ON DANGEROUS GROUND (Dir: Nicholas Ray, 1951).

ON DANGEROUS GROUND (Dir: Nicholas Ray, 1951).

A stellar cast including Robert Ryan, Ida Lupino and Ward Bond feature in Nicholas Ray’s tough and surprisingly violent film noir-ish thriller.

On Dangerous Ground is kind of a movie of two halves. The first sees sadistic cop Ryan clash with the lowlife of New York’s mean streets. However, after one display of brutality too many he is sent out of town to a rural, snow-covered isolated small town to track down the killer of a young girl, having to deal with the girl’s vengeful father and the killer’s blind sister.

The beautiful, contrasty monochrome photography in the second half is a definite plus, and the relationship that develops between Ryan and Lupino is unexpectedly tender.

A fairly overlooked title among Ray’s work, On Dangerous Ground is an enjoyably gritty hardboiled 50’s crime flick.

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BORN YESTERDAY (Dir: George Cukor, 1950) Movie of the year number 8, Born Yesterday, is an absolute classic. Judy Holliday’s recreation of her Broadway role as the uneducated mistress of bent junk magnet Broderick Crawford is one the greatest comedic performances in cinema history. Maybe the greatest. Completing the trio of fine star performances is William Holden as the journalist who Crawford hires to smarten Holliday up. All three are excellent but the movie is really Holliday’s; deservedly winning her the Best Actress Oscar in a tough category including heavyweights Bette Davis (All About Eve) and Gloria Swanson (Sunset Boulevard). Perhaps slightly betraying its stage origins, this is still a cinematic gem with Cukor handling the intelligent razor sharp Garson Kanin dialogue with his usual class. Born Yesterday is truly classic Hollywood at its finest. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough. 100+ movie reviews now available on my blog jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com

MARY POPPINS RETURNS (Dir: Rob Marshall, 2018). New Year’s resolution is going well. Second movie of the year Mary Poppins Returns. The second best Mary Poppins movie I have seen. (Third best if you include Saving Mr Banks.) 
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ALL ABOUT EVE (Dir: Joseph L Mankiewicz, 1950). Fasten your seatbelts for movie number 9: All About Eve. This backstage drama made cinema history with 14 Oscar nominations, a record it held for almost half a decade until Titanic equalled the feat in 1998. Both Bette Davis and Anne Baxter we’re nominated in the Best Actress category, although both went home empty handed (see previous post). In truth the movie is more of an ensemble piece, with above the title Celeste Holm and George Sanders equally important to the narrative. Mankiewicz’s highly quotable screenplay is witty and waspish by turns and, as director, he elicits excellent performances from the entire cast, including a pre-stardom turn from ingénue Marilyn Monroe. 100+ movie reviews now available on my blog jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com

THE WILD (Dir: Steve ‘Spaz’ Williams, 2006).

With animation farmed out to Toronto based CORE Feature Animation, The Wild is a Disney animation in name only.

The movie follows Sampson the lion as he breaks out of Central Park Zoo and heads to the wild in pursuit of his estranged son. He is joined on his quest by animal pals including a giraffe, a snake and inexplicably, an English koala. Cue some lessons in the value of friendship, of being true to oneself and some eventual father / cub bonding via lots of unsubtle humour.

The Wild was originally released within months of rival studio DreamWorks’ similarly themed Madagascar and as such feels incredibly derivative of the earlier movie. In truth, The Wild had been in production for much longer, dating back to the mid 1990s when production was delayed due to similarities with The Lion King.

With it’s theme of a lion father / son relationship, a gazelle stampede and a wildebeest song and dance number reminiscent of The Lion King’s ‘Be Prepared’, The Wild has a distinct air of over familiarity. In its favour the film does have a couple of genuinely impressive moments including the Lion King-esq ‘Really Nice Day’ musical number and a sequence where the animals take a nighttime ride through New York City in a dump truck. This scene is a rare welcome moment of calm in an otherwise frantic, noisy film.

While The Wild could not escape the shadow of the far more successful Madagascar, it is a visually more impressive feature. However, of the two, I think Madagascar is, ultimately, a lot more fun.

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RIP Dave Smith; founder of The Walt Disney Archives and its chief archivist from 1970 to 2010. He also authored some fine books on the Disney Studios.