Movie review - "Captain Kidd" (1945) ***

Surprisingly engaging swashbuckler about the famous pirate who wasn't really much of a pirate in real life. Here he is, though - memorably portrayed by Charles Laughton his main motivation is to get enough money to become a member of society. Most Laughton performances have something to commend of it and he's a lot of fun here. Also fun are John Carradine and Gilbert Roland as members of his crew - and while Randolph Scott isn't the first actor one thinks to play a noblemen masquerading as a pirate, he is suitably heroic (albeit too American). 

The script was written by Norman Randolph Reilly who also wrote The Adventures of Robin Hood; it was the last film directed by Rowland V Lee, who has a decent list of credits. The story flies by and Kidd is an engaging, smart villain who isn't beaten til the very end.

Edward Small

Watching Son of Monte Cristo made me reflect on the career of producer Edward Small. He was incredibly prolific, but turned out an amazing amount of decent films - Count of Monte Cristo, The Corsican Brothers, Witness for the Prosecution. He deserves to be better known.

Movie review - "Son of Monte Cristo" (1941) ***

Excellent example of an unpretentious, medium-budget swashbuckler that Hollywood used to churn out. Technically a sequel to The Count of Monte Cristo (1934), this is more of a follow up to The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), with Louis Hayward and Joan Bennett again starring and George Bruce again scripting.

Hayward is the son of the famous count who gets involved in a dictatorial Balkan country - mainly because he takes a shine to Bennett, as the local duchess (who is democratically minded). The show is stolen by George Sanders as the local dictator - although a brute he is a smart one, willing to get his own hands dirty, he seems to genuinely love Bennett and at least he's worked his way up himself the hard way (the film is pro-aristocracy, but very anti-Nazi).

Brisk pace helps it not matter so much the story rips off Zorro - Hayward pretends to be a fop and also dons a black mask to become "The Torch". Well directed from Rowland Lee - Sanders has an especially spectacular death. If two of the support cast seem vaguely familiar, its because they are Clayton Moore (later the Lone Ranger) and Dick Byrd (later Dick Tracy).

Book review - "Samuel L Jackson" biography

Decent bio of the actor whose unexpected rise to fame was one of the delights of movie going in the 1990s. Sam Jackson was in his 40s with a long career ons stage and a major drug addiciton behind him when he made an impact as a movie star. Well, he's kind of a movie star - I kept thinking of actors like Robert Ryan, that category star... not really box office, but certainly attractive to audiences. This doesn't seem to be taken into account by Jackson who is always complaining about not earning as much money as white co-stars - which in some cases is fair enough but he's not the audience guarantee say a Denzel or Eddie Murphy is. He also whines a bit too much about missing out on Oscars. Everyone misses out on Oscars, Sam! I still found this engrossing reading. Jackson's battles over his addictions are inspiring, as is his career. Even non black actors will find his career and late stardom a tonic.

Movie review - "American Dreamz" (2006) ***

Paul Weitz makes another claim to being the closest thing we have today to a Billy Wilder with this satire on the American Idol phenomenon. It is an easy target, and so too is having a dopey American president, but there are enough smarts and bright moments to push this over the line. Hugh Grant is a memorably caddish host, and the guy who plays the show tune loving terrorist is really good. (Ditto the guy who plays his gay Arab cousin.) Mandy Moore is on good form in an easy role - Mandy Moore has got pretty good taste in scripts, especially compared to Britney and the others.

Movie review - "Failure to Launch" (2006) **

This isn't really a movie its just kind of this thing that's there - it goes for around 90 minutes, is in colour, has actors speaking dialogue... but it's not really a movie. It has a bright subject matter - namely, adults who still haven't left the nest - but it's not really explored. It's kind of yucky that Sara Jessica Parker gets in relationships with these guys to build their confidence - but she doesn't sleep with them? Yeah, right. And how does she break it off? If she was doing it as a joke or a one off maybe it would work. But not for a job. Matthew Mahoganey is irritating in his yacht model way - he seems to have given up appealing to men, Mahoganey, he's that irritating. I don't think there's a single decent joke in it - hang on, giving mouth to mouth to a mockingbird was funny. But that's it. The film has editing and directing energy, but a flat script.

Documentary review - "Broadway: the American Musical" (2004)

This six part doco starts with Julie Andrews walking to the camera and saying "Hello, I'm Julie Andrews". And you just want to say "of course you are". Who is going to watch this who doesn't know who Julie Andrews is? This is a highly entertaining doco, not in the class of a, say, Ken Burns, but still very good, which plenty of vision to satisfy musical fans, especially post-WW2. We see early TV performances of On the Town, South Pacific, etc - my favourite bit is seeing a bit where Rex Harrison throws a tantrum. It concentrates on the hits and big composers - looking at a few flops might have been fun, too. The final section concentrates on The Producers and Wicked, shows which indicated there is a lot of life in Broadway musicals, yet.

Book review - "Jumping Off the Cliff" by Patrick McGilligan

There have been many books about Robert Altman but this one actually looks behind the analysis to provide a biography. As a result it is essential for Altman fans, and others just vaguely interested in him (like me - I've never been a big fan though I have liked his more popular films). McGilligan takes an affectionate but not uncritical look at the amazing career of this director, whom most people only know for his post-MASH work. I was aware that Altman had put in hard yards before hand but had no idea how hard.

Born in the mid-west to a prosperous family, Altman seems to have gone through his life with an odd mixture of partying and hard work. He flew bombers in the Pacific in WW2, tried to get a start in Hollywood on his return (and did succeed in selling a few stories such as Bodyguard and nabbing a few extra roles), returning to Kansas City and working hard making industrial films, then going to Hollywood in the 50s and eventually establishing himself as one of the top directors on TV.

I knew Altman was a big name but had no idea how big - he really had an impressive reputation, mostly through work on Bonanza and Combat, but I think it was also mostly due to the fact that Altman always tried to do something different, something unusual. He was never a hack, he always pushed the boundaries (he did this on his industrial films, too). Eventually he moved into features regularly, and had a massive hit with MASH - which really was a fluke, he's never matched it since (though he might have had a more commercial career - even within the confines of his vision - had he accepted the fact he couldn't really write and really needed screenwriters - this seems to have held him back, and only when he bucks the trend, eg The Player, Gosford Park, does he have a real chance).

The public has only taken to Altman films on rare occasions - his second biggest hit was Popeye, but interestingly that had a reputation for a failure and turned him persona non grata among the studios for a while. Altman has several strengths which keep him going - a work ethic (maybe because on his sets there always seems to be parties, booze and some drugs), a determination to keep going no matter what, low budgets, a great reputation among actors, sheer tenacity. The book's sub-title could be "survivor" - Altman just keeps going. McGilligan writes well and the stories fairly fly by; he takes him to look at Altman's style and working methods and relationships with other people. He doesn't get bogged down in jargon. Altman wasn't involved but it doesn't seem to matter, especially as he has been quoted so often.

The only real problem with the book is that it only goes up to 1989, by which stage Altman was coming off a couple of bombs in OC & Stiggs and Beyond Therapy but he'd rescued his reputation (again!) with work on TV, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial and Tanner. In a few years Altman was back in a big way with The Player then only a few years ago he made Gosford Park. The 90s were a kinder decade to him professionally than the 80s. But the 80s, 60s, even 50s - he just keeps on going on. Amazing. Great read.

Script review - "Local Hero" 1981

This script was dated 1981 and seemed to match fairly closely to the film that I saw (although I hadn't seen it for a while). Even on the page it remains a charming piece, which does flounder a bit in the second half (once the villagers want to sell nothing much happens until the beachcomber doesn't want to sell - it feels as though it lacks a sub-plot) but contains all those delightful jokes. Eating the rabbit is especially hilarious. Forsyth realises that the American-comes-to-Scotland idea is a little old so constantly perks it up with modern touches: the accoutant and hotel keeper, the nearby air force base, the black African reverend. He also refuses to give Mac, the lead, a lovel interest, though the film might have been more popular with one.

Script review - "Dirty Harry" from 1970

An early draft of the famous film, when it was to star Frank Sinatra and be directed by Irvin Kershner. The plot is still a random man is shooting people from rooftops and rough as guts Harry takes the law into his own hands to save the day; after a long sequence where Harry plays cat and mouse with the killer, he arrests the killer, but Harry's enthusiastic disregard for human right sees the killer released. Harry stalks him and gets him. In this early version the killer is a vigilante, only shooting criminals, not kidnapping anyone - way different from the psycho in the film, and making Harry a lot more sympathetic (though the idea was used later for the baddies in Magnum Force). Also, here is partner is an Anglo Saxon and he and Harry snap at each other more of the way. And at the end the killer is genuinely being stalked by Harry, he isn't up to anything bad. The main feature though is the strength of the Dirty Harry character. The script is credited to the Finks, John Milius and Terence Mallick - there are a few odes to the joys of guns that are pure Milius.

Movie review - "Double Indemnity" (1944) ****1/2

I remember being a little bit disappointed by this film when I first saw it, but then it was so hyped that was kind of inevitable. It's a top notch film noir with the benefit of a brilliant performance by Fred MacMurray in the lead role - MacMurray always excelled as creepy seemingly nice guys. Barbra Stanwyck's hair is a little funny (it's hard to buy her as irresistibly sexy with that blonde helmet) but she is good, too - though not as good as MacMurray and Edward G Robinson, the latter as an insurance investigator. 

The minor support parts are OK - better written than acted. Everyone likes the plot and dialogue of this film, and they should because they are excellent. Two other things I really like in particular - the fact that MacMurray does the crime not really because of Stanwyck but because he's always wanted to have a go at a crime, and the fact that at the end he has a way of getting out of it - he's not dumb like William Hurt in Body Heat. An early Billy Wilder film so not as full of directorial flourishes as other film noir.

Movie review - "Sunset Boulevard" (1950) ****

Classic Billy Wilder film is sometimes called a film noir but is really more of a horror film, an endlessly creepy tale of a struggling screenwriter (William Holden, in a role that got his career back on track) who hooks up with a faded silent movie star (superb Gloria Swanson). Full of weird off beat touches: a monkey funeral, the empty pool, the dialogue, the car, the butler (Eric Von Stroheim) who turns out to be a former great director and Swanson's ex-husband. Brilliant writing, with even a little sentimentality in the scenes between Holden and Nancy Olson. A writer once said you are either a Sunset Blvd type of person or a Casablanca person; I'm Casablanca but I still enjoy Sunset Blvd.

Movie review - "Inside Man" (2006) ***1/2

One of those movies I really enjoyed with a few late minute twists that make you go "ooh"... then around two hours later something clicks and you go "hang on". One or two obvious plot contrivances - why keep it in the vault? - and some less obvious - how does he get out? - but this is mostly a lot of fun. Denzel Washington is a slightly bent cop outwitted by Clive Owen; it's great to see Jodie Foster playing a bitch. The hostages behave very selfishly and whiningly - it's Spike Lee's city so I guess he knows what he's talking about. Visual flourishes and social commentary work well. I know the Sikh is hard done by - but how about being a little less selfish. The female characters aren't the best - they're either bitches (Jodie Foster, the Albanian ex-wife), or sex figures (the big boobed robber, Denzel's girlfriend). Tremendous music score from Terence Blanchard.

Book review - "The Civil War" by Ken Burns

A book to accompany the famous Ken Burns series is very fine - a skilful text which encompasses the battle and focuses on the characters. It lacks hearing the voices and music and the "personal" aspect of the war - reading letters, the characters of Eli Rhodes and Sam Watkins, the stuff on slavery - has less impact than on TV, but it does have a stack of photos whoch are incredible. What an awful, hideous war - so many dead. (I know you could say that about any war but this one seems especially beastly.). Was the Civil War inevitable? It would seem so - slavery wasn't going to go away, like many in the North and South hoped. America was two different countries and they either had to split or one had to be dominant. Was the South ever going to win? Shelby Foote says not, pointing out the North fought with one hand behind its back. I agree it did that, but there was a strong peace movement in the North - a more united Democrat party and some losses by the North near the 64 election may have seen it all change. Or at least dragged on a bit longer. A moving, powerful book on a moving, powerful story.

Play review - "Journey's End" by RC Sherriff

Stunning 1928 play from RC Sherriff which surprised me how much it still held up. On one level you can make fun of it, with the characters all tally-ho and jolly-good and forelock tugging privates and talk of rugger and school and forests back home - the sort of character Hugh Laurie played in Black Adder Goes Fourth. But the underbelly is so real, so tragic - and Sherriff was there, you can tell he was there, with the smell of death and destruction over every page. It's amazing. Two scenes are particulary brilliant - the one where Stanhorpe confronts a coward with a gun and talks of his own cowardice, and the one where two officers - a young one and an old one - chat in the trench minutes before they go over the top. This is breathtaking writing. The climax is also strong - and there is a massive shock when Stanhope, who you're convinced is going to die... actually lives. Powerful, brilliant, etc.

Movie review - Pink Panther#2 - "A Shot in the Dark" (1964) ***

Sequel to The Pink Panther, adapted from a play which didn't feature Inspector Clouseau but the film does. Peter Sellars is in good form and the film introduced the characters of Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) and Kato (Burt Kwouk), who appeared in the later sequels. A decent, funny film - not as great as some say (such as Leonard Maltin), and I missed the Pink Panther and more obvious glamour of the first film, but it has sweet Elke Sommer and some funny moments.

Movie review - "Strange Planet" (1999) **

I have affection for this film for personal reasons but looking back it isn't very good. The filmmakers seem to have been struck by the novelty of their structure - a group of three female friends and a group of three male friends who don't meet til the end - but it doesn't work. They don't interact at all - not really - until the very end, which means we follow six plots, none of which are that interesting. Compare it to Sleepless in Seattle, where the lead characters don't meet - but Meg Ryan is fully aware of Tom Hanks from the beginning and her following him sets off the whole plot. Claudia Karvan is a capable, skilled actor but her character is very unlikeable here, sleeping her way to the top and making narky comments about working in radio. Naomi Watts would do greater work later, too. Tom Long is a bit better - but what sort of lawyer in 1999 smokes in his office? And tells his client he's thinking of quitting? Some nice moments: the Sydney montages, Noami Watts and Aaron Jeffreys locking eyes when they first meet. But if feels too much like a film made by rich people who live in Bondi.

Book review - "E = mc2"

Biography of the famous equation which tries to put it in simple terms. I kind of understood it by the end of it but admit i know very little about science - the writer does a good job. We meet many colourful personalities - not just Einstein but Voltaire and a surprising amount of women (women really kicked butt in science circles). The climax involving the race for the atomic bomb is very exciting. And depressing. Lovely word in the author's note: "I loved writing this book".

Script review - "Apocalypse Now" from 1975

Earlier draft of the famous film, written by John Milius but with Coppola touches. Some of it seems more Milius than Coppola - the surfing stuff of course, but also a scene where the soldiers visit a French plantation and the opening scene where Willard is established post-war as a bodyguard for a rich wanker. Oh, and the Dennis Hopper part in the script is an Australian. And Kurtz is different. There's also a yucky sequence where the crew run into the dancing girls who have been stranded. Still, powerful stuff - even on the page.

Book review - "Who the Devil's in It?" by Peter Bogdanovich

A sort of follow up by Peter Bogdanovich to his earlier Who the Devil Made It - this one looks at film actors. It is more autobiographical than the earlier piece and concentrates a lot on Bogdanovich's friendships with actors - Cary Grant, James Stewart, River Phoenix, Jerry Lewis, etc. Some he really just interviewed (eg Jack Lemmon), others he became friendly with (Jerry Lewis), some he worked with (Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazzara), a couple were actually close friends (John Cassavetes, Sal Mineo).

Interestingly, though, it doesn't look at the actors who really broke through in Bogdanovich pictures - Cybill Shepherd, Jeff Bridges, Ryan O'Neal, Tatum O'Neal, Eileen Brennan, John Ritter, John Hillerman, Eric Stoltz. Or Ben Johnson, who won an Oscar in Last Picture Show. He's also worked with a lot of stars who surely would have made a decent chapter - Barbra Streisand, Burt Reynolds, Cher. (You could argue they were new Hollywood and the book is old Hollywood, but then why include River Phoenix?) I guess they're all still alive.

Although Bogdanovich has worked as an actor he isn't really that good a one, certainly not as good as he is a director, and this book isn't as insightful as the one on directors. But it is always interesting and Bogdanovich is a talented writer. Many of the pieces appeared earlier in a collection of his writing, Pieces of Time.

Bogdanovich tried to get up a number of projects with stars that didn’t work. The one I think would have been great was John Wayne, James Stewart and Henry Fonda in a Larry McMurty script which would become Lonesome Dove (in the roles played by Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Duvall, and Robert Urich). However, I don’t particularly long for his project about degenerate gamblers with Sinatra, Martin and Lewis (degenerate gamblers are too depressing).

Particularly interesting is Bogdanovich’s relationship with Cary Grant, who was friendly with the director but also kept him at a distance. Bogdanovich seems especially keen to lap up any praise or recognition from Grant, like a worshipful freshman from the cool kid in high school; in return he tried to enlist Grant’s aid in the director’s fight against Universal when he made Mask (complaining about losing some scenes and Bruce Springsteen songs), even invoking Grant’s name in a letter to the studio.