Born to Be Bad

Many of the roles Joan Fontaine played throughout her career could be best described as mousy. Whether it's her collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock or any of her films following them, it became a sort of typecasting for her. Granted, as is often the case with actors, sometimes there's a want for change.

Now Fontaine actually subverts her usual character type for Nicholas Ray's Born to Be Bad. Her Christabel Caine initially seems to be like the actress' former roles but her true colors emerge once she's settled in. She's not some shrinking violet; she's consumed by her status in society.

Being made the same year as Ray's more prolific noir In a Lonely Place, it's understandable as to why Born to Be Bad isn't as well-known. And admittedly it doesn't have the same quality as the more famous film but regardless of that fact, it's still intriguing to watch it unfold.

And Fontaine has a pretty solid lineup of co-stars for Born to Be Bad. It has the likes of Joan Leslie, Zachary Scott, Robert Ryan (no stranger to noir), and Mel Ferrer, showing that very common aspect with other titles of the 1950s: the star-studded feature. (And Ray himself would partake in that several times over.)

Born to Be Bad may not be top-tier Ray but as he showed with his debut They Live by Night the previous year, noir was where he excelled. And while Fontaine didn't regularly play such roles like Christabel, she's clearly having some fun vamping it up. (It would've been nice to see her in more parts like it.)

My Rating: ****

The Lusty Men

With Nicholas Ray, his films are usually thinly veiled character studies. His 1952 film The Lusty Men provides such an example. The three major roles showcase the effects of the dangerous sport that is rodeo.

Jeff McCloud (Robert Mitchum) is an ex-rodeo rider who becomes a mentor to Wes Merritt (Arthur Kennedy). Early on, it's clear that Wes has potential, much to the dismay of Wes' wife Louise (Susan Hayward).

By the time Wes makes it big, his personality takes a change for the worse. All that matters to him is making more money off rodeos and keeping it all to himself, a far cry from the original plan between him and Louise. Wes' transformation mirrors that of Midge Kelly from Champion (which also co-starred Kennedy).

Wes' behavior change shocks Louise, but it barely fazes Jeff. He has probably seen it happen before. Maybe such a thing has happened to Jeff himself. Who knows? The script doesn't specify much on Jeff's past, leaving us to wonder...

The Lusty Men is one of those films you can tell was made by a certain director. I don't view that as a bad thing, mind you. Many themes of Ray are easily detectable. Mitchum, Kennedy and Hayward are at the height of their careers in this underseen Nicholas Ray gem.

My Rating: *****

Knock on Any Door

Nicholas Ray, in a lesser style to that of Billy Wilder, captured an air of cynicism in his films. Yes, some of his films would take an uplifting turn. but then they would soon turn into something more of a nightmare than a dream.

Such is the case with Ray's sophomore effort Knock on Any Door. Lawyer Andrew Morton (Humphrey Bogart) is faced with the task of proving his client Nick Romano (John Derek), who is charged with killing a police officer, innocent.

Morton claims that Romano wasn't given a chance at having a life of his own. Living in the slums made Romano turn to a life of crime. But did it persuade him to murder?

Much like Gloria Grahame's Laurel Gray in In a Lonely Place, Morton is suspicious of Romano regardless of what Romano said. Did he actually pull the trigger? Or was there some dark urge boiling within him? It's a question that continually surfaces as the movie progresses.

Knock on Any Door is a pretty Ray movie, exploring many themes he would develop in the next decade. Bogart gives an effective performance, as does Derek. The problem with the movie is that the script doesn't generally hold up. If it did, Knock on Any Door would probably be ranked among In a Lonely Place, Rebel Without a Cause and Bigger Than Life. In all honesty, this is for the true Nicholas Ray devotees.

My Rating: ****

Johnny Guitar

The best thing about Nicholas Ray is that he takes genres that are immensely popular and turns them around on their heads. Bigger Than Life made social dramas of the 1950's look like bad soap operas. In a Lonely Place and They Live By Night added new perspectives to film noir.

Like Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo five years later, Ray's Johnny Guitar shone a new light onto the Western. Both focus on the principle characters more than the action. Both have characters that capture the audience's attention. Both are made for those not that into Westerns, like yours truly.

What makes Johnny Guitar unique is its use of role reversals. The bandits are actually good guys, the townspeople are villains, and the women wear the pants in this show. After all, we learn early on that Vienna (Joan Crawford) and Emma (Mercedes McCambridge) are two dames you shouldn't cross.

God, I love what Ray has offered me so far. Rebel Without a Cause, In a Lonely Place, Bigger Than Life, They Live By Night, and now Johnny Guitar. What I like about them the most is that they're unconventional from other movies of the time. That is also why I love Ray in general.

My Rating: *****

They Live By Night

Bowie (Farley Granger) is a marked man when the movie opens. An escaped prisoner, he's one of the conspirators of a bank robbery. But it's also clear that Bowie's a framed man as well.

The press continually call him the mastermind of the crimes he's involved in, but Bowie's no more than an unfortunate witness. He merely watches the actions of his two partners in crime rather than the other way around. If you look at his expressions during those scenes, you notice that he wants to save the victim before realizing that could be him next.

Enter Keechie (Cathy O'Donnell), perhaps Bowie's escape from a life of crime. After all, on their first night on the run, they get married. They both care for each other, as clearly shown when the movie opens. However, the opening text reading "This boy and this girl were never properly introduced to the world we live in" shatters that image like a rock to a mirror.

Nicholas Ray's debut shows the essentials of noir without overdoing it. And, like many of Ray's later movies, relies more on character than plot. Worth checking out by a mile.

My Rating: *****

Bigger Than Life

Nicholas Ray is definitely one of those directors who didn't get the recognition he deserved during his run in Hollywood. He's considered an influence to many notable directors. And he made some pretty damn good movies.

Ray stood out because the characters in his movies didn't overplay their emotions or actions. They acted like regular people. They weren't the perfect people as portrayed in other movies. They had visible flaws, ones that most everyone had.

Ray is also noted for directing actors into excellent performances (ie, James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, Humphrey Bogart in In a Lonely Place). With Bigger Than Life, he has James Mason in an indelible performance.

Mason's transformation isn't overdone like most other movies on the subject. He shows early on that his personality has taken a turn for the worse while at the same time shows his physical and emotional pain through body language. It's an amazing performance by him, though I'm appalled at the fact that he didn't receive an Academy Award nomination for it.

Bigger Than Life lives up to its title. I don't mean that in a bad sense, but more so in the sense that Ray knew how to live up one's expectations from a glance at the title. Here's something for you to chew on: if the themes presented in Bigger Than Life still hold water, just imagine what it was like when it was released back in 1956.

My Rating: *****

In a Lonely Place

Humphrey Bogart: the original tough guy. One minute he's tough (the Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre), next minute he's a softie (Casablanca, Sabrina). Sometimes he's both (To Have and Have Not). That is slick.

Screenwriter Dixon Steele (Bogart) becomes a suspect in the murder of a hat-check girl he took home the previous night. His neighbor Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame) provides an airtight alibi to the police and Steele's friendship with her blossoms into a romance.

Throughout In a Lonely Place, Steele shows behavior that portrays him as not only a suspect but also as the culprit. One scene in particular shows that flawlessly. He has two friends, one of them a cop investigating the case, re-enact how the murder possibly took place. As he's describing it, we hear his voice and see his face change as though he's getting a sick satisfaction out of it. His behavior really gets under your skin.

In a Lonely Place provides an interesting take on film noirs. Instead of spending the whole movie on the crime presented early on, the murder is treated more as a subplot. Bogart clearly gives his best performance as Steele (Louise Brooks said she felt that Steele was the closest to the Bogart she knew). Nicholas Ray, who's better known for Rebel Without a Cause, gives an intense tale of love, scandal and Hollywood.

My Rating: *****

Rebel Without a Cause

Fifty-five years ago today, the life of a legend was cut short. That legend was James Dean. To mark the occasion, I have decided to review the movie that made Dean a cultural icon. That movie is Rebel Without a Cause.

Jim Stark (Dean) is the new kid in town who struggles to both fit in and get along with his parents. He finds out he's not alone; Judy (Natalie Wood) and "Plato" (Sal Mineo) are going throught the same thing.

Yeah, I know what you're expecting me to say. You want me to say that Dean is the best embodiment of teen angst (he is). Apart from that one mention, I'm not bringing it up. Even though he got Oscar nominations for East of Eden and Giant (both posthumously), Rebel Without a Cause is the one that got Dean forever immortalized.

Nicholas Ray, who previously directed film noirs, gives us a view of teenage life in the 1950's. Wood and Mineo give excellent supporting performances. It may feel dated by today's standards, but it still has an amazing impact.

On a slightly different note, there was apparently a "curse" on the main actors of Rebel Without a Cause. Along with Dean's car crash, Mineo was stabbed and Wood drowned, all at young ages. On a stranger note, Nick Adams (who plays one of Buzz's goons) died from a drug overdose at the age of 36. Apparently, the sign is if you got recognized from this you're gonna be dead at a young age.

My Rating: *****