Roger Corman claims this is the only film he’s made which lost money – but it’s definitely one he should be proud of. It’s an at-times quite shocking and powerful tale of a redneck agitator who moves into a Southern town in order to whip up opposition against integration.
The great strength of this film is its location work – sleepy, sun-drenched streets, the locals wearing black square rimmed glasses, the diners, the church, the accents, the withered old crone who spit out the word “nigger”. It feels totally authentic. William Shatner is very good too as the smooth agitator, and there are some excellent scenes, such as the attack of a group of blacks driving through town, and a fire bomb attack.
Other elements of the film are less strong. It’s a bit too convenient that Shatner is also a lothario – this is what makes him come undone, and you can’t help thinking if he hadn’t been like that he would have been successful. Also the character of the newspaper editor who befriends the blacks is a bit white-pat-themselves-on-the-back and I didn’t believe the climax, where the mob of rednecks turn placid. But for all that a powerful and affecting film.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Movie review – “Suddenly” (1954) **
After the death of JFK, Frank Sinatra apparently arranged for The Manchurian Candidate to be pulled from screens because it dealt with an assassination – he also played an assassin ten years before in this United Artists cheapie (which is now in the public domain and thus is easily available).
This starts off quite well – it’s in a quiet town, the president is going to visit, the local cop is Sterling Hayden so you can guess he’s going to save the day. There’s an unpleasant subplot where Hayden’s girlfriend, a widow, won’t let her young son own a gun – Hayden thinks this is a bad idea because everyone has to learn how to operate guns sooner or later. (Of course by the end of the film the widow has come around to this way of thinking.) But it is brisk and is exciting when secret service arrive, and then Sinatra and his goons turn up.
Unfortunately after a while the film bogs down into another Desperate Hours/Petrified Forest retread, with Sinatra and his gang holding Hayden, the widow, the kid and James Gleason hostage. Which isn’t a bad premise but here it isn’t very imaginatively handled, with lots of talking, and Hayden being a smart alek to Sinatra, and the audience unable to help wondering why Sinatra doesn’t just shoot Hayden dead. Then the bug bear of many a 50s thriller – the exploration of the psychology of a killer – comes in to play and we get a lot of talk about Sinatra’s past, and power and blah blah blah. This would have made a neat, taunt hour long anthology drama but it’s too padded out to really work.
This starts off quite well – it’s in a quiet town, the president is going to visit, the local cop is Sterling Hayden so you can guess he’s going to save the day. There’s an unpleasant subplot where Hayden’s girlfriend, a widow, won’t let her young son own a gun – Hayden thinks this is a bad idea because everyone has to learn how to operate guns sooner or later. (Of course by the end of the film the widow has come around to this way of thinking.) But it is brisk and is exciting when secret service arrive, and then Sinatra and his goons turn up.
Unfortunately after a while the film bogs down into another Desperate Hours/Petrified Forest retread, with Sinatra and his gang holding Hayden, the widow, the kid and James Gleason hostage. Which isn’t a bad premise but here it isn’t very imaginatively handled, with lots of talking, and Hayden being a smart alek to Sinatra, and the audience unable to help wondering why Sinatra doesn’t just shoot Hayden dead. Then the bug bear of many a 50s thriller – the exploration of the psychology of a killer – comes in to play and we get a lot of talk about Sinatra’s past, and power and blah blah blah. This would have made a neat, taunt hour long anthology drama but it’s too padded out to really work.
Movie review – “The Death Kiss” (1932) **
Surely it would be forgotten had not one of the stars been Bela Lugosi. It starts with a bang: a murder on a person on a street, and the camera pulls back to reveal a camera crew is filming it. And that’s a literal “pull back” too – the camera actually moves around here quite a lot for an early sound film. In fact, the handling is energetic and brisk all the way through. Lugosi plays a producer – his more deliberate delivery isn’t quite right for the rat-tat-pace of everyone else. David Manners is a screenwriter, who investigates the murder (wishful thinking) – and Edward van Sloan is a director. So the three stars of Dracula are reunited.
Manners is the real star of this film, handsome, intelligent and likeable. But to be honest the film gets a little dull after its promising melo – it’s a run of the mill. There’s not enough Lugosi (he plays a red herring – something he was to do far too often in his career) or even Van Sloan. Not enough humour either, considering the studio setting. This film would provide the inspiration for the 1976 New World opus, Hollywood Boulevard.
Manners is the real star of this film, handsome, intelligent and likeable. But to be honest the film gets a little dull after its promising melo – it’s a run of the mill. There’s not enough Lugosi (he plays a red herring – something he was to do far too often in his career) or even Van Sloan. Not enough humour either, considering the studio setting. This film would provide the inspiration for the 1976 New World opus, Hollywood Boulevard.
Movie review – Falcon #13 – “The Falcon’s Adventure” (1946) **
The Falcon goes on holiday and ends up rescuing not one but two women – a Brazilian kidnap attempt victim, and a girl who is sexually harassed on a train. The latter turns out to be a plant to attract the chivalrous Falcon, a neat idea – the film could have done with more of them. Things were getting a bit tired by now – Falcon is beaten up again, although he does emerge victorious from the first fight at the end. The last Falcon from RKO and Tom Conway.
Movie review – “Guerrilla” (2004) ***1/2
Engrossing documentary about the Patty Hearst cast, not made with Heart’s co-operation but it does have interviews with members of the SLA. The late 60s and early 70s must have been a wild time in America, with Nixon and company the worst example of conservatism and left wing nutters running around. It’s fascinating how influenced the SLA were by the movies – growing up on Zorro and Robin Hood, then later State of Siege – they got together during radical film night. A silly organisation, whose first notable act was to shoot a black man, they went down in a blaze of gunfire. Patty Hearst did not co-operate with the film and the filmmakers take a more jaundiced view of her interpretation of events than usual.
Movie review – “Making Venus” (2004) ****
Excellent doco – one of the best making-of docos I’ve ever seen - about the production of a $100,000 Aussie comedy, The Venus Factory, which ended up being remade twice and costing over one million dollars. The stars of the film are the two neophyte producers, Jason and Julien, whose naivety, ignorance and cockiness made them something of cult heroes. But watching this on repeated viewings, you realise at least they’re honest, open and tenacious – and the directors Glenn Fraser and Denis Whitburn don’t do themselves any favours. Sure maybe they’re not as big idiots as the producers but Fraser seems to have made a crap, over-ambitious film on an inadequate budget and Whitburn’s comments speak for themselves. Both directors should consider themselves lucky they have the producers to act as a get-out-of-free credibility card for both. Required viewing for every self-funded aspirational filmmaker.
Book review – “My Boring-Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith” by Kevin Smith
Candid is right – Smith talks at length about his bowel movements, amount of television and DVDs he watches, friends, food, and number of times he roots his wife (frequency, length, even that he is fond of anal play). Although at times you get the impression he pulls some of his punches about Hollywood, due to the sheer unavoidable fact that he wants to work there. (Bruce Beresford’s diaries were far more candid and bitchy – Smith is more of a gusher and fan. Maybe that’s why Beresford spends more of his time raising funds for his project).
Smith is a good writer and this is entertaining, although I admit I did become uncomfortable with some of the revelations about his sex life (I would love to know what his wife thinks about all this? Does she mind? It would be great to have an essay for her – like the one Steve Waugh wrote for his wife’s book.) His account of Jason Mewes’ battle with drug addiction is moving and his story of making Live Free Die Hard makes Bruce Willis seem like a dill.
Smith is a good writer and this is entertaining, although I admit I did become uncomfortable with some of the revelations about his sex life (I would love to know what his wife thinks about all this? Does she mind? It would be great to have an essay for her – like the one Steve Waugh wrote for his wife’s book.) His account of Jason Mewes’ battle with drug addiction is moving and his story of making Live Free Die Hard makes Bruce Willis seem like a dill.
Movie review – Hardy #16 – “Andy Hardy Comes Home” (1958) **
A combination of declining box office receipts and the increase in troubles dealing with Mickey Rooney saw MGM cancel the Hardy family series – until it was revived 12 years later. But then Lewis Stone had gone to the great character actor waiting list in the sky, but Rooney, Fay Holden, Sara Haden and Cecilia Parker were still around. (The also bring back Andy’s mate Breezy, but I think he’s played by a different actor.) It’s a jolt to see an aged Rooney and Parker but you get used to it.
Andy has two kids – who he’s called Andy and Marian. He works for a company in LA which he’s persuaded that Carvel is a good place to manufacture missile plants. In the course of doing so he runs into some local corruption, which we haven’t really seen since A Family Affair. Johnny Weissmuller Jnr plays Parker’s son, called Jim (presumably she married drink driver Jim). Andy’s kids and wife arrive – it turns out he’s married a woman as bland and undemanding as his mother. At the end he’s appointed a judge and there’s an end title “to be continued”… but there were no more Andy Hardy films.
This movie falls between a lot of stools. It aims for nostalgia, including three flashback clips (one within the first three minutes) of the best known Hardy girls, Judy Garland, Esther Williams and Lana Turner – but the Judy Garland clip is from Babes in Arms, not any Andy Hardy movie, which is cheating. There’s no plot involving any of the old regulars, except for Breezy – who was never really much of a regular, and is played by a different actor. They don’t mention Polly Benedict, which is inexcusable, or say what happened to Marian (was she married? What happened to her husband?). They don’t even use the old theme music.
It also aims to be an old style Hardy family movie – but there’s only the land development and corruption plot, which is a little thin by itself; they seem to forget these were usually the B plots, with Andy and Marian’s romances carrying the bulk of the story. So the script is light on.
Finally, the film seems to aim for the teen audience by including the Weissmuller Jnr character and his mates – but they aren’t given a subplot either, he and his mates just hang around and are impressed by Andy’s ordering a big meal (he’s a middle aged man – cholesterol), knowing cars and his old records. Yeah, right.
Having said that, Hardy fans will enjoy the movie, if only for completism sake, and at least none if it is bad natured like some of the others.
Andy has two kids – who he’s called Andy and Marian. He works for a company in LA which he’s persuaded that Carvel is a good place to manufacture missile plants. In the course of doing so he runs into some local corruption, which we haven’t really seen since A Family Affair. Johnny Weissmuller Jnr plays Parker’s son, called Jim (presumably she married drink driver Jim). Andy’s kids and wife arrive – it turns out he’s married a woman as bland and undemanding as his mother. At the end he’s appointed a judge and there’s an end title “to be continued”… but there were no more Andy Hardy films.
This movie falls between a lot of stools. It aims for nostalgia, including three flashback clips (one within the first three minutes) of the best known Hardy girls, Judy Garland, Esther Williams and Lana Turner – but the Judy Garland clip is from Babes in Arms, not any Andy Hardy movie, which is cheating. There’s no plot involving any of the old regulars, except for Breezy – who was never really much of a regular, and is played by a different actor. They don’t mention Polly Benedict, which is inexcusable, or say what happened to Marian (was she married? What happened to her husband?). They don’t even use the old theme music.
It also aims to be an old style Hardy family movie – but there’s only the land development and corruption plot, which is a little thin by itself; they seem to forget these were usually the B plots, with Andy and Marian’s romances carrying the bulk of the story. So the script is light on.
Finally, the film seems to aim for the teen audience by including the Weissmuller Jnr character and his mates – but they aren’t given a subplot either, he and his mates just hang around and are impressed by Andy’s ordering a big meal (he’s a middle aged man – cholesterol), knowing cars and his old records. Yeah, right.
Having said that, Hardy fans will enjoy the movie, if only for completism sake, and at least none if it is bad natured like some of the others.
Movie review – “Woodstock” (1970) ***
During my high school years I had a double cassette of the soundtrack to this movie and listened to it incessantly – so much so that when I saw the film sometimes it was hard to marry what I’d envisioned with what I was seeing.
This remains an impressive doco, chiefly because of the quality of the actors involved – Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, Joe Cocker, Crosby Stills and Nash (my personal favourite), etc. Not as strong as Gimme Shelter, but then no one dies.
There are some hippies sun bathing, a cooler than cool dude on a motorbike who organises it, a funny hippie nurse who is great talent, Max Yasgur, lots of mess. You can make fun of boomers, and you should, but they sure knew how to party.
This remains an impressive doco, chiefly because of the quality of the actors involved – Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, Joe Cocker, Crosby Stills and Nash (my personal favourite), etc. Not as strong as Gimme Shelter, but then no one dies.
There are some hippies sun bathing, a cooler than cool dude on a motorbike who organises it, a funny hippie nurse who is great talent, Max Yasgur, lots of mess. You can make fun of boomers, and you should, but they sure knew how to party.
Movie review – Hardy #14 – “Andy Hardy’s Blonde Trouble” (1944) **
The last Hardy movie before Mickey Rooney went off to war. Like most of the previous Hardy movies, it takes off immediately where the previous on ends – indeed, it even reprises the end of the last film, with Andy discovering that his college isn’t co-ed from a female student. That’s because the female student is here played by a different actor – Bonita Granville, who is Andy’s love interest, though she’s clearly far too sensible, mature and smart for him. It’s clear she’s got more in common with Herbert Marshall. The scriptwriters throw in a subplot about two blonde twins pretending to be the one person so they can go to college.
The Hardy family series get a bit multicultural in this one with a decent non-white role model: a Chinese doctor (Keye Luke). (There have been several black characters, but all servants, porters, etc). But to be honest a lot of this isn’t that enjoyable – Andy being confused by the relationship between Granville and Herbert Marshall, and being fleeced by the twins; the first half of this film almost entirely consists of Andy being bewildered, a passive rather than active participant; Judge Hardy can’t talk because he’s got tonsillitis, we spend all this time on a romance between Marshall and Granville – why would we care? We don’t know these people? It’s just dodgy because there is a thirty year age gap (Falling in love with a teacher would have been a great Marian story – but she’s not in the film.) Granville never seems that into Andy. Actually they have nil chemistry – so at the end when we’re meant to believe Andy has fallen in love with her we don’t believe it for a second.
There are some bright moments between Andy and the twins, such as when Andy impersonates Marshall on the phone. But it’s not enough. There’s no reason why we couldn’t have followed Andy into college. There were a bunch of college movies made in the 30s, he could have fallen in love, had adventures, they could have figured out a way to get his parents involved. But this is a lousy movie.
The Hardy family series get a bit multicultural in this one with a decent non-white role model: a Chinese doctor (Keye Luke). (There have been several black characters, but all servants, porters, etc). But to be honest a lot of this isn’t that enjoyable – Andy being confused by the relationship between Granville and Herbert Marshall, and being fleeced by the twins; the first half of this film almost entirely consists of Andy being bewildered, a passive rather than active participant; Judge Hardy can’t talk because he’s got tonsillitis, we spend all this time on a romance between Marshall and Granville – why would we care? We don’t know these people? It’s just dodgy because there is a thirty year age gap (Falling in love with a teacher would have been a great Marian story – but she’s not in the film.) Granville never seems that into Andy. Actually they have nil chemistry – so at the end when we’re meant to believe Andy has fallen in love with her we don’t believe it for a second.
There are some bright moments between Andy and the twins, such as when Andy impersonates Marshall on the phone. But it’s not enough. There’s no reason why we couldn’t have followed Andy into college. There were a bunch of college movies made in the 30s, he could have fallen in love, had adventures, they could have figured out a way to get his parents involved. But this is a lousy movie.
Movie review – Hardy #15 - “Love Laughs at Andy Hardy” (1947) **1/2
They never really mentioned the war in Andy Hardy films, even after Pearl Harbour, and it was a bit odd he went off the college without enlisting, but here we have Andy Hardy coming out of the army (just like Mickey Rooney). He goes back to college, where he’s still a freshman, and doesn’t seem to have been too affected by the army experience. He intends to marry Bonita Granville from the previous film, seemingly oblivious to her lack of feelings for him in that previous film – and the fact she flirted with Herbert Marshall. She’s clearly fond of Andy but has a taste for older guys – in fact she wants to get married to her 36 year old guardian. Yuck!
The first half of this is a bit erratic and uncertain, not sure how to pitch a post-army Andy. (NB Mickey Rooney looks young without a hat but when he’s wearing it he appears middle aged). But then it starts to hit its stride. There’s a really sweet subplot where Andy agrees to take a massively tall girl to a dance, and it’s quite moving when Andy has to watch the girl of his dreams get married to another man. And Judge and Andy have one of their best man to man talks at the end when Andy wants to run off to South American and become an engineer (although Andy has never really expressed a genuine desire to be a lawyer – he always seemed simply to assume that he’d be one).
Andy’s second love interest is a South American character – heralding the south of the border kick that MGM went on after the war (with Ricardo Montalban, Fernando Lamas, etc.) Love that portrait of George Washington in the Hardy family house.
The first half of this is a bit erratic and uncertain, not sure how to pitch a post-army Andy. (NB Mickey Rooney looks young without a hat but when he’s wearing it he appears middle aged). But then it starts to hit its stride. There’s a really sweet subplot where Andy agrees to take a massively tall girl to a dance, and it’s quite moving when Andy has to watch the girl of his dreams get married to another man. And Judge and Andy have one of their best man to man talks at the end when Andy wants to run off to South American and become an engineer (although Andy has never really expressed a genuine desire to be a lawyer – he always seemed simply to assume that he’d be one).
Andy’s second love interest is a South American character – heralding the south of the border kick that MGM went on after the war (with Ricardo Montalban, Fernando Lamas, etc.) Love that portrait of George Washington in the Hardy family house.
Movie review – Hardy #13 – “Andy Hardy’s Double Life” (1942) **1/2
Picks up exactly after The Courtship of Andy Hardy – it’s Andy’s last week before heading off to college, Marian still likes drunk driver Jeff (William Lundigan) from Courtship, Andy needs to pick up the car he left in New York in Life Begins.
There’s a complicated romantic plot where Polly seems to want Andy back – so winds up setting him up with her cousin (Esther Williams!) in order to teach him a lesson. So Andy romances them both… and they both seem to be up to it. At the end he winds up in a1942 MGM version of a threesome, kissing them both at the same time. For all the no-sex rules of these films, things seemed pretty laissez faire when it came to pashing. Esther goes for a swim, and her scenes with Andy are quite hot, with Esther claiming she wants to kiss him for her psych studies. If she and Polly Benedict are playing a joke on Andy all I can say is Esther especially seems to be enjoying her work.
The legal plot involves one of MGM’s standbys, a little kid with a widowed mother. The kid is played by none other than young Bobby Blake. Better is the father-son plot about the Judge wanting to come along with Andy to college, where the Judge was a big wheel… not noticing that Andy doesn’t really want him to come along.
Sweet moments: Marian advising Andy on how to get a girl to cool off, Aunt Milly admitting to Andy he’s the son she never had, and best of all the scene where Andy finally tells his father to back off… and he’s in the right.
There’s a complicated romantic plot where Polly seems to want Andy back – so winds up setting him up with her cousin (Esther Williams!) in order to teach him a lesson. So Andy romances them both… and they both seem to be up to it. At the end he winds up in a1942 MGM version of a threesome, kissing them both at the same time. For all the no-sex rules of these films, things seemed pretty laissez faire when it came to pashing. Esther goes for a swim, and her scenes with Andy are quite hot, with Esther claiming she wants to kiss him for her psych studies. If she and Polly Benedict are playing a joke on Andy all I can say is Esther especially seems to be enjoying her work.
The legal plot involves one of MGM’s standbys, a little kid with a widowed mother. The kid is played by none other than young Bobby Blake. Better is the father-son plot about the Judge wanting to come along with Andy to college, where the Judge was a big wheel… not noticing that Andy doesn’t really want him to come along.
Sweet moments: Marian advising Andy on how to get a girl to cool off, Aunt Milly admitting to Andy he’s the son she never had, and best of all the scene where Andy finally tells his father to back off… and he’s in the right.
Movie review – Hardy #12 – “The Courtship of Andy Hardy” (1942) **1/2
A film which combines the best and worst of the Andy Hardy films. It is set during Andy’s last summer before heading to college (the same summer as Life Begins for Andy Hardy and Andy Hardy’s Double Life - MGM were desperate to delay his graduation as much as possible).
The best of it is a sweet plot where Judge Hardy asks Andy to take out the ugly duckling daughter of a divorcing couple in order to cheer her up – in the best tradition of Cinderella romance, the ugly duckling is actually very pretty, even before her transformation (Donna Reed), and after her transformation she’s a supermodel. But it’s a sweet tale, with Reed very winning, and the viciousness of her parents feels authentic.
It’s touching how Reed falls in love with Andy but he can’t get it up for her – after knocking back the sexy secretary in Life Begins it’s clear that Andy was going through a bit of questioning about his sexuality. (Polly Benedict comes back at the end, quite glammed up, but they seem to be more friends than anything else.)
The worst of the series involves a plot concerning Marian, making her first appearance in the series in a while. She comes back from the big city with a bit of an attitude – so of course her family set about trying to crush her spirit. In a rather nasty scene they make fun of her new dress because it’s a bit “fast”, then dress up in night gowns at dinner to tease her. Why? Because may be she thought there might be life outside of Carvel. Maybe she had dreams of becoming something other than the house-bound ninny that her mother is. (In this one the mother is so dim she gets in financial strife with a dud cheque. No wonder Judge Hardy wanted Aunt Millie at home – if he’s not having sex with her, she’s at least a source of decent conversation which he can’t get from his wife.) She learns her lesson because the guy who takes her out (William Lundigan) drink drives and crashes the car home. Now drink driving is a bad thing – but that shouldn’t have anything to do with Marian wanting to wear a flash dress. In one scene at the end Andy tells her “it’s not your fault that women’s brains are lighter than men’s”… you think this is set up as a joke but they don’t make it one. It’s not very pleasant.
You can tell they were having troubles with aging Andy a little – how irresponsible can he be? When he acts pompous, is it entirely a joke now? But it is still enjoyable. Lewis Stone has some effective moments as Judge struggling to get used to his children growing up.
There’s also an interesting scene where William Lundigan is drunk and Stone gives him a serve – he kind of goes overboard (talking about “man… capable of greatness… soaking in whiskey”) – but it’s not un-true.
(NB - a nice continuity touch – Todd Karns, the bitter brother from Andy Hardy’s Private Secretary, reprises his role, getting a crush on Donna Reed’s character.)
The best of it is a sweet plot where Judge Hardy asks Andy to take out the ugly duckling daughter of a divorcing couple in order to cheer her up – in the best tradition of Cinderella romance, the ugly duckling is actually very pretty, even before her transformation (Donna Reed), and after her transformation she’s a supermodel. But it’s a sweet tale, with Reed very winning, and the viciousness of her parents feels authentic.
It’s touching how Reed falls in love with Andy but he can’t get it up for her – after knocking back the sexy secretary in Life Begins it’s clear that Andy was going through a bit of questioning about his sexuality. (Polly Benedict comes back at the end, quite glammed up, but they seem to be more friends than anything else.)
The worst of the series involves a plot concerning Marian, making her first appearance in the series in a while. She comes back from the big city with a bit of an attitude – so of course her family set about trying to crush her spirit. In a rather nasty scene they make fun of her new dress because it’s a bit “fast”, then dress up in night gowns at dinner to tease her. Why? Because may be she thought there might be life outside of Carvel. Maybe she had dreams of becoming something other than the house-bound ninny that her mother is. (In this one the mother is so dim she gets in financial strife with a dud cheque. No wonder Judge Hardy wanted Aunt Millie at home – if he’s not having sex with her, she’s at least a source of decent conversation which he can’t get from his wife.) She learns her lesson because the guy who takes her out (William Lundigan) drink drives and crashes the car home. Now drink driving is a bad thing – but that shouldn’t have anything to do with Marian wanting to wear a flash dress. In one scene at the end Andy tells her “it’s not your fault that women’s brains are lighter than men’s”… you think this is set up as a joke but they don’t make it one. It’s not very pleasant.
You can tell they were having troubles with aging Andy a little – how irresponsible can he be? When he acts pompous, is it entirely a joke now? But it is still enjoyable. Lewis Stone has some effective moments as Judge struggling to get used to his children growing up.
There’s also an interesting scene where William Lundigan is drunk and Stone gives him a serve – he kind of goes overboard (talking about “man… capable of greatness… soaking in whiskey”) – but it’s not un-true.
(NB - a nice continuity touch – Todd Karns, the bitter brother from Andy Hardy’s Private Secretary, reprises his role, getting a crush on Donna Reed’s character.)
Movie review – Falcon #12 – “The Falcon’s Alibi” (1946) **
Like previous Falcon’s this starts at the racetrack – and the cast includes some familiar favourites: Rita Corday, Jean Brooks, Jason Robards. There’s also Jane Greer and Elisha Cook Jnr.
The quality of the cast is the most notable thing about this film, which is otherwise underwhelming. It’s the first Falcon in a while to lack a gimmick in its setting and I think suffers as a result. The Falcon pretty much disappears from the action for the last 15 minutes, leaving us just with the killer – although Elisha Cook Jnr impresses with some “crazy person having a break down” acting.
The quality of the cast is the most notable thing about this film, which is otherwise underwhelming. It’s the first Falcon in a while to lack a gimmick in its setting and I think suffers as a result. The Falcon pretty much disappears from the action for the last 15 minutes, leaving us just with the killer – although Elisha Cook Jnr impresses with some “crazy person having a break down” acting.
Movie review – Hardy #11 – “Life Begins for Andy Hardy” (1941) ***
This takes off directly after the last one, i.e. on graduation night. It’s time for big decisions to be made – well, actually, not for Andy, his dad’s got it all sorted out, shunting him off to study law. Andy asks if he can go off to New York and work for a bit.
This is the most adult Hardy movie to date. Andy finds things tricky in the big city, he has an intriguing quasi-romantic relationship with a smart secretary (Patricia Dane) who is clearly too experienced for him but still likes him. “A fellah can’t kiss a girl goodnight when she’s just paid for dinner” he says – to which she replies “of course she can,” and kisses her – and she wants to have sex with him later. He also befriends a struggling male dancer (Ray McDonald) who dies (for one moment Andy thinks the guy killed himself but it’s ok it was just a dodgy heart – something which smells like it was added for the censors). Judge Hardy also clearly finds it difficult to cut the cord.
There are some touching scenes: Andy says goodbye to Polly Benedict, who is going off to college; Judge Hardy being upset that Andy is leaving home to go to work, but trying not to show it; Judge and Ma waving goodbye; Andy deciding not to tell his father at the end about everything that happened in New York.
Judy Garland makes her third appearance in the series, slightly more glammed up this time. She has some very bright lines – “I’ve got to rise above that”, “if a female thinks only what she wants to think she won’t get intro trouble”, “things are just adequate”. Andy has as few funny lines too – he says he doesn’t want to smoke “because it’ll stunt my growth”. She only sings a little bit in this one and her relationship with Andy isn’t really progressed – she just pines.
Unfortunately, there’s an awful scene where Judge Hardy turns up and clocks the sexy secretary and tells Andy not to be unfaithful to his wife to be, i.e. don’t root the hot secretary. Always trying to pour cold water on his son’s love life is the old cock-blocking judge. The secretary’s been nothing but nice to Andy but the Judge is all against her.
And there’s an even more awful scene when Andy is about to have sex with the secretary Judy engineers it so that the secretary’s ex-girlfriend turns up. And the secretary simply points out that people are hypocritical and his father might be full of it, and Andy begs off. This secretary has been nothing but nice to Andy, helping him get a job, giving him advice, not taking money from him. All she wants is to have sex with him. But that’s not good enough for the Judge. So in the end Andy decides not to go his own way in the world and does what his father wants… which is depressing. But, to be fair, honest.
Fay Holden seems to be a bit less of a ninny – she’s finally grown into the role, although she is still stupid and prone to crying. Marian isn’t in this one (he’s “away”). Andy refers to the brother and sister in Andy Hardy’s Private Secretary getting work.
Movie review – “Jumping Jack Flash” (1986) ***
I love spy comedies where the lead stumbles into a bunch of actors playing in a spy film. That’s what happens to Whoopi Goldberg in this movie – working on a computer at the bank she starts chatting via whatever the 1986 equivalent of the internet was. Whoopi has a high old time and the film has a real feminist bent (director was Penny Marshall). It’s also got a great cast – Brit stage legends (John Wood, Jonathan Pryce), TV comics (Tracey Ullman, Michael McKean, Jon Lovitz, Phil Hartman), stage faves (Carol Kane), future stars (Jim Belushi), continentals (Jerome Krabbe). Mr Mini series Stephen Collins is there. Good silly fun. Loved Whoopi getting into the British embassy pretending to be the Supremes.
Movie review – Thin Man#2 – “After the Thin Man” (1936) *** (warning: spoilers)
Everyone’s favourite alcoholic detective, Nick Charles, arrives in San Francisco with his wife, hoping for a quiet time but he is soon dragged into a mystery involving wife Nora’s rich friends. They send him to find a rich wastrel, played by Aussie actor Alan Marshall – who soon ends up dead.
The cast is impressive: Elissa Landi, Joseph Calleia, George Zucco (fun as a bespectacled shrink) and James Stewart. I’m trying not to be wise in hindsight but Stewart is really impressive, star quality all over him even at this stage – I think it’s that deep voice. Stewart has a wonderful confession monologue which involves him having a near-nervous breakdown, a forerunner of the stuff we would do for Hitchcock in Vertigo (and a rebuke to critics who claim he had to go to war to become a “dark” actor.)
This reprises many elements of the first film – a gallery of suspects played by an impressive array of character actors, a party where Nick’s friends get on the boozer, colourful old friends of Nick, a finale with all the suspects gathered and interrogated. Myrna Loy and William Powell are fun again – she is very cute, especially when winding up in women’s prison. Asta is good too. I have to admit, though, these aren’t my favourite detective movies – Powell boozes too much and it goes on for too long.
The cast is impressive: Elissa Landi, Joseph Calleia, George Zucco (fun as a bespectacled shrink) and James Stewart. I’m trying not to be wise in hindsight but Stewart is really impressive, star quality all over him even at this stage – I think it’s that deep voice. Stewart has a wonderful confession monologue which involves him having a near-nervous breakdown, a forerunner of the stuff we would do for Hitchcock in Vertigo (and a rebuke to critics who claim he had to go to war to become a “dark” actor.)
This reprises many elements of the first film – a gallery of suspects played by an impressive array of character actors, a party where Nick’s friends get on the boozer, colourful old friends of Nick, a finale with all the suspects gathered and interrogated. Myrna Loy and William Powell are fun again – she is very cute, especially when winding up in women’s prison. Asta is good too. I have to admit, though, these aren’t my favourite detective movies – Powell boozes too much and it goes on for too long.
Movie review – Hardy #10 – “Andy Hardy’s Private Secretary” (1940) **1/2
Hardy family movies often deal with class, but usually it was the Hardys who suffered at the hand of snobs. Here is looks at the underclass of Carvel, in particular a working class brother and sister who are jealous of the Hardys. Particularly the brother (Todd Karns) has a chip on his shoulder. The sister is young Kathryn Grayson, the first starlet introduced in a Hardy movie since Lana Turner to actually go on to and have a decent career.
The plot involves Andy’s graduation from high school. His father nags him to help poor people so he gets Kathryn Grayson to be his secretary for graduation festivities. Despite the talk about the importance of free education, the point is undermined by the fact that the family isn’t really working class – dad is Ian Hunter, who speaks nine languages, he’s just fallen on hard times. Judge arranges for Hunter to have a job in Brazil in the state department… is Ian Hunter so incompetent he can’t do it himself? There’s a scene where Grayson serenades Hunter with an opera song and Hunter seems to be a bit too cuddly with her.
Andy refers to him and Judge having their first man to man talk in Catalina – a reference to You’re Only Young Once, a nice tribute to continuity. Andy stuffs up two things big time – he causes Hunter to lose his job by altering a telegram and fails an English exam. Both times Judge fires a rocket up his arse, it’s two of the more serious telling-tos given in the whole series. He really pours it on for the second one – “look at your mother’s tears”. Andy as usual blubs in response, to his mother, father and classmates… he’s a big believer in passive aggression, is Andy Hardy. Anyway it works and he manages to get in.
There some sweet moments here – the last weeks of school is a good subject for a film, and there is poignance with the thought that several of Andy’s classmates would soon be killed or injured in the war. The film goes on for too long though and a bit of it is unpleasant (Andy tells Polly to slide over “I’m going to drive, a woman’s place is in the home.”) Marian isn’t in this one at all.
The plot involves Andy’s graduation from high school. His father nags him to help poor people so he gets Kathryn Grayson to be his secretary for graduation festivities. Despite the talk about the importance of free education, the point is undermined by the fact that the family isn’t really working class – dad is Ian Hunter, who speaks nine languages, he’s just fallen on hard times. Judge arranges for Hunter to have a job in Brazil in the state department… is Ian Hunter so incompetent he can’t do it himself? There’s a scene where Grayson serenades Hunter with an opera song and Hunter seems to be a bit too cuddly with her.
Andy refers to him and Judge having their first man to man talk in Catalina – a reference to You’re Only Young Once, a nice tribute to continuity. Andy stuffs up two things big time – he causes Hunter to lose his job by altering a telegram and fails an English exam. Both times Judge fires a rocket up his arse, it’s two of the more serious telling-tos given in the whole series. He really pours it on for the second one – “look at your mother’s tears”. Andy as usual blubs in response, to his mother, father and classmates… he’s a big believer in passive aggression, is Andy Hardy. Anyway it works and he manages to get in.
There some sweet moments here – the last weeks of school is a good subject for a film, and there is poignance with the thought that several of Andy’s classmates would soon be killed or injured in the war. The film goes on for too long though and a bit of it is unpleasant (Andy tells Polly to slide over “I’m going to drive, a woman’s place is in the home.”) Marian isn’t in this one at all.
Movie review – “The Incredible Shrinking Man” (1957) ****
The actors aren’t well known, but the handling is skilful and Richard Matheson’s script is a masterpiece. Grant Williams is the poor guy who happens to be sunbaking on his boat when it passes through a cloud and later finds himself shrinking. His wife was downstairs getting a beer – benefits of housewifery.
Matheson works through the story with excellent paranoid logic – cloud, early shrinkage, doctor, more shrink, serious tests, media exploitation, discovery of anti-toxin, false dawn and romance with a midget, fight with a cat which the wife thinks he’s dead, winding up in the basement, which takes up the second half: search for cheese, mountaineering up stairs to get at cheese, the flooding of the basement, fight with the spider, then the “I still exist” finale.
Matheson has a great eye for the image – Williams is unable to fit into clothes, then his wedding ring slips off, then we see him small in a chair, moving into the doll’s house. He’s also terrific with “man against the elements”, as he later shown in Duel – the terrific scene where he tries to retrieve cheese from a mousetrap (he’s successful but, in a great reversal, the cheese falls down a drain), and most of all the final battle with the spider, one of the great film villains. If I found the second half dragged a little, maybe it was because I was waiting for the spider fight, which is thrilling. The ending is striking too – a slice of existentialism, totally unHollywood.
The miniature work has aged very well, although some of the back projection is a bit iffy. It’s such a shame Universal didn’t get Matheson and Arnold to make I am Legend as a follow up. And I think Grant Williams would have done fine – he’s pretty good here. A lot of more renowned actors never got to star in a film this good.
Matheson works through the story with excellent paranoid logic – cloud, early shrinkage, doctor, more shrink, serious tests, media exploitation, discovery of anti-toxin, false dawn and romance with a midget, fight with a cat which the wife thinks he’s dead, winding up in the basement, which takes up the second half: search for cheese, mountaineering up stairs to get at cheese, the flooding of the basement, fight with the spider, then the “I still exist” finale.
Matheson has a great eye for the image – Williams is unable to fit into clothes, then his wedding ring slips off, then we see him small in a chair, moving into the doll’s house. He’s also terrific with “man against the elements”, as he later shown in Duel – the terrific scene where he tries to retrieve cheese from a mousetrap (he’s successful but, in a great reversal, the cheese falls down a drain), and most of all the final battle with the spider, one of the great film villains. If I found the second half dragged a little, maybe it was because I was waiting for the spider fight, which is thrilling. The ending is striking too – a slice of existentialism, totally unHollywood.
The miniature work has aged very well, although some of the back projection is a bit iffy. It’s such a shame Universal didn’t get Matheson and Arnold to make I am Legend as a follow up. And I think Grant Williams would have done fine – he’s pretty good here. A lot of more renowned actors never got to star in a film this good.
Movie review – Falcon #9 – “The Falcon in Mexico” (1944) **
The Falcon gets involved in a dodgy art fraud and heads south of the border. There’s no need really why this should be set in Mexico – but at least that’s a point of difference. There are some haciendas, comic Mexican relief to act as the Falcon’s sidekick, sombreros and documentary footage quite well integrated. I enjoyed the climax with lots of people dressed in masks and it’s a pretty decent story with some standard twists – the artist you think is dead turns out not to be dead, the Mexican sidekick turns out to be an undercover cop, etc. Still, not top-flight Falcon. The cast includes Martha Vickers, so caught lightning in a bottle with her performance in The Big Sleep but never managed to repeat it.
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