The Films of 1949 (part two)

Of the 17 films I watched only 3 did I really dislike.

Man on the Eiffel Tower is an attempt (directed by Burgess Meredith) at a Hitchock-ian thriller that just never develops the zest needed. Though it does pre-date Strangers on a Train (never one of my favorite Hitchcock films anyway), the story of a stranger willing to kill another man's nemesis (in this case his wealthy aunt) never gets off the ground. Its twisty-turny police procedural elements just get confusing and the humor never comes off the page. Also, it is one of the ugliest looking films I've seen in ages! It looks like it was shot through a dirty fishbowl. (This is where Michael Bay draws his aesthetic inspiration, I presume)

I Shot Jesse James, the directorial debut of the great Samuel Fuller, does earn points for being an off-kilter western but visually and structurally it never gets ambitious enough to be interesting. Westerns about gunslingers would've been standard in those days and this one goes for a more soulful element of the trepidation of killing the killer. But it is such a lackluster production with little energy that there's not much to get excited about. It hints at what Fuller the mad genius would become but it isn't in and of itself terribly noteworthy (no matter what Criterion Collection wants you to believe!).

12 O'clock High was a popular film in its day, won a Best Picture nomination, starred Gregory Peck in his prime and has survived to the present day as a bonafide classic. But for my money this movie sucks. It is the true story of an under-performing bomber unit during WWII that gets the personal attention of their commanding general, who shows up to inspire the unit. Peck's character, though, is really just capricious and strange, there's little inspiration to him at all. And the final 10 minutes are just maddening! The general gets mental at the end and sits back at headquarters while the unit performs their most dangerous mission. Didn't see how that was supposed to be inspirational at all! And then it ends on that note. Mystifying. The movie does boast a fine opening sequence: a B-52 without landing gear comes in for a dangerous touchdown and there's no special effects, folks, its all fo' r-izzle. The first few minutes are cool but it quickly goes down hill from there. Unless you're just on a Gregory Peck mission (which for some reason I have been recently), I think you can safely skip this one.