Grade: B-
Synopsis: In 1939 Mexico, a former British consul (Albert Finney) copes with his alcoholism and the return of his ex-wife (Jacqueline Bisset).
Under the Volcano is an ambitious adaptation of Malcolm Lowry’s novel from director John Huston.
The film follows the end of Albert Finney’s character, a former vice consul for the British government in Mexico, who’s fallen to the depths of alcoholism. From the opening scene onward, Huston builds an ever-increasing sense of doom and despair that mirror’s Finney’s character’s condition. It’s the Day of the Dead on the eve of World War II, Finney’s character’s estranged ex-wife has returned, as has his half-brother, though it feels as if they’ve arrived for a funeral, and over them all, the volcano looms. With all these pieces in place, Huston sets the characters in motion toward their inevitable ends. It’s a dark, dark story and Huston doesn’t pull any punches. MORE »
Posted 541 days ago in Movie Reviews and John Huston. No responses
Grade: C+
Synopsis: A veteran spy (Richard Boone) mentors a young intelligence officer (Patrick O’Neal) during a mission to Russia to recover a politically explosive letter.
The Kremlin Letter is an ambitious espionage thriller with a strong cast from director John Huston. Eschewing James Bond techno-thrills in favor of a grittier, more convoluted realism, Huston aims to create the anti-Bond where, instead of one man using ingenious gadgets to triumph over evil, a team of agents extracts their information through blackmail and bribes, leading to, at best, a stalemate. It’s a refreshing, and daunting, premise and Huston pulls it off. MORE »
Posted 549 days ago in Movie Reviews and John Huston. No responses
Grade: C-
Synopsis: A young veteran (Brad Dourif), recently returned from war founds The Church of Christ without Christ in the Deep South.
Wise Blood is director John Huston’s very literal adaptation of Flannery O’Connor’s novel of the same name. The resulting film is uneven at best, but nonetheless fascinating, if only for lead Brad Dourif’s intense performance, and Huston’s far reaching ambitions. MORE »
Posted 570 days ago in Movie Reviews and John Huston. No responses
Grade: D+
Synopsis: In 1933 Cuba, after her brother is killed by the secret police, a woman (Jennifer Jones) joins an underground plot hatched by an American expatriate (John Garfield).
We Were Strangers is an interesting, but fatally flawed, blend of the political thriller, film noir, and romance genres from director John Huston.
Looking at it in the context of Huston’s career, it’s clear We Were Strangers was something of a bridge between the film that preceded it, Key Largo (1948), and the film that followed it, The Asphalt Jungle (1950), with Huston retaining the romantic drama of Key Largo, but introducing the stark black and white photography and criminals-as-protagonists elements would feature so prominently in The Asphalt Jungle. MORE »
Posted 588 days ago in Movie Reviews and John Huston. No responses
Grade: C-
Synopsis: A precocious orphan (Aileen Quinn) thaws the heart of a millionaire (Albert Finney) only to attract the attention of an orphanage manager (Carol Burnett) and her scheming brother (Tim Curry).
Annie doesn’t seem like a John Huston movie. The director was 75 years old when filming began and hadn’t made a single musical in his forty years behind the camera. Yet, watching the film you can still see his influence, if only in Albert Finney’s Daddy Warbucks character. Finney’s Warbucks is easily the film’s highlight, as he gets all the good lines and plays the role, more or less, as an imitation of Huston himself. MORE »
Posted 589 days ago in Movie Reviews and John Huston. No responses
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