THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH (B) - Joel Coen (taking a break from brother Ethan) plays with shadows and light in his spare, faithful rendition of the Shakespeare tragedy, coasting a bit on the backs of his impressive stars, Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand as the lord and lady of Dunsinane. There is plenty of gloom and drudgery in Coen's black-and-white depiction that looks like could have aired on "Playhouse 90" in 1958.
Screeching birds and an eerie hag open the proceedings heavy with premonition. Coen has a few cool camera tricks up his sleeves, especially war-hero's Macbeth's initial meeting with a witch who splits into three images. Washington still brings a modern everyman sensibility to 400-year role, and McDormand avidly chews her lines as the scheming wife. Stephen Root pops up in a cameo as the frantic Porter, and while I barely understood a word he spewed, his appearance was a hoot.
This doesn't have the zip or narrative discipline of Joss Whedon's tart "Much Ado About Nothing" from 2012 (shot in a snappier black-and-white). But it gets the job done and might even leave you a bit jangled by the end.
EDGE OF THE CITY (1957) (A-minus) - This debut big-screen feature from Martin Ritt ("Hud," "Norma Rae") has a jangly, jazzy feel to it, as he juggles three fine lead performances in a tale of racial animosity and brotherhood. Sidney Poitier is loose-limbed and charming as Tommy, a loading-dock foreman who befriends a troubled newcomer on the run from the law. John Cassavettes, giving off a strong Travolta vibe, plays Axel Nordmann, the outlaw who is under the thumb of the mobbed up foreman who got him the stevedore job, racist Charlie, played with blue-collar swagger by Jack Warden.
It's refreshing to see Poitier's character exude confidence and flaunt a loving nuclear family as he seeks genuine friendship with Axel, who is shy around women, flinty at work, and emotionally impaired. The two actors have an improv ease with each other. Tommy encourages Axel to open up, which only make Axel more vulnerable when the inevitable reckoning comes. That reckoning involves a racially motivated violent act by Charlie, and Axel will be put to the test, required to choose between his loyalty to a friend and self-preservation, namely avoiding 20 years in a federal penitentiary.
Ruby Dee is critical as Tommy's loving but frustrated wife. In less than 90 minutes, Ritt, showing an eye and ear for the cadences of working-class life, builds a potboiler to a series of compelling crescendos that can leave a viewer drained by the final tragic images.
ROOM AT THE TOP (1959) (B+) - This smart, moody love triangle stars Laurence Harvey as an ambitious small-town transplant looking to work his way to the top but tripping over an entanglement with two different women. Harvey's Joe Lampton is quite the lecherous wolf who feels right at home in the corporate world's sexist culture. He joins a theater troupe in order to pursue Susan (Heather Sears), the daughter of a captain of industry, but he falls hard instead for Alice, an older married woman played with a perpetual smolder by Simone Signoret.
Bold for its day, the film by journeyman director Jack Clayton explores such issues as adultery, out-of-wedlock pregnancy, and class distinctions. Glum Joe struggles to overcome his bumpkin roots and the fact that his parents were killed in a bombing during World War II; he wallows in anguish when he revisits the rubble. Signoret and her modern look jolt this production above the cliches of its day and make the film seem less dated. A key scene of one of the breakups between Joe and Alice takes a petty disagreement and blows it out of proportion in a thoughtful, believable manner that will be familiar to any couple of any era.
At times this feels like a beta-test version of "The Graduate," and it continually manages to rise above conventions. With Harvey and Signoret carrying the load, this one never feels like it is overstaying its welcome in a nearly two-hour run.
BONUS TRACK
The corny trailer for "Edge of the City":
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