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In the recent slew of Humphrey Bogart pictures released by Warner Home Video, two standouts would be They Drive by Night (1941) and High Sierra (1941), both directed by Raoul Walsh. In the first, when Bogart was still a character actor, not yet a leading man, he plays second banana to George Raft. Brothers, engaged in the long-haul trucking business, Bogie and Raft attempt to start their own company and become embroiled with a duplicitous minx played by the luscious British stage actress, Ida Lupino. The lovely Ida, whose own stellar career would later encompass directing, is also the unwitting femme fatale in High Sierra, which features Bogie's star-making turn as Roy "Mad Dog" Earle, the escaped con whose bank-robbing exploits have made him something of a legend. Behind the gruff exterior, he is of course, kind to a crippled girl and a dog, and you can understand why Ida falls for him. In front of Raoul Walsh's watchful eye you can almost see Bogart growing in stature, particularly when compared with his performance "supporting" Raft in the earlier film. High Sierra is something of a classic, with its Lone Pine locale in the lee of Mount Whitney, America's tallest peak, and Lupino is the ideal foil for the gangster's coiled fury. Raoul Walsh was a legendary figure, and his career directing a series of hard-boiled gangster films suited him well. The world of his movies is shallowly delineated in the accompanying featurettes on the DVDs — Divided Highway: The Story of They Drive by Night and Curtains for Roy Earle: The Story of High Sierra.
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Also included in the Warner batch is Hawks' To Have and Have Not (1944), an atmospheric melodrama closely related to Michael Curtiz's Casablanca (1943). This does not detract from its acclaimed status however, as Howard Hawks spun some gold out of one of Ernest Hemingway's minor works. The film is principally remembered because of its introduction to the screen of its leading lady, 19-year-old Lauren Bacall, and the ensuing, palpably real, chemistry between her and the film's star, Humphrey Bogart. His own marriage to former actress Mayo Methot falling apart, Bogart's attraction to the young stylish model was clearly evident and within a year of completing the film, the couple's relationship was made public by the announcement of their engagement. Like Casablanca, a large portion of To Have and Have Not centers around a bar and a resident piano player; in this case Hoagy Carmichael, who tinkles the ivories up a storm — the action often stopping to involve Miss Bacall in crooning a few tunes. (In actuality, it isn't Miss Bacall doing the singing — almost unbelievably, she was dubbed by Andy Williams!) Fine, old-fashioned entertainment, Warners has added among the special features, along with a banal, contemporary featurette, the Lux radio adaptation featuring Bogie and Bacall at their breathy, audio sonic best.
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A more up-to-date, gritty film noir is To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), which lacks the romantic aspects of Walsh and Hawks, but is a terrifically exciting thriller set in the world of federal treasury agents. Starring then-newcomers William L. Petersen, Willem Dafoe, John Pankow and Darlanne Fluegel, To Live and Die rips through the city of its title with genuine ferocity. Recovering some of the zip and energy that made The French Connection (1971) a tour de force, director Friedkin spares nothing and nobody in dispensing the details of a saga that has the treasury agents, played by Petersen and Pankow, descend deeper and deeper into a world of chaos and criminality in order to bring violent currency counterfeiter Willem Dafoe to book. Made on a tight budget, with excellent use of unusual L.A. locations, the movie is a model of its (unpleasant) form. MGM's DVD is terrific too, with a sharp transfer, modest documentary, and the bonus of a hilarious alternate ending that is so laughable it's like an outtake from Spies Like Us (made in the same year). Friedkin recounts the origins of this folly in a video interview.
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One of the most underrated writers and directors of his generation, John Milius is a force to be reckoned with. His best screenplays tackle history in an erudite and playful way: Jeremiah Johnson (1972), The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) and Apocalypse Now (1979). And as a director, after visualizing the life of Dillinger (1973), he set about dramatizing an event in the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt that gave him the chance to set the great president in the context of his life and times. The Wind and the Lion (1975) just released by Warner Home Video is a thrilling throwback to the boys-own adventure yarns of Milius' youth, and the director has fun on his audio commentary track describing a time and place when action movies were shot on location and not just in front of a blue, or green, screen. Starring Sean Connery as the Raisuli and Candice Bergen as the kidnapped Mrs. Pedecaris, Wind and the Lion sweepingly re-creates a bygone world — and striding, towering, behemoth-like above it all is Theodore Roosevelt, brought to vivid life by Brian Keith — bestowing upon the situation the wit, wisdom and grandeur of which all great men are capable. Warners new DVD is a delight to behold; sharp picture, crisp sound and an anamorphically enhanced transfer of a near-classic film. As well as Milius' commentary track, a vintage featurette shows the young director on the set in cheerful charge of all he surveys. He was just 30 at the time.
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Another rare movie long lost to the sands of time has been given a new lease of life by Milestone Films, a New York-based independent video company that has resuscitated many a filmic corpse in recent times. Their latest effort is The Edge of the World, a little-known movie by Michael Powell, one of Britain's most lauded practitioners of the art. Shot on the Shetland Isle of Foula, Edge of the World is about two families (clans) torn apart by an argument which is settled by the age-old tradition of a contest between the two men at odds to climb the sheer face of the 1,200-foot cliff that dominates the landscape. Michael Powell, who would go on to make such contributions to the cinema as The Red Shoes, Stairway to Heaven and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, talks of his experiences on Foula by revisiting the island in a fascinating short documentary made in 1978 which is also included on Milestone's disc. As an added bonus, the main feature has an audio commentary by actor Daniel Day-Lewis, editor Thelma Schoonmaker (a former Mrs. Powell) and critic Ian Christie.
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Thirty is evidently a good age to direct a film, for that is also how old Peter Fonda was when he made The Hired Hand (1971), a beautifully realized, elegiac Western, elegantly penned by British writer Alan Sharp. Co-starring with Warren Oates and Verna Bloom, Fonda's acting and directing is assured, gradually revealing his mise en scene little by little. Gorgeously shot by Vilmos Zsigmond, with a lovely music score by Bruce Langhorne, The Hired Hand is a rare gem you might have missed along the way. Now, thanks to the Sundance Channel's Home Entertainment division, it has been released as a two-DVD set lovingly restored by the film's editor Frank Mazzola. Peter Fonda supplies a cogent audio commentary and a lengthy well-made documentary on the movie's genesis and production is to be found on the second disc. Out of circulation for three decades, The Hired Hand could well be the best film you'll see this year.
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