My Grading System

A+ = Masterpiece (I hold back on this one.) / A = Great. / A- = Really Good. / B+ = Good. / B = Decent (Serviceable). / B- = Flawed but okay (For those times there's something redeeming about the work). / C+ = Not very good (Skip it). C = Bad. / C- = Awful. / F = Complete Disaster (I hold back on this one too).

Note on Spoilers: I will try to avoid ruining a story by going into too much detail. But if I wish to include some revealing points to my analysis I will try to remember to add a separate spoiler paragraph.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Rope of Sand (1949)

This film noir stars Burt Lancaster as a wronged man, returning to South Africa to steal the diamonds he was accused of stealing years earlier but never did.  Claude Rains and Paul Henreid complete the tension-packed triangle of testosterone and Corinne Calvet plays the typical femme fatale caught in the middle.  Not the best example of the genre, the plot kind of goes all over the place.  Corinne's character switches from bad girl to girl-in-love so quickly it's hard to believe.  Claude Rains' motivation is never really that clear: he wants the diamonds or is it he wants to watch Lancaster and Henreid destroy each other.   I also didn't think it was the best paced film of its time either.  This surprised me because director William Dieterle has done much stronger work.  Still if you love the genre it's not all bad.  Lancaster is pretty great as usual and there is a fight scene in a sand storm that is pretty exciting.  Grade: B
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