Pork Chop Hill (1959)

I've hardly seen any depictions of the Korean War outside of M*A*S*H, which involves little to no onscreen battle. For more of that, I figured on Lewis Milestone to do a good job. And it's based on a soldier's account, so I stood to learn true history.

In 1953, the Chinese People's Volunteer Army seizes the American outpost on the titular hill. Lt. Joseph G. Clemons (Gregory Peck) leads K Company in an effort to recapture it, starting before dawn. But higher-ups have not prepared them well. For example, one border is much better defended than was said, keeping L Company too busy to meet up as soon as expected. It soon becomes apparent that heavy losses will follow.

Mirage (1965)

Judging from Hollywood, people in past decades (hopefully not today) had an overly broad idea of what constitutes a mirage. To them, it wasn't just a natural optical illusion, as when a desert horizon appears to ripple like water; it could be a detailed hallucination brought on by stressful conditions, as when one sees a nonexistent lemonade stand in the desert. That must be the kind intended for the title of this movie, which takes place in New York City with no evidence of high heat and no dialog about mirages.

It is fitting that the picture begins with an evening blackout in a tall office building, wherein David Stillwell (Gregory Peck) notes that people often act more depraved in the dark. Little does he realize yet how much in the dark he is. First a friendly woman named Shela (Diane Baker) has trouble believing that he doesn't recognize her; later, he can't find the path where he thought he followed her. He also has unfamiliar criminal enemies who expect him to have something of value to them. Is he losing his mind? Does he have amnesia, exacerbated by false memories for some reason? Or is there a conspiracy to make him think so?

The Big Country (1958)

I said before that I couldn't really characterize William Wyler's directorial style. Now I must be getting the hang of it, because as I watched TBC, I thought of two others: Friendly Persuasion and The Westerner. They're all set in the 19th century and have protagonists who are big on peace.

Rather unusually for a western, the hero in this one, James McKay (Gregory Peck), is a ship captain -- and a fish out of water. He comes to the frontier because it's home to Patricia Terrill (Carroll Baker), his intended. Apparently, no one warned him that her wealthy father, Henry (Charles Bickford), is leading one side of a feud with the rugged Hannassey clan, led by Rufus (Burl Ives), over access to a waterhole on land owned by Julie Maragon (Jean Simmons), who's on good terms with Jim and Pat but unwilling to sell to either patriarch. Like Julie, Jim doesn't let social closeness color his judgment of the situation. But to call him neutral would be misleading; he simply seeks a third option....

On the Beach (1959)

Another entry in the Gregory Peck festival, this one seemingly less remembered but important for showcasing Peck's anti-nuke stance. It is not a "beach movie," one lighthearted beach scene notwithstanding. Novelist Nevil Shute evidently chose the title for a touch of irony. It's set mostly in post-apocalyptic Australia and features a dangerous auto race, but that's about where its similarity to the Mad Max franchise ends.

In 1964 (incidentally when Dr. Strangelove and Fail-Safe debuted), bombs have rendered Australia the only reportedly habitable place left in the world -- and not for much longer, as radiation sickness spreads. Naval officers Dwight (Peck) and Peter (pre-Psycho Anthony Perkins) must leave their loves -- new girlfriend Moira (Ava Gardner) and wife Mary (Donna Anderson), respectively -- in order to investigate the first sign of outside life in a while: incessant, indecipherable telegraphy from the ruins of California. Tip: Don't get your hopes up for a Children of Men-like ending.

The Yearling (1946)

The AFI Silver Theater is celebrating Gregory Peck's 100th birthday with a festival. I had already seen most of his promising features, but this one seemed worth an 11:30 AM Saturday viewing, even if my dad had better things to do.

The titular animal does not actually show up until an hour in -- unless you interpret the title to refer to main boy Jody. In late 19th-century Florida, he badly wants a pet woodland critter of some kind, but his subsistence-farming parents, especially mother Orry (Jane Wyman), forbid it. After a series of what you might call minor adventures, father Ezra, a.k.a. Penny(?!), finds it necessary to kill a doe, and Jody talks his parents into letting him adopt the fawn left behind, partly as a sort of returned favor. He dubs the fawn Flag, without appearing to realize how appropriate "Flag the Stag" would become. This being a cinematic adaptation from a book, you can guess that Jody will not get to keep Flag as long as he likes....

Moby Dick (1956)

Even after getting burned by Lynch's Dune, I make a point to watch adaptations from famous novels I'm unlikely to read. Oh, I do read long and heady books for leisure, but enough people have deemed Herman Melville's classic dull that I'd rather take a chance on a two-hour vicarious boat ride, particularly one with respectable IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes scores as well as reputedly decent fidelity. (I didn't trust the facetious stage musical.) Being in a poor position to evaluate the fidelity, I must settle for the cinematic quality.

You should all know the story's gist: Nineteenth-century whaling ship captain Ahab (Gregory Peck) unwisely seeks vengeance on the oddly named white whale. Little did I imagine how late in the story narrator Ishmael (Richard Basehart) sees Ahab's face or hears his voice. I think the island savage Queequeg gets more screen time. Guess Ahab, for all his obsession, has the most stand-out personality on the Pequod. I hardly know how to describe first mate Starbuck (Leo Genn), and he's one of the more famous characters. We learn a lot more names, but in this capsulized edition, they hardly seem worth remembering; only the cabin boy gets my sympathy.

The Scarlet and the Black (1983)

I had to think a bit about whether to review a TV movie on this blog. After all, I leave off the TV series I watch. But apart from the occasional fade to black, presumably for commercial breaks, it feels much like a film that debuted on the silver screen. Why make the distinction on DVD? Netflix doesn't.

Be careful not to mix this up with other works by the same or similar titles; they have completely different stories and origins. This TSatB, based on J.P. Gallagher's book The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican, concerns the real-life Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty (Gregory Peck post-The Omen), who not so secretly defied the Vatican's official neutrality during World War II to help people hide where they could in the vicinity of Rome. Colonel Herbert Kappler (Christopher Plummer post-The Sound of Music), who all but runs occupied Rome, finds O'Flaherty a thorn in his side.