Portrait in Black is a fairly late noir, released in 1960, that has an all-star noir cast. The films leading characters are played by the likes of Lana Turner, Richard Basehart, Lloyd Nolan, Anthony Quinn, John Saxon, and Sandra Dee. Turner, Basehart and Nolan are among noir elite and all three give good performances, though Basehart is the standout.

The film was directed by Michael Gordon who is a rather unknown director with only a few really low budget noir films such as An Act of Murder and Crime Doctor to his credit. The film was written by Ivan Goff, who’s screenwriting credits include the magnificent White Heat and later in his career, the TV series Charlie’s Angels.

The film is set in San Francisco and centers around a dying shipping magnate named Matthew Cabot (Lloyd Nolan). His doctor David Rivers (Anthony Quinn) tends to Cabot in Cabot’s office overlooking his little shipping empire. Suddenly we are introduced to Cabot’s wife, Sheila (Lana Turner). She is much too young and virile for the aging and dying Cabot, but she is just right for the vigorous young doctor.

David and Sheila cannot wait for Matthew Cabot to die on his own. Sheila uses her womanly charms to convince the good doctor that he should finish the job ASAP and they can be together forever, and with more money than they know what to do with. The major problem with their plan is that Howard Mason (Richard Basehart), a smarmy little guy who is too smart for his own good, wants his hand on the shipping fortune and the widowed Cabot. He has been running the shipping business for several years and feels he is entitled. This is the struggle that forces the action in the movie and leads to the inevitable outcome.

Elements of Noir

This film, though just outside the heyday of the genre, does have noir elements. Shadows are used for effect in several instances, such as when Dr. Rivers is bathed in shadow just before the idea of murder is mentioned and is split down the middle as the idea of killing Cabot is discussed. Anytime murder is discussed or about to take place, shadows rule the image.

Also Dr. Rivers, like most men in noir, doesn’t seem to really be in control of himself. He would have never committed murder if he had been permitted to simply continue his practice. However, his weakness allowed him to get mixed up with a femme fatale, Sheila Cabot, and his fate was made. He lost control of his life at that point and was simply going along for the ride.

Recommendation

This is certainly a film noir, but not a very good one. It is sad to see such wonderful actors and a writer that has written some wonderful material to be involved in something so bad. This film fails on many fronts.

First of all, its imitation of Hitchcock goes far beyond simple influence. The director Michael Gordon tries way too hard to make the film look like a Hitchcock to the point of making it appear amateurish. Also, the soundtrack is incredibly obnoxious and makes you want to watch the film with the sound off.

The most disheartening part of the film is watching Anthony Quinn. Quinn is generally a wonderful actor, but in this film he is miscast entirely and poorly directed. His love scenes with Lana Turner are among the worst I have ever seen. You can certainly tell that he doesn’t feel comfortable with the scenes or the dialogue. The dialogue is horrible and the delivery no better.

If you are looking for a quality, obscure film noir, keep on looking. Portrait in Black is a nice noirish title, but the film does not deliver. The only reason to see this film is to see Basehart, who is the class of this film, but it really isn’t worth the hour and a half it takes from your life.

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Name:  The Message
Release Year:  1976
Genre:  Drama, Biography
Cast: Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas, Michael Ansara, Andr Morell, Garrick Hagon, Martin Benson, John Bennett, Richard Johnson, Peter Madden, Ewen Solon, Ronald Leigh Hunt …
Director:  Moustapha Akkad
Language: English / Urdu
RuTime: 170 min

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Description:

Handsomely-mounted historical epic concerns the birth of the Islamic faith and the story of the prophet Mohammed (PBUH). In Mecca in the 7th century, Mohammed is visited by a vision of the Angel Gabriel, who urges him to lead the people of Mecca to cast aside the 300 idols of Kaaba and instead worship the one true God. Speaking out against the corrupt political and military leaders who rule Mecca. With the help of his uncle, a brave warrior named Hamza (Anthony Quinn), Mohammed and his followers return to Mecca to liberate the city in the name of God. The Message was shot in two versions, one in English and one in Arabic (entitled Al-Ris-Alah), with different actors taking over some of the roles due to language requirements.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074896/

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Quotes from Godard illustrated by his wife and early muse, my own style inspiration and personal patron saint, the lovely and talented* Anna Karina.

*Not sure if you’d noticed, but I only bill as “lovely and talented” those who take it off. Write that down.

All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun. (Journal entry, 5/16/91)

“Light me up!” Still of Anna Karina as Natacha van Braun from Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution / Alphaville (1965)

I don’t think you should feel about a movie. You should feel about a woman. You can’t kiss a movie.

Still with Jean-Paul Belmondo from Une femme est une femme / A Woman is a Woman (1961), previously highlighted with “Look, Ma, no gag reflex!” still here back in September.

“In films, we are trained by the American way of moviemaking to think we must understand and ‘get’ everything right away. But this is not possible. When you eat a potato, you don’t understand each atom of the potato!” (Interview with David Sherritt, The Christian Science Monitor, 8/3/94)

Une femme est une femme / A Woman is a Woman (1961)

Art attracts us only by what it reveals of our most secret self. (Critique called “What Is Cinema?” for Les Amis du Cinéma , 10/1/52, a work which advanced the auteur theory but also kind of ripped off Bazin, which is weird cause Bazin would’ve read it and was a big influence on Godard but this was done contemporaneously of Bazin himself working on something titled this, about this, so maybe the quote is misattributed? … or maybe there is more to it than I know with my tiny ken of French movie guys, maybe it was a done thing to borrow titles from one another, or perhaps it was a continuation of a dialogue they were already having both in person and via publications, or, finally, it could even have been an “understood” question which anyone might use as the title of a book or article … I am probably over-reading it.)

Hands down my favorite picture of Anna Karina

Beauty is composed of an eternal, invariable element whose quantity is extremely difficult to determine, and a relative element which might be, either by turns or all at once, period, fashion, moral, passion. (“Defense and Illustration of Classical Construction,” Cahiers du Cinéma, 9/15/52)

Cover or liner art for her album, a collaboration with the dread Serge G

The truth is that there is no terror untempered by some great moral idea. (“Strangers on a Train,” Cahiers du Cinéma 3/10/52 — Godard wrote extensively and insightfully in his early career about the movies of Hitchcock, one of my favorite and I think misunderstood directors; I’ll try to share some good nuggets from time to time)

Anna cahorts about topless as Anne in 1968’s The Magus, also starring Anthony Quinn (Zorba the Greek), Michael Caine, and Candace Bergen (Murphy Brown) — no one seems to like this movie but me. That’s okay, because I like it a lot.

Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second. (Le petit soldad / The Little Soldier, 1963.)

With Jean-Paul Belmondo again, this time as Ferdinand and Marianne in the sort of romantic-tragi-comedy-crime-caper Pierrot le fou / Crazy Pete / Pierre Goes Wild (1965).

To be or not to be? That’s not really a question. (unsourced)

Screencap with subtitles from Une femme est une femme / A Woman is a Woman (1961).

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Name: The Message
Release Year: 1976
Genre: Drama, Biography
Cast: Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas, Michael Ansara, Andr Morell, Garrick Hagon, Martin Benson, John Bennett, Richard Johnson, Peter Madden, Ewen Solon, Ronald Leigh Hunt …
Director: Moustapha Akkad
Language: English
RunTime: 180 min

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Description:

Handsomely-mounted historical epic concerns the birth of the Islamic faith and the story of the prophet Mohamed (PBUH). In Mecca in the 7th century, Mohamed(PBUH) is visited by a vision of the Angel Gabriel, who urges him to lead the people of Mecca to cast aside the 300 idols of Kaaba and instead worship the one true God. Speaking out against the corrupt political and military leaders who rule Mecca. With the help of his uncle, a brave warrior named Hamza (Anthony Quinn), Mohamed(PBUH) and his followers return to Mecca to liberate the city in the name of God. The Message was shot in two versions, one in English and one in Arabic (entitled Al-Ris-Alah), with different actors taking over some of the roles due to language requirements.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074896/

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Watch Now Full Movie

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A love between a black man and and white woman is something that can be hated but it’s all about the love.

Flipper (Wesley Snipes) is a successful, married architect. Angie (Annabella Sciorra) is a temporary office worker. When they meet, it’s Jungle Fever. A subplot considers the problems of drug abuse, with Flipper’s brother Gator (Samuel L. Jackson) a crack addict.

Director Spike Lee (as if you couldn’t tell), his main message is that both blacks and whites in America have been so bombarded stereotypes about each other to the degree that some relationships are transpired by Jungle Fever.The movie has many scenes of uncommon power, some with sure greatness, and others that just don’t work.

Lee as usual shows a great way of handling these characters of each race and in a way that doesn’t support these stereotypes. The one thing I liked mostly about this film that I didn’t see from his others is that hes not all against the whites and he shows how blacks can be wrong in decision making too. The one strong point of this film is the strong focus that Lee puts on the family’s reactions to this relationship.

The big problem with this film is the couple itself. Lee does not focus too much on the couple and we do not feel that these two people actually like each other. Lee misses the point that he’s trying to get at with in this film and the couple don’t seem believable. The chemistry between Snipes and Sciorra is not very strong and you do not feel the connection beating off of the screen like I would imagine in a film about relationships. The attraction seems to stem entirely from curiosity, which makes the background material – the relationships of each with their families and communities – the real point of interest.

Much of the writing and editing seems very tired as well. In all of Lee’s films his way of showing these characters actions and personalities through a clever and at times true script does not work so well. The whole movie’s script is mostly just conversations about racism and how one doesn’t prefer the other race. The editing also feels kinda lackluster as many scenes were put in just to be put in and kind of had no real meaning.

This is surely a great film for many reasons however despite the downs. I liked the little inter-stories that featured Samuel L. Jackson as a struggling crack addict who brings dismay to his whole family and John Tuturro’s story as he himself looks to start a relationship with a black woman. Those stories were very interesting and very well executed by the cast and Lee. Another great factor of this film is the set pieces that are shown in this film are surely great that feature a very breathtaking look at a crack house that is very graphic but very strong.

The chemistry as I said before between Snipes and Sciorra is not very strong. Though the acting from the rest is very good. Mostly Samuel L. Jackson does an amazing job at portraying a struggling crack addict and fully shows off his amazing acting chops and his performance stand out most importantly. The rest of the cast with John Tuturro. Spike Lee, Ossie Davis, and Anthony Quinn also do very good jobs at portraying their own respectable characters.

The resolution of this film is very gloomy and doesn’t seem as effective as it has in other films from Lee and I don’t fully connect to the message he was trying to get at with.

The film shows a good look at how interracial couples are viewed as and features some very good breathtaking scenes and performances but doesn’t have a very effective message and screenplay like many others from Lee.

7.5/10=Rental!!!!

Paul Sutton (Reeves) returns home from World War II to a wife he barely knows and that doesn’t seem all that exhilarated to see him. And unknown to Paul, she is cheating on him.They got married too soon and before he went to war so…Well, Paul is back and he needs to make a living, by selling chocolates- not something he is all that excited about.

On the way, he meets Victoria (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon) , a beautiful Mexican young woman who is back from college, and she is very upset. After all she is single and pregnant, with the baby of her professor- who is not interested at all being with her. She is very scared of what her extremely traditional father (Giancarlo Giannini) might do. So Paul offers to help. He suggests that he pretends to be her husband, meet her family and leave the next day. At least when the baby news is heard, it won’t be illegitimate. Victoria is touched by his offer and together they go to meet her family. However her father is not thrilled buy the fact that her daughter has run off and gotten married on her own, to a man the family doesn’t know and to top it all, a man who sells chocolate for a living. But the loving mother, grandmother and the grandfather (Anthony Quinn) are all happy for Victoria and welcome Paul into the family. Coincidence, accidents and the grandfather’s acts seem to get his way and Paul has to stay for more than a week, which gives Paul and Victoria more time together and well…fall in love. Of course there are huge problems. Like Paul is already married and has to leave eventually and there’s going to be one hell of a problem if/when her father finds out.

The family has a tremendous grape field and they make quite a nice and rich living out of them. The beauty of the field and the traditions that come with their crops, make wonderful cinematography and just adds to the magic of the story.

The atmosphere, the scenery and the traditions make the movie a lovely watch. The father’s extreme reactions and his quest to get rid of Paul make enough funny scenes. Overall, it is a beautiful film.

Oh yes, it is a girlie movie. It is a chick flick. Bring the labels on. Because it really is a romantic movie. It depicts a love story that is genuine that lacks any type of game-playing and manipulation. Two nice people with two very different backgrounds find each other and fall in love. Although I think this movie is sincere and can be enjoyed by either gender, I can imagine what some boys are going to say about it. Or people will find a way to bash Keanu’s acting, some seem to regard it as a hobby. In fact just the other day a friend actually said “Who the hell ever takes Keanu Reeves seriously?”. Well, to his dismay, I raised my hand – half-joking, and half- making a point. The way I see it, he is awfully underrated. He brings out whatever his role requires him to. And this movie you will see him portraying a sweet,vulnerable and romantic character in the way that it is supposed to be portrayed. So when you leave the Keanu Reeves haters and the people allergic to most/all romantic-movies, you will see that this movie is enjoyable once you leave all the cynicism behind.

End note:

Director: Alfonso Arau, the director of Like Water Like Chocolate

Writers: Robert Mark Kamen, Mark Miller and Harvey Wietzman (thanks to imdb.com for writing credits)

I’m merely pointing out that writers and the director all men. I’m just saying…

Attila could be the worst movie that the late Anthony Quinn ever starred in.

Quinn stars as the world’s second most famous barbarian who also tried to takedown the Roman Empire. The story focuses on Attila sitting outside the border of Italy waiting to pounce but his diplomatic brother, Bleda, would rather negotiate a treaty than kill Romans. Atilla will have none of that so he has his brother killed.

Meanwhile idiotic and cowardly Roman emperor, Valentinian III, panics about what to do about the barbarian. His smarter more cunning sister Honoria (Sophia Loren) offers herself up as a bride to Attila if he will spare her brother and Rome.

The movie has one of the worst scripts I have ever seen with this kind of rich tapestry for a story.

Attila was wild, crazy, debonaire, relentless and brave. Quinn gives the barbarian a bravado like John Wayne gave many of his western heroes but without the scruples. The performance is credible to all the over-acting and silliness from his supporting players. Some of the performances reminded me of “mimes on speed.” Except these mimes shovel the garbage that is this script.

Then in Rome, a 70s porno without, well, the porn. It is an interesting contrast but felt wrong.

The wardrobe on this film tried to be epic but I found the spandex very distracting, especially the spandex behind Attila’s huge codpiece. Then there was the makeup. How come the Huns look like Mongols? Did Huns look like Mongols? It’s just bizarre.

The seduction scene where Loren goes to Quinn is the best scene of the film. Loren is looking her best and the seduction is very Samson and Delilah-esque. Loren looks ravishing in a revealing white gown as Quinn’s barbarian is caught off guard and speechless. Loren’s gown in that scene is the best of the film, hands down.

The scene ends with the hysterical line, “How I have longed for your lips!” Why this is so funny is that he just slobber kissed her with his mouth still half full of food. His cheeks look like a gopher. It’s these kinds of silly things that make this film rich for parody. Or think about it, is this already a parody?

The film never really reaches the tone it needs to be. They wanted it to be epic, historic, sexy and starring two giant stars. What they got was an 80-minute movie, with super silly dialogue and over-blown performances.

If you want to laugh at the film, I give it four stars. But the film wants to be taken seriously.

1.5 out of 5

So Says the Soothsayer

Side note: You can find this film on the Sophia Loren DVD collection from Lionsgate. The best film of collection is Sunflower, watch for that review on future edition of Foreign Fridays.

1962: Lawrence of Arabia di David Lean

Sicuramente uno dei più celebri film mai realizzati, spettacolare ed intenso come pochi.

David Lean, reduce dai trionfi di Breve incontro e Il ponte sul fiume Kwai, riesce (come nei futuri Il Dottor Zivago, La figlia di Ryan, Passaggio in India) a compiere il miracolo di unificare spettacolo e qualità, entusiasmo dello spettatore e lodi della critica. Del film hanno detto:  MyMovies: “La più grande epopea mai realizzata”, Maurizio Porro: “Kolossal con l’anima, come si diceva una volta”, Tullio Kezich: “Poche volte avevamo visto sullo schermo immagini altrettanto suggestive”, Giovanni Grazzini: “…un film da vedere”, Filippo Sacchi: “Un film in cui l’arte della ripresa fotografica arriva – si può dire – a un grado di virtuosismo che diventa già lirica ispirazione…”.

Tratto dall’ autobiografia “I Sette Pilastri della Saggezza” di T. E. Lawrence (pubblicata postuma nel 1935), il film diede immediatamente immensa popolarità a una delle più grandi figure dello schermo, Peter O’Toole, che qui incredibilmente è al suo debutto: eccezionale nel rappresentare un personaggio altamente complesso, molteplice e massimamente ambiguo, simbolo di grandi ideali ma anche espressione di strumentalizzazione (gli occidentali ne fecero uno strumento per sostituire al dominio turco il loro). Impressionante il resto del cast: Alec Guinnes, Omar Shariff, Anthony Quinn, José Ferrer, Claude Rains, Arthur Kennedy, Anthony Quayle, Jack Hawkins.
Giustamente celebre la colonna sonora di Maurice Jarre.

Di questa opera (di cui Steven Spielberg ebbe a dire “è un miracolo di film”) Mario Sesti ha scritto: “Uno delle più grandi epopee e film d’avventura mai realizzati (secondo gli esperti, oggi un film del genere non sarebbe realizzabile a causa dei costi altissimi) ma allo stesso tempo uno dei pochissimi casi in cui il cinema si fa gigante per scrutare senza riserve nel fondo degli uomini e della Storia: le Rivoluzioni sono il prodotto di un ambigua collaborazione tra l’idealismo di una causa e il cinismo delle diplomazie, gli eroi sono individui capaci di mirabili imprese perchè sospinti da nevrosi inafferrabili. Apparso nel deserto con un alone di santità e purezza, Lawrence si trasforma in un violento assassino, portatore della razionalità e della democrazia è travolto dalla barbarie della guerra”. Come non condividere?

note:

Nel 1991 è stato scelto per la preservazione nel National Film Registry della Biblioteca del Congresso degli Stati Uniti.

scheda

premi e riconoscimenti

That's MR. Chihuahua, to you, pal.

Aiii CHihuahua. In our continuing obsession with the funniest race in Pro-Tour-dom, we realize we’ve forgotten a word or two hundred about the most famous son of Chihuahua, the great actor Anthony Quinn, winner of two academy awards for Viva Zapata and Lust For Life. Sadly, he did not star in Breaking Away, the seminal cycling flick with Dennis Quaid.

Any cyclist who has adopted the Vuelta Cyclista Chichuahua should be Quinn-savvy. Suppose you’re at the race some year, standing at a corner taco stand and a local asks you about Quinn’s role in Fellini’s La Strada. What are you going to do? Mumble some nonsense like “Quinn, uhh, wasn’t he a support rider for Eddie Merckx?” You could get knifed for that kind of mistake.

Quinn in Zapata.

Anthony Quinn was born in poverty in a hut in Chihuahua, the son of a Mexican mother and an English-speaking Irish-Mexican father. Dad fought for Pancho Villa before saying vamos for California and Texas.

Some cycling specific facts about Quinn. His autobiography, One Man Tango, uses the metaphor of a bicycle trip over the hills of Rome. As he pedals, he reflects on his entire life.

One of Quinn’s twelve kids, (the man had four wives and numerous flings) actor Francesco Quinn directed a documentary called Vita in Bicicletta, set in Los Angeles. He was also a contestant on Ty Murray’s Celebrity Bull Riding Challenge and a fascinating man in his own right — but that’s a different Mexico tie-in.

Quinn used to ride his bike (the motorcycle kind) with his sons in LA back when Coldwater and Mulholland drive were just dirt roads. Big, bad Steve McQueen was doing the same thing. The man had two wheels DOWN!

So there, you’ve got Anthony Quinn, Mr. Chihuahua, all memorized. And about the Fellini question– the answer there is to nod with tremendous gravity, the drop of a casual reference to Italian Neo-realism and then tossing the question back in their court — what is the common thread in La Strada and The Bicycle Thief? They, naturally, are dumbstruck. You smile, “it is like the smile of a chihuahua,” you say. Genius and free drinks are yours, amigo.

Weekly travel news from the papers for week ending 3rd October 2009. Our apologies for being a little late this week.

Vineyeards in Francve, native american eco villages and Glamping, yes GLAMPING!

A new glamping experience combines a county house setting and the feel of an explorer’s camp with grown-up luxuries

Source: The Guardian

20 frivolous ways to spice up your holidays from the Times including Drive the Italian Job!

Join the Self Preservation Society on the Italian Job rally, an annual charity event that puts you and your Mini on the Adria raceway circuit and the Lingotto rooftop test track, featured in the 1969 film. The 2009 event takes place October 19-31; entry costs £500 per team, and you should aim to raise £1,500 in sponsorship for the children’s charity KidsOut. Register at italianjob.com or call 01273 418100. If you haven’t got a Mini, you can rent one from coolcars4hire.co.uk; prices start at £325 a week. You won’t be allowed to drive through any sewers in Turin, though.

Nature and Nurture in New Zealand is a featured article in the Independent…

A decent slosh of rain has done wonders for the local plants. Tane Mahuta is in fact the largest remaining example of New Zealand’s ancient kauri trees, and it, or rather he, rises near the centre of Waipoua, a sub-tropical rainforest. Slow-growing, reaching immense heights and ages, these giants were once found throughout the northern part of the country. However, their strong, flexible timber meant that they were particularly prized by European settlers, who swiftly set about chopping down as many as possible and turning them into boats, houses and furniture.

A interesting piece in the Mirror about Cyprus and a reference to Zorba…

It’s when you stray off the beaten track – by accident or by design – that you discover the real essence of a place.

And, if you’re in Cyprus, you might even bump into Zorba.

That’s my name for a grizzled, larger-than-life man who instantly reminded me of the main character in the memorable Hollywood film starring Anthony Quinn.

So there we have it, the weekly travel news

The villawarehouse.com admin team

Yes, Back to Bataan is flag-waving agitprop. Yes, it features Anthony Quinn as a Filipino. But under the direction of Edward Dmytryk it’s all done really well. There are a number of gripping battle sequences, and John Wayne in his late 30s was still a lean, mean, ass-kicking machine. The human drama is a little stilted and the politics are simplistic, but when the bullets are flying, Back to Bataan delivers the goods.

The film begins with a battle sequence that depicts the raid at Cabanatuan, a Japanese POW camp, that took place on January 30, 1945. At the time the film was made, the raid was a current event, and was one of the big Allied successes in the Pacific theater. (Filipino guerrillas, Alamo Scouts, and US Army Rangers liberated more than 500 prisoners of war.) After the big opening battle, the film moves back in time to 1942, and tells the story leading up to the raid and the freeing of the POWs. Col. Joseph Madden (Wayne), voluntarily stays in the Philippines after Gen. Douglas MacArthur and his armies pull out. Madden teams up with Filipino guerrilla forces, training them and organizing them. One of his officers, Capt. Andrés Bonifácio (Quinn) is struggling to live up to the reputation of his grandfather, who was a national hero and liberator of the Philippines from Spanish colonial rule. And if that weren’t enough, Capt. Bonifácio’s former fiancée, Dalisay Delgado (Fely Franquelli) has apparently turned traitor, since she now makes regular radio broadcasts radio for the Japanese. Every time he’s near a radio, Capt. Bonifácio has to hear his sweetheart’s mellifluous voice spouting ugly Axis propaganda. Madden, of course, knows that Delgado is actually passing code through these broadcasts, but he’s ordered by his superiors not to tell Bonifácio, so Madden must use all of his skills as a commander to whip Bonifácio into shape and make him a leader of men, no matter how much Bonifácio’s heart may be breaking.

There are conflicting reports of how well Wayne got along with director Dmytryk and screenwriter Ben Barzman, both of whom had communist views. According to Barzman’s wife, they had a humorously antagonistic relationship due to their very different politic views, jokingly calling each other “goddamned communist” and “fascist.” Apparently Barzman and Dmytryk also enjoyed tormenting Wayne, who refused to use a stunt double, by devising scenes that would test his limits. Whether or not this was a friendly game, the results are sometimes stunning. There’s a scene in which Wayne is hugging the ground. A shell explodes right next to him, and his body is flung high into the air and dropped at least 20 feet away. If you rewatch the scene, you can see the wires attached to Wayne’s body, but during the first viewing, when you’re not expecting it, it’s a stunning effect.

The film ends with triumphant footage of some of the real men who were prisoners of war at Cabanatuan. They march together, filmed at low angles, while their names, ranks, and cities of origin are displayed on the screen. After seeing so many Hollywood actors playing soldiers in World War II, it’s interesting to see some of the real men who served. Some of them are handsome enough to have played in the movies. Some aren’t. Almost all of them look relieved and happy, but close to being emaciated. All of them, that is, except for one guy from Chicago who’s really fat and looked deliriously happy. I wonder what his secret was.