Green for Danger: See the Humor Audiences in 1946 Did Not

 

 

 

Green for Danger (1946)

Directed by Sidney Gilliat

General Film Distributors, 91 minutes, not rated

★★★★

 

It’s a comedy. It’s a thriller. It’s a mystery, a tale of power, jealousy, and indeterminate romance. It’s twisty, silly, and horrifying. Green for Danger was banned because British officials feared it would cause the general public to avoid hospitals. That’s how a film that is now well-regarded lost money in its day.

 

The film was released in 1946 but was based upon a 1941 novel by Christianna Brand that has an intriguing backstory. Brand was married to a military surgeon whose anesthesiologist jocularly told her of a clever way to commit murder. She based one of her Inspector Cockrill tales on it, director Sidney Gilliat read it while on a train journey, and adapted it for the cinema.

 

The date of Brand’s novel is significant. Great Britain went to war against Germany in September 1939 and the following May, Adolf Hitler’s Luftwaffe began its infamous Blitz bombings of London, which it extended across the British Isles. By the time the RAF (Royal Air Force) gained control of the skies in May 1941, 60% of London was destroyed, as many as 43,000 citizens were killed, over 100,000 were injured, two million homes were destroyed, and over 3,300 airmen lost their lives. One of the most dreaded Nazi weapons was the V-1, an early cruise missile, which also terrorized. One could hear bombers flying overhead but when things grew silent, seek cover as it was impossible to know where the missiles would strike.

 

It was gutsy of Brand to write a cheeky comedy during the Blitz and of Gilliat to make a film involving events fresh in people’s memory. Having said all of this, Green for Danger is not a war film in any sense other than taking place during one. It is set in a hospital somewhere in the English countryside that treats civilians as well as military personnel. Its nurses are called “sister” and its male medical staff flirted shamelessly and clashed egotistically. Dr. Eden (Leo Genn) is a combination of charm and smarm. He has his eye on Nurse Linley (Sally Gray), who seems to be wavering in her affection for Dr. Barnes (Trevor Howard). Poor Dr. White (Ronald Adam), the titular head of the unit, has his hands full trying to keep his staff in line.

 

Trouble begins with the local postman Joseph Higgins (Moore Marriott) is injured in a V-1 attack. His wounds are not serious but he needs an operation. He hears something that spooks him badly as he’s wheeled in for surgery and dies on the operating table. Barnes’ competence comes into question, as it was he who administered the anesthesia, though he insists he followed correct procedure. Enter Scotland Yard Inspector Cockrill (Alastair Sim). To call him unorthodox is an injustice for the umbrella carrying Cockrill, a seeming goofball eccentric with a sharp mind and sharper tongue.

 

You no doubt suspect he will solve how poor Joe Higgins died, but part of Cockrill’s charm is that his instincts are not always correct. Heaven knows his directness doesn’t do much to calm the spurned Sister Bates (Judy Campbell), nervous Nurse Woods (Megs Jenkins), the normally unflappable Nurse Sanson (Rosamund John), or any of the other women at the hospital. Things get really tense after another murder and the shocking news that a gas attack will probably kill the popular Linley.

 

The comic relief in Green for Danger comes from the pretentious battles between the doctors and from Cockrill. Well-known actor Robert Morley was originally offered the role, but it was a pure stroke of genius to replace him with Alastair Sim. Not only was he letter perfect in the role, but he was also the sort of actor who makes you laugh just by looking at him. His mannerisms, not his appearance, put me in min d of Jacques Tati’s bumbling Monsieur Hulot. Sim gets the last word in the film and it’s delicious.

 

Things were hazy when the film was released, but only partly because World War II was barely over. Green for Danger was perhaps too clever for its day, with audiences and several important reviewers missing the fact that it’s actually a sendup of detective stories, especially those of the omniscient variety. It’s a rare movie that is easier to understand 79 years later!

 

Rob Weir

The Manchurian Candidate is Still Powerful

 

 

 

 

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

Produced and directed by John Frankenheimer

United Artists, 126 minutes, PG-13

In black and white

★★★★★

 

Most psychiatrists either do not believe in brainwashing or have declared it unproven. Yet, when heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped (1974) and subsequently helped her captors rob banks, her counsel insisted she was a victim of Stockholm syndrome, in which an abused person comes to identify with her captors/abusers. You can make up your own mind about such things, but when The Manchurian Candidate came out (1962) mind control was indeed considered a real thing. The Cold War between the United States and the communist bloc was at a fever pitch. (The Berlin Wall was less than a year old.)

 

The Manchurian Candidate is a classic Cold War film from when President John F. Kennedy was in office, though George Axelrod’s script was based upon a 1959 novel from Richard Condon. Note that I said “novel.” Yet to audiences of its day it felt like a documentary, a belief enhanced by the use of melodramatic narration from Paul Frees. The movie’s depiction of North Korean, Chinese, and Soviet uses of brainwashing was taken so seriously that the CIA launched what is now a discredited program: MKUltra, the use of psychedelics (including LSD) to interrogate enemy captives.

 

The Manchurian Candidate is considered a film of such importance that it is preserved in the Library of Congress. If that doesn’t sway you, know that it’s considered an American classic and is indeed a very fine film. Stay with it, as the opening is bold and odd. A bunch of American GIs sit intently listening to a lecture on gardening. Huh? We only catch on when the women’s faces dissolve into those of Korean, Chinese, and Russian military personnel. We are actually witnessing a show trial of a different sort. An American platoon captured during the Korean War was brainwashed in China. As a demonstration of how effective it has been, Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) is shown a Queen of Diamonds and ordered to kill two of his men as victims and their peers sit passively.

 

As the film moves back to the United States, Shaw is hailed as a hero. Shaw is vaguely unsettled, but more by the fact that thinks his mother Eleanor (Angela Lansbury) and her fungible second husband, Senator John Iselin (James Gregory) are creeps. (The novel involved mother/son forced incest, a big no-no for a 1962 movie.) Also troubled is recently promoted Major Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) who has reoccurring dreams that Shaw was a hated squad leader who killed two of his own men. Another soldier has the same dreams and Marco is assigned to intelligence to investigate.

 

Shaw’s handlers prove to his American contacts that he is a controllable sleeper agent assassin by ordering Shaw to murder a newspaper editor critical of Senator Iselin, a rabid right-winger browbeaten by his wife Eleanor. She advises him, for instance, to claim that the Defense Department is riddled with communists. If that rings a bell, Iselin is clearly based upon infamous Senator Joseph McCarthy’s during the early 1950s. In the film, Shaw keeps tabs on Iselin’s liberal foe, Senator Thomas Jordan (John McGiver) and ingratiates himself to Jordan’s daughter Jocelyn (Leslie Parrish). While we’re at it, let’s assign a love interest for Major Marco, “Rosie” Cheyney (Janet Leigh). They first meet on a train and låater bails Marco out of jail for assaulting a Korean (Henry Silva!) he recognizes as an agent.

 

The Manchurian Candidate is terrifically acted, which more than compensates for situations we today might find overdone or implausible. Perhaps some of the names of the actors are unfamiliar to younger readers. In 1962, though, this was an all-star cast. Harvey was perhaps better known in Britain than in North America, but he was well cast for his icy, withdrawn demeanor. Lansbury was a veteran of stage, screen, and television–think Tony awards, Oscar nominations, Golden Globes, and Emmys–and Leigh had a distinguished movie career. She was the gal in the shower in Psycho and the mother of Jamie Lee Curtis. Could Sinatra act? He sure could. Even his mistakes were praised. (Watch for an out-of-focus scene in Manchurian Candidate used to show disorientation.)

 

Will Marco be able to stop Shaw? The Manchurian Candidate is a beat-the-clock thriller with sneaky motives, oily villains, and a shocking ending. Beware the Queen of Diamonds!

 

Rob Weir