Radio review – Ford Theatre – Ep#14 “Adventures of the Bad Boy” (1949) *** (warning: spoilers)

Ellery Queen mystery starring Mr Bland, Hugh Marlow, and feels padded out at the beginning. But it gets better as it goes on and the twist at the end is genuinely good - the kid did it, only he was doing it to protect his mother from being killed and he didn't really mean it and... anyway, it's good.

Movie review – “What’s Your Number” (2011) **

Anna Faris is a dynamic comedy star, full of energy and talent, and certainly good looking enough to play leads in romantic comedy, but she never seems to have much luck with them. This had a silly idea so wasn't as much a disappointment as House Bunny (which had a fantastic idea badly muffed), but it was serviceable enough. They never get the rhythm right - there's all these awkward flashbacks to comedy moments, all these support characters are set up who you think are going to be used again but aren't (eg Joel McHale, Heather Burns), they set up possible great comedy scenes then get bored with them (eg Faris joining Chris Evans on stage), Chris Evans struggles without a definite character to play, Faris' idea of a dream job is really stupid and impractical, there's too much time spent on her un-interesting sister. There are some good bits, like a sexy strip basketball scene (spot the body double) and Faris is good even if she's not always photographed flatteringly, you just wish she could get her hands on a really good commercial script and a strong director.

Movie review – “Gone to Earth” (1950) ***

Auteursits love this because it was cut about by David O Selznick (see! It wasn’t Powell’s fault it flopped! It was the mean nasty producer!). But it’s a bit of a mess. 

 

Maybe I’d like it more if I was more enamored of Jennifer Jones, who is very much centre stage and her attractiveness and appeal is what is meant to drive the story. But it's a silly story - Jones is an Earth girl, in touch with the environment (they should have made this in the 60s) lusted after an evil squire (David Farrar) and loved by a nice reverend (Cyril Cusack). There's nothing more to it than that.

I guess it's like The Red Shoes in that a woman is torn between two guys, one dark and dangerous the other nice and bland, but Jennifer Jones doesn't have a job she's into like ballet dancing. 

 

It looks stunning, has that touch of magic which all the best Powell-Pressburger films had, features some awkward acting. Maybe I'd love it more if say Moira Shearer was in the lead - or Pamela Brown or Deborah Kerr; for me Jones just didn't make the grade.

Movie review – “Tales of Hoffmann” (1951) ****

I can understand why this wasn’t a hit like The Red Shoes: it’s an opera, so there’s no dialogue; nor does it have the one story – it’s in three parts (four, really, if you include the prologue). And the connecting story of a composer who gets drunk and misses and liaison with Moira Shearer (bewilderingly since she is at her most beautiful) isn't much. But it’s a gorgeous film that’s breathtaking to look at and truly magical. I don't think I've seen better colour and the imagery is wonderful. Certainly not for everyone's taste but this should be much better known than it is.

Movie review – “Drive” (2011) ****

The director ripped off Kubrick in Bronson and this seems heavily influenced by The Driver and Thief, but at least it’s not your standard Hollywood car chase film, and I enjoyed it. A real test of acting is if you can tell what the actor is thinking without any dialogue – Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan have this in spades. Albert Brooks is excellent in a rare baddie role – humorous, physically threatening, stabbing away. Ron Pearlman, Bryan Cranston and Christina Hendricks are all good too. I really liked the opening getaway scene – instead of a free-for-all pursuit it’s more a combination of short dashes, stopping, hiding, ducking and weaving, more cat and mouse – it felt more realistic. Thumping soundtrack combined with kitschy pop songs and 80s graphics, sudden bursts of gory violence, surprisingly little car chasing, a weird scene where Gosling almost kills someone in a room full of topless dancers (which felt Kubrick).

Movie review – “People Will Talk” (1951) ***

Real odd sort of film from Joe Mankiewicz, who was presumably given the keys to the kingdom at 20th Century Fox after All About Eve. It’s bright and entertaining, with some of that terrific dialogue and solid acting, but isn’t really a story. There's one plot about Hume Cronyn determined to get Cary Grant struck off as a doctor, another about Grant falling for unwed mother Jeanne Craine, then they throw in a story about Grant and his orchestra. 

 

It's a bit of a mess really. Craine starred in a surprisingly large number of films from top class directors, of which this is one, but once you get over the shock of seeing her as an unwed other she's out of her league here, especially when later being assertive with Grant (it's a shame Linda Darnell couldn't have played the part she was so good in Letter to Three Wives). Grant is strong and Hume Cronyn makes an excellent villain.

Movie review – “From Prada to Nada” (2011) **1/2

Sense and Sensibility for the Hispanic tween set and it works surprisingly well -as Clueless showed, Los Angeles is a good facsimile for the world of Jane Austen because of all the class divisions. Camilla Belle is massively hot as the Emma Thompson character (yeah, put glasses on, that'll hide it) and Alex Vega fun as the trashy shallow rich one. They don't quite nail the romantic plots with the various men but it says something important about embracing Latino roots and is a pleasant way to spend the time.

Radio review – Suspense – ‘The Perfectionist” (1952) **1/2

Richard Basehart plays a killer who considers himself a perfectionist sends the trunk containing the body of the man he has just killed is sent to the wrong address...the home of a cripple. Not bad – would make a good tv adaptation.

Radio review – Suspense – "A Killing in Abeline" (1950) **1/2

Alan Ladd in a Western, looking for the man who killed his brother. We saw Ladd play this type of role on screen a lot, or it feels as though we did. It’s not bad just doesn’t feel like Suspense.

Movie review – “Something Borrowed” (2011) *

Dreadful romantic comedy drama with some of the least appealing characters in recent memory. Gennifer Goodwin, normally very likeable, is shot unflatteringly and is dull as the less attractive woman in love with her best friend’s (Kate Hudon’s) fiancée (Colin Egglestone, an appalling ken Doll actor). That plot is a bit racy – cheaters and betrayers don’t normally make protagonists in a rom com, although they do that sort of story all the time in serial drama – but everything feels wrong: the forced humour, the over the top acting, the fact every single character is a caricature, the air of unreality about it all. The majority of characters are cartoons, no one feels like they live in the real world; it improved a little bit towards the end when they drop all attempts at humour and went with straight soap, but it was still pretty appalling. I was confused why Hudson and John Kasinski (the best in a shocking cast) agreed to appear in it but there’s a bit at the end where they threaten a sequel about their characters.

Movie review – “Seconds” (1966) **** (warning: spoilers)

Superb creepy 60s paranoia movie about an older man who is bored despite his money and wife (Alice Horton from Days of Our Lives) so he gets himself transformed by a mysterious organisation into younger Rock Hudson. Despite living in Malibu and having an affair with a groovy chick, it’s not satisfying. The ultimate point of this – that we shouldn’t do what others tell us to do – is maybe a bit trite, but this is generally terrific, with funky way-out camera work, Hudson giving one of his best performances, Richard Anderson without his toupee, full frontal female nudity (hopping in a vat of grapes – this wasn’t cut?), a terrifying ending with Hudson screaming and fighting as he’s carried to his death (though he really shouldn’t have been so cocky and arrogant with the organisation who were clearly bad asses who knew what they were doing).

Radio review – Lux – “Miss Susie Slagles” (1946) **1/2

Grey’s Anatomy 1910-style – set in a boarding house for medial students, there’s the son of a famous man who finds his own two feet, a bit of romance, an imposing doctor mentor figure, a convenient outbreak of disease at the end. The period setting makes it a bit different at least and there’s William Holden (taking over from Sonny Tufts) and Joan Caulfield in the cast. No Veronica Lake.

Radio review – Suspense – “Flight of the Bumblebee” (1950) **

About a bombing raid during the Korean war but it feels like a WW2 story – Fred MacMurray has a good voice but gives a flat performance as the bombardier where they have trouble getting home. A plane is an ideal setting for a radio drama – cramped, small cast, atmospheric – but the story isn’t much. The plane needed to crash or something.