Film Culture (1956)

| since become one of the trademarks of his style— was never more apparent than in the cameta’s perceptive examination of a second-hand iron bed with peeling paint, the holes in the rugs of the Nolans’ flat, the hard lines plainly visible in the face of the heroine. Background music was notably absent, except for an organ-grinder playing popular songs of the period during the street scenes. The film’s extreme realism, instead of emphasizing any falseness in the plot, served to make the sentiment more effective. The actors were believable and consistent in their characterizations, and Kazan kept them constantly in motion, occupied by innumerable bits of functional business—washing, playing games, cooking meals, scrubbing floors. This core of genuineness in the characters and settings made the film ultimately moving, in spite of a plot which was somewhat contrived. A number of powerful sequences stand out. The scene in which the family waits for the father, an amiable drunk, to return from a late wedding party, and pathetically attempts to make a party in the flat, is brilliantly devised: the hardening young mother, fighting to retain her love for her husband, encourages him to talk optimisttcally until she is unable to stand the situation any longer and screams for him to stop. The abrupt breaking of the mood in this scene reveals the alteration in the relationship of husband and wife. Another powerful and cogent scene shows the pregnant mother, writhing in labor, talking deliriously about her dead husband, while the listening daughter slowly awakens to a consciousness of their common affection. Such scenes are inherently theatrical, their ultimate effect deriving from acting and dialogue rather than from any basically cinematic qualities; but their success indicates not only Kazan’s enormous talent for handling intense scenes but the intelligence with which he can integrate his theatricalism into an otherwise cinematic film. After this excellent beginning, Kazan’s second film, The Sea of Grass, was disappointing. The memory of this film must be embarrassing to Kazan today, for its complete lack of distinction, and the absence of any of the stylistic qualities which have subsequently come to be expected from Kazan, can be explained only by the director’s unfamiliarity with the medium and his apparent lack of sympathy with his subject. The 6 story stems from the tradition of Way Down East and East Lynne: a young Eastern girl marries a cattle baron, finds him unresponsive, is attracted to a friend of the family, bears an illegitimate son, and is driven out into the cold. Employing a technique as tedious as the plot, Kazan contrived only one interesting effect: a long panning shot over vast acres of waving grass, as the Western hero explains the creation of his empire. The failure of The Sea of Grass did little damage to Kazan’s career. By 1947 he had staged such socially significant plays as Deep Are the Roots (the love story of a white Southern girl and a Negro soldier) and Arthur Miller’s A// My Sons; and his third film, Boomerang! established him securely in Hollywood. This was an essay in the new semi-documentary technique employed by Louis de Rochemont in House on 92nd Street and 13 Rue Madeleine, which attained some popularity after the war. (Much of the impetus toward the new method came from the critical success in America of such neo-realistic films as Open City and Shoeshine.) De Rochemont’s idea of neo-realism consisted of taking a story based on fact, photographing it in its actual locations, and producing a newsreel-like effect in a featurelength fiction film. Although this conception did not result in an American Passan, the method was not without merit. Kazan proved to be the ideal director for such a project, and Boomerang! was well received. The story lacks depth—a district attorney decides the murder suspect he is prosecuting is innocent, and, against difficult political opposition, proves his point in court—but it 1s thoroughly convincing on the screen. While the film did not probe deeply into the human relations of its subject, it could nonetheless boast a surface realism far beyond that of most American films. Boomerang! was harshly photographed, well-acted by a cast composed largely of unfamiliar faces (most of the actors were stage professionals), and it steadily developed suspense toward its climax.. Background music was not used. Although Boomerang! was not a significant social drama, it was a creditable directorial achievement, and it demonstrated, for the first time, Kazan’s ability as a cinema technician. Kazan’s next film, Gentleman’s Agreement, was Fox’s “big” picture of 1947. This was an expensive production, with a well-known cast