Reviews of movies directed or written by John Huston.
Saturday, October 27th 2007
Grade: B+
Synopsis: During World War I, a spinster missionary (Katherine Hepburn) persuades a boozing riverboat captain (Humphrey Bogart) to use his boat in an attack on the Germans.
The African Queen is a well-produced, well-acted adventure from director John Huston.
The African locations serve the film well. You can feel the humidity and discomfort on the character’s faces. The beautiful jungle scenery carries with it an ever-present sense of claustrophobia and menace that lends an extra intensity to the story.
For their part, Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn are both believable and entertaining as the leads. Their chemistry is the heart of the film and their willingness to embrace such unglamorous roles is a refreshing change. MORE »
Posted at 2:57 PM in Movie Reviews, Humphrey Bogart and John Huston.
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Tuesday, September 25th 2007
Grade: C-
Synopsis: On a boat to the Orient, a disgraced Army officer (Humphrey Bogart) becomes involved with a shady professor (Sydney Greenstreet), and a mysterious woman (Mary Astor).
Across The Pacific should have been a different movie. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor forced filmmakers to rewrite the script at the last minute and change the setting from an American Naval base in the Pacific to the Panama Canal. Once the rewrites were complete, John Huston began directing the film, only to leave midway through production to make war documentaries for Army. Vincent Sherman ended up finishing the picture. Given all this turmoil, it’s a wonder the picture didn’t turn out worse. MORE »
Posted at 6:58 PM in Movie Reviews, Humphrey Bogart and John Huston.
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Friday, September 7th 2007
Grade: D-
Synopsis: While snow falls outside, a group of Dubliners attends party in turn-of-the-century Ireland.
The Dead was director John Huston’s last film. For him, it was in many ways a labor of love. His son Tony wrote the screenplay, his daughter Angelica plays one of the leads, the film was shot in his beloved Ireland, and it’s adapted from one of his favorite short stories.
Unfortunately, the result is less than stellar. Huston’s son tries for a faithful adaptation, but while the story by Joyce was somewhat contemporary when it was published in 1914, these characters and their behaviors are far less relatable to a modern audience. This desire for a faithful adaptation is further exacerbated by the dreadful voice over at the end, which, while preserving Joyce’s words, reduces the film to little more than a book on tape. MORE »
Posted at 12:56 PM in Movie Reviews and John Huston.
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Friday, August 24th 2007
Grade: B
Synopsis: Two British scoundrels (Sean Connery and Michael Caine) in India set off to plunder Kafiristan, a country no white man has returned from since Alexander.
The Man Who Would Be King is a grand adventure, made even more so by the wonderful casting of Connery and Caine in the leads. Caine in particular –who does much of the narration– is simply brilliant in a role requiring even more charisma than Connery. That’s no small feat.
Director John Huston drenches the film in atmosphere. Unfortunately, several scenes serve no other purpose than to establish the strange and exotic nature of Kafiristan, scenes that should be advancing the story at the same time. But this, and a few special effects shots that show their age, are the film’s only real flaws. Huston does a good job of telling a solid story and eschews a more crowd-pleasing ending for a more satisfying (and realistic) one helps the film hold up to repeat viewings. MORE »
Posted at 7:59 PM in Movie Reviews and John Huston.
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Wednesday, August 15th 2007
Grade: D+
Synopsis: An aging boxer (Stacy Keach) meets a young boxer (Jeff Bridges) and a barfly (Susan Tyrrell).
Fat City is a gritty, unglamorous look at the life of an amateur boxer past his prime with no future ahead of him. All the performances are amazing, so much so Fat City doesn’t even feel like a movie, but rather a window into the lives of these people.
Director John Huston was sixty-five years old when he made Fat City and he’d been directing movies almost non-stop for thirty years. Like Stacy Keach’s character in the film, you can feel Huston reaching for one last shot at something special but, like Keach, he falls short. MORE »
Posted at 3:02 PM in Movie Reviews and John Huston.
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