

After watching the landlord bully the gentle director of his beloved orphanage, young Naoto Date resolves to stop being a victim. Unfortunately, this makes him ripe for recruitment by the mysteriously powerful Mr. X, who whisks him away to train in the Tiger’s Lair, too, as a wrestler. Most of the boys arriving with him will not make it, but the top three will be awarded Tiger Masks. Either through science or black arts, these strange accessories amplify the natural powers of those who wear them, but leave them drained after their matches.

Ten years later, Date receives the Black Tiger Mask and duly triumphs over his first opponent in the ring. His friend Dan will grapple as the Gold Tiger Mask and the final White Tiger Mask will go to Jo, the mean-spirited trouble-maker. Obviously, there is a grudge match brewing between him and Date, especially when the disillusioned wrestler decides to go rogue.

Evidently, Tiger Mask is a beloved franchise in Japan that spawned a succession of real life Tiger Masks in Japanese pro-wrestling. Even by cartoon standards, the ring action in Ochiai’s reboot is pretty crazy, with the Masks’ opponents looking more like Dick Tracy villains than underground athletes. It definitely follows in the darkly stylized Sin City tradition, but it carried the seal of approval of its late producer Hisao Maki, the younger brother of Tiger Mask creator Ikki Kajiwara, who passed away shortly before the film was created. Obviously, there must be hopes this will be the start of a new franchise, but uninitiated viewers might be somewhat frustrated by the limited ground covered by the narrative, basically giving viewers the temporary closure of a ninety minute TV pilot rather than a feature tent-pole.

Still, there is some unapologetically meathead action in Tiger, staged with relish. Yet the film also has some heart, especially from Gantz’s Natsuna Watanabe, pleasingly upbeat and idealistic as Ruriko Wakatsuki, the grown-up daughter of the old orphanage headmaster. Cross-over pop-star Eiji Wentz also broods decently as Date, but perhaps the considerable amount of time he spends masked it not such an unfortunate thing.

Ochiai keeps the energy level nicely pumped-up and never lets the quite presentable special effects overwhelm the human element. In terms of tone and themes, it is like a fusion of Ender’s Game, Battle Royale, and Rikidozan. Despite the more contemporary sensibility, Tiger Mask will probably still be best appreciated by those familiar with the original series, as well as Japanese (non-sumo) wrestling. Recommended for fans of action films based on manga and anime, The Tiger Mask screened during this year’s Fantasia Festival.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted August 5th, 2013 at 10:38am.