Crash Landing (1958, directed by Fred F. Sears)

Posted on February 16, 2025 by Jedadiah Leland

Flying from Lisbon to New York City, a commercial airline is flying over the ocean when two of its engines fail. When the propellers fail to restart, Captain Steve Williams (Gary Merrill) realizes that he will have to land the plane in the ocean. The Navy is standing by to rescue the passengers. It’s just a question of whether or not Steve and his crew can land the plane without injuring the passengers or causing the plan to break in half.

This is a disaster film that doesn’t really have a disaster. The members of the crew all work professionally and efficiently to make sure that the landing is a success, even though none of them have ever had to ditch a plane before. The Navy shows up on time and ready to help. With one exception, the passengers react calmly and do what they’re told. An Orthodox priest prays for the plane. The flight attendants neatly pack all of the kitchen utensils. The only drama comes from a boy who is traveling with his dog Wilbur and is upset to hear that Wilbur will have to stay in the back of the plane, where he will probably drown. The boy’s father says, “I’ll buy you a new dog,” and the boy asks that his baseball cap be placed by Wilbur’s cage so that Wilbur knows his owner was thinking of him. Don’t worry kid! Steve Williams isn’t going to let your dog die.

It’s strange to see a disaster film without any real drama. The crew thinks that Williams can be overbearing but it turns out he knows what he’s doing. At home, his wife (Nancy Davis, in her final film role) thinks that Steve is too hard on their son. Their son is going to grow up knowing how to land airplanes in water. This is almost the Sully origin story. Otherwise, the film emphasizes the way that everyone works together and doesn’t panic. The scene where the plane lands in the water features some good special effects but otherwise, the movie is pretty dull. It could have used Leslie Nielsen and Peter Graves.

Actress Nancy Davis retired from movies after this one but she remained in the public eye as the wife of future President Ronald Reagan.

An Offer You Can’t Refuse #18: The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (dir by Roger Corman)

Posted on July 8, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

On February 14th, 1929, seven men were murdered in a garage in Chicago, Illinois. Five of the seven men were known to be associates of gangster George “Bugs” Moran. The other two men were considered to be innocent bystanders, a mechanic and a dry cleaner who just happened to enjoy hanging out with gangsters. Though no one was ever convicted of the crime, it was well-known that the murders were carried out on the orders of Al Capone.

In many ways, the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre was a turning point in America’s relationship with organized crime. Before the massacre, Capone had become a bit of a folk hero. He knew how to talk to the press and he was viewed as merely breaking a law (in this case, prohibition) that most people opposed in the first place. However, after the murders, public opinion soured on Capone.

Some of it was the brutality of the crime. It’s been said that over five hundred bullets were fired in that garage, all to kill seven defenseless men who were lined up against a wall. Grisly pictures of the victims were released to the press. Perhaps if the seven men had been carrying weapons and had been involved in a shootout with their murderers, the public’s reaction would have been different. But this was a cold-blooded execution.

Personally, I think the fact that the killers disguised themselves as cops also played a role in the public’s outrage. It was a very calculated move on the part of the killers and it highlighted just how much planning went into the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. As well, it undoubtedly made people paranoid. If a bunch of killer could dress up like cops, who knew who else they could dress up as?

Finally, I think that Capone’s biggest mistake was carrying out the crime on Valentine’s Day. You don’t murder people on a holiday. Anyone should know that. If Capone had waited until February 20th, he probably could have gotten away with it.

The 1967 film, The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, details the rivalry between Capone and Moran, starting with them fighting for control over the Chicago rackets and ending with the title event. Moran is played by Ralph Meeker while Jason Robards plays Capone.

Now I know what you’re probably thinking. Perennial WASP Jason Robards as Al Capone? That may sound like odd casting and, let’s just be honest here, it is. However, it actually kind of works. Robards may not be convincingly Italian but he is convincingly ruthless. Add to that, one of the major subplots of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre is that, even as the head of the Chicago Outfit, Capone still feels like an outsider in the world of organized crime because, while he is Italian, he isn’t Sicilian. Capone feels as if Lucky Luciano and all of the major New York crime bosses look down on him and one reason why he’s so ruthless about taking over Chicago is that wants to show Luciano that he can be just as effective a crime lord as any Sicilian. Capone feeling out of place in the Mafia is reflected by Robards initially seeming to be out of place in a gangster film. By the end of the movie, of course, Capone has proven himself and so has Jason Robards.

Robards isn’t the only familiar face to be found in The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Though this film was released by 20th Century Fox, it was directed by Roger Corman and Corman fills the production with members of his stock company. Dick Miller, Jonathan Haze, and Jack Nicholson all have small roles as gunmen. Bruce Dern plays the unlucky mechanic who enjoys hanging out with gangsters. Buck Taylor, Leo Gordon, and Joe Turkel all have small roles. John Agar plays Dion O’Bannon and is gunned down in his flower store. Though not members of the Corman stock company, George Segal and David Canary plays brothers who work for Moran. There’s a lot of characters wandering through this film but Corman makes sure that everyone gets a chance to make an impression.

It’s a good gangster film. Though he was working with a larger budget than usual, Corman still brought his exploitation film aesthetic to the material and the end result is a violent, melodramatic gangster film that looks really impressive. The film’s recreation of 1920s Chicago is a visual delight and looking at the well-dressed and stylish gangsters walking and driving down the vibrant city streets, you can understand why organized crime would have such a draw for some people.

The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre is a classic gangster film and a classic Corman film. It’s an offer you can’t refuse.

Previous Offers You Can’t (or Can) Refuse:

Lisa Reviews An Oscar Nominee: The Snake Pit (dir by Anatole Litvak)

Posted on January 11, 2020 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1948 film, The Snake Pit, tells the story of a writer named Virginia Cunningham.

Virginia (Olivia de Havilland) is a patient at the Juniper Hill State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital that only treats female patients. Some days, Virginia knows where she is and some days, she doesn’t. Some days, she knows who she is and other days, she doesn’t. Sometimes, she hears voices and other times, the silence in her head is her only companion. Sometimes, she’s paranoid and other times, she’s quite lucid.

Virginia has been admitted against her will. Her husband, Robert (Mark Stevens), visits frequently and sometimes, she knows him and sometimes, she doesn’t. Through flashbacks, we see how Virginia and Robert first met. Robert worked at a publishing house. Virginia was a writer whose work kept getting rejected. Robert and Virginia fell almost immediately in love but Virginia always refused to consider marrying him. In fact, she even disappeared at one point, because things were getting too serious. However, one day, Virginia suddenly declared that she wanted to get married. Afterwards, her behavior became more and more erratic.

In the hospital, Virginia is treated by Dr. Kik (Leo Genn), who is depicted as being a compassionate and progressive psychiatrist, even as he puts Virginia through electroshock treatment. (Remember, this film was made in 1948.) With Dr. Kik’s guidance, Virginia starts to piece her life together and get to the cause of nervous breakdown. Unfortunately, it often seems like every step forward leads to two steps back and Virginia still reacts to every bit of pressure by acting out, even biting one unhelpful doctor.

The hospital is divided into levels. With each bit of progress that a patient makes, she’s allowed to move to a new level that allows her just a bit more freedom. Everyone’s goal is to make it to the final level, Level One. Unfortunately, Level One is run by Nurse Davis (Helen Craig), a tyrant who is in love with Dr. Kik and jealous of the amount of time he spends on Virginia. Davis starts to goad Helen, trying to get her to lose control. And what happens if you lose control? You end up in the Snake Pit, the dreaded Level 33. Being sent to Level 33 means being abandoned in a padded cell, surrounded by patients who have been deemed untreatable.

At the time that it was released, The Snake Pit was a groundbreaking film, the first major American studio production to deal seriously and sympathetically with mental illness. Seen today, it’s still effective but you can’t help but cringe at some of the techniques that are used in Virginia’s treatment. (Electroshock treatment, for instance, is portrayed as being frightening but ultimately necessary.) The film works best as a showcase for Olivia de Havilland, who gives an absolutely brilliant and empathetic performance as Virginia. Neither the film not de Havilland shies away from the reality of Virginia’s condition nor does it make the mistake of sentimentalizing her story. For me, de Havilland’s best moment comes when she learns that she bit another doctor. At first, she’s horrified but then she starts to laugh because the doctor in question was such a pompous ass that he undoubtedly deserved it. de Havilland handles the character’s frequent transitions from lucidity to confusion with great skill, without indulging in the temptation to go over-the-top. Arguably, The Snake Pit features de Havilland’s best lead performance.

(Olivia de Havilland is, at 103 years old, still with us and living, reportedly quite happily, in France.)

Olivia de Havilland was nominated for Best Actress but she lost to Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda. (A year later, De Havilland’s won an Oscar for The Heiress.) The Snake Pit was also nominated for Best Picture but ultimately lost to Laurence Olivier’s adaptation of Hamlet.

A Movie A Day #278: The Power (1968, directed by Byron Haskin)

Posted on October 13, 2017 by Jedadiah Leland

Who is Adam Hart?

That is the mystery that Professors Jim Tanner (George Hamilton) and Margery Lansing (Suzanne Pleshette) have to solve. Someone is using psychic powers to kill their co-workers in a research laboratory. The police think that Tanner is guilty but Tanner knows that one of his colleagues is actually a super human named Adam Hart. Hart is planning on using his super powers to control the world and, because Tanner is the only person who has proof of his existence, Hart is methodically framing Tanner for every murder that he commits.

The Power is underrated by entertaining movie, a mix of mystery and science fiction with a pop art twist. It was also one of the first attempts to portray telekinesis on film. Similar films, like Scanners, may be better known but all of them are directly descended from The Power. George Hamilton may seem like an unlikely research scientist but he and Suzanne Pleshette are a good team and The Power makes good use of Pleshette’s way with a one liner. Also keep an eye out for familiar faces like Arthur O’Connell, Nehemiah Persoff, Michael Rennie, Gary Merrill, Yvonne DeCarlo, Vaughn Taylor, Aldo Ray, and even Forrest J. Ackerman as a hotel clerk.