Having previously portrayed Adolf Hitler in 1951’s The Desert Fox, Luther Adler once more dons the postage-stamp moustache of Der Fuhrer in The Magic Face. This time, however, Adler essays a dual role, playing both Hitler and a famed theatrical impersonator known as Janus the Great. While performing in Vienna, Janus attracts the attention of Hitler, who makes a play for Janus’ wife Vera. When Janus protests, he is beaten and thrown into prison by the gestapo. Janus escapes and vows to destroy Hitler and to that end poses as the German leader, the better to bollix up the Nazi war plans.
Tag: 1950s
Kon Ichikawa’s rich adaptation of Natsume Soseki’s classic novel depicts a complex relationship between a student and an older man he calls “sensei.” The older man’s relations with his wife seems curiously strained to the student. When the boy goes to the country to tend to his dying father, he learns that “sensei” committed suicide.
Four stories, humorous, romantic or dramatic, are linked by a counterfeit gold sovereign. It is made by the honest engraver in the first story, seduced by the charms of a young widow, and it subsequently passes into the hands of a beggar and a prostitute, a wealthy miser and a newly married couple where the husband is a poor artist.
Parigi e Sempre Parigi was the second feature-length effort from famed Italian documentary director Luciano Emmer. Parigi concentrates on a gentle cultural clash between a band of Italian sports fans and the citizenry of Paris. The hero, DeAngelis has heard so much about “naughty Paree” that he’s determined to experience that naughtiness first hand. This plot device, of course, obliges the director to introduce several delectable French mademoiselles in the proceedings. Ultimately, DeAngelis realizes that reports of French libertinism have been grossly exaggerated, but he has a high old time finding this out.
Albin Skoda plays Hitler, who wanders in and out of delirium as his Third Reich crumbles. He is surrounded by reams of existential dialogue from his generals and associates, courtesy of screenwriter Erich Maria Remarque, who based his script on Judge Michael A. Musmanno’s book “Ten Days to Die”. Oscar Werner costars as a fictional “good” Nazi officer who acts as the film’s voice of reason.
Scott Brady plays an ex-gunslinger who is hired by a group of ranchers to protect them from covetous land baron Roy Engel. Unbeknownst to the ranchers, Brady is the killer of their former leader. Emotional complications ensue when Brady falls in love with Mala Powers, the widow of the man he killed.
A twenty year old Anouk Aimée stars as Albertine, the daughter of a bourgeois couple who house a young officer during the Napoleonic wars. Newly promoted, the officer is quartered by a dull bourgeois couple who treat him with a cold politeness bordering on indifference.
Amiel per la Pelle (Friends for Life) is largely told from a child’s-eye point of view. The heroes of the piece are Mario and Franco, young classmates and inseparable buddies. After several “Our Gang”-style adventures, the boys’ friendship is threatened when Mario reveals a secret that Franco confided in him.