What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

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Ransom! from 1956 with Glenn Ford, Donna Reed, Leslie Nielsen, Juano Hernandez, Robert Keith, Richard Gaines, and Ainslie Pryor


Ransom! is not easy movie watching, but it is darn good storytelling that examines the perpetual dilemma of whether or not to pay a kidnapper's ransom. In real life, that decision is often driven less by logic and more by emotion and social pressure.

All that is challenged in Ransom!, where Glenn Ford and Donna Reed play the wealthy parents of a nine-year-old boy who is kidnapped. The kidnappers then demand the, for the time, huge sum of half a million dollars.

Ford, a CEO of a successful company, at the urging of nearly everyone – his wife, his brother, the firm's lawyer, and popular opinion – agrees to pay, even when the local police chief notes that if no one paid the entire kidnapping racket would stop.

Then a newspaperman, played by Leslie Nielsen, who wheedled his way into Ford's inner circle, notes that even if Ford pays, the kidnappers are still incentivised to kill the boy to eliminate a witness.

Ford, in one of the great movie "I stand alone" moments, then decides not only to refuse to pay but also to announce to the world – and the kidnappers – that the ransom money will instead be used as a reward to find the kidnappers if his boy isn't returned safely.

It's brilliant, and daring, and would end the entire game of kidnapping if everyone did the same. It turns the movie's seemingly simple story of "of course you pay the ransom and hope you get the child back" upside down, using an unorthodox and divisive choice to reveal the moral complexity involved.

Ford, though, is denounced by almost everyone, including his going-to-pieces wife, his self-righteous brother, his smarmy lawyer, and most of the public and press.

It's now Ford, with the surprising support of Neilson, plus Ford's chauffeur/houseman, played by Juano Hernandez, standing against pretty much everyone as the pressure becomes intense. It's a cauldron of public and private fury designed to break a man as it might do to Ford.

The rest of the movie should be seen fresh, with an denouement, like the buildup, that has echoes of 1951's Ace in the Hole as the "circus –" the media and onlookers – evanesces as quickly as it came together once there is nothing left to feed upon.

The performances in this low-budget effort – shot in black and white on all but one set – are excellent. Director Alex Segal assembled a strong cast of tier-two stars, including the outstanding Robert Keith as the police chief who is in CYA mode the entire time.

Richard Gaines, as the greedy corporate lawyer, and Ainslie Pryor, as Ford's sanctimonious brother, deserve mention, too, for creating characters you slowly come to loathe. Reed, as the wife who breaks under the pressure, gives a movingly impressive performance.

Juano Hernandez, an actor who never had a false moment on screen, is outstanding as Ford's loyal chauffeur/houseman. The man knows how to portray emotions with facial expressions. It's unfortunate that being black in this era often relegated him to these types of supporting roles.

Whether the intent was to make an Ayn Rand story or not doesn't matter, as that's what the writers did with Ford's character. He's a man of conviction, who ignores public opinion – he does not bow to the pleas to show mercy or selflessness.

Rand's philosophy avers that an individual should make choices based on his sincere belief as to what is right and not based on public opinion or cries for mercy or charity. Ford isn't greedy – but Randian like – if he's seen that way, he's willing to stand by his convictions.

There is also an odd slant on the economic concept of the tragedy of the commons here, but it's that each person, trying to solve his or her own kidnapping issue, actually encourages future kidnappings. Ford's approach thwarts that problem too.

In Ransom! you come for the basic kidnapping story only to find yourself in an Ayn Rand novel where a man of honor is willing to stand up to a public opinion and even be denounced as "selfish –" always our most damning public rebuke – for what he believes.

You get outstanding acting, a good story, and an atypical philosophical take on a timeless problem in Ransom! – pretty impressive for a low-budget, black-and-white midcentury movie.


N. B. For a different cultural take on kidnapping, but one where many of the same issues and emotions are in play, look for the excellent 1963 Japanese movie High and Low (comments on it here: #31,625 ). It explores how economic disparities in society drive kidnappings, while also weaving in a compelling moral dilemma over paying the ransom, similar to Ransom!.

 

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The Fallen Idol from 1948 with Ralph Richardson, Bobby Henrey, Sonia Dresdel, Michèle Morgan and Denis O'Dea


The Fallen Idol doesn't fit neatly into one movie genre box. Based on a short story by Graham Greene and containing elements of crime drama, illicit love, and childhood innocence – all shot in beautiful black and white – it's a well-told, well-acted, and well-filmed British effort.

Bobby Henrey plays an eight-year-old boy, the son of an ambassador to England from an unnamed French-speaking country. With his father busy and his mother away convalescing, Henrey has the run of the massive embassy in London.

The embassy's butler, played by Ralph Richardson, is Henrey's friend and idol, but Richardson's cold, shrewish wife, played by Sonia Dresdel, who is also the embassy's head housekeeper, is the boy's nemesis.

Richardson's life, though, is complicated as he has a secret lover: the high-cheekboned embassy secretary, played by Michèle Morgan.

These pieces come together early, at a cafe, when Morgan is trying to break it off with Richardson because Dresdel won't give him a divorce. Henrey wanders in on them and becomes an unwitting part of their drama.

Everything then escalates and comes to a head rapidly when Richardson's wife goes away for a few days... or does she? Richardson, Henrey, Morgan, and maybe Dresdel converge on the embassy in a fateful weekend.

The weekend starts with a trip to the zoo, a game of hide-and-seek, an in-house picnic and a possible assignation, but ends with a dead snake, a dead body – from a fall, a slip, or possibly murder – the police, an investigation, and a potential international incident.

It's a good story, with a lot of twists, mainly told from Henrey's perspective – note the many times the camera angle looks up from his line of sight to the "adult world –" which gives the movie its extra punch. It's an adult show, overall, from a child's view of the world.

Every adult has been a kid and has felt powerless to understand and navigate the world of grownups. Henrey loves Richardson and wants to help him, but he is confused by Richardson's relationship with Morgan and, worse, is confused by all the lies the adults tell.

"Don't ever lie" works until it doesn't; then nuance, perspective, balance, and genuine decision-making come into play. All this is well above Henrey's pay grade. It's not his fault, but this eight-year-old boy's attempt at lies to help Richardson pivots the plot in unpredictable ways.

While Henrey is outstanding as the boy, he acted in one more movie before leaving pictures. His legacy, though, is wonderfully capturing the confusion, frustration, and anger of being a child when the adult world forces itself upon you.

Richardson matches Henrey scene for scene playing an adult that can truly relate to a child, mainly because he has sincere affection for the boy and doesn't talk down to him. But Richardson, too, becomes a challenge to Henrey when adult pressures close in on him.

A nod is also owed to both Morgan, who is excellent as the kind girlfriend who knows at some level that what she is doing is wrong, and to Dresdel, who plays the mean housekeeper with enough nuance that she comes across as a real person and not a stereotype.

In a movie full of small, outstanding performances, Denis O'Dea, playing the quintessential Scotland Yard inspector, deserves note as he makes a well-worn role his own, but still colors within the lines of the trope.

Director Carol Reed must be recognized for bringing off this entire quirky effort seamlessly with incredible camera work. He confidently slid his movie into film noir now and then when necessary, but used noir as a tool, not an overarching style.

Every director imparts a "feel" to his movie. Reed's noted use of up angles to reflect the boy's perspective, his transition from wide angles to close ups, and his tactical use of noir gives this movie a visual feel that echoes the movie's themes of childhood innocence and adult intrigue.

Still, the only thing harder than trying to honorably balance truth, honor, friendship, morality, and a well-intentioned lie as an adult, is trying to honorably manage that balance as a child.

The strength in The Fallen Idol is how well Reed, working from Graham Greene source material and with a terrific cast, brought that challenge to light through the eyes of an eight-year-old boy unfairly asked to navigate an adult landscape under intense pressure.