Glen or Glenda (1953): review: 10/10

Transvestitism and pseudo-hermaphroditism as seen in two cases. Dr Alton, psychiatrist, explains, Ed Wood acts. Bela Lugosi is a sort of insane alchemist, whose role is not entirely explained.

The case of Glen/Glenna takes up the major part of the film. Unkown to his fiancee, Glen delights in wearing woman's clothing- he worries about how his fiancee will react when he tells her.

As described, both conditions seem quite normal responses to the apparant joylessness of the male condition.  It is unclear how much of the humour is intentional  (a large part of it arises from the gleeful descriptions of men in women's underclothes) but as far as the film is comical, it is not so much at the expense of individuals portrayed- as the film is never mean-spirited- as the documentary genre itself, and that mental condition know as "political correctness".

This  film is magnificent- watch it for an antidote to the great wave of worthiness and joylessness that has swept across the film world. While the directorial techniques are often naive, even amateur, this happily adds to the charm of the piece.

The Big Heat (1953): review: 5/10

A police detective investigates the unlikely suicide of a colleague, to find himself under atack from a consortium of well-placed ne'r-do-wells.

The film lacks the sense of delight needed to animate it's darkness. The women aren't alluring poison flowers, the hero is one-dimensional, and the photography lacks the adventurousness of Lang's other films. The sets look cheap too.

Nor has it that necessary sense of threat, of pressure: everything shunts along rather formulaically (if one can ignore the many odd decisons taken by the hero, such as his decision to leave bis wife and child at home immediately after recieving a threatening phone call there) and though the film is certainly watchable, it isn't one of the great noirs.

From Here to Eternity (1953): review- 6.5/10

It's the eve of the bombing of Pearl Harbour...!

Mysteriously, Montgomery Clift, a wonderful buglar, maintains his enthusiasm for the US army despite being mercilessly bullied for refusing to participate in boxing matches. He meets a girl who is completely unmemorable but falls for her nevertheless.

Simultaneously, Burt Lancaster starts an affair with his Commanding Officer's wife. Given what a grumpy cow she is and quite how surly he is, the source of their passion is unclear but they roll about in the sea in long swimming trunks while the waves wash over them anyway.

Frank Sinatra wonders about buffoonishly, usually drunk. What he's doing as a private soldier in Hawaii is anyone's guess.

Messy, inconclusive film which tries to say something profound about masculinity and service but which fails- entertainingly enough, it might be said.

The Desert Rats (1953): review- 5.5/10

There is much of potential interest here- the relations between Australian privates and British officers; or the nature of courage; or of leadership; but these themes are passed over too rapidly for them to have much emotional impact.

Ergo, the virtues of the film are mainly in its celebration Allied forces and their sucess in resisting Rommel's forces.