One-Liners: Endangered Species

RACING EXTINCTION (A-minus) - This gorgeous documentary barely keeps its disdain in check as it explains man's mad dash to destroy life on Earth.

Director Louie Psihoyos and prolific writer Mark Monroe, who collaborated on 2009's "The Cove," mix hard science with mesmerizing images to explain how mankind may have already triggered the planet's sixth great extinction. Their cameras dive underwater and soar across the sky, swooping through cityscapes and sneaking around back alleys in remote areas. It's a dizzying, giddy presentation of an urgent polemic.

"Man has become the asteroid," one expert proclaims about the devastating effects on the planet, and the film cites the prediction that half the world's species might be gone by the end of this century. The filmmakers seek to explain why that might be true. The crew members go undercover with buttonhole camera and night-vision technology. They bust an American restaurant for serving whale. They travel to Asian backwaters to reveal the mass harvesting of endangered sea life for various purposes, including eastern-medicine cures. A diver removing a hook from the mouth of a manta ray (coveted for its purported healing qualities) and explaining how he comforted the creature is touching.

While the subject matter seems awfully dire, the filmmakers also offer nuggets of hope with the enthusiasm of idealistic insurgents. "The Earth is singing, but we're not listening," one talking head suggests. How many people will view this documentary or consider its thesis? The filmmakers conclude by tagging along with a provocateur who projects elaborate moving images on skyscrapers and other structures. This movie revels in the power of images, and from beginning to end it is a wonder.

CALL NORTHSIDE 777 (1948) (B-minus) - This interesting artifact -- billed as the first drama shot on location in Chicago -- rests on the broad shoulders of James Stewart to tell the true story of a newspaper reporter's determination to free an innocent man.

Stewart stars as P.J. McNeal, a mild-mannered reporter for the Chicago Times (just before the merger with the Sun) who is assigned to follow up a classified ad offering a reward for information leading to exoneration of one of two men imprisoned in the killing of a cop at a speakeasy. The author of the ad is Tillie Wiecek (Kasia Orzazewski), the mother of Frank Wiecek (Richard Conte), who has been behind bars for 11 years but who insists he is innocent. Tillie is a noble immigrant who cleans office buildings, saving her pennies over time in order to fund the reward. The supporting cast is strong: Lee J. Cobb portrays the gruff editor; Helen Walker is bubbly as McNeal's supporting wife; E.G. Marshall pops up for a cameo; and the speakeasy owner is played by character actress Betty Garde (Thelma the maid on "The Honeymooners").

The drama itself is rather flat throughout the nearly two-hour running time, and for a would-be noir (the screenplay won an Edgar award), it's awfully pristine and conventional. It's the authentic performances and Stewart's folksy charm that rescue the proceedings from being a dreary slog. The final reel feels like a rushed resolution and is anticlimactic.

What's fascinating is the location shooting, as the filmmakers delve deep into the city, including a rundown bar in a Polish neighborhood. Much real estate is devoted to the scene of Wiecek taking a polygraph examination. the producers cast one of the actual inventors of the machine, Leonarde Keeler, to play the examiner, and the film detours into the minutiae of the contraption, apparently because it was such a novel concept at the time. While that's neat as a time capsule, it doesn't make for compelling cinema. (A similar diversion occurs near the climax when men stand around a photo-transmission contraption waiting for a key piece of evidence magically appear.)

Stewart does his best, and as newspaper movies go, this one does a decent job of reminding us of a bygone era; but a snappier script and sharper direction are needed to make this one hum.

BONUS TRACK
The trailer for "Call Northside 777":