The War Lover (1962)

Director: Philip Leacock

Starring: Steve McQueen, Robert Wagner, Shirley Anne Field


Few icons have come along in film history that completely embody the idea of the anti-hero, and Steve McQueen is one of the greatest, although in The War Lover, one of his earlier leading roles, he gives a somewhat subdued performance.

Set in England during the Second World War, Steve McQueen plays Captain Buzz Rickson, an arrogant, devil-may-care Army Air Corps bomber pilot. While leading a squadron on a bombing raid, Rickson ignores orders to avoid an enemy squadron, and in pursuing the enemy, loses a bomber and its entire crew. When he is reprimanded and reassigned to dropping propaganda leaflets, he becomes rebellious and even more arrogant. When his co-pilot, Lieutenant Ed Bolland (Robert Wagner) meets an English girl named Daphne Caldwell (Shirley Ann Field), Rickson becomes infatuated with her and opens a love triangle while spiraling out of control.

One thing that struck me from the beginning of the film is how technical the film is when it comes to piloting these bombers. The pre-flight inspection at the beginning of the film is chock-full of technical jargon, and we see the entire take-off from the perspectives of both the crew and the mechanics. We see it from almost every point of view, making the audience feel like they are a part of the film, whether standing on the airfield or sitting in the cockpit. They do a great job of showing all the names of the planes, including such gems as "House of Usher" and "Expendable IV", and the scenes of B-17 bombers flying in formation can only be described as majestic.

Unfortunately, this is where the best parts of the film ends, as the acting and story is lacking in quality. It seems like such a missed opportunity to have a real showdown between the film's two male leads as Lieutenant Bolland goes from idolizing Rickson to despising him. There is one scene after Rickson transfers his navigator to another plane, and the navigator is killed while flying with the other bomber. Bolland blames Rickson for the man's death and goes into the barracks to find Rickson with the man's dog and feeling absolutely no remorse over his death. Bolland becomes angry and chastises Rickson, but Wagner's performance is brief and lackluster.

McQueen does a decent job of being arrogant and gung-ho, but turns in a very subdued performance that could otherwise have been one of the most memorable of his career. There is a scene after which he is reassigned to dropping leaflets, and in defiance flies dangerously low over the base, and even in this scene, he looks almost as bored as he would driving along an empty highway.

The War Lover had potential to be a great film in the same category as Twelve o' Clock High or Wings, but fails at being the gripping drama it should have been.

Great Lines:

"The only trouble with this crummy war is that it begins too early in the morning."

North By Northwest (1959)

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

Starring: Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, James Mason

From the opening roar of the MGM lion, Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest pulls you in with composer Bernard Hermann's suspenseful score, keeping you entertained throughout the opening credits and assuring you that you are in for an evening of thrills. With names like Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason, how could you be disappointed?

Rest assured, you will not be. Hitchcock keeps in line with his lighthearted air of humor in an otherwise suspenseful film when he immediately appears in one of his many famous cameos as a pedestrian who tries to catch a city bus only to have the doors shut in his face and the bus drive off.

From there you're in for more than two hours of high excitement and intrigue as we meet Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant), a witty, high-powered advertising executive who, while meeting with friends at a hotel club room, is abducted by two mysterious thugs. He is taken to the house of a man ostensibly named Townsend (James Mason). Townsend believes him to be a man named Kaplan, some manner of espionage agent. During the ensuing conversation, Thornhill adamantly proclaims that he is not Kaplan, and because Townsend does not believe him, he orders his thugs to force Thornhill into becoming drunk, so they can put him in a runaway car and disguise his death as a drunk-driving accident.

This is where the film forces you to suspend your disbelief, as a drunk Thornhill manages to avoid oncoming cars as well as avoid careening over the side of a mountain road. Townsend's plans are disrupted when Thornhill is caught by a policeman and booked into the local jail.

Cary Grant plays a surprisingly likeable bachelor with only two women in his heart - his secretary and his mother. It is the relationship with his mother that really brings the character to life, because even though she is both disapproving of him and disbelieving of his current predicament, it is clear that they cannot live without one another.

When Thornhill tells his story to the judge, two detectives are sent to investigate the Townsend home, where Townsend's wife, a women neither Thornhill nor the audience has ever seen before, puts on an
act, tricking the police and Thornhill's mother that she and Townsend are friends of his, and he became drunk while attending their party the night before. She reveals that Townsend is a United Nations assemblyman and the police leave, satisfied with her story.

Thornhill and his mother go to investigate Kaplan, who he correctly deduces is staying at the hotel from which he was abducted. At the hotel, Thornhill discovers that even the hotel staff believes he is Kaplan. From the hotel he goes to the United Nation to confront Townsend and is surprised to find that the people he met in Townsend's house were actually imposters. The real Townsend not only has been away from his house, but his wife has been dead for years. Townsend is suddenly murdered, leaving Thornhill to take the rap for his murder.

It then becomes a chase movie, with Thornhill trying to discover the identity of Kaplan while being pursued by both the police and the imposter "Mr. Townsend", whose real name is Vandamm. The film is filled with enough twists and turns to keep you interested.

The film is filled with witty, snappy dialogue that is a trademark of Hitchcock, and Cary Grant as Thornhill is a remarkably likeable character. Eva Marie Saint plays a mysterious woman Thornhill meets on a train, and although she tries to be a sympathetic character, I did not find her quite as convincing as Kim Novak or Grace Kelly might have been had they been cast.

There are some great action scenes such as the crop-duster scene and the climax on Mount Rushmore.

Overall, North By Northwest is a roller coaster ride of suspense and thrills, with great performances, excellent dialogue, fast paced, and worthy of being called a classic.


Great Lines:

"Not that I mind abduction, but I have tickets to the theater this evening."


(While standing in a crowded elevator) "You're not really trying to kill my son, are you?"


"Have you poured any good drunks lately?"


"Apparently the only performance that'll satisfy you is when I play dead."

"Your very next role. You'll be quite convincing, I assure you."