Script review – “The Queen” by Peter Morgan

What sounds like an overly light topic – the Queen in the week after Diana’s death – is made readable through two things: recent nostalgia, and a bunch of “gee I didn’t know that” facts (eg court protocol). It’s also an interesting look at the Queen, although it’s a bit kind to the irriating Tony Blair and his mob. It also fails to make the point that the media whipped up feeling against the Royal Family to deflect from their own considerable role in Diana’s death. Did Morgan go easy to secure better reviews?

Radio review – SDP – “Chicago Deadline” (1949) **

Uninspiring adaptation of one of Alan Ladd’s lesser Paramount movies. It has one advantage over the film – you never see the dead girl so you can make up your own mind about what sort of person she is, instead of being let down by Donna Reed. But the running time is too short and the story too flawed to create anything evocative along the lines of Laura; Ladd’s reporter is too unmotivated in his quest. The most interesting thing is the chat at the end between Ladd and director Lewis Allen, who jokes about Ladd’s co star being ideal in this one because you don’t have to pay her.

Radio review – Screen Guild Theatre – “Blue Dahlia” (1949) **1/2

Alan Ladd reprises one of his most famous film performances, with the added bonus of Veronica Lake returning. It’s decent enough but the running time is under half and hour so the suspects are reduced to Ladd, the hotel detective and Lake’s husband/his dead wife's lover – the William Bendix plot is cut out entirely, and that of their third friend. It says something about the patch work quality of Raymond Chandler's original script that this isn't too noticeable. There is plenty of slangy dialogue and tough talk. It's well acted by Ladd, well-ish acted by Lake, and solid support from the rest of the cast. If you want a quick "McDonalds" version of this story, this is ideal.

Radio review – “Les Miserables” (1937) ***1/2

One of Orson Welles’ earliest successes in radio, a marvellous adaptation of Hugo’s classic novel. Like great 19th century melodrama the action is extreme – Jean Valjean goes to gaol for 19 years; Fantine is not just poor but a prostitute who dies; Valjean becomes a prisoner again but escapes by faking his own death; Marius is a revolutionary. The horrible Javert is one of the great villains – actually, antagonist is a better word since he has totally justifiable motivations.

This captures Hugo's power and wonderful story. The least effective bit is a comic sequence involving a gravedigger (Welles was a genius, but not with comedy); also the final episode is a bit odd – it’s a recap of the entire story.

The cast includes some actors who would become ficutres at the Merucry such as Ray Collins and Agnes Moorehad; there’s also Welles’ first wife, Virignia, who plays Cosette (quite well, too).

Movie review – “Young and Innocent” (1937) ****

Sweet light comedy film not as well-known as 39 Steps or Lady Vanishes, but it has a growing reputation . It lacks the star power of great Hitchcock –although Nova Pilbeam was at the time a big enough name to be billed alone above the title (she was coming off Tudor Rose). Watching her and Derrick whats-his-name gallivant around the countryside is a little like watching two teen stars from Dawson’s Creek or The OC in a feature together; it's really quite sweet.

The support cast is marvellous, including several people who would pop up in The Lady Vanishes and some terrific kid actors. There are lots of good scenes involving kids in this – a game of blind man’s bluff, a dinner. Was Hitchcock making up for blowing up Desmond Tester in Sabotage?

The touch is a lot lighter than the previous couple of Hitchcocks - there’s no international intrigue, it's only a murder, the real killer is not much of a threat. However there are some moments of emotional intensity, such as some of the romance scenes, and the scene where Nova’s copper father says her actions have gotten him in trouble. (The last shot of her introducing her boyfriend to her father has plenty of material for Hitchcock academics to chew over.)

Marvellous shot composition as always. The climax is a bit odd – there is the famous tracking shot leading to the twitching eye of the killer but it’s a bit of a deux ex machina to have him conveniently faint and get the passive heroes out of trouble.

Movie review – “City Loop” (1999) **

Interesting historically because it was a rare feature film made in Brisbane about that city using Brisbane talent. It also features an exciting young cast, many of whom would go on to become relatively familiar on the small screen – Sullivan Stapleton, Jessica Napier (admittedly already a name due to Wildside), Brendan Cowell, Ryan Johnson, Megan Dorman, Sam Atwell.

The script has some bright moments of dialogue and characterisation and most of the acting is pretty good. It’s a non-linear story – but once you figure it out it’s like “so what”. It’s like doing a puzzle of just blue sky - it’s a puzzle, sure, but when you finish it it’s just blue sky. It also never manages to get the tone right – it has a slight expressionistic quality to it, which works on stage better than it does on film. Sometimes too the meaning is a bit too bald (especially in the exchange between Atwell and Dorman - “You’re so predictable”, and “Because I don’t want to”, etc.)

This feels as though it would have been a lot better had it been made with less money, or as a theatre piece, where Stephen Davis could have showed off his considerable skill with dialogue a bit more and let the actors cut loose. As it is it drags on too long and you are too often aware of the lack of story. You're glad towards the end when Dorman's character turns up because she's got all this energy - but she's allowed to go overboard. On the positive side I did enjoy the atmosphere of a film set at Brisbane at night - deserted streets, neon lights, empty parkland, etc.

Movie review – “The Farmer’s Wife” (1928) **

Hitchcock was a marvellous comedy director as he proved time and time again – although he rarely made outright comedies. This was one of them, a sort of rom com about a widowed farmer looking for a new wife. Hitchcock’s light touch is spot on and his talent is evident throughout – it’s beautifully filmed, full of interesting angles and techniques (tracking shots, close ups, etc).

Unfortunately the story isn’t much. The farmer is a pompous middle aged idiot (Jameson Thomas), not good looking or charismatic or even funny, just prosperous; his wife is barely dead and he runs around looking for a wife, getting knocked back by four different women, even though they are batty, fat, ugly, etc. He finally realised his devoted house keeper (the pretty likeable Lillian Hall Davis) loves him and hooks up with her – are we supposed to be happy about that? That is pretty girl winds up with a middle aged loser? Also its frustrating to see him get knocked back all the time without much variation – true the girls change their mind towards the end but by then you’re unlikely to care. The acting is fine – good treatment of a not very inspiring story.

Movie review - "The Kid" (1921) ****

Superb comedy drama which was a milestone in the career of Charlie Chaplin. He's excellent but he's bettered by Jackie Coogan, giving one of the best children's performances of all time - incredibly cute, feisty, funny and touching; he breaks your heart when he screams when they try to take him away from Chaplin.

Chaplin's direction is excellent, as is the photography (many silent films age badly, not this one). The sets do look a bit set-ty. The story is effective, being steeped in Dickens (the poverty, comedy, pathos, coincidences). The dream sequence feels padded.

Movie review – “T Men” (1947) ***1/2

Eagle Lion was a short-lived film production company which existed briefly in the late 40s; it never quite hit its’s straps, but produced some distinguished films including a number of documentary type thrillers directed by Anthony Mann. This is a tribute to the treasury department, the section of the government who (were are constantly being reminded) put away Al Capone. Two of them go undercover – Denis O’Keefe and Albert Dekker, neither of them over-loaded in the charisma department. It doesn’t matter so much for second lead Dekker but O’Keefe’s role is surely meant for Alan Ladd or Bogart.

Documentary realism seems to be the name of the game – constant narration, buttoned down hero, location filming (including Chinatown, Farmer's markets). However it also has expressionistic moments, particularly via the stunning black and white photography. It was based on a story by Virginia Kellogg, who also provided the story for White Heat, and its familiar to that in feel – the presentation of the sober, methodical law enforcement up against character acting criminals.

There is unintentional humour when O’Keefe trawls the Turkish baths “looking for a man”. But there are some excellent scenes such as when O'Keefe's partner is killed in front of his eyes and a murder in a Turkish bath. Charles MacGraw makes an excellent henchman.

Movie review - "The Fighting Rats of Tobruk" (1944) **1/2

The biggest Australian film made during the Pacific War, it was Charles Chauvel's follow up to Forty Thousand Horseman, complete with Grant Taylor and Chips Rafferty returning in the lead roles. It's a different sort of film, though - Horseman was a swashbuckling adventure tale, with spies, horses and French girls masquerading as boys; Rats is more serious. It starts quite soberly with a narrator introducing Taylor, Rafferty and their English mate Peter Finch, who is in Australia for life experience. Taylor's ex is a squatter's daughter type and they have some clunky romance scenes. Then war arrives and our three heroes wind up in Tobruk.

Chauvel aimed for authenticity and a lot of it looks like the real McCoy - there is documentary footage, lots of bunking down in sand dunes and driving around in tanks. The Tobruk story is an inspiring one but no filmmaker has managed to lick it's problems because it involved so much lying down on the ground and shooting at tanks as opposed to hand to hand combat, involved a lot of night fighting (which as shot here is confusing) and doesn't have an obvious climax.

Horseman's story was a bit silly but at least it was a story; Rats doesn't really have one, apart from Finch's romance with a nurse. It goes fight-injury-recover-fight-injury-recovery, etc. The comic interludes with George Wallace and Joe Valli are poorly integrated, and the New Guinea climax feels tacked on (it's cut off the version of the film I saw).

Grant Taylor is confident and masculine as ever, though slightly more battered than he was in Horseman - his reign as a leading man would soon be over. Rafferty does his Rafferty thing but Finch is very effective and moving.

For all the film's faults it is an invaluable time capsule of one of this country's greatest feats of arms. The visual look, the brusque attitudes of the officers towards the men, the seriousness of the treatment; even the poignant moment where Wallace tells the three leads "well, I had a go didn't I?" tell us much about Australia at the time. So it's a bit of a mess but it should still be watched if you're interested in Australian cinema or Australian military history.

Movie review – “The Story of Robin Hood” (1952) **

Robin Hood is one of those stories which always seem to work – based in part on the appeal of running off into the forest to rob from the rich and give to the poor (which is why it will be interesting to see the response to the new Ridley Scott version, where apparently Nottingham is the hero and Robin Hood a sort of terrorist)

This one has Robin rob from the rich to give to the poor for a bit – then he starts using the money for stupid King Richard’s ransom. Why is that money well spent? Sounds like just another tax to me. Also there is far too much singing – there is a minstrel who keeps playing songs (couldn’t stop thinking about the Minstrel who winds up being eaten in Monty Python and the Holy Grail). And there’s not enough action. On the sunny side at least its colourful and its nice to see the story done shot in England with an all-English cast for a change.

Richard Todd’s Robin is like Joan Rice’s Maid Marian – cheery enough but second rate. Peter Finch’s Nottingham is better, if purely by virtue of his hawk like features; ditto James Robertson Justice’s Little John.

Movie review – “Othello” (1952) ***1/2

I’ve never been a big fan of the play. I recognise the genius of the words, the character character in Iago, but Othello is such a wanker, I never buy him killing her. Actually that’s not true I do but he is so stupid, and Desdemona a good chick (marries a black man despite dad’s opposition), it just makes you feel depressed.

So I guess I'm prejudiced against this adaptation from the get-go. Still, it's an impressive film - even more so if you know the story behind it's making. It's visually striking being set in this big empty seeming castle by the see – massive rooms, banners of wood, crashing waves, running around along the tops of walls.

The open sequences of the funeral for Othello and Desdemona are stunning. The story proper gets off to an awkward start – the introduction of Iago is a bit clunky and confusing, not helped by the dubbing. Needs more close ups or something – this is an important sequence. But once Othello comes back from beating the Turks it gets better.

Orson Welles is a pretty decent Othello – I would have loved to see his Iago. (That’s not to say Michael McLiammor isn’t very good.) Gore Vidal once wrote wittily that the character of Desdemona in this film was reduced to being a “blonde wig” – Suzanne Clouthier is better than that, but she’s still not terribly inspired.

Movie review – “The Lost World” (1925) **1/2

Fun version of Conan Doyle’s classic tale of exploration, led by Wallace Beery’s fine old barnstorming performance as Professor Challenger, foul of temper and fond of throttling journalist. He heads off to the Amazon with an interesting group of characters (heartthrob journo, rival professor, pretty daughter of missing prior explorer, gentleman shooter, an unfortunate black face servant), all of whom offer interesting subplot potential, none of which is really taken up except a blah romance involving journalist and the daughter.

There are some good sequences arriving at the Lost World and fleeing from dinosaurs and escaping from the ape men, but most of the time our heroes stand around being passive while dinosaurs slug it out and volcanoes. There is a last act where a poor old brontosaurus gets stuck in mud and falls off the plateau; they ship him back to London where he escapes and goes on a rampage. The poor thing is quite entitled, and you’re glad that he swims away at the end. (None of the expedition seem too concerned about the damage they’ve indirectly caused to London.) The best performance comes unexpectedly from Lewis Stone who plays the middle aged hunter who loves the girl only to lose him to his young friend – he gets the last close up.

Movie review – “Chimes at Midnight” (1965) *****

Was Orson Welles a great director of Shakespeare? Definitely. Of film noir? Absolutely. Or comedy? Not really. Of action? Yes! You don’t think of Welles as a great action director – he never made an action movie – but consider his hall of mirrors shoot out in Lady from Shanghai and the incredible Battle of Shrewsbury here. The latter in particular hasn’t dated a jot. It’s the highlight of this Shakespeare adaptation, which concentrates on the relationship between Prince Hal and Falstaff.

Henry IV Part 1 goes up to about the hour mark, then it’s Part Two. It takes a while to get going again after the Battle of Shrewsbury – I feel it might have been better if Welles had taken scenes from Part 2 and incorporated them timeline-wise prior to the Battle.

Welles’ distancing effects – titling camera work, extreme close ups, deep focus – work better with Shakespeare than naturalism because the language is more stylised. This suffers from some technical problems (especially dubbing) but is impressive. It feels medieval – creaky taverns, chilly castles, wind swept fields – and the acting is strong. I found Margaret Rutherford a bit odd but Keith Baxter was very good – smart, funny, a bit of a prick. You do understand why Hal has to dump Falstaff, but you still feel sorry for him – the close up of Welles as the end when Hal gives him the flick is one of Welles’ most effective pieces of acting. The coldness that seems to seep into all Welles’ films (for me at any rate) suits this story because Hal becomes cold.

There are some unusal choises – Hotspur is slightly comic, ranting about his plot to overthrow the monarchy while getting changed out of a bath (we see his bare arse), and tripping over, with a sprightly, comic wife, continually cutting away to trumpeters moving their trumpets around on the parapet. (On the page this feels stronger and more emotional.) It’s a shame we don’t see Falstaff actually die – it’s reportage. I know that’s the way it was in Henry V (which provides the last five minutes of this movie) but still you think Welles would give himself a close up or something. The recruitment scene goes on a bit long – its moved from Part 2 to be put before the Battle of Shrewsbury (I admit I wasn’t that wild about it in Part 2 either; it feels too distracting).

Welles’ performance is one of his best – most of his famous performances involve him playing an enigma, but here he’s front and centre. Warm, human and funny, he really gets into it. I also enjoyed Jeanne Moreau and John Gielgud in their parts. It's a shame this isn't more easily available, I think it would do really well on the art house/Shakespeare circuit.

Radio review – Biography – WC Fields (1956) ***

Radio biography of the famous comedian, the chief note of which today is hearing reminsences from Field’s friends and colleagues who have since become legends themselves – including Maurice Chevalier, Errol Flynn and Leo McCarey. I was particularly interested to hear Flynn tell a few Fields’ anecdotes – he chuckles away , having a good time; you get the impression from Flynn’s writings he was a strong raconteur and its interesting to hear an example of it.

TV review – “The Fountain of Youth” (1956) ***

Orson Welles turned his hand at television and the result was a typically fascinating concocation. Welles narrates in person the tale of a romance between a young couple – it’s not that interesting but the presentation is, with it’s narration, use of stills and jazzy editing. I can’t imagine what sort of TV series they thought they were going to make out of it – narration. Like almost everything Welles did, it’s an assault on the senses - and ahead of its time. He promises next week to make a show about a man-eating tiger and signs off “obediently ours” but it never happened. This is too weird. (It's a shame Welles never did an anthology based on more well known stories - his way out style plus a familiar story might have produced something the public went for, just like the Mercury Theatre of the Air was.)

Radio review – Cavalcade – “They Died with Their Boots On” (1941) *

Errol Flynn reprises his role as Custer; because the film version covered so much, this turns out to be quite easy to adapt to half an hour – they simply concentrate on the final bit, namely Custer being assigned out to the West and coming up against gun traders who causes the whole Little Big Horn massacre. In other words it’s a complete whitewash of history. 

The film had some glimpses of Custer’s instability but they’re cut out here. There’s a laughable scene where a soldier goes to see Custer to ask him if there’s any chance of getting back from Little Big Horn because his wife is worried and Custer admits the soldier will probably die, he should lie to his wife about it. 

Olivia de Havilland reprises her movie role and they do their farewell scene, so it’s good that that’s captured on radio but that’s about all you can recommend to it. (We get no final battle)

Movie review – Marple #4 - “Murder Ahoy” (1964) **1/2

The final Rutherford Marple (unless you count a cameo in The Alphabet Murders) wasn't actually based on a Christie novel. Miss Marple joins a board of trustees, and at a meeting one of her colleagues promptly drops dead. To investigate, Marple winds up on board a ship – it’s really the same bunch of middle class suspects played by anonymous actors in that same Agatha Christie suspect style (including the one hot girl). There is another pompous foil for Rutherford – this time, Lionel Jefferies as the captain of the ship (he’s too young to try and romance her, though).

Rutherford climbs through a window, does a lot of poking around, sings ‘Rule Brittania’ and generally does her schtick – the highlight comes at the end where she fences the killer (this is fun). Jefferies is entertaining but the best performance is from the ever-cheerful young doctor. It’s a shame the ship spends all its time in port – it would have been more exciting and adventurous for them to go on a voyage.

This is really just like those crime dramas they’re always playing on UKTV (with English actors acting in English) – minimal production value, decent scripts, strong actors. What gives it its special tang is Rutherford and some of the supporting players. They include Miles Mellson and Derek Nimmo.

Radio review – SGP – “The Petrified Forest” (1940) **

I read somewhere Tyrone Power was never taken seriously as an actor because of his looks, but in 1940 he wasn’t the best actor in the world – maybe he became one later, but without his looks he’s not quite engaging, even though the role is seemingly ideal for him (the Leslie Howard part). Joan Bennett isn’t quite right in the Bette Davis role; Humphrey Bogart reprises his Broadway and film role and he’s great – but he’s not in it that much. This is shortened to a half hour which is just that bit too short for this play, we don’t get to know the three leads enough. They concentrate on Power, who isn’t that compelling.

Radio review – CP#3 – “A Christmas Carol” (1938) **1/2

Orson Welles makes an ideal Scrooge, and he narrates as well so there’s a little too much Orson in this one. (In his defence, Lionel Barrymore was meant to play Scrooge – as he often did on radio – but was unwell; Orson pays him tribute at the end of the episode.) The short length of the Dickens original means that more of the text survives the adaptation. It’s a perfectly decent work, although it lacks a little sparkle. At the end Orson wishes everyone a merry Christmas in an entertaining coda.

Radio review – Lux#197 – “The Scarlet Pimpernel” (1938) **1/2

Leslie Howard reprises his famous screen role and he’s very good, being particularly funny as the foppish Sir Percy. Olivia de Havilland is a spirited Marguerite – she’s better than Merle Oberon – and the story condenses well (it’s really three character piece), even though you miss out seeing the disguises. At the end of the show Howard chats about his plans to go back to Britain to make movies, saying he intends to have an eye on the American market.

Radio review – MT – “Heart of Darkness/Life with Father” (1938) ****/**

Welles followed up War of the Worlds with another artisitic success., although you'd be hard pushed to find an odder double bill – the popular nostalgic reminisces of a New York family, and the brooding classic Conrad.

Life with Father is alright – it starts off entertaining enough, but Welles isn’t a natural "warm" comic, and I always feel this genre doesn’t really work unless you have a nostalgic connection to the material. You get sick of the father character – I think it’s supposed to be endearing, this bombastic dad who is actually clueless, a forerunner of Everybody Loves Raymond, but he becomes irritating. “Father did this”, “father said that” – who cares? It was interesting to hear Welles sing.

But Heart of Darkness is superb. It starts brilliantly – the sound effects (horns blowing, throb of drums) give you chills up the spine – so brilliantly that it takes a while to realise there’s not a lot of story. You can understand RKO’s reluctance to greenlight this as a feature – there’s barely enough plot here for half an hour let alone a feature. (NB to be fair, they did okay it but only allowed a limited budget and Welles didn't think he could make it work) Welles perfectly cast as Kurtz; Ray Collins plays Marlow.

NB At the end of the show Welles announces that the Mercury Theatre will be sponsored by Campbell Soup.

Book review – “Send Yourself Roses” by Kathleen Turner

Few female stars had a more rapid rise to fame than Kathleen Turner – out of drama school she quickly nabbed an agent, then scored a role in a Broadway hit (Gemini) and a soap, before landing the lead in Body Heat. This was an instant classic and she followed it up with two more excellent films, both very different – The Man With Two Brains and Romancing the Stone.

It wasn’t hard even at the time to see why she became so big so fast – that incredible voice, great sex appeal, confidence and genuine acting ability. She was on a hot streak for the entire 80s – Prizzi’s Honour, Accidental Tourist, War of the Roses. 

But in the 90s it went sour. Her husband had business troubles (he was involved in a building which suffered a fire; 87 people died); she developed arthritis which led to a drinking problem; steroids and other medicines helped wreck her looks and figure; she featured in a number of flops. But she kept working and eventually had a big comeback as a stage actor, with The Graduate and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (although her marriage ended after 20-odd years).

Interesting trivia: Debra Winger was meant to play the lead in Stone but she bit Michael Douglas at a meeting; the role of Joan Wilder’s agent was originally shot with a male actor playing the role but the scenes were refilmed; Tony Perkins and Ken Russell had major problems with drugs and booze respectively on Crimes of Passion; she and Douglas had a fling on Stone; Nic Cage’s acting choices in Peggy Sue Got Married (the hair, the voice) were deliberately against the wishes of Coppola to show his independence of his uncle director; Burt Reynolds was a little bitch on Switching Channels.

To be honest I would have preferred more of this than her going on about Virginia Woolf and her guest role on Nip Tuck all the time; she also goes on a bit too much about her daughter, friends and general philosophy on life (I’m not saying it doesn’t have a place there’s just too much of it).

I did really like her tips on acting, including a discussion of a voice – Turner teaches acting and you can tell. She pats herself a bit too much on her back about her feminism and activism but I did find this interesting; I also enjoyed the biographical stuff: I had no idea she was a “diplomat brat” – she grew up the daughter of a US diplomat, living in Cuba, Venezuela and England (se was in Cuba when Castro came to power); her father died of coronary thrombosis when she was only 17; she has a brother who lives in New Zealand now. This goes on a bit too long but a decent enough read.

Radio review – CP#14 – “The Glass Key” (1939) **

Film noir can be tricky to adapt to radio because all the characters tend to sound the same. This is an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s famous novel with its intriguing central relationship between mob boss and enforcer.

I found the plot a bit hard to follow at times but it has plenty of atmosphere. Orson plays the mob boss, Paul Stewart is Ned – while Welles became a dab hand at noir I found his performance a little funny. Maybe it was just listening to him play a noir role after hearing him in all these more literary adaptations. Laura Baxter is the female lead.

There’s a special guest at the end of the episode – the governor of Sing Sing prison, who wrote the book on which Invisible Stripes is based, who makes an appeal to fix the causes of crime (i.e. society) and Orson gets into it. There is coughing in the background – from Orson? He sounds as if he’s got a cold, maybe that’s why his performance felt a bit off.

Radio review – MT#10 – “Julius Caesar” (1938) ****

The Mercury’s fascist updating of Shakespeare’s play is one of the most famous in theatre history; this radio version of it is pretty good too. (If only Welles had managed to get the cast of the Voodoo Macbeth to record that on radio! Not to mention other Mercury theatre productions, like Horse Eats Hat, Heartbreak House, Danton's Death and Shoemaker's Holiday.)

It has wonderful acting and is very easy to understand (helped by some condensing - no female roles, for instance - and narration taken from Plutarch). Orson Welles is a strong Brutus, but really all the cast is good, including George Colouris as Anthony. He includes the bit where Brutus is sung to by a young bard, the part played by Zac Efron in Me and Orson Welles.) Marc Blitzten did the music.

Movie review – “Millions Like Us” (1943) ****

Rough rule of thumb – British war films aimed to be more realistic than Hollywood ones, and that was rarely better illustrated than in this loving slice-of-life drama about young women at war – specifically two of them who work in a factory. They are Pat Roc, who you think is going to be the sole star, but then around half an hour in the film introduce Ann Crawford as well to romance Eric Portman. Roc is very unthreateningly pretty – she was sort of the back up Phyllis Calvert (just as Jean Kent was the back up Margaret Lockwood). She has a romance with a painfully young Gordon Jackson.

The film is very socialist – it’s all about sacrifice and giving into the greater cause. Roc at the end is sitting at lunch or something but eventually joins in the singing at the end. The romance between Crawford and Portman is very much skewed in Portman’s favour. If Launder and Gilliat had been Yanks they would have been blacklisted for this!

Radio review – Peter Bogdanovich interviews Orson Welles

Fascinating series of interviews which formed the basis of Bogdanovich’s excellent book about Welles. He chats in particular about his relationship with Gregg Tolland on Citizen Kane, his plan to make a film about Jesus Christ, casting Alan Ladd in Kane, casting Tim Holt in Magnificent Ambersons (which he still defends – someone should do a study of Holt one day, he’s got a lot of classic films on his resume); the troubles filming Othello (setting scenes in Turkish baths to do it without costumes); etc.

Welles makes a lot of statements, some where you go “gee I dunno” (He argues that directors do their best work in their 20s and 70s), others which I think is dead right (everyone knows an Iago in their life).

He is a bit defensive about the lack of commercial success of his films (blames Kane on poor distribution, says Lady from Shanghai got its money back "but was no Gilda and they wanted Gilda"). Says there were only a few cuts to Lady from Shanghai, which surprised me – he takes the blame for what’s bad about this; refutes Bogdanovich’s claim that War of the Worlds was bad luck for him (credits this for the Campbell sponsorship and movie career); talks about being inspired for War of the Worlds by a priest’s claim that communists had taken over London (he perhaps takes a bit too much credit for this broadcast – poor old Howard Koch the author isn’t mentioned); chats about his passion for “the funnies”.

Welles seems to have been friends with or at least known everyone – Preston Sturges, Thornton Wilder, Sam Goldwyn, Barrymore. He’s constantly telling stories along the lines of “of course I knew Preston”.

Bogdanovich was asking questions for posterity, not television, so his queries tend to be drawn out and stumbling – but they are mostly pretty good and he has a warm rapport with Welles.

Radio review – Lux#211 – “It Happened One Night” (1939) ***

The classic romantic comedy adapts well to radio, helped considerably by Gable, Colbert and Walter Connolly reprising their roles. It’s basically a two hander so its easy to follow, and the dialogue still snaps and cackles. Gable, Colbert and de Mille have a bright chat at the end about the role of fate.

Radio review – Lux#83 – “The Legionnaire and the Lady” (1936) **

The first of Lux Radio’s plays from Hollywood, and the first introduced by Cecil B de Mille, this has the benefit of Clark Gable and Marlene Dietrich in the title role, both very well cast. It’s not much of a story (from the film Morocco) – they have a romance out in the desert, there is a superior officer who wants Dietrich and a dull uprising. 

Many Lux productions felt overly condensed – this one feels padded. The most interesting thing is the bit at the end where Dietrich sings ‘Falling in Love Again’ for the crowd; also Jesse Lasky Jnr pops up to chat about the old days in Hollywood with host Cecil B de Mille.

Radio review – "Box 13: Ep 1-3" (1948) *1/2

Alan Ladd stars in this radio series made for his own company. Although Ladd plays a role custom made for his talents – tough talking ex-reporter Dan Halliday (the narrator repeats the name something like ten times in the half hour), the show is undone by its idiotic concept: Halliday is an ex-journo who wants to write fiction, so he puts an ad in a paper asking for adventure, send mail to his old paper care of Box 13. So you don’t really care that his first adventure results in him being framed for murder – it was his own silly idea. The support players overact and you get the sense everyone was sending it up.

That’s the first two episodes, anyway. The third one – where Suzy joins him to work – is better because it seems deliberately light (Ladd helps a little old lady dispose a dead body; Ladd was good with little old ladies as he showed in Lucky Jordan).

Movie review – “The People That Time Forgot” (1977) ***

Enjoyable sequel to The Land That Time Forgot which has square-jawed Patrick Wayne leading an expedition to find Doug McClure. He sails to the Antarctica then fliers in a plane with a spunky female journalist, a Brit and Shane Rimmer, that American actor who seemed to be in every second blockbuster of the 70s. While all the cavemen in Land were Neanderthals, wearing lots of make up, here there’s a tribe of basically humans – including a fetching cave girl with ridiculously expansive cleavage. Several of them speak English – apparently Doug McClure taught them (because that’s what you need to know when there’s only one English speaker on the land – English).

Like the earlier film this is an entertainingly silly tale with a real feel for adventure. There are too many flash backs to the American guy back at the plane and not as much action as in the other movies, but it is still rousing and the search of Doug McClure gives the film a strong narrative drive.

Wayne was supporting his Dad in movies back in the early 60s; he’s a handsome lunk but he’s not much of an actor – Doug McClure was better. So it’s good to see McClure back in the film – the fate of his character gives the movie some depth (Penhalgion’s is killed). Sarah Douglas tags along as a female reporter – I couldn’t pick her at first but she’s one of the three villains in the second Superman. (NB This is copyrighted to AIP not Amicus; presumably AIP took over or something – not that they’d have to buy the rights of a non-copyrighted work.)

Radio review – “Sherlock Holmes – The Adventure of the Final Solution” (1954) **1/2

Orson Welles did a bit of radio for Harry Alan Towers during his English career, most notably a series about Harry Lime. This one was a guesty, but what a guesty – Moriarty up against Gielgud’s Holmes and Ralph Richardson’s Watson in a faithful adaptation of what was intended to be the last Holmes story.
It's wonderful to hear these three go at it against one another – Welles more than holds his own against the greats and makes you wish he’d gone mano-a-mano against more top level talent during his career. (Great actors and stars; I count the Mercury players as good actors, sometimes excellent actors – but they struggled to match Welles’ charisma).

Radio review – Lux#84 – “The Thin Man” (1936) **

William Powell and Myrna Loy reprise their roles – so too does Asta, to little effect (cute dog shenanigans aren’t that effective on radio). The mystery is confusing without the benefit of seeing faces to help differentiate subjects; but the by play between the stars remains strong and at least with this one you don’t keep seeing Powell swing back drinks.

Radio review – Lux#193 – “The Buccaneer” (1939) *1/2

I always though Clarke Gable would make a good pirate – I remember thinking that watching Captain Blood – because he had that macho aura and was a convincing enough sailor in Mutiny on the Bounty. But he doesn’t make an ideal French pirate – he’s cast here as Lafitte, the legendary New Orleans buccaneer who fought for the Americans in the Battle of New Orleans. Gable seems aware he’s miscast, which perhaps explains his hesitancy throughout the performance – or maybe he just stood too far back from the microphone. The story doesn’t adapt as well to radio as Captain Blood did – it might be just the quality of adaptation, maybe it’s the characters. Some French import called Olympe Bradna plays the female lead.

Radio review – CP#9 – “Arrowsmith” (1939) **1/2

One of those stories which you can tell are based on best sellers because they have this aura of seriousness and sort of amble along and feel like an adaptation of some tome. Orson Welles is very dignified in his conclusion to this one, perhaps because his co-star was Helen Hayes. She plays a simple, adoring wife of a whiny doctor (Welles) who is interested in biology, then becomes a small town doctor, then researches the plague and Hayes dies.

It feels like a shortened version of a long epic – wasn’t there a second wife or something? Although Welles’ character is a bit of a whinger and Hayes’ goes on about her ignorance a bit too much, the ending where she dies is quite moving. But this felt as though it needed another half hour to really give it the sweep it deserved.

Movie review – Marple #1 - “Murder She Said” (1961) ***

You’re never too old to become a star – look at Marie Dressler, Judi Dench, Morgan Freeman and Margaret Rutherford. True they were often in supporting roles but they were also given leads in the sunset of their years. Rutherford in particular was a genuine box office draw as Miss Marple, who she played four times in films for MGM directed by George Pollock. (MGM’s British operation turned out some interesting films during its early 60s phase including Village of the Damned).

This one was the first and benefits from having a strong story: Marple sees a murder on a train (in the original novel it was a friend of hers who witnessed it) and sets about investigating by going undercover as a maid. Rutherford’s Marple isn’t like in the books but it’s a winning performance – it should be treated as a “cover version”, and anyway if you hire Margaret Rutherford you want the Margaret Rutherford thing.

Decent support casting including James Robertson Justice (grumpy invalid), American Arthur Kennedy, Muriel Pavolv, Joan Hickson (who later played Miss Marple on television) and Australian Bug Tingwell (who apparently put on weight to play a middle aged detective then was unable to shake it off for the rest of his life). Rutherford has two men panting over her – Justice (whose duels with Rutherford are a highlight of the film) and Stringer Davis (Rutherford’s real life husband). That little kid gets annoying after a while.

Book review – “King Solomon’s Mines” by H Rider Haggard

I read this after Ayesha and was struck by the more vigorous prose, the faster pace of the story. It’s a wonderful adventure tale, even after all these years. To be sure all the black characters are either faithful servants, nobles, loyal 2-I-Cs or villains…but Haggard would later show with his writings that all his white characters fitted into one of those categories as well. Quartermain is an engaging hero – elderly, tiny, a crack shot and an admitted coward, as well as being a little sad – a long way from Stewart Granger or Richard Chamberlain, but both those actors could have been comfortably cast as Sir Henry Curtis.

The story has since become cliché but it still works – the offer to make the expedition; the mysterious back story; being joined by the Zulu with a past; voyaging up Sheba’s breast; trudging through the desert; using knowledge of eclipses to outsmart the locals; taking part in a massive insurrection to restore the rightful king; Gagool the witch; being stuck in the mines.

Two black servants die for Good (one of them a woman, who is glad she died – as is Quartermain - because she’s in love with him and she doesn’t want miscegenation); Quartermain refers to “kaffirs” and Haggard seems to be promoting “separate development” of the black race.

Movie review – “The Baader Meinhoff Complex” (2008) ****1/2

Impressive German film about the Red Army Faction during the 60s and 70s, focusing on several key members – the dashing, psychotic Baader; chardonnay socialist/columnist-turned-revolutionary Meinhoff (imagine Kristen Williamson going all Patty Hearst); Baader’s married girlfriend (a terrific, star making portrayal). Like Downfall this doesn’t throw in hokey scenes making the characters more or less sympathetic full of phoney moralising and melodrama – it simply says “this is who they are and what they did”. Since they did so many exciting things – rob banks, blow up army bases, assassinate politicians and judges – it’s a gripping saga. It doesn’t really personalise any of their victims, or the investigating officers except Bruno Ganz, but I they probably didn’t have time.

Excellently directed with decent performances, it gives a real sense of West Germany during a crazy time – young people rebelling to the nth degree against a system they oppose (the rationale: what morality can the creators of Auschwitz impose?). The German response to terrorism doesn’t seem very effective: they’re always giving in to prisoner’s demands (they smuggle guns into cells), trying to reconcile, having poor security.

The cast have to make up the sexiest terrorists in recent memory – the women are mostly hot (though the actor playing Meinhoff looked like Chris Lilley in a wig), wearing these great boots, short skirts and long hair; loved that scene in the bath, plus the nude sunbathing at the Jordanian terrorist camp. I suppose that’s glamorisation in a way but the film makes it clear they are a bloodthirsty bunch who killed a lot of innocent people. Terrific movie. My main gripe – the lack of a card which explains what happened to the RAF following the end of the 70s.

TV review – “Battlestar Galactica: Season 4 – Part 1” *****

The standards of this series remains amazingly high. Occasionally it gets a bit waffly – I’m not a big fan of the religious stuff being genuine – but its compensated by terrific plot twists: the outbreak of civil war amongst the Cylons, the shocking death of Callie; the emerge of Baltar as a cult leader; the discovery of Earth. Anders still gets on my goat and some scenes are flat – like Tigh revealing to Adama he’s a Cylon. The special effects remain superb as always.

Movie review – Marple#2 - “Murder at the Gallop” (1963) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

The second of Margaret Rutherford’s Marple series seems intent on duplicating the success of Murder She Said right down to the details – we have the same jaunty music score (sped up a little), Charles Tingwell and Stringer David back, the same small town setting, another murder involving a squabbling family (with roughly the same number of suspects as before, including a foxy girl, a gay looking middle aged man and a comic fatty); the comic fatty (here Robert Morley) is never really a suspect and proposes to Marple at the end but she turns him down; the next best member of the support cast (Flora Robson) turns out to be the killer. It remains entertaining although it doesn’t have Rutherford going undercover like a maid. She does however do the twist in one scene.

Movie review – “It’s Not Cricket” (1949) *

Charters and Caldicott were given another crack at their own vehicle but the results are frustratingly poor. They get out of the army, where they worked in the intelligence corps, and set up a private detective agency – one of those ideas which are funny for about a second before you realise it’s not based in any sort of reality for the characters.

They get involved in looking for the lost dog of an opera star and an escaped Nazi (an atrociously mugging performance by Maurice Denham) who has a diamond. Diana Dors is funny in her scene as a man hungry secretary – it’s a shame her part wasn’t bigger. But this gets worse and worse as it goes on. Lazy, unfunny and an utter waste of the perfect film title for these two characters. Charters and Caldicott have another scene where they are in bed together - there's no rationale for it (eg in The Lady Vanishes there was a room shortage), so it's hard to come up with any other interpretation than they're into each other.

Book review - "Vanity Fair's Tales of Hollywood'

Entertaining collection of behind the scenes stories of the making of a number of films. Some are familiar but worth hearing again (Rebel Without a Cause, Cleopatra, All About Eve), others surprising choices but enjoyable ones (The Best of Everything, Sweet Smell of Success). The occasional irritating error (someone claims that before John Travolta no TV star had become a movie star), and the chapter on Tommy is really annoying because it's just a review and doesn't talk about the making of the film.

Movie review – “Humanoids of the Deep” (1980) *1/2

After a decade of discovering lost worlds, Doug McClure took on weird creatures in the present day in this New World cheapie. He’s a fisherman operating along a coastline where a mysterious creature is running amok.

Within the first ten minutes the creature has killed a kid and a pet dog, normally taboo victims. There’s some New World left leaning social comment – the real baddies are a nasty cannery; there are some decent Indians who want their old land back. It has a female director, but that doesn’t stop her from including one scene where a bikinied woman is dragged into the ocean to be killed, another where a naked woman is slashed and killed on a beach, and another where a monster rips the top off a bikinied woman exposing her breasts. To be fair apparently these were inserted by another director – but the plot presumably always involved monsters wanting to rape women. Ann Turkel (as a “I’ve been warning you for years” scientist) and Vic Morrow (unscrupulous businessman) round out the support cast.

The basic concept is ripped off Creature of the Black Lagoon and there’s an Alien stomach bursting rip off at the end for good measure. A bit of gore and nudity, some alright chaos at the end, and a lot of stupidity. Poor Barbara Peeters.

Radio review – Lux#367 – “Wake Island” (1943) **

Americans don’t seem to celebrate defeats like Australians do – had Wake Island been Australian it would have been a national holiday. It’s kind of a shame because the saga of Wake Island is one of the most moving and inspirational of the war – a brave little garrison (and it was, even in a PC world) holding out against tremendous odds and giving the Japanese a bloody nose. The Yanks seemed to do far better in the first few months of the Pacific War than we (and the British) did – or maybe that’s just the history books I’ve read.

There was a period when American cinema rejoiced in glorious defeat, when Wake Island and Bataan where popular films. This is an adaptation of the former, with Robert Preston and Brian Donlevy reprising their film roles and Broderick Crawford stepping in for William Bendix. Conflict is provided by some squabbling sergeants and civilians having trouble mixing with soldiers. It is run of the mill stuff I guess but has extra resonance because its based on a true story – this would have been more effective as an original rather than an adaptation of a movie.

Radio review – Lux#484 – “And Now Tomorrow” (1945) *1/2

Preston Sturges, of all people, introduces this version of the Loretta Young-Alan Ladd sudser. Being radio it’s hard to get the impression that Young is ever deaf (you really need visual cues to convey that). It’s still interesting for Ladd fans because the role – basically the dedicated, hard working doctor in a soapy – is so atypical for his career, but that doesn’t disguise the fact that his performance is a wit wonky; his voice (superb for radio) here sounds nasally and he talks too fast. Was he nervous? It also throws you to hear the audience laughing (they’re laughing with the production not at it, but its disconcerting nonetheless; as it would be come to think of it whenever I hear it in a Lux production.) The story isn’t that much more interesting than it was in the film – which is to say not very interesting at all.

Movie review – “Warlords of Atlantis” (1978) **

Doug McClure and Kevin Connor team for their fourth period adventure film, although this is the first not based on a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. McClure’s part of a deep sea diving expedition in a not very convincing contraption (it is open at the bottom); he winds up in Atlantis. He and a mate get there via the contraption but then the guys on the ship just swim there, which seemed like cheating somehow.

Atlantis itself is a bit silly. I know the other films made by this team were silly too but this one is especially so. The locals wear Prince Valiant haircuts, the art direction isn’t as impressive and there’s not as much action. Some sloppiness which hints at a lowered budget - when an octopus attacks the ship water gets on the lens – couldn’t they protect the camera? Also the story isn’t much: it was a mistake to have so many sailors wind up on the expedition; the plot is mostly arrive-get arrested-escape; there’s no emotional connection (the romance with the girl seems perfunctory); McClure is starting to look old. Also there’s this irritating coda about mutinous crew members, when we don’t really care.

The cast include Shane Rimmer and a pre-Cheers John Katzenberger. Atlantians include Daniel Massey and good old Cyd Charisse, who even flashes her legs for old time’s sake – they’re still great! And the opening credit sequence is spookily enjoyable. But generally this is pretty poor. It needed a stronger story and atmosphere, and more effort all round.

Movie review – “For the Term of His Natural Life” (1927) ***

The story is dependent on some unlikely coincidences – namely the fact that John Rex not only kills Rufus Dawes’ father, he winds up on the came convict ship afterwards, plus the fact the reverend was the witness of the original crime. But it’s got great scenes and character – the munity on the ship, the suffering at Macquarie Harbour (a tremendous set), the second mutiny involving being a castaway, an escape, the suicide of the children, the cannibal escape, the final escape and uprising. Just listing it like that there are an awful lot of escape and escape attempts but it makes for a consistently exciting story.

The location footage remains incredible and provides some tremendous images – the small boat bobbing in the ocean, the various convict settlements, convicts clambering over rocks. There are some good studio sequences as well, such as the final riot, even if the direction sometimes comes across as a bit tableaux-y. Performances are alright, a bit overboard in places – George Fisher is a character actor rather than a star; Eva Novak is pretty in a thankless role; Arthur McLaglen is chilling as Gabbett. Watching this again it strikes me the best part is not Dawes, scoundrel John Rex or the vicious Frere or even Gabbett, but Sarah, the faithful lover of Rex. Arthur Tauchert (the Sentimental Bloke) pops up in a supporting role as a sadistic guard.

Book review – “And So It Went” by Bob Ellis

Basically a diary from Bob Ellis covering 2007-2008 – and the loss of power for John Howard had acted as a tonic on him. (Ellis quotes Kim Beazley in this as pointing out that Ellis' hatred for Howard was hurting his writing - and he was dead right.) Because instead of bashing Liberals Ellis can concentrate on what he does best, namely thwarted Labor idealism. There are lots (and lots) of “what if” hyptotheticals about political situations. Like a boomer he whinges about his parents, in this case his mother who died in 2005 (and about whom he has tended to be a bit reticent in his writings before her death). I also think it's time Ellis recognised that he is sexist and is particularly nasty towards women politicians he dislikes.

Movie review – “At the Earth’s Core” (1976) ***

The Land That Time Forgot proved popular so the same team turned to another Edgar Rice Burroughs tale, this one about an expedition to the centre of the Earth. Unlike the adventurers in Land, the explorers in this one asked for the trouble they got into – Doug McClure and Peter Cushing (with bald spot) try to drill through the earth, before winding up in a mystery land. It’s a studio created land this time (being underground), imaginatively put together by the art department, and some of the locals are humans, including a comely Carol Munro. There are also various weird creatures.

The actual plot is the standard lost world/time travel one – foreigners arrive in an exotic location, help oppressed locals throw off their tyrannical overseers (I don’t know who invented this – HG Welles in The Time Machine maybe? - but everyone uses it.)

McClure gives a broader, more comic performance than that time – for the first ten minutes after which he returns to the requisite he-man stuff. Cushing is also atypically cast, as a stuffy professor (he’s okay, but his put-on voice gets wearying very quickly and isn’t the reason you cast Cushing is to have someone play a whip-smart dude? There are lots of more appropriate actors in England to play stuffy.)

Like Land I laughed at some of this – cavemen speaking English, some of the creature effects (paper mache doesn’t look so crash hot in close up), the sex bomb performance of Munro (she’s always grinning even when her life is in danger and wears far too much make up) - but still enjoyed it. The sets are great and it had a real spirit of adventure and plenty of action; in its quiet moments (eg McClure creeping through caves) were particularly effective. Some of it was reminiscent of Return of the Jedi – McClure’s fight with a dinosaur in a dungeon, the make up of the evil creatures.

Movie review – “Monsters vs Aliens” (2009) ***1/2

All Pixar movies are good and this one is no exception. It’s especially fun if you’re a fun of the 50s sci fi films, which inspire the heroes to this – to wit, the Amazing 50 Foot Woman, The Blob, The Creature from The Black Lagoon and Mothra. My favourite of the versions here is lovable Insectosaurus, although I did like the Gigantic Woman. (It’s a shame there weren’t more creatures – I think the film could have supported three more, making it like The Magnificent Seven.) Plenty of action and smart humour, though as usual a lot of it feels like a video game. My main gripe – surely more should have been made of the fact that humans locked away the monsters for so long, then are expected to save humanity?

Movie review – “The Land That Time Forgot” (1975) ***

Amicus was a British company best known for making horror films in the shadow of Hammer but their 70s output was far better than Hammer’s – it included a series of adventure tales starring Doug McClure directed by Kevin Connor of which this was the first.

The structure is reminiscent of The Birds – it takes a while to get to the big attraction (35 minutes before arriving in weirdo land) but until then there is plenty of fun with a different genre – The Birds had romantic comedy this one has a war film, with Doug McClure and a boat load of survivors from a U boat attack in taking over that U boat (the film is set in World War I). While in the Land things occasionally drag – there are a few too many unmotivated expeditions, and the film could have used a decent subplot about squabbling Germans vs Englanders, or a romance, or getting involved with a local tribal battles; I mean, this stuff is there but it isn’t developed, and you need it to be because otherwise it’s episodic dealing with monsters and missing link cavemen.

Some of the special effects are a little dodgy – there’s a laughable pterodactyl – but the photography and art direction is pretty good, and there is plenty of action (including the ever reliable climactic volcanic explosion). You need to approach it in the right spirit but if you do this is fun. McClure’s beefy muscular-ness is dead right for this sort of movie and Susan Penhaligon is very pretty as the lone woman in the group (she happens to be a biologist, which is useful – why no love triangle in the script, though?). The acting is fairly decent; that “bad German” was totally within his rights to want to leave before finding out what happened to McClure and Penhaligon – I don’t blame him. The ending is quite romantic in it’s lost, evocative way.

Book review – “David Williamson: Behind the Scenes” by Kristen Williamson

It was time for another David Williamson bio – Brian Kiernan’s excellent work hadn’t been updated since the early 90s. And Kristen was particularly qualified, being an author in her own right, not to mention ex-journo. I was interested to get her point of view, since Williamson’s plays are full of shrewish wives and adulterous husbands, and have been criticised for bad female characters. What is it like to be married to such a man?

Well, we find out. Dave is engaging, passionate, paranoid, likeable, talented, hard working and very perceptive about his own class and generation but nothing else (including the world around him). His wife seems the same. Oh my gosh – you mean soldiers were brave in World War I? The Chinese communist government was oppressive? Open marriage doesn’t work? It’s cold in Denmark? Paul Keating has the effrontery to refer to Balmain basket weavers – which apparently offends the Williamson’s friends, who included, we are told, economists, scientists, academics and film directors. How can they be basket weavers? Apparently there hadn’t been an international star in an Australian film before Susannah York in Eliza Fraser and the only Australian play on Broadway before The Club was Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. These faults can be forgiven in a memoir but not a biography by a professional writer.

This would have been better off had it taken the former course because the personal stuff is strong, apart from needing a bit of a cut. The story of their meeting, affair, marriage troubles, fights, etc are excellent as is the account of their life in Denmark and so on – invaluable for any serious student of Williamson. It probably could have done with a little bit less “that was a fun night” and “how great are my children” but at least that gives flavour (if repetitive flavour) about their homelife. 

The “proper bio” stuff isn’t as strong; the background of political stuff is clunky, and she ridiculously shares her husband’s preoccupation with critics (calling people who don’t like his plays critics or “failed playwrights” – it is possible people just don’t like them?).

David and Kristen argue viciously, have dinner parties, support left wing causes,  have affairs, work for the National Times, are on the board of the ABC, are friends with lefy politicians, don’t like conservatives or working class people, loathe working class slappers with cash. Just like characters in Williamson plays.

Louis Nowra wrote an interesting, perceptive review of the book. The review is a little unfair in places (I think Williamson’s plays do explore dark aspects of the human condition), but in some places he’s dead right, particularly Williamson K’s sometimes clunky prose, and lack of skill evoking characters. There is too much about critics. You have to discuss critics when talking about Williamson because he’s so obsessed about them, but you don’t have to be obsessed about them too. The space spent on quoting good and bad reviews would have been far better used talking about the people who were involved in the productions. We can always look up a crappy review, but wasn't Kristen there at the time?

People often talk about how actors are childish – it’s sometimes used as an insult but there is a serious component to this as well. It’s important for actors to be childish in that they can forget their inhibitions and play pretend the way a child can. Simon Callow refers to one rehearsal where the action was “desperately, seriously childish”. Writers need to do this too. (This is why so many actors and writers have drinking problems.)

Part of the reason why David Williamson is so successful I think is that he has remained childish. Mature adults don’t sent off faxes to five critics after 20 years of playwriting asking for a fare go; they don’t tell their wives they are having an affair. This means he’s always discovering new things and being enthusiastic about it.

It’s a must read for fans of Williamson (and those just interested in him). It doesn’t mean it’s not a heavily flawed book.

Book review – “Starmaker” by Hal Wallis and Charles Higham

Hal Wallis was one of the giants of old Hollywood; he’s not as well remembered today as Selznick, Zanuck, Mayer or Warners despite being head of production of Warners during their glory days. As one writer pointed out (I can’t remember who, maybe Humphrey Bogart’s biographer), Warners were never really Warners after Hal Wallis left – but Hal Wallis was never Hal Wallis again either. He never lost his ability to spot and exploit stars – Martin and Lewis, Charlton Heston, Burt Lancaster, Elvis – but his films were, on the whole, less distinguished. Inevitably they were more conservative – his bread and butter efforts were Westerns, Martin and Lewis and Elvis, but he still took the odd chance eg Come Back Little Sheba, Becket.

Lots of interesting stories – you only wish there were more. Even though funding films was easier in the old days it was still a pain in the neck getting the script right, the cast they wanted etc. We hear a lot about original casting choices – Bette Davis was last choice for Now Voyager, ditto Monte Woolley for The Man Who Came to Dinner (Orson Welles almost did it, Charles Laughton was considered too gay – they were worried the same thing about Woolley); Mia Farrow agreed to do True Grit but turned it down after Mitchum told her how scary Henry Hathaway was; Kim Darby only reluctantly agreed to replace her despite a lack of reputation. The hassles of casting Casablanca get a long airing, not surprisingly (perhaps Wallis’ crowning achievement, although luck was on his side). He also talks at great length about the troubles of making Captain in the Clouds – would anyone care?

Apparently Elvis was a dream to deal with; his most troublesome stars were Jerry Lewis and Shirley Maclaine; Joan Fontaine was selfish (when Wallis arranged a cabin on a ship for her she didn’t even send him champagne) and Anna Manganini a handful but one of those handfuls that people seem to be affectionate about.

Wallis wrote this in collaboration with Charlies Higham and definitely feels like a Higham work – fast paced, gossipy, inaccurate in places, sketchy. He alludes to Higham’s claims against Errol Flynn (“we never would have employed him if we’d known), including the silly one that Dive Bomber was used by Japanese espionage – didn’t the US Navy want to do the film to show off their boats, etc? The book is frustratingly vague on Wallis’ family and his first marriage – he alludes to unhappiness, what was the deal there?

This is OK, but it feels incomplete. It doesn’t help that on a personal level Wallis is a little dull (hard working, private, happy marriages, likes massages and walks). There are memos at the end which are great because they give the impression of the sort of decisions Wallis had to make every day. You get the feeling had the entire book been comprised of memos it would have been better.

Radio review – CP#1 – “Rebecca” (1938) ***1/2

The Mercury Theatre on the Air achieved sufficient fame in its short life to nab a major sponsor, Campbell’s Soups, after which the show became The Campbell Playhouse. So we have lots of ads for Campbells during the break. They were very proud of being associated with Orson Welles to judge by the opening spiel – and why not, for this was an excellent way to launch the show. Margaret Sullavan’s acting skill and throat voice make her a strong ? (the woman she plays is never named); Welles is a perfect Maxim – he was always at his best as an actor when he didn’t have to carry the action, but where the action centred around him (eg Kane, Harry Lime). He was slim and good looking enough at this stage to have played the role in the film version too – although he got the next best thing, Rochester in Jane Eyre.

Mildred Natwick is a strong Mrs Danvers, not as good as Judith Anderson but still pretty good, and George Colouris, Ray Collins and Agnes Moorehead support (these three actors supported Welles in the bulk of Mercury’s on air stuff that I’ve heard). My main gripe – the plot bit is banged through in about two-three minutes (i.e. Maxim being on trial); it’s far too quick. They spent the time instead on atmosphere and character, which are strong, but I think they should have allocated a bit more time to the murder story.

Radio review – CP#5 – “Counsellor at Law” (1939) **1/1

Orson Welles gets a real chance to flex his acting muscles playing a successful lawyer who is threatened by an event from his past. It’s the same role played by John Barrymore on screen, entirely appropriate since the two men were mates and had a similar hammy charisma (I’m not sure if they played the same role many times; I think Welles played Hamlet on radio, and both were up for the lead in The Man Who Came to Dinner.)

Welles isn’t very convincing as a son of an immigrant mother who speaks with an accent (played here by Gertrude Berg), but he is well cast as a lawyer who is successful but feels as though he is a charlatan. He has to have something of a nervous breakdown, something we’re not used to seeing – sorry, hearing – from Welles, who is best known for acting with charming aplomb. He doesn’t quite hit it out of the park – he tries, it’s not bad, but for me there is something in Welles’ acting which stops him from reaching the top rank. I think he was a great star, a tremendous personality – but agree with Simon Callow that something happened in his development as an actor to stop him going all the way. Aline McMahon reprises her screen role as the ever-loving secretary.

Radio review – SDP – “Saigon” (1948) **

A half hour version of the final Ladd-Lake teaming benefits from Alan Ladd reprising his film performance (though not Lake). The combination of terminal illness and exotic melodrama doesn’t quite work – both are undeveloped (and I checked the TCMDB synopsis that it wasn’t just the half hour treatment here – the film was a lot of running around about money without being developed). Pacey and interesting because of its setting and Ladd’s performance but fairly underwhelming.

Radio review – Lux#805 – "King Solomon’s Mines" (1952) **1/2

Interesting to listen to this version of the MGM film because it gives a greater sense of how the writers changed Haggard (in the film version you were distracted by the location footage). The role of Gagool is minimised, there’s barely any stuff involving Umbopa (who here doesn’t join the expedition for a while), our heroes don’t join in any uprising (Umbopa just does a one on one combat at the end). Instead most of the drama concerns the sexual attraction between Quartermain, who here is cynical, swarthy and world-weary, and Mrs Curtis – Deborah Kerr. But it’s alright because she didn’t really like her husband, even though she’s looking for him.

Purists may recoil but that’s a legitimate interpretation of the story – which was more faithfully filmed in 1937. I just think they missed a chance with not having more about Gagool and the exiled king. I didn’t mind this as much as the film version, which I felt threw away opportunities wholesale.

Radio review – Lux#546 – "OSS" (1946) **1/2

One of the great things about these old radio dramas is you get to see different casting combinations of old movies. Instead of thinking Errol Flynn would have been great in Lives of a Bengal Lancer – you can hear him; instead of wishing Orson Welles had made some more mainstream stuff you have hear him to just that on radio.

This gives us another teaming of the legendary Ladd and Lake – they made four films together, three of them classics; the film of OSS was better than Saigon, but it lacked Lake (Geraldine Fitzgerald was the female lead).

To be honest, neither she nor Ladd are believable as spies – they’re too tough and sexy to fit in – but it’s wonderful to hear them together; even on radio they made a good team. Listening to this it felt different from the film – mainly I guess because the thing I most remembered from the movie (the training sequence with all the cool stuff spies do) is cut; however they do include the other but I remember, namely Ladd being asked to stay on the mission and whingeing about it (actually it’s a good bit of acting from him).

There’s some funny Lux stuff – the spiel for Lux mentions the fact that female agents in occupied countries can’t use Lux otherwise they wouldn’t fit in with the locals.

Movie review – “The Ape Man” (1943) **

The main attraction of this Sam Katzman effort is the sight of Bela Lugosi in ape man make up – he plays a mad scientist whose experiments with apes have sent him half ape. He works in a basement with a gorilla nearby and has a weird sister. To my knowledge Lugosi never played a werewolf who we got to see transform on screen (he was one in Wolf Man but we only saw him and the shadow of a wolf) but this is the next best thing.
To be honest it’s not much of a film with poor handling an uninspiring pair of leads (two wisecracking reporters with zero believable chemistry; she’s way too hot for him – such was life in war torn Hollywood with so many leading men away in the forces). Lugosi goes on a rampage but it’s not much of a rampage – however there is a satisfying camp moment where the gorilla (well, man in gorilla suit) strangles him. There’s a bit at the end from someone who claims to be the author of the story – he winks at the camera and it goes to the end. That might be funnier in a better movie.

Radio review – Lux#415 - "China" (1943) **

In radio format, without the faces of the stars and John Farrow’s direction, the weaknesses of the story are all too highlighted. Alan Ladd, Loretta Young and William Bendix repeat their roles and it’s always cool to have Alan Ladd as a tough guy in the third world, its fairly uninspired. Most of the fun comes from listening to Young praise the Chinese guerrillas and the Chinese government as sticking up for the little guy. De Mille and Young talk affectionately about Madame Kai-Shek in the post-show chat.

TV review – “Battlestar Galactica: Razor” (2006) ****

A telemovie to cover the break between Season 3 and Season 4 makes the smart decision of having the lead character be entirely new. This is smart because there’s only so much we can do with our regulars – I thought that’s what they should do with Attack of the Clones. Australia’s Stephanie McIntosh provides the second antipodean accent in the Galactica universe (after Lucy Lawless) which is a bit clunky – I'm as patriotic as the next Aussie but surely it would have been better to have a Frenchie, Indian, Chinese, Russian, Italian, etc. She has a sub-Angelina Jolie pout but its very effective and the story is strong, hopping around in time, with flashbacks fleshing out Cain, the Pegasus backstory, etc. The combat scenes are as always excellent.

Movie review – Elvis#23 - “Easy Come Easy Go” (1967) **

Elvis moves were one of the most conservative of the 60s – they started to swing a little by this stage, but not a lot. There’s slightly groovier fashions and hair, jokes about hippies (Elsa Lancaster as a yoga instructor) and expressions like “dig”, but Elvis is still in the services hanging out with his mates getting up to uninspired adventures.

He’s a frogman about to get out of the navy when he discovers a sunken ship which possibly has treasure. Another couple wind up after it as well, as does a hippie girl whose grandfather owned the ship, so at least this has a decent amount of conflict. There’s also a lot of cheap jokes about hippies and beatniks, double entrendes and dodgy gags, plus some pretty girls (Pat Priest - one time Marilyn Munster - and Dodie Marshall), character actors (Frank McHugh) and an underwater fight which is boring like most underwater fights. Some of the songs are OK although I wasn't surprised to learn the soundtrack was his lowest selling of all his soundtracks. Shame it couldn’t have at least been in an exotic location like Hawaii. This was Elvis' last movie with Hal Wallis.

Radio review – Command Performance with Errol Flynn (1944) **1/2

A half hour variety show for the troops, a 1944 version of Rove Live. Special guest host is Barbara Stanwyck and she performs for a crowd of WAVs. Errol Flynn is special guest star – he sings (pretty well) and takes place in a fun sketch where he washes up on an all-women ship and is the object of the captain’s lust. June Allyson, Dick Haymes and Linda Darnell help out. Good fun and a fascinating time capsule.

Radio review – Lux#214 - "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer” (1937) ***

It’s entirely appropriate that Errol Flynn step into the shoes of Gary Cooper, who played the role of the Canadian lancer in the film; Errol’s a lot more believable as a Canadian, and Brian Aherne is more English than Franchot Tone. Aherne and Flynn make believable friends – apparently Aherne was once considered for some of Flynn’s roles (including Captain Blood if I’m not mistaken). 

Aherne never had Flynn’s charisma, but he had class and comfortably slots into the role of best friend. Jackie Cooper is good as the whiny, cowardly son of C Aubrey Smith – he isn’t even given the chance to redeem himself at the finale, he’s just a coward.

The best thing about this episode is when the actors chat at the end, Smith scolds Aherne and Flynn for missing weekend cricket games.

Radio review – Lux#309 – "Virginia City” (1941) **1/2

Action stories don’t adapt well to radio for obvious reasons – this one at least has a decent story. Flynn repeats his film role but you do miss Alan Hale and Big Boy Williams; you don’t miss Miriam Hopkins but Martha Scott isn’t that great as her replacement. Some other guy takes Randolph Scott’s role – not a star, and I think that role needs a star. Still, quite entertaining, and a reminder that Bob Buckner could be counted on to come up with a good story.

Radio review – Lux#380 - “This Gun For Hire” (1942) ***

Even Alan Ladd’s biggest fans wouldn’t claim he was a great screen actor – great star, maybe – but he was a great radio actor. Fantastic voice, with menace and culture, and he is of course perfect reprising his part as Raven. It helps that Laird Cregar returns too as a villain - the squeamish Gates, who is evil but can't handle violence, and seems to have a crush on Raven. Cregar is superb.

The wisecracking Joan Blondell is fun and gives a decent enough performance but she just isn't Veronica Lake.

It’s a decent story, where the best thing about it is Ladd and Cregar – there is probably too much action for radio.  The story has been tweaked so that it focuses very heavily on Ladd/Raven with Blondell and Cregar prominent - the part of Blondell's cop boyfriend, played by Robert Preston in the film, is almost entirely sidelined.

At the end of this de Mille announces that Ladd was about to enter the army as a private – that didn’t last long! He doesn't sound very enthusiastic about it.

Radio review – Lux#121 - “Captain Blood” (1937) ***

Errol, Olivia and Basil have fun reprising their film roles. You miss all the ships, sword fighting and Curtiz direction but it’s still a good story – one of Sabatini’s best. Everyone sounds like they are having a good time and the script compresses well. Radio adaptations of action movies lack – d’uh – action, but one advantage is that if you cut all the action out the story fits nicely under an hour.

Radio review – Lux#200 – “The Perfect Specimen” (1939) **1/2

Errol Flynn, May Robson and Joan Blondell repeat their screen performances for radio; like the film itself it’s a bright though mild comedy which coasts on the charisma and likeability of its stars. 

The story is an early version of Twins crossed with It Happened One Night – Errol is raised in seclusion as the perfect man until encouraged to break out by Blondell. This has story problems – it really needed another antagonist apart from the grandmother – it probably would have been better had Flynn’s fiancée genuinely wanted to be with him. Basically, if you liked the film you'll enjoy this.

Movie review – “Rogue Male” (1976) ****

Excellent adaptation of the famous book with Peter O’Toole in superb form as the sporting noble who tries to take a crack at Hitler. There’s no hooker with the heart of gold in this one – like the book there are flashbacks to O’Toole’s old love, killed by the Germans. It’s also more violent – we see how badly O’Toole is tortured, and there’s no denying he kills the German in cold blood at the end (cf in Man Hunt Walter Pidgeon’s killing of George Sanders had to be softened by showing that Sanders was going to shoot Pidgeon.)

Alistair Sim, in one of his final performances, plays O’Toole’s well-connected uncle. He’s very good as indeed are most of the support cast: the kindly fat German who helps him, the taciturn first mate (Mark McManus), the Jewish lawyer (great speaking voice – Harold Pinter!), the chubby lawyer assistant (Hugh Manning), and most of all the jovial assassin (John Standing).

But the star through and through is O’Toole – he was at his best playing cracked aristocrats, brave and smart but a bit mad. The ending is very exciting, with Standing trying to charm O’Toole into signing a confession, making like they are great friends and brothers – then getting conked out in cold blood. (My memories of watching this were vivid: the fingernails, hiding on a boat, that finale.)

Occasionally it’s let down by the fact it’s made for television – there are these crappy telemovie music stings and cuts, and it lacks that extra gloss which comes with a feature. It’s a shame – this is better than a lot of movies O’Toole made. Another minor gripe – I wish it was a bit lighter in that cave so we could have a better look at the weapon he makes.

Book review – “Ayesha” by H Rider Haggard

A sequel to She. Leo and Holly are back in England recuperating from their Africa experience, when Leo has a vision and becomes convinced that Ayesha is alive and living in Central Asia. It’s not as strong a reason for the voyage as last time – Haggard perhaps should have given his characters are stronger prompt than “vision”. So you can’t help feeling Leo and Holly are a bit silly to waste so many years (it’s something like 16) trooping around looking for her. Also the book lacks a Job – I know that character was weak in the original, but this sequel badly lacks a character going along on the expedition going “this trip is a lousy idea I wish I was home”. It acts as a sort of pressure relief.

The structure is similar – they go on the voyage, escape death (an effective avalanche), discover the hidden kingdom, meet a girl who falls in love with Leo, journey to the capital, meet Ayesha, Ayesha and Leo moon about each other despite her tendency to despotism, but things end badly when they try to solidify their union.

Once they track down Ayesha the story starts to slow down. It takes forever to get to Ayesha – but the book is called Ayesha, we know that she’s going to come back to life. It’s a bit unrealistic, sure, but the pages Haggard devotes to air-fairy mumbo jumbo doesn’t make it less so. And there’s too much about reincarnation and descriptions of rituals, which aren’t interesting.

The basic story isn’t bad – Ayesha is old, but Leo decides to be with her anyway and with a kiss she becomes beautiful (a neat reversal of the princess and the frog). It’s a great idea to have the mortal girl who loves Leo be the ruler of a land with a vicious husband, and she ends up leading an attack against Ayesha; also for Ayesha’s kiss to be so powerful that she kills Leo. (One of the best scenes comes when she angrily kills someone after this.) But it takes so long to get through it all ultimately its a shadow of the original.

Part of the problem is I think the characters aren’t as engaging. In the first book Leo was trying to solve a family mystery and fell hopelessly under Ayesha’s spell; here he knows what he’s getting in for and he doesn’t have any sort of journey to go on, so his inherent blandness is more noticeable in this one. Ditto Holly – there’s no development in his relationship with Ayesha or Leo – he doesn’t even have a wise old associate of Ayesha to chat with. Ayesha isn’t nearly as compelling either in this one.

Movie review – “In the Year 2889” (1968) *1/2

One of the remakes Larry Buchan did for AIP for television. This one redoes the Roger Corman apocalyptic flick The Day the World Ended; it wasn’t much of an original movie (a bunch of different characters squabbling inside a house while mutants roam outside) but it’s better than this. There’s no washed up B lister to headline this cast – no John Ashley, Tommy Kirk or John Agar. There is Quinn O’Hara who played a sexy dish in The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini – and actually she gives the best performance as a skanky former stripper turned gangster’s moll.

There’s a couple of dodgy gangsters, a mutant, a father who seems very keen to have his daughter start breeding (she’s waiting for her boyfriend to come back but he’s a mutant). Buchanan throws in a bit of religion. Some of the make up is okay for a low budgeter and there are one or two effective sequences of characters walking around the forest at night – Buchanan was actually good at these, using silence and shadows. But then he snaps out of it with some crummy talking scenes. So-so acting, an enjoyable scene with O’Hara and the other girl wearing bikinis in the pool (just because its post apocalypse doesn’t mean you can’t catch some rays), and an abrupt ending.

Movie review – “Not of this Earth” (1957) ***

This and Attack of the Crab Monsters were the two big hits of Roger Corman’s early career – both were based on smart scripts by Charles Griffith. This one was co-written by Mark Hanna, who worked on a number of films with Griffith before going their separate ways.

Corman was starting to get into his stride about this time – moving the camera about a bit, the story is better. Look at how he cheaply gets some extra movement by panning across paintings during the opening credits. His handling is a lot more sure than in Crab Monsters - maybe because most of it takes place in a house or around LA as opposed to on an island.

The plot concerns an alien who needs blood to survive. He hires a nurse (Beverly Garland) to help him with transfusions. Like Crab Monsters the exposition is complicated, but basically the alien is on a mission from his home planet to find food. 

Garland delivers a typically fine performance; there’s a sexy scene where Garland is putting on stockings and talking to a sleazy man over a partition. Dick Miller’s small bit as a door-to-door vacuum salesman who winds up a meal is an early indication of the black humour which would come to full flourish in Bucket of Blood and Little Shop of Horrors. It’s actually a comic bit that jars with what’s proceeded. Actually, come to think of it, maybe it doesn't - there's a fridge full of blood and an intergalactic phone. Maybe it was all meant to be a spoof.

Movie review – “Sweeney Todd” (1936) **1/2

An enormously fun horror movie, perhaps the best remembered film from Tod Slaughter, a lip smacking star of stage and screen who was renowned for playing leads in villainous melodramas. This goes for a little over an hour, so it fairly spanks along; the famous story is packed in quite well and Slaughter is great in the lead role as a the villainous barber. There are some bland juveniles but you do need them to highlight the unscrupulousness around them and they’re not as irritating as the little kid (it’s a shame he doesn’t get his throat cut).

Slaughter’s performance ages well – of course it’s hammy but it’s ham with integrity. And who wants to see a realistic performance of Sweeney Todd? The trick barber’s chair always makes me laugh. There’s an attack on an African village, a young woman who dresses as a boy, and a flat climax. The best sections of this are the middle bit.

Movie review – “The Big Sleep” (1946) ****

They don’t make ‘em like this any more – and they didn’t often make ‘em this good back then: Bogart, Bacall, Hawks, Chandler, Faulkner, Brackett, Furthmann… Martha Vickers is stunningly good as the trampy daughter of the old colonel; Bogart is brilliant. I loved Dorothy Malone in her little scene too – the definitive sexy girl with glasses who works in a second hand book store (who gets turned on by Bogart’s brains – notice how she’s not really interested in him until he reveals he knows a lot about books). Hawks was so good at those sort of great scenes – indeed The Big Sleep is a collection of terrific scenes more than anything else: Bogart meeting Vickers; Bogart and the Colonel in the greenhouse; Bogart and Malone; Bogart camping it up in a bookstore; Bogart and Bacall having fun on the phone; “It wasn’t intentional” “Try it some time”.

The scenes are less good in the middle, which is why the film drags a little around there. Indeed, I was surprised how slow it got; I think the memory of those opening scenes is what carries it through - the structure certainly isn’t as sound as a, say, Chinatown. I’ve seen this a few times and can never follow the plot; also I get the whole Eddie-Mars-running-a-nightclub-and-having-an-ex-wife thing mixed up with the Howard da Silva character in The Blue Dahlia. But it really picks up in the last half hour with the introduction of Elisha Cook Jnr (he has a great death scene – there you go with the scene thing again). And it’s got a fantastic finale. (NB This factor is why you have to be careful remaking films like this – they depend so much on casting and scenes rather than a strong story).

The Bogart-Bacall combination is strong, if not as magical as in To Have and Have Not – although that is a bit unfair because in that one they were falling in love (just like Hepburn and Tracy had never-to-be-repeated oomph in Woman of the Year). But all the performances are excellent – not just the leads, but the supporting characters: and this is from a cast which doesn’t feature big names. Just look at the actors who play Eddie Mars, Bernie the cop, the dodgy girl in the book store… they’re all really good. Such was the skill of Hawks.

There are lots of scenes of women finding Bogart attractive – Vickers, Bacall, Malone, a woman in a library, a female cab driver, a waitress, cigarette girl. Hawks says this was him making fun of the genre, but there doesn’t seem too much winking at the audience. I think they simply wanted to show him being a stud. There is lot of sex here – not just the Vickers character, the dialogue between Bogart and Bacall is dripping with innuendo. It’s also violent – Bogart kicks a henchman in the face, gets knocked out several times, and flings the baddie out of a room to his death.

Radio review – MT #14 - “Hell on Ice” (1938) ****

Arctic stories adapt really well to radio, because you don’t have to worry about the budget, howling wind sounds terrifying and journal diaries work well on air. This is a terrific Mercury Production, one of their best, based on the disastrous 19th century expedition which involved a US ship getting stuck in the ice up Siberia way. They wound up in three life boats – one was wiped out but two made it to land; but the two landed separately and the inhabitants of one were almost entirely wiped out. Had never heard of the incident – we have enough drama in the Southern Hemisphere I guess to worry about antics up north. Good acting – Orson doesn’t have a showy a part as before (he’s the lead but it’s more of an ensemble piece).

Movie review – “The Black Shield of Falworth” (1954) **1/2

Enjoyable, colourful swashbuckler utterly lacking in pretension. How could it be pretentious, really, with Tony Curtis as an English peasant during the reign of Henry IV who perhaps has famous ancestry; he and his sister go to stay with a noble house where Curtis is to train. Sure, Curtis had a 50s haircut and that Bronx accent, but he moves with an athlete’s grace and he’s likeable; his character has a few surly bitter moments, which fits in with his 50s juvenile delinquent persona. Janet Leigh adds prettiness and spirit as his love interest and Barbara Rush is also good looking as his sister (heroes in swashbuckler films rarely seem to have sisters, so that gives it novelty). The support cast has some class, including Dan O’Herlihy, Herbert Marshall and David Farrar.

The first two thirds of the movie is like a basic training army movie – Curtis learns knight stuff, romances Leigh, has a gruff sergeant with a heart of gold, wonders why the local lord ignores him. Then the last third they pull out all this plot and have a villain and it all turns out to be a scheme by Marshall – it might have been better to introduce it earlier. Also they don’t use the character of the sister at all – you keep expecting her to be killed or turn evil but nope she just hangs out with Leigh and has a romance with some bland male second lead.

Book review – “Little Caesar” by Allan Ginsberg

Edward G Robinson is one of those movie stars who will probably only have one biography written about them, so it’s lucky this is a pretty good one. His story should stand as an inspiration for short, ethnic, pudgy ugly actors – he started at a young age and took a while for his career to get going, but he worked hard and was versatile with plenty of energy, and soon he was in demand on stage. A couple of decent parts saw him become a Broadway star and he was heavily in demand by the studios even before Little Caesar.

In hindsight it’s not hard to see why – most oohing and aahing about stars concerns how good looking they are, but there’s always room for a “character actor” star, especially one who can convey gravitas eg Morgan Freeman, Wallace Beery, Judi Dench. You can cast them as gangsters, cops, royalty, etc – people for the spunk rats to bounce off. Little Caesar then gave Robinson the role of a lifetime – literally, he could sponge off that image for the rest of his life. Being intelligent and ambitions he didn’t want to; like most Warners stars he hankered after better roles and fought the front office to get them; sometimes he succeeded too (a cop in Confessions of a Nazi Spy, a nebbish in The Whole Town’s Talking, a scientist in Dr Ehlrich’s Magic Bullet).

Robinson suffered greatly during the blacklist. I was unaware of how much stick he came in for – I figured because he wasn’t officially put on the list or put in gaol it wasn’t too bad. Well, I was wrong – he was frequently bagged in the columns and dragged in front of HUAC several times. This despite never actually being a member of the Communist Party (he was a do-gooder and a soft touch). In that horrible way of the time to get out of it he had to go through this medieval-like purging ceremony, admitting he had been duped. He even named a few names. (I’m convinced HUAC went after him especially hard because they wanted to nab a famous actor on top of all these writers and directors they had; along with John Garfield he would have been the biggest star tarnished by McCarthyism).

Robinson’s career suffered a decade dip accordingly. His tenure as a top rank star probably would have faded anyway – he was lucky to have it as long as he did – but he missed out on a decade’s worth of juicy roles. Robinson’s ability and castability meant he got good parts up until the end of his life, apart from the greylist period. However, even during that he made some decent Bs (Hell on Frisco Bay, Illegal), and found Broadway stardom again in Chayefksy’s Middle of the Night.

Robinson seems to have been an admirable person in many ways: good causes, artistic (great painting collection), a gentleman, intelligent. But he doesn’t seem to have been a particularly good father – Edward G Robinson Jnr was a boozer from the age of 12, constantly getting in fights and trouble, having a lousy acting career. His first marriage was also unhappy – she sounds like a bit of a bitch but also every time she had a nervous breakdown and wanted to get a divorce Robinson would send her to a clinic to get “fixed”… until he had a full on affair and wanted to dump her for his new wife. So that sounds a bit creepy. Maybe Robinson spent too much time thinking about his paintings, work and political causes and worry about his family. (The book is a bit hazy on this, apart from pointing out he picked up the tab for his useless son throughout his life.)

If Robinson had a stressful late 40s/50s, he had a very pleasant last decade or so in his life. He remarried happily, was in steady work, developed a love for travel, got involved in civil rights again, had some great roles (including The Cincinnati Kid). This is a good bio, a worthy treatment of an interesting star, being well researched and particularly strong on blacklisting.