Where everyone is corrupt no one can truly be king.
Johnny One-Eye is a public domain film that premiered today in 1950. Public domain sometimes means bad copies, and in this case the title of the movie really fits, because we felt like we were viewing it with one eye closed. The film was adapted from a Damon Runyon play, hence his billing on the poster. The title deals not with a human character, but a one-eyed dog, while the plot follows a wounded killer hiding out in New York City who has a $5,000 reward on for his capture. We weren’t impressed by this movie, despite its film noir stylings. Our main issue, once we focused past its visual degradation, is that a pivotal role belongs to young Gayle Reed. She’s probably around eight years old, and we dislike movies that rely on pre-teen children, because they really can’t act. Or maybe that’s just a prejudice because we have no children. But what you want to know is whether there’s actually a copy of Johnny One-Eye around that’s good enough to screen. Not that we were able to discover, so we can’t recommend it. It’ll make your eyes go bad. Luckily, there are some crystal clear production photos, below.
I've run through every bit of fluid in this thing in just a week. Hmm. Maybe I should cut back on my smoking.
Dolores Moran’s film career started with a bang when her first credited role was as the smoldering Hellene de Bursac in the 1944 thriller To Have and Have Not when she was only eighteen. She was the reason Humphrey Bogart tossed off the memorable quip, “I don’t understand what kind of a war you guys are fighting. Lugging your wives with you. Don’t you get enough of them at home?” It would have been easy to assume nobody would ever get enough of Moran, but after very nearly outshining Lauren Bacall in that film she managed perhaps ten more credited screen roles. Health issues had partly to do with it, and a marriage at age twenty probably curtailed her as well, though her husband was the film producer Benedict Bogeaus. But she wasn’t the first flame to fizzle in Hollywood—that’s part of the nature of the place. The above shot was made as a promo for her next-to-last film Count the Hours. That was in 1953.
They say you can't have everything but To Have and Have Not comes close.
This one has been a long time coming to Pulp Intl. To Have and Have Not. We love this flick. We never bothered to highlight it because it’s so familiar to so many, but with the Pulp Intl. girlfriends out of town (did we mention that yet?) we decided to revisit a few movies we’ve seen often. First off, we get it, Hemingway fans. The film mutilated his 1937 novel. But what a shock—Warner Brothers was not going to make a Marxist themed movie in 1944. Hemingway may have, we like to imagine, wanted to keep the book out of Hollywood’s hands for that very reason. But when Warners came across with a fat offer he was like, “Well, sure, okay, I suppose that amount of money will take the sting out of you whitewashing my Marxist opus.” You, see everyone has a price.
Howard Hawks directed, and Jules Furthman and William Faulkner wrote a screenplay that changed the location of the novel, its time period, its subtext, and its characters. Basically, Warners wanted a follow-up to Casablanca, and that’s exactly what they got, though To Have and Have Not differs from Casablanca by being light-hearted in general, and wickedly comical in parts.
But there are also thrills aplenty. The basic idea is Humphrey Bogart plays a diffident charter boat captain in French Martinique who finds himself drawn into World War II thanks to an idealistic anti-Vichy cabal that plans to rescue a French patriot imprisoned on Devil’s Island.
Everything and everybody in the film is great. Lauren Bacall, in her debut, brings just the right tone to her character Marie Browning, Walter Brennan puts on a physical acting clinic as Bogart’s alcoholic sidekick, and as the Vichy administrator of Martinique, Dan Seymour channels Major Strasser from Casablanca, adding a touch of torpor meant to disguise his snake-deadly nature. The film also adds great music performances in the down and dirty Bar du Zombie and the café of Hotel Marquis, with Hoagie Carmichael taking on the Sam role from Casablanca. To Have and Have Not is so iconic it has been studied in university courses and written of in modern treatises about race. The latter is a lot to pile onto this lightweight adventure. Set in the Caribbean, it tries to at least portray a high level of racial inclusiveness, though not perfectly.
There’s one more reason to watch the movie. We’ve seen it so much we’ve developed a drinking game from it. We’ve developed lots of drinking games from movies, but don’t generally play them when the Pulp Intl. girlfriends are around (did we mention they’re out of town?). Take a shot every time someone throws something in the water. That’s it. Bottles, matches, whatever. If you’re really brave, take a shot every time someone litters, whether at sea, on land, or indoors. It’s interesting to observe littering behavior from an era when the environment was thought to be boundless and impossible to ruin. As members of a generation trained to get our garbage in a receptacle at all costs, the polluting here is really funny to see. 10 out of 10 for this movie. Watch it. Love it. Watch it again. It premiered in the U.S. today in 1944.
American film actor Gary Cooper, who harnessed an understated, often stoic style in numerous adventure films and westerns, including Sergeant York, For Whom the Bell Tolls, High Noon, and Alias Jesse James, dies of prostate, intestinal, lung and bone cancer. For his contributions to American cinema Cooper received a plaque on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is considered one of top movie stars of all time.
1957—Von Stroheim Dies
German film director and actor Erich von Stroheim, who as an actor was noted for his arrogant Teutonic character parts which led him to become a renowned cinematic villain with the nickname “The Man You Love to Hate”, dies in Maurepas, France at the age of 71.
1960—Adolf Eichmann Is Captured
In Buenos Aires, Argentina, four Israeli Mossad agents abduct fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann, who had been living under the assumed name and working for Mercedes-Benz. Eichman is taken to Israel to face trial on 15 criminal charges, including crimes against humanity and war crimes. He is found guilty and executed by hanging in 1962, and is the only person to have been executed in Israel on conviction by a civilian court.
2010—Last Ziegfeld Follies Girl Dies
Doris Eaton Travis, who was the last surviving Ziegfeld Follies chorus girl, dies at age 106. The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. Inspired by the Folies Bergères of Paris, they enjoyed a successful run on Broadway, became a radio program in 1932 and 1936, and were adapted into a musical motion picture in 1946 starring Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Lucille Ball, and Lena Horne.
1924—Hoover Becomes FBI Director
In the U.S., J. Edgar Hoover is appointed director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a position he retains until his death in 1972. Hoover is credited with building the FBI into a large and efficient crime-fighting agency, and with instituting a number of modern innovations to police technology, such as a centralized fingerprint file and forensic laboratories. But he also used the agency to grind a number of personal axes and far exceeded its legal mandate to amass secret files on political and civil rights leaders. Because of his abuses, FBI directors are now limited to 10-year terms.
1977—Joan Crawford Dies
American actress Joan Crawford, who began her show business career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies, but soon became one of Hollywood’s most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, dies of a heart attack at her New York City apartment while ill with pancreatic cancer.
