Movie review - "State Fair" (1945) ***1/2

The fellers coming home from Iwo Jima would have loved this dollop of farm town Americana, with its lightest of light plots, romance and tunes. They would have adored smiling girl next door Jeanne Crain, who is the daughter who falls in love with a journo (Dana Andrews). Crain and Andrews are the two big names, plus Dick Haymes who is Crain'sbrother, so the film isn't exactly overloaded with star charisma. But everyone is very engaging (Haymes is a bit on the awkward side but sing swell), Vivienne Blaine likable as the "fast" singer, there are somegood pig performances and the tunes are top quality: "It Might As Well Be Spring", "State Fair", etc (This was Rodgers and Hammerstein's only score just for the movies).

Movie review - "Highlander" (1986) **1/2

I wonder what it would have been like being a New York City parking attendant in the mid 80s - doing your boring job calmly, then getting a call from an irate customer about two men duelling with swords on Level4. The core of this film is one of those gloriously over the top concepts that really work - the lonely chosen, who can't die. The fights are well done but the most moving thing is the sequence where Christopher Lambert stays with his true love, despite the fact that she ages and he doesn't - this is really good (as is the actor who plays her, whereas Chloe Webb, who is Lambert's 20th century love, is a bit bland making the last third a bit of a chore). Lambert himself is a bit awkward and stiff, but Sean Connery provides some much needed spark and Clancy Wilson has a high old time as the baddie.

Movie review - "Waitress" (2007) ***

An example of the "indie rom com" - not quite a Hollywood rom com, but it still has a female lead mixed up with love and wanting something better in life. It is full of sunny charm and sweetness, though guilty of pandering: Kerri Russell has a bad marriage, but its her husband's fault (he's oppressive, clingy, abusive, a bad lover and occasionally violent); a handsome doctor comes along (Nathan Fillot, very likable)to have an affair with; she has two good friends who support her and a crusty old man who proves to be a guardian angel and she has a baby and its wonderful. Adultery gets a good promo here - there are two affairs,both shown to be positive experiences for the women involved. Oh, I'm being mean - this is a nice movie, with some strong performances (I'm not a big Kerri Russell fan but she's fine), writer-director Adrienne Shelley has a sure touch and you walk out feeling really good.

Book review - "Rosalind Russell"

Ros Russell was one of those actors who seemed to get to the top by sheer dint of hard work - never quite really pretty or talented or charismatic, she nonetheless kept at it and ended up having a marvellous career. Much of the quality of her material is variable - every time she appeared in a classic (eg His Girl Friday, Auntie Mame), she'd follow it up with a series of bland concoctions, esp in the 40s when she was forever featuring in career girl comedies, or in the 60s when she was perhaps along with Kate Hepburn the oldest female star who was a genuine box office draw outside of horror movies but could never seem to get the ingredients right. This is a decent enough bio, focusing on her career rather than her personality, which waffles a bit in places(eg putting in the bios of people Russell worked with a bit too often -and the bios are normally more credit listings than pithy encapsulations) but gets better as it goes on and is particularly strong on her 50s and 60s work esp Mame and her Broadway acting.

Book review - "Guns of Muschu" by Don Dennis

I always suspected Z Force had a few more great true-life "guys on a mission" stories apart from the Krait raids, and here is one - the tale of a recon patrol to the island of Muschu on the New Guinea coast in order to check if there are guns there. Eight men went in, only one came out. A fascinating tale, quite exciting, very well researched though with a frustrating absence of footnotes. Would make a good movie, though you'd have to do changes (much of the film is one man on his own - how would you do exposition?) Well written, too.

(official website of the book is here).

Book review - "Josh Hartnett Really Wants to do This" by Bruce Beresford

Irritatingly subtitled "adventures from a life in the screen trade"which makes you hopefully that its going to be an autobiography but it only covers a year or so. Not that that doesn't have value, I enjoyed the book, it's that's an annoying subtitle. 

Beresford makes good company - smart, cultured (he genuinely loves movies, opera, music and art), opinionated and indiscreet. He's not slow in slagging off movies, coworkers, etc - but he's also quick to praise, and even better admits at times to have been wrong (mainly in failing to predict what will be a successful film - is this why he's made so much junk). It seems that Beresford still gets gigs overseas from Driving Miss Daisy. 

It's fascinating to read an account of making a film that the director doesn't want to make (The Contract - John Cusack charges $4 million! For an action movie! No one wants to see Cusack in an action film) and to see just how thick skinned and tenacious you need to be eg executives and stars often say they're willing to make movies with anyone but Beresford, which must be a bit withering. 

For all his gripes about failing to get up projects he wants to make and dealing with idiots life can still be pretty good - travelling all round the world, being put up in top quality accom at film festivals, whipping over to Italy to see friends - and many of his problems are whiny rich baby boomer problems(eg "I told the tenants of my London flat to draw the curtains as it ruins my paintings but they didn't listen"). 

His family life is a bit obscure - he is married but barely mentions his wife, and is his heavily overweight son a special needs child? No mention either of Long Tan.

Movie review - "Neptune's Darling" (1949) ***

Bright, sunny and colourful like a glass of cool lemonade on a hot day, made by a studio, MGM, who were totally comfortable with this sort of film. Hollywood often gets pigeon holed as this bastion of Anglo values but MGM made a strong push to turn Ricardo Montalban into a star, or at least a name (they did, too, with Fernando Lamas) - he's the romantic lead to Esther Williams, while the wacky comic duties are handled by Red Skelton and Betty Garrett.

The plot involves a misunderstanding that Skelton is Montalban and vice versa, much of which is contrived and easily resolved at the end, but serves to keep things frothing along in between comic set pieces, musical numbers and pool scenes. There is one stand out moment: a performance of "Baby It's Cold Outside" - even though Montalban and Williams weren't the best singers or dancers in the world, they are fine, and the song is so brilliantly suited to a musical and well choreographed, etc, it works an absolute treat.

Movie review - "Best in Show" (1999) ***1/2

Not as good as Spinal Tap but better than Waiting for Guffman mainly because the subject lends itself better to a film - it's the old sports movie, the difference being that the sport is a dog show, which provides rich ground for satire. Chris Guest's part isn't as big as you think its going to be, which is selfless of him (its because he doesn't have a human partner whereas the others do). The cast is in excellent form and the finale genuinely exciting. For all the top quality of impro the funniest bits must surely have been scripted eg the magazine for the lesbian dog owner, and the McMillan and Wife reference.

Movie review - "Doing Time for Patsy Cline" (1997) **1/2

Sweet Aussie film with Matt Day doing his expert innocent yokel act and Miranda Otto perhaps overdoing the I-am-captivating thing. There's a lot of running around and jumping back in forth in time but it never really seems to come alive. It does have its own identity and soul, though and I know my father in law would love it.

Movie review - "The Spoilers" (1942) ***

After Stagecoach it took John Wayne around ten years to really rise to the top rank (with Red River) but his films during this part were consistently enjoyable, none more so than this, made at Universal in that studio's unpretentious way. Almost 20 years before North to Alaska the Duke is running around Nome during the Gold Rush trying to fight off claim jumpers and being involved with a "fast" woman (Marlene Dietrich who teams marvellously with Wayne - so well, in fact, that Randolph Scott, as a con man antagonist, is hardly a threat).

There is a fast pace, plenty of grizzled character actors, a slightly distasteful portrayal at how bad the judicial system is opposed to good old fashioned just taking over land and fighting people off, a really distasteful scene where Wayne puts himself in black face to hide the baddies and Dietrich's black maid thinks he's a black and flirts with him (seriously), a famous brawl between Wayne and Scott at the end (which I thought would be an all-in one along the lines of Dodge City but is actually just the two of them slugging it out while everyone watches, but is still well done).

Movie review - "Die Hard 4.0" (2007) **

Big explosions, cartoon stunts (falling out of a helicopter and off a plane just gets you a scratch), snazzy visual styles, silly mistakes:it's a bright idea to have all electronics, power, etc shut down in the US, but where's the human stakes? It's annoying, sure, but no lives are threatened (cf the first two Die Hards). They try to fix it by throwing in McLane's daughter at the end, but that should have been in the first act not the third (Justin Long means nothing to him - how about making him his son in law or son or something?)

Tim Olyphant is fine as the baddie and Maggie Q very strong as his sidekick. But the references to the first film (eg an FBI agent called "Special Agent Johnson", McLane's daughter taking the name "Genero" until the end when she becomes "McLane") only serve to remind the viewer what a better, cleverer film the original was.

Book review - "Point to Point" by Gore Vidal

The second half of Vidal's memoirs, from 1964 up to 2006 - only it isn't, really, because he flashes back and goes on about his childhood and parents again, and his 1960 political race and working in television, etc - though a bit more concisely than in Plampiset. Some glorious bits but at times feels like a rush job. Frustrating, too,because some of it is so good - the bit about the last days of his life partner Howard is heartbreaking (we hear a bit more about him here -still not in great detail though... is this what has held back Vidal as a novelist - and perhaps prolonged his career, because he hasn't gone mad - a reticence to really "go there" emotionally, as opposed to politically or sexually, which he certainly does); its also terrific to read about his writing Myra Breckinridge and Washington DC and An Evening with President Nixon, his acting experiences, later political campaigns. But he skips a lot of stuff which would have been great to read - eg film versions of Myra Breckinridge and Caligula, the writing of his other key novels - which is frustrating. And he quotes other writers talking about himself too much, eg Denis Altman (an Aussie- incidentally, he mentions another Aussie, Gough Whitlam, in the book:the two of them both so the cruise ship circuit, giving talks on luxury liners in exchange for a free passage). Its like he runs out of puff towards the end. NB another sign Vidal is getting on in years - he talk sa LOT about his various medical operations. However, at times he's still as bright (and snappy) as ever.

Book review - "Capote" by Gerald Clarke

Irene Selznick once advised her friend, biographer Scott Berg, against writing a book on Tennessee Williams because it had a "bad third act".You could say the same thing about Capote. Like Williams, he had a horrid childhood (Capote's mum was a party girl who didn't really want him and became an alcoholic who would abuse him; his dad was a useless con man), but he overcame it to have a glittering early adult hood. 

But just as Williams slid into the pit during the last years of his life,so, too, did Capote - not finishing Answered Prayers, only writing a few short stories, getting involved in a series of horrible relationships with men who were basically gigolos (who talk to Clarke here, so we get their side of the story - actually the whole book pays a lot of attention to Capote's long term love affairs, which is good, I think), annoying all his rich friends with the publication of a story,drinking and taking drugs. It's really depressing. But this is still very much worth reading.

Movie review - "About a Man" (2007) ***1/2

Intriguing doco on Kurt Cobain done using his own voice over from taped interviews, put over various images of places and people like people he is talking about (but not the actual people), many of whom stare at the camera Baraka style. They don't use Nirvana music but play lots of influences on them. It took a while to adjust but once I did I really liked it. He was a mixed up dude, poor Kurt - no wonder he offed himself. It seems the only healthy thing he got much pleasure out of in life was his music and when that became a chore there was nothing.

Movie review - "A Mighty Heart" (2007) **1/2

Probably the best film that could have been made from this story, with strong performances, crisp direction and wonderful attention to detail(it was actually shot in Pakistan and benefits immensely: the bustling streets, armed compounds of the rich, dingy newspaper offices and police station, sprawling apartment blocks, etc) But its problematic at its core - to wit, that Angelina Jolie basically spends most of the film sitting at home worrying. The middle section, where the Pakistani police go out and start interrogating and raiding houses, is by far more compelling (it would make a great film on its on, Pakistani counter-terrorism unit, fighting their own countrymen on behalf of the forces of secularism). Also good is the opening scene where the journo is about to be kidnapped - we know it and he doesn't. This is the sort of film where pictures and brief moments say so much - like the FBI lady bossing around the Pakistanis, the Pakistani police being motivated by embarassment that this has happened in their country more than anything else, the glimpses of poverty. So much talent, love and care was invested in the film, you just wish it had had a more active protagonist. (Jolie doesn't make her particularly likable, either -though she does have a great screaming scene). The film is dedicated to their son, Adam - no pressure there, Adam!

Movie review - "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad" (1957) ***

Good fun Ray Harryhausen adventure which plunges straight into it and has no nonsense about it (i.e. its not tongue in cheek). Kathryn Grant and Kerwin Matthews are a bit 50s juvenile but they suit the film and there is fine support from Torin Thatcher. A bright sense of adventure,plenty of colour.

Movie review - Hitchcock #13 - "Murder!" (1930) **1/2

Historically important as an early Hitchcock but actually not that enjoyable, despite a bright central idea - namely, that a juror has doubts about the innocence of a woman he's just helped convict, and goes about trying to solve the crime. Herbert Marshall was good value as a prop for female stars but doesn't quite have the necessary dash here,and the "innocent" woman is a bit bland (they have no real chemistry -it's a bit creepy how he's in love with her but even the potential kinkiness of this, which Hitch would later exploit so well in "Vertigo"is undeveloped). There are some fun moments at the beginning, with Hitchcock starting to move the camera around in an awkward way (like a young colt beginning to run - full of ambition, stops and starts, but clearly going somewhere): the opening scene where the body is discovered, the sequence where actors are interrogated as they go on and off stage, the moment where Marshall is badgered into convicting the woman (with the other jurors acting as a chorus - this bit is very like a musical), the finale where the villain has an interesting death.

Book review - "Capote" by Gerald Clarke

Brilliant bio on the famous writer, known to people who didn't even read his books. I have to admit I've only read two Capotes, the most famous ones: the deservedly classic In Cold Blood and the excellent Breakfast at Tiffany's. His reputation emerged almost from the get-go, partly because of some fine short stories, partly because he looked so weird. And he did look weird, with that funny voice and affected nature. There are lots of Capote types at universities - showy, look-at-me people (many actors are like this). Capote had the talent at discipline to back it up - at least, until after In Cold Blood after which he went into a spiral.

Movie review - Elvis #21- "Paradise, Hawaiian Style" (1966) **

This made an appearance in one of those "worst films of all time" books, which is a little unfair. Elvis was getting tired of films by this stage and his lack of energy on screen is apparent (not to mention a growing waistline) but he still has flickers of energy - partly, one guesses, because the film was shot in Hawaii, which is its key attraction, along with the pretty girls. He's a pilot who is irresisitble to women and is trying to set up his own airline. James Shigeta, who had a brief reign as an Asian leading man in Hollywood films, plays his best friend.

Some of the tunes are quite catchy but some of the direction is atrociously slack - for instance, two musical numbers are set in a helicopter, which is two too many (you can't go anywhere or do anything in a helicopter - the director doesn't even put in many cut-aways) A potentially promising love plot, involving a feisty female pilot, is annoyingly under-developed - she becomes his secretary because they won't let her fly which is the basis for good dramatic conflict but they don't use it, just have her wooed by Elvis.

Movie review - "The Wanderers" (1979) ***

It's been years since I saw this but I was surprised how much of it I remembered: the opening chase scene to the tune of "Wipe Out", the "leave the kid alone" section, the Wanderers trying to cop "accidental" feels along the street, Ken Wahl and John Friedrich playing strip poker with girls who realise they're cheating, the spooky Ducky Boys, the brawling finale where Friedrich finally thinks he's going to bond with his dad - and his dad thumps him, everyone in tears because JFK has been shot, the wonderful bittersweet finale where two of the gang head off to California (presumably where one of them will become Richard Price, who wrote the book) while Wahl literally gives up his chance at a different future (Karen Allen going off the see Bob Dylan, which is a bit hokey now but wasn't then and still works) then going back to his mates at a buck's party where he sings "The Wanderer" while being surrounded by them - literally trapped in a certain way of life.
Maybe that's the thing with cult films - while they have flaws you remember moments and scenes so well.
 Wahl gives a real star debut - good looking, sensitive, charismatic, etc - it's a shame he became such a big head. Karen Allen is ideal as the beautiful-but-not-untouchably-beautiful girl who comes into Wahl's life, and there are some memorable supporting actors, such as the huge baldy and the young girl who is his girlfriend (both of whom often appear on posters - they're quite creepy, actually). I note while by the end of the film the Italians, Asians and blacks are all getting along - it's only because they united to fight off the Irish.

Movie review - "Breakin'" (1984) ***

This and Missing in Action were the hits that provided the basis for the Cannon Group and it stands up today as a good example of exploitation filmmaking - if you're going to make a film about breakdancing, just jam pack it full of breakdancing. So from the get-go you've got backspins, and moon walking, and street gear and all that stuff.
The plot is a perfectly acceptable crap - an uptight ballet dancer joins a street dance troupe who want to audition; there is an evil dancer and so on.
Opportunities are missed and punches are pulled - for instance, there is no real romance (they hint at an attraction between Lucinda Dickey and her agent, and also between her and her dark skinned co star - were they afraid of pursuing the latter?).
But it has colourful costumes, a catchy hit song, "There's No Stopping Us", a great craptacular finale which owes more than a nod to Flashdance where the three audition in front of a stuffy jury (one rips the sleeves off his tux - right on!), Ice T playing a DJ and a clearly-visible Jean Claude Van Damme in bit part.

Movie review - Elvis #5 - "GI Blues" (1960) **1/2

No wonder the army co-operated with this Elvis movie, it makes the draft seem like a lark - you get to hang out in Germany, do a little bit of soldiering (cool stuff like driving tanks), but you get lots of leave, sing in concerts, put on shows, and romance hot European women.

The plot is an old reliable, a soldier has to seduce a woman (or, in 1960 terms, "get into her apartment alone") in order to win a bet - a plot that had done time for Follow the Fleet. Only that one had an extra element, i.e. the "stud" was a wimp, creating comic mayhem - here the stud is Elvis, so you know its not going to be too hard. And indeed, he's pretty much in from the get-go, so there's not a lot of conflict.

Indeed, the scriptwriters could have done a better job - Juliet Prowse (who plays the love interest) likes him straight away, and when she finds out its for a bet (in a very lazy scene), she's only upset for about a minute before finding out it wasn't Elvis' fault and all is resolved very easily.

A if aware of the weak script, the film lunges from song to song - there's about a ten minute. Still its bright and colourful with a number of decent tunes (including "Blue Suede Shoes"), the leggy Prowse does two sexy dances, and Elvis is in good form, engaging and lively and he seems to care. Elvis has around four mates in this one - is there anything more anonymous than actors who played Elvis' friends in his frothy comedies? Except maybe Elvis scriptwriters? (OK, I know Edward Anhalt, Charles Lederer and Clifford Odets worked on his films - I'm talking as an average, though).

Movie review - "Crash" (2006) ****1/2

There's a joke a black comedian once told about walking along the street with his black friend and a white couple cross the road to avoid them, and the punchline is "we were so insulted, we went ahead and robbed them". I was reminded of that when watching this powerful tale, about race and other things in LA. Excellently done, it's the sort of film you get the impression they tried to make with Magnolia but didn't quite get to. It's also reminiscent of La Ronde without the sex - we see how person A interacts with B then B with C and so on. It's not so much a plea for tolerance as for politeness - most of the horrible things happen because people lose their temper and yell, causing misunderstandings. Several moments in particular are outstanding - one moment involving a little girl made me gasp, another sequence involving a person trapped in a car is heart-pounding. Excellent acting (Sandra Bullock is frighteningly believable; Ryan Phillippe is again better than you'd think but again not so good as to not make you wish a better actor had played the part). Does William Goldman consider Haggis deciding not to kill the girl an example of "Hollywood horse-sh*t"? Probably.

Movie review - "Battleground" (1949) ****

Excellent account of the Battle of the Bulge, far superior to the 1965 film of that name, mainly because it makes the sensible decision just to concentrate on one small group of men and tell the story through their eyes. Written by Robert Pirosh who was there and you can tell - it all seems remarkably authentic and free of cliché (even now): the dialogue, the atmosphere, the little details.

Van Johnson's in it but its not really a star role at all - he does get to make eyes at a girl in Bastogne (a well done way to incorporate female interest in the story) and be a bit of a hero, but no more than any one else - indeed, there's even a moment when you think he's a coward. (Actually he's brave - and I like how this is done - he runs off to be brave, then stands still as if to say "what am I doing?". It's a lovely moment and Johnson is very good, his ordinariness working well). John Hodiak was sort of well known at the time, but most of the cast is played by up and comers, such as Ricardo Montalban (a sympathetic Latino - this was a Dore Schary production after all), Don Taylor, James Whitmore and Richard Jaekel.

Sometimes it is hard to tell who is who and inevitably the actors don't have time to develop much of a character (an near-insurmountable problem in these sort of movies) but performances are very strong, and it adds to the tension because of the main cast you're only reasonably sure Johnson will survive. The portrayal of the GIs seems very realistic - constantly joking (there is a lot of humour), dreaming of leave and home, gossiping about ways to get discharged through sickness or injury, making fun of the top brass.

Tremendous scenes, particularly when the Germans infiltrate American lines as Americans; when Hodiak, Montalban and Johnson engage in hand to hand combat with Germans (we don't see a lot of it - just legs - and don't know who survives until a reveal); when Montalban is injured, and his mates have to leave him - then an artillery strike is called in on his location; when the men find Montalban; a soldier is shot trying to retrieve boots and his last words are "mama, mama"; the speech by a Lutheran priest (which could have clunked - like the bit where a journalist talks about writing a column and going into the war does - but is extremely well done); Johnson trying to cook eggs; the final march.

The visuals of the film are so strong - snow covered ground, mist, burnt out fox holes, making it seem like the battle is taking place on another planet - that it jars when real documentary footage is incorporated. Even though its meant to be an ordinary-GI's-POV of the film, they can't resist including the "nuts" exchange (we hear it second hand but it still feels shoe-horned in).

The film was a deserved box office and critical hit; it had the success of securing Dore Schary's position at MGM, and even though Schary is not remembered that fondly by history he really came through with this one - as did Pirosh and William Wellman of course.

Movie review - "The Robe" (1953) **

There was a time in the mid 50s when the coming of Cinemascope was hailed by many in the movie business as an important event as the coming of sound - film attendances had been declining since 1946, partly due to television, partly because people were spending money on other things, but they flocked to see this big screen epic, and a for a few years it seemed all a film needed to be was Big.

The story was ideal for big screen treatment, featuring more than a few similarities to Quo Vadis: its set in Ancient Rome, there's a mad Emperor (Caligula here), shenanigans involving early Christians including a cameo from Peter, an arrogant Roman soldier becomes involved in Christianity and turns into a better person, a finale involving martyrdom.

While Richard Burton is a more dynamic actor than Robert Taylor, the film isn't as good as Quo Vadis, though - the action in Quo Vadis was powered logically and strongly, motored by Taylor's pursuit of Deborah Kerr and tracking down Christians; here the action is motored by Jesus' robe sending Richard Burton into an early mid life crisis, which makes him just go all weird; while Jesus' robe is a great gimmick, its not really exploited (the sequel, Demetrius and the Gladiators, gave the robe more dramatic weight, i.e. by having it have a reputation for curing people). Jean Simmons is a Roman not a Christian, so she has nothing much to do dramatically except stand around.

Too much time is taken up with Burton trying to save Victor Mature - like who cares? Why is Mature so important? It's not as though he's super important for the Christian cause or Burton is romantically love with him like Simmons (though you could arguably read the film this way), so when the film turns into Robin Hood with the Christians busting into the dungeon it's irritating. 

 Also it makes no sense while Burton martyrs himself at the end - he (and Simmons) practically throw themselves into the arena, whereas in Quo Vadis the Christians behaved a lot more understandingly, i.e. they wanted to get out of there.

 Marture copes reasonably well in what is a terrible role, really, requiring him to look up into the sky a lot; I kept thinking maybe he and Burton should have swapped roles, but while Burton would have been better in Mature's part, Burton is better than Mature would have been in Burton's part - his youth and tortured idealism bring a lot to the party. 

The role of Caligula is an absolute gift for any half decent actor and Jay Robinson's performance is about half decent but they don't exploit the potential of this like they could have.

Movie review - "The Tall Men" (1955) ***

Clark Gable's post WW2 MGM films were a highly variable bunch - the studio never seemed to know how to cast him - but his career received a boost with some actioners he made over at Fox, notably this and Soldier of Fortune.
It helps that he has one of his best female co stars in Jane Russell, a real guy's woman who is totally at home with the King.

Clark and Cameron Mitchell are former Quanrtill's Raiders who've turned to crime after the Civil War; they rob Robert Ryan who then turns around and offers to go into partnership with them on a massive cattle drive - an intriguing beginning to a Western.

The script makes two major mistakes - the cattle drive doesn't actually start until about an hour into the film (the running time is almost two hours) and after setting up Ryan and Mitchell as these intriguing characters they don't really need them - it's especially galling with Ryan, since the conflict is so inherent, but he spends most of the film just kind of hanging around Jane Russell as a false love interest rival. He redeems himself at the end by trying to kill Gable, then saying how much he admires Gable despite having just tried to kill him (very much shades of the Anthony Mann Westerns here), and you go "that's an interesting character and situation - why didn't you use that throughout the film?"

But it's still entertaining - the visuals are strong, with striking images set in the snow in the first act, and spectacular cattle footage; Russell takes a bath and two swims, just to remind everyone why she's really in the film (she also sings a few numbers); several Mexican characters are depicted very sympathetically, a sign of the changing times, though they still simply follow orders from Gable.

Book review - "The Osama I Know"

Brilliant oral history of the world's most notorious terrorist. The advantage of oral history is that makes events seem more human and understanding - its full of believable touches, such as Osama's kids playing ninetendo in Aghanistan caves, the writing of Jihad magazine, Osama relaxing by horseriding and playing soccer, the various factions in the organisation, the delight Osama has in appearing on television.

Reading it you're struck by several things:

(a) how America misrepresent the battle against terrorism by saying "they hate our freedom" - which they don't, they hate their foreign policy with regards to the middle east

(b) how the basis of the battle isn't all about America, that's a side show - the crux is secular vs religious governments in the Muslim world, which is why so many Muslim countries are anti-Osama (and why it was silly to attack secular Iraq, whose leader Saddam Hussein was hated by Osama - indeed, Osama asked to take part in kicking him out of Kuwait) - America are dragged into it mostly as a key ally of secular governments

(c) the major, major problem with secular governments is that they are almost always oppressive and dictatorial, thus depriving any opponents of their regime of a peaceful means of challenging said regime - so they turn to violence. The irony is you have the American republicans, who have a massive religious base, supporting secular governments, who are fighting a religious base. The solution to so many problems in the world (not all but many) is democracy - if people had a way of protesting and changing government peacefully, they'd be doing that instead of heading to the hills.

I admit I did find the first section more interesting, maybe because Osama becomes more of a shadowy background figure as the book goes on, with others taking over and becoming more interesting, active characters.

Movie review - "Morning Departure" (1950) ***

Sturdy British submarine film helped to box office success by the fact a disaster similar to that shown on screen took place near the film's release (similar to the leak at Three Mile Island which helped The China Syndrome). It starts a bit clunkily, with John Mills and Richard Attenborogh a bit too well cast as a chipper captain with a loving wife and a cowardly stoker with a money-grabbing mean wife respectfully. But once the sub takes off it improves, despite the efforts of the irritatingly chipper working class crew - soon the sub hits a mine and whammo 64 people are dead! (We don't see it). Then its tension under the water as the rest try to get out, and a real shock ending - they don't. That alone puts it over the line.

Movie review - "The Unbelievable Truth" (1990) ***

Not as impressive as it once appeared, but still an assured debut, particularly when you consider the dialogue. Adrienne Shelley is extremely winning as the lead girl, but all the cast are good - I particularly liked her father and ex-boyfriend. A droll sense of humour, very idiocynratic and the person vision ensures it still has freshness. The relative absence of plot does mean that things start to drag towards the end.

Movie review - "The Simpson's Movie" (2007) ***1/2

After coming 18 years of television, the pressure was on the filmmakers to come up with something that didn't stink, and they pulled him off. The movie is a big screen episode of the TV show, but a good one, and since the series is brilliant, that alone makes it highly entertaining.
It sags in the middle when the family go off to Alaska - there's a lot of tap dancing going on here - and one is surprised they couldn't come up with a stronger second act, something with a bit more narrative drive. They are quite mean to Homer, he's not sympathetic.
Some concessions to the big screen: Otto on a bong, hilarious nudity, the shape of the pig refuse silo, and some clever use of spectacular animation.

Movie review - "Vanishing Point" (1971) **1/2

Groovy post-Easy Rider action movie has a strong idea for an existentialistic groovy action movie - Barry Newman speeds across the US to deliver a car in time, helped by various counter culture people as he goes - is hurt by some irritating things: a poor motivation to get him there on time, the fact he keeps himself up by taking lots of speed, a rather abrupt ending, a girl who just happens to have kept a scrapbook about Newman (why would she?). As pointed out by Danny Peary in his excellent analysis of the film, the filmmakers want to have it both ways by having Newman an ex-cop who turned evidence against cops (right on), a Vietnam war hero who's against the war (groovy), a virile sex object who turns down a willing woman (can you dig it), a non-homophobe who fights off against two nasty gays who try to rob him (cool), a driver determined to get their in time but doesn't mind dying (dig), etc. The two gay robber characters (if he's in a hurry why does he pick them up) are an example of flower power Hollywood homophobia (a similar duo appeared in Diamonds Are Forever) - though significantly, the two don't turn Newman in, even though they're pressured to. Some of this is pure counter culture gold, though - the blind black DJ who operates as a commentary on the action, the naked girl on a motorcycle (surely a character strong enough for a sequel), the sequence where rednecks beat up said blind black DJ, some of the stunts.

Movie review - "The Last Man on Earth" (1964) **

Famously bad version of Richard Matheson's brilliant I am Legend actually isn't that bad, mostly because it's reasonably faithful to the novel, even though Matheson used a nom de plume for the script. Why didn't they shoot Matheson's script straight up? To be sure its not very well made - the editining is all over the place, the performances are poor, the direction slap dash (see how they fail to make anythig much out of the dog episode), there is too little of the non-evil vampires, and Vincent Price is miscast in an Everyman sort of role (he was too big an actor to play ordinary people, was Price, at least in the hands of this director - his performance just doesn't work). But the story is so strong it does hit some home runs: the concept of Price going around killing people in the day, his flashbacks to losing his family, scenes of plague overtaking the world, Price's realisation he's been killing "good people". I found it surprisingly enjoyable and made me wish they'd do this story right. I was also surprised how much Night of the Living Dead ripped it off, complete with someone burying a loved one then having said loved one rise from the dead and knock on the door.

(See the film here)

Movie review - "House on Haunted Hill" (1959) **1/2

One of the most famous of the spend-a-night-in-a-haunted-house-in-exchange-for-money films - sometimes referred to as the original one in the genre, but variations on this theme have appeared for years beforehand (eg Fog Island, And Then There Were None). Vincent Price is perfectly cast as the millionaire who's arranged the night, and the rest of the cast is strong, inc Richard Long and Elisha Cook Jnr. There's nasty wives and people with gambling problems, skeletons in the closet (literally - one not very convincing), and a tub of acid out the back. William Castle is better known for his gimmicks than his visual flair but there are some very effective moments here - the opening sequences where we just hear screams (all the screaming work is top notch, incidentally), people jumping out of corridors. Main problem for me plot wise is the last third or so just concentrates on three characters and ignores the others, even though they're still around.

Movie review - "The Bandit of Sherwood Forrest" (1946) **

Cornel Wilde hit it big in a drama A Song to Remember but his next few films indicates his employers thought "yes, well, he was in a drama but he can't really act so why push our luck - let's put him in swashbucklers". 

Here he plays the son of Robin Hood and although there's nothing wrong with his fencing his performance is extremely wooden - he got better at the feisty flirting and hearty back-slapping stuff, but here it's pretty dire and drags down the film. Perhaps this is why his appearance is delayed.

There are some good things here - the colour, the ever-reliable Henry Daniell as the villain, the concept of having Daniell starve Wilde before a duel to ensure he'll win - but far too many dud moments - the love interest is bland, its uncomfortable when Robin Jnr meets her and he basically sexually assaults her (forcing himself on her for a kiss - when he later finds out she's royalty he apologises... so its only OK to molest the lower orders?); there's a clunky climax while Robin and his merry men and the baddy's henchmen just sit around and watch while Wilde duels Daniell; Wilde isn't allowed any new friends, he has to deal with old Little John, Friar Tuck, etc so there's no real camaraderie between him and the Merrie Men, he's just a son taking over dad's business, including dad's old hack support gang (which might have provided rich fodder for dramatic conflict but isn't exploited at all here); the young Henry III is a big wimp, not someone worth fighting for, and you'll laugh at his prince valiant haircut and habit of bursting into tears.

Movie review - "Random Harvest" (1942) ****

An MGM "woman's picture" at its finest, made with sensitivity and sincerity. Greer Garson is genuinely bewitching as the singer-dancer who falls in love with a shellshocked war veteran; she twinkles her nose, flashes her legs - its quite captivating. Ronald Colman is excellent as the veteran, conveying with simple expressions the trauma of his experiences. The story demonstrates the sheer power of narrative - you can imagine the gasps from the audiences when Garson appears as Colman's secretary; I remember watching it with my mother when younger - she was only glancing at it but still got dragged in to the story and when Colman was to get remarried she hissed "bigamist" .

It toys with audience's feelings: poor old Garson is there waiting for Ronnie to twig, almost gets there... then knocked back, then almost gets there... then knocked back. The later Letter from an Unknown Woman is a lot like this - a guy who just doesn't get it. (I read a very funny spoof of this story once, by Nunally Johnson I believe, or maybe Ben Hecht, about a musician who keeps impregnating this woman and not realising it's the same one.)

Another film this reminded me of was The Shawshank Redemption, where you think the story is going to be resolved in the space of a few years, but keeps going on and on... it's something like 20 years or so.

Australia's Ann Richards has a very small role as one of Colman's rellies, but to be honest I had trouble spotting her. Apparently she was up for the part Susan Peters played, that of Colman's new girlfriend; Peters is quite good and has an effective scene in a church where she realises for good Colman doesn't love her (poor Peters was permanently paralysed in a hunting accident in 1945 and died of pneumonia six years later at the age of 31).

Sometimes this does go over the top - it's very much set in MGM la la land of white picket fences and cherry blossoms, and an England where the workers cheer Ronald Colman, as the factory owner, for helping break a strike (no doubt Louis B Mayer thought of himself that way at times). But if you're going to go into the jungle, you've got to go all the way - and they do here.

Movie review - Ladd# 4 - "China" (1943) ***

Before there was film noir we all know and love there was "patriot noir" - you'd have the same tough talking bitter hero, black and white photography, shady night locations and femme fetale... only the hero would turn patriotic towards the end, dump the femme fetale and fall for a pure woman (whom he often didn't wind up with, usually due to self-sacrifice). They sort of form a bridge between gangster movies and film noir - Casablanca is the best known example, but Alan Ladd made a fair few, such as this entry.

He plays a truck driver in China just before Pearl Harbour who doesn't mind doing business with the Japs - he's tough talking, bitter, etc until basically nagged into patriotism by his co-driver (William Bendix as a dopey underling - not really friends with Ladd in this one) and an American raised in China (Loretta Young) who is transporting some girls who are "important to the future of China" (they're training to be teachers).

Director John Farrow and Young were noted Catholics are there's a bit of chat about Catholicism here; there's also an scene where Young extols the virtues of Chiang Kai Shek - apart from that the propaganda is less specific, being about "freedom" and "the little guy" standing up to the big bully. (There was no mention as far as I could tell about communists - the Chinese here all seem to be nationalists... though to be fair apart from Young's comment some of the troops they meet could work for Mao). While the Japanese are portrayed as buck teethed, glass-wearing rapists or vicious maniacs, the film is very sympathetic to Chinese, most of whom are played by actors with strong American accents.

The story is a little on the thin side - Ladd drives along a road, picks up Young and company, drives along some more road, has an adventure, a girl runs away, goes back to pick up the girl, finds she's been raped (a genuinely shocking moment, very well done), kills the rapists, turns patriotic, blows something up, then something up again. (It needed felt as though it another subplot or something).

Farrow's direction is excellent - the opening tracking shot of a Chinese city under attack is very well done as are the other action sequences. And the ending is a genuine surprise. Ladd's love scenes with Young have surprising warmth - he relaxes a bit, which is odd to see since normally his persona when it came to women was 'I don't care', but Young (who I've never been much of a fan of) seems to have gotten through to him.

Book review - "Last Stands"

Worthy account of some famous last stand battles in history, some well known (the Alamo, Rorke's Drift, Wake Island), others less so, to the general public at least (Imphal, Imijin, Teroiwa), mainly I'm guessing because movies haven't been made out of them. Good concise volume which does make the mistake of over doing descriptions of the batallions and positions and numbers while losing the human drama (this often happens in military books) - which is a shame since last stands of all others have more human drama than others and the bits we do glimpse is quite moving, eg. The chaplain who elected to stay with the men at Imijin, the attack on the hospital in Burma, the death of Bowie at the Alamo.

Book review - "The Season" by William Goldman

For my money, the best book ever written about the theatre and one of the best books ever written about show biz - or any biz, for that matter. Its Goldman's masterpiece, well one of them, even better than Adventures in the Screen Trade. It looks at Broadway during the 67-68 season and is wonderful - well researched, funny, pungent, skilfully written, thoughtful, opinionated, smart. I've read it a number of times. Peter Bart reportedly tried to match it with The Gross but he doesn't come close, not even in the same league. Broadway is admittedly easier to tackle than Hollywood - more self contained, easier to find out what is going on, but Goldman really tackles his subject and comes up with original thoughts. I'd love to read a follow up article on this book - why are there no Friday matinees? Why did the NY Times keep on Clive Barnes as critic? (I thought Goldman's criticisms of Barnes - perhaps the most skilful hatchet job on a critic in history - were a bit strong but then went and read a selection of NY Times theatre reviews and they are pretty shocking) Why did none of Goldman's very practical suggestions be implemented? (It is a bit full on to expect matinees of Fri, Sat and Sunday - but Friday and Saturday would be worth it). Some of the writing is dazzling - the pieces on Judy Garland, A Day in the Life of Joe Egg, on the critics, Home Sweet Henry; as a critic, Goldman is endlessly astute - his views on popular theatre, musical comedy, Pinter, Neil Simon, etc are still relevant today. Sometimes he is not totally on the ball (while I agree Brendan Gill is one of the worst critics of the 60s, couldn't you argue that Gower Champion only came up with the idea of photographer for The Happy Time after seeing Blow Up because the photographer idea came along late in the piece), and sometimes he is a bit too mean, eg attacking Mike Nichols for receiving all this good press (it wasn't his fault, and who can blame him for occasionally being a bit big headed about it), saying Barbara Bel Geddes "could lose weight" (he could have made this point less nastily), and using the words "a flurry of fags". But this is what happens when you write a personal work, I guess. Magnificent.

Movie review - "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965) **

George Stevens was famous/notorious for being so affected by filming concentration camps during WW2 that all his movies from then onwards were weighted down with "significance"; certainly he devoted more time and care on each one, especially when it came to shooting re-takes, but he was a man of great talent and some marvellous films resulted. This one, however, he buckled under the weight of good intentions - the importance subject matter seems to have overwhelmed him, and as a result all the life and humanity and passion is squeezed out of it.

It's certainly beautiful - Stevens was an ex-cameraman and his films are all beautifully shot, none more so than this. The desert landscapes are beautiful, as are the sparse corridors of power of the ruling Romans/Jews (stone floors, curtains, lit by flame), the white robes that people where. Too beautiful - Jesus (Max von Sydow, ideally cast) never seems human, but nor do his disciples, even normally sure-fire characters like Judas and Peter. The best performances were from Jose Ferrer, as the all-too-practical Herod, and Donald Pleasance, as Satan (the scene where he attempts to corrupt Jesus is the creepiest and easily the most effective).

Another problem is one endemic to all Jesus films - because so many of the things He said are well known, whenever he speaks its like he's reciting quotes rather than speaking dialogue.

The film was criticised for its all star cast but I think that works - a new star comes along every ten minutes or so to keep things lively. I did find Shelley Winters a bit jarring, and John Wayne is hilarious for all the wrong reasons as the centurion who says "truly this was the son of god". Charlton Heston is effective as John the Baptist (wearing not many clothes, like most Heston roles in the 60s, very restrained compared with Alan Badel in Salome), and there is good work from Sidney Poitier, Claude Rains, etc.

Movie review - "How the West Was Won" (1962) ***1/2

After the departure of Dore Schary in 1957, MGM was ruled by Joe Vogel and Sol Siegel for the next five years or so. The influential film of their regime was Ben Hur, a massive hit which caused them to think the solution to the studio's problems was big budget remakes of earlier successes, leading to Cimarron, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and their Waterloo, Mutiny on the Bounty - but they had a lot of successes, too, notably North by Northwest, Time Machine and this one, a massive epic in Cinerama, a huge screen technique now gone but ripe for revival, I think (it lives on in the form of Imax). This must have looked terrific on a large scene, with several epic action sequences - a trip down the rapids, buffalo stampede, shoot out on a train. But its great strength is that writer James Lee Barrett never loses sight of the human element. Its not terrifically interesting but it is always to the fore.

The first half is split into two halves: one about James Stewart falling in love with Carroll Baker along the rivers (with some river pirates as very effective villains - we don't often see river pirates in Westerns); the second about Debbie Reynolds falling in love with Gregory Peck. The second half centres around George Peppard, who was a bit of a fave of the Vogel-Siegel regime, coming off Home from the Hill, and it's a big responsibility but what do you know he carries the film very well, believably growing from callow youth to respected elder - it's in three sections, one about the Civil War, one about Indians and the railway, the final one about bandits (in the form of Eli Wallach). Peppard doesn't get a romance subplot (apparently there was one with Hope Lange which was cut - instead Carolyn Jones just appears as his wife) but has more than enough to do.

James Stewart is a bit too old for Carrol Baker, who was stuck with a number of older leading men at this phase of her career; I've got a lot of time for Baker, she was sexy with a distinctive voice and on screen magnetism, and works well here; she seems a lot more natural than Debbie Reynolds who is professional as always but maybe a bit too mechanical (and not 100% believable as a woman just interested in money - maybe she and Baker should have swapped roles, but then I don't think Baker could sing and dance and Reynold's role required it). Gregory Peck is fun as a gambler, as is Wallach as a villain and Richard Widmark as a ruthless railroad man. The music score is a deserved classic.

Movie review - "Jesse James" (1939) ***1/2

The reasons why the James boys turned to crime are famously whitewashed in this sympathetic version - nasty railroaders led by Brian Donlevy terrorise local farmers and kill their ma with dynamite (which has basis in truth), so no wonder they go bad.

But to be fair, it's shown Jesse James goes too far - very well played by Tyrone Power whose dark good looks suit the part, its clear he turns mean and bitter through crime, makes his wife's life very hard, and Randolph Scott is a very sympathetic law man (the businessmen eg Donald Meek, are almost all bad).

Henry Fonda complements Power excellently, the colour photography is divine. The middle section gets a bit repetitive - Jesse-is-bad-Jesse-is-bad - but perks up for the "oh isn't it just so ironic" death scene. You haven't seen scenery chewing til you've watched Henry Hull as a newspaper editor here.

Movie review - "The Wicked Lady" (1945) **** (re-viewing)

Craptacular classic of British cinema, made by people who never quite matched this again (in their homeland at least - Michael Rennie and James Mason went on to do fine work in Hollywood).

It remains the quintessential Margaret Lockwood performance, all flaring nostrils and gestures; you can't say its great acting but its very effective and still works today, helped considerably by all the cleavage showing costumes she wears. It's a terrific role and she really goes to town - I mean a woman who pinches her best friend's fiancee then takes to the highway because she's bored... it doesn't get much better than that. And it's only because mum died - fantastic!

Very adult compared to Hollywood films of this time - it's fairly explicit Lockwood has sex with Griffith Jones before marriage, and with Mason; she catches Mason in bed with another woman; Mason rapes her (which is a bit dodgy). Rarely has a film whacked its subtext over the audience's head with less subtlety - it's like in every scene a caption scrolls across the bottom of the screen: "this is the subtext: XXX".

James Mason stands out in a role originally meant for Stewart Granger (a precursor of Granger's poor knack of picking projects, which wasn't so bad in Britain but which would become endemic in Hollywood); Pat Roc is also effective in the Phyllis Calvert role, as is Michael Rennie. Even Griffin Jones, who starts out so wet, develops a bit of spine and gets stuck into things.

Riotous fun, a landmark in its own way, and they never managed to successfully repeat it - Leslie Arliss never made another well known film, nor did Lockwood or Pat Roc really.

Movie review - "Knocked Up" (2007) ****

The director of The 40 Year Old Virgin follows it up with a film that manages to be raunchy, true and very sweet all at the same time. It sort of ambles along in the way many scripts by directors do, lacking the tightness of structure - but this means the film is less predictable (for instance, there is no "appearance of an ex" scene for the two leads, or an overdone ticking clock).
Seth Rogen is magnificent as the slacker hero and Katherine Heigl very likable as the TV girl who gets preggers - she's perhaps just a bit too beautiful and nice to go for Rogen; I know a lot of stressed out TV girls who would go for him, because he makes her laugh and because to be blunt they're desperate to get hitched, but we don't see that here - she's young, seems to be well adjusted and well liked, so is threatens the reality of the piece, but you like the actors and the whole thing so much you go with it. (Heigl has just earned the worship of the entire overweight-underweight-comic-book-reading-section of the Western World - she could spend the rest of her life making money out of attending sci-fi conventions).
 Some of the arguments between couples are so spot on and funny - not just between the lead duo but between her sister and brother in law (I especially liked the "just because you're shouting doesn't mean its not mean" exchange and the "I'm hormonal I'm allowed to be angry").
The film "goes there" in the way many pregnancy comedies don't - we see the crowning (nb the baby sfx, pregnant tummy, etc is very well done), there is a s*x scene involving pregnant Heigl. Several lovely moments - the girls trying to get into a nightclub, the initial seduction, the montages.
And it is the best film in recent memory when it comes to supporting characters - there is a dazzling gallery of them, from the wonderful bitchy workmate of Heigl's, Rogen's loving dad (Harold Ramis, perfect), Heigl's chilly mum (Joanna Kerns, also perfect - she encourages her to have a "proper baby"), the stressed out Chinese doctor, the stoner Asian, Rogen's flatmates (who have a definite hierarchy, with the guy with the beard a sort of sophisticated slacker). Judd Apatow is clearly a man who loves actors and characters and it comes through. Wonderful.

Movie review - "Bowery at Midnight" (1942) **

El cheapo Monogram effort complete with sets that wobble when the actor grips on to them too much and a plot familiar to The Amazing Dr Clitterhouse i.e. a respectable professor is also a master criminal. It features not one but two beloved cult tragic stars - Bela Lugosi and Tom Neal - both of whom are very effective (Neal had a great the-world-hates-me snarl), and there is a good moment when the nominal hero goes undercover to Lugosi's flophouse, recognises Lugosi, who tells him "have you ever wondered what people thought about just before they died" and gets Lugosi to shoot him. I also loved how the other doctor would revive Lugosi's victims and keep them in the basement! But its very confusing - I had trouble differentiating between the cop and the rich guy - with some amateurish acting from the ingénue and the female lead.

Book review - "I'm Chevy Chase... and You're Not" by Rena Fruchter

Most comedians are intriguing creatures - almost all of them seem to battle major demons (drugs, depression, etc) despite being brilliantly talented - none more so than Chevy Chase. Shot to national fame during the first series of Saturday Night Live then international fame with Foul Play, he really seemed to have it all - tall, genuinely handsome and virile, funny both with a line and a pratfall, intelligent, multi-talented (he played in several bands and was a writer), prestigious upbringing.

And he had a very good career - perhaps not as good as he could have, but still pretty good, being one of the major stars of the first half of the 80s. In the second half it went pear-shaped; he seems to have fallen into the trap like Ryan O'Neal did in the second half of the 70s - to wit, making films that seemed to be commercial but weren't, mainly because they were all obviously made just to be commercial (sequels to Fletch and Caddyshack, a reteaming with Dan Ackyroyd). The demise of the Fletch franchise was especially galling because Chevy was so perfect in the role and there was a whole series of books to derive plots from.

Some of this was bad luck, a lot of it was Chase's own fault - over the years I've read hints that he was a bit of a bastard (e.g. in the oral history on SNL his reappearances on the show are bagged - Will Ferrell says his hosting in 2002 was "a low point"; there were allusions to drug problems; William Goldman talks about his pretension on Memoirs of an Invisible Man) and was looking forward to this bio to illuminate it.

It does but only half does - Fruchter (who wrote a beautiful memoir about her friendship with Dudley Moore) pulls her punches in a major way. For instance, we get a chapter on Chase's drug addiction - but its only really a chapter, and not until a fair way into the book, after we've already covered many of Chase's experience on television and in Hollywood - chapters which would have been illuminated by knowing about his drug troubles then rather than "oh by the way he had a drug problem".

And while Fruchter does admit Chase's humour can be inappropriate at times, she doesn't really go into it, and has too many quotes from people justifying/forgiving his behaviour (other actors - and the problem getting quotes from actors is they usually want to be liked), and accepting too many quotes from Chase uncritically for things like "I was only mean to the director/producer because I was sticking up for other members of the crew", which is a standard lie from a star to justify bad behaviour (e.g. George Lazenby with On Her Majesty's Secret Service), and is overly sympathetic for what was evidently a major lack of professionalism for his 90s talk show (where Chase shifts the blame over to the network or his depression). (She did get Neil Simon and Carl Reiner to go on the record which is interesting) And she quotes too much from internet reviews and has a slightly irritating structure, which isn't always strictly chronological. So its not definitive.

Its is interesting, though - Fruchter is superb on music and the chapter on Chase's musician-ship is fascinating (he even cut an album - if he does want to make a "comeback" I think a concert/stand up piece would be ideal).

It is also very strong on Chase's family tree and horrid upbringing (an abusive mother and step father), which explains a lot of bad behaviour (most of his siblings had major problems in their life too) and makes the soft-soaping later on in the book doubly frustrating because its not needed, we know he's had a hard time. She also has the bright idea of quoting some of Chase's writings.

So this isn't a slap dash work, it is thorough and well written - I just wish it had been a bit tougher.