Alexander Mackendrick
(Copyright © 1999 Piero Scaruffi | Legal restrictions - Termini d'uso )

, /10 		Links:

Sceneggiatore dei primi film di Dearden, documentarista per l'esercito sul fronte italiano, Alexander Mackendrick esordì nel 1949 con Whisky Galore, satira irriverente del moralismo e del militarismo, affettuoso affresco di vita scozzese e commedia grottesca, imperniata sulla penuria di whisky che affligge un'isola e in particolare il suo distaccamento militare, e si impose nel 1951 con The Man In White Suit (1951), apologo paradossale sulla società capitalista e sui conflitti di classe, nel quale il catastrofico inventore di un tessuto indistruttibile viene perseguitato tanto dagli industriali, che temevano il crollo del mercato, quanto dagli operai, che temono la disoccupazione; la satira è molteplice: l'ardua lotta del giovane contro lo scetticismo e l'ottusità degli industriali, il cinismo di un vecchio Sir che cerca di corrompere prima lui, e poi la sua ragazza, l'imbarazzante alleanza fra classe padronale e classe lavoratrice uniti nella lotta contro il progresso per salvaguardare il regime vigente, la goffa incapacità dello scienziato che provoca numerose esplosioni in un laboratorio trasformato in bunker per sintetizzare una fibra che alla fine si dimostrerà fragilissima. Per un decennio fu il maestro indiscusso della commedia satirica inglese che, attraverso la sentimentale Mandy (1952) e la pungente The Maggie (1954), gara d'astuzia fra un capitano scozzese e un industriale americano che gli ha affidato un carico prezioso vinta ampiamente dal primo, portò allo black humour di The Lady Killers (1955):

Una amabile zitella scopre che il suo inquilino musicista è il capo di una banda di rapinatori e cerca di ricondurli sulla retta via, ma con l'unico risultato che essi si eliminano a vicenda e lei rimane padrona dl bottino. A veteran bank robber rents a room in the house of a sweet old lady, pretending to be a musician. The members of his gang visit him pretending to be rehearsing classical music with him. In reality, they are preparing a major heist. And, unbeknownst to her, the old lady is part of the plan. They ambush a bullet-proof truck of the bank, steal the money, and put it in a trunk at the railway station. Then they send the old lady to retrieve the trunk. The police are looking for the thieves, not an old lady and let her pass undisturbed. When she delivers the trunk, the gangsters divide the dough and hide it in their musical instruments. But one opens by accident, and the lady sees the money. Then her gossiping friends tell her of the bank heist and she understands.

Trasferitosi in America, diresse Sweet Smell of Success (1957), scripted by Clifford Odets adapting Ernest Lehman's novella "Sweet Smell of Success", a realist drama set in both the world of journalism and the world of entertainment, shot in moody and atmospheric black and white cinematography (James Wong Howe).

Sidney (Tony Curtis) is a press agent who lives and works in a small office, helped out by one destituted albeit loyal secretary Sally. Like everybody in town Sidney needs powerful gossip columnist Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster), who can make or destroy careers on the fly. Sidney is interested in the love story of H's sister Susan. At the club where young jazz guitarist Steve performs, he learns that Susan is truly in love. In the same club Sidney meets former naive lover Rita, who sells cigarettes in a mini-skirt at the club and needs help because she is about to get fired. Sidney takes her home and then rushes to see her brother H. On the way, he meets his angry customer Jimmy, who is still waiting to get his name in H's column as Sidney promised him. Sindey joins H who is dining with a senator and a congressman. The congressman, Howdy, is an old friend of H, and H rudely advises him to avoid a scandal. Hunsecker openly insults Sidney. When they are alone, Sidney begs H to put his customer's name in his column. This has been the pattern in the past, and that's how Sidney has made his living (collecting fees from customers to have their name show up in Hunsecker's column), but now H refuses to help Sidney until Sidney delivers on a favor. Sidney is desperate: he needs H's help to make a living with his customers. Steve has proposed to Susan. H is determined to stop the wedding, but cannot personally destroy Steve's career, so he's asking Sidney to find a way to do it on his behalf. On the way out they meet Harry the police officer, another good friend of H's. Sidney finds help in unscrupolous columnist and notorious pervert Otis. Sidney basically sells him his ex Rita. She is desperate too because she is about to lose her job and has a kid in school. Sidney knows it and promises that the influential Otis can help her keep her job. Initially she is disgusted at being treated like a prostitute, but then she accepts. Otis seems to remember her. The moment Sidney walks out Rita confesses to Otis that they slept together two years earlier. Otis keeps his word: in return for the girl, he publishes in his column a smear article that Steve is a drug-addict and communist. While hanging out at H's office Sidney reads H's column of the following day and runs to offer his services to the comedian who will be praised in that column claiming he, Sidney, will get his name printed in that column.
Steve comes to Sidney's office to complain: he has been fired, and suspects that H and Sidney are responsible for the smear article. When he leaves, Sally gives her boss a bad look: she is his conscience.
When Susan learns of the smear article, H pretends to have nothing to do with the article and confronts his sister. He has created a regime of terror between the two, who sleep under the same roof. He has a portrait of her on his desk, like she were his wife. To prove that he has nothing to do with it, H calls in front of her to reinstate Steve to his job. Steve confronts H at the club. H pretends to be nice to him, but uses Sidney to make him snap so he, H, can pretend to be the offended party. Steve, losing his tempere, accuses H. of manipulating and terrorizing his sister. H orders his sister never to see him again. She meekly accepts. Steve is definitely ruined.
Coldly, H tells Sidney to have Harry the cop finish Steve once and for all. Even the sleazy cynical selfish Sidney balks at the idea of finishing Steve, but H buys him easily by promising to let him write his own column while he, H, goes away for a few months with his sister.
Susan and Steve break up. Steve walks out of the club. He is arrested by Harry who finds marijuana on him (planted by Sidney). Sidney finds Susan at home devastated by the news, ready to jump from the balcony in her underwear. He saves her just in time. H walks in just at the time when they are in her room and, seeing her undressed, attacks Sidney in a fit of jealousy. During the fight Sidney screams the truth. Susan coldly dresses up and walks out, determined to return to Steve. Before leaving, she tells H how much she hates him. H calls Harry has has Sidney arrested for planting marijuana on Steve. He gets his revenge and proves one more time his power to destroy lives, but his sister is definitely lost. A High Wind in Jamaica (1965), un apologo che contrapponeva corsari teoricamente feroci ma in realtà ingenui, e bambini teoricamente ingenui ma in realtà feroci, e Don't Make Waves (1967), con Tony Curtis nei panni di un giovane intraprendente e combinaguai che si innamora di Claudia Cardinale, chiusero la carriera di uno dei più amari registi inglesi, emancipatosi da vincoli di genere, capace cioè di esprimere la propria basilare sfiducia nelle convenzioni e nelle istituzioni, nel modo di vivere e di pensare, tanto con il registro comico, quanto con quello drammatico. 		If English is your first language and you could translate the Italian text, please contact me.
Scroll down for recent reviews in english.
What is unique about this cinema database