Cinema (1963)

SHOWING NO LOVE FOR JOHNNIE In following his burning ambition to reach the top of the political ladder, Johnnie Byrne, M.P., (Peter Finch) is stripped, layer by layer, of the veneers of ruthlessness, selfishness, and powerhungry ambition until his very soul is exposed bare, lonely ... and loveless. There are many attempts at love, but, his wife (Rosalie Crutehleg) walks out on him; the girl upstairs (Billie Whitelaw) leaves him when he answers a political phone call while they are making love, and his mistress (Mary Peach) finally cools their hot affair when she realizes his ambition won’t allow him enough time for her. At the end he has a choice between love and a career, but the temptation to join the ranks of Fox, Pitt, Disraeli, and Churchill is too much. Not a film for children or those looking for escape. PRODUCED BY BETTY E. BOX FOR THE RANK ORGANIZATION • A JOSEPH E. LEVINE PRESENTATION OF AN EMBASSY PICTURES RELEASE • DIRECTED BY RALPH THOMAS • SCREENPLAY BY NICHOLAS PHIPPS AND MORDECAI RICHLER • CINEMATOGRAPHY DIRECTOR ERNEST STEWARD • ALSO WITH STANLEY HOLLOWAY, DONALD PLEASENCE, AND HUGH BURDEN. TWO WOMEN “How could I make Sophia, with her blazing twenty-five years, unappealing? By putting a bandage over one eye, by making her lame, or by pulling out a tooth? I didn’t have the courage. And— what was even more difficult — how could I make of Sophia a mother of a marriageable daughter?” This was a problem that faced Cesare Zavattini when adapting Alberto Moravia’s novel “La Ciociara” to film. He manipulated the age of the daughter in the film to some advantage, but his biggest help is Sophia Loren. While she isn’t unappealing, she is completely believable as the strong peasant mother who loves her daughter madly, like a^ wolf mother. Her triumph has already brought her the Best Actress Award at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival and may bring her more. DeSica handles the film with the same sense of humanism and stark reality that made him famous in “Shoe Shine” and “Bicycle Thief.” The picture is natural — no key lights, no tricks — and so is the acting. The realistic school is on the wane, but in “Two Women” DeSica shows it can still produce exciting entertainment. A JOSEPH E. LEVINE PRESENTATION • RELEASED BY EMBASSY PICTURE CORP. • PRODUCED BY CARLO PONTI • DIRECTED BY VITTORIO DeSICA • SCREENPLAY BY CESARE ZAVATTINI • CINEMATOGRAPHY DIRECTION GABOR POGANY • WITH SOPHIA LOREN • JEAN PAUL BELMONDO • ELEANORA BROWN • RAF VALLONE. THE CHILDREN’S HOUR This is an actresses’ film. Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, Miriam Hopkins and Fay Bainter give excellent dramatic performances, but somehow they don’t fit into the visual dynamics of the film. They emote grandly as if they were on stage, but move in picture frames that have a contrived look. Director William Wyler is noted for picking good stories, which “The Children’s Hour” is, but during the film you feel as if you have seen this all before; perhaps “The Bad Seed” was too recently available. The updating of the time to the present makes situations and characters that were abundant in the twenties seem implausible today. This is the first film made by Wyler since “Ben-Hur” — a motion picture which, in addition to its spectacular popular success, also seems destined to become the most honored picture ever made. Winner three times of the Academy Award for best direction, nominated thirteen times for the “Oscar,” Wyler’s list of films includes such varied classics of the screen as Lillian Heilman’s “The Little Foxes,” “Wuthering Heights,” “Mrs. Miniver” and “The Best Years of Our Lives.” We expected more of “The Children’s Hour.” PRESENTED BY THE MIRISCH COMPANY AND UNITED ARTISTS • SCREENPLAY BY JOHN MICHAEL HAYES WITH AN ADAPTATION BY LILLIAN HELLMAN •CINEMATOGRAPHER FRANZ F. PLANER • WITH AUDREY HEPBURN, SHIRLEY MacLAINE, JAMES GARNER, MIRIAM HOPKINS, FAY BAINTER, KAREN BALKIN AND VERONICA CARTWRIGHT. THE BRIDGE An anti-war film that is a little frightening to watch at spots. The nature of the photography and the fact that all the players are unknown give it the believability of a newsreel. Cordula Trantow received the Bundesfilmpreis award for her performance. Here is the synopsis so you’ll know what to expect. A good film if you can take it. In a small town in Germany that is relatively untouched by the war despite the fact that American troops have broken into Germany in the closing days of April 1945, a class of boys in the little school wait to be called up for service although normally underage for the army. A bomb badly aimed at the local bridge heralds the approach of the Americans and the call comes through. One of their teachers, Mr. Stern (Wolfgang Stumpf), who has been in charge of their military training in the village square, tries to keep the children from being sent to the front and is joined in this effort by Captain Froehlich (Heinz Spitzner). The captain puts the boys in command of Corporal Heilmann (Gunther Pfitzmann) and instructs the corporal to see that they are unharmed. Heilmann posts them at the bridge and goes back to town. Boredom ends for the boys at dawn when an American fighter plane comes over the horizon and strafes them, killing one of their number, Sigi (Gunther Hoffmann), and goading them into reckless attack on American tanks that arrive moments later. Their rashness disables two tanks with hand grenades and causes the others to turn back, but at a price. Four of the boys are dead. Then their little victory turns to ashes. A German demolition squad appears and blows up the bridge; doubly ironic, because it is of no military value. When Albert Mutz (Fritz Wepper) learns that his companions have given their life in vain, he shoots and kills the demolition sergeant, whose squad returns the fire and kills one more boy, Hans Scholten (Volker Bohnet). Bonetired and disillusioned, Mutz staggers back into the town, and, as white flags and sheets are being hung out of all the windows, signalling surrender to the approaching Americans, he collapses on the doorstep of his home. PRODUCED BY FONO-FILMS AND JOCHEN SEVERN • DISTRIBUTED BY ALLIED ARTISTS • DIRECTED BY BERNARD WICKI • CINEMATOGRAPHER GERD von BONIN.