Otto Preminger Retro Continues...

Cinematheque Ontario continues with the awesome Otto Preminger series.  Last chance to catch Preminger’s works if you have not already done so.  Included in the series are also rare Preminger that are unavailable on DVD.

Below are the capsule reviews of a few of the upcoming Preminger films to be screened within the next two weeks.  Reviews for two of Preminger’s blockbusters, IN HARM’S WAY and EXODUS will be posted Friday next week. 

For details on showtimes, ticket pricing and venue check the Cinematheque Ontario website at:

http://www.cinemathequeontario.ca

BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING (UK 1965) ***** Top 10
Directed by Otto Preminger

Perhaps the best mystery puzzle ever created on film, BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING has all the elements of a good thriller currently found in movies of this genre.  Is the daughter of Carol Lynley really missing or is Bunny Lake a figment of the mother’s imagination?  That is what the London inspector played by Laurence Olivier is determined to find out, as he realizes no one has ever seen the little girl.  As Preminger’s film progresses, the characters get weirder than the circumstances surrounding the missing girl.  This is what makes this film an icy, bitingly wicked movie.  Combined with an excellent use of lightning, eerie nursery rhymes and soundtrack by The Zombies, Preminger’s cult classic was at first a flop at the box-office but now recognized as the hit it should have been.  Preminger’s London is as creepy as it is swinging, especially when Lynley begins searching for the doll hospital.  Noel Coward’s (he plays the landlord in a cameo) lines should be memorized for their sheer outlandishness.  His performance as a dirty old eccentric who quotes Elizabethan for the BBC is priceless.
(Screening at 7 pm on June 20th at the Cinematheque Ontario)

DAISY KENYON (USA 1947) ****
Directed by Otto Preminger

Preminger does romantic melodrama with his touch of sarcastic wit, keen social observation and wry humour.  Joan Crawford plays magazine illustrator DAISY KENYON caught between two lovers.  Fed up with the false promises of married attorney Dana Andrews, she opts for the not-so stable ex-army officer Henry Fonda.  Each uses each other, playing games though intelligent enough to warrant the audience’s attention.  As in Preminger other films, his camera tracking, long shots are ever present as if preventing his characters of a way of escape from their sordid lives.  Daisy is the only one bold enough to eventually make a decision to get out with Preminger’s film climaxing to an unpredictable finish.  The best scene has the two men in confrontation with Andrews confessing his love for the illogical.  And the film’s best line? “Your humour is in pretty bad taste!” Crawford outshines Fonda and Andrews in her performance and charisma.
(Screening at 7 pm on Thursday June 18th at the Cinematheque Ontario)

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM (USA 1955) ****
Directed by Otto Preminger

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM is the most uneasy of the Preminger films to watch because of its drug addiction theme and the complete bleak claustrophobic atmosphere created by the director.  The story is set in 1940s Chicago where Frankie Majcinek (Frank Sinatra in his Oscar nominated Best Actor role) tries to make it good as a drummer.  But he is bound by guilt from his wheelchair bound wife (Eleanor Parker), the need for cash and the longing for a quick fix of heroin.  The only consolation is Molly (Kim Novak) who eventually aids him in his recovery.  The scenes of cold turkey are riveting though Preminger thankfully keeps them short and sharp.  The jazz score by Elmer Bernstein lifts the film out of the doldrums but the abrupt ending seems hokey in the midst of all the drama protagonist Frank has gone through.  Still, Preminger’s creation of the claustrophobic life of Frank is very well constructed.
(Screening at 7 pm on June 13th, Saturday at the Cinematheque Ontario)