Wild River.

In my opinion the word classic is used far to often and generally without just cause, so what makes a classic feature film?  It needs a good story, although not enough on its own, it needs to be well told. It needs someone at the helm who has a good vision and to be honest knows what he or she is doing. Then you need experienced crew both on location and in the final editing stages. Importantly you need the people that allow both director and crew to carry out their craft: actors. Actors are the people that make us believe what we are watching, are the ones who project characters emotions, and are the ones capable of making us empathise or hate the characters that we follow up on the screen. Wild River (1960) unquestionably deserves the accolade of ‘classic movie’ because it definitely ticks all these required boxes.

 

The formidable Jo Van Fleet as Ella Garth.

Firstly there is the absorbing screenplay written by Paul Osborn, which he adapted into a screenplay from two novels, Mud on the Stars by William Bradford Huie and Dunbar’s Cove by Borden Deal, both of which studies a part of the national socio-economic progress through the Tennessee Valley Authority a federally owned corporation in the US, created in 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region that was particularly affected by the Great Depression. The story is one of power verses the people, the power in the form of the TVA and its agent and the people in the shape of an elderly women who will not give up her land to allow the TVA to flood the island which she, her family and her African/American workers regard as home.

 

TVA Agent Chuck Glover.

Turkish born Elia Kazan is well known for exploring controversial themes, directing some very well known American movies like A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), On the Waterfront (1954) and of cause East of Eden (1955) which starred James Dean in his first major screen role. This directorial craftsman manages to elicit some great performances from his cast especially Jo Van Fleet who at 45 plays the 80 year old  ‘rugged individualist’ Ella Garth fighting for all her worth to stop the authorities from evicting her from her beloved island. Montgomery Clift plays TVA agent Chuck Glover, a man who thinks he can get the old woman off the island without the use of force, but also man who gets into several scrapes with the local bigots over his sympathetic treatment of the black workers, and unsurprisingly one that falls for Ella Garth’s attractive granddaughter, played by Lee Remick.

 

The small minded bigots that can be found anywhere!

It’s this developing love affair and the conflict between progress and tradition that binds the film’s excellent story line together.  Set in the early 1930’s during a complex period in American history which in Kazan’s capable hands is made authentic, helped of course by the wonderful exterior locations which were filmed on Coon Denton Island on the Hiwassee River west of Cleveland Tennessee and some beautiful atmospheric interior lighting by DOP Ellsworth Fredricks. I would highly recommend this movie, which is currently available on both DVD and Blu-ray.   

The Running Man.

Rex Black is dead or is he? After the funeral service newly widowed Stella Black returns to their flat for the wake. Rex had been assumed dead after a glider he was piloting crashed into the sea and his body never found. When the guests have departed Rex Black miraculously reappears larger than life and potentially very much richer. We learn that the couple have plotted to swindle their insurance company by insuring Rex’s life and then staging the accident. All seems to be going to plan until an inquisitive insurance agent, Stephan Maddux, turns up to question the ‘grieving’ widow. Black has to disappear again until the claim is finalised and the money has been paid out. Leaving Stella in the UK to sort out the final particulars he leaves the country and goes to Malaga. While he is there he stumbles on the passport of an Australian sheep farmer and assumes the identity of Jim Jerome along with a rather dreadful Australian accent. When the claim is finally cleared Stella joins ‘Jim Jerome’ in Spain. But as luck would have it Stephan Maddox turns up at the same resort that Stella and “Jim” are staying at. Is the arrival of the insurance agent just coincidence or is he still on the trail of our two fraudsters?   

 

Laurence Harvey in a tourist free Spain.

Based on the Shelley Smith novel The Ballad of the Running Man, and Directed and produced by Carol Reed (Climbing High 1939) it has a screenplay written by John Mortimer who is probable best known for creating barrister Horace Rumpole who in turn is a character you will remember from the TV series Rumpole of the Bailey.  Shot in the Ardmore Studios in County Wicklow in Ireland and on location in a beautiful looking Spain before the advent of package tours. The Running Man (1963) stars Laurence Harvey (The Good Die Young 1954) as Rex Black, a role that really suited the actor, the attractive American actress Lee Rimick played Blacks wife Stella and Alan Bates appears as the insurance agent Stephan Maddux. A grand line up with all three helping to make the story more believable than it really deserved.

 

Lee Rimick with Alan Bates.

Although critics at the time of its release thought the film poorly conceived and some even went as far as saying it was muddled and indulgent, on reflection it know seems a breath of fresh air. It may seem a wee bit contrived but still gives us plenty to enjoy, in fact I found it a polished and exciting production that unfortunately is not available on DVD or Blu-ray at present.