Movie review – “Take Me Home” (2011) **1/2

Inoffensive teen film, with a similar plot to Can’t Hardly Wait only set in 1988 and with the characters a few years older - kind of a The Graduate vibe. Topher Grace works at a video store and has a long crush on Teresa Palmer - and why not, since she's stunning here (looking great in that 80s hair). She's a lot more attractively shot than Anna Faris, who is normally attractive but not here (it's her hair colour or cheeks or something) - she's wasted too in far too small a role. At least she doesn't hook up with Dan Fogler, which is what I was worried about.

Topher Grace isn't a real slacker - he's a graduate of MIT (hence The Graduate reference), Teresa Palmer's acting is exposed in a few places (she's good with dialogue, but still hasn't grasped the acting of conveying what she's thinking with her face), I can't recall a teen film which was so pro-cocaine (Fogler has some blow and has a terrific night under the influence, scoring with hot chicks, winning a breakdancing contest), Michael Biehn seems too young to play Topher Grace's dad (I'm guessing he probably isn't,  it just seems that way), pleasing tunes, shonky period detail (were they breakdancing in the late 80s?), a lot of predictability, but it has a lot of charm and I enjoyed it.

Radio review – Ford – “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” (1948) ***

Karl Swenson rather than Raymond Massey in this version of Robert Sherwood’s play but I enjoyed hearing it. It's such a cynical take on the marriage of Lincoln and Mary Todd - maybe "cynical" isn't the right word... non-worshipful? Goes up until Lincoln's arrival in Washington - being a young man, death of Ann Rutledge (did they even go out), meeting ambitious Mary, the slave debates, etc.

Movie review – “Footsteps in the Fog” (1955) ***

Entertaining, unpretentious little thriller – those first three words could be used to described many films from director Arthur Lubin. Stewart Granger gives one of his best performances (okay so maybe the bar isn't that high) as a man who marries and kills a rich woman - only to be blackmailed by his maid (Jean Simmons). It's fun to see Granger and Simmons together, especially in such a warped relationship - he's always trying to kill her, she thinks he's wonderful.

Quite a clever, twisty story, in it's way - no classic, but at least stuff is always happening. Some bad support performances from Bill Travers (lawyer) and Belinda Lee. I love the atmosphere of Victorian (or is it Edwardian) London.

Movie review – “Your Highness” (2011) **

I can see why people would like this especially if they like James Franco and/or Danny McBride – a spoof of Lord of the Rings type fantasy, with plenty of quests, knights, royalty and danger. But too many of the jokes repeat – references to masturbation and swearing within period dialogue - and it runs out of ideas, downing in an orgy of special effects at the finale. Danny McBride's comedy is a one note samba - he doesn't have the warmth of a Seth Rogen - and Natalie Portman, while pretty, isn't a natural comic - and it's distractingly obvious that she's using a body double.

Radio review – Suspense – “The Steel River Prison Break” (1951) ***

Jeff Chandler was a superb radio actor, with a powerful voice and charismatic presence - he was better on air than on screen. He's very good as a prisoner who plans to break out during a flood. No budget restrictions when depicting a flood in radio. More of a gangster tale than the usual Suspense but effective.

Radio review - Suspense – “The Hunting of Bob Lee” (1951) **1/2

Richard Widmark's strong voice helps make this a strong episode. It's a Western, which is weird to hear on Suspense - it's about a feud between families which builds to a tragic conclusion. Based on a true story I believe.

Movie review – “An Ideal Husband” (1947) **1/2

One of a series of underperforming films that helped drive Alex Korda back to the verge bankruptcy (eg Bonnie Prince Charlie). It looks sumptuous with colour photography and elaborate sets and costumes – needlessly so, really, they over did it. I didn’t mind the ball rooms and such but every drawing room and bedroom looks like a tacky museum – it’s ridiculous.

 

The other big debit are the characters of the politician and his wife – they’re prim on the page but the playing here (Hugh Williams and Diana Wynyard) is so humorless and dull; they’ve cast unattractive actors too - why not have a few spunks? Especially the priggish wife – why not make her beautiful? Because the point is that the playboy lord (Michael Wilding, excellent) loves her - but it doesn't really come across here. 

 

It's a shame because the rest of this is fine - Wilding tosses off the lines with aplomb, Glynis Johns is good ingenue value, Paulette Goddard wasn't the best actor in the world but could be engaging and is ideally cast. And the story and one liners are solid.

Radio review – Suspense – “The Diary of Captain Scott” (1952) ***

Herbert Marshall often played noble losers in films (he was always being cheated on) so he was ideal to play the noblest loser of them all, Captain Scott. Polar stories adapt well to radio - all that wind and diary entries, and the story has always worked. They have some conversations between Scott and his wife in the form of a hallucination - a device which works well.

Movie review – “In Love and War” (1958) ** (warning: spoilers)

20th Century Fox were one of the last of the major studios to keep a large roster of in-house talent – this war movie seems to have been greenlit to primarily to showcase a bunch of their young spunks. (A number of Jerry Wald productions fell into this category.)

 

It’s about three young Marines from San Francisco on shore leave in 1944 – rich Bradford Dillman, poor-but-honest fisherman Jeffrey Hunter and poor-with-a-drunken-chip-on-his-shoulder Robert Wagner – and their women – rich bitch Diana Wynter, Eurasian France Nyuen, poor but honest Hope Lange and nice Sheree North. There’s a lot of melodramatic stuff and bad acting – Wagner and Dillman are particularly hopeless in their dramatic scenes, Wynter goes over the top.

 

They’ve modernised the story with some premarital sex and interracial romance but in many ways it’s the same old thing – Hunter marries Lange after knocking her up and they have one night together before shipping out; Wagner goes all cowardly in battle and Hunter has to slap sense into him; boozy  Wynter kills herself; devoted pure Nuyen falls for Dillman after a couple of hours conversation; Dillman going “oh the humanity” after a Japanese soldier who just wants a drink is shot by US troops. I thought Dillman was a gonner with his Eurasian girlfriend, but actually it’s brave Hunter, with a wife and young child, the nicest character, who buys the farm. (They hint at a romance between Wagner and Lange at the end - is this supposed to make us feel better?) 

 

Mainly of historical interest - or for fans of Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter.

Radio review – Inner Sanctum – “The Tell Tale Heart” (1941) ***

Boris Karloff, then appearing in Arsenic and Old Lace on Broadway, is good value in this version of the Edgar Allan Poe story as the kindly man who goes mad and kills a man, only to be tormented by a beating heart. It’s changed a bit from the story – Karloff is deaf, a nice soul, and the dead man a canky old type who deserves to be killed. This story always works on radio and it does here.

Movie review – “The Day the Earth Caught Fire” (1962) ****

Taunt, well made sci fi flick that really spanks alog – Val Guest could be an excellent director and this is one of his best films. It’s got this great newspaper atmosphere with it's sweaty faces, boozy journos, cramped offices – I wouldn’t be surprised to find the editor was a real editor (I googled him - he was). Edward Judd is an engaging hero (very modern - alcoholic single dad), even if he's mostly reactive - the one thing he does is get a scoop on what's going on. Oh, and he has a sexy relationship with hot Janet Munro - often wearing only a towel and nude under a sheet, which was racy for the time (and her a Disney starlet, too). The descent of the world to possible annihilation is well conveyed - the heat, looting (perhaps the partying by the young folk is a little OTT). Surely Alex Garland had this in mind when writing Sunshine? The dialogue is terrific - slangy, fast paced, like the best Hollywood newspaper films. Leo McKern is good value as a journo.

Movie review – “Seven Days to Noon” (1950) ****

A very British thriller – exciting, but sensible and orderly, and the protagonist/antagonist is an eccentric scientist, it’s more of an ensemble piece than a star vehicle. The scientist wants to blow up London if the government won’t renounce nuclear weapons but we don’t meet him until 30 minutes in. There’s an investigating officer (Andre Morrell) but also the scientist’s daughter and her boyfriend (his assistant, who switches off the bomb at the end). London is evacuated but everyone behaves in an orderly manner - polite bus conductors, mute grumbling, a little looting. It completely works on it's own terms - the sympathetic goals of the scientist make it unusually compelling (there's no denying he's a nutter though - would his daughter and assistant really have no idea of this?)

I was surprised the landlady murderer aspect of the plot (the scientist is confused for one) didn't pay off more. And did he sleep with the cockney (the slightly irritating Olive Sloane) or not? Wonderful scenes of near-deserted London.

Movie review – “Brute Force” (1947) ****

One of those post-war let’s-be-hard-hitting-and-realistic films, with a plot that became cliché in the 1930s (sadistic prison guards, drunken doctor, reformist intentions, prison break finale) livened up by some location shooting, new faces (including Howard Duff, Jeff Corey), new star (Burt Lancaster), new-ish screenwriter (Richard Brooks) and director (Jules Dassin). Very entertaining.

 

Despite Lancaster’s presence this is more of an ensemble piece – we flash back to several of the prisoners’ stories. None of them are truly bad apples - basically they’re all in there because of women (incluing Ann Blyth, Ella Raines and Yvonne de Carlo), who either betray them, commit the crimes (and the guys take the rap), or inspire them. Lancaster has a girlfriend in a wheelchair for crying out loud (and unlike the club foot girl in High Sierra this one is a nice piece of work).

 

There are some brilliant sequences, particularly the murder of a stool pigeon in a workshop and the camaraderie of prisoners (refusing to give evidence, their conversations) is well conveyed, as are the politics among the people who run the prison (the weak warden, drunk doctor, conniving guards). I also enjoyed the final nihilistic escape sequence.

 

Best performance is from Hume Cronyn as a seemingly benign but actually terrifying prison guard but the cast is excellent all round - also Charles Bickford, Whit Bissell, John Hoyt.

Radio review – Suspense – “227 Minutes of Hate” (1957) ***1/2

Charles Macgraw stars in an excellent tough edition of this show about a man who steals a plane and threatens to fly it into a building. Sound familiar? Sappy ending with him persuaded to come to earth by the love of a good woman - but until then this is terrific.

Movie review – “Vera Cruz” (1954) ***1/2

Burt Lancaster ceded top billing to Gary Cooper for this engaging Western but easily blows the elder actor off the screen – he has the better part, as the double-crossing, humourous, ruthless outlaw, but his performance is much better too. Cooper is dull and stolid as a dull, stolid former Confederate officer just trying to raise enough money to get his plantation going again (gee what a nice guy, wanting to get the slaves back to work). 

 

I'm really getting to loathe Gary Coooper - I'm always hearing about how he does this subtle acting when no one's looking but I can't see it. Maybe I have to see him on the big screen.

 

Still, he does have charisma and this is a fun movie. There are some terrific visual scenes of the dynamic duo being surrounded by masses of Mexicans including on top of a building (slow pan in a circle). Later on they’re surrounded by a gang (another pan). 

 

The film is full of double crosses and reversals - rescued women rob their rescuers, damsels in distress are decoys for gold, even the noble revolutionaries are prone to blackmail. Superb support cast including Charles Bronson, Ernest Borgnine and Cesar Romero; underdeveloped female roles.

Movie review – “Twilight’s Last Gleaming” (1977) ***1/2

Far too long and often it feels like a crappy 70s TV movie (the photography, music) but it has a strong cast and story – a 70s version of The Rock. Disgraced general Burt Lancaster takes over a nuclear missile silo with the help of some overacting thugs (Burt Young, Paul Winfield, William Smith) and threatens to set it off unless he gets some cash and the US reveal the truth abot the Vietnam War. The “truth” is basically a NSC ruling that the war was worth fighting to show the Russians they were willing to fight even though they knew they’d lose. Was this so shocking in 1977? For all this film’s purported cynicism in some ways it’s idealistic – particularly Lancaster’s faith in the president, and the fact that the president is a decent man (if very fat – charles Durning plays the role), who is ashamed of what his government has done, etc, etc.

There are some exciting sequences, particularly when the army try to break in, the final bit where Lancaster tries to escape with Durning as a hostge. The split screen technology works really well and the fact they are threatening to set off nuclear missiles is really scary. Would a top general like Richard Widmark really break out the scotch during a negotiation?

Radio review – TG – “The Last of Mrs Cheyney” (1947) **1/2

There was a time when theatre audiences couldn’t get enough of high society tales involving jewel thieves and that time was the 1920s when this was written but the story proved durable – partly because it offers a great role for an older female star. Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Greer Garson have all essayed Mrs Cheney on film and here it’s Gertrude Lawrence. She’s a woman pretending to be high society so she can rob people of jewels but falls in love. Guys pant over her, she's witty and wears great clothes (which you can't see). Not bad of it's type, but you have to like the type.

Movie review – “Captive Wild Woman” (1943) ***

Enormously fun piece of Universal schlock, with a good director on the way up (Edward Dmytryk), a strong cast (Evelyn Ankers, John Carradine), a new discovery (Acquanetta), and an entertainingly silly central idea: Carradine puts female glands into a gorilla, turning her into a really hot woman. Lots of footage of lions being tamed; a 4F hero (Milburn Stone) who is a lion expert, perhaps the least sexy lion tamer on screen (and very lax with safety, too); a rather touching subject matter (the gorilla's in love - it's not her fault she can't control her feelings); Crash Corrigan in a gorilla outfit; Carradine underplaying. Not as well known as the classic Universal horrors but well worth checking out.

Radio review – Suspense – “The Philomel Cottage” (1943) ***

Orson Welles directed and starred in this adaptation of the Agatha Christie story, but doesn’t play the biggest part – that honour goes to Geraldine Fitzgerald his sometime girlfriend, as the girl who is worried that her husband (Welles) is a killer intent on knocking off her – so she ends up killing him instead (although you don't know for sure it she succeeds). Not bad – it struggles with the British atmosphere (they should have just rejigged it for the USA).

Radio review - Suspense – “A Motive for Murder” (1950) **

Alan Ladd is a cop, “Irish” whose wife is arrested for murder. He’s determined that she’s innocent so he investigates – he tracks down a vacuum salesman. Fairly so-so – I was waiting for a twist like the wife was actually guilty or Ladd did it but it never came. Ladd's always fun to listen to in radio drama, though.

Movie review – “A Heartbeat Away” (2011) ½

The worst Australian film I’ve seen in ages – makes no sense. It’s a small town but developers are bad? Why can’t the marching band move down the road? Why does the son have to run the band? Would a mayor agree to risk a development for a bet? Nice photography, dreadful story, over the top handling - Isabel Lucas isn't even shot that prettily and she can't speak dialogue. None of it makes sense, the determination to be a feel-good-crowd-pleaser has caused the film to abandon logic.

Movie review – “The Red Shoes” (1948) ****1/2

A classic, with moments that will take your breath away, particularly the spectacular ballet. There’s sublime acting from Anton Walbrook and Moira Shearer and the other dancers like Robert Helpmann. Shearer is sexy as hell asnd very likeable- she should have had a bigger career in films, but that was her choice. Marius Goring’s acting is fine but he’s just not good looking enough. And his character is a possessive prat - he doesn't mind if she dances for anyone just as long as it's not Walbrook.

The film struggled to regain it's momentum after the Red Shoes ballet - the plot becomes about Shearer's romance with Goring, she's way too hot for him, and her longing to do back to Walbrook feels a little rushed. But it's still a compulsive, wonderful passionate film.

Radio review – Lux – “Life of Riley” (1949) ***

Radio adaptation of film adaptation of a radio show – so it’s no surprise that it translates so well: a simple domestic comedy with William Bendix very funny and engaging as the big hearted lug surrounded by loving family (exasperated wife, hot daughter who has romantic escapades, son who gets up to mischief). The plot of this involves Riley struggling to pay the rent, and the daughter falling for the landlord’s nephew (Richard Long, who specialised in these sort of parts) but being tempted to marriage to a man she doesn’t love so her father doesn’t get fired – which feels a bit contrived. The undertaker character was hilarious. This feels as though it should be set in Brooklyn but actually takes place in Los Angeles.

Radio review – Best Plays – “MacBeth” (1952) ***

Solid version of the play, cut down to emphasise the leading couple, i.e. less Macduff, Malcolm, etc. Always worth listening to but functional more than inspired. No stars in it: Eva Le Gallienne, Staats Cotsworth, Paul McGrath, Raymond Edward Johnson.

Movie review – “Peeping Tom” (1960) ***1/2

I understand why academics like this movie as the central idea (photographer kills people with his camera as he’s filming them) offers so much scope for analysis – we the viewer are part of the crime, what is voyeurism, etc, etc (it makes a great double bill with Rear Window and/or Vertigo). Michael Powell produced and directed but despite the arrow hitting the target at te beginning there’s no Emeric Pressburger. Leo Mark’s script is still pretty good. I don’t love this film like others do but it’s a good solid psycho thriller, very much ahead of it’s time (it’s really a film that should have been made in the 90s/noughties).

Carl Boehm speaks with a Germanic accent – and he’s another of Powell’s sympathetic Germans. This one isn’t a Nazi but it’s rare we get such a humanised serial killer – it was all dad’s fault for being mean, and he struggles to not girl the girl he’s in love with. To counterbalance this, some of his victims are humanised – Moira Shearer’s stand in seems really nice and her death is a real tragedy.

 

Boehm is effective, Anna Massey over-acts (or maybe I just find her annoying), as does the shrink. Frank depiction of sex at the time, memorable climax. I felt it got a little slow around the middle and I didn’t buy Massey being so into Boehm.

Movie review – “Black Narcissus” (1947) *****

Stunningly beautiful atmospheric tale of nuns in the Himalayas. Like the best Powell/ Pressburger this has a touch of a magic about it – and the touch is often a dark one. Mostly people have sex/love on the brain – Deborah Kerr thinks back to when she was a girl in love in Ireland, David Farrar walks around in shorts and not much else as the nuns check him out and seems to have eyes for Kerr, crazy Kathleen Byron lusts after Farrar, sexy native girl Jean Simmons turns up just gagging for it and prince Sabu wants to give it to her.

Sex, nuns, religion, God, colonialism, a cliff top nunnery (spectacularly scary), native superstition, donkeys… it’s a heady mixture, like no other film. Superlative acting – why didn’t David Farrar become as big a British star as James Mason, they had a similar brooding quality? (He was much better than Dennis Price, who was Gainsborough’s back up James Mason).

One thing – I remember first seeing this the sight of Kathleen Byron in a dress (after viewing her only in nun’s habit) was one of the great shocks of cinema. It had less impact on second viewing, maybe because I was used to it – or I saw a version which had Deborah Kerr in mufti (in flashback). She’s still pretty terrifying – especially at the end when she looks all wasted.

Movie review – “A Matter of Life and Death” (1946) ****1/2

Powell and Pressburger always started their films wonderfully (eg even the flat One of Our Aircraft is Missing had haunting opening images of the plane flying through the mountains). They never had a more stunning opening that this – with David Niven flying a plane with his crew all dead, knowing he’s going to die, talking to Kim Hunter. It follows this up with some incredible visuals: the boy playing flute on the beach, Niven and Hunter among the blossoms, the stairway to Heaven, Roger Livesey perving on the entire village., the final trial.

It looks so amazing that it takes a while to notice that the story is a bit silly – Niven is meant to have died but slips through the cracks and attempts to argue he should stay on earth. That’s not so bad but the main argument he should die is because he’s British – as argued by American Revolutionary Raymond Massey – so you know the arguments aren’t going to be strong.

Niven is superb - is this is best performance? It feels so close to what I imagine the real Niven to be like - intelligent, charming, brave, a little insecure and sad. There's an aura of melancholy about his performance. Kim Hunter is another in a long line of sensible, pretty Powell heroines (although this one isn't a red head). Livesey's character is interesting - what sort of doctor perves on a whole town? And he really goes the extra mile for Niven and Hunter (giving up his life for her) - is he in love with Hunter?

A remarkable, audacious and romantic film, if a bit dim in places. Oh, and it's one of the rare war films around the time that gives attention (if only in passing) to the Indian and Gurkha soldiers who fought for Britain, and Chinese and African Americans.

Movie review – “Night Monster” (1942) **

Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill are top billed but shamefully under-used in this old dark house mystery. There's a southern setting, a killer running loose, various suspects, a mansion near a swamp, and characters including a mystery writer (Don Porter) who gets involved for fun, a dodgy chauffeur, nasty maids, rich cripples, spooky butlers (Lugosi), shady doctors, rich women who might be insane, lecherous young men, Eastern mystics. Plenty of stuff going on (decently paced murders, a climax out of Rebecca), and it's got that great Universal atmosphere - I just wish Lugosi had a bigger part.

Radio review – Best Plays – “The Madwoman of Chaillot” (1952) **

There is a mad woman – the eccentric lady who tries to stop greedy people digging for oil in Paris – but as John Chapman points out a more accurate title would be “mad women” for there’s a bunch of nutters. It doesn’t translate that well to radio – too many characters, too theatrical – I think you need to see it. Didn’t help that the version I heard the sound was fuzzy in the last five minutes. Aline MacMahon plays the lead.

Movie review – “Horrible Bosses” (2011) **1/2

The idea has been done before, not so much in Strangers on a Train and Throw Momma from a Train, but Nine to Five – only here they don’t want to kill their boss they just kidnap him. The set up to killing is poorly handled – you simply don’t but their situation was bad enough to take such a drastic step, especially for something like sexual harassment. And it’s a bit convenient no one thinks to wear a wire in the first half of the film (i.e. to entrap their bosses) but they do in the second. So the first half was slow. 

 

But once the plan starts up and goes haywire, things improve and the ending is quite satisfactory.

Some hilarious stuff, like Jennifer Aniston groping her male assistant. And it's got a cast to die for - how many comedy films can boast a support cast like Colin Farrell, Jaimee Fox, Kevin Spacey, Aniston, Julie Bowen, Ioan Gryffud and Donald Sutherland?

Movie review – “The Battle of the River Plate” (1956) ***

After a string of films that under-performed at the box office, Powell and Pressburger finally had a big hit with an old fashioned war movie. It’s not a favourite with their big fans (although Powell devotes pages upon pages to it in his second volume of memoirs), but I enjoyed it.

There are occasional flashes of the old style – the opening sequence where captured British sailors enter the Graf Spee and there are these massive hangers. And the sympathetic treatment of the Germans is very Archers: when Bernard Lee is brought on board complaining about being captured in Portugese waters, Peter Finch advises him to fill out a complaint form and offers him a drink; the British prisoners are visited by singing Germans at Christmas; the Germans seem really glad that their prisoners are being released; Lee seems to have a man crush on Peter Finch. They really lay it on with a trowel.

There are three distinct acts – capture of British sailors, the battle, diplomatic intrigue. It’s not a hero's journey film at all – heroes come and go. Peter Finch isn’t in it that much – neither is Anthony Quayle or John Gregson.

It looks terrific – white uniforms, blue skies and oceans; there was co operation from the British navy which serves to provide tremendous production value It also feels real – the way the battle is fought, the diplomatic intrigues, etc.

Maybe I’m making it sound better than it is – the British characters are very bland, rather like the airmen in One of Our Aircraft is Missing. The battle scene was curiously unexciting - lots of stiff upper lips and being cool under pressure. It character of the German captain was under-developed. Still, it's not a traditional John Mills 50s war film, and is worth checking out.

NB The cast also includes Christopher Lee as a Uruguay cafe owner, Anthony Newley and John Schlesinger (apparently) as sailors.

Movie review – “A Canterbury Tale” (1944) **1/2

The success of Powell and Pressburger’s films at the box office saw them becoming increasing bold artistically – this is a genuine one of a kind movie, about three young people (two soldiers and a girl) who meet in a town in Kent where a local odd ball is running around putting glue in girl’s hair. The big debit of this for me was the performance of Joe Sweet as the American – he was awful, and his voice grated. Every time he appeared on screen or talked, I winced.

Eric Portman’s magistrate is really weird – he runs around putting glue in girls hair so men won’t be tempted to ask them out on dates and thus attend his lectures on the countryside. And the film seems to support him – he isn’t punished.

Sheila Sims was much better – another in the long Powell-Pressburger line of sensible British heroines. And Dennis Price was fine. There was much to enjoy – the Scooby Doo mystery (who is the glue bandit), small town atmosphere, the sense of camaraderie amongst young people, the scene of Eric Portman and Sims on the hill, people walking in the dark, war women talking, the finale at a cathedral, the whole dreamy "feel" of it. It's just that frigging American who wrecks it.

Radio review – Lux – “Mr Belvedere Goes to College” (1949) **

Clifton Webb is good as always as Belvedere but they struggled putting him in a fresh fish out of water situation – Belvedere fits in too well as college. They try by making him a freshman and have to go through different rituals and rule but it just doesn’t have the satisfaction of watching him get one up on snobby townsfolk and bratty kids. The romantic subplot involves a girls student who is actually a widowed mother – Xolleen Gray plays the girl and Robert Stack is the guy.

Movie review – “Peyton Place” (1957) *** (warning: spoilers)

John Michael Hayes deserved some sort of special award for his skillful adaptation of Grace Metalious’ best seller – her perfectly converted a trashy book into a piece of trashy, but enjoyable and censorship friendly 1957 Hollywood cinema. Bloody hard to do. 

 

The small town atmosphere is a bit more warm and it’s been toned down a lot but there’s still plenty of skeletons and tough stuff – Serena is raped and does kill someone, Alison is illegitimate, Serena is persecuted when she shouldn't be, the gossips are vicious. They cut the bit where Michael Rossi rapes Constance and she enjoys it and lots of other suff. There’s also more happy endings – Russ Tamblyn’s character is allowed to genuinely heal (hey he smokes he must be grown up), Betty (Terry Moore) genuinely reunites with dead Rodney’s father as opposed to being determined to milk him (although you could still read that into it); Serena's boyfriend stands by her; the town rallies around Serena at the end (a lovely moment).

 

In one respect it's harsher than the book - the doctor (Lloyd Nolan) here refuses to perform an abortion (in the book he does it); not only that, he forces Serena to tell who the father is by shaking her. What a bastard! Then later on he blabs about her on the stand. Also Michael Rossi (Lee Phillips) takes the job as principal away from a spinster lady who would probably have done a good job mainly because he's a man who demands a raise and gives a nifty speech.

 

Lana Turner is dreadful in that Lana Turner way - all gnashing foreheads and torment, only without any glamorous outfits to help her. Diane Varsi is bland too as her daughter. Lee Philips is strong as Rossi - his acting career never kicked on though, as he turned more to directing. Hope Lange is very good as Serena, the one wholly admirable character in the film (apart from burying bodies when she should have come clean). Barry Coe is this random thing of muscle, Terry Moore is a bit too old, Lloyd Nolan and Leon Ames very good. 

 

Best performance though goes to Rss Tamblyn who gives off this sort of twisted, sick vibe, full of tormented pain and suffering - you know that character has been through a lot.

Movie review – “F for Fake” (1975) ****

Orson Welles had long been interested in the topic of fakery being an enthusiastic magician as well as international man of mystery so he was an ideal candidate to direct this doco. Or did he turn it into a look at being fake? Whatever the origins, this is one of Orson’s best films, full of energy and brilliance. You occasionally get exhausted but then he pulls another rabbit out of the hat - it's such a "young" movie, with its jump cuts, out-there jokes and cutaways, jaunty tone. MTV before MTV.

And the story has enough meat on it to hold - unlike many Welles films. The story of two forgers is very reminiscent of the Harry Lime tales he would tell on radio - exotic locations (Majorca), shady characters (Elmyr de Hor and Clifford Irving are great talent, the aging gay artist with his "assistant" living off the kindness of strangers with thwarted ambition; and the charismatic writer with a monkey on his shoulder - Warner Bros in the 40s never had better character actors), money and glamour, a sexy girl (Oja Kodar, very fetching - an often nude), and Orson looking dashing and mysteriously despite his weight. The last third isn't as strong mainly because de Hor and Clifford Irving are in it less, but there's still beautiful stuff.

NB William Alland and Peter Bogdanovich get "special thanks" in the credits.

Movie review – “One of Our Aircraft is Missing” (1942) **1/2

Just as Powell and Pressburger followed up Spy in Black with Contraband, so this was an unofficial sequel to The 49th Parallel. Perhaps responding to criticism of making a war film with German protagonists, this has the same situation only it’s a British air crew who’ve cashed in occupied Holland.

It’s a lot less fun movie – the co-operative, professional British soldiers are less interesting than the Germans, who were always yelling, squabbling, and pushing Nazi doctrine on the locals. Ditto the locals in The 49th Parallel were more colourful and engaging that the Dutch here, who are loyal, diligent, etc. – and dull. The only bright spark is Robert Helpmann as a traitor, although Googie Withers and Pamela Brown have beautiful, evocative presences. The main debit are the characterisations of the British soldiers - it's hard to tell them apart except the old guy (a knight who flies on a bomber). They're all bland.

Some of it’s brilliant, though – the stunning opening credit sequence with an empty plane flying through the air, Googie Withers’ inspirational speech about resistance in the dark. And I did like the fact that the British find the missing one of their number playing soccer with some locals.

Movie review – “The 49th Parallel” (1941) ****

Just as the British film industry treated Australia with more respect, feeling and accuracy than Hollywood, so was the case with Canada. We see Eskimos, French Canadian trappers with flannos, Scotch trappers, sophisticated city folk, soldiers, Mounties, farmers, writers. Between them the manage to trap a small group of Nazis – but only just.

As if in response to the brave, sympathetic Germans in The Spy in Black, the submariners here are vicious Nazis, constantly hi Hitler-ing and talking about world domination, with Eric Portman’s leader being cold and humourless, and shooting a mother Eskimo with a baby. But they’re still the protagonists, bravely fighting their way home, surrounded by enemies, sticking to their convictions (well, mostly - there’s one nice German, a baker tempted to stay). I loved it how the Germans were always foisting their doctrine on the others eg Portman tries to get Olivier on to Mein Kampf. So basically they're still sympathetic.

The structure of the film consists of four main encounters: with some trappers (Laurence Olivier, Finlay Currie), a religious community (Anton Walbrook), a writer (Lesley Howard), and an AWOL soldier. The best of these are the first two, both containing some brilliant propaganda and effective death scenes: Walbrook and Olivier sticking up for Canada, the deaths of Olivier and Neil McGinnis (the good German). The sequence with Leslie Howard ended a bit silly-ly with him storming towards a German getting shot at – being brave isn’t the same as being stupid. But it's beautifully shot, with great location footage, and a superlative cast.

Movie review – “Contraband” (1940) ***

Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson were popular enough in The Spy in Black to be reunited by Michael Powell in another espionage war thriller. This is set during the early days of World War Two with Vedit playing an out and out hero – a Dutch sea captain who gets involved with British agent Hobson. They get picked up by some Nazi agents during a black out.

This is full of lovely touches – stock footage, the camera moves about, a shoot out at the end among busts of Neville Chamberlain (who Veidt calls "tough" - so his press wasn't all bad), Danish restaurant workers coming to the rescue. It’s light fun – Veidt and Hobson make a sexy team (although Vedit should have had a more personal stake in the story somehow eg Hitchcock would have had him accused of a crime and having to prove his innocence, instead of just going along to collect his leave passes). Hobson is knowing, sensible and sexy - something many Powell heroines would be down the track.