Warner Archive Wednesday ~ The Wrath of God (1972)

The Wrath of God (1972) is a Western filled with fake blood, guns, whiskey and dust. Based on a novel by James Graham, the film stars Robert Mitchum  as Father Van Horne, a gun-toting Catholic priest from the Boston Diocese, or so he says, traveling Central America looking for a bottle of booze to drink, a cigar to smoke and people to bless. It's the 1920s and Prohibition makes whiskey smuggling a profitable venture. Irishman Emmett (Ken Hutchison) thinks he is smuggling whiskey for Jennings (Victor Buono) but really he's smuggling guns. Emmett saves a local Indian girl Chela (Paula Pritchett) from being raped by a bunch of local gangsters. But when the gangsters hold Emmett and Chela prisoner, it's assault rifle toting Father Van Horne who comes to save the day.

Caught with the smuggled guns, Emmett and Father Van Horne are thrown in jail along with Jennings who was already caught. Instead of being executed, Colonel Santilla (John Colicos) gives them a mission. This Unholy Trinity, the father (Robert Mitchum's Father Van Horne), the son (Ken Hutchison's Emmett) and the Holy Ghost (Victor Buono's Jennings) are to assassinate the corrupt leader of the city of Mojata (not 100% sure of the name), Thomas De La Plata (Frank Langella). De La Plata has been terrorizing his people, creating a ring of terror with lots of executions of his people. His death would help ease the tensions in already terrorized nation. Any priest to step foot in Mojata will be killed and anyone helping the priest will also be executed which makes things difficult for Father Van Horne.

The Unholy Trinity set out a plan to settle in Mojata and lure De La Plata so they can kill him. Emmett and Jennings pretend to be business men interested in the town's mining industry and Father Van Horne does what he does best.

This is Rita Hayworth's final movie. She plays Senora De La Plata, the terrorizing leader's mother who finds solace in the idea of a Priest helping the town. She delivers a fine performance even with her early struggles with Alzheimer's.

Despite so many interesting characters, this is really Robert Mitchum's movie. It's all about the Father Van Horne, his religious savvy and his guns. He's a bad ass priest who is looking to kick some dictatorial butt and take names.

 (Anyone know why the scene in which Father Van Horne provides religious services to the town is grainier than the rest of the film? It's as though a filter was added on purpose. The best I could come up with is that the filter is like the screen in a priest's confessional).

The Wrath of God is an action-packed Western with some humorous moments and a little bit of a love story. It explores the oppression of people by the suppression of religion and the paralyzing of civilians by the instillment of fear through widespread executions, many which happen publicly. The film starts off a bit slow but once the Unholy Trinity are assigned their mission and as we see Robert Mitchum's Father Van Horne lead the pack, the pace of the story picks up. I'm usually not a big fan of Westerns but I really did enjoy this one.

Warner Archive Wednesday - On (random) Wednesdays, I review one title from the Warner Archive Collection. I received The Wrath of God (1972) from Warner Archive for review.

Love With the Proper Stranger (1963)

Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) is a darling film. Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen star as Angie and Rocky two Italian-Americans living in New York City who are in a bit of a quandary. Their recent passionate rendezvous has resulted in an unwanted pregnancy. Angie, a Macy's shop girl, searches for Rocky, a jazz musician, to tell him the news. He barely even remembers her but now they are inextricably linked with the growing consequence of their previous actions. Angie and Rocky plan to seek an abortionist but decide against it when it comes to the actual event. What do they do now? Get married? Move on?

This film is really two stories. First it's the story of Angie and Rocky seeking an abortion. The second is their complicated love story. Despite the heavy and controversial subject of abortion, which at the time was still illegal, this is a very sweet and gentle story about two young people in the city finding themselves thrown together in an interesting story.

I very much enjoyed the performances of Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen. Wood was a lot more subtle in her role as Angie as she had been in some other films of hers I've seen. Seeing this side of Natalie Wood was a lot more palatable for me that's for sure! Out of the two, Steve McQueen's character Rocky was my favorite. It's very easy to develop a little crush on Rocky when you watch him become protective and caring of Angie.

Tom Bosley has a supporting role (his movie debut!) as Anthony Columbo, the restauranteur boyfriend of Angie that her mom and brothers picked out for her. I really adored his character. He genuinely cares for Angie and I loved the opposing scenes in which he finds himself being very clumsy when visiting Angie's family and Angie finds herself being very clumsy when she visits Anthony's family.

Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) is just the sort of quiet movie I really enjoy. It doesn't have some big message, it's not trying to fulfill some grandiose purpose and it's not trying to be something huge. It's just a simple human story that makes you feel and makes you think all while entertaining you.
 
I would vote for this film to NOT be a part of any discussion of abortion. I think it's just a love story and it should be left at that. It's from a different time and circumstances were different so it's really not an appropriate film to use in the modern day debate on abortion. Also, do not think this is an abortion movie because it's not. It's a love story!

This film is not available on DVD. It's a Paramount film and most of us know how difficult it is to get our hands on some of the films from that studio! Maybe Love with the Proper Stranger is part of the 600 Paramount films Warner Bros. acquired distribution rights for (see that news here). For now, it can be occasionally seen on Turner Classic Movies.

A BIG THANK YOU to Paul from Art, Movies, Wood and Whatnot who sent me a recording of this movie from a TCM broadcast. I am forever indebted to him for so graciously sending me this film! Thank you!

An aside:
To those of you who are bakers, I did find a goof in the scene in which Anthony is baking a cake. He takes the cake out of the oven and Angie helps loosen it from the bundt pan. At one point she burns her hand. She runs her hands under cold water but Anthony's mother slaps butter on her hand. Funny thing is that the cold water would have helped her infinitely more so than the butter! The cold water helps stop the burning. Once you burn yourself, your flesh continues to burn until it cools down. Anyways, a few moments later, Anthony brings out a perfectly frosted cake to serve to Angie, his mom and his sisters. Earlier in the scene I proclaimed to Carlos " I hope he's not thinking of frosting that cake while it's hot!". In timing, he would have had to frost a hot cake in order to have brought it out so quickly. Any baker knows that a cake needs time to cool before frosting. Otherwise the frosting will melt and you'll end up with a gloopy glaze rather than smooth frosting!

Catching Up with Quelle (14)

January, a Month of Liars - During this month of January, several liars have been publicly exposed. First there was Lance Armstrong's doping scandal and televised confession to Oprah, then it came to light that Manti Te'o's dead girlfriend wasn't a real person, Beyonce may have lip synced the national anthem at the President's inauguration and Jodi Arias, accused of murdering Travis Alexander, lied twice and a jury in Arizona is trying to figure out if her third story is a lie or the truth. (My thoughts on Beyonce and my thoughts on Jodi Arias)

Classic film fans on Twitter found themselves face-to-face with another liar. Someone pretending to be Shirley Temple on Twitter. I fell for it and so did a lot of other people. Shirley Temple wouldn't be the first classic film star on Twitter. Both Shirley MacLaine and Debbie Reynolds have accounts. For a few folks, Shirley on Twitter was too good to be true and her tweets were deemed suspicious. Reps of the retired actress confirmed that the account was a hoax and it was quickly turned into a SPAM account. I guess having a major figure of film history on Twitter is too good to be true. If you ever see a Mickey Rooney or Deanna Durbin account on Twitter, don't believe it! (Watch Ben Stiller explain Twitter to Mickey Rooney).

Recording of Cary Grant on the Phone with his daughter - Posted by Warner Archive on their Tumblr, this is absolutely charming. Listen to it here.

I highly recommend the memoir Good Stuff: A Reminiscence of My Father by Jennifer Grant. You can read my review of the book here.

Hats, Hats, Hats! - The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA currently has an exhibition devoted to Hats. And I just love hats so it was imperative that I attend. For the occasion I wore my best cloche hat, a cream and black wonder made by the San Diego Hat company and acquired from Kate Gabrielle. I got so many compliments on my hat and someone even asked to take my picture. Wow!

We all know hats were an important accessory in classic movies. Hats are not as appreciated today as they were back then but that should change! I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the exhibit unfortunately. We did get to see hats worn by Charles Boyer, Marlene Dietrich and a couple 1940s toppers from model and burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese's collection. It wasn't the best exhibit and there were an unfortunate paucity of men's hats but I still had a great time.