Short Take: Citizen Kane

Orson Welles, at the absurdly young age of 25, produced, directed, co-wrote, and starred in Citizen Kane, widely considered the finest film ever made by an American. The picture begins with the death of a celebrity newspaper publisher (played by Welles). A reporter (William Alland) is tasked with finding the meaning of the publisher’s dying word. From various sources, he pieces together an intimate portrait of the man’s extraordinary life. It’s a forceful drama on first viewing, but what makes it so compulsively watchable with later ones is the exuberant wit and imagination with which it is crafted. Every element--the structuring of the scenes to end with comic and dramatic punchlines, the rich use of space in the staging, the cinematography’s gorgeous chiaroscuro and depth of field, the striking condensations of time through the editing, the detailed sound design--it's all thought out in terms of bravura effect, and the artful flamboyance is irresistible. To top it off, Welles, with his outsize presence, command of nuance, and terrific voice, is at least as compelling an actor as he is a filmmaker. The picture is a marvelous entertainment on every level. The fine cast also includes Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, George Colouris, Everett Sloane, Agnes Moorehead, Ruth Warrick, and Ray Collins. Herman J. Mankiewicz collaborated with Welles on the script. The cinematography is by Gregg Toland, and Robert Wise is credited with the editing. Van Nest Polglase designed the outstanding sets.

Short Take: The Maltese Falcon

The 1941 film version of The Maltese Falcon was Hollywood's third try at adapting Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel. It was by far the best effort, and it has become the archetype of the private-detective thriller. It is still one of the most entertaining films from pre-World War II Hollywood. Humphrey Bogart plays Sam Spade, a San Francisco private detective who finds himself in the middle of the intrigues of a group of rival artifact smugglers. John Huston, who wrote the script and directed, was quite faithful to the book. It's not one a filmmaker would need to rework. Hammett's style is quite literal: straightforward action and dialogue, and nothing more. Huston brought what was needed, namely a lack of squeamishness about the rather misanthropic tone, and the recognition that a no-frills, fast-paced presentation--the cinematic equivalent of Hammett's prose--served the material best. The staging, camerawork, and editing are handled with remarkable precision. They serve the story so well that it almost seems to tell itself. The Spade character isn't softened. He's a smug, mercenary bully, and the mix of alertness, cynicism, and drive that Bogart gives him is just about perfect. The performance doesn't have the resonance of Bogart's best work elsewhere--there are no notes of melancholy--but he has never been more exciting to watch. Huston plays the supporting cast off him terrifically well. The characters all have their defining qualities--the pity-me duplicitousness of Mary Astor's femme fatale, the effeteness of Peter Lorre's Joel Cairo, Sydney Greenstreet's unctuous expansiveness as Casper Gutman--but the actors underplay, and it creates a striking and at times droll counterpoint with Spade's aggressiveness. The other players include Elisha Cook, Jr., Lee Patrick, and Gladys George. The cinematography is by Arthur Edeson. Adolph Deutsch provided the over-emphatic score.

Short Take: The Lady Eve

In The Lady Eve, writer-director Preston Sturges' wonderful 1941 romantic comedy, Henry Fonda falls for Barbara Stanwyck, and falls, and falls, and falls again. Fonda plays the shy, naïve heir to a brewery fortune. While traveling by ship to New York, he is targeted by Stanwyck's character, a cardsharp and con-artist working with her father (Charles Coburn). She effortlessly hooks and reels him in. She falls in love, too, and repeatedly thwarts her father's efforts to fleece him. But he discovers the truth about her and her father before the voyage ends, and breaks things off. Determined to get revenge, she gains entry into his family's high-society community by posing as a young British noblewoman, and again captures his heart. Sturges delivers one terrific comic set piece after another, and he's as deft at verbal humor as he is with slapstick. The two stars have never been funnier, whether it's with Fonda's pratfalls or Stanwyck's delight in her character's cynicism. But as hilarious as the picture is, the romance has weight. The best scene is when Stanwyck's character, resting her head against Fonda's, runs her fingers through his hair and beguiles him with romantic talk, all the while falling in love despite herself. One also feels the characters' pain when circumstances drive them apart. The film is one of the high points of Hollywood's Golden Age. Sturges features some delightful light humor in the picture's incidentals. The faux upper-class manner of high-society servants is satirized, most notably in casting William Demarest as the Fonda character's valet. The character is the most brusque and declassé "gentleman's gentleman" one will ever see. Sturges also gets that shy young men substitute geeky pastimes for romance. The joke comes with the book Fonda's character reads at dinner. Its title, which relates to his character's scholarly fixations, is a play on E. B. White and James Thurber's 1930s bestseller Is Sex Necessary? And Sturges has an unmatched wit when it comes to thumbing his nose at the strictures of Hollywood's Production Code. One example is the scene where editing tricks allow Stanwyck's character to relate her British noblewoman's sordid romantic past. Another is the finale, when the picture nimbly gets around the prohibition against extramarital sex being rewarded. The cast includes Eugene Pallette as the Fonda character's uncouth father, and Eric Blore, who plays Stanwyck's high-society accomplice. The screenplay is based on the Monckton Hoffe story "Two Bad Hats."