Movie review – “Spooks Run Wild” (1941) **

If the major studios could make all-star films, why not Monogram Studios? Here producer Sam Katzman teamed the two big attractions at the poverty row – the East Side Kids (formerly the Dead End Kids) and Bela Lugosi.

The kids are on their way to summer camp when they wind up in a haunted house – cue appearance by Bela Lugosi, playing it straight to a team of comedians years before Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein.

This is the first East Side Kids movie I’d ever seen (I’d seen Dead End and Angels with Dirty Faces) – they’re high spirited, fast paced fun, like a well done Saturday morning cartoon show along the lines of Scooby Doo, complete with lots of running around a creepy house getting scared. There’s no girls, and the black East End Kid is a lawdy lawdy black comic type – but fix up those two things maybe you could remake them today. The kids think Bela is nasty but he turns out to be a harmless magician – Lugosi would be a red herring so often that a two part article was written on the topic. He is supported in this film by a midget, a combination which would later appear in The Corpse Vanishes and Scared to Death.

Book review – “Washington DC” by Gore Vidal

Fast paced engrossing best seller in which Vidal showed his mastery of American politics. Its not the significant work that Vidal claims it is but it is very enjoyable. The depictions of sex where a bit racy at the time but have since become common place. It’s fun to spot who Vidal has based his characters on – the JFK surrogate, etc

Movie review – “Black Dragons” (1942) **

Shonky but fun WW2 propaganda effort with Bela Lugosi has a doctor who is killing off a bunch of American fifth columnists helping the Japanese. So Bela is a goodie? No he isn’t, really, because he’s a Nazi. It’s just those Axis allies don’t get along. Bela is in strong form - he is a very smart villain, who can hypnotise his enemies, is a brilliant surgeon and who is cunning enough to make two victims shoot each other. You’re glad he’s spending all his energy on attacking his own allies rather than against us. I love the idea of these all American businessmen actually being Japanese agents after plastic surgery (we see how this happened in a hilarious flashback at the end to Japan – it might have been better to put this at the beginning of the film). Also funny that plastic surgeon Lugosi is thrown in gaol along with a Lugosi lookalike. Clayton Moore plays the male juvenile who asks the ingénue if he’ll marry him “so I can beat you up”. Ah, sweet banter.

NB this was one of a number of war films around this time obssessed with fifth columnists eg Sabotage - though when one considers what happened in Norway and France, that's perhaps not surprising.

Movie review – “Invincible” (2006) **1/2

Inspirational sports movie about a bar tender who makes it in the big leagues. Sweet movie with some impressive art direction. It tries to convey the things-were-tough-but-this-guy-had-heart-helped-them-through angle, but doesn’t quite (to be fair, I don’t know how else you’d do it). Mark Wahlberg is OK as the bartender (at least he looks like he could play football) and there a sweet (fictitious?) romance.

Movie review – “Coach Carter” (2005) **1/2

Sam Jackson as a bad ass – only this time a bad ass in a suit who wants to emphasise the importance of a good education. He coaches a high school basketball team to victories but shuts them out when his grades fall. Apparently the real Coach Carter was supported by the headmaster but here there is some movie-ish conflict put it; I also didn’t buy the parents throwing bricks through windows (I mean, Carter’s coaching is what turned the team around – and he is pushing for an education). It would have been more believable if, say, he got opposition from coaches or teachers who are threatened by Carter’s actions (NB something along this line is shown but not really gone into). The most interesting thing about the movie is a subplot where one of the player’s girlfriends gets pregnant and wants to have a baby; I was watching “this film is shoving the pro-life message down our throats a bit strong”... but then she has an abortion. And isn’t punished for doing so. There are some nice flashy visuals and Jackson is in strong form; interesting subplot with his son one of the players.

Movie review – “Murder by Television” (1936) * (warning: spoilers)

Very ordinary low budget melodrama which has a decent enough premise – inventor of a television set is found murdered – but sinks in a confusing, uninteresting plot and too many scenes of suspects being cross examined. Among the suspects are comic black servants, Irishman, etc. Bela Lugosi is on hand as a scientist – the best thing about the film is the revelation at the end that Bela is playing a dual role, with Bela as an investigating FBI agent. Bela Lugosi as twins – that’s a great idea for a film. Ditto the concept of Bela Lugosi as an investigating agent. But here we only find out about it at the end.

Movie reviews - "Reservoir Dogs" (1993) **** / "Pulp Fiction" (1994) *****

Reviewed both of these together because have some interconnected comments to make - to wit, they both follow the same structure. Both have a wacky intro, then cut to violence, then act one about one character (Harvey Keitel, Travolta), then act two about another (Michael Madsen, Bruce Willis) then act three about another (Tim Roth, Sam Jackson). 

The performances are consistently brilliant, the emergence of stars a delight (has any pair of movies in recent years launched/re-launched so many careers: Jackson, Keitel, Travolta, Roth, Jackson, Buscemi), the violence explosive, the chats generally all too long, both stories are rollercoasters. 

I'm aware of the Reservoir-Dogs-is-better faction but would argue Pulp Fiction is the better movie because its a movie whereas Dogs is really a filmed play (budget reasons I know but look at it again and see if you know what I mean). 

Some irritating bits - as if John Travolta doesn't have a television, and couldn't Harvey Keitel in Pulp have come up with something cleverer?

Book review – “Making Waves” by David Hasslehoff

The Hoff’s career is a testament to the power of endurance – if you do something, do it wholeheartedly and well and you can have a career that makes you a fortune and a household name. And play a role in the Berlin Wall coming down. It helps to be good looking, of course, but there’s been a lot of good looking actors in Hollywood.

I think the secret to the Hoff’s success is he has a go, regardless. Even when he’d made it as a soapie star he thought “right, I’ll try singing” – when that flopped he didn’t give up but tried it in Europe... he became a star there, and it paid off when looking to raise money for Baywatch.

Hasslehoff’s memoirs are mostly positive and up beat – he did battle a few demons notably some dodgy relationships and alcoholism (I can understand that – he was Mr Nice Guy then go back to the hotel and hit the mini bar). He is up front too about the various problems on Baywatch (even he admits he couldn’t tell who was who among the support cast at the end). I’ve always thought the Hoff was a better light comedian than he got credit for – he’s not much of an actor, though.
 Aussie readers will enjoy the Aussie content eg battle for Avalon.

Book review – “The Studio” by John Gregory Dunne

One of the best books ever written on Hollywood, a fly on the wall account of 20th Century Fox in 1968. At that time Fox was going through a “great romantic story” phase – the studio almost went under due to Cleopatra, but then Zanuck came back and turned it around with The Sound of Music. This, however, turned out to probably hurt the studio in the long run: they greenlighted a rash of expensive musicals, such as Dr Doolittle, Star and Hello Dolly (an original one, Tom Swift, was in planning), which almost drove the studio bankrupt again and saw the Zanucks kicked out, for good this time. 

Nonetheless, I think the Zanuck II regime was a pretty good one – anyone would have greenlighted those movies, and they picked some left-field winners, like Planet of the Apes and Patton. (David Brown, Dick Zanuck’s offsider, always thought it wasn’t the musicals which killed him and Dick Zanuck at Fox – it was a trilogy of “dirty” movies: Myra Breckinridge, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and Portnoy’s Complaint.) 

So Dunne’s account makes an engrossing reading – it was more dramatic a year or two later but he probably wouldn’t have gotten the access then. He focuses on sections – the marketing of Dr Doolittle, filming Star, pre production on Hello Dolly, shooting The Sweet Ride, activities at the acting school, Irwin Allen shooting a TV series. Dunne is a little unfair I think on producers – he pokes gentle fun at Paul Monash and Ernest Lehmann, focusing on their little egotisms. Monash I don’t know about but surely Lehmann deserved more respect. But an excellent book overall.

Book review – “Monster” by John Gregory Dunne

An account of the writing of the "whatever" movie Up Close and Personal. Reviews have called this a caustic tale, but actually it’s far from – there is some eccentric behaviour but it’s clear people are trying to make a decent movie and they’re being smart about it. Would the Jessica Savtich story have made a decent movie anyway? There is almost always a good reason for execs to do what they do and Dunne is fair on reporting it. 

I’m not sold on Dunne’s ability as a screenwriter but he does a great non fiction book. It’s also clear that scriptwriting is a pretty great cushy gig – many of the problems Dunne writes about are along the lines of “it was hard for us to concentrate on getting the script done so we flew to Hawaii to work at a hotel there”. Nice work if you can get it!

Movie review – “30 Days of Night” (2007) ***

Terrific idea for a movie – vampires attack a down having 30 days of night – but it bogs down once the vampires get there, as after they’ve over taken the town they just sort of hang around, with a few humans stuck in the attack and days clicking by. It feels like a film where they never licked the second act troubles. But it has a smash finale and some flashy direction; its very slick. Josh Hartnett is wooden (I kept thinking “this is a Vinnie Chase movie”)

Movie review – “The High and the Mighty” (1954) **

Lovers of bad exposition will rejoice in this airline-disaster flick, which features numerous scenes of supporting actors going “see that person over there? That’s Benny. His wife died two years ago in suspicious circumstances” etc. Ernest Gann adapted his own novel and perhaps wasn’t the best choice for screenwriter.
 John Wayne is in confident form – I love the way he walks into his films he’s like “right, I’m John Wayne who am I playing in this one?” There is a cross section of passengers on a plane (much of their background is provided by the booking clerk), none of whom are that interesting.
There are two good bits – one when Wayne has to prepare the passengers for crashing in the ocean, and when Robert Stack cracks up. And an interesting moment when a honeymooning couple have a “we’re going to die aren’t we” chat and start kissing – and then really start going for it, you wonder if they had sex!
But they never lick the problem of integrating all the plots in a visual way, as say Airport did. It was very popular though – watching it I could hear the chomp of pop corn and slurp of coke from war veterans and boomers gasping at the technicolor adventures on the big screen.

Book review – “Bachelor Kisses” by Nick Earls

Written with Earls’ customary skill and insight but despite some god bits I didn’t like it as much as Zig Zag St. There is a sort of interesting central situation – a never-too-popular-with-chicks doctor suddenly finds himself in the middle of a hot streak, mainly because he roots nurses at work – but it's not really explored, and way too much time is spent on blow jobs and the doctor’s research project.

Movie review – “Scared to Death” (1947) *

This starts promisingly – the story is narrated by a corpse on whom an autopsy is about to be performed, there’s George Zucco as a nasty doctor and Bela Lugosi turns up as a hypnotist accompanied by a dwarf. But there’s not enough Lugosi (or Zucco), too much comic cops and newsreporters and then the girl turns out have a Nazi past. Boring! Lugosi is a red herring, there is crappy colour photography when black and white would have been better, and the film gets more dull as it goes on.

Movie review – “Space Cowboys” (2000) **1/2

This has one of the all time great ideas for an action film, at least one with older stars – a satellite breaks down and only some old codgers can fix it. As my mate Jed said when we saw it “Every 50 year old bloke in the world who sees this is going to go ‘Yep. I could do that.’” And enough did for it to be a hit. 

It's a fantastic idea and Clint Eastwood and Donald Sutherland come to the party; I wish James Garner had been given more to do (its not his fault) and Tommy Lee Jones is too young (surely they could have gotten some other old guy acceptable to the financiers... Paul Newman, Gene Hackman?). 

Like many Clint movies it could do with a bit of fat trimming – some if it is downright lazy like when William Devane talks about the hero’s chances of getting back as being nil... when we know they’re going to get back OK, they’re the heroes. Why “nil”? Why not “ten percent”? But the central idea is strong and the romanticism of space travel is well evoked.

Movie review - "The Great Caruso” (1951) ***1/2

One of the great "what if"s of the Golden Years of Hollywood: what if Leo B Mayer hadn't stormed out of the studio in 1951? Could he have made the studio stronger and turned around his decline? We'll never know and just because people don't like Dore Schary doesn't mean that Mayer's genius would have survived through the 50s - but this was made as late as 1951 and was a massive, massive hit, and has Mayer's fingerprints all over it. He still did have, at times, a genuine feel for what America wanted and they gobbled down the Mayer MGM formula here: glossy sets, charismatic and beautiful stars, wall to wall music, mother love (the young Caruso blubs over his mother when she's sick just like Andy Hardy), America love, wholesome entertainment, unpleasantness is hinted at rather than shown.

The story isn't much, just another rise-to-riches tale, really - but Mario Lanza is perfect in the lead and certainly has charisma. I'd never seen him in anything else - he was very impressive, although you can see him struggling with his weight. When Caruso is not singing - which is often, and this film includes some incredibly well done recreation of famous opera tunes - most of the "plot" involves Lanza romancing a winsome Ann Blyth who has this smile permanently fixed on her face. He becomes famous, gets her, overcomes some light opposition. It's a bit of a shock when Caruso dies (he has a few coughs, people discuss that he's sick, he sings while ill then - pow - that's it, he's gone).

Why don't people make opera films any more? I think they would work. Maybe they need a Lanza to work.

Movie review – “Battle of the Bulge” (1965) **1/2

Many of the same elements of the Saturday night television 60s action epics – well known cast (albeit solidly B list), washed colour, Germans, action. But this falls into the secondary category along with Bridges of Remagen – Phil Yordan scripts of this time often just missed eg 55 Days at Peking and this is no exception. 

 It’s a decent enough account of the battle – it gets off to a sluggish start with some very bland scenes, such as soldiers going “oh it’ll all be over by Xmas” and Henry Fonda going “no it won’t” and Dana Andrews continually to the point of contrivance; Telly Savalas is a wacky corrupt sergeant and there is some boring hey-I’m-a-writer-I’ll-put-in-conflict between a lieutenant and a sergeant, but 50 minutes or so in the battle gets going and its particularly exciting when the Germans pretend to be Yanks and when the Germans shoot a bunch of Americans who’ve surrendered.

Robert Shaw is effective as an imposing Nazi; Ty Hardin is good, too, as a German. I always liked George Montgomery and he pops up and does well as a sergeant. Pier Angeli is one of two poorly incorporated love interests.

Movie review – “Blue Collar” (1978) ****

Paul Schrader cuts a somewhat pathetic figure in Easy Riders, Raging Bulls – a Calvinist who fell off the wagon in a big way, who was too busy snorting coke and banging Natassa Kinski on Cat People to notice he was making a crap movie, who took credit for work done by his brother, who tried to be gay, etc. But you watch the films and there’s no doubt he had tremendous talent, at least until the coke got away with him.

This was his directorial debut, and its tough, gritty, uncompromising and exciting – real 70s adult filmmaking. It helps there are three leads, its not obvious who the hero is, though even then Richard Pryor was the bigger name.

Pryor was always at his best angry and he is here; Yaphet Kotto never gets much of a wrap but he’s always done what’s required (I loved his FBI man in Midnight Run) and he’s very good here. Harvey Keitel is a bit more restrained but mixes in well with the rest; watching this I was struck by how many “first films” Harve has been in – Scorsese, Tobak, Schrader, Tarantino.

This really delves into the milieu – it seems very accurate, with its dingy offices and fluro lights (neo noir?) and dead end bars. Scharder is, like a lot of 70s filmmakers, not very strong with women (the girls here are either nagging wives or whores) but he is great on men. As pointed out by Danny Peary the action scenes are very exciting. Wonderful theme music (was this the first to use it? If so its been much copied eg George Thoroughgood)

Play review – “The Browning Version/”Harlequinade” by Terrence Rattigan

William Goldman in The Season once listed a number of features of the "homosexual mystique"including (1) all husbands are panderers (2) all wives are whores (3) the only wisdom lies in bachelors and young boys. All three are on display in The Browning Version, with the weak failed teacher and his man hungry bitch of a wife who is having an affair with a young bachelor teacher who actually is a decent chap and there is a young sage. This piece still deserves is reputation for the character of Croker-Harris and his plight is exquisitely evoked.

Harlequinade is a jaunty companion piece about the adventures of a travelling group of players. A bit familiar but this sort of thing is always fun if written with skill and affection and it is here.

Play review – “The Deep Blue Sea” by Terence Rattigan

Immaculate first two acts but drops away a little in the third – mainly, I think, because there’s no need for the third. The bloke’s shot through, the girl’s done her dash – what’s left. So it’s repetition. But the first two thirds is a masterpiece, with Rattigan’s three strongly etched characters – the dutiful husband who partly enjoys his suffering, the dowdy woman swept up in romance (Vivien Leigh even old Vivien Leigh was poorly cast – this is a Maggie Smith type role), and the chipper womaniser who loves the girl but doesn’t. It’s powerful, marvellous stuff.

Play review – “The Royal Hunt of the Sun” by Peter Schaffer

Ten years or so before “Amadeus”, Schaffer came up with another clash between two real life figures – the emperor of Peru and a conquistador. Powerful drama, though when you read it you’re always going “I wish I could see this on stage so I could see all the cool Inca costumes”.

Movie review – Errol #26 - Northern Pursuit (1943) **1/2

Any movie where Errol Flynn plays a mountie fighting Nazis in snowy Canada during WW2 is automatically going to be fun but this would be one of Errol’s lesser war films. It is closer to the silliness of Desperate Journey rather than his more serious pieces. Julie Bishop is a pretty bland leading lady but the main problem is the script, which takes forever to get going (Nazis land in Canada, Errol busts them, Errol pretends to be a Nazi to find out what Nazis are up to). It makes Errol passive most of the time – even when he goes undercover the Nazis are never really fooled by him, and he spends most of the film just watching what the Nazis did. Only at the end does he kick butt.

This is one of those war films were the most interesting and compelling characters are the Nazis – Helmut Dantine and brave and clever and runs around enemy territory doing his mission. That’s like the Errol Flynn role. It’s clear from this movie the only reason we beat the Nazis was that they kept shooting their own men all the time.

Movie review – “Rogue” (2007) **1/2 (NB warning – spoilers)

The success of Wolf Creek earned Greg McLean $20 million to spend on a killer croc film, but its really a low budget big budget movie – to wit, despite location filming, its basically about a bunch of people on an island being picked off one by one, with a last act about one person battling the crocodile alone. The crocodile effects are very special and McLean gets points for not killing off people in predictable ways (there’s a woman dying of cancer who survives, ditto an annoying American). It lacks the characterisation to make a Jaws or Wolf Creek – they try but it doesn’t come off. And the script was a bit wonky in places – it didn’t make sense Michael Vartan would follow a dog through a swamp when there’s a crocodile about (OK yes he promised Radha Mitchell he’d take care of the dog but c’mon – there’s a massive croc around). Also its a debit to have vanilla ice, aka Michael Vartain as the lead. There’s nothing wrong with an American in this sort of movie, but vanilla Vartan is only good in things where he’s a handsome prop for the leading lady – but here the last third is about Vartan battling the croc to save Radha Mitchell. Had it been the other way round this might have been the big hit everyone was hoping it would be.

TV review - "Entourage" Season3 Part 2 and Season 4 ***/*****

Entourage came dangerously close to jumping the shark in the second half of season 3, partly because of the uninteresting character of Vinnie’s new agent and too much time on Ari’s home life, but mostly because there was a lack of high stakes movie plot going on and because they messed with the Vinnie-E dynamic – by making Vinnie more forceful they gave all his lines over to E, and E had nothing to do. As a result many episodes were flat and flabby.
Things picked up towards the end of the season as the boys turned producer, and the ground work was laid for many of the things that made Season 4 so brilliant: E turns into a producer and gets serious about management, giving him lots of scope for conflict with Vinnie and Ari (different sorts of conflict, too, which is great), Johnny Drama finally has some success but they totally make it work by having him be anal and annoying, the character of Billy Flynn has major “legs”, ditto Adam Goldberg’s cocaine sniffing trust fund baby. The only person who doesn’t get to join in on the fun is Turtle – they get up a girlfriend for him in season 3 but then dropped it.
The women are even more stunning and objectified in this one – apart from Dana Gordon, it’s all pretty much boobs and buts (including some from our own Sophie Monk and Emma Lung, playing Poms). But the scripts are consistently funny and inventive and the Cannes finale is a knock out.

Movie –Francis # 1 - “Francis the talking mule” (1950) **1/2

I know it’s wrong but I can’t help it – I find talking mules really, really funny, and always loved the Francis series as a kid. Watching the movies again, they weren’t quite as good – not really suited for movies, more as a tv series. The structure was the same – first half hour everyone thinks Donald O’Connor is mad then Francis talks to someone, another half hour of people thinking they’re mad, then Francis talks to a few more people, then another half hour and more allegations of madness, the Francis talks to everyone.

Donald O’Connor is very engaging as the nebbish person who Francis presumably talks to because he’s the sort of person who would be bullied by a mule. Chill Wills’ voice is hilarious as Francis. Patricia Medina is a mata hari type and Tony Curtis makes an early appearance, but the majority of support acting is done by a variety of character types playing flustered military men. Arthur Lubin directs with typically unshowy professionalism – he was as good director Lubin, made a lot of enjoyable films without ever getting the kudos.

There's a lot of gags about shrinks. A lot. And there would be a lot more for the coming series.

Movie – Francis # 2 – “Francis Goes to the Races” (1951) **1/2

This has an advantage in that Francis’ relationship with Donald O’Connor is established from the get-go and its a bright idea that Francis gives his mate the inside dope on horse racing. So it’s a bit disappointing the film follows the they-think-he’s-mad-then-Francis-speaks-so-they-don’t structure of the previous film. The romance subplot with Piper Laurie is also undeveloped. 

Cecil Kellaway pops up in support and I was delighted to hear his Aussie twang in bits. There’s a great scene when Francis gets drunk and where he has an argument with O’Connor – this is comedy gold and better than people thinking O’Connor is mad.

Francis # 3 – "Francis at West Point” (1952) **

Thanks to a tip off from Francis, Donald O’Connor helps baddies (communists?) from blowing up a factory, enabling O’Connor to go to West Point. It’s a weak basis of a film, a very convoluted way to get O’Connor to West Point. (NB is this a prequel to the first film?) 

It is fun to have Francis tutor O’Connor – but really O’Connor is too dim to be an army officer, so you don’t really hope he gets through. Like most Universal films of this period, familiar faces pop up in the support cast – in this case, Lori Nelson and David Janssen. 

Far too much time is spent on a couple of boring juveniles (one’s got a pressuring father – zzz... the influence of Buck Privates?) – not only is this dull, O’Connor is just a passive participant for a lot of it. I liked it how he was put in peril by not dobbing at the end, but then to have the star footballer not able to play well because O’Connor gets expelled… what sort of elite athlete is that? There is a bright moment where Francis talks football strategy with the coach and also delivers a before the match address to the team – this is funny. And Leonard Nimoy pops up as a young football player.

Movie review – “No Country for Old Men” (2007) ***1/2

I couldn’t say I had fun watching this but its an excellently made movie, jam packed with heart thumping suspense and unexpected twists. The Coens do desolate bad lands very well – there are strong echoes of Fargo and Blood Simple here. They also do violence exceptionally well. Josh Brolin comes out of nowhere (seemingly) to carry his role – it’s always great when an 80s teen star survives. Javier Barderm makes one of the most terrifying villains in cinema history and Tommy Lee Jones’ history is used very well. You keep thinking the film is going to end a certain way, but they pull the rug out from under your feet – and, after you think about it, it is very satisfying.

Movie review – “Million Dollar Baby” (2005) ****

Three cheers for the Hollywood press for mostly keeping the last act of this film a secret. It packs a real wallop – none too soon, to be honest, because I found the first 90 minutes a bit of a drag, a bit too much crusty Clint and feisty Swank. Most of Clint’s films go on too long and this is no exception; the film also would have benefited from a better actor than Clint in the lead. But Swank is fine (a very convincing boxer) as is Morgan Freeman and the actors who play Swank’s dreadful family. Achingly beautiful final moments.

Play review – “The Hasty Heart” by John Patrick

This has a hokey set up and situation – in a hospital in wartime Burma, an Englishman (“Tommy”), an Australian (“Digger”), a Yank (“Yank”), a New Zealander (“Kiwi”) and a Black African (a moron called “Blossom”) are told to be nice to a Scot because he’s got six weeks to live. Problem is the Scot is a rude bugger. The play is stuffed with clichés and caricatures – dour Scott (cue bagpipes and jokes about kilts), dumb African, fat Pommy – but it is surprisingly effective, especially the thawing of the lonely Scot. Great structure, too – intro, Scot arrives and is rude, act two is thawing and has romance with nurse, act three he finds out. It really works: a genuine guy cry play.

Play review – “The Home of the Brave” by Arthur Laurents

The work that launched Laurents' career it was at the forefront of the post war interest in psychology – a soldier has had a breakdown, and it turns out the reason was anti-Semitism. Act one and two deals with the soldier’s breakdown including flashbacks to a fatal mission to a Pacific island, and a climax where the doctor gets the patient to walk by calling him a dirty Jew (oh those tough love shrinks). So act three feels a bit anti-climactic – its about the Jewish guy learning its OK to feel guilty that he’s like anyone else – though there is a satisfying moment where he punches out a bigot and its nice he and the one armed man go off to set up a bar together. OK maybe to neat but after all the death and stuff a bit of neatness isn’t amiss.

Movie review – Bela – “The Phantom Ship” (1936) **1/2 (warning – spoilers)

From time to time Bela Lugosi ducked over to England to make a film and this was one of the better efforts of his career. It has a strong story, being based on the mystery of the Marie Celeste, the ghost ship found in the Atlantic in the 19th century. Some of the acting is creaky but there is a satisfying amount of subplots going on to keep the viewer interested – Bela is a bitter one armed sailor with his own reasons for going on the ship, the captain has pinched his wife from his former best friend, a sailor (Dennis Hoey) is a deranged rapist. The crew are knocked off one by one and in the end... none are left. That’s right - none (well, Bela running around on an empty deck going mad in the film’s most visually striking sequence). Its a shame we don’t get the scene where Bela cuts off the captain and his wife on a lifeboat (presumably for censorship reasons - or the copy I saw may have been one of the edited ones floating around) but is still a surprisingly satisfying effort.

Movie review – “The Invisible Ghost” (1941) **

Bela Lugosi Monogram film is full of surprising touches. It was directed by Joe Lewis who later did Gun Crazy and while I’m trying not to be wise in hindsight here it certainly appears as though Lewis did really try. There’s a great opening scene where Bela is having dinner with his “wife” (an empty chair) – and a decent plot where Bela starts killing people in trances. It is shonky and low budget but there are plenty of good bits to keep you interested – the scene where one of the servants discovers a dead body (silence then a slow pan), a murder scene by Bela (POV of Bela, then cut to POV of the victim of Bela), the dignified performance by Clarence Muse as Bela’s servant, the revelation that the wife is being kept by the gardener in his house, the death of the male juvenile half way through (you think the whole story is going to be trying to save him – but he actually gets executed, forcing his twin to take over male juvenile duties), Bela’s expression of horror on realising that he committed the crimes.