The Weekend Western: Yellow Sky

September 8th, 2007 Posted by Ian W | DVD Viewing Journal | no comments

Gregory Peck plays against type (at least at the start) as the leader of a gang of outlaws. After a robbery in a small town they’re chased into the desert and, short of water, they stumble across a ghost town, Yellow Sky, from which the film gets its name. There they find an old man and his granddaughter, and, while the girl (Anne Baxter) sets pulses racing among the men, they decide to rest a few days before moving on. It’s when they discover that the old man has a secret stash of gold that things really get interesting.

The small cast allows even the supporting characters to be fleshed out and the tensions within the group give the film a real psychological edge. None of the gang have real names; Peck is Stretch, Richard Widmark plays his rival for leadership Dude, Robert Arthur is the gangs youngest member Bull Run, Charles Kemper is the hulking drunk Walrus, Harry Morgan is Half Pint and John Russell plays the sleazy Lengthy, who’s as interested in the girl as he is in the gold.

Peck falls in love with Anne Baxter and his character is softened a little too much, going from hardened criminal to besotted lover. Thankfully the sneering Widmark and Russell’s letch make up for it. The final confrontation between the three is a let down; we don’t see the action, just muzzle flashes through a window. Sometimes you don’t need to show the shootout, Ford demonstrated that with Stagecoach but here it feels like an anticlimax. The ending is a little twee, with Stretch undergoing such a character change that he stretches (pardon the pun) believability a little too far.

The Friday Night Fright: Dead of Night

September 8th, 2007 Posted by Ian W | DVD Viewing Journal | one comment

The blueprint for the Amicus anthology films of the ‘60s and ‘70s; this came from Ealing Studios, more famous for comedies like The Ladykillers and The Lavender Hill Mob. Featuring an excellent cast and some clever writing this manages to still feel creepy even 63 years on.

Most of the stories are effective to some extent, giving us tales of ghosts, premonition and a particularly good one featuring a cursed mirror. It’s only the silly golfing ghost story that alleviates the sense of dread, it’s intentionally funny but it does feel a little at odds with the rest of the film. It lulls you into feeling safe though, before the film hits you with the granddaddy of all ventriloquists’ dummy tales.

“The Ventriloquist’s Dummy” is the film’s most memorable story with Michael Redgrave giving as good a performance as you’re ever likely to see in a horror film. He’s the tortured ventriloquist in the thrall of his dummy, the creepy Mr Hugo Fitch. Is the dummy imbued with some kind of supernatural intelligence or is Redgrave just off his trolley? We never find out and it really doesn’t matter, the story is all the more effective for not spelling things out for the viewer.

The linking narrative may seem a little obvious and clichéd now but that’s only because it’s been ripped off by other, less worthy, films. Even allowing for that it still brings the film to an effective and suitably downbeat conclusion.