TV special to promote Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine with much AIP talent – Louis Heywerd co-wrote and produced, it stars Vincent Prince, Tommy Kirk, Susan Hart, Harvey Lembeck and Aron Kincaid (all but Kirk were under contract to the studio). AIP never had much luck with television productions and this doesn’t quite work. It’s fascinating of course but pretty crappy and badly needed colour and to be set outside.
It starts with a song and dance number with dancing bikini women over the credits while Lex Baxer’s jaunty theme song plays. Then Dr Goldfoot addresses the camera, starts telling the audience Richard III-style about his plans to control over the world. Goldfoot’s assistant Hugo is played by Harvey Lembeck. Goldfoot explains he has invented a machine to destroy man – “woman”. He leaves Lembeck to describe it then disappears.
Hugo then launches into a song about the bikini machine. Then Goldfoot comes back and shows a machine which looks into the Pentagon and we see Tommy Kirk and Aaron Kincaid walking around. Kirk (in a tracksuit) plays Malcolm Andrews, who knows all the classified information in the country – but he only can recall it when he sits in a certain chair and they turn on a switch. Kincaid is the agent who keeps him under guard.
Dr Goldfoot produced a bunch of women – the only one he’s happy with is Susan Hart. Hart watches the machine; she thinks thinks Kincaid (Agent 0 ½ - geddit?) is cute. Kincaid takes Kirk outside for some fresh air – being an AIP film that means that there are a bunch of young people go-go dancing.
Lembeck takes Hart outside (“give me a hand” he says – and is stuck with her hand – Hart apologises - “I was hastily constructed” – the funniest gag in the film). Hart cracks on to Kirk who is delighted – but then she breaks down. Lembeck fixes her up – but then she cracks onto Kincaid instead and takes him away. Lembeck then invites Kirk to a nightclub. Hart takes Kincaid off to a secluded spot and they have romantic banter with Kincaid not getting that Hart is a robot – until she mentions Dr Goldfoot. The penny drops for Kincaid, who talks to the camera not very skilfully (“looks bad for our side”). When he goes back Kirk and Lembeck are gone. Kincaid then kisses Hart – commercial break.
When they come back Kincaid and Hart are walking through the park. They sing a love duet. Lembeck has lured Kirk back to Goldfoot’s under the lie that it is a nightclub. Goldfoot and Lembeck put Kirk into a chair and try to extract information from him. The machinery doesn’t work so they distract Kirk with a floor show: cue some dancing by three of Goldfoot’s robots.
Then Hart arrives with Kincaid (because Kincaid asked her to bring him). Goldfoot tells Kincaid that Hart is a robot. Kincaid refuses to believe it until Goldfoot gets Hart to go for him – only Hart then turns on Lembeck and Price and ushers them away. There is some sort of explosion (I think).
Kincaid then tries to get Kirk to leave; Kirk refuses, insists it’s a nightclub, and asks for another floor show to start. A bunch of robots (male and female – only the females in bikinis) duly oblige. Then it cuts to the credits – the robots dancing
No rational person need watch this show – only if you’re interested in Price/ AIP/ Goldfoot/ Kirk/ Kincaid/ Hart/ Lembeck.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Movie review – “Beyond Glory” (1948) **1/2
Interesting military drama in the vein of A Few Good Men. George Colouris is a lawyer defending a West Point Cadet who has been accused of lying. You know Colouris is a baddie because he starts off saying West Point is undemocratic. He’s representing a man whose son has been kicked out of West Point on the word of a senior cadet. Alan Ladd. Since Alan Ladd plays the lead you know he’s on the side of right.In flashbacks we see scenes of cadets arriving at West Point where they essentially bullied by senior cadets (including Ladd and some actors who must be the real McCoy); they even have their heads shaved a la Full Metal Jacket and Ladd is clearly giving the young guy a hard time. It’s interesting to look at a world of cadets and allegations of bullying and “honour”.
The story then flips on its head and we go into Ladd’s backstory, see how he was drafted and a bit cocky, then became a war hero, but a depressed one – Best Years of Our Lives territory (where he kicks his depression by going back into the army, which is interesting). The story then flips on its head again and becomes about Ladd’s guilt for disobeying an order which caused the death of a superior officer. He feels bad about it, even going to the man’s widow (Donna Reed) and snapping at her that it was his fault – how about let the poor girl think the Germans did it, mate?
This is a more solemn, dour Ladd than usual. It’s a decent performance though it lacks the bounce when he plays a cynical tough guy. Audie Murphy appears sporadically throughout the film in a small role as one of Ladd’s fellow cadets. It was one of Murphy’s first performances; his boyish looks and Southern accent are striking. There is a strong support cast: Henry Travers, George Macready, Donna Reed… and Dwight D Eisenhower, as himself at the end.
John Farrow’s direction is brisk. The screenplay (worked on by, among others, Jonathan Latimer) jumps around in time with plenty of flashbacks. It never quite works – too many themes, different stories, sweet Donna Reed is a little dull, and it’s too obvious and pat that Ladd is going to be revealed to be heroic at the end (“oh I just forgot I was knocked out”… sorry, bit weak). But it’s always watchable primarily because it’s set in such an interesting world – West Point, where bullying is part of the program, they have their own weird rituals, there are limits on dating, etc.
Movie review – “Guns of the Timberland” (1960) **
A bunch of loggers arrive in a country town determined to cut down a lot of trees and the locals are not happy about it, fearing that the logging may cause such damage as to destroy their property. A film ahead of its time you may think… but the loggers are supposed to be the heroes. Well, since they are led by Alan Ladd that’s the indication. Even in 1960 the environmental concerns of the homesteaders must have seemed more compelling than the loggers (I mean, it could cause a landslide).
But as the story goes on the loggers do become baddies – to wit, Gilbert Roland, as Ladd’s offsider who comes into conflict with him, the sort of part played by Robert Preston in Alan Ladd films during better days. Thinking of it, many Alan Ladd films featured Ladd in a triangle with a buddy and a woman: Shane, Saigon, Wild Harvest, Whispering Smith, The Glass Key, etc.
Alan Ladd looks awful in this film, pasty-faced, overweight and puffy. He’s trying but it’s depressing to see him force a smile and take part in fist fights. And it hurts the film when there’s meant to be instant attraction between him and Jeanne Crain, who is still pretty. Crain plays the leader of the homesteaders and at one stage actually says “get off my land”.
There’s lots of fun with Frankie Avalon playing a teen homesteader who is sympathetic to Ladd and his men; he also sings two songs and romances a young girl (Alana Ladd). There is some pretty photography of some pleasing locations and the logging angle is unusual. But this is a very average film. It was the last one made by Ladd’s company, Jaguar, under their agreement with Warners.
But as the story goes on the loggers do become baddies – to wit, Gilbert Roland, as Ladd’s offsider who comes into conflict with him, the sort of part played by Robert Preston in Alan Ladd films during better days. Thinking of it, many Alan Ladd films featured Ladd in a triangle with a buddy and a woman: Shane, Saigon, Wild Harvest, Whispering Smith, The Glass Key, etc.
Alan Ladd looks awful in this film, pasty-faced, overweight and puffy. He’s trying but it’s depressing to see him force a smile and take part in fist fights. And it hurts the film when there’s meant to be instant attraction between him and Jeanne Crain, who is still pretty. Crain plays the leader of the homesteaders and at one stage actually says “get off my land”.
There’s lots of fun with Frankie Avalon playing a teen homesteader who is sympathetic to Ladd and his men; he also sings two songs and romances a young girl (Alana Ladd). There is some pretty photography of some pleasing locations and the logging angle is unusual. But this is a very average film. It was the last one made by Ladd’s company, Jaguar, under their agreement with Warners.
Movie review – “Wild Harvest” (1947) ***
What do you do when you’ve already had your biggest tough guy star play a private eye, army hero, hired gun and truck driver? You put him in charge of a crew of wheat combine operators. Yeah, that’s right – the bad lands of wheat. That’s what Alan Ladd’s in charge of, a motley gang and rough and tough men who harvest wheat and where he says things like “rule number one – no dames.”I’m being flippant, but actually this is good, tough fun which I liked a lot. The sheer novelty of the setting alone makes it watchable (you could imagine a similar Aussie film made about cane cutters or shearers): there is a real feel for the camaraderie of the workers and the stuff about stealing grain on the side is decent enough stakes. It’s the sort of thing you imagine would be made at Warners during their great days with Bogart, Robinson, Cagney or even Raft, or at MGM with Gable and Tracy – but Paramount do a pretty good job with Ladd, who is in strong form.
For whatever reason Ladd always seemed to be especially good in scenes with solid male actors; here he’s got Robert Preston and Lloyd Nolan (I was just about to ask “where’s William Demarest” when he pops up too). Dorothy Lamour is perhaps a bit too nice to be the femme fetale who is a sort of Yoko Ono figure for the wheat harvesters, but she’s very pretty - and quite sexy in some bits, such as when she lounges back on a haystack. (Some of her scenes with Ladd are very sexually explicit, even if Ladd did struggle in his romantic moments.)
There are some good tough scenes, like when the rival crews square off against each other at a dance (Ladd gives a code word and his crew gathers ‘round him). The ending sequence where Ladd leaps from truck to truck in a convoy like a cowboy going from horse to horse in a wagon train is exciting, but a little bit silly (they’re not in such a hurry for him to take such risks; also they are farmers with a legitimate grievance chasing thieves so it’s not like we’re totally on their side).
There’s a love triangle which was later flipped for Whispering Smith: Ladd is best mates with Robert Preston, who is brave but a bit unreliable and prone to turning evil; the two of them fall for the same girl, who really wants Ladd but goes off with Preston when Ladd rejects her. Only this time the girl is Bad so it’s Preston who gets redeemed. He and Ladd go off into the sunset at the end, arms around each other leaving Lamour behind… but only after bashing each other up in a fight that feels very John Ford and John Wayne (not to mention homoerotic and/or misogynist). There was something a bit Aussie about this story, with its macho men, troublesome women, comic alcoholic – Rod Taylor would have loved to make it.
Movie review – A&C #16 - “Abbott and Costello in Hollywood” (1945) **1/2
Abbott and Costello finally get around to spoofing Hollywood, and since the film was made at MGM you’d think it would give them a chance to act with some higher-ranked talent than they could at Universal. Think again – well, unless you count cameos by Rags Ragland as himself as a high ranked talent (who was Rags Ragland?). Oh, to be fair there’s Lucille Ball, Preston Foster, Robert Z Leonard, and Jackie Butch Jenkins… but really they may as well made it at Universal. At least they had – and surely would have been willing to use - Deanna Durbin, Maria Montez and Lon Chaney Jnr.The plot involves a particularly wet crooner who tries to get a job in Hollywood, is cast in a movie – then fired. And sooks. We’re supposed to feel sorry for him. Get used to it, pal! In order to get his job back, Abbott and Costello (who are the kid’s agent) conspire to entrap the sleazy crooner who’s taken their client’s place in a scandal; it winds up that everyone thinks the crooner has killed Costello, which is a bit full on. So the climax, with the crooner trying to get Costello to prove he’s alive, you can’t help being sympathetic for the “baddy”. Having said that, there is a reasonably spectacular production number plus a funny chase on a roller coaster. This isn’t top class Abbott and Costello; a little glossier maybe.
Movie review – Marx #5 - “Duck Soup” (1933) *****
The “purest” Marx Brothers film – no romantic sub plot, no juveniles, no non-comic songs or music interludes, a magnificent canvass within which the brothers can wreck havoc (Groucho is president of a country), Margaret Dumont, short running time, the brothers in magnificent form, Zeppo only has a small role, Groucho’s wise cracks are consistently strong (something which didn’t always happen) as are Chico’s puns (ditto). Good one for Zeppo to go out on – he’s Groucho’s secretary yet again, but he gets to play in two of the film’s stand out sequences: the “we’re going to war” production number, and the final battle sequence.
This film didn’t do as well financially as others despite those things – or rather because of those things. I think audiences preferred it when there were music interludes (a break from the comedy, like a variety show); they definitely preferred films with “real people” in them. (Howard Hawks always thought Bringing Up Baby flopped because everyone in it was crazy, i.e. there was no one for people to identify with – which conversely was partly why it became such a cult film). Also the humour in this one was dark, especially at the end when the war’s on – I mean, it’s an actual war, and although it’s never spelt out that people are killed it’s definitely implied. Maybe that was a bit too bleak at the time (it is even now when you think about it).
Another thought struck me watching this, with the brothers running around. A great part of their appeal was (and is) I believe due to the fact they were brothers and close – and this bond comes across on screen. Despite all the anarchy and madness it’s still family anarchy. Awww….
This film didn’t do as well financially as others despite those things – or rather because of those things. I think audiences preferred it when there were music interludes (a break from the comedy, like a variety show); they definitely preferred films with “real people” in them. (Howard Hawks always thought Bringing Up Baby flopped because everyone in it was crazy, i.e. there was no one for people to identify with – which conversely was partly why it became such a cult film). Also the humour in this one was dark, especially at the end when the war’s on – I mean, it’s an actual war, and although it’s never spelt out that people are killed it’s definitely implied. Maybe that was a bit too bleak at the time (it is even now when you think about it).
Another thought struck me watching this, with the brothers running around. A great part of their appeal was (and is) I believe due to the fact they were brothers and close – and this bond comes across on screen. Despite all the anarchy and madness it’s still family anarchy. Awww….
Movie review – A&C #33 - “Abbott and Costello Meet Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” (1953) **1/2
Not so much a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde film as a Wolf Man film – for that’s how Jekyll behaves more like, a respected doctor who takes a serum and becomes a mad inarticulate killer. Both roles are played by Boris Karloff, in parts far more suited to his talents than Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff.This starts with a bang: it’s set in Edwardian London, there are some atmospheric murders, our heroes are American policemen on exchange (perhaps not very believable but you wouldn’t buy them as Poms – and this gives them the excuse to be disgraced and hence want to solve the mystery), and there is a very lovely romantic subplot between an American journo (Craig Stevens) and a suffragette who is also a dancer (Helen Westcott). Abbott and Costello films occasionally were a little bit feminist and Westcott is perhaps their most modern heroine – she’s feisty, liberated, sexy, and sexually aggressive… and not punished for it (well, apart from being stalked by Mr Hyde but that’s normal in this sort of film).
The film becomes less good as it goes on; the second and third acts are really just Costello being scared and/or being chased by monsters (either Hyde or John Dierkes as Karloff’s Lurch-like butler), with the promising suffragette plot discarded; also there is no clash between Jekyll and Hyde, Jekyll is quite happy to be a killer, and somehow it seems to be cheating that people become monsters through biting when it’s not a wolfman film but a Jekyll and Hyde film. Also by this stage the lead duo were starting to look a bit long in the tooth. In one scene Costello winds up in a fun house and faces wax models of Dracula and Frankenstein, a throw back to Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. This film isn’t as good as that, but is still entertaining.
Movie review – A&C #13 - “Lost in a Harem” (1944) **1/2
Abbott and Costello stumble into The Desert Song – they play two vaudevillians who get caught up in an Arab dispute along with a lounge singer (Marilyn Maxwell)… which perhaps indicates the influence of the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby Road pictures. The duo (or, rather, trio) take the side of a young Arab (John Conte) against his uncle – how do they know the young guy is a better ruler of his people? But Douglas Dumbrille as the sheik is an excellent foil; indeed he is one of the toughest antagonists our heroes ever faced, he’s pretty much always got the drop on them until he’s hypnotised.There are some spectacular musical numbers (played by Jimmy Dorsey’s orchestra dressed up sillily as Arabs) and some funny routines. My favourite involves the chubby unloved first wife of Dumbrille (Lottie Harrison); it’s also fun that Dumbrille has a thing for blondes, any blondes. I wasn’t as in loved with the “Slowly I Turned Rountine” with prisoner Murray Leonard though this is meant to be famous. This was made for MGM, one of the three the team made for that studio; it doesn’t look that different from their Universal films – perhaps a little more glossy (the sets are re-used from Kismet). Maxwell is very pretty and engaging.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Movie review – Marx #4 – “Horse Feathers” (1932) ****
The best Marx Brothers film to date – mainly because it puts them in a setting where they can wreck complete and utter havoc, to wit a college. (It’s a greater environment for their talents than a ship or a country estate). The plot is simple, effective and gloriously cynical in its acceptance of illegality and corruption (already hinted at in the matter-of-fact depiction of gangsters in Monkey Business – Grouch runs a college and hires two ring-in football players from a speak easy in order to help his team win the game.Thelma Todd is again fun as a vamp (a "college widow") and this gives Zeppo his funniest role yet – not much of a claim, I admit, and it’s not so much his lines but his role… he plays Groucho’s son. But that is very funny. The other three are in excellent form and there is a hilarious finale, a football game - I think this is the first real extended routine the Marxes do in a film that it would have been near-impossible to recreate on stage. The only thing that is really missing is Margaret Dumont, who you would have thought would have been a natural for a college film.
Movie review – “Kung Fu Panda” (2008) ***
Entertaining cartoon film has a great central idea – a panda who wants to be a kung fu master – and some marvellous animation. It’s terrific fun, with music and what not. But by this stage the whole “I feel like I’m something special” hero’s journey is starting to feel a little tired and I seems as though the script needed an extra draft or something.
Movie review – Marx #3 – “Monkey Business” (1931) ***1/2
The first Marx Bros movie where all four start the story as friends – well, maybe “friends” is putting it a bit strong, but they’re all stowaways together and Zeppo is even allowed to take part of the initial havoc-wrecking (when busted among the first thing the four of them do is start playing musical instruments). Zeppo is the romantic male lead here – he’s not really good looking or charming enough, but it does mean he has something to do for the first time in a movie (he even brawls with the baddie in the finale). While the concept of the film is “the Marx Brothers stowaway on a boat” the actual spine of the piece has them being hired by rival gangsters on the boat; Groucho and Zeppo work for one, Chico and Harpo for the other (the “good” gangster – good because he’s got a daughter who falls for Zeppo and because he’s retired).The script was the Marxes first original for the screen but it could easily be adapted to stage, with the action consisting of basically a lot of running around and a specific second act curtain (to wit, the arrival of the stowaways in America); there are, however, no songs in this one until the last act – and one of these are given to the romantic leads, just Chico and Harpo. Actually because these numbers only appear in the last third of the film, they really slow things down – the structure of this one is off.
Watching the first Groucho-Chico routine it struck me that the material is often poor (mostly outrageous puns) but the playing so confident and anarchic it dates pretty well. Silent Harpo dates not at all – there’s been no silent comic to touch him since, really, at least not in the movies. There’s no Margaret Dumont in this film but there is Thelma Todd as a vamp. Todd later died mysteriously and this is her best known credit; she’s not a fantastic actor but she’s pretty and game. (NB another Marx ingenue - Lilian Roth from Animal Crackers - also had tragedy in her life).
Movie review – “Maid in Manhattan” (2001) **
Jennifer Lopez makes an ideal Cinderella because she can both drab down and glam up to a considerable degree, so she is totally well cast as the maid who romances her “prince” – a Republican Senator. A Republican Senator as a prince? You mean like a George W Bush or Nelson Rockefeller figure? Yuck!
But they steer clear of establishing his positions on gun control or birth control; Ralph Fiennes isn’t quite naturally charming enough just to play a rich guy (cf Hugh Grant in Two Weeks Notice). Some talented actors huff and puff in an attempt to blow life into the proceedings – Chris Eigmann, Joely Richardson, Bob Hoskins – but it never happens.
The most enjoyable scene is where Fiennes and Lopez stroll through Central Park: this bit is charming. Oh and the kid who plays Lopez’s son is good.
Movie review – Marx #2 – “Animal Crackers” (1930) ***1/2
The second Marx brothers film, though also based on a musical, has better photography than The Cocoanuts and is that bit more confidently adapted for film – though still with that tell-tale reluctance to use close ups or put the camera in unusual places that you find in early sound pictures. This one gives Groucho a big entrance – well, actually Zeppo’s the first one you see, as Groucho’s secretary, and he sings a few bars before Grouco is bought in by bearers and launches into ‘Hooray for Captain Spaulding’. But again the action doesn’t really get going until Chico and Harpo appear.The material isn’t much stronger than Cocoanuts – in fact a lot of it is identical, with a plot concerning a stolen item (in this case a painting). There are a lot of routines. I occasionally felt some of the Groucho stuff dragged (though his lines are funny); Harpo is at his brilliant, sociopathic best and it’s totally fitting he is revealed to be the kleptomaniac villain.
Zeppo fans (if you exist) will be pleased to see he gets a little more to do in this one Рsinging a few lines, taking part in a routine with Groucho. The ing̩nue (Lillian Roth who became an alcoholic and had a film made about her life) is very pretty in a modern way; the male lead is wet. Note how even thought this painting is meant to be so valuable whenever people treat it they handle it like wrapping paper.
Musical review – “Billy Elliot”
The songs aren’t the strongest but they are fine; the chief attraction is the dancing and the spectacular sets (trying to recall the evening I saw it, I can’t remember any tunes but I can recall the dancing). At times this is like watching a really excellent school musical – I don’t mean that in a bad way it’s just that I can’t think of any other time where I’ve seen a bunch of adolescents leaping around the stage. Good performances across the board and the subject matter gives it a lot of weight. I was wondering how they’d pull off the finale and they do it quite well – though they probably could have put the segment with the dancing older Billy at the end.
Movie review – A&C #10 - “It Ain’t Hay” (1942) **1/2
Abbott and Costello in an adaptation of a Damon Runyon story and the film makes a fair stab at Runyon atmosphere: there’s song and dance routines involving roller skating waitresses and tap dancing black deliverymen, the cops are Irish, gangsters are colourful and horses ready to win the big race; it feels like an ensemble piece with the action centering around a wacky street family; one gangster even refers to himself as “a Damon Runyon character”.The plot concerns a twelve year old who drives a horse and buggy around New York; she’s got a sick father and a horse and she keeps singing songs about it. Her horse dies so Costello kidnaps one to make up for it – only the horse is “Tea Biscuit” the most famous in the country. Cecil Kellaway plays the father in an oirish style and Eugene Pallette is funny as an efficiency expert who keeps running into Costello and being tormented by him.
There’s a spectacular music number, ‘Contagious Rhythm’ and there is a ten minute-long chase/race sequence on horseback. The male romantic lead is a good looking guy but not much of an actor; he has a really boring plot about having to put on a show. Actually “plot” is putting it a bit strong: it’s an excuse for a bunch of musical numbers at the end, which feel tacked on. It’s appropriate, in a way, for a film that feels inconsistent and choppy.
Movie review – Marx #1 – “The Cocoanuts” (1929) ***
The Marx Brothers must have blown away audiences with their first screen vehicle, this talkie. I know they were stage stars but millions would have been unfamiliar with them – then they come barrelling on to the screen, with Groucho wise-cracking away, clearly a star on his own… then the electric duo of Harpo and Chico explode on to the screen as well. Harpo is particularly strong in this one, ripping up letters and molesting women (his character would be softened later on). Zeppo is in this one, as a hotel clerk – he joins in a few of the routines but you barely notice him.The actual vehicle itself is a bit mouldy but effective. It feels like not that many changes were made from the original stage show, so you get an impression of what sort of shows they liked on Broadway in the 20s. And The Cocoanuts would have been a fun show – the setting (the real estate boom in Florida) is just as pertinent today, there are lots of chorus girls and songs, the Marx Brothers come on and do their thing, there is a plot involving a stolen necklace involving “straight” actors, Margaret Dumont appears, Harpo plays on the harp and Chico the piano. It helps that George Kaufman wrote the book and Irving Berlin did the score (some of the songs are really good, like the oft-repeated romantic ballad 'When My Dreams Come True').
Certainly there are flaws: the stolen necklace plot isn’t very interesting, the male romantic lead (Oscar Shaw) is too old and smarmy, the direction has that early-sound-film tentativeness (sometimes during the production numbers it feels as though they didn’t know where to put the camera and there is a reluctance to use close ups), the story doesn’t build it just ends. But there are classic lines and the lead trio are terrific.
Movie review – Ladd #5 - “And Now Tomorrow” (1944) **
Paramount took their new tough guy star, Alan Ladd, and put him in a script co-written by the leading tough guy writer of the day, Raymond Chandler in a… weepy. That’s right, a good old fashioned woman’s picture (as they were known then). It’s actually a Loretta Young movie – she’s deaf – with Ladd as a doctor who falls in love with her. His first appearance is typical Ladd – wearing a fedora, smoking a cigarette at a counter. Ladd rarely got to play a part like a doctor in his career and he’s believable enough – albeit a very tough-talking, chain-smoking doctor. (I think I would have bought it a bit more had we actually seen him working in those slums that he’s always going on about).
The film is based on best selling novel by Rachel Field, who is given top billing – partly, one supposed, because Field only died in 1942. Young’s fiancée (and thus Ladd’s rival) is played by Barry Sullivan, who went on to play a similar part in The Great Gatsby. But the story of this movie is inherently flawed – Young is deaf, which would be hard for her in real life, but not in a movie because (a) she’s rich, and (b) you know Ladd’s going to cure her in the end. And Sullivan is in love with Susan Hayward, so breaking up with him is going to be okay for Young. The only real obstacle to stop Ladd and Young getting together is the fact that she’s is rich and what sort of obstacle is that?
The last third of this film, where Ladd wants to operate on a deaf rabbit and Young asks to be a guinea pig instead, is particularly hard going. (What sort of doctor performs experimental surgery then takes off before the patient wakes up?) I mean if she’d died maybe you could have had something. If this had been better it might have opened up Ladd’s careers to different sorts of possibilities. As it is he mostly stayed in thrillers and actioners for the rest of his career. At least he and Chandler would later reunite more appropriately on The Blue Dahlia.
The film is based on best selling novel by Rachel Field, who is given top billing – partly, one supposed, because Field only died in 1942. Young’s fiancée (and thus Ladd’s rival) is played by Barry Sullivan, who went on to play a similar part in The Great Gatsby. But the story of this movie is inherently flawed – Young is deaf, which would be hard for her in real life, but not in a movie because (a) she’s rich, and (b) you know Ladd’s going to cure her in the end. And Sullivan is in love with Susan Hayward, so breaking up with him is going to be okay for Young. The only real obstacle to stop Ladd and Young getting together is the fact that she’s is rich and what sort of obstacle is that?
The last third of this film, where Ladd wants to operate on a deaf rabbit and Young asks to be a guinea pig instead, is particularly hard going. (What sort of doctor performs experimental surgery then takes off before the patient wakes up?) I mean if she’d died maybe you could have had something. If this had been better it might have opened up Ladd’s careers to different sorts of possibilities. As it is he mostly stayed in thrillers and actioners for the rest of his career. At least he and Chandler would later reunite more appropriately on The Blue Dahlia.
Movie review – “Waterloo Road” (1945) ***
Even though this came out towards the end of the war, it’s still a jolt to see a film where the hero is a deserter – even if he’s played by likeable boy-next-door Johnny Mills, and he’s deserted for good reason: his wife is probably going to have sex with a smarmy black market operator.
The role of the operator is played by Stewart Granger, who is perfectly cast with his impossible good looks – I’m sure many British blokes whose girlfriends fancied Granger wanted to smash him in the face, so they would have cheered at the end. Even though Granger normally played aristocrats he puts on a Cockney accent and ends up giving one of his best performances. Mills is also ideal, though the girl isn’t much.
The story is simple – basically Mills trying to track down his wife and Granger. The main interest of the film comes from the depiction of British society at the time: the black out, the black market, MPs on the prowl, running into other deserters, more sexually aggressive women (Mills is propositioned during his search).
The final fight between Mills and Granger is also very good – Granger claimed in his memoirs that it wasn’t believable Mills could beat him, and he is a lot taller, but they make allowances for that in the film (eg Alistair Sim gives Mills some advice on how to beat Granger, and it’s clear that Granger would have won if he wasn’t so cocky). During the fight we see Mill’s bald spot – wouldn’t have had that in a Hollywood film.
Alistair Sim’s all-wise all-knowing doctor who steps in and out of the story is a little irritating. Love it how Sim comments on the baby at the end and wonders how they will judge his parent’s generation; he’s going to be a baby boomer – and will blame his parents for everything.
The role of the operator is played by Stewart Granger, who is perfectly cast with his impossible good looks – I’m sure many British blokes whose girlfriends fancied Granger wanted to smash him in the face, so they would have cheered at the end. Even though Granger normally played aristocrats he puts on a Cockney accent and ends up giving one of his best performances. Mills is also ideal, though the girl isn’t much.
The story is simple – basically Mills trying to track down his wife and Granger. The main interest of the film comes from the depiction of British society at the time: the black out, the black market, MPs on the prowl, running into other deserters, more sexually aggressive women (Mills is propositioned during his search).
The final fight between Mills and Granger is also very good – Granger claimed in his memoirs that it wasn’t believable Mills could beat him, and he is a lot taller, but they make allowances for that in the film (eg Alistair Sim gives Mills some advice on how to beat Granger, and it’s clear that Granger would have won if he wasn’t so cocky). During the fight we see Mill’s bald spot – wouldn’t have had that in a Hollywood film.
Alistair Sim’s all-wise all-knowing doctor who steps in and out of the story is a little irritating. Love it how Sim comments on the baby at the end and wonders how they will judge his parent’s generation; he’s going to be a baby boomer – and will blame his parents for everything.
Movie review – Ladd #17 - “Captain Carey USA” (1950) **1/2
Four years after OSS producer Richard Maibaum and star Alan Ladd are back in special ops – well, for the beginning segment of this film at least, where Ladd’s on a mission in Italy that results in his mate and girlfriend being killed. Since Ladd was a saboteur you think he’d go “fair cop, it was the war, we were trying to kill them”… but the deaths were due to a traitor. After the war he goes back looking for revenge. When he finds his ex-girlfriend has a smooth new husband – well, who do you think dunnit?
Ladd is in pretty good form, lots of cool torment and long-lost love; there is also a top-notch fight in a cellar at the end plus the song ‘Mona Lisa’ (which is actually part of the plot: it was used by Italians to warn Ladd of impending danger). But the revelation of the killer is too predictable and there is not enough action or suspense during the guts of the story; and this really needed to be shot in colour on location to get the most out of the Italian setting (which is fresh).
Ladd is in pretty good form, lots of cool torment and long-lost love; there is also a top-notch fight in a cellar at the end plus the song ‘Mona Lisa’ (which is actually part of the plot: it was used by Italians to warn Ladd of impending danger). But the revelation of the killer is too predictable and there is not enough action or suspense during the guts of the story; and this really needed to be shot in colour on location to get the most out of the Italian setting (which is fresh).
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Movie review – A&C #31 - “Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd” (1953) **
The second of two colour musicals Abbott and Costello made for their own company; it is made in the same panto-style as Jack and the Beanstalk, with lots of crappy songs performed by a chorus, some juveniles who sing operetta, and a plot which centres most of the action on Costello with Abbot relegated to the sidelines.The most striking feature of the film is the fact Charles Laughton plays Captain Kidd – did Abbott and Costello ever have such a distinguished co-star? Laughton’s style doesn’t quite exactly mesh with the more ratta-tat-tat burlesque delivery of the stars, but he throws himself into it (he even does a jig) and it’s fascinating to see him perform scenes with Costello; in particular, they do a handcuff routine together that’s really funny. Also enjoyable is the female pirate who gets a crush on Costello (and he’s up for it too – no shy retiring violet in this one).
The romantic subplot is poorly integrated (he is a tavern singer who just happens to be shanghaied along with the pirates; she is a lady who just happens to be kidnapped by the pirates) and there is a lot of running around looking for a treasure. There was no real reason for Abbott to be in this one. At the end of the film, Costello winds up with the girl and is captain of a ship – his most triumphant ending?
Movie review – Ladd #35 - “The Big Land” (1957) **
Blah Western with Alan Ladd as a cattle man in the years after the Civil War who has trouble selling his cattle, so he persuades some farmers to build a railroad and set up a town… which seems to be doing things the long way ‘round, but there you go.
There’s disappointingly little action in this film, with too many scenes of Ladd persuading people to his scheme – which is a shame, because the action that is there is quite well done: a solid cattle stampede, a cowboy attacks Ladd with a branding iron and there is a decent final gunfight (director Gordon Douglas showed a similar flair for “duel” sequences in The Iron Mistress).
Ladd seems tired and not that interested in what’s going on; better performances from Edmond O’Brien, who plays an alcoholic, and Virginia Mayo, the love interest. The villain is played (averagely) by Anthony Caruso, who was a favourite of Ladd’s and appeared in several films for that actor’s production company, Jaguar.
There are shades of Shane throughout the film: a gunman who wears all black, a tyrannical cattle baron, a bunch of poor but honest homesteaders struggling against said baron, a weak character who is goaded into fighting by the baddy, Ladd coming in at the end to kick arse. But it’s very meh. Ladd’s son David has a small role; the little fellah impressed people enough for him to be cast in the lead in The Proud Rebel (which like this had Alan Ladd as a former Confederate who is persecuted after the war by Yankees… gee those poor Confederates).
There’s disappointingly little action in this film, with too many scenes of Ladd persuading people to his scheme – which is a shame, because the action that is there is quite well done: a solid cattle stampede, a cowboy attacks Ladd with a branding iron and there is a decent final gunfight (director Gordon Douglas showed a similar flair for “duel” sequences in The Iron Mistress).
Ladd seems tired and not that interested in what’s going on; better performances from Edmond O’Brien, who plays an alcoholic, and Virginia Mayo, the love interest. The villain is played (averagely) by Anthony Caruso, who was a favourite of Ladd’s and appeared in several films for that actor’s production company, Jaguar.
There are shades of Shane throughout the film: a gunman who wears all black, a tyrannical cattle baron, a bunch of poor but honest homesteaders struggling against said baron, a weak character who is goaded into fighting by the baddy, Ladd coming in at the end to kick arse. But it’s very meh. Ladd’s son David has a small role; the little fellah impressed people enough for him to be cast in the lead in The Proud Rebel (which like this had Alan Ladd as a former Confederate who is persecuted after the war by Yankees… gee those poor Confederates).
Alan Ladd Sings!
Alan Ladd isn't known for his singing, but have a look at this clip which has him duet with Dorothy Lamour and this one with Rita Rio - he carries it off fine. OK maybe "fine" is putting it a bit strong but he's no disgrace. Ladd always had an excellent speaking voice and that's demonstrated in both these clips. He looks like he's having fun, too: a bit more of this variety in his career and maybe he wouldn't have offed himself.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Movie review – A&C #29 - “Jack and the Beanstalk” (1952) **1/2
Would you hire Abbott and Costello to be baby-sitters? That’s how this story starts – the two of them are assigned to look after a bratty problem child, during the course of which Costello tells him the story “Jack and the Beanstalk”. Cue dream sequence and colour photography – for the first time in an Abbott and Costello film. (Mostly this did not matter – Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein for instance would only have worked in black and white - but some of their other films cried out for colour: One Night in the Tropics, Pardon My Sarong, Mexican Hayride). Colour totally suits this movie, in which Costello is perfectly cast as the dimwitted Jack – as is Abbott as the nasty character who sells him beans.This is a bright, entertaining movie, perfect for kids – well, those who don’t mind hokey 50s sets and what-not. There are some okay songs in the vein of a crappy kids theatre musical, Costello is put on the spit, a final chase from the giant (which does go on a bit). The giant is played by Buddy Baer who was in Africa Screams; his physical qualities are used to a far greater degree here. Occasionally things seem padded and the romantic lead couple are weak, but it is good natured and fun.
Movie review – A&C #32 - “Abbott and Costello Go to Mars” (1953) **
The 1950s were a sci fi decade, so it was inevitable that Abbott and Costello found themselves inside a space ship. Costello is an orphan who visits a space facility where he encounters Abbott; the two of them accidentally launch a rocket ship and wind up in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, and they think it’s Mars… and you know, you would think that if you landed in New Orleans in a space ship at that time. Then they genuinely do wind up on another planet – Venus, not Mars – where all the inhabitants are women, in common with many 50s sci-fi films (eg Wild Women of Wongo, Queen of Venus). The Queen is horny and sets her eye on Costello.The beginning of this film has Costello playing perhaps his most child-like character ever – he was never the most mature creature but here he’s really juvenile. Adding to this is some really emphatic music which underlines every gag. But once it gets to Venus it becomes a bit adult, with the Queen becoming jealous over Costello, and the film improves immeasurably.
There is some fun stuff here: a rocket ship flying through New York, Abbott and Costello dealing with gravity, and most of all Costello wrecking havoc in an all-female society. Indeed both topics of this film – science fiction and Costello being a stud - are stronger than the treatment they are given here. You could have had a lot more fun with it: Costello ruling the kingdom, dealing with hostile aliens and so on. Abbott is wasted, and there are these bank robber villains who are introduced and never dealt with again. The whole movie falls a bit too much into two parts: New Orleans and on Venus. It is amiable enough, but not top grade.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Movie review – A&C #30 - “Lost in Alaska” (1952) **1/2
Abbbott and Costello are firemen who fish Tom Ewell out of the water when he tries to kill himself. They are accused of his murder and wind up following him to Alaska where lots of people want to shoot Ewell and there’s gold… it sounds convoluted and it is convoluted. But for all that this isn’t a bad Abbott and Costello and it’s fun to see them running around in the ice, dealing with Eskimos and seals.
There’s a quite enjoyable air of darkness about much of the humour – suicidal Ewell and everyone conniving over getting gold, including our heroes; and the female lead (Mitzi Green) is quite an interesting character – a wise lounge singer, she finds Ewell annoying but doesn’t want him dead. (She also sings a decent number, ‘It’s Hot Time in the Igloo Tonight’ - there's also a dance number with eskimos jumping around.)
Abbott wears a moustache in this one, perhaps to make him seem younger, which is does – it also makes him seem a bit sinister. There are quite a few songs and even a dance number involving Eskimos. I enjoyed the climax, where our duo fight off the baddies with a variety of weapons… including frozen fish! Costello also throws a boomerang – which knocks himself out. The ending, with gold one on side of a crevasse and people on the other, seems to borrow from Road to Utopia.
Movie review – A&C #28 - “Comin’ Round the Mountain” (1952) **
Abbott and Costello try something a bit different – a hillbilly comedy. It starts with a weird number – a song by a pretty singer (Dorothy Shay) in an evening gown who pretends to be drunk. Abbott – now starting to look a bit old - is the girl’s agent; he also represents Costello, who is an indept escape artist. The plot starts when Shay believes Constello might be descended from the McCoys, and he might be entitled to find some treasure. It’s a weak idea for a film – and things aren’t better later on when it’s contrived that Costello has to get a wife… cue from antics with a love potion. The Charles Barton era of strong plots was clearly over (since Abbott and Costello kept using the same writers, one can only assume Barton cared about preparing the scripts in a way Charles Lamont didn’t).In compensation, this has more songs in it than any Abbott and Costello film for a long time (mostly hillbilly stuff) and they rehash an old routine, “you’re forty she’s ten”. Normally one of the best things about hillbilly comedies is seeing the cast really get into it with outrageous accents – but this bunch aren’t up to it. Like Granny is a gift role, but the actor playing Granny is a bit blah (the shadow of the Beverly Hillbillies Granny lingers long over such portrayals). Indeed, this is all round a very tired film. If I’m not mistaken the young girl who flings herself at Costello is fourteen years old.
Movie review – Road #7 - “The Road to Hong Kong” (1962) ***
You’d think Bing Crosby and Bob Hope would be too old to believably play double-crossing song and dance men, but the two of them pull it off surprisingly well – when you think about it both had a twinkle in their eye all their life. (Hope has aged better than Crosby).
The guts of the plot has Hope trying to recover his memory, and getting involved in a spy plot. The girl is bewilderingly played by Joan Collins, instead of Dorothy Lamour (who does have a cameo – but why not the role? It isn’t as though Collins was a big star in 1962 – maybe the boys just wanted to prove they could do it without Lamour – or they felt she was too old. But when Crosby croons with Collins it seems off and while Collins tries she doesn’t have the zing of Lamour).
You’ve got to give the film some points for getting on the spy spoof so quickly – that didn’t really happen in a big way until 1965 but the Road kids were straight on to it. They even predicted some things that would later become Bond film staples, such as a mysterious wealthy organisation based in an underwater lair, lots of henchmen, and adventures in outer space. This does mean, however, that the film has a different feel to the others – the emphasis is on gadgets and sci-fi rather than the exotic. Put it in colour and replace Bob and Bing with Dean Martin and you have a Matt Helm movie… until it winds up on another planet and just gets silly.
Much of humour comes from guest stars: Peter Sellars is very funny doing his Indian doctor routine (are we allowed to laugh at that again?), ditto Robert Morley as an early template for Dr Evil, and a very funny cameo at the end. There is a throwback to some of the less pleasant aspects of the Road movies in one scene where Hope, pretending to be Chinese, harasses a Chinese restaurant owner (played by a non-Chinese actor).
The guts of the plot has Hope trying to recover his memory, and getting involved in a spy plot. The girl is bewilderingly played by Joan Collins, instead of Dorothy Lamour (who does have a cameo – but why not the role? It isn’t as though Collins was a big star in 1962 – maybe the boys just wanted to prove they could do it without Lamour – or they felt she was too old. But when Crosby croons with Collins it seems off and while Collins tries she doesn’t have the zing of Lamour).
You’ve got to give the film some points for getting on the spy spoof so quickly – that didn’t really happen in a big way until 1965 but the Road kids were straight on to it. They even predicted some things that would later become Bond film staples, such as a mysterious wealthy organisation based in an underwater lair, lots of henchmen, and adventures in outer space. This does mean, however, that the film has a different feel to the others – the emphasis is on gadgets and sci-fi rather than the exotic. Put it in colour and replace Bob and Bing with Dean Martin and you have a Matt Helm movie… until it winds up on another planet and just gets silly.
Much of humour comes from guest stars: Peter Sellars is very funny doing his Indian doctor routine (are we allowed to laugh at that again?), ditto Robert Morley as an early template for Dr Evil, and a very funny cameo at the end. There is a throwback to some of the less pleasant aspects of the Road movies in one scene where Hope, pretending to be Chinese, harasses a Chinese restaurant owner (played by a non-Chinese actor).
Movie review – A&C #27 - “Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man” (1951) ***
The success of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein revived the career of its stars but actually didn’t usher in as many horror spoofs as supposed. Meet the Killer Boris Karloff sounds like a horror spoof but it actually was more of a murder mystery. The pure spoofs were this, Meet the Mummy and Meet Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (of course in Frankenstein they did knock off three creatures in one film; also they met the Creature from the Black Lagoon on television).
In a way, this is a genuine sequel to The Invisible Man – specific reference is made to Claude Rains’ character in that 1933 movie plus we see a picture of Rains on the wall. The invisible man in this film isn’t a scientist, though, it’s a boxer (Arthur Franz) who believes he’s been falsely accused of murder. The boxer is a sort of nasty, tactiturn person even before the inevitable dementia that ensues when he become invisible (in the movies, becoming invisible always turns you mad) – this makes it kind of unusual, to have such an unlikeable hero. The plot has him ask detectives Abbott and Costello to help him clear his name. It’s a period piece, which adds to the fun, as do the (for the time) the excellent special effects and a strong support cast of older actors playing boxers and cops.
Most of the comedy comes from people doing double-takes at the invisible boxer doing wacky things like driving cards; the big set piece is the finale where Costello gets in a ring and beats up a much more skilled opponent with the help of the invisible boxer. The story probably should end then but goes on for another seven minutes – though it does result in some funny stuff with Costello becoming invisible (surely a strong enough concept for a sequel). A good, solid Abbott and Costello entry.
In a way, this is a genuine sequel to The Invisible Man – specific reference is made to Claude Rains’ character in that 1933 movie plus we see a picture of Rains on the wall. The invisible man in this film isn’t a scientist, though, it’s a boxer (Arthur Franz) who believes he’s been falsely accused of murder. The boxer is a sort of nasty, tactiturn person even before the inevitable dementia that ensues when he become invisible (in the movies, becoming invisible always turns you mad) – this makes it kind of unusual, to have such an unlikeable hero. The plot has him ask detectives Abbott and Costello to help him clear his name. It’s a period piece, which adds to the fun, as do the (for the time) the excellent special effects and a strong support cast of older actors playing boxers and cops.
Most of the comedy comes from people doing double-takes at the invisible boxer doing wacky things like driving cards; the big set piece is the finale where Costello gets in a ring and beats up a much more skilled opponent with the help of the invisible boxer. The story probably should end then but goes on for another seven minutes – though it does result in some funny stuff with Costello becoming invisible (surely a strong enough concept for a sequel). A good, solid Abbott and Costello entry.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Movie review – A&C # 26 - “Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion” (1950) **1/2
Early in their career around half of Abbott and Costello’s movies were service comedies, so in a way it’s odd it took them so long to get around to winding up in the foreign legion. They play wrestling managers who journey to Algiers in order to track down one of their star wrestlers and wind up accidentally enlisting in the foreign legion. There is a decent support cast, with Patricia Medina as a French spy, and the ever-reliable Walter Slezak (corrupt legionnaire) and Douglas Dumbrille (shiek) as villains. Ed Wood fans will be delighted to see Tor Johnson in the cast.
This isn’t one of the strongest entries - the story is weak - but it is enjoyable; the highlight is Costello hallucinating in the desert and the final wrestling match. There is also a fair bit of action in this one, with raids on Arab tents and explosions and what-not. The director was Charles Lamont, who went on to helm a number of films with the duo (making him one of the big three along with Arthur Lubin and Charles Barton); he keeps things moving along at a fast pace.
This isn’t one of the strongest entries - the story is weak - but it is enjoyable; the highlight is Costello hallucinating in the desert and the final wrestling match. There is also a fair bit of action in this one, with raids on Arab tents and explosions and what-not. The director was Charles Lamont, who went on to helm a number of films with the duo (making him one of the big three along with Arthur Lubin and Charles Barton); he keeps things moving along at a fast pace.
Movie review – A&C # 24 - “Africa Screams” (1949) **
While Abbott and Costello spent the majority of their film careers at Universal, they occasionally worked for other studios and/or themselves. This was an independent production, which explains why, like Jack and the Beanstalk, it has fallen into the public domain. This one has the duo wind up in Africa, a popular destination for many 40s comics (Bob Hope, etc). The film was directed by Charles Barton, for my money the best director of Abbott and Costello, but this would be his worst A & C movie. It looks cheap compared to the Universal films, and gets bogged down all the time: boring shenanigans involving Costello in a cage with a lion, or the two of them running around the jungle for no good reason. By this stage the team were getting lazy: there’s a scene where Abbott weeps over the death of Costello without realising that Costello is sitting next to him – which they used just two films later in Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion.
However there are some funny moments such as Costello having seizures when he sees a gorilla, the chubby camp support character, and Abbot having a Treasure of the Sierra Madre moment over diamonds (indeed, Abbott emotes in this film a lot more than usual - mostly crapping on about diamonds). There’s also an interesting cast including noted African hand Frank Buck and lion tamer Clyde Beatty as themselves, two members of the Three Stooges and Buddy Baer (the Christian gladiator from Quo Vadis). Also the ending really enables Costello to get one over Abbott.
However there are some funny moments such as Costello having seizures when he sees a gorilla, the chubby camp support character, and Abbot having a Treasure of the Sierra Madre moment over diamonds (indeed, Abbott emotes in this film a lot more than usual - mostly crapping on about diamonds). There’s also an interesting cast including noted African hand Frank Buck and lion tamer Clyde Beatty as themselves, two members of the Three Stooges and Buddy Baer (the Christian gladiator from Quo Vadis). Also the ending really enables Costello to get one over Abbott.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Movie review – A&C #25 – “Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff” (1948) ***1/2
This was originally entitled Abbott and Costello Meet the Killers, until Boris Karloff was cast only a few days before filming. Despite the presence of the great man this is not so much a horror spoof as an old fashioned murder mystery in the style of Who Done It? Abbott’s a hotel detective, a nasty lawyer is found dead, and the body is discovered by Costello. All the suspects get together and decide to hang the blame on Costello, which is pretty full on. Even more full on is the scene where Karloff, as a swami, tries to hypnotise Costello into killing himself (a hilarious scene), and a quite scary climax with Costello is chased around an underground cave system and almost falls to his death in a pit of sulphur (a set worthy of Frankenstein).
There is lots of other good stuff here: Costello in drag (being sexually harassed by a bald middle aged hotel employee), Abbott and Costello playing cards with corpses bath, Costello continually finding corpses everywhere he goes. A strong entry, heavy on the atmosphere, where most of the comedy is carried by Costello solo. Karloff’s role is quite small but he does have that excellent scene.
There is lots of other good stuff here: Costello in drag (being sexually harassed by a bald middle aged hotel employee), Abbott and Costello playing cards with corpses bath, Costello continually finding corpses everywhere he goes. A strong entry, heavy on the atmosphere, where most of the comedy is carried by Costello solo. Karloff’s role is quite small but he does have that excellent scene.
Movie review – A&C #23 – “Mexican Hayride” (1948) **1/2
Made after Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein but put into production before release of that movie, which prompted all those “Abbott and Costello Meet” films. This had one of the most distinguished pedigrees of an A and C vehicle, being based on a Cole Porter musical – but all the songs are cut out. This really feels as though it needed to be filmed in colour with a couple of musical stars belting out the numbers – like an old style Abbott and Costello film (okay they were all black and white but you get what I mean). What’s left is okay, it just feels as though it needs songs and colour – with talented contract stars singing them, say Kathryn Grayson or someone like that.
There is a lot of plot, typical of Charles Barton movies: Abbott is a true unrepentant conman in this one, determine to sell false mining rights south of the border – and there are a couple of other conmen in the film, giving the story a pleasing air of unscrupulousness. A woman sets out to seduce Costello and ends up genuinely falling for him (she gets electrocuted when she kisses him) – at the ending he rides off into the sunset with her! (With Abbott driving the horse and buggy). It’s also fun to see Costello in the bullring, and in a variety of Mexican outfits; the funniest gag for me was when Costello can’t stop dancing after having been in a dance marathon.
There is a lot of plot, typical of Charles Barton movies: Abbott is a true unrepentant conman in this one, determine to sell false mining rights south of the border – and there are a couple of other conmen in the film, giving the story a pleasing air of unscrupulousness. A woman sets out to seduce Costello and ends up genuinely falling for him (she gets electrocuted when she kisses him) – at the ending he rides off into the sunset with her! (With Abbott driving the horse and buggy). It’s also fun to see Costello in the bullring, and in a variety of Mexican outfits; the funniest gag for me was when Costello can’t stop dancing after having been in a dance marathon.
Movie review – Road #6 - “Road to Bali” (1952) ***
A bonus for Australians: it starts in Melbourne “the last outpost of culture in the Western world” (there is a map of Australia with signs “road to Zanzibar”, “road to Utopia”, etc) where Bing and Bob and doing their two man show. Of course they’re in trouble with the locals – a young lass (played by a starlet with an American accent) and her family, who I think are supposed to be famrers. Bing and Bob make a run for it – one of the farmers throws a boomerang at them, which Bob catches. They then stowaway on a train and get busted; they buy some false Ned Kelly like beards and go to an unemployment office in Darwin where a prince is looking for deep sea divers.
This film is sometimes said not to be as good as the others in the series, but to be honest I couldn’t really ascertain a drop in quality – the banter between the leads (mostly mean, lots of teasing) is still funny, two of Hollywood’s richest and most long-lasting stars revelling in each other’s company (one scene they actually kiss, albeit accidentally). Lamour doesn’t have much of a role, just being a Balinese princess without doing any manipulations herself. I will admit, it does taper off in the last third after the villain as gone and it’s just the three of them hanging around on an island. But it does recover for the end, which features the finale (common in island films) of our heroes being thrown into a volcano – years before Joe vs the Volcano. And the final gag is a cracker.
This film is sometimes said not to be as good as the others in the series, but to be honest I couldn’t really ascertain a drop in quality – the banter between the leads (mostly mean, lots of teasing) is still funny, two of Hollywood’s richest and most long-lasting stars revelling in each other’s company (one scene they actually kiss, albeit accidentally). Lamour doesn’t have much of a role, just being a Balinese princess without doing any manipulations herself. I will admit, it does taper off in the last third after the villain as gone and it’s just the three of them hanging around on an island. But it does recover for the end, which features the finale (common in island films) of our heroes being thrown into a volcano – years before Joe vs the Volcano. And the final gag is a cracker.
Movie review – Moto #8 – “Mr Moto Takes a Vacation” (1939) **1/2
The last of the Peter Lorre Moto’s, although actually made before Danger Island (and Henry Silva played the character in The Return of Mr Moto). This film ticks a lot of boxes: the plot revolves around jewel theft and ancient archaeological discoveries, Moto has a silly ass friend (a staple of 30s B picture detective movies... indeed the silly ass refers to their London adventure together but it's not a character who was in Mysterious Mr Moto), Lionel Atwill and Virginia Field are in the support cast, there’s a scene where Moto arranges to meet someone in a restaurant and they have a knife in their back.It’s a pretty good entry in the series – some atmospheric use of rain, a satisfactory revelation of the killer (who proves as deft with the make up as Moto). It is a bit city bound, stuck in dull Chicago, with most of the exotic stuff (in the desrt(. However the final segment which takes place all over the one rainy night has a lot of suspense and the fight in the museum – with Moto and his adversary knocking over tombs and what-not – is very effective. Norman Foster was a good director.
There is some novelty in the fact that there are three different groups of antagonists, and this movie introduces a Moriarty type nemesis for Moto. The problem is he wears make up so obvious it's no surprise as to who he is. A particularly dull pair of juveniles too - who cares about the explorer or his girlfriend? In hindsight you can see energy running out of the film so maybe it was a good thing it would up.
Movie review – Alan Ladd #15 - “The Great Gatsby” (1949) ***
Fascinating version of the classic novel which – like most F Scott Fitzgerald prose - never seems to have been satisfactorily filmed (at least up until now). I think it would be wrong to view this as an attempt to faithfully film the novel – rather, it’s more like a cover version of Fitzgerald’s work, fitted to image of Alan Ladd.
It starts awfully with a scene at Gatsby’s grave involving Nick Carraway (Macdonald Carey) then gets off to a funny start with a prohibition montage and Alan Ladd blasting away his gun. But then it sort of settles down once Ladd moves over to Long Neck, and there are some great scenes and dialogue.
The flashbacks don’t quite work – they’re awkwardly introduced and there are too many of them. One has Gatsby as a young sailor becoming the assistant to a rich old man (Henry Hull) with a nubile young wife – this wasn’t in the book but is kind of interesting. There’s also flashbacks to Gatsby romancing Daisy, and Gatsby just getting out of the army – I think they kind of ruin the mood of lost love, and the power of memory and all that. But what's there is surprisingly strong and the book actually adapts well to being a Ladd vehicle because it involves gangsters and being sad.
Alan Ladd is quite good as Gatsby – he’s believable as a gangster and is very touching in some scenes, especially the ones with Daisy: I especially loved when he is waiting to meet Daisy, showing Daisy his things, arguing with MacDonald Carey that his love was real, and when he’s betrayed. When he has too much dialogue he struggles, especially when it's overly melodramatic, but he does get the role. There was something sad about Ladd, an aura of melancholy about his persona which worked so well in films such as This Gun for Hire and Shane (I'm trying not to be wise in hindsight here because of how Ladd wound up but it was there from early on). And that sense of sadness is spot on for Gatsby. One imagines with a better director and in a strong film, Ladd could have been excellent.
He is better than Betty Field, who plays Daisy (a bit too obviously shallow), and MacDonald Carey as Nick (too stuffy and self-righteous – he only melts towards Gatsby towards the end and only then becomes likeable) and Ruth Hussey as Jordan (too greedy and too much a lesbian). But there are excellent performances from Shelley Winters (as Myrtle, of course) and Howard da Silva as her pathetic husband; Barry Sullivan is also imposing as Tomas is Elisha Cook Jnr as Gatsby’s gangster sidekick. With a better director and a script more respectful of its source, who knows? This might have been a minor classic. As it is, it’s a frustrating half-good movie.
(NB when Alan Ladd is shot while swimming, you actually see the wound on his body – a blood stain. Surely this was one of the first time this happened.)
It starts awfully with a scene at Gatsby’s grave involving Nick Carraway (Macdonald Carey) then gets off to a funny start with a prohibition montage and Alan Ladd blasting away his gun. But then it sort of settles down once Ladd moves over to Long Neck, and there are some great scenes and dialogue.
The flashbacks don’t quite work – they’re awkwardly introduced and there are too many of them. One has Gatsby as a young sailor becoming the assistant to a rich old man (Henry Hull) with a nubile young wife – this wasn’t in the book but is kind of interesting. There’s also flashbacks to Gatsby romancing Daisy, and Gatsby just getting out of the army – I think they kind of ruin the mood of lost love, and the power of memory and all that. But what's there is surprisingly strong and the book actually adapts well to being a Ladd vehicle because it involves gangsters and being sad.
Alan Ladd is quite good as Gatsby – he’s believable as a gangster and is very touching in some scenes, especially the ones with Daisy: I especially loved when he is waiting to meet Daisy, showing Daisy his things, arguing with MacDonald Carey that his love was real, and when he’s betrayed. When he has too much dialogue he struggles, especially when it's overly melodramatic, but he does get the role. There was something sad about Ladd, an aura of melancholy about his persona which worked so well in films such as This Gun for Hire and Shane (I'm trying not to be wise in hindsight here because of how Ladd wound up but it was there from early on). And that sense of sadness is spot on for Gatsby. One imagines with a better director and in a strong film, Ladd could have been excellent.
He is better than Betty Field, who plays Daisy (a bit too obviously shallow), and MacDonald Carey as Nick (too stuffy and self-righteous – he only melts towards Gatsby towards the end and only then becomes likeable) and Ruth Hussey as Jordan (too greedy and too much a lesbian). But there are excellent performances from Shelley Winters (as Myrtle, of course) and Howard da Silva as her pathetic husband; Barry Sullivan is also imposing as Tomas is Elisha Cook Jnr as Gatsby’s gangster sidekick. With a better director and a script more respectful of its source, who knows? This might have been a minor classic. As it is, it’s a frustrating half-good movie.
(NB when Alan Ladd is shot while swimming, you actually see the wound on his body – a blood stain. Surely this was one of the first time this happened.)
Movie review – Alan Ladd #14 - “Whispering Smith” (1948) ***
All male tough guy Hollywood stars wound up in the saddle sooner or later – even Humphrey Bogart was in Virginia City and James Cagney made the Oklahoma Kid. This was Alan Ladd’s genre debut and Paramount did him proud – like Warners did with Errol Flynn in Dodge City (another actor who became a star in one genre but became a popular Western performer), they laid on the deluxe treatment: strong story, beautiful colour photography, top-notch support cast.
Ladd looks very comfortable in the saddle and is perfectly cast as the title character, a railroad detective (railroads often provided the villains in Westerns but here’s something a bit different). He also gets to go on something of an emotional journey – his best mate (Robert Preston) is married to Smith’s former girlfriend (the ever-bland Brenda Marshall). In addition to Preston, who is always good at playing characters with ambiguous morality, the cast includes William Demarest and Donald Crisp (excellent). Just watching the finale for this movie, where Ladd stands off against Preston, it struck me that many famous Alan Ladd films involved him having a strong relationship with another man, which often manifested itself as a love triangle: The Glass Key, Shane.
NB There’s an albino killer called “whitey” – not the first time such a character would be given such a name.
NB There’s an albino killer called “whitey” – not the first time such a character would be given such a name.
Movie review – A&C #20 - “The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap” (1947) ****
A terrific Abbott and Costello film, which perhaps the strongest story out of any film they made. It’s set in the old West with our duo as travelling salesmen who are falsely accused of murder – they escape the noose under an old law which means Costello has to take over the dead man’s debts and family. When you see that the widow is played by Marjorie Main, you know you’re in for some fun, and you are – Costello thrived against strong female co-stars (Martha Raye, Patsy Kelly) and he teams wonderfully with Main. There are some classic bits, like when Costello becomes an effective sheriff (no one wants to kill him because that would mean they have to marry Main) – and when everyone wants to kill him (because they hear that Main is going to inherit a fortune). The support cast is strong, and there is some decent action and songs thrown into the mix as well. Great fun.
Movie review – A&C #19 – “Buck Privates Come Home” (1947) ***1/2
Box office receipts for Little Giant and The Time of their Lives were in decline so Abbott and Costello decided to reunite as a team, and produced this sequel to their first box office sensation. It opens with flash backs to that earlier film – Abbott and Costello accidentally joining the army, the duo going through hapless paces in a drill – before starting with some soldiers singing about returning home (there’s only one song, but it’d been a while since there was singing in an Abbott and Costello film). The majority of the story concerns Costello trying to smuggle a war orphan into the country, which results in them getting involved with a midget car designer. This character is the male juvenile; he sort of just pops up (the boyfriend of a female army officer) – it would have been better had he been an army pal of the lead duo.
There is surprisingly an aura of sadness about this movie – unlike the first one which was all about going off to a big adventure, this is about figuring out what to do with your life after the army and all the limitations and compromises that come with civilian life. It’s kind of sad that Abbott and Costello go straight back to doing the same job they did before the war; also poor old Nat Pendleton as their sergeant finds his career repeatedly damaged by the two. NB Don Porter has a small role as an officer – he looks like Lee Bowman, the romantic lead from the first film.
There is surprisingly an aura of sadness about this movie – unlike the first one which was all about going off to a big adventure, this is about figuring out what to do with your life after the army and all the limitations and compromises that come with civilian life. It’s kind of sad that Abbott and Costello go straight back to doing the same job they did before the war; also poor old Nat Pendleton as their sergeant finds his career repeatedly damaged by the two. NB Don Porter has a small role as an officer – he looks like Lee Bowman, the romantic lead from the first film.
Movie review – “The Wedding Singer” (1998) ***
Charming romantic comedy which exposed Adam Sandler to a much wider audience and ushered in the third stage of Drew Barrymore stardom (she became a child star with ET then a vixen with Poison Ivy before becoming a romantic cutie with this one). In the 90s Barrymore was established in the public mind as a kind of trashy femme fetale but Woody Allen showed in Everyone Says I Love You that she was actually best suited to playing the cute girl next door – this film confirmed it. Despite the jokes about throwing up and horny old people, this has a real sweet, family feel to it – Sandler is close to his family, loves where he lives, is nice to kids and old people. It’s also got one of the brightest beginnings to a romantic comedy: Sandler singing “You Spin Me Right Round”. It ranks up there with the opening musical number in the first Austin Powers – sets things off to a brilliant start. The rest is predictable but quite enchanting in its own way.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Movie review – A&C #18 – “The Time of Their Lives” (1947) ***
The second of two films in which Abbott and Costello appeared but not as a team – but the leap in quality from Little Giant is remarkable. A great deal of the credit surely must go to Charles Barton, who went on to helm some of the duo’s best films, including Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. A great feature of Barton’s films would be the complexity and strength of the stories. This one starts in 1780 Revolutionary America – butler Abbott betrays tinker Costello over a woman, and Costello is mistakenly thought with a traitor. Along with Marjoriw Reynolds, another revolutionary, he is shot dead (full on!) by the Americans (even more full on!) – who promptly curse the two of them as traitors and they are destined to exist as ghosts until their reputations are cleared. I didn’t know they went in for curses for all eternity in revolutionary America, at least not outside the south, but there you go. Fast-forward to 1947 and the house is inhabited by some newcomers, including Abbott as a shrink, and the ghosts try to reverse the curse.
Some really good moments – the period stuff, the special effects (for the time), the fact the hot female ghost Reynolds is horny for Costello for a time, Costello gets to torment Abbott for a change, the third act twist with the appearance of another ghost, trusty Gale Sondegaard essaying another depiction of a creepy servant who feels she’s in touch with ghosts. It does taper away a bit towards the end and the final car chase feels a bit tacked on.
Some really good moments – the period stuff, the special effects (for the time), the fact the hot female ghost Reynolds is horny for Costello for a time, Costello gets to torment Abbott for a change, the third act twist with the appearance of another ghost, trusty Gale Sondegaard essaying another depiction of a creepy servant who feels she’s in touch with ghosts. It does taper away a bit towards the end and the final car chase feels a bit tacked on.
Movie review – “Starship Troopers” (1997) ****
If you’re in the right mood, this is brilliant fun. Even what seem to be debits work to the film’s delightful oddness: the crappy performances by Casper Van Diem and Denise Richards work actually hit just the right crappy tone (Van Diem is reminiscent of a young John Agar, Richards makes a great saucy teen minx); although our heroes defend a basically fascist society, the film is no endorsement of fascism – while everything is clean and technology advanced, it’s clear that the humans provoked the war and that they have incompetent military strategy and contempt for life.
The siege set piece at the base is a stunning sequence – indeed, the film has trouble recovering from it. The final third feels like an after-thought – but even the wonkiness of the structure adds to the enjoyment (as does the fact that the big capture of the alien happens when none of our heroes are involved).
Clancy Brown is perfect as the training sergeant and Dina Meyer is extremely winning.
Full of terrific moments: Neil Patrick Harris in Nazi regalia, Clancy Brown whipping the troops into line, the brilliant insect creatures (what terrifying antagonists), the walk down washout lane, Michael Ironside leading his troops, “they sucked his brains out”, Van Diem’s talk with his parents just as they’re killed, the indiscriminate way the cast are wiped out.
Movie review – Road #5 - “Road to Rio” (1947) ***
At 100 minutes the longest Road movie and it feels too long. It’s full of bright moments though, as Bob and Bing fling yet another from another creditor and wind up on a boat to Rio. They meet Dorothy Lamour, who is a bit more passive in this film (it was post-war and women were giving up their jobs and going back to housewifery) – she’s being hypnotised by ever reliable Gale Sondegaard so she’ll marry a rogue. Sondegaard leads an imposing collection of villains, Hope’s wisecracks are strong and there are some memorable music numbers (one effective romantic number to the background of a film being projected, another with the Andrews Sisters) but it goes on for too long. It does have one the funniest climax gags – the cowboys who ride to the rescue at the end, don’t make it, but say “wasn’t it exciting”. Also Hope winds up with Lamour - even if he does have to hypnotise her.
Book review – “The Big Nowhere” by James Ellroy
The first appearance by Dudley Smith, who later appeared in LA Confidential and White Jazz. The three heroes here are a young tough cop who turns out to be gay, a wife beating political cop type, and Buzz Meeks, the most corrupt cop on the force. Not the most likeable bunch and it centers around two sordid investigations – one into Communist infiltration into Hollywood, the other into a string of savage murders of gay people. So reading the book is a bit yucky despite that patented compulsive Ellroy style – but then at the end it focuses on Meeks and his suicidal affair with a lover of Mickey Cohen, his determination to avenge his friend - and it leaps into greatness.
Book review – “American Tabloid” by James Ellory (warning: spoilers)
Ellroy turns his eye to the Kennedy Era. Like in many of his books there are three tough protagonists – a tough shonky cop who could be played by Russell Crowe, a suave political type who you imagine George Clooney played, plus an alcoholic cop who’s the John C Reilly part.
After LA Confidential I set myself the task of thinking “how would you adapt this?” It would be tricky as the plot goes all over the shop – the three lead characters pick up enthusiasm for things then drop them – RFK fighting the mob, working for Howard Hughes, the anti-Castro crusade, blackmailing JFK, helping JFK get elected, stealing heroin. Towards the end they are united in trying to kill JFK but that doesn’t take up much of the book. Still it’s gripping, compulsive reading, full of vivid scenes.
Ellroy has a taste for Hollywood gossip – Walter Pigeon was gay, Bing Crosby beat his second wife – but surprisingly (and quite wittily) poo poos the rumour that JFK rooted Marilyn Monroe. The most likeable character is the gay but tough comic. Didn’t quite buy why Ward turned ruthless and why did he kill Kemper Boyd at the end?
After LA Confidential I set myself the task of thinking “how would you adapt this?” It would be tricky as the plot goes all over the shop – the three lead characters pick up enthusiasm for things then drop them – RFK fighting the mob, working for Howard Hughes, the anti-Castro crusade, blackmailing JFK, helping JFK get elected, stealing heroin. Towards the end they are united in trying to kill JFK but that doesn’t take up much of the book. Still it’s gripping, compulsive reading, full of vivid scenes.
Ellroy has a taste for Hollywood gossip – Walter Pigeon was gay, Bing Crosby beat his second wife – but surprisingly (and quite wittily) poo poos the rumour that JFK rooted Marilyn Monroe. The most likeable character is the gay but tough comic. Didn’t quite buy why Ward turned ruthless and why did he kill Kemper Boyd at the end?
Book review – “Stanlingrad” by Anthony Beevor
The Spanish Civil War, Berlin in 1945, Stanlingrad – Anthony Beevor has carved out a niche writing histories of particularly brutish battles where both sides could be classed as “baddies”. Oh, I know you’re not supposed to say that nowadays but after reading about the horrible things the Nazis and the Russians did (countenancing mass rapes, killing Jews, torture, etc)… I’m sorry, the Western Allies were far and away better. Anyway, that’s something you’ll get more from Beevor’s book on the fall of Berlin; Westerners are not very prominent in this account of the epic, brutish battle of Stalingrad.
Focusing on one event allows Beevor to concentrate on more on the personal and little details that he was unable to in his book on the Spanish Civil War. Full of interesting bits – the German troops obsession with Christmas, the number of times the Germans came close to winning the thing only to have Hitler ruin it, the use of Russian dogs to blow up Germans, the variety of methods the Russians used to get drunk, Stalin’s outright cowardice at the beginning of the German invasion but the fact that he had no scruples ultimately made him more effective a military leader than Hilter, the bravery shown by German allies. It seems this battle really was the turning point in the war, as well as giving the biggest fillip to communism since the Great Depression. A book full of violence, depressing stories, brutality. Can be wearying. But so powerful.
Focusing on one event allows Beevor to concentrate on more on the personal and little details that he was unable to in his book on the Spanish Civil War. Full of interesting bits – the German troops obsession with Christmas, the number of times the Germans came close to winning the thing only to have Hitler ruin it, the use of Russian dogs to blow up Germans, the variety of methods the Russians used to get drunk, Stalin’s outright cowardice at the beginning of the German invasion but the fact that he had no scruples ultimately made him more effective a military leader than Hilter, the bravery shown by German allies. It seems this battle really was the turning point in the war, as well as giving the biggest fillip to communism since the Great Depression. A book full of violence, depressing stories, brutality. Can be wearying. But so powerful.
Movie review – “Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle” (2006) **
Modern day attempt to make a cult film, and it succeeded – more so on DVD than the cinemas, where it’s harder to watch having a cone. Sociologically its vital as a Hollywood film with an Indian and Asian star – and race is a big feature of the plot, which constantly explores stereotypes and what not. Full of cameos, indicating this was made with some muscle behind it. Some funny moments. Didn’t light my fire but I don’t think I’m the target market.
Movie review – “The Best Years of Our Lives” (1946) ***
At one stage this was the second biggest box office hit in Hollywood, topped only by Gone with the Wind. It was a zeitgeist film par excellance, just what the public wanted in 1946 (just like director William Wyler achieved a few years earlier with Mrs Miniver, and later on with Ben Hur). It was also the pinnacle of Sam Goldwyn’s career, and a sort of symbol of the passing of classical Hollywood – 1946 would be it’s high point, and just like the veterans from then on filmmakers were entering unchartered waters. I think it’s safe to say the film’s reputation hasn’t survived the years that well; it remains a very well made piece of entertainment, sensitive direction, strong acting, etc – but it’s impossible for it to have the same impact it did at the time.
The film is a definitive example of popular drama: it touches on some really serious subjects (the dissatisfaction of returning to the old life, drinking problems, reconnecting with family, living with disabilities, coming home to find missus is a tramp) – but is also reassuring (banks eventually loan to veterans without collateral, each three of the male s has a loving, understanding woman to comfort them).
Frederick March has some fine moments, such as looking at himself in front of the mirror, but his drunk scene goes on too long. I was knocked out by Dana Andrews, young, confident and good looking, as the dissatisfied returning veteran – it hinted a better career than he had (but then he was a big time boozer). Virginia Mayo is good as his wife (she made an ideal good time girl, Mayo, as she did in White Heat – like that her boyfriend is played by Steve Cochrane). Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright and Cathy O’Donnell all make what is actually a difficult part to play – loving women – fresh and moving. But it’s Harold Russell, real life amputee, who gives the film it’s real power.
Movie review – “21” (2008) ***
Entertaining account of a famous sting (if that’s the right word) by MIT students of casinos at Vegas. In real life the students were all Asian – here there’s only one (plus one mixed), but that’s Hollywood for you. Jim Sturgess is an engaging lead, believable as both a nerd and someone who could still pull Kate Bosworth (who delivers in another disappointing performance). The tunes are groovy, the depictions of card games interestingly done, the concept a fresh one. But once you start to nitpick, you can’t stop: not enough hedonism, what happens to the guy that Burgess kicks out of the group, couldn’t Spacey have been more evil, wouldn’t Burgess have hid his money somewhere better, why is Sturgess so bad for dumping his loser mates when they are so clearly losers, how come Kate Bosworth gets getting cast in stuff when she’s so bland, etc.
Movie review - “The Nothing Men” (2008) *** (warning: spoilers)
I saw this at as a play in 2003 at a theatre in Newtown. This big screen version still feels like a filmed play, but the gun toting finale works better on film than stage. I’m surprised they didn’t get David Field to shave his head like his character did on stage; they kept some stuff that they shouldn’t eg Martin Dingle Wall being specifically responsible for the death of Field’s wife (not needed), too many scenes with Field and his ill son (one or two was enough). Strong performances, well made, solid structure. Be interesting to see how it does at the box office.
Movie review – A&C #17 - “Little Giant” (1946) **
By the mid 40s Abbott and Costello were getting sick of one another so they decide to break up and try their luck separately – but still in the same movie. So they both appear here, but not as a team. This marked a bit of a low point in the careers of both men. It isn’t helped by having a lousy central idea: Costello tries to make it as a salesman in the big city. Whoopee. There’s also the fact Costello is always playing for sympathy – only 18 minutes in he asks his uncle for a job and his uncle says no, and Costello puts on this sad face… are we meant to feel sorry for him? They try a similar play for sympathy when Costello tries to sell a vacuum cleaner and gets knocked back – I mean, he’s a door to door salesman, why should we care? I think when Costello’s not being bullied by Abbott, he’s simply annoying. Abbott comes off better – he gets to play multiple roles, one in which he’s married (the villain).
Costello does an early routine with a motorist who abuses him, and while the man who plays the motorist is clearly a good actor doing his best, he’s not as good as Abbott – it’s hard to be a good straight man (the thing I most noticed was the voice: Abbott’s harsh raspy delivery). One scene the do dialogue over the phone – it’s like the were meant to do it in an office but the scene was rewritten so they didn’t have to act with one another. (The duo do perform one routine together – 13 x 7 = 28, the second time they’ve done this). There are some funny moments but it goes on and on, and Costello milks the sympathy far too much, and the last third (where Costello think’s he’s psychic then realises he isn’t) really drags.
Costello does an early routine with a motorist who abuses him, and while the man who plays the motorist is clearly a good actor doing his best, he’s not as good as Abbott – it’s hard to be a good straight man (the thing I most noticed was the voice: Abbott’s harsh raspy delivery). One scene the do dialogue over the phone – it’s like the were meant to do it in an office but the scene was rewritten so they didn’t have to act with one another. (The duo do perform one routine together – 13 x 7 = 28, the second time they’ve done this). There are some funny moments but it goes on and on, and Costello milks the sympathy far too much, and the last third (where Costello think’s he’s psychic then realises he isn’t) really drags.
Movie review – “Black Water” (2008) ***1/2
Top notch Aussie flick about three friends who are attacked by a crocodile. Very simple and all the more effective for being so – the crocodile isn’t a huge CGI thing, it’s a bloody scary real crock. There’s some real scream-out-loud moments and solid performances, particularly by the two girls (Diana Glenn has been one of my fave Aussie actors for a while and Maeve Demody is a star). One major flaw, and it could have been fixed with irritating ease: there is no good reason for the three of them to climb down the tree; they just needed to give them some urgency (eg someone was injured) to justify it. Terrific location.
TV review – “30 Rock” – Season 2 *****
Tina Fey’s excellent sitcom ducks the sophomore slump, even if because of the Writers Guild strike they only made 17 episodes. The brilliant bizarre interludes continue – there are several musical numbers. More attention is paid to Kenny the Page (who is given a nemesis); the part of the irritating bald boring producer character is reduced to barely nothing. The wise decision is made not to have Fey romance Alec Baldwin, who remains outstanding.
Movie review – “Life of Brian” (1979) *****
There is debate over which is the better Monty Python film, this or Holy Grail (I can’t imagine anyone plumping for The Meaning of Life) – this would probably be the most cohesive because it has a strong plot. The satire on organised religion remains razor sharp and just as pertinent today, the performances are excellent, the set design is wonderful, the dialogue eminently quotable. Best of all is the marvellous finale, singing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” on the cross.
Movie review – A&C #15 - “The Naughty Nineties” (1945) ***
Abbott and Costello made a fortune for Universal in their heyday, and in return Universal didn’t stint on the budgets for their films (well, relatively speaking). They often had lavish production numbers and notable guest stars; this was their first costume film, a knock off of Showboat, complete with a cute old riverboat captain (Captain Sam as opposed to Captain Andy), his actress daughter and singing darkies. Abbott is given a role with a bit more meat here, as a riverboat actor, but he still spends most of his time with Costello. The plot is about a trio of gamblers who take over the riverboat and convert it into a gambling den; it’s feels fresh to have a trio of baddies (two guys and a girl) – though one of the guys turns good (he’s played by Alan Curtis, who was the chauffeur in Buck Privates – he wears a moustache here and is a lot more handsome).It’s a decent enough plot to entertain between the routines, which are strong. The highlight is of course ‘Who’s On First?’ – this is given a full run here, and has ensured this film’s immortality (NB it was a well established routine before Abbott and Costello became movie stars but this was the first time the full routine was captured on camera). It’s not a particularly inspired rendition but it doesn’t have to be, really (was it included to boost box office performances of the films, which were on the slide?). Other highlights include Costello’s tormenting of a thug, a scene where Costello sings, and when he thinks he’s eaten a cat.
This isn’t one of the best Abbott and Costellos but it is enjoyable: a decent plot, period setting, Who’s on First, shenanigans with a bear, a satisfying fight finale which involves a lot of people being conked over the head with wood.
Movie review – “Mad Max 2” (1981) *****
Stunningly good Australian film – the best ever made here? – which still holds up well. There was never a cooler action hero than Max, battered and worn (cf the callow youth of the first film), with his tousled hair and leather, not to mention his great dog and car. That’s one of the many things about this movie that are incredibly Aussie despite it being set in a post-apocalyptic never-never land: plus the crippled mechanic smart enough to figure out the bomb on the car who insists on going in the truck at the end (love that dialogue exchange with his dopey mate about when the truck can be ready); Syd Heylen; the gay bikies doing circle work; the 80s era fashion.
Mel Gibson is terrific in the lead – one of my favourite bits of movie star acting ever is his tired, resigned smile to Bruce Spence at the end – but he’s backed by a strong support cast, including hands-on tormented henchman Wes (put on a chain by his boss); Emily Minty as the Feral Kid (looking genuinely feral); Virginia Hey as a terrific Amazon woman (oh so 80s), sweet Arkie Whitely; good egg Mike Preston (whose death scene is kind of thrown away); likeable Bruce Spence; imposing Humungous (who seems to genuinely believe the promises he makes); the dog. It’s a fabulous film and a credit to all who made it.
Movie review – “Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” (1943) ***
Academics interested in British cinema love this movie because it can be approached so many different ways: auteurist (it was a leading work from Powell and Pressberger), censorship (it had censorship troubles at the time), British identity (differing depictions of Britain over the years), direction (all the unusual camera angles and ways of presenting scenes), stardom (Deborah Kerr), war (“clean” vs “dirty” fighting), femininity (the changing nature of the Deborah Kerr characters), its uniqueness in the context of Australian film. It is certainly an intelligent film with a charming performance by sweetheart Roger Livesy as Blimp (though I watched it with an audience and turned against him a bit during the wildlife-heads-on-the-wall montage). It’s well directed, looks terrific, the acting is fine and has several moving moments such as the death of Blimp’s wife, Anton Walbrook talking about his family lost to the Nazis, and the ending. But it goes on far too long – over two hours, by which time its points have been made time and time again.
Movie review- “Hunger” (2008) ****
I saw this at the Sydney Film Festival, and during the scene where a prison guard is shot in the head while visiting his mother at an old person’s home, some vile fool in the audience clapped. Passions still run high, even over twenty years after the hunger strikes. Stunning use of sound, and full of striking images. Most of the dialogue comes in one two handed sequence. Not exactly fun but clearly a work from people of great talent.
Book review – “The Spanish Civil War” by Anthony Beevor
As Beevor points out in this excellent book, while history is often written by the victors, in the case of the Spanish Civil War it was written by the losers. The myth of Republican Spain is a strong one, even today, powered by two factors (a) nationalists were supported by Germany and Italy, who turned out to be baddies and (b) the presence of so many celebrities on the Republican side (especially Hemmingway)
This is a brilliantly researched and engrossing book. Reading it is a bit depressing at times though, because not only did the Nationalists eventually win, the Republicans in many ways deserved to lose (they had poor leadership and failed to nip the revolt in the bud when they had the chance). Also, so many people died and there was so much suffering; failures of the liberals resulted in the strengthening of the communists, who were horrible and keen to torture; Western governments and business interests supported the Nationalists more than the Republicans (though the Republicans could still have won). Executions, propaganda, torture.
Occasionally it got a bit confusing who was who; also the fact that the book covered the whole war means the personal dimensions occasionally got lost. (Even Franco’s personality does not come across very vividly). The most exciting sequence comes when the Nationalists launch their coup and the war begins.
This is a brilliantly researched and engrossing book. Reading it is a bit depressing at times though, because not only did the Nationalists eventually win, the Republicans in many ways deserved to lose (they had poor leadership and failed to nip the revolt in the bud when they had the chance). Also, so many people died and there was so much suffering; failures of the liberals resulted in the strengthening of the communists, who were horrible and keen to torture; Western governments and business interests supported the Nationalists more than the Republicans (though the Republicans could still have won). Executions, propaganda, torture.
Occasionally it got a bit confusing who was who; also the fact that the book covered the whole war means the personal dimensions occasionally got lost. (Even Franco’s personality does not come across very vividly). The most exciting sequence comes when the Nationalists launch their coup and the war begins.
Book review- “Those Crazy, Wonderful Years When We Ran Warner Brothers” by Stuart Jerome
Memoir of life at Warners in the late 30s and early 40s from Jerome, the son of a songwriter who worked as a delivery boy (and became a writer after the war, though one with mainly television credits). It’s an interesting angle and works well enough, offering a fresh perspective on a familiar period. There are some great tidbits of gossip which sound too odd not to be true: Dick Powell didn’t have a sphincter and required laxatives and constipatives all the time, Claude Rains had hideous body odour, Kay Francis was humiliated by the studio in an attempt to break her contract, James Hilton struggled with screenwriting but was very polite about it, etc.
However, at times it feels as though there’s not enough here to pad out a whole book and you wish maybe Jerome had thrown in a chapter of his later reminisces (he worked – uncredited – on Errol Flynn’s Montana and wrote early episodes of Highway Patrol). Also he goes on a bit too much about how he was a slacker – after a while it just gets irritating.
However, at times it feels as though there’s not enough here to pad out a whole book and you wish maybe Jerome had thrown in a chapter of his later reminisces (he worked – uncredited – on Errol Flynn’s Montana and wrote early episodes of Highway Patrol). Also he goes on a bit too much about how he was a slacker – after a while it just gets irritating.
Book review – “Blue Dahlia” by Raymond Chandler
Paperback edition of Chandler’s best known solo film script includes the famous John Houseman essay about the writing the film (Chandler wrote most of the screenplay drunk) plus an excellent analysis of the script, which offers some pertinent criticisms.It points out – correctly I think – that the method by which Alan Ladd proves William Bendix’s innocence is a bit silly, the Veronica Lake character is introduced poorly and seems like an after-thought, and the action goes off the rails towards the end. The killer was originally supposed to be the William Bendix character but censorship wouldn’t allow it – but watching the film I prefer it that Bendix is innocent, he’s such a likeable lug (and too obviously set up as a killer otherwise).
It’s a strong screenplay and Chandler’s gift for dialogue ensures its worth reading on its own. Several of the characters are memorable, such as those played by Bendix and Howard da Silva (the sympathetic baddy who despite fooling around with Ladd’s dead wife still loves his ex wife Veronica Lake).
Movie review – A&C # 14 – “Here Come the Co-Eds” (1945) **1/2
A rare Abbott and Costello film where the characters are related to someone – here Abbott is brother to a brainy dancer who wants to study at college. She wins a scholarship to study, and Abbott and his mate Costello tag along since they happen to be on the run (disappointingly, nothing more is made of this) – they go to work as caretakers under Lon Chaney Jnr (who surely was too big a star to play this sort of role at the time?). Because it’s an Abbott and Costello film, the female college has plenty of time for music, which the students constantly singing or playing in orchestras. The male “juvenile” character is a middle aged dean, who surely must be the most stuffy, old and unlikely romantic lead of an Abbott and Costello films. I know there was a war on but surely Universal could have picked someone better? Perhaps aware of this, the plot only hints at him romancing a student, there is no kissing.
The film features a version of the “Jonah and the Whale” routine – this was the third time this routine had been used by Abbott and Costello! (And it’s not a very well done sequence, the duo performing it in front of a class of school girls who laugh – laugh tracks don’t work in comic movies). Far better is where Costello destroys a kitchen, with some funny stuff involving a jar of molasses that sticks to their hands, and Costello getting in the wrestling ring (always a sure-fire laugh-getter).
But generally this film goes on far too long and feels padded (at 90 minutes). The story is lousy, just boring stuff about a clash between the Dean of the college and its main financial backer, and the struggle to save the college (there’s not even a bitchy female student/rival for the lead man’s affections – there is a sort of triangle but the other girl likes her rival, which may be a bit different but is boring dramatically). The most interesting about the movie is that it’s possible to do a feminist reading of it, with its all-female college, ineffectual males (the women here aren’t adornments for the men – indeed, there’s not even a couple in a clinch at the end), emphasis on women playing instruments and sport, strapping Amazon players, a showgirl female lead who is interested in education, her non competitive rival in love. Costello does almost save the day at the end with his basketball skills… but only because he’s conked on the head and thinks he’s a famous female basketball player.
The film features a version of the “Jonah and the Whale” routine – this was the third time this routine had been used by Abbott and Costello! (And it’s not a very well done sequence, the duo performing it in front of a class of school girls who laugh – laugh tracks don’t work in comic movies). Far better is where Costello destroys a kitchen, with some funny stuff involving a jar of molasses that sticks to their hands, and Costello getting in the wrestling ring (always a sure-fire laugh-getter).
But generally this film goes on far too long and feels padded (at 90 minutes). The story is lousy, just boring stuff about a clash between the Dean of the college and its main financial backer, and the struggle to save the college (there’s not even a bitchy female student/rival for the lead man’s affections – there is a sort of triangle but the other girl likes her rival, which may be a bit different but is boring dramatically). The most interesting about the movie is that it’s possible to do a feminist reading of it, with its all-female college, ineffectual males (the women here aren’t adornments for the men – indeed, there’s not even a couple in a clinch at the end), emphasis on women playing instruments and sport, strapping Amazon players, a showgirl female lead who is interested in education, her non competitive rival in love. Costello does almost save the day at the end with his basketball skills… but only because he’s conked on the head and thinks he’s a famous female basketball player.
Book review – “Long Way Down” by Nick Hornby
Brilliant Hornby novel, one of his best. Actually I’ve really loved all of them except “How to be Good” (and even that one I liked I just didn’t love). This has the advantage of multiple protagonists so Hornby gets to show the POV of four different, rich characters. Marvellous, full of humour and insight – like the would be suiciders realising that they couldn’t do it… which in some way made them feel worse, because the option was gone. I kept wondering how you’d adapt it for film – four narrations, I reckon, with a third act ticking clock based on something.
Movie review – A&C #12 - “In Society” (1944) ***
Fish out-of-water ideas tend to make solid comedies and this bright Abbott and Costello vehicle has the two of them as plumbers who are mistaken for a pair of society swells. There’s a charming romantic sub plot about a female taxi driver (played by a not very good actor) who is romanced by a high society type. Some of the routines are outstanding, including 'Beagle Street' (which gives fifty worders a chance to shine) and the final chase sequence.
Movie review – A&C #11 - “Hit the Ice” (1943) **1/2
The idea of Abbott and Costello running loose in the snow is a good one and there are some very funny moments, such as Costello trying to impress a woman by playing the piano and where some gangsters become convinced the duo are hitmen (they’re photographers and talk about shooting people). There is also the obligatory chase on skis (which involves, hilariously, a bear). But overall this is not one of the strongest vehicles. The most irritating thing was the romantic love interest couple – dull Patric Knowles (unconvincingly a childhood friend of A & C) plays an annoyingly sexist doctor who keeps slagging off a nurse.
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