I caught this movie late one night a few years ago and was delighted to the brink of satiety with the performances of all, especially Bendix and Roman Bohnen. It's worth noting that Bohnen's performance was so theatrically fine that I didn't even recognize him before I saw the credits, a considerable suspension of disbelief given that he's my Mom's favorite cousin, my granny's nephew. (He died untimely, a few years before I was born, in his 40's, a victim of the McCarthy witch-hunt. He went in style: in the intermission of a play, backstage... just days before he was being forced to testify for the HUAC pogroms.) Bendix was superb, a shining presence of earthy hues, a Steinbeckian character, such as we see in the Cannery Row books. Bohnen was a superb supporting touch, at a time when he had not yet lost prominent roles due to blacklisting, and still able to do a very colorful turn as Bendix's sidekick.
I'll rate not only the movie, but the comments: the first one above is hardly generous and pretty moronic, as the movie is a class act. The one below it, sandwiched between the Moron's and mine, is right on, and shows a nice appreciation of the humor and sterling acting involved. Bendix's hulking pirouette and popping of the quarter down Hayward's dress, in the closing scene, is high comedy, from the low-born to the high, and anyone who would not laugh out loud is a goof.... (I've sung opera in national broadcasts and on a Grammy-nominated CD myself, on the EMI Classics label, as a chorister with a famous orchestra. That may not give me last word as a critic, but certainly enough to straighten out the sad little homeboy who slammed this neglected movie.)
I'll rate not only the movie, but the comments: the first one above is hardly generous and pretty moronic, as the movie is a class act. The one below it, sandwiched between the Moron's and mine, is right on, and shows a nice appreciation of the humor and sterling acting involved. Bendix's hulking pirouette and popping of the quarter down Hayward's dress, in the closing scene, is high comedy, from the low-born to the high, and anyone who would not laugh out loud is a goof.... (I've sung opera in national broadcasts and on a Grammy-nominated CD myself, on the EMI Classics label, as a chorister with a famous orchestra. That may not give me last word as a critic, but certainly enough to straighten out the sad little homeboy who slammed this neglected movie.)