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Emigrato giovanissimo
dalla natia Ucraina, Lewis Milestone cominciò nel dopoguerra a bazzicare gli studios di
Hollywood, lavorando come montatore e sceneggiatore per Sennett e King; la sua carriera registica, per lo
più mediocre, annovera un paio di storici scoop e qualche film di buon
mestiere quasi sempre sostenuto da un'ideologia di sinistra:
Two Arabian Knights (1927), commedia di guerra e d'amore,
During World War I, two American soldiers who are fighting each other in the
trenches are captured by the Germans and sent to a prison camp with prisoners
of other nationalities. They keep fighting even as prisoners, while making fun
of the Germans. One cold winter night they escape, but they are captured again
by Germans who confuse them for Arab prisoners. They manage to escape again, and
end up as stoaways on a ship to Arabia. During the journey they save the lives
of a group of Arabs, including a veiled girl. The evil captain of the ship takes
the girl into custody with the intention of raping her while she is still
unconscious. Whether that happens or not, the following day the girl walks
around the ship, and the two soldiers fall in love with her. They start
romancing her and protect her from the captain who is still lusting for her.
The veiled girl rewards the younger one with a view of her face.
The captain demans that she pays for her ticket and the older soldier simply
steals the money from the ship's coffers. One day a boat comes to pick up
the girl. It turns out her father has sold her to an arrogant man to become one
of his wives. When the servants tell the bridegroom that the girl unveiled in front
of an infidel, the bridegroom demands punishment. The Americans barely escape the
mob that wants to kill them. To straighten things out, they ask to see
the girls' father. The father wants to have them assassinated, but they manage
to escape. The young man risks his life to rescue the girl, but is caught by
the bridegroom who challenges him to a duel. The bridegroom cheats the young
American and leaves with the girl (now unveiled and looking very American),
who thinks her loved one died. Instead, his heroic buddy breaks into the room
and saves the young American. By the time the arrogant and the girl walk into
the carriage, the older soldier has become its coachman and the younger
soldier is waiting inside for his beloved.
The Racket (1928), forse il primo vero gangster,
Nick, a gangster, send a warning to Mac, a man who walking in the rain.
Nick is the owner of a major illegal liquor enterprise.
Mac is a police captain who does not like corruption.
When they engage in a gun battle with another gang, Mac arrests Nick's right man.
However, Nick makes one call and has his man released.
Nick is protective of his younger brother Joe: when at a party a singer tries
to seduce the young man, he humiliates her, but she swears
revenge. Nick has invited Mac to the party, and has him sit at the same table
as the man he just arrested. When Mac arrests Nick himself for a murder,
he receives the order to release him even before Nick walks into the jail.
And he is transferred to another district. His chance for revenge comes when
Nick's brother, out on a date with the blonde gold digger, causes an
accident and is arrested. Mac makes sure that all the newspapers print the
news. Nick makes the usual phone call and gets Joe released. The girl, left
to languish in jail, accepts to incriminate Nick. Nick reacts by visiting the
police station and killing the officer who picked up Joe. A witness, a boy who
fell in love with the blonde, sees him.
Finally, Mac seems to have a strong case against Nick. Nick's attorney is
ready to get him out as usual. Mac decides that he had enough of the law
and has the attorney arrested for drunkedness. Then he gives the story to
the reporters: he wants Nick to be abandoned by the very politician who
has been protecting him. When Nick realizes he is going to be abandoned, he
threatens to tell the press about the politician's corrupt life. The politician
has him disposed of in Mac's own office.
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930),
dal romanzo di Erich Maria Remarque,
il patetico dramma di un giovane inviato al macello sul fronte Francese e caposaldo dell'antimilitarismo di maniera,
While the soldiers parade through the center of a German town, the mailman announces
with a smile that he has been drafted too. At the local school the teacher is
encouraging his pupils to enlist in the army. The kids rise up enthuasiastically
and walk out of the school singing patriotic songs.
After the training, they are sent to the front. The atmosphere of joy back home
hardly reflects the mood in the trenches, where soldiers die like flies and
don't even have food. The kids are sent on a night mission. The driver coldly
announces that someone will pick up the ones who survive. They are introduced
to real war, with bombs exploding all around. One of them is blinded by
an explosion. Those who survive return to the barracks but life is not any
better, with continuous explosions and scarce food. Their nerves are collapsing.
One of them goes mad.
Finally they are ordered to the trenches because the enemy is attacking.
Men run like ants in a landscape with no shelter, and are gunned down by the
machine guns. Despite the colossal losses, enemy soldiers flood the trenches
and the kids have to fight man to man, with bayonets, grenades and just hands.
Enemy soldiers keep coming in waves, and the Germans have to withdraw. Now
it's the enemies that can use the artillery to slaughter the Germans.
This time they are fed plenty of food. The following day they have to return
to the front.
One if the kids, Paul, witnesses his best friend's death.
Back tot he front, they are ordered to attack through a cemetery. Bombs again
fall all over them. Paul sees more of his friends die. When the enemy
counterattacks, Paul hides in a bomb crater. Most of the enemies don't see him
as they attack. But when they retreat one of them jumps in his crater and he
has to stab him. Suddenly Paul becomes human again: he helps the enemy who
is agonizing, while the carnage continues around them. When the enemy soldiers
dies, Paul starts talking to him. He finds his papers and a picture of his
wife. Paul asks the dead man to forgive him and promises to find his wife.
Paul's unit is relieved for a while of duties at the front. They can relax
a bit. Paul and others get some French girls by offering them food.
Paul finally finds someone who listens to his existential worries, although
she may not be understanding a single word of his language.
Paul is sent back to the front and this time a bomb blows up Paul and his
friend. At the hospital they have to amputate his friend's legs.
Paul is finally sent home on leave.
He's a hero. But when the schoolteacher asks him
to galvanize the new generation of students, Paul tells the truth: war is
a dirty amoral business. Back to the front, Paul is happy to find his best
friend still in good health. As they walk back to the barracks together,
a plane kills him. When he brings back the dead body, hardly anyone pays
attention: just another dead soldier. Paul is more disillusioned than ever.
In the trenches he tries to grab a butterfly and, as he sticks his head outside,
is killed by an enemy sniper.
Front Page (1931) commedia brillante di Ben Hecht che
scherza sui mali del giornalismo americano,
Un reporter decide di sposarsi e abbandonare il giornalismo, ma
il direttore tenta di convincere il reporter a non andarsene e chiede come favore
che segua un ultimo caso.
Mentre il direttore escogita trucchi per inguaiare la fidanzata, il reporter
intervista il presunto omicida in carcere.
Giornalisti cinici e indifferenti alla sorte del presunto omicida si contendono la storia.
Il presunto omicida evade dal carcere approfittando della stupidità delle guardie.
Mentre i giornalisti si lanciano sulla notizia, il reporter scova il ricercato
omicida e lo
nasconde nella sala dei giornalisti, con la complicità di un'amica
del ricercato.
Per evitare che gli altri giornalisti lo scoprano, la ragazza si butta dalla
finestra. I giornalisti si lanciano sulla nuova notizia.
Arrivano anche il direttore del giornale e la fidanzata dal reporter,
che gli dà appuntamento al treno.
Il direttore aiuta il reporter a tenere nascosto il ricercato.
Scoperti, vengono arrestati entrami e il ricercato viene catturato.
Il reporter scopre di amare il suo lavoro e persino lo spregiudicato direttore
più della fidanzata.
Rain (1932), adapted from John Colton's play (1923) that was based on Somerset Maugham's story "Miss Sadie Thompson", is an exotic film noir
with great black and white photography of rain drops, rain clouds, etc.
The sexy Sadie (Joan Crawford) and austere missionary Alfred are on board a
boat that has to stop (due to a cholera outbreak) at a remote tropical island
where it seems to always rain.
Sadie turns out to be a prostitute who is running away from the law.
She quickly makes friends with the soldiers who are stationed on the island,
but she also offends the missionary who has to live under the same roof.
Hotel manager Joe and police chief Tim try to please both parties.
In the meantime it keeps raining, a fact that rules out sending Sadie away
from the only hotel.
The missionary tries to redeem her but she is cynical and indifferent.
Tim is falling in love with the prostitute.
The missionary has the governor issue an order to deport Sadie back where
she came from. She is desperate because it would mean jail. Tim tries to
help her, but the missionary is inflexible.
In the meantime, it keeps raining.
She personally begs the missionary, getting on her knees, but he tells her
that the only way she can redeem herself is by going back.
Nonetheless she dramatically changes her attire and her manners. Suddenly
she looks like a melancholy lady instead of the vulgar whore she was.
She has accepted her fate. Basically, the missionary convinces her that the
only way she can redeem herself is by going to jail.
Now it's Tim who desperately tries to convince her to escape with him, even
proposing to her, but she is determined to confront her fate.
The missionary is now proud of her.
It finally stops raining. On the eve of her departure, Alfred the missionary
commits suicide.
Sadie shows up dressed like the prostitute she was and walks with Tim to
the boat that will take them away.
The General Died at Down (1936), film esotico-
avventuroso con Gary Grant a Shangai,
Of Mice and Men (1939), fosco adattamento dalle
tinte orrifiche del romanzo di John Steinbeck.
Nei decenni successivi Milestone si specializza nel genere
leggero-musicale (Bing Crosby, Ginger Rogers, Frank Sinatra) e nel genere preferito, il bellico (A
Walk in the Sun, Edge of Darkness), nel quale sopratutto emergono contrastanti
qualità di impegno civile e vizi di retorica patriottica.
Edge Of Darkness (1943) is a Brecht-ian apologue on the war.
German aviators notice that a small town in Norway is flying the Norwegian flag.
Troops land to check the situation. They find the entire town exterminated.
Only a mad man is dancing among the corpses (and quickly disposed of by the
German soldiers). The German officer in charge starts dictating a report. That is the
flashback of the movie.
The town is run by a disciplined German officer who is well aware that everybody
hates the Germans and supports the underground resistance.
Gunnar (Errol Flynn), a fisherman who is engaged to Karen, can't stand the
occupation anymore and has decided to leave.
One night a man comes from a nearby village: he is severely wounded but
brings the news that his village rose up (he is the only survivor) thanks to
arms delivered by the British. And more arms will be delivered. Gunnar sees
the opportunity to fight the Germans and changes his mind about leaving.
Karen is on Gunnar's side. Karen's father, the doctor of the village, called
to help the wounded refugee, is
worried that this will cause more deaths. His wife's wealthy brother
collaborates with the German occupiers. He tries to extort the truth from
the doctor when he senses that the doctor is afraid of something.
The doctor is so disgusted that he slaps his brother-in-law in the face.
The German captain threatens to kill random citizens if there is any act
of sabotage. During mass at the church, when the Germans are not listening,
the wounded refugee tells the villagers how the Germans massacred his entire
village, after one of the villagers betrayed them. Gunnar asks the people to decide if they should rise up or not.
The priest is opposed, because he thinks violence is evil. Some side with him.
Others side with Gunnar. Gunnar wins. A British agent shows up to tell them
how the arms are going to be delivered. A shopkeeper visits the
Polish lover of the German captain, hoping that she would help the resistance.
She sends him away because she has been promised passage on a boat. But it
turns out the captain has changed his mind about her.
Karen's brother returns home from college. He was disgraced for helping the
Germans. He is under the influence of his uncle, and therefore Karen does not
trust him with the secret of the arms. When the arms are delivered, Karen is
the first one to admit that her village could be betrayed by her own brother
like the other one was. In fact her uncle is asking Johann to find out
what the villagers are up to and Johann does so. Luckily Karen had warned
the villagers, so the Germans don't find the weapons. Later his own parents
disown Johann the traitor. When Karen is raped by a nazi soldier, Karen's old
father, the doctor, assassinate the rapist.
Johann overhears the German captain order the execution of a number of
outspoken villagers including Gunnar, Karen and her father.
The uncle watches as the prisoners are asked to dig their own graves.
The villagers take up the arms and march on the Germans singing a patriotic
song. The uncle tries in vain to stop them promising a return to a peaceful
life. The first one to shoot is actually the priest himself from his church.
In the battle that ensues the villagers are massacred, but also inflict
massive casualties to the Germans. The Polish girl and Johann are trapped
with the surviving Germans in a hotel. The Polish girl derides the Germans
and they kill her. Johann sees his sister and Gunnar lead the attack against
the hotel and runs out to warn them of the machine guns that the Germans have
hidden. The Germans kill him too. The villagers attack and overrun the Germans.
The German captain commits suicide in his office.
This is the end of the flashback. Back to the first scene, the German officer
has finished dictating his report: all the German soldiers were killed, but
now the German flag has been restored on the village. Gunnar and Karen are
still alive, though, and they kill the soldier who was trying to raise the
German flag. They lead the partisans who now live in the wroods.
Serio e preparato professionista, Milestone qualche volta è arrivato per
primo, contribuendo a impostare la struttura di un genere, anche se privo di uno stile personale.
Ocean's Eleven (1960) is a heist caper,
but mainly a (lengthy) pretext to group together
Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Dean Martin, etc
Danny Ocean (Sinatra) helps a crook in Las Vegas recruit ten
men he had met as paratroopers in the war to carry out his plan to
rob five casinos on New Year's Eve.
Each has a reason to pull the heist.
The five casinos are along the strip. The plan is to cause a black out during
the New Year's celebration and hit the five casinos at the same time and
leave in a garbage truck.
Each man has skills that can be used for specific chores.
The heist is successful and the men disappear without leaving a clue... except
that one of them, already seriously sick, dies of a heart attack right outside
the casino.
The casinos hire a famous detective, who learns of the heart attack and
smells the fire. He also happens to be engaged to the wealthy mother of one
of the paratroopers. He visits Danny and asks for 50% of the dough.
Danny thinks he knows how to outsmart him: he moves all the money into the
coffin of the partner who died and then gives the widow enough money to ship
the coffin to another city. But the widow decides to have her husband buried
in Las Vegas. The gang attends the funeral waiting for a chance to retrieve
the money but... the widow has decided to cremate her beloved one.
Both the gang and the detective leave empty-handed.
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