The Turning Point (1977)

Pretty Good

Just what I expected

Absolutely the worst movie.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Copyright 1 November 1952 by Paramount Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Globe: 15 November 1952. U.S. release: November 1952. U.K. release: 1 December 1952. Australian release: 21 November 1952. Sydney opening at the Prince Edward: 21 November 1952 (ran 3 weeks). 7,797 feet. 86 minutes.SYNOPSIS: John Conroy, an honest, aggressive lawyer and politician, is head of a special committee investigating organized crime in a large Midwestern city. His friend, investigative reporter Jerry McKibbon, is shocked to discover that Conroy's father, Matt, was once a policeman on the syndicate payroll; but McKibbon decides not to tell Conroy about his father. As the committee puts pressure on the syndicate chieftain, Eichelberger, the gangsters decide that Matt Conroy must be killed.NOTES: Although the film was only moderately successful in America and England, it proved to have an astonishing second wind in Australia which made it one of Paramount's top money-earners of the 1950s. The initial Sydney season at the plush Prince Edward had to be pulled for the pre-set engagement of The Greatest Show On Earth. On move-over to the downtown Lyric, a second release grind house, the film attracted such consistent turnaway business, it became Paramount's best sleeper of the decade, being constantly revived and re-circulated. Prints of the film were never idle and even the front-of-house lobby cards and posters eventually wore out. The Lyric itself re-presented the film "by popular demand" no less than seven or eight times.COMMENT: "Turning Point" is a crime drama that was totally under-rated by half-asleep professional critics (except in Australia). Written by Warren Duff and Horace McCoy, it was photographed and directed in an imaginative film noir style that made most effective use of its natural urban locations (in Los Angeles). Realistic sound is used to augment some tingling action sequences, handled with superb control of crowds and effects. In some ways, the story parallels The Enforcer (1951), but Dieterle's direction is beholden to no-one. Although it does use the real backgrounds beloved of the semi-documentary artists, this is no mere reportage approach. Dieterle has directed not only with style, polish and finesse, but at a crackling pace.Oddly, the script has many subtleties which censors didn't notice at the time (although wide-awake audiences did, which would partly account for the film's tremendous popularity, particularly in Australia): Holden staying the night in Smith's apartment, for example; but even more startlingly, the explicit identification of the crime czar (surely the most vicious ever to appear on celluloid) as Jewish (his name is Eichelberger, and he gets most of his income from usurious money-lending) and of his heroic opponent as a Gentile (at one stage our hero even pointedly asks for a ham sandwich).The principals turn in most believable and arresting performances which just manage to keep a few tenuous steps ahead of the extremely able support cast led by Tom Tully, Ed Begley and as thuggy a group of gangsters as any film noir fan could wish: Don Porter, Ted De Corsia, Neville Brand. An exceptional cameo cast includes Ralph Sanford as the Detroit contact in the pool-room, Howard Freeman, Ray Teal, Carolyn Jones and Jay Adler.

There's a Rush song that I stumbled onto last week (Losing It, hard- hitting and emotionally evocative) which was supposedly inspired in part by "The Turning Point". Which is a movie I'd never even heard of before finding that song. And at the risk of sounding like a philistine, this is just not at all for me. It's ballet, for Pete's sake. I have no learned appreciation or the craft, and that's the essence of the whole thing. Evidently, this was an awards movie, and it's got that in its DNA; artsy and puffed-up. These women are facing regret and hard feelings, but Bancroft and MacLaine are so subdued for most of this. The boiling point doesn't come until way too late and I didn't buy that there's really animus between them. And everything winds up (mostly) rosy in the end; everyone has clarity and contentment. I was hoping for something a little less soapy. 5/10

If you're expecting a masterpiece of storytelling and acting when watching, "The Turning Point", you'll be greatly disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the 2 lead performances are great, however the best supporting actor and best supporting actress are completely undeserved, they were okay, not great. The ballet performances are really good and breathtaking to watch. However, the movie, really feels like a made for T.V flick instead of a full-scale cinematic experience. They're were many other films that deserved a Best Picture nomination in 1977. The film has pretty much faded in the last 30 years, no one really talks about it anymore. If you're just looking for a film that showcases some truly great ballet, you won't be disappointed, if you're looking for something more, you won't find it here.

Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft play one-time ballerina rivals in this pointless sudser from 1977. MacLaine has a loving husband and comfy home, but gave up her career; Bancroft has the career, but no one to share it with. Both re-meet when MacLaine's daughter becomes a ballerina and struggle with feelings of what could have been if each had pursued the life of the other. Congratulations if you can muster up the energy to care about any of this, because I sure as hell couldn't.The film features an Academy Award nominated performance by Mikhail Baryshnikov, whose nomination was for his dancing, not his acting, and another wonderful low-key performance from the shamelessly underrated Tom Skerritt as MacLaine's husband. The high point of the film is when MacLaine and Bancroft let loose on one another in a good old fashioned hair-pulling, face-scratching cat fight. The rest is a dull bore.Grade: C-