Movie review – “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” (2011) ***1/2

This took a while to get going – mainly a straight Bedtime for Bonzo with James Franco raising a super smart chimp and romancing Frieda Pinto. Not bad, though not that gripping – all is forgiven by the tremendous last third though when the apes go apeshit and revolt. Not as anti-human as the Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and all the better for it. Special effects here are used for good instead of evil – apes rampaging through the suburbs and over the Golden Gate Bridge is terrific. Like Terminator 2, the man in charge of the corporation responsible for wiping out the world is black.

Movie review – “Cowboys and Aliens” (2011) **

This must have sounded great at pitch and I admit to being excited at the trailer but it doesn’t quite work. Maybe because there’s no one to relate to – Daniel Craig is too mysterious and brooding and he clearly knows something about the aliens, so he’s got a secret which keeps him distant from us, and Harrison Ford is too mean and grouchy and he's got a secret which keeps him from us and so does Olivia Wilde... Maybe they should have had a simpler goodie and baddie cowboy story and then chucked the aliens on top of it. Everyone has a secret – Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, the aliens. There’s no one for the audience to latch on to. Also the aliens don’t have any personality. Daniel Craig does good craggy torment but isn’t everyman; Olivia Wilde is gorgeous and can’t act.

Radio review – Ford Theatre – Ep#65 “Wuthering Heights” (1949) ***1/2

Montgomery Clift isn’t the first actor you’d think to play Heathcliff and he doesn’t quite work – maybe it could if the script were written for a more sensitive, neurotic Heathcliff – but this is taken from the Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur script. Still it’s fascinating to hear him gnash his knuckles and take off with a dying Cathy into the heather.

Radio review – Ford Theatre – Ep#33 “Counsellor at Law” (1948) ***

Elmer Rice’s play is about a short period of time involving a top lawyer who is threatened by a dodgy brother, secret in his past, and unhappy marriage but his secretary is there for him. At the end he kind of finds redemption but doesn’t really – he still can’t give up the lure of the court room. This play was once very much admired but TV has covered this area too often and better since then – still, historically interesting.

Movie review – “Rome Adventure” (1962) **1/2

Suzanne Pleshette didn’t always get a crack at leading roles so it’s fun to see her in this Italian romance piece. She was briefly married to the film’s star, Troy Donahue, making his fourth film with Delmer Daves. Pleshette is a librarian about to be fired for letting students read a racy novel (“about love”) so she heads off to Rome, stays at a boarding house with other Americans and goes to work for an American book store and falls in love with an American (Troy Donahue). 

There’s not a lot of plot – they fall in love and walk around Rome seeing the sights, and go on a trip. Lots of men fall for Pleshette - a younger nerdy guy and Rossano Brazzi - and Pleshette faces a Donahue rival in the form of Angie Dickinson (who is quite fun).

There’s far too many scenes of Donahue and Pleshette being worried about having to share a room together even though they aren’t married and not nearly enough conflict.  The angst level of the characters is very high despite the lack of true problems anyone seems to have. This is a problem for the movie; Daves' earlier melodramas with Donahue - A Summer Place, Parrish, Susan Slade - had more story. If this didn't have story then it needed more comedy, but it's all played straight.

There’s camp value to seeing Donahue running around Rome in a red sweater on his moped but if truth be told Pleshette doesn’t really have the chops to carry a film this thin on story. The locations are pretty. Troy D is awkward as every but it's hard to really dislike a film like this.