Khoi Vinh’s review published on Letterboxd:
I’d never seen this projected until today, and in a theater I was really struck by how almost ostentatiously quiet it is. After the titles at the beginning, there’s no music until the climactic scene at the very end, just moments before the end credits roll. It’s a stark choice, even an act of asceticism on director John Huston’s part, as if he’s testing himself to see how few filmmaking cheats he needs in order to create the most compelling drama. There’s not even a lot of action, either; most of the film is talking heads, planning, scheming and throwing attitude at one another, and wonderful wiseguy performances from Sterling Hayden as the monumental Dix, Mark Lawrence as the squirrelly Cobby, Brad Dexter as a wonderfully detestable Brannom, and of course Louis Calhern as a supercilious, cowardly Emmerich. This movie gets a lot of notice for being one of Marilyn Monroe’s earliest roles, and she does pop off the screen, but it’s a testament to how rich a work this is that her contribution is the least interesting—I prefer the broken desperation behind Jean Hagen’s Doll. This is generally a marvelous movie.
Saw it at Institut Lumière in Lyon in a beautiful little screening room in the basement of the villa, with all three kids and their two cousins.
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