by Christopher James
The TCM Film Festival always brings out the stars, and this year was no exception as David Fincher (left) took to the stage for a Q&A before Se7en.
The theme of this year’s TCM Film Festival was “Most Wanted: Crime and Justice in Film.” You know what that means? Lots of cop and detective stories - be they young or old, eager or disillusioned, good or dirty.
The three films from this programming block I was lucky enough to attend span nearly sixty years, showing how much the crime genre has been pushed. From screwball comedy in the 30s, noir in the 50s and violent nihilism in the 90s, each new era brings with it a new interpretation of the same roles in society.
Throughout the week, I'll be publishing recaps of the films I've seen from the festival, grouped by similar themes or slotted under similar programming categories. To begin, let's take a look at three very dissimilar films that all involve law enforcement unraveling a murder in their respective cities...
SE7EN (1995) David Fincher
Is the year considered 1995 classic now? Age aside, rewatching David Fincher’s Se7en only reinforced its place as an enduring classic that people will be watching for generations to come. The central mystery is a perfect, simple high concept. People are being murdered according to the seven deadly sins - gluttony, greed, pride, sloth, lust, envy, and wrath. Told over the course of one week, a veteran and rookie detective pair try to stop the serial killer’s spree. As a mystery, Se7en is exciting and engaging, building to a famous “twist” ending that holds up because of the way it pushes our leads to new lengths. Even more important, Se7en is an even better detective drama, showing what decades of grime can do to a person and what it means to exist in a new city and a space one is not comfortable in. Stylistically, it didn’t just usher in one of our defining modern maestros, it pushed the boundaries of darkness of visuals and themes that studio films could touch.
David Fincher’s groundbreaking detective drama gets a lot of credit for its gruesomeness. Yes, some of the murders in this film won’t leave one’s mind long after walking out of the theater. On revisit, particularly on this IMAX restoration, the most distressing elements are not the man who ate himself to death or the sloth kept alive for over a year. The nameless cityscape our detective pair trudge through carries with it an all consuming sense of dread that is impossible to shake. Cinematographer Darius Khondji brings the grime, blood and mold to the surface of the Gotham-esque production design. Everything feels so tangibly dangerous, even if our killer John Doe is not behind every corner, someone just as terrifying could be.
In the center of this terror are our odd pair of detectives - Somerset (Morgan Freeman), just one week from retirement, and Mills (Brad Pitt), fresh to the city. Freeman and Pitt craft an incredibly engaging relationship between their characters that goes beyond the traditional “veteran-rookie” tensions. Somerset has his own conflicted feelings about his work, whether the city is saveable and even if humanity is worth it. Meanwhile, one wouldn’t call Mills optimistic, but he’s certainly spirited. He puts his emotions into the cases, not having developed the callousness for human brutality that Somerset has and resents. As much as Somerset butts heads with Mills, he sees his spirit and goodness as something to be protected and something the job will surely destroy.
Having been a while since seeing the film, I was gobsmacked by how soulful, sad and commanding Freeman’s performance is, perhaps the best of his career. The script also gives him many notes to play and eschews cliches to build really interesting relationships. Perhaps the best scene in the film is between Somerset and Mills’ wife, Tracey (Gwyneth Paltrow, giving a deceptively layered performance). New to town and struggling, she grabs coffee with Somerset and the two have a riveting conversation that leaves just as much unsaid as is said.
The script by Andrew Kevin Walker delicately weaves every character detail and moment together to build one of the most satisfying and nihilistic third acts in cinema. Se7en is a film about the moral rot within each of us and how, combined, it can lead to a truly inhospitable world. Yet, there is fighting these instincts. Evil will always exist, but we can do what we can to be part of the solution, not the problem. A
THE BIG HEAT (1953) Fritz Lang
Unlike Somerset in Se7en, time has only made policeman Dave Bannion (Glenn Ford) more angry. Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat is a barnburner of a noir, one in which everything is taken from our protagonist and he bangs down every door in order to collect his pound of flesh in return.
The film begins with a suicide, at least a suspected suicide. Rogue cop Tom Duncan turns up dead and his widow, Bertha Duncan (Jeanette Nolan) phones the police, saying he had been in ill health and took his life. All seems simple and straightforward, until Tom Duncan’s mistress, Lucy Chapman (Dorothy Green) pipes up claiming that all might not be as it seems. Soon, Lucy is found murdered with cigarette burns all over her body and yet, the police chief wants to close the case immediately. All sights point Bannion to local mob boss Mike Lagana (Alexander Scourby) as he tries to untangle the mysterious web behind these deaths and why the higher ups at his precinct don’t want to investigate further. Lagana retaliates by planting a bomb in Bannion’s car. The only problem: it kills Bannion’s wife, Katie (Jocelyn Brando), not her. This is where curiosity turns to fury for Bannion.
Director Fritz Lang defined the genre of noir with 1931’s M and took it to a new level decades later with The Big Heat. His gangsters look more suave. His women look more sultry and distressed. Tension oozes from the staging of every scene, as you wonder who is carrying a gun and who won’t make it out of each scene alive. It truly always keeps you on your toes. The plot jumps into high gear as Bannion goes further into the world of the mob, such as their favorite nightclub “The Retreat.” Here he meets Lagana’s right hand man, Vince Stone (Lee Marvin relishing in playing an utter brute) and his girlfriend Debby Marsh (Gloria Grahame). After intervening in an incident where Vince burns a cigarette out on another woman, Bannion and Debby become intertwined. Could she be the key to taking down the mob?
Gloria Grahame walks away with the movie. Her Debby Marsh knows that the world won’t break her way by chance. She’s been rich, she’s been poor and she’d rather be rich by any costs, even if that means staying with a boorish abusive man. As this is a noir film, it’s interesting to see how Grahame’s Debby eschews many of the popular plot functions, while still wearing the genre’s iconographies well. She’s a boozy flirt with fantastic looks and a piercing stare, the exact type of woman who may well be your demise in a film like this. Yet, Debby is a free agent and doesn’t so much turn the plot against our protagonist, but instead wrestle the focus away from him for her own revenge.
It’s interesting to place this film in the era it was released, an ultra-moral, squeaky-clean 1950s. Despite our protagonist being a cop who takes matters into his own hands, The Big Heat suggests the police can be bought and all authority figures essentially let power go to their heads. It’s not entirely dissimilar to some of the darker conclusions of Se7en, although this chooses facial disfiguration over decapitation. A-
THE MAD MISS MANTON (1938) Leigh Jason
Who wouldn’t want to see the beguiling Barbara Stanwyck star in a movie titled “The Mad Miss Manton”? Stanwyck is a one of a kind movie star, one whose confidence flummoxes all those that come up against her. In this film, Stanwyck plays Melsa Manson, a wealthy socialite who comes across a dead body. Between alerting the police and returning to the scene of the crime, the body vanishes. Melsa is painted in the papers as a prankster and fraud. In order to salvage her reputation, she decides to solve the murder herself, operating outside of police help. Melse Manson - champion of community policing.
The editor behind her hit piece is the charming Peter Ames (Henry Fonda), whom Melsa sues for libel. Ames follows Manson in her hunt for the killer, covering her every move. Eventually, this obsession turns to love as he tries to win her hand. This film marks the first pairing of Stanwyck and Henry Fonda and it is full of instant sparks. Stanwyck’s cocksure confidence allows her to be the perfect screwball heroine to Fonda’s daffy and overconfident editor. This dynamic with her as the dominant alpha and him as the clumsy beta is charming no matter how many times it’s repeated.
Stanwyck’s orbit is also filled with plenty of other fun sources of humor. A group of daffy socialites follow her every move as if she were the mother hen and they were her ducklings in single file. The actresses find ways for them all to have different personalities and opinions of their sorority mother, Melsa. Also giving her guff in a short performance is Hattie McDaniel, just a year before she would win the Oscar for Gone with the Wind. While she is playing a maid, McDaniel once again imbues her character with soul and agency even when the script gives her little to do. Never subservient, she dishes out the one liners to Melsa and her friends. She’s a bright light in a movie filled with fun, but mixed moments.
In just 81 minutes, The Mad Miss Manton madly stuffs multiple storylines. Just because the characters talk fast doesn’t mean that we need to careen from character to character for a mystery that is never as interesting as the romance happening at the center of the proceedings or the big personalities on the side. Screwball comedy loves to mix genres and subvert them to the point of absurdity. It’s fun to see the crime/mystery genre get the screwball treatment, but the formula between them feels off. B-
Follow along throughout the week for more diaries from the TCM Film Festival.