Colleague's New Book, Retro Movie Review ANZIO (1968)
A co-worker has a new book about missing black girls and psychic powers. Also a review of a childhood war movie and ConPossible is TODAY
One of my co-workers has a book of her own out now, Needy Little Things. It’s about a girl with ESP searching for a missing friend — and she might be in danger of going missing herself.
She had a lot of early reviews on Goodreads, which you can check out here. Here’s her Amazon page with e-book, print and audio.
Definitely check this out. I’m a few chapters in and it’s really well-done.
Retro Movie Review: Anzio (1968)
When I was in elementary school, I remember my mother renting for me at least three old-school World War II films — Midway (1976), The Battle of Britain (1969), and Anzio (1968) — on days when I was home sick. I don’t think I understood a lot about what was going in Anzio, but I did remember a sequence where characters are captured by the Germans and one gets straight-up killed.
After my newest premium subscriber requested in November that I post more about Tubi films, I went found that Anzio was available to watch for free.
So here we go…
(Image courtesy of Roger Ebert’s review.)
The Plot
War correspondent Dick Ennis (Robert Mitchum) arrives in Naples, Italy in early 1944 to join up with U.S. Army forces there, including Corporal Jack Rabinoff (Peter Falk). The Allied advance is stalled at the Gustav Line south of Rome, so the Americans intend on flanking the Germans by sea with a landing at Anzio.
The Allies land at Anzio virtually unopposed and the road to Rome is wide open, but Major General Jack Lesley (played by Arthur Kennedy and based on the real-life John P. Lucas) is cautious and wants to fortify his beachhead before he advances further inland. This allows the Germans under Field Marshal Albert Kesselring (Wolfgang Priess) to bring in reinforcements. When Lesley finally sends out a group of Army Rangers that include Ennis and Rabinoff to make sure Kesselring isn’t setting them up for an ambush, things get very unpleasant.
The Good
*Although the film starts kind of slow (more on that later), its depiction of World War II soldiers during their downtime in Naples is rather more realistic than one might expect from a less cynical older film. The GIs drink and swing from chandeliers, units brawl with each other, and they’re all getting busy with Italian women. Rabinoff even seems to be keeping three in the back of an Army truck, plying them with money and candy to re-sell.
(I didn’t remember THAT part at all.)
*The film focuses on Ennis and a group of Rangers trying to get back to the Anzio beachhead after the Battle of Cisterna, which was a good choice financially — it keeps the budget low.
*The Italian theater of World War II doesn’t get a lot of attention, and was often viewed as a sideshow even at the time. Stalin’s repeated demand for “a second front” against the Germans didn’t include Italy, even though the Allies had already landed there months before D-Day. Even these modern Communists seem to toe that line. It’s good to see that part of the war getting attention.
*There are some clever parts, like a sequence where some soldiers cross a minefield.
*There’re a lot of historical “little details” they work into the film, including the very specific words Churchill used to criticize Lucas’ overly-cautious approach.
The Bad
*The movie starts out rather slow with Ennis’s arrival and a long montage as he makes his way through an Italian palace toward where the Rangers are drinking and fooling around. We don’t even get to the landing at Anzio until about 30 minutes into the movie. I imagine moviegoers back then had longer attention spans, but it might’ve been more fun to start with the landings in the vein of Saving Private Ryan and then flash back to him coming in and meeting everybody.
*Ennis’s whole arc about learning why men kill wasn’t particularly memorable.
*Anzio was an entire campaign involving massive amounts of artillery and airpower, but there’s not a lot of that onscreen. That would have been more expensive, but it would have made the movie more exciting.
*Other than Ennis, Rabinoff, and General Lesley, the characters aren’t developed.
*The movie uses what looks like real footage from WWII shore bombardments for the landing sequence. Although the improved realism is nice, it’s clearly different film stock.
*After the initial engagement between the Army Rangers and the oncoming Germans, not a lot happens for awhile.
The Verdict
All right to watch while ironing or at the gym, but kind of dull. Fortunately it’s on Tubi so it’s free. 6.5 out of 10.
ConPossible Today!
The steampunk convention ConPossible started yesterday and will continue today and tomorrow. This will be my first event where The Walking Worm is on sale, so if you’d like a signed paperback, come on by!
(I’ve also got all the books from prior conventions and a couple lavishly-illustrated film history books, one about barbarian movies and the other about post-apocalyptic movies, that I intend to re-sell. Over the next year or so you’ll be seeing reviews and commentary about many films referenced in those books.)
The convention is at Sonesta Gwinnett Place on Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth. If that sounds familiar, it’s hosted CONJuration and Nerdi Gras shows before. If you just want to shop, access to the vending hall is $5.