Movie review - "Syncopation" (1942) **1/2

 Kind of the history of jazz - it acknowledges the role of slavery and the importance of black musicians, some of whom appear and even get lines of dialogue (not nothing in 1942 Hollywood) but the bulk of the running time concerns Bonita Granville, who plays boogie woogie and is loved by various musicians including Ted North and mostly Jackie Cooper. Adolphe Menjou is her dad but doesn't have much to do.

Plenty of music and guest stars. Major studio polish. First screen credit for Phil Yordan - some of it is set in Chicago. Granbille is a sweetheart. Never became a big star but always nice to meet her.

Best scene - a shoot out in a speak easy and Granville and Cooper kiss in silhouette. Could have done with more gangsters. 

Movie review - "The Bramble Bush" (1960) **

 Warner Bros tries to get some of that Peyton Place cash with this adaptaiton of secrets and lust in a small New England town. Richard Burton is a doctor coming home who tends sick friend Tom Drake who asks Burton to root his wife Barbara Rush; sexy nurse Angie Dickinson is having an affair with married Jack Carson but wants to hump Burton.

The film doesn't work. It's got some of the ingredients but there's no feel for small town life - there's not enough family drama. Burton needed to be Drake's brother and maybe even Carson's brother. There's too many middle aged people - it needed some youngies. I never thought I would write these words but it cries out for the Troy Donahue treatment.

Angie Dickinson plays it in the right style - her throwing herself at Burton is a highlight of the movie. Jack Carson can act but is too old and fat - the part needed someone sexy like one of Warner Bros TV stars like Clint Walker. Burton has charisma and the voice but feels out of place. He has this entertainingly bad monologue where he reminiscies about discovering his mother cheated. Barbara Rush is quite good but the film would be more fun with a Lana Turner/Susan Hayward.

Phil Yordan and Milton Sperling were credited for the script- they weren't the right people. They specialise in male tales. This needed someone more emphathetic to women. 

A fair bit of sex - Rush gets pregnant to Burton, Rush talks about the healthy sex life of her and Drake (which I didn't believe, neither actor give that impression, but it was refreshing to hear), Dickinson poses nude for a lecherous journo and we see her bare aback.

Misses the mark. But Dickinson good. 

Radio review - "Three O'Clock" (1949) ***

 Solid set up - Van Heflin decides to blow up his cheating wife, his house gets robbed and he gets locked at home, he realises the wife is innocent. The denoument feels vaguely unsatisfactory.

Fun in joke where Van Heflin refers to someone seeing The Three Musketeers at the movies - he was in it. Heflin is a strong actor and gives a fine performance.

From a Cornell Woolrich story. 

Radio review - "Suspense" - 2 versions of "The Black Path of Fear" (1943) and (1946)

 One with Brian Donlevy, the other with Cary Grant, same script basically from the Cornell Woolrich novel which works as a short story.

Wonderful sense of doom to start off with. Decent ending. 

Movie review - "The Seventh Sin" (1957) **

 A complete hash by MGM. In the 1950s they remade a lot of its old hits - not a bad idea especially if they had colour and proper stars. This has cinemascope but is in black and white and inappropriate stars.

The throughlines of Somerset Maugham's novel is clear - a woman is silly and selfish, has an affair, realises her husband isn't that bad and the guy she cheated with is useless. That doesn't come across here. 

The script is partly to blame - it introduces the lover (Jean Pierre Aumont) but then gets rid of him; we never see him again or his wife. But mostly I think it's the casting. Eleanor Parker is lovely, and a competent actress but is far too sensible for the lead crying out for original choice Ava Gardner, or Elizabeth Taylor or simply someone more of a hot mess. Bill Travers is amateur hour as the husband. He needs to be in love with his wife but hating it, and heroic, but he can't do it, Aumont is just whatever. George Sanders steals the film as a quippy doctor where the big reveal is his wife is Asian and happy because he's docile. Sanders sound have played travers' part. Or Aumonts'. Gosh, imagine Tom Conway and Sanders in this.

The shoot was difficult - Ronald Neame and David Lewis were sacked - but the film was dead to begin with due to casting and inept script. 

Book review - "The Black Path of Fear" (1944) by Cornel Woolrich

 Never read him before. Writes divinely. Gets off to such a brilliant start with its sense of doom - lovers fleeing husband. Then she's killed. It is strong for a while - he meets a mystery woman - then feels padded. Perks up with him murdering the husband. But you can see why it made a solid 30 minute radio drama.

Movie review - "Studs Lonigan" (1960) **

 Phil Yordan had success adapting a sexy novel with God's Little Acre so did this one too. It's not very good. It's dull. It tries. Who cares about the book. Some sex but tame. Christopher Knight can't act. I think his voice is dubbed. Poor Jack Nicholson is in it as a mate - how must he have felt. Frank Gorshin is in it. Venetia Stevenson too. People like Dick Foran.

The film is full of talent. Yordan, Nicholson, Haskell Wexler, Jerry Goldsmith.

Like I say it tries. It's just not a compelling story. Lots of voice over to cover it. There's confessing to the priest at the end - Yordan used this in Edge of Doom and The Bravadoes.