Poll

What's your favorite movie by Anthony Mann?

The Great Flamarion
0 (0%)
Strange Impersonation
0 (0%)
Desperate
0 (0%)
Railroaded!
1 (4.5%)
T-Men
0 (0%)
Raw Deal
0 (0%)
Reign of Terror (The Black Book)
0 (0%)
Border Incident
0 (0%)
Side Street
0 (0%)
Winchester '73
8 (36.4%)
The Furies
1 (4.5%)
Devil's Doorway
0 (0%)
The Tall Target
0 (0%)
Bend of the River
0 (0%)
The Naked Spur
0 (0%)
Thunder Bay
0 (0%)
The Glenn Miller Story
1 (4.5%)
The Far Country
0 (0%)
Strategic Air Command
0 (0%)
The Man from Laramie
0 (0%)
The Last Frontier
0 (0%)
Men in War
0 (0%)
The Tin Star
0 (0%)
God's Little Acre
0 (0%)
Man of the West
1 (4.5%)
Cimarron
0 (0%)
El Cid
0 (0%)
The Fall of the Roman Empire
0 (0%)
The Heroes of Telemark
0 (0%)
haven't seen any
9 (40.9%)
don't like any
1 (4.5%)

Total Members Voted: 22

Author Topic: Mann, Anthony  (Read 4707 times)

1SO

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Re: Mann, Anthony
« Reply #20 on: October 27, 2015, 12:22:12 PM »

The Tall Target (1951)

Presidential assassination thrillers can easily end up silly. The stakes are so high that playing it for pulpy thrills is often a mistake. Add to that the casting of song and dance man Dick Powell as the detective, and I was unsure how this would end up. it was MartinTeller's review that first got me interested, but he enjoys Anthony Mann's noir while I only like his westerns.

Cut to the chase, this one's a winner. A compact train thriller that satisfies initially as a mystery, with a car load of suspects, then as an action thriller with a political slant. The film reminds us that the election of Abraham Lincoln was a controversial decision, and a highly divisive one. People talked openly about killing him before he dragged the country into a war. Kill one to save thousands. It was a time when the issue of slavery was one where you had to decide if your beliefs were worth dying for, worth killing for.

Dick Powell worked for me, mostly because he's not playing a hard-boiled gumshoe but more of an earnest lawman. His risky moves aren't acts of bravado or cool but the understanding of someone who know what will happen if he fails. There are small moments that I could nitpick, the kind of thing you expect from a film made way back then and not today, but Mann's interesting framing is ever present, including moments of suspense and the reveal of a gun that would make Hitchcock grin from ear to ear.
RATING: * * * - Very Good

DarkeningHumour

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Re: Mann, Anthony
« Reply #21 on: October 27, 2015, 02:18:47 PM »
The fall of the Roman Empire

This movie just annoyed me. It is overlong and all over the place, the narrative is not clear at all and tries to simplify complicated historical events and dynamics in the worst possible ways and in the end does not deliver at all. It felt like a historical mess that baboons the real story more than anything.
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1SO

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Re: Mann, Anthony
« Reply #22 on: July 02, 2018, 10:25:31 AM »
Updated Rankings

Strangers in the Night (1944)
★ ½
Well, it’s short. This Gothic chiller – with only as much atmosphere as they could afford – plays like a knock-off of Laura rushed to beat the Noir classic to the theater. The script borrows from a half-dozen Hitchcock films as well. There are a couple of odd supporting performances, but nothing is pushed hard enough and the ending is laughable.


Strange Impersonation (1946)
★ ★ ★ - Okay
Had this been released today I probably would’ve known about the deception going on. There would’ve been some video of how Anthony Mann pulled it off and I would’ve been watching for the giveaways. Knowing nothing, I had little idea about where the film was going (except for the last scene, which is so blinding obvious I didn’t groan when it happened.) It’s not the kind work of that tips off Mann’s eventual greatness. Some of the acting is bad and the plot is goofy, but it’s my kind of goofy so I had enough fun with it.


Reign of Terror (1949)
★ ★ ½
It doesn’t matter how well you know the major players during the French Revolution, though the film constantly makes you feel hopelessly lost as it throws out a couple of dozen names and faces with just one sentence of description. The plot is uncomplicated thriller with the handicaps particular to this time and place. That and John Alton’s high contrast photography almost make this recommendable. Ultimately, I needed a stronger lead than Robert Cummings, someone to really make me feel the high stakes being fought over. Mann’s direction reminds me why I like his Westerns more than his Noir, but I understand that’s just me.




El Cid (1961)
★ ★ ½
I never figured the usually lean Mann could do a bloated epic much like Ridley Scott, where the film is very long but well-paced considering, and unlike Reign of Terror, the history is very easy to follow. Of course when making this type of film back then, Charlton Heston was the guy to get, and he gives exactly the performance you expect, which is safe but it also enhances the familiarity of some of the story.


The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
★ ★
The Kingdom of Heaven to El Cid’s Gladiator. Disjointed, unfocused and poorly paced, with a cast of greats (Alec Guiness, James Mason, Christopher Plummer) unable to make up for Stephen Boyd’s bland lead performance. You can’t put a price tag on the value of Charlton Heston in a film like this. The high point is a destructive chariot duel to end the first hour.   


The Heroes of Telemark (1965)
★ ★
I included this because I enjoy Kirk Douglas, but his habit of seducing any women on screen has never been so rapey, and that’s about all there is to his character. Co-star Richard Harris is grumpy/shouty and the Nazi villains are cartoons. Very little of the “true story” seems to have survived, replaced by what appears to be the first draft of a Mission: Impossible plot, right down to the lengthy silent infiltration sequence and the lit fuse. Unfortunately, Mann can’t pull suspense from the tedium. I blame the uninteresting characters.

pixote

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Re: Mann, Anthony
« Reply #23 on: July 02, 2018, 01:16:28 PM »
I almost took a chance on Strange Impersonation this weekend, but I had too many other priorities. Your cryptic review is intriguing, though.

The Fall of the Roman Empire was, I think, the first Mann film I ever saw, and I'm pretty sure I liked it, but it's been too long to say for sure.

You can’t put a price tag on the value of Charlton Heston in a film like this.

In a film like this, on the other hand, well ...

pixote
« Last Edit: July 02, 2018, 01:18:35 PM by pixote »
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DarkeningHumour

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Re: Mann, Anthony
« Reply #24 on: July 11, 2018, 11:49:02 AM »
The Fall of the Roman Empire is a historically inaccurate protracted shambles. I hated it when I was 16 and would probably like it even less now. Love Kingdom of Heaven though (the good cut).
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Knocked Out Loaded

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Re: Mann, Anthony
« Reply #25 on: October 25, 2018, 06:03:12 AM »
"Haven't seen any"

Should I make him a priority for next year's "Once upon a march...." ?
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1SO

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Re: Mann, Anthony
« Reply #26 on: October 25, 2018, 09:20:00 AM »
I think everybody who's gone through the Mann/Stewart Westerns has come out satisfied. 5 films starring James Stewart, pushed to new dark corners by Anthony Mann. If it leaves you hungry for more, The Tin Star, starring Henry Fonda and The Furies, with Barbara Stanwyck and Walter Huston are great options.

Knocked Out Loaded

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Re: Mann, Anthony
« Reply #27 on: October 26, 2018, 03:08:42 AM »
That sounds like an enticing prospect even if James Stewart yet has to completely convince me. I also like that there is a Gary Cooper alternative. :)
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