"Warlock"
Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda and Anthony Quinn star in Edward Dmytryk's epic, multi-layered, multi-plot strand Western that boasts some superbly crafted, three dimensional, characters all expertly played.
The action is sparse but effective and the clever, ever twisting, plot keeps you intrigued and guessing at exactly what will happen and just as importantly...how it will happen.
A streak of 50's melodrama (and some crappy sweeping strings on the soundtrack during the occasional - most dated aspect of the film - romantic interludes) goes against the astute, dark and intelligent screenplay now and again but overall this is stunning stuff.
And it features a truly fascinating portrayal of a driven, noble but ruthless gunslinger, now at a loss at what to do with his life as he and The West ages, by Fonda.
You can certainly see aspects here of his majestic, steely-eyed, complex performance as Frank in "Once Upon a Time in the West" as his Marshall character here could well be the noble flipside of Frank.
There's also a really unusual male bonding aspect between Quinn and Fonda too, that truly is a platonic love story about two men who literally need each other to stay alive.
An intelligent, astute, layered and superbly played Western classic.
"Ministry of Fear"
Fritz Lang's Nazi spy ring thriller starring Ray Milland is something Lang himself never liked due to his disapproval at the screenplay adaptation of Graham Greene's novel (which he liked).
It's certainly a bit all over the place in tone, going from dark and serious thriller/drama to frothy comedy thriller at the flip of a scene.
But it often looks impressive (of course, it's Lang) and has bags of atmosphere and some nice plotting.
The final scene gives us a rather abrupt, overly comic, ending to the film but overall this is pretty good stuff that benefits from Fritz Lang's artistic eye.
"The Human Jungle"
One of those gritty 50's Noirish cop thrillers that falls between two stools as far as a modern audience's perceptions go.
It hints at prostitution, it contains murder, features crime syndicates, petty hoods, street bums and brutal women killers.
And it goes out and films all this on the actual mean streets and drapes all the seedy alleyways in deep shadow.
And yet...because of the obvious censor constraints of 50's cinema (despite the slowly changing aspects that this film does highlight) and general mores of 50's society all this grit and darkness still plays out like a cozy, retro, viewing experience as all the shadows are just that bit lighter than they should be and all the dirt a little to shiny.
This is gritty urban crime drama with no sex, no nudity, no blood, no real on-screen violence no swearing.
As such it's a strange , though still highly enjoyable, creation and it would really take the 70's to fully catapult gritty crime cinema right into that dirt and grime and absolute darkness that "The Human Jungle" exists in, uses, but is never truly honest about.
A good cast features a young Chuck Connors as a slimy murderer and a still up and coming Claude Akins as a Mob heavy but the real acting honours here go to Gary Merrill as one of the most driven, uncompromising, tough as ****ing nails Police Captains ever put on screen.
So good stuff, nice retro viewing for lovers of 50's thrillers...but it never truly gets under the concrete skin of that urban jungle it takes its name from.
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