ACTION OF THE TIGER: Blu-ray (MGM,Claridge, 1958) Warner Archive

A petulant Van Johnson, sporting about as much vim as a kitten with colic, and, a momentarily bare-breasted Martine Carol, spit nails at one another amidst the stark and rocky terrain of Albania in director, Terrance Young’s Action of the Tiger (1957). Johnson’s tough guy routine has never quite worked for me. I remember him too well, as one of MGM’s beloved musical/comedy stars from the 1940’s, doing a buck n’ wing with Lucille Bremer in Till The Clouds Roll By (1946). Somewhere along the road to stardom, likely timed with Metro’s verve for hand-crafting war heroes from the boys who remained behind while some of their contemporaries were actually off in the European fight of their lives, the studio attempted to craft a rougher edge for Johnson. But something about his thin and syrupy voice stubbornly belies this impression; this, and Johnson’s inbred persnickety nature when he tries to turn on the muscle. Some men smell of rough-hewn guts, exuding uninhibited sex appeal simply by entering a room. Johnson, on the other hand, even when stripped to his skivvies, merely scents of soap – too squeaky clean, despite sporting a scowl and a sneer. So, it is saying a great deal of his performance in Action of the Tiger he manages, with considerable ease, to play the part of the steely-eyed sea captain, chronically submarined in his ambitions by the feminine charms of his co-star. I am still trying to figure out how Martine Carol’s perky boobage, rising from some the obviously very cold ocean surf like a living Venus, made it past the Hollywood censors, unless what is here is some Euro-cut of the movie, meant for a foreign market where mores were arguably more relaxed. And truthfully, Carol has nothing to be ashamed of here, showing off some very nice assets in her gratuitous flesh show that in no way advances the plot, but gives the able-bodied/hot-blooded male in the audience enough of a peek to remember her by, and, rather fondly too.  

If you can believe Van Johnson, even on his best day, can lick the likes of Sean Connery (herein debuting and cast as the perpetually inebriated and slovenly first mate, Mike) then I have a bridge in Mes with your name on it! Action of the Tiger derives its namesake from a quote in Shakespeare’s Henry V - “In peace there's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility. But when the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the tiger; stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, disguise fair nature with hard-favor'd rage.” And for the better half of an hour and forty-two minutes, Johnson, as the commitment-shy Capt. Carson and Carol, fracturing the English language with a distinct absence of panache as Tracy Malvoisie, predictably, his intended, do just that – battling a lusty Trifon (Herbert Lom, as an Albanian nobleman, played strictly for laughs), and Kol Stenho (José Nieto), the stoically resolute liberator of some Greek children, desperate to return to the isle of their birth. Tracy is in it for her brother, Henri (Gustavo Rojo), tortured and blinded by the secret police at the outset of our story, faithfully led by Mara (Anna Gerber) the ever-devout and sultry young thing, belonging to the aged and world-weary Countess Valona (Helen Haye – not to be confused with first lady of the American theater, Helen Hayes). Produced independently for Van Johnson’s own company, with funding from Brit-based Claridge Productions, under a distribution deal with MGM, Action of the Tiger does a belly-flop almost immediately and thereafter spends the bulk of its run time treading water in a brutal game of catch-up it never entirely achieves on anything greater than the scale of a cinematic whimper.

The picture is written by Robert Carson, based on an adaptation by Peter Myers from James Wellard’s novel. None of it gels – not the feeble cracks to inveigle the audience in this cutthroat company of hard-drinking men, nor Connery’s buffoonish drunkard, who breaks down stateroom doors with a cracked smile to try his hand at a seduction, only to be hit on the noggin with a wine bottle by our heroine, nor Johnson’s brittle bite of vague humor – pithy retorts he tosses off as though still playing the bittersweet second-string to Gene Kelly’s robust and congenial Johnny Albright in Brigadoon (1954). Desmond Dickinson’s cinematography makes the most of these isolated and largely abandoned locales, capturing their parched and remote quality with grave purpose. Nevertheless, Albania looks about as arid and appealing as a trip to the shed with no water left in the latrine, and Johnson’s tart-mouthed and techy middle-aged Turk is hardly the man of any woman’s dreams. Indeed, Martine Carol was not impressed with her costar, suggesting years later that Action of the Tiger would have greatly benefited from Johnson in the producer’s chair and Sean Connery as its lead.  Indeed, there is something to this – for Connery, barely having accrued enough screen time to rate a cameo in this movie, nevertheless catches the eye – at least, of his director, Terence Young, later to remember him when casting around for the lead in a little-known, low budget actioner entitled, Dr. No (1962). Action of the Tiger also brought Connery to the attention of Walt Disney, who featured him more prominently in the lithe fantasy, Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959).

As for Martine Carol, born Marie-Louise Jeanne Nicolle Mourer – the actress, most famous for her role in Max Ophüls’ Lola Montès (1955) and once considered the French Marilyn Monroe, herein, she makes barely a ripple, despite her buxom appeal and platinum-dyed tresses, playfully bobbing in the wind. Carol’s rise to fame in France was immediate. And although she became typecast as the well-designed blonde temptress, by the time of Action of the Tiger, Carol’s popularity – both at home and abroad – had waned as a new and liberated breed of bombshell began taking over the screens. Despite appearing on screen as the put-together flame of desire, in private, Carol’s life was something of a hot mess, buffeted by botched suicides, drug addiction and a spate of four unsuccessful marriages. Carol also made the tabloids when she was ‘kidnapped’ by admirer and Parisian gangster, Pierre Loutrel (a.k.a. Pierrot le Fou, loosely translated as Crazy Pete). Unexpectedly, Carol was to die of a heart attack in 1967 while making Hell is Empty. She was only 46-yrs.-old.

Action of the Tiger is loosely scripted and hinged on its one-note premise – namely, to rescue Tracy’s brother, Henri, and a handful of Greek children from the crudely managed communist stronghold of Albania. Begrudgingly taking up Tracy’s cause, though only after catching a brief glimpse of her naked, Capt. Carson is quickly disillusioned when the cloak and dagger of a journey for a few turns into a pseudo ‘Inn of the Sixth Happiness’ cross-country pilgrimage on foot, skulking about the craggy and mountainous countryside, narrowly eluding, then getting captured by the police, liberated by Trifon, who Carson engages in a bit of male chest-thumping to prove his love for Tracy, and, finally, making their way to the coastline where Carson’s second in command, Mike, is patiently waiting to take them back to Greece. The particulars sandwiched in between this thumbnail sketch of the plot do not exactly add up to anything better than a series of vignette-based mini-adventures, leaving Van Johnson and Martine Carol to bait each other in some spiteful exchanges, presumably, to test the fidelity of their burgeoning romance. This is the real/reel focus of our story - not Henri Malvoisie, who proves both its MacGuffin and Achilles’ heel. The ruggedly handsome Uruguayan, Gustavo Rojo is utterly wasted in this part. After all, there is only so much one can do with a blind man. Herein, he plays the noble second-string stud, dragged along this rocky terrain by a blushing paramour, Mara, though never given the opportunity to distinguish himself as anything beyond a leaden liability. Action of the Tiger is a weakly premised picture. It has more flaws than virtues and is about as disposable as a late-fifties’ actioner can get.

Action of the Tiger arrives on Blu-ray via Warner Archive’s (WAC) commitment to bringing some of the wonderous oddities of movie-land to hi-def while other, more qualified vintage classics from the same period remain conspicuously absent from consideration. I truly do support WAC in their efforts, because the quality of their mastering, bar none (with Sony Home Entertainment as their only real competitor) is an exemplar of how ‘asset management’ ought to be at every major studio in Hollywood. So, predictably, Action of the Tiger looks solid on Blu-ray. Shot in MetroColor, a flawed process, the image here is very pleasing, perfectly to capture the textured location landscapes. Sets are obvious. And yes, there are moments when flesh tones appear pasty and lean to a yellow caste. But overall, Desmond Dickinson’s cinematography looks great, with good solid contrast, a thick smattering of grain – looking very indigenous to its source – and excellent amounts of fine detail. The 1.0 DTS mono is adequately represented to, although occasionally, dialogue is a bit hard to discern at average listening levels. Owing to the picture’s total lack of staying power, save a theatrical trailer, there are NO extras. Bottom line: Action of the Tiger is not a great movie. While grateful for the effort WAC has spent to make it look as good as possible, I sincerely wish the studio would instead invest their time and energies on more worthwhile titles from their vast catalog of MIA classics.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

2

VIDEO/AUDIO

4.5

EXTRAS

0