Updated RankingsThe Cobweb (1955)
★ ★It’s nagging me that as much as I’m trying to give Minnelli credit for what he does well in terms of the look of the film and the complexity of some of the performances, he’s also the reason why the film doesn’t work. Meant as a dark-hearted critique of long-term relationships in emotional disconnect, Minnelli uses the psychiatric clinic setting as an excuse for unabashed soap opera, where people exclaim their feelings as if they’re having a breakdown. This goes for the patients, the staff and their spouses. (It’s only the poor children who suffer quietly.) The stellar cast includes Richard Widmark, Lauren Bacall, Charles Boyer, Gloria Grahame, Lillian Gish and Oscar Levant.
Lust for Life (1956)
★ ★I often hear about cinematic re-evaluations of films that didn’t get their due upon initial release, but rarely the reverse. Once a film is considered great it’s a label that can never be taken away. That’s a real shame when a film like this comes along. Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn are two of my favorite actors, and both seem to be bringing big appetites to compete with the elaborate Art Direction. The film’s look is carefully planned in broad strokes, but Minnelli doesn't calibrate the details from scene to scene to match the progression of Van Gogh's talent. Everything about this film is miscalculated to the point where it comes off as sensationalized fantasy more than biography.
Tea and Sympathy (1956)
★ ★ ★ – Very GoodThis is the Minnelli I love. The Art Direction is still lovingly detailed, but the real work went into the surgical screenplay. It’s a lot like Douglas Sirk, but the attack on suburban ‘norms’ is more direct and subversive. This seems like pretty shocking stuff for the 1950s, but seen at a time when toxic masculinity is finally having its feet put to the coals, it’s never been more vital. Minnelli’s visual sugar helps the medicine go down, and the handling of the cast is everything the other two films are not.
I’m not looking for new ways to bang the drum for Home From the Hill, but it’s the natural companion to this. Both films project an image of masculinity and have male characters who give it more importance than it deserves. While they share a thematic target, the two films have different plans of attack. Home is about masculinity being less Neanderthal with each generation. Tea introduces gay panic but grows into something more complex, where labels can no longer simplify a person’s sexuality.