Radio review – Suspense – “The Face is Familiar” (1954) **

Jack Benny is a nebbish type so anonymous that some old school pals think he’ll be ideal for a robbery. A comic idea but it’s not that funny or thrilling - it kind of falls between two stools.

Radio review – Suspense – “Parole to Panic” (1952) **

Broderick Crawford had a very distinctive presence – his voice not so much as demonstrated by this performance. He plays a recently paroled man who wants to go straight but is convinced some of his old mates want him dead because they reckon he's turned stool pigon. Not bad little melo - you could see it as a film.

Radio review – Ford Theatre – “Anna Christie” (1949) ***

Ingrid Bergman and Broderick Crawford are both excellent in this strong adaptation of the Eugene O’Neill play. She's a hooker whose dad is a sailor; Crawford plays the sailor who she falls in love with. Bergman was best known for her whispy oh-I'm-so-in-love-I-can't-help-it parts as in Cassablanca but here she plays someone with a bit of spine and fire and it's great. Crawford is a lot more animated too than we normally hear him. Ann Revere is in the cast too.

Radio review – Suspense- “The Moonstone” (1953) **

Peter Lawford never became a genuine star – I think partly because he had a weak voice, on display here. It’s a two part episode based on a novel by Wilkie Collins, the first detective novel in English or something - the announcer goes on and on about what a classic it is. The story isn't terribly involving and there aren't many memorable characters which is probably why it's not much remembered today (even though it was very influential and much copied). Lawford plays the hero, an amateur detective who solves the mystery of a missing diamond. It's from India and much of the plot concerns Indian cults and corrupt army officers.

Movie review – “Three on a Match” (1932) ****

A three girls film but really the focus is only on two: Ann Dvorak, as the hoity one who marries a rich lawyer and has a kid but gets bad post natal depression and really goes off the rails, running off with a gambler and getting hooked on cocaine (beautifully alluded to). There’s also Joan Blondell as the good time girl who goes to reform school and becomes a show girl, but is actually really nice, and marries the lawyer. Bette Davis is the third but doesn’t do much except look after the kid and wears a swimsuit in one scene which is weird. At the end Blondell, Davis and Warren William are living in this ménage a trios – Davis is the nanny, but is that all…? Maybe I’m reading too much in to it. William is dull but the three leads are terrific and the support includes an electrifying young Humphrey Bogart plus Allen Jenkins and Edward Arnold.

Movie review – “Midnight in Paris” (2011) ***1/2

Charming comedy from Woody Allen. It’s still a bit long, any lines about the corporate word clunks and he re-uses a lot of old ideas (the pompous brilliant love rival, sexually aggressive beautiful mistresses, young enchanting flowers, a generation gap romance), but Paris looks very pretty, Owen Wilson is a perfect Woody surrogate (the Texan um-ah drawl is just like the New York Jewish natter), the fact Owen is obsessed by the past makes the old references work, the cast is terrific (the guy who plays Hemingway is a real find) and it’s a lot of fun. Finding Marion Cotillard's diary I felt complicated things – wouldn’t he want to know what happened to her? (I did.) Also I’m surprised he missed the opportunity for an Anais Nin and Henry Miller joke. Personally I think you’d always pick Rachel McAdams over Marion Cotillard but that’s just personal taste.

Radio review – Suspense – “Eyewitness” (1956) ***

Howard Duff is a journalist visiting a prison when it breaks out into a riot –led by an inmate who is an ex reporter who was framed which feels a bit contrived, but the rest of it is pretty good, a solid version of those old Warner Bros 30s prison films, and Howard Duff is always well suited to these story of stories. The intro lists cities in which recent riots took place which inspired this – there are a lot of them.

Movie review – “In a Lonely Place” (1950) ***1/2

Highly regarded in some circles – I wasn’t wild about it but it’s an engrossing thriller/melodrama. Humphrey Bogart is very good as a screenwriter who may or may not be a serial killer – it fits in with his persona, being believable as a person who is literate, attractive enough to have all these women after him but with a trigger temper. (Fans of Nick Ray will probably be aware this character was very close to that of Ray himself - talented, handsome and attractive but self-destructive.)

The audience surrogate is Gloria Grahame, an actor I’ve never been wild about – I guess she’s okay, her acting is fine, I just wish she was played by Lauren Bacall. It really is her story since it's mostly from her POV. The view of Hollywood is believable, with its dingy dives, small-time glamour girls, drunken old time actors, beaches at night time, deserted streets, etc.

Radio review – Best Plays – “Autumn Crosus” (1953) **

There’s always a market for a tale about a middle aged (35) spinster who finds love in a foreign country with a foreigner and this was Dodie Smith's first big success on stage (even if she was so nervous she wrote it under a pseudonym). Here it’s the Alps and the twist is the guy is – wait for it – married. Summertime, Shirley Valentine… you know what to expect. John Chapman calls this a romantic comedy – it isn’t really. Walter Slezak is fine as the foreigner who actually loves the English woman but can’t be with her. The scenes were the girls’ family poo-poo her dreams are effective.

Radio review – Lux – “Another Part of the Forest” (1948) **1/2

Not-bad prequel to The Little Foxes – Regina isn’t as prominent, and she lacks the dynamism in the earlier play, especially as here played by Ann Blyth. More time is given to her dodgy brother (Vincent Price, always a good wastrel Southerner) and Dad (Walter Huston) who seems to harbour incestuous feelings for his daughter. It lacks a big solid climax or a scene like the heart attack one in Foxes, and you can see the reveal that the family was responsible for a massacre of local soldiers coming a mile off.

Movie review – “Bigger Than Life” (1956) ***1/2

You don’t quite buy James Mason was a former American high school football champ, but he gives a typically excellent performance in this drama. It’s been called a searing indictment of Eisenhower era American; I didn’t think it was that – rather, more the rantings of an addict.

This starts slowly – Mason has a heart condition which is treated with cortisone, to which he becomes addicted. He goes off his head, blathering at PTA meetings about how they are educating the kids badly and it’s all a crock, abusing his wife for wasting his life, then trying to kill his own son because he reads the Bible and gets stuck up on Abraham and Isaac.

I guess you could read ‘searing indictment’ into that but he’s clearly off his head – his family love and support him (Barbara Rush gives a solid , un-showy performance as the wife), so is his best friend (Walter Matthau, excellent). There is a glimpse into some shadows – Rush refuses to get a job to help with the finances, Mason is clearly under the pump financially. So I’d be careful of over-analysing it (I know, I know – try telling that to Nicholas Ray fans) – but as a good old fashioned addiction melodrama it works a treat.

Movie review – “Train of Events” (1949) **1/2 warning: spoilers)

Portmanteau film which tells four stories, all about people who wind up on a train that crashes – sort of like The Bridge of San Luis Rey. The best of them features Peter Finch in his first British film – he’s really superb as a nervous Shakespearean actor who strangles his wife and puts her body in a box. There's one where a mousy British girl, a little like the one Joan Fontaine played in Rebecca, sacrifices all for her former German POW lover; she is touchingly played by Joan Dowling who killed herself a few years after this was made. There's some domestic drama with Jack Warner covering from her daughter - who is tempted to become "easy"  (i.e date Americans) but holds strong. And an unfunny one about a philandering conductor (John Clements) whose wife (Valerie Hobson, who in real life married the unfaithful Profumo) is okay with it.

 

There's an awful lot of social realism background - shots of trains, and chats with conductors at the train station - with a melodramatic plot. Finch steals the show, although it's very convenient he survives the train crash to have a thing fall on him.

Movie review – “Spawn of the North” (1938) ***

Howard Hawks wasn’t the only director who went in for homoerotic bromance – here we have best friends George Raft and Henry Fonda making eyes at one another in Alaska for Henry Hathaway. They are fisherman, with Raft tempted to dodgy pirating tactics, bringing him into conflict with straight arrow Fonda. This causes much anguish on both their parts, particularly Fonda. The look on Fonda's face after he shoots Raft - dude, the guy deserved it. He becomes less interested in Louise Platt as it goes on. Platt never struck me as someone who had the glamour to be a female lead - she's easily outshone by Dorothy Lamour, who is lovely and touching as the girl with a yen for Raft.

This has a great setting – seaside fishing town, piers and bars, Indians doing soft, chants – augmented by good location footage. Fonda and Raft give good performances (well, Raft is good by Raft standards which aren't as high as Fonda's), but they don't have great chemistry as friends - you just don't believe they'd be mates in the way you would say Fonda and James Stewart, or Raft and Humphrey Bogart. 

There is some bright dialogue, too much comic business involving a seal and the story gets sillier as it goes on (the goodies are pretty full on vigilantes). It's reminiscent in a way of Reap the Wild Wind -a good fisherman and a bad one. That had the two guys clashing over the same girl - they should have done that here, and for a time it seems they're going to, but they pull back, and I think it hurt the movie.

Movie review – “A History of Violence” (2007) ***

Not really an examination of violence since every violent act committed by Viggo Mortensen and family is clearly justified – he has to act at the diner because the psychos are going to kill diners, ditto when the crooks threaten his family, and when he visits William Hurt. So not a lot of complexity. As a thriller with violent moments it works – it’s a modern day western really, with Viggo as a retired gunslinger who can’t escape his past. He’s got all the super hero powers of Clint Eastwood in his films. Strong cast – Viggo and Maria Bello actually make married sex exciting, William Hurt and Ed Harris are chilling monsters. Why was this praised to the skies, though?

Movie review – “Iron Man” (2008) **1/2

Highly praised but I found it disappointing. The first 40 minutes were terrific – Robert Downey Jnr as a more social Howard Hughes, with a private plane where the stewardess double as pole dancers, good friend to Terence Howard (likeable in a tricky part), enjoyable banter with Gwyneth Paltrow, funny lines, and exciting stuff in Afghanistan. But once he escapes the threat is removed and never really recovers. There are too many scenes of Downey Jnr making things and trying out equipment, and loud crashes and bangs. Jeff Bridges never seems much of a threat and the finale is tired.

Movie review – “Goal 2” (2008) **

The original was no classic but at least in story terms it had a reason to exist – not this sequel, which simply doesn’t have enough story. The hero goes to play for Real Madrid, has troubles with his girlfriend (he’s tempted by a much hotter girl), finds a long lost brother, struggles to get off the bench, snaps at his agent... that’s about it really. Oh his flashy best mate loses some form but then finds it again. There is some wish fulfilment with sexy chicks throwing themselves at him and expensive houses and trinkets but this isn’t an underdog story. It isn’t even a story, really. Why didn’t they have him simply get a massive head and really fall off the wagon? Who cares if Real Madrid wins the big game? It’s funny to see they give the final goal to David Beckham and not the lead.

Movie review – “Red State” (2011) ****

Kevin Smith tries something genuinely different and the result is his best movie in ages. It does deal with some of his favoured topics – sex and religion, plus a love of dialogue and actors; but this is easily his best directed movie (it’s visually exciting – shooting on digital obviously gave him a lot of choices in the editing room). It’s also a terrific script which constantly breaks the rules – people set up as heroes die, it keeps changing point of view, subverting expectations. 

The ending hinted at something truly apocalyptic but he shies away from that – still, I enjoyed the shaggy dog ending with the wisecracking cynical FBI agent (the bloke who played the comic in Mad Men) being a very believable version of the breed: arse covering, ruthless, funny, political. The high school kids are also believable (although wouldn't it make more sense that the lunatic church people lured gay teens?), so are the church types - it's well acted across the board.

Radio review – Suspense – “The Pit and the Pendulum” (1964) ***1/2

Raymond Burr is good value as the tortured (literally) hero – here specified as one of Napoleon’s officers fighting in Spain, where the inquisition get hold of him and whack him in the castle. It makes sense (there’s even a trial at the beginning). Appropriately spooky and all that – the internal nature of the tale adapts well to radio.

Movie review – “Oh… Rosalinda” (1955) **

All Powell and Pressburger films have their fans but I found this hard going. They weren’t filmmakers known for their skill with comedy, and a light touch escapes this tale of love and deception in post war Vienna. (It badly suffers from lack of location footage) The magic of that city escapes this film as do jokes, charm and fun. Which is a shame since it’s meant to be charming and fun.

The cast are irritating, especially Mel Ferrer. (You wouldn't automatically think of Michael Redgrave and Anthony Quayle as musical stars either. They try and they're okay but how about someone who can sing or be attractive?) It doesn't help that I'm not a big fan of the opera Die Fledermaus on which this is based (I'm declaring my bias because fans of it may find more to enjoy). The plot is silly - who really cares if Michael Redgrave finds out that his wife is a bit of a scamp? And tales of mistresses never seem to work in British films. Maybe it would have been better that this been shot in Italian or something. I did like Anton Wolbrook's speech at the end where the Viennese ask the occupiers to go (but even that, a few minutes later I was thinking, 'well they wouldn't have had to be there if you hadn't hooked up with the Nazis'.)

Movie review – “Safe in Hell” (1931) ***

Enjoyable pre Code melodrama about a New Orleans hooker (Dorothy Mackaill) who kills a man and flees with the help of her boyfriend to a Carribean Island. She’s lusted after by the population and the guy who she thinks she killed – who turns up there. Hard core finale where Mackaill agrees to be executed rather than have sex with someone (it would mean breaking a vow to her husband). And they said pre-Code films have no honour! It’s a grim, full on story – Mackaill clearly doesn’t deserve to die but she does. Black actors Nina Mae McKinney and Noble Johnson play the most normal, nice people in the film. Directed by William Wellman, this would be better remembered if Dorothy Mackaill was better known today.

Movie review – “Criss Cross” (1947) ***1/2

They did remakes in the old days too, although this is an unofficial one – after becoming a star in The Killers Burt Lancaster is back as another lummox infatuated with a slinky dame (Yvonne de Carlo) who makes him take part in a robbery under the direction of Robert Siodmak. De Carlo is very sexy – I love her dance sequence, were Lancaster sees her for the first time in ages (she’s dancing with Tony Curtis whose appearance in that scene launched his career – he got all this fan mail – but I couldn’t take my eyes off de Carlo)

It’s not much of a plot – he chases after his ex while denying it, he decides to rob a payroll, she shoots through – but the atmosphere is wonderful (including location shooting in Los Angeles), and the acting strong (Dan Duyrea is the main baddie).

Movie review – “Reap the Wild Wind” (1942) **** (warning: spoilers)

Cecil B de Mille must have looked longingly at the grosses for Gone with the Wind and thought “I want me some of that” so here’s Paulette Goddard, unsuccessful auditonee for Scarlett O’Hara, as a Southern minx getting up to period adventures in the old technicolour south, being lusted after by a rough neck (John Wayne) and a gentleman (Ray Milland). It’s set in 1840s Florida with Milland determined to stop a gang of wreckers from preying on ships they entice to their doom – Wayne starts off good but then turns bad (deliberately wrecking his ship) enabling Goddard to go off with rich Milland at the end.

 

This is enormous fun – I loved Goddard in this movie, she was full of energy and spunk and looked terrific. It’s less lively in the second half when Milland drives more of the action and she becomes more of a passenger. But there is gorgeous production value and photography, plenty of story, a strong support cast (also Raymond Massey, Robert Preston and Susan Hayward, who meets a movingly tragic fate, stowing away and drowning). 

 

It is racist  – the slaves are happy and wacky (Louise Beavers channels Hattie McDaniel, and there’s also the dreaded “comic negro" on board one of the ships), there’s no criticism of the Southern way of life, lots of sniffing magnolias and balls when action takes place on land – although the race issue isn’t central to the story (villain Massey is a slaver but mainly a wrecker). Oh and there's a bunch of storms and a fight with a squid.

Radio review – Best Plays – “There’s Always Juliet” (1953) **

This might work if it were played by two big stars you really liked but the casting here is unknowns (Herbert Marshall and Edna Best played it on stage) so all you are left is with charm, little jokes, hardly any story: The plot is about a American man who falls in lovewith an English woman really quickly. That’s kind of about it. She decides to marry him at the end. You couldn't even call this a romantic comedy as it's not very funny and doesn't try to be. Written by John Van Druten who liked to write that sort of thing eg. Voice of the Turtle.

Radio review – Suspense – “Track of the Cat” (1952) ***1/2

The novel was later adapted as a Robert Mitchum movie which I’ve never seen – presumably it was changed a lot because this is so internal. It mostly takes place in the paranoid mind of Richard Widmark as he sets off after a puma that is on the loose in the old west. He goes progressively mad, leading to his own death. Widmark is very good and internal tales adapt well to radio - I really liked it.

Radio review – “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (1959) ***1/2

Vincent Prince is more believable than Victory Jory as a southerner who wouldn’t be serving in the Civil War in a version of a story done by Suspense only a few years later. This really is more of a short story for the page than radio but it's still worth listening to. It falls into four parts really: opening scene of being hung, flashback to the lead up, the escape (including running into a freed slave - Price makes the lead character seem even more racist, which gives complexity to the story), the final twist (which is given away in the opening spiel anyway).

Radio review – Suspense – “The Thirty Nine Steps” (1952) ***

Herbert Marshall was at his best playing cuckolds in tuxedos and isn’t the best casting as the virile Richard Hannay but for all that this is a reasonable version of the classic novel. Based on the book rather than the film so there's no blonde but there is the insane Scudder. Good ending with the baddies almost getting away with it.

Movie review – “Kiss of Death” (1948) ***1/2

A high point in the career of Victor Mature – he is very good, as is the film: it's got location shooting (New York, gaols), expert handling (from Henry Hathaway), strong script (Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer), and a gripping story that comes across as very believable. Mature is a stand up crim who is busted during a robbery but refuses to turn stool pigeon, despite the pressure of the DA (Brian Donlevy). 

 

Years before On the Waterfront dissed the concept of the “non informer” this has Mature suffer from his decision to keep his mouth shut – his wife has no money and kills herself, his kids wind up in an orphanage. So he turns stoolie – mind you, that doesn’t work out too well either: he fingers a killer (Richard Widmark) but has to give testimony but they stuff the case and the killer gets out – then the cops lose trace of said killer. So he has to rescue himself. 

 

Two things struck me watching this years on – it’s odd how the filmmakers leave out a scene where Widmark sees Mature betray him. Maybe they couldn’t afford a courthouse – but they could have shown it another way. Second, Mature’s plan at the end is really silly: walk out on a street and get shot several times by Widmark. It's awfully risky. Surely there was another way?

 

So the second half of this was less good (and a little confusing). But Widmark is terrific, with that giggle and throwing Mildred Natwick in a wheelchair down stairs; Mature is good, all torn nobility; Colleen Grey is wonderful as the girl with a crush for him - their scenes together have a real intensity and kick; Brian Donlevy is too nice really as the DA (Karl Malden's pushy cop is better); the ending has some memorable spooky scenes of Mature alone in an empty house waiting for the baddies to come.

Movie review – “The Big Knife” (1955) *** (warning: spoilers)

This starts wonderfully with a great Saul Bass credits sequence that consists of Jack Palance sitting in the dark and freaking out, and the first scene between Palance and Ida Lupino is very good. 

I bought Palance as a Hollywood star (well he kind of was, wasn’t he – and it’s specified here he was in lots of boxing films etc) and Lupino is excellent as his wife (hard exterior, soft interior – someone who’s been around the block a bit). Rod Steiger’s methody performance as the studio head might have its fans – it certainly can’t be ignored, full of ticks and melodrama. 

 

Wendell Corey is better value as a ruthless studio hatchet man, but the story becomes less believable as it goes on – studios are mean, but I didn’t buy they would consider murder to save a star’s name. Also this might have worked better if set twenty years before – by 1955 studio power was clearly on the slide. I did buy that a movie star killed himself – it’s all about crossing the line of personal principles, and Palance does that.

 

Shelley Winters does her normal Shelley Winters thing as a trashy woman and I hated the ending with the noble Hollywood writer threatening to tell the story. Directed by Robert Aldrich from the play by Clifford Odets (Aldrich helmed a few plays during his career, notably this, Attack and The Killing of St George), it’s got a lot of Aldrich intensity and shouting.

Movie review – “Holiday for Lovers” (1959) **

Three Coins in the Fountain launched a series of 20th Century Fox travelogue films – Cinemascope, romance, contract stars, romance. This is one of the dullest: Clifton Webb did play a few father roles during his career but seems bored and unconvincing as a father whose daughter (Jill St John, bad) goes off to South America. When she sends back some worrying postcards he takes the wife (Jane Wyman, wasted and looking even more bored) and daughter (Carole Lynley, even worse than St John) to investigate.

Some un-interesting adventures result – Lynley is pawed after by a bunch of American soldiers on a base and is pursed by a sergeant (tubby, uncharming Gary Crosby); St John seems to have having it off with an artist with a taste for nudes (oh those Latins! Paul Henreid plays the role), but is actually keen on the son. But it’s alright she comes to her senses and dumps the good looking South American but Lynley marries the nice American boy.
It is interesting to see glimpses of South America at the time (it looks very clean) – there are bullfights and dancing expeditions – but little charm or point.

Radio review – Best Plays – “Home of the Brave” (1952) ****1/2

Arthur Laurents was once a radio playwright which might explain why this adaptation of his play works so well – it doesn’t have many actors in each scene so is easy to follow who is who, and the jungle fighting stuff works brilliantly: gunshots, screams of a friend being tortured by the Japanese off in the instance. It’s a solid melodrama - some of it’s devices now seem dated due to being used on a lot of soap operas (eg a shrink inspiring a Jewish man with psychological paraplegia to stand up by calling him anti-Semitic names) but it’s still effective. And it’s underpinned by serious issues – not just anti-Semitism but the fact one of the soldiers loses an arm at the end. Intensely acted by the cast – no famous names but apparently they played the role on Broadway.

Movie review – “Unconquered” (1947) **

I watched this after having so much fun seeing Reap the Wild Wind, but it’s not as good, despite being another period adventure in colour starring Paulette Goddard from Cecil B de Mille. By now Goddard was getting a tinsy-winsy bit old to play young hell cats by now – also her character here isn’t as active. She gets convicted of a crime and sent into basically slavery to North America, where she’s again pursued by two men. In Wild Wind both men were potential mates, but here it’s obvious that Gary Cooper is Good and Howard da Silva is Evil (da Silva is gives a strong performance as always but a more attractive, complex character played by a better-looking actor would have made more of the triangle). Cooper buys her to annoy da Silva but she gets sent back to da Silva- it got a bit complicated with all the chopping and changing but basically they all wind up in Fort Pitt in time for Pontiac’s Rebellion.

The studio jungle here is distracting (I didn’t mind the studio boats and sets in Reap the Wild Wind, but for some reason the falseness got on my nerves here). The action stuff seems muffed, and the story contrived (i.e. Cooper getting in trouble and people believing in da Silva when it doesn’t seem they would).

It is fun to see Boris Karloff as an Indian, Ward Bond as a farmer, and cameos from characters like George Washington and Mason and Dixon (the latter two aren’t very sympathetically portrayed)

The film is basically anti-slavery with lots of talk about how no one should own Goddard, although Cooper is Virginia planter (presumably a slave owner) and one character comments on how his wife and lots of friends are former indentured servants and the experience turned out good for them.

Radio review – Best Plays – “The Rose Tattoo” (1953) ***

A middle aged woman can’t stop thinking about sex – the plot of many a Tennessee Williams play. She’s played here by Maureen Stapleton, in the role which made her name on Broadway, even if it was originally written for Anna Mangnani. She’s a widow determined to turn her back on sex after her husband dies and that her daughter should join her – despite the fact a young sailor is panting around her, and an Italian is panting around him. Oh and the reveal that hubby rooted around on her. Eli Wallach is the guy who turns Stapleton back on to sex (the same role he played on Broadway). Because at the end of the day no one can live without it, huh, Tennessee? Not one of the very best TW but still enjoyable and it's important that these two performances were captured.

Radio review – Suspense – “The Man Who Would Be King” (1959) ***1/2

Dan O’Herlihy top lines a strong adaptation of Kipling’s short story, which adapts well to a half hour format because it had little plot (Huston’s film version had to flesh it out considerably). A tale of high adventure, colonialism and come-uppance - I really liked it.

Movie review – “Once a Thief” (1965) ** (warning: spoilers)

Alain Delon apparently turned down a contract with David O Selznick before he’d made his first film, but once he became a star in France he made several attempts at cracking it in Hollywood. This was one – an MGM European co-production set in San Francisco with several Hollywood stars in support plus American director, Ralph Nelson (it’s set in San Francisco). 

 

 It starts very artily with scenes of beatniks at a jazz club, black and white photography, titled camera angles, funky atmosphere, multicultural characters (there are blacks and Chinese). The plot is more familiar – Delon is a former crook trying to go straight, hounded Javert-style by a cop he once shot, Van Heflin.

 

Delon is very pretty – probably too pretty for the role, not quite convincing as a former crook (or brother of Jack Palance). He makes an attractive couple with Ann-Margret, who is really hot especially when in sexy waitressing outfit – but Delon slaps her. It was at this point the film lost it for me: Delon’s character is a sulky misogynistic idiot who treats his wife badly and doesn’t really want to go straight (why doesn’t he just move as Ann-Margret suggests) so his death isn’t much of a tragedy. I liked Ann Margret- she and Delon made a good match physically at least.

Movie review – “Road House” (1948) ***

Ida Lupino wasn’t a star for everyone’s taste, mine included, but if you’re a fan you’ll love this little small town drama – it’s kind of film noir but not really. She plays a singer who arrives in a small town bar/bowling alley and is lusted after owner Richard Widmark (another giggling villain although his villainy isn’t obvious straight away) and his best friend, manager Cornel Wilde (in the sort of part normally played by Victor Mature).

The plot has Wilde and Lupino fall in love (some implied pre marital sex) despite Celeste Holm pining over Wilde – and Widmark thinking that Lupino is his. The last act depends on us buying Widmark is so jealous that he frames Wilde for a crime and torments the couple. 

There’s lots of Lupino: she gets to be sultry, sing some famous tunes, wear a swim suit and evening dresses, have men paw over her, be charismatic. Great atmosphere – did the US really have road houses that combined bowling alleys and nightclubs? It sounds weird.

Movie review – “Take Her She’s Mine” (1963) **1/2

Nora Ephron’s letters from college inspired her parents to write a hit Broadway play, no doubt appealing to it’s middle class Jewish audiences with its theme of “aw gee kids are funny when they go off to college, thinking of sex and wacky political causes”. James Stewart is very WASPY but he’s written in a way familiar from the New York Jewish comedies of the time, fretting over his daughter’s sex life (which feels awkward). The role of the wife is minimised – she’s hardly in the film at all – but the daughter is prominent (Sandra Dee).

Dee looks very sexy here – tousled hair, swimsuits, beatnik outfits, even garters in a French can can fantasty sequence. Guys are constantly pawing her, even her arts lecturer. She’s a lot of fun – I really loved her singing folk songs on a guitar – it’s one of her best performances.

It’s an episodic tale – Dee gets up to adventures, dad goes to investigate, chaos resumes. There are some laughs but much of it is repetitive (another protest, dad gets arrested, dad tries to escape), and the film overstays it’s welcome despite Robert Morley in the support cast. The last third takes place in France, apparently because Daryl Zanuck was a Francophile (the film was the first made by 20th Century Fox after it had been closed down in the wake of the Cleopatra debacle.)

Movie review – “Rosie!” (1967) **

One of the last films Sandra Dee made for Universal and Ross Hunter, who had made her a star. She’s the spunky granddaughter of an eccentric Auntie Mame type, played by Rosalind Russell, who runs around spending money, being wacky and driving fast cars. Her kids worry that their inheritance is being flittered away so they move to have her declared insane. 

There’s a climax reminiscent of Mr Deeds (complete with scene where Russell sulks and doesn’t want to be proved sane, but rallies because of the love of a good woman [well in this case man]). There are also references to King Lear which doesn’t quite work because Lear was a ruthless prat who was dumb because he gave up his money and power – Rosie here married into her money and hasn’t done anything to deserve losing it.

It’s based on a play written by Ruth Gordon, who could have played the title role. James Farentino is in the John Gavin part as the young lawyer who falls for Dee and helps Russell. If I’m not mistaken it’s implied they have pre-marital sex – a sign that the 60s were starting to swing in Ross Hunter land. Another sign are comments made about the Youth of Today by Russell that the kids always want everything now, and being young is a state of mind rather than age, and young people can be greedy. It’s sort of trying to have it’s cake and eat it too – say old people aren’t as fogey-ish as you think. Dee is fine in a not-much role (she’s nice and that’s it basically).

Brian Aherne is the elder lawyer who secretly loves Russell; other old timers include Juanita Moore, Margaret Hamilton and Virigina Grey; Leslie Neilson offers smooth villainy as a greedy so in law. It doesn’t look particularly glossy or expensive –a bit TV.

Movie review – “Kiss the Blood Off My Hands” (1948) *** (warning: spoilers)

Movie stars of the world owe Burt Lancaster a great debt because his success as a producer encouraged many of them to take a greater role in fashioning their own vehicles (few were as good as him, though). This was his first independent production and it’s a good one – an entertaining film noir, with a brilliant title.

It’s set in England, where you don’t get many film noirs, but it’s still got dimly lit streets at night and shady characters. Lancaster plays one of his doomed losers – a former POW who accidentally kills a man in a fight, goes on the lam, takes a shy nurse (Joan Fontaine, a believable Brit) hostage who eventually falls in love with him, is blackmailed by a witness to the attack (Robert Newton) into committing a murder. Lancaster and Fontaine have a touching romance – she winds up stabbing Newton for him. And it’s got this odd ending where they both agree to turn themselves in.

Director Norman Foster is probably best remembered today for Journey Into Fear a movie whose direction is mostly attributed to Orson Welles, but he does a good job here – I think he is underrated. Some fascinating British touches like the fact Lancaster is flogged when he goes to gaol, and the MacGuffin at the end is black market medicine (shades of The Third Man).

Movie review – “The Belles of St Trinians” (1952) ***

No one does anarchy quite like the Poms and there’s a lot of fun to be had in this tale of a girls boarding school where the headmistress basically lets the students run riot. So there are flour fights, cigarettes, screaming, gambling, etc – not to mention a headmistress in drag. It’s a lot of fun. The plot involves the school being saved from bankruptcy by having a foreign ruler send their child there – and then the school having to gamble everything on a race horse to save the school. The baddies are a school inspector who wants to shut the place down. Occasionally the pace flags, and this really is a one note samba (girls run wild) but the spirits are high and the cast is superb.

Movie review – “The Belles of St Trinians” (1952) ***

No one does anarchy quite like the Poms and there’s a lot of fun to be had in this tale of a girls boarding school where the headmistress basically lets the students run riot. So there are flour fights, cigarettes, screaming, gambling, etc – not to mention a headmistress in drag. It’s a lot of fun. The plot involves the school being saved from bankruptcy by having a foreign ruler send their child there – and then the school having to gamble everything on a race horse to save the school. The baddies are a school inspector who wants to shut the place down. Occasionally the pace flags, and this really is a one note samba (girls run wild) but the spirits are high and the cast is superb.

Movie review – “I Walk Alone” (1948) **1/2

Three of Hal Wallis’ biggest discoveries in a film together: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas and Lizabeth Scott. They’d all been typecast quite quickly: Lancaster as a beautiful, doomed loser (out of prison after 14 years); Douglas as a heel (his former partner who betrayed him), Scott the slinky shady dame (Douglas’ plaything who falls for Scott).

 

The scenes between Lancaster and Douglas are electric – they were a great team – and there are some effective moments but after a promising beginning this never quite catches fire. There’s too much stuff about company by laws involving Douglas’ company (the script was written by a former lawyer), Lancaster’s character really is an idiot for going away for 14 years (which is a long, ling time), and I never really buy Lancaster and Scott as a couple who just can’t help themselves. I really liked Wendell Corey as a weak old associate of the two leads (I hated Corey as a leading man but he was a good character actor). Not bad but not the film noir classic it’s sometimes held to be.

Movie review – “The Mad Doctor of Market Street” (1942) **

Weird Universal horror picture – a combination of mad doctor movie and The Admirable Crichton. It doesn’t work, being too slow and dumb, but there are things to enjoy: Lionel Atwill, for instance, as the doctor determined to experiment with suspended animation, which results in him killing patients. The cops are after him so he heads on a cruiser to New Zealand (it’s also going to Australia) – he kills a detective on board, the ship runs into trouble, he winds up on a tropical island with some survivors. The performs an operation on a local girl which results in him being considered a god. 

The cast is top lined by comic relief players Una Merkel and Nat Pendleton, both tiresome, and there are some 4F romantic leads (a not very pretty girl and not very handsome boyfriend). Once it gets to the island the film runs out of ideas – why doesn’t Atwill have all the white people killed (apart from the girl who I guess he lusts after). Mad doctor + south seas = not really good meal. Director Joseph Lewis tries a few different things, like extreme close ups and sweeping camera work.

Radio review –Suspense – “Three Skeleton Key” (1956) **** (warning: spoilers)

Vincent Price in one of the most famous radio plays of all time: he’s one of three men in a lighthouse in French Guinea inundated with rats. Very suspenseful finale with the rats struggling to get through and one of his co-workers going insane, the other being bitten – then they are saved by the arrival of a banana boat, where the rats go to eat. The haunting image of this rat filled banana boat loose on the ocean is one surely worthy of a sequel.

Radio review – Suspense – “The Search for Isabel” (1949) **1/2 (warning: spoilers0

Red Skelton brings pathos to the role of a man who keeps getting calls from the previous inhabitant of his flat, Isabel. A little like Dana Andrews in Laura, he starts to become obsessed with her despite all the shady people she seems to have been associated with. The twist is Isabel is a company – for placing bets. Which gives this a hollow, downbeat finish. Not bad though.

Radio review- Suspense – “The Red Headed Woman” (1949) **

Not a remake of the Jean Harlow classic, alas, but Lucille Ball as a secetrary who after being dumped by her fiancee steals a gun and the company payroll (a la Psycho) picks up a hitchhiker (Desi Arnez) and comes to think he might be a robber/killer – but he’s just a ventrioloquist. A bit lame – not really funny because for most of the time you think he is a killer, and when he's reveal to not be one it's like "whatever". Fans of Desi and Luci might like it, or at least find it interesting.

Radio review – Suspense – “Last Days of John Dillinger” (1954) ***

Van Heflin stars as the famous gangster in this tale of - you guessed it - his last days. So we have the lady in red and his girlfriends. The depiction of Dillinger is very unsympathetic - he's a vicious killer, prone to torture. A tough, square jawed edition of the show.

Radio review – Suspense - “Four Hours to Kill” (1951) *** (warning: spoilers)

Robert Taylor impresses me more on radio than he ever did in the movies - a strong voice, very well conveyed. This starts terrifically: he plays a man who meets up with the sleazy no-good who has ripped him off, punches him out, accidentally killing him - only to realise the victim was speaking to a woman on the phone,who heard everything at the other end. So he has to track her down and kill her. But the story whimps out: he falls in love with the girl and it turns out the guy isn't really did. Didn't mind the first one but the second was a cop out.

Radio review – Suspense – “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (1956) ***1/2

Victory Jory had an excellent voice and makes a strong lead in this adaptation of Ambrose Bierce’s famous short story about a man hung during the US Civil War who imagines that he escapes. We hear flashbacks to his decision to spy on the Yankees in Carolina, and his escape, meeting a former slave who he sold, then the tragic finale. Better as a short story than a radio play but still very good.