Off Beat (1986)

Directed by Michael Dinner; produced by Harry J Ufland

Joe Gower (Judge Reinhold) works at the New York Pubic Library finding patrons’ requests in the rare book stacks in the basement. When he inadvertently ruins an undercover operation for his policeman friend, Abe (Cleavant Derricks), the latter is ‘volunteered’ by his superiors to participate in a police charity dance event. In turn, Abe ‘volunteers’ Joe to impersonate him temporarily - to make up for Joe’s faux pas. All he has to do is fail the audition and both will be off the hook. But, needled by the attitude of an abrasive fellow participant (Joe Mantegna), and interested in a pretty policewoman, Rachel (Meg Tilly), Joe stays - pretending to be Abe, pretending to be a cop and pretending that he's not in over his head.

A slight comedy, Off Beat benefits from the likeability of Reinhold, and the support of a large number of recognizable faces, some belonging to actors at the beginnings of their careers. There are no laugh-out-loud moments, though a number of amusing situations crop up. The romance aspect of the movie is likewise lukewarm, though it helps that Reinhold and Tilly make a good couple.

The problem with the writing is that it doesn’t make as much of either the comedy or the romance as it could. The main crisis for the latter is, of course, Joe’s pretence of being a policeman: Rachel doesn’t want to fall in love with a cop, but since what he seems to be is a lie, Joe faces a dilemma. This is handled well, but the attraction between the two leads is too pat, too routine, and we don’t see them falling in love; they simply are suddenly at that stage. As well, the comedic situation, while funny, has the potential for much greater humour than it uses.

In other regards, the story calls upon the audience to suspend its disbelief rather strongly. There would be little success in real-life for a Joe Gower to impersonate a cop, wearing a uniform in public and mixing socially with other cops. These problems are used in the script, but, again, the viewer must be willing to treat the situations with a considerable block of salt.

As well, one wonders why, if failing the audition is all that is required for Abe to get out of his assignment to the dance production, why he doesn’t just show up himself and fail. Mantegna’s character is far too volatile - even abusive - for a hostage negotiator, even if he did cheat during his training. And really, one doesn’t expect the character to want to be a hostage negotiator.

On the subject of acting, Mantegna gives a creditable try at comedy, though he’s not really cut out for it. He seems still to be searching for his niche, which he would find the next year when he connected with David Mamet for House of Games. Other actors, familiar from the past and present, include John Turturro (also not quite comfortable here), John Kapelos, William Sadler, James Tolkan (on target here, a year after his most recognizable role in Back to the Future), Anthony Zerbe, Chris Noth, Penn Jillette (the speaking half of Penn & Teller), Mike Starr, Fyvush Finkel, Austin Pendleton, Fred Gwynne and, of all people, Harvey Keitel. Unintentionally, Off Beat sometimes provides entertainment in its who’s who of noted names.

Over all, despite the occasional obscenity, Off Beat is a rather gentle comedy, with a few serious moments, such as when Joe talks about his family’s expectations for him, and his realization that he was not meant for firearms. Its premise, handled adequately but not excellently, is helped by good performances, but doesn’t quite fulfill its promise.

Circle of Danger (1951)

Directed by Jacques Tourneur; produced by Joan Harrison and David E Rose

After several years earning a tidy sum in salvage, former U.S. Navy sailor Clay Douglas (Ray Milland) travels to Britain. His goal is to learn about the death of his brother, Hank, who, in 1940, had joined the British Army and been the only casualty in an otherwise successful and unspectacular commando raid. As he interviews those who knew his sibling, it becomes clear to Douglas that Hank’s death was not as straightforward as many would like him to believe.

There is a mystery in Circle of Danger, but it eventually becomes clear that it is not an exciting one. The interlude of five years or so between the end of the Second World War and the start of Douglas’s quest almost sets the tone for the film: slow, leisurely, and without urgency. The audience soon learns that, despite the title, there is no danger to the protagonist, or to anyone else, except for an unconvincing dab in the finale. The movie is, in fact, boring.

The puzzling aspect about Circle of Danger is why it is boring. The director has done other, good work; Tourneur famously crafted the atmospheric Cat People, and Out of the Past is reckoned by many to be one of the best films noir. None of Tourneur’s talent is particularly evident in Circle of Danger.

Writer Philip MacDonald wrote The Body Snatcher, and adapted the novel Rebecca for the screen: two different movies, both successful. Yet there is no suspense here; Douglas’s peregrinations about Great Britain are more along the lines of a travelogue than a drama. The story itself is a good one, or might have been, if handled better, but the screenplay is bland. The running joke of Douglas being late for his dates with new-found love-interest, Elspeth (Patricia Roc), is tedious, as is her pointless hay fever.

I had the feeling that this was made largely for an American market, with Douglas travelling to Wales, with its stereotypical coal mine, and to Scotland with its lochs and white heather. Then, in London, he visits the Thames and Covent Garden Market, and tries to figure out English money. Most Britons in the film are effusive in their praise of the U.S. and Americans. Though filmed on location, and by a British company, the movie is like one made by a Hollywood crew on a field-trip.

The acting is certainly good. Milland is as likeable a leading man as a movie could want, and is in fine form in thrillers such as The Ministry of Fear, and The Big Clock. Here, he appears a little too snide, perhaps too confident. He is ably supported by Hugh Sinclair as a vaguely misleading Scottish laird, and Marius Goring as an impresario no one would guess used to be a commando. Particularly interesting is Naunton Wayne, cast as a dark and repulsive version of his popular Caldicott character from other films. But ‘good’ and ‘interesting’ don’t make the characters very watchable.

It seems almost as if the movie’s elements, represented by its leading lights, got in each other’s way. The writing couldn’t overcome the story, the story was left limp by the direction, the acting didn’t propel the story… In the end, Circle of Danger has become a plodding tour of Britain, glimpsing the natives at their daily jobs, and leading to a conclusion that is itself mildly implausible.

The Night My Number Came Up (1955)

Directed by Leslie Norman; produced by Michael Balcon

When a Royal Air Force passenger aircraft disappears over Japan on a routine flight, a search is mounted, but with no success and decreasing hope. A naval commander (Michael Hordern) intercedes with a frantic plea - literally inexplicble - to look in a region the aeroplane was unlikely to have flown over. As the search continues, we learn the events leading the possible crash, and the people involved.

The Night My Number Came Up doesn’t really have a right to be an entertaining movie. What has happened to the aeroplane is not really much of a secret; it takes place in the present (1955) and therefore in peace-time, so there is no chance of it having been shot down; there is no international chicanery or sabotage. It’s not, therefore, a mystery. Most of the story is told in flashback, so there is a kind of pre-destination to the whole affair. Yet it still manages to be exciting and interesting.

The secret is, I think, in the acting and the script, the latter of which manages to make details significant, while the former keeps the viewer involved. The screenplay, by R C Sherriff (from a story by Victor Goddard), manages cleverly to create a number of crises without making them seem repetitious or tedious, or making the viewer believe that he’s been fooled. It also builds suspense in the collection of various events that combine to persuade various passengers of the aeroplane that danger is increasing.

This sense of danger is communicated to the audience through the fine acting of the cast. Hordern, despite his character’s significance, plays a relatively small part, the larger being given to Michael Redgrave as a senior air force officer, Alexander Knox as a middle-level colonial official, and Denholm Elliott as a young officer suffering from latent battle fatigue.

Mention must also be made of Sheila Sim, whose character is somewhat in ignorance of events, and Nigel Stock as a pilot. Each brings his or her own reaction to what is happening, or what might happen, and this leads both to conflict and interest. As well, none, except perhaps the brash businessman Bennett (George Rose), is a stereotype, most giving evidence of his humanity and limits.

This was the director’s second feature film after his debut (as co-director) sixteen years before, and he does a good job of it. Norman takes what might very well could have been a stage-play (perhaps Sherriff’s influence) and breaks up the claustrophobic scenes in the aeroplane with interludes on the ground. These serve as rests between the stretches of tension. Norman later directed Dunkirk (1958), which remains the best film about that battle.

For a movie that involves a missing air force aeroplane but isn’t a war film, that makes the fate of that aeroplane uncertain but isn’t a mystery, that is set largely in one location but isn’t stagey, The Night My Number Came Up is remarkably and, perhaps surprisingly, successful.

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950)

Directed by Gordon Douglas; produced by William Cagney

With the help of a guard, Ralph Cotter escapes from the prison farm to which he had been sent. The only problem is his fellow prisoner (Neville Brand), who is wounded. Cotter kills him and escapes alone. Once outside, he quickly commits a series of crimes, from armed robbery to assault to blackmail, all the time building to bigger and more dangerous felonies. What will stop him and who will be hurt in the process?

While an entertaining gangster film, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye has some flaws, and for unusual reasons. Watching the movie, I had the feeling that it was almost a throwback to Cagney’s earlier films, like The Public Enemy. There was something too routine about Cotter’s successes. They are not, in fact, portrayed to be as simple as this criticism implies, but they come across as such.

As well, this was surely a rôle meant for a younger actor. Cagney was fifty years old at the time, and a prison record states his character’s age as 37. Another character refers to Cotter as a young man. And the ease with which he romances not one but two women, both in their twenties, is rather unrealistic, despite the appeal that Cagney could exude on-screen.

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye is - perhaps unfairly - sometimes compared to White Heat, the star’s very memorable 1949 movie. Though I always prefer to review a film on its own merits, a comparison - or, rather, a contrast - of the two is, I think, appropriate. Though made a year earlier, White Heat portrays Cagney’s character, Cody Jarrett, as an aging gangster. His hold over his girl (Virginia Mayo) is tenuous, and the very first scene is directed in a way to emphasise the older man that Cagney has become. This quality is worked to advantage in the immature dependence of Jarrett upon his mother, and the worsening of his personality through time.

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, on the other hand, has the actor, now a year older, playing a younger man, with less success. The choice of rôle for Cagney was odd, considering his desire at the time not to be further typecast in cinema. The fact that his production company had debts to pay off may have influenced his decision.

Other elements of the movie are decent, including the acting. Ward Bond has a good role; often he portrays a slightly comic authority figure. Here, he is a dangerously corrupt cop who becomes malleable under extortion. Luther Adler has probably the best part, as an attorney who is more than a little shady. Cagney’s brother, William, the producer, plays Cotter’s brother in the last scene, and, as mentioned, Neville Brand has uncredited work, early in his career.

The direction is workmanlike, but close, even claustrophobic, in some instances. This, too, gives the feeling of an earlier motion picture, from the time when every scene was shot on a sound stage. The ending comes a little out of nowhere and, though not unsatisfactory, could have had some foreshadowing.

Over all, Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye is an enjoyable crime-flick, but seems almost dated and ordinary, like an average script turned into a movie because nothing else was available.