CRISIS

US, 1950, 95 minutes, Black and white.
Cary Grant, Jose Ferrer, Signe Hasso, Paula Raymond, Gilbert Roland, Ramon Navarro, Leon Ames.
Directed by Richard Brooks.

Crisis was the first film directed by writer Richard Brooks. Brooks had written such film as Brute Force and Key Largo as well as the adaptation of his novel Crossfire. Brooks was to have a long career with smaller budget serious films in the '50s, moving to adaptations of Dostoevsky, Tennessee Williams, Conrad, Truman Capote, amongst others, in the late '50s and '60s. In the '70s he made such films as Bite the Bullet and Looking For Mr. Goodbar. He generally wrote the films he directed. The films are sombre, with black and white photography but the atmosphere of Latin America. This may have seemed exotic in 1950 but in later decades with greater world information about Latin America, much more real.

Jose Ferrer, at the beginning of his cinema career but in the year that he won the Oscar for Cyrano de Bergerac, is effective as the dictator. Cary Grant employs a more passive style as the American doctor-observer. There is an interesting guitar musical accompaniment with the music of Miklos Rosza for atmosphere. A box-office failure for Cary Grant, Crisis was critically well received at the time, it looks very good even in later decades.

1. How interesting a melodrama and thriller? Its impact in 1950, later? World information about Latin America in the '40s and '50s, now? The note of the prologue about events and influences and the critique - how effective was it?

2. Black and white photography, the closed atmosphere of the Latin American Republic, the atmosphere of danger and civil war, riot and assassination? The contribution of the guitar music? The contrast of the United States with Latin America - politics, freedom? The medical atmosphere and the way this was communicated to the audience?

3. The significance and focus of the title, its application to Dr. Ferguson, to the President, to the Republic?

4. What was communicated during the opening sequence: Americans in Latin America, Latin American visitors with the more detached look? The focus on President Farrago, the violence erupting, the potential for danger and the Americans' need for escape? How did this summarise what was to happen?

5. The sinister significance of the phone call from the Colonel, Dr. Ferguson's decision to ignore it, the road block and their being kidnapped, the train trip and the puzzle about what was to happen, Dr. Ferguson and his wife having to cope?

6. The President's wife meeting them and explaining the situation? The audience also understanding? However, the Fergusons virtually imprisoned in the palace? The persuasion about the operation? What convinced the doctor to do the operation? Did he really have any choice?

7. Jose Ferrer's characterisation of the President - as a man, his illness? His rise to power in the Republic, his theories about civil war, violence, that the people were ignorant and need leaders like him? His attitude towards life and the importance of the operation? His pressurising the doctor, the antagonism towards the doctor and yet his explaining himself to him? The atmosphere of fear and his not being able to go outside the palace, the security risks against his life? How interesting and accurate a portrait of a Latin American President and the atmosphere in which he ruled and lived?

8. How well did the film sketch in the background of the civil war, the President's explanation, his advisers and their discussions, the atmosphere of revolution in the city and its outbreak?

9. Cary Grant and his style in presenting Dr Ferguson? The American, skills and poise? His summing up the situation, his assessment of the pressures? His decision? Training his attendants, the importance of the rehearsal and its atmosphere with the President and his attendants looking on? Dr Ferguson's co-operation with the local physician?

10. The film using Helen for audience identification - her fears, powerlessness to do anything, watching the riots and her fears, the incident in the cafe, her leaving, the fact that she could be taken for a hostage? (and the importance of Dr Ferguson not knowing this about his wife?)

11. The group of revolutionaries portrayed in the cafe, their admiration for Ferguson's stand, yet their decision to kidnap his wife, the message, the decision as to who would take it, the man disguised as a friar? The irony of the message not getting through? Were the causes of the revolutionaries made clear - in view of the ending, did this matter?

12. The American oil man and the indication of the American business presence. his helping Ferguson, taking him to the cafe and the discovery of Helen's kidnapping?

13. How important dramatically was the interaction of doctor and President, the national points of view, political points of view, principles? Power of life and death? Domination?

14. The build-up to the operation, the style in which it was filmed to show the dangers, the length of time? The doctors reaction? The President's reaction and forgetting his illness? The revolutionary's advising the doctor to kill the President? The inevitability of the President's power killing him? The melodrama of his death and his attempt to shoot the doctor?

15. The atmosphere of the revolution, the town square, the siege of the palace and his repeating virtually what Farrago had said? The irony of his being shot and the same request for the doctor to save his life? The ironic political comment of this ending?

16. How satisfying a blend of melodrama and political themes? How convincing was the material on freedom? The contrast with Americans and Latin Americans? An interesting political and human story?