Robert Aldrich

 Could be called the mainstream Samuel Fuller. An overlooked giant, partly because his greatest films are over-shadowed by similar great films by other directors: KISS ME DEADLY over-shadowed by Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL; WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? over-shadowed by Wilder's SUNSET BOULEVARD. He made some very smart cynical movies as well as less cerebral (but equally cynical) hits like THE DIRTY DOZEN and THE LONGEST YARD.

Aldrich did as much as any director (including Peckinpah) to mainstream physical and emotional brutality in Hollywood. (In Bogdonavich's book "Who the Hell Made it" there are only two photos of rotund Aldrich. In both pictures, taken ten years apart, he in on set showing an actor the proper way to kick a person lying on the ground!)

Listed Chronologically

Kiss Me Deadly (Restored Version) (DVD)    1955
DVD / Region 1 (USA)
 $14.89 Add to Cart
One of my favorite movies (like desert-island-disc favorite), and TOUCH OF EVIL's only competition as most subversive late-noir film. Beautifully photographed and composed. Aldrich viewed Mickey Spillane's hard-boiled detective hero Mike Hammer as the embodiment of brutal, anti-intellectual red-scare America, and cruelly dissects him without straying from the form of a driving detective thriller. Ralph Meeker plays Hammer like a cornered animal, embodying a type of bitter violent misogynist whose life peaked in high school, and hits mid-life crisis in his 20s - fighting to keep his hair and waistline, dressing too sharply, driving sports cars, living in a bachelor pad full of high tech gadgets.

The Plot: Sleazy divorce detective Hammer picks up a woman wearing nothing but a raincoat (Cloris Leachman) who intimates that her life is in danger. She's right! They're kidnapped, and goons torture the girl to death, then send she and Hammer over a cliff in his car. He miraculously survives, and now he's committed to the case despite dire warnings from the FBI, the cops, and the crooks. He finds himself protector to the dead girl's room-mate; a very short-haired blonde (Gaby Rodgers) whose spacey voice emanates sex in a way we can't describe. Aldrich intended her to be carnal and alluring, but not beautiful, because no one in the film is beautiful. The entire cast is intentionally freakish (think Bruegel), with not enough make-up, and usually bathed in sweat.

The clues lead to a circle of suspiciously sophisticated people seeking a mysterious radioactive carton that may spell the end of existence. (Aldrich isn't subtle in identifying it as Pandora's box) The audience is always a step ahead of Hammer, who is cunning but stupid.

American critics were as clueless as Hammer, but the French avant-garde got it right away, with Cahiers du cinéma then-critic François Truffaut declaring Aldrich the revelation of 1955. The original ending sequence is restored here, and it's quite a different ending than older TV prints.

The best post WWII art substitutes ambiguity for subtlety; recoiling from propaganda while embracing the raw power of media. KISS is anything but subtle, yet can be read as right-wing or left-wing or no-wing, depending on one's initial assumptions - the world is so hostile to Hammer's individualism that perhaps he's right to be hostile and paranoid. From the opening frame every character he meets offers a scathing spoken critique of him, often as if he wasn't even there, like he's a lab rat.

This Greek chorus of condemnation is only one quirky classical evocation in a script crammed with literary and mythological allusions that lie outside Hammer's grasp. He cannot relate to women, to authority, or to educated people, but he's a hero to the many down-trodden foreigners he encounters, every one of whom is an outrageous insulting ethnic stereotype reminiscent of Chico Marx at his most tasteless. In this sense Hammer seems a colonial figure, unable to exist within his own culture and functional only when dealing with "inferiors."

Hammer considers himself to be the good guy, but is utterly amoral. He pimps his pathetic secretary (who loves him), delights in beating people much weaker than himself, and is ultimately at war with culture itself; destroying modern paintings and opera records, and hilariously suspecting that different people he's tailing are co-conspirators because they all listen to the classical music station. yet he's right, and the educated and cultured people are the ones flirting with destruction of the world! No easy answers.

Wide Screen; Features: Alternate ending; Original theatrical trailer; English: Dolby Digital mono; optional French & Spanish subs; 106 Minutes

 

Big Knife, The (DVD)    1955
DVD / Region 1 (USA)
 $18.89 Add to Cart
Memorable critique of Hollywood's warped dream factory. a melancholic and mysterious psychodrama adapted from Clifford Odets's play. High contast B&W cinematography adds punch to this jet-dark, cynical movie.

When matinee idol Charlie Castle (Jack Palance) refuses to renew his studio contract, his career begins to take a turn for the worse. As autocratic movie mogul Stanley Hoff (Rod Steiger) stoops to blackmail to force him back onto the lot, Castle must also deal with being supported by his angry ex-wife, Marion (Ida Lupino). THE BIG KNIFE would make a great double feature with SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS.

 

Attack (DVD)    1956
DVD / Region 1 (USA)
 $14.89 Add to Cart
How's THIS for cynical? A nasty little drunkard (Eddie Albert) whose father is a political big-shot in a southern state joins the guard as ceremonial resume filler. When WWII breaks out he winds up a Captain commanding men in battle in Europe after D-Day even though he is a preposterous coward who sends his men to certain death in maneuvers designed to keep him far from harm.

His commanding Colonel (Lee Marvin) knows the Captain is a cowardly drunk, but he's from the same state and has post-war political ambitions that Eddie Albert's father can advance, so he covers for the son at every turn. Lieutenants beg Marvin to move Albert to a desk-job but Marvin doesn't want someone that incompetent messing things up at HQ. Albert's eventual cowardice is astonishing. His men's response is even more shocking.

Palance is all grit as a brave Lieutenant who, betrayed once too often by the Captain, provides the dramatic conflict. He commands a squad of great character actors like Robert Strauss, Richard Jaeckel and sharp-shooting Buddy Ebsen. (To me Ebsen's part might as well be Jed Clampett: The War Years. Jed Clampett was a stand-up guy, was the right age to have served in WWII and was doubtless a fine shot.)

ATTACK shows its theatrical origins (based on a Norman Brooks play) but does a good job of opening up the action with some good realistic combat scenes. Robert Aldrich had recently used Jack Palance in another adaptation of a cynical play in THE BIG KNIFE.

 

Grissom Gang, The (DVD)    1969
DVD / Region 1 (USA)
 $10.89 Add to Cart
Director Robert Aldrich's offbeat blend of violence, suspense and romance stars Kim Darby as a '20s heiress who is kidnapped by a brutal gang of depraved outlaws. Tensions mount when one of Darby's abductors falls in love with her. Scott Wilson, Tony Musante, Connie Stevens and Robert Lansing co-star. 128 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English, Spanish, French.

Cast:Wesley Addy, Michael Baseleon, Hal Baylor, Matt Clark, Irene Dailey, Kim Darby, Joey Faye, Raymond Guth, Alvin Hammer, Don Keefer, Robert Lansing, Mort Marshall, Tony Musante, John Steadman, Connie Stevens, Elliott Street, Ralph Waite, Dave Willock, Scott Wilson

 
Browse Directors