The opening shot is of a figure walking on their own though a deserted landscape... Bergman is beginning to become Bergman. He's working from his own script, and you can tell the different - it's more theatrical, with longer scenes of people talking at a much fast pace; a lot of the talk is about the big issues like heaven and hell and good and evil and sex; it's self referential - the story is about a screenwriting writing a script.
Couples are unhappy (the writer tells his partner he's afraid of dying, thinks they are going to wind up tearing each other apart), there is lots of talk of suicide. I'm not really into movies about making movies, which is what this is; there's an incredible amount of talent and imagination on display here, lots of interesting ideas, but I admit I didn't really get into this.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Movie review - "Stand Up and Cheer" (1934) **
Odd movie where Broadway producer Warner Baxter is appointed a government minister in charge of cheering up the American public and thus help beat the depression. He organises lots of acts, spends much government money, has a secretary who is in love with him, faces opposition from evil powers that be keen to keep the Depression going (who, you know, do have a point if this program is worthwhile), battles self doubt... and sees his happy go lucky policies end the Depression. No kidding - this ends with the Depression over. And it was only 1934.
We also get the back of FDR's head, a depressingly racist turn from Stepin Fetchit doing his shuffle feet add (and also Aunt Jemima thrown in), a talking penguin, Shirley Temple becoming a star with her short term singing "Baby Take a Bow" (she is very charismatic), John Boles doing opera, a few other numbers.
A genuine curio, a combination of socialism, racism and vaudeville.
We also get the back of FDR's head, a depressingly racist turn from Stepin Fetchit doing his shuffle feet add (and also Aunt Jemima thrown in), a talking penguin, Shirley Temple becoming a star with her short term singing "Baby Take a Bow" (she is very charismatic), John Boles doing opera, a few other numbers.
A genuine curio, a combination of socialism, racism and vaudeville.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Movie review - Bergman#5 - "Port of Call" (1948) ***
Another young lovers tale from Bergman, although you can feel him pushing himself - it's grittier, tougher (this was influenced by neo-realism), and begins with a young woman trying to kill herself in the water. The story has her fall in love with a sailor who is shocked when he finds out about her past, and we wonder if he can forgive her.
This is really a story of the girl rather than her romance - I mean, the romance is the spine, but it's more a character study. We find out abut the girl's abusive father, manipulative and cold mother, mean bosses, tough upbringing (including a stint in juvey), sympathetic social worker.s We never find out that much about him, and it isn't nearly as interesting.
Nine Christine Jonsson, who plays the girl, is excellent and easily outshines the guy. Of course the fact she has a better part helps a lot but I don't think that explains everything. It's melodrama but well done, with the bonus of some terrific location shooting. It's very frank, too - there's an abortion and some nudity.
This is really a story of the girl rather than her romance - I mean, the romance is the spine, but it's more a character study. We find out abut the girl's abusive father, manipulative and cold mother, mean bosses, tough upbringing (including a stint in juvey), sympathetic social worker.s We never find out that much about him, and it isn't nearly as interesting.
Nine Christine Jonsson, who plays the girl, is excellent and easily outshines the guy. Of course the fact she has a better part helps a lot but I don't think that explains everything. It's melodrama but well done, with the bonus of some terrific location shooting. It's very frank, too - there's an abortion and some nudity.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Movie review - Bergman#4 - "Music in Darkness" (1948) ***
You never would have guessed Ingmar Bergman to start a movie where a soldier is injured on a firing range while trying to save a puppy - yes, a puppy - but as if to compensate almost immediately the director throws in his most trippy sequence yet, with the man traipsing through a swamp and having incredible avante-garde visions while in hospital. (Unlike anything he'd made until then.)
The rest of the movie follows along the lines of many of his early movies - a melodrama about young lovers. He's a blind piano player (40s cinema was full of blind pianists eg Love Story), she's the maid, they love each other but are kept apart by social class and his bitterness. Eventually love finds a way.
This is a really sweet movie, helped considerably by Mai Zetterling's charming performance as the maid. The guy is okay (he reminded me of a young Dirk Bogarde at times... and you know something, this would have made a good Bogarde vehicle) but Zetterling is a star; the first real one Bergman worked with. Maybe his other leads were stars at home, but she's the first one for me where charisma really came across. The movie suffers in the second act when she's not on screen. (NB She does a nude scene too - running naked across the room getting changed, showing her backside and a bit of boob. It really surprised me.)
This is a heartwarming, very well done movie with Bergman's increasing confidence evident. Maybe a bit silly but I went with it.
The rest of the movie follows along the lines of many of his early movies - a melodrama about young lovers. He's a blind piano player (40s cinema was full of blind pianists eg Love Story), she's the maid, they love each other but are kept apart by social class and his bitterness. Eventually love finds a way.
This is a really sweet movie, helped considerably by Mai Zetterling's charming performance as the maid. The guy is okay (he reminded me of a young Dirk Bogarde at times... and you know something, this would have made a good Bogarde vehicle) but Zetterling is a star; the first real one Bergman worked with. Maybe his other leads were stars at home, but she's the first one for me where charisma really came across. The movie suffers in the second act when she's not on screen. (NB She does a nude scene too - running naked across the room getting changed, showing her backside and a bit of boob. It really surprised me.)
This is a heartwarming, very well done movie with Bergman's increasing confidence evident. Maybe a bit silly but I went with it.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Movie review - "Northwest Mounted Police" (1940) **
Gary Cooper gave some irritating performances in his time but few that got on my nerves as much as his work here as Texan Ranger Dusty Rivers, who journeys north of the 49th parallel to capture a killer during Riel's Rebellion. He clashes with mountie Preston Foster (a dull actor who is particularly dull here), falls for Foster's woman Madeleine Carroll (equally dull), and helps the redcoats stop the local indians from rising up and keep the half-breeds in their place by destroying their gatling gun. In between that he does a lot of comic double takes, mugging and acting like a moron.
There's some great production design but too much of it is studio bound when you really want more location footage (there's some, just not enough). Some of the dialogue is truly atrocious, even by the standards of Cecil B de Mille films ("you're an angel in leather", "I'd look funny with leather wings"), and there's a racist subplot about poor mountie Robert Preston (Carroll's brother) being lured to treachery by temptress spitfire half-caste Paulette Goddard (over-acting madly). Those half-breed women, you just can't trust them. It also throws in a comic Scotsman got good measure (Joe Valli must have watched this with a pang in his heart.)
It does have interest because it's one of the few big budget Hollywood movies to look seriously at Canadian history (significantly, de Mille felt he still needed to have an American hero in it). I wonder what Canadians made of it... presumably they were flattered by the attention and annoyed at the excesses and inaccuracies.
This was listed by the Medved brothers in their book of the 50 worst movies of all time. Its not that bad - the production values are too high, too much is going on in the story (at least it's not boring), it's too unusual being about Canadian history. Francis McDonald offers an interesting cameo as Frances Riel, and if you're a big fan of Cooper, Carroll, Goddard, or Preston Foster (hey, you never know) you will enjoy it more than I did.
There's some great production design but too much of it is studio bound when you really want more location footage (there's some, just not enough). Some of the dialogue is truly atrocious, even by the standards of Cecil B de Mille films ("you're an angel in leather", "I'd look funny with leather wings"), and there's a racist subplot about poor mountie Robert Preston (Carroll's brother) being lured to treachery by temptress spitfire half-caste Paulette Goddard (over-acting madly). Those half-breed women, you just can't trust them. It also throws in a comic Scotsman got good measure (Joe Valli must have watched this with a pang in his heart.)
It does have interest because it's one of the few big budget Hollywood movies to look seriously at Canadian history (significantly, de Mille felt he still needed to have an American hero in it). I wonder what Canadians made of it... presumably they were flattered by the attention and annoyed at the excesses and inaccuracies.
This was listed by the Medved brothers in their book of the 50 worst movies of all time. Its not that bad - the production values are too high, too much is going on in the story (at least it's not boring), it's too unusual being about Canadian history. Francis McDonald offers an interesting cameo as Frances Riel, and if you're a big fan of Cooper, Carroll, Goddard, or Preston Foster (hey, you never know) you will enjoy it more than I did.
Movie review - Bergman#3 - "A Ship Bound for India" (1947) ***
More young-people-battling-against-the-odds melodrama from Bergman, showing increasing confidence and skill. He was pretty much a good filmmaker by now, even if his material isn't always the best. This one is about a young sailor with a hunchback (not immediately obvious) who returns home after being away from seven years; it turns out he had a fling with his father's mistress.
The oppressive martinet father figure (uncaring, sadistic, manipulative, going blind) is perhaps the most complex in this movie. This is a bit hokey at times to be sure, and in one or two spots I was bored (as well as worried about the future of a relationship between a hunchback sailor and a woman who slept with said hunchback's awful father for a long time... maybe that's why the seven year gap is there) but it's effective, and I did find myself hoping these two young people would make it.
I'm really glad I'm watching these early Bergmans; he's not known as a champion of youth director but he was in his early days, very much so.
The oppressive martinet father figure (uncaring, sadistic, manipulative, going blind) is perhaps the most complex in this movie. This is a bit hokey at times to be sure, and in one or two spots I was bored (as well as worried about the future of a relationship between a hunchback sailor and a woman who slept with said hunchback's awful father for a long time... maybe that's why the seven year gap is there) but it's effective, and I did find myself hoping these two young people would make it.
I'm really glad I'm watching these early Bergmans; he's not known as a champion of youth director but he was in his early days, very much so.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Movie review - Bergman#2 - "It Rains on Our Love" (1946) **1/2
Bergman's second feature as director is a tale about two young lovers just trying to make it against the odds, but this isn't as good as his later entry in that genre, Summer with Monika. The acting isn't as good, or the story, or anything really. Like Crisis I kept thinking this could star Sandra Dee and be made in the 1950s.
The story feels like one problem piled on top of each other instead of a driving narrative - he's just out of prison, he's pregnant to some other guy, their landlord is nasty, the bitchy wife of his boss causes the guy to lose his job, they lose the baby, a bureaucrat picks on them. There's an irritating Greek chorus who pops in and out of the action and too many scenes of the lead duo being happy.
Bits of it are interesting - I was struck by the beginning where the guy picks up the girl and they have sex at his place and aren't punished; I also liked the smiling landlord who is actually a manipulative bastard. And as this went along and concentrated on the one story (the two heroes copping stick because the guy punches out a snobby bureaucrat) I started to enjoy it a lot. It's lively late teen melodrama made by a talented man who hadn't found his voice yet.
The story feels like one problem piled on top of each other instead of a driving narrative - he's just out of prison, he's pregnant to some other guy, their landlord is nasty, the bitchy wife of his boss causes the guy to lose his job, they lose the baby, a bureaucrat picks on them. There's an irritating Greek chorus who pops in and out of the action and too many scenes of the lead duo being happy.
Bits of it are interesting - I was struck by the beginning where the guy picks up the girl and they have sex at his place and aren't punished; I also liked the smiling landlord who is actually a manipulative bastard. And as this went along and concentrated on the one story (the two heroes copping stick because the guy punches out a snobby bureaucrat) I started to enjoy it a lot. It's lively late teen melodrama made by a talented man who hadn't found his voice yet.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Movie review - "Face to Face" (2011) ***
David Williamson rejuvenated his playwriting career with a trilogy of plays centered around conferencing, of this was the first. It's really a piece for the theatre, taking place in real time and one set, or a telemovie - but having said that it's good to see it done well (directed by Michael Rymer) with a strong cast.
Matthew Newton's casting as the mediator gives the piece unexpected resonance in the scenes where he deals with a character unable to control his violent temper; Luke Ford over acts too much as the dimwitted said violent temper character (far too many ticks and bits in his performance); Sigrid Thornton's botox is as ever distracting but she does solid work in a thankless Williamson role (a bossy married woman whose husband is cheating on her); so too do Vince Colosimo (another Williamson archetype: ruthless businessman), especially Laura Gordon (yet another: hot young thing who can't resist the sexual lure of a married middle aged man), Robert Rabiah, Lauren Clair and Christopher Connolly. Josh Saks has a fairly thankless role as Ford's best friend.
In some ways this piece reminded me of The Inspector Calls - we are all responsible for each other. It has a solid, small "l" liberal humanistic wish fulfilment values (i.e. the world would get along better if bosses cut their wages and gave their employees a raise, were nicer to the brain injured and new Australians, we don't need that much money)... but you know, they're all fair points.
And the movie is, like the play, well structured and deals with important issues. It's not as emotionally devastating as A Conversation, the second in the trilogy, but it at least makes you think and keeps you watching, and good on Rymer for coming home and making it.
Movie review - "The Camp on Blood Island" (1958) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)
When this came out it became one of Hammer's most popular movies, and let to a spawn of follow ups, including direct sequels (The Secret of Blood Island), another tough Far East war tale (Yesterday's Enemy) and a series of movies about the British battling oriental atrocities (The Stranglers of Bombay, The Terror of the Tongs). But for a long time it was hard to get hold of a copy of this, in part because it was a controversial film.
It's full on, there's no doubt about that, full of executions, torture and nihilism; it's racist, too, with its depiction of Japanese (played by actors of a variety of races) as vicious nasty savages without a single redeeming quality, and a half-caste female prisoner who is man hungry But it can't be dismissed either because it was based on a true story and all the things shown did happen at one stage or another.
It has a strong central gimmick - World War Two is over and the Brit POWs know it but they're scared of their Japanese guards finding out and killing everyone. So Andre Morrell decides to keep it secret... a course of action which winds up with most of this prisoners dead anyway, either trying to escape, being executed in retaliation or killed in an uprising, or dying of disease and torture. Barbara Steele sees her husband mowed down in front of her eyes, six prisoners have their heads chopped off, Morrell accidentally kills his friend. All for little purpose. (Morrell's plan, which he doggedly sticks to, would have to rank up there with Duane Jones' plan in Night of the Living Dead and Liam Neeson's in The Grey as Worst Plans of a Movie Hero in Cinema History).
It's full throttled stuff, briskly directed as ever by Val Guest with a very strong cast, led by Morrell and the sensible sensual Barbara Shelley.
It's full on, there's no doubt about that, full of executions, torture and nihilism; it's racist, too, with its depiction of Japanese (played by actors of a variety of races) as vicious nasty savages without a single redeeming quality, and a half-caste female prisoner who is man hungry But it can't be dismissed either because it was based on a true story and all the things shown did happen at one stage or another.
It has a strong central gimmick - World War Two is over and the Brit POWs know it but they're scared of their Japanese guards finding out and killing everyone. So Andre Morrell decides to keep it secret... a course of action which winds up with most of this prisoners dead anyway, either trying to escape, being executed in retaliation or killed in an uprising, or dying of disease and torture. Barbara Steele sees her husband mowed down in front of her eyes, six prisoners have their heads chopped off, Morrell accidentally kills his friend. All for little purpose. (Morrell's plan, which he doggedly sticks to, would have to rank up there with Duane Jones' plan in Night of the Living Dead and Liam Neeson's in The Grey as Worst Plans of a Movie Hero in Cinema History).
It's full throttled stuff, briskly directed as ever by Val Guest with a very strong cast, led by Morrell and the sensible sensual Barbara Shelley.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Movie review - "War Gods of the Deep" (1965) **
A weird combination of Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe, with a bit of Creature of the Black Lagoon thrown in - the story really owes more to Verne, being about a mad genius who runs a secret underwater civilisation... but it's done with AIP Poe treatment: lots of dark creaky corridors, shots of waves crashing on rocks, Vincent Prince being mad, Susan Hart being beautiful, a handsome juvenile (Tab Hunter), plus some Poe quotes.
The basic plot has Hart living in 1903 Cornwall being kidnapped by gil creatures and Hunter and David Tomlinson go to investigate. They come across a hidden civilisation consisting of Price, some old sailors and gil people.
Some people hate this film and it's certainly got a lot of flaws - the last act basically consists of our heroes in helmets swimming in water with a remarkable lack of tension, there's minimal relationship between Hunter and Hart, characterisation feels undeveloped, far too much time is spent on a comic chook, the plot is a mess (it's a combination of Price wanting to save his civilisation and being obsessed with Hart).
And yet... Price is always fun in these sort of roles, Hart is beautiful, the art direction is atmospheric (a lot of it is set late at night or underwater in darkened rooms, which adds to the charm), the photography is enjoyable. I had a lot more fun than I thought I would.
The basic plot has Hart living in 1903 Cornwall being kidnapped by gil creatures and Hunter and David Tomlinson go to investigate. They come across a hidden civilisation consisting of Price, some old sailors and gil people.
Some people hate this film and it's certainly got a lot of flaws - the last act basically consists of our heroes in helmets swimming in water with a remarkable lack of tension, there's minimal relationship between Hunter and Hart, characterisation feels undeveloped, far too much time is spent on a comic chook, the plot is a mess (it's a combination of Price wanting to save his civilisation and being obsessed with Hart).
And yet... Price is always fun in these sort of roles, Hart is beautiful, the art direction is atmospheric (a lot of it is set late at night or underwater in darkened rooms, which adds to the charm), the photography is enjoyable. I had a lot more fun than I thought I would.
Movie review - "Rome against Rome" (1964) **1/2
I saw this on the recommendation of Mike Duncan, author of the wonderful History of Rome podcast, who, when asked by a listener about the best movie on Ancient Rome, mentioned this. He might have been kidding (he says he wasn't) - or maybe the costumes, sets, etc are spot on or something. The actual story is far fetched, to put it lightly: a Roman soldier is sent by the Senate (I think this is Republican Rome) to investigate a missing treasury shipment. He comes across a sect that is opposed to Rome and plans to raise Roman soldiers from the dead to combat the Romans.
It's gloriously silly with distracting dubbing, John Drew Barrymore effective as the main baddy, some impressive production design, a decent amount of acting, and very sexy women. Although this sounds as if it'll be awesome - zombies in Ancient Rome is pretty high concept - I have to admit it wasn't really. It wasn't very exciting and a lot was very familiar (crooked Roman governor and his slutty wife, beautiful and pure slave girl). Still that concept does get you a lot of points.)
It's gloriously silly with distracting dubbing, John Drew Barrymore effective as the main baddy, some impressive production design, a decent amount of acting, and very sexy women. Although this sounds as if it'll be awesome - zombies in Ancient Rome is pretty high concept - I have to admit it wasn't really. It wasn't very exciting and a lot was very familiar (crooked Roman governor and his slutty wife, beautiful and pure slave girl). Still that concept does get you a lot of points.)
Movie review - Francis #5 - "Francis Joins the WACS" (1954)
A computer error sees Donald O'Connor transferred to the WACS - hahahahaha. Actually because it's O'Connor and not some swaggering 50s macho heartthrob, this isn't too offensive, and the treatment of female soldiers quite respectful (ditto the acknowledgement of the prejudice they faced). In fact, the plot has O'Connor helping the WACS beat men soldiers in army maneuvres at the end (years before Private Benjamin) and thus showing up sexist general Chill Wills (who provides the voice of Francis, which is cute). It's not Gloria Steinem (the girls can't do it without O'Connor) but it's something.
O'Connor is good as always, Chill Wills is funny, Julie Adams is cute, Mamie Van Doren unmistakeable as a sexpot (I wish her part had been bigger because she looks fun), Lyn Bari pops up looking old as an officer, Zasu Pitts is back as a nurse, and you'll be able to spot 50s sirens Alison Hayes and Mara Corday as well.
They don't over do the gimmick of people being shocked by Francis speaking in this one - indeed, Francis' role seems smaller here, the action is more driven by O'Connor and the girls.
O'Connor is good as always, Chill Wills is funny, Julie Adams is cute, Mamie Van Doren unmistakeable as a sexpot (I wish her part had been bigger because she looks fun), Lyn Bari pops up looking old as an officer, Zasu Pitts is back as a nurse, and you'll be able to spot 50s sirens Alison Hayes and Mara Corday as well.
They don't over do the gimmick of people being shocked by Francis speaking in this one - indeed, Francis' role seems smaller here, the action is more driven by O'Connor and the girls.
Movie review - "Melvin, Son of Alvin" (1984) *
A film that has to be seen to be believed. The original Alvin Purple was a pretty dire movie, which became a massive hit because it was exactly the right type of movie that came out at the right time in Australian history, with a perfectly cast Graeme Blundell. It wasn't a bad idea to do a sequel in the 10BA 80s (there were worse ideas, trust me), but I will never understand why, instead of casting a type similar to Blundell (a guy next door, played by an actor who was experienced) they used an inexperienced pretty boy, Gerry Sont. It really robs the piece of its point because you feel that in real life Sont wouldn't have trouble getting women.
That's the biggest mistake of this film but by no means the only one - it's tone varies, from 80s American teen sex comedy (Melvin has two best friends - who never seem to spend that much time with him - fat one and a pretend Fonzie type), to 70s British sex comedy with it's puns and boobs, sketch comedy satire (Melvin goes to see Gandhi Meets Dracula), slapstick farce (the last half hour is one big chase sequence basically) and politically incorrect race comedy (he romances Greek Australian Lenita Psillakis). It takes pot shots at gays (a man on a motorbike in leather, complete with a joke about AIDS), Greeks (Psillakis has a crazy Greek mother who plucks hairs for a living). The film continually stresses that Melvin doesn't like girls - but he's not gay (Psillakis' father was gay, something just kind of thrown in there), but women can't resist him, blah blah blah.
I did like Tina Bursill as an investigating reporter, David Argue as her cameraman, and Graeme Blundell reprising his work as Alvin - it was a good idea to have Alvin working as a lounge singer who had his own cult that worshipped him, and wanting to reconnect with his son. In fact, this could have been an alright movie with a little more care... and as it is, there's something attractive about the sheer grandeur of its crapness. Psillakis can't act but is pretty, and seems like a nice person - I actually enjoyed her relationship with Melvin (she's a stronger female character than we usually find in Alvin films). This is a train wreck but it has dignity.
That's the biggest mistake of this film but by no means the only one - it's tone varies, from 80s American teen sex comedy (Melvin has two best friends - who never seem to spend that much time with him - fat one and a pretend Fonzie type), to 70s British sex comedy with it's puns and boobs, sketch comedy satire (Melvin goes to see Gandhi Meets Dracula), slapstick farce (the last half hour is one big chase sequence basically) and politically incorrect race comedy (he romances Greek Australian Lenita Psillakis). It takes pot shots at gays (a man on a motorbike in leather, complete with a joke about AIDS), Greeks (Psillakis has a crazy Greek mother who plucks hairs for a living). The film continually stresses that Melvin doesn't like girls - but he's not gay (Psillakis' father was gay, something just kind of thrown in there), but women can't resist him, blah blah blah.
I did like Tina Bursill as an investigating reporter, David Argue as her cameraman, and Graeme Blundell reprising his work as Alvin - it was a good idea to have Alvin working as a lounge singer who had his own cult that worshipped him, and wanting to reconnect with his son. In fact, this could have been an alright movie with a little more care... and as it is, there's something attractive about the sheer grandeur of its crapness. Psillakis can't act but is pretty, and seems like a nice person - I actually enjoyed her relationship with Melvin (she's a stronger female character than we usually find in Alvin films). This is a train wreck but it has dignity.
Movie review - "The Grey" (2012) ***
A very well made film with some good actors, stunning photography, wonderful location work and strong direction... but at the end of the day it's just about a bunch of guys in the snow trying not to be eaten by wolves. Yeah, they add stuff about the meaning of life, and what it's like to die, and a few other philosophical discussions, but still it's man against nature and wolves. A shooting gallery movie.
There's nothing wrong with that, as long as the action is good, which it is, and the deaths vary, which they do. The wolves are a scary threat, and Liam Neeson has the tormented male action hero down pat by now. But the story doesn't really develop - it's one person killed at a time, with no real twists and turns, and differences among the group raised then resolved quite quickly. (NB Liam Neeson's plan actually turns out to be a bad one in hindsight - they would have been better staying at the plane).
The fact its a star vehicle lessens the suspense since you know Liam will be alive at least for the final confrontation. Also the other characters aren't really well defined - there's the guy with glasses, the one called Diaz... but it's hard to tell who is who really when they are running through know and their faces are buried underneath snow, beards and parkas.
There's nothing wrong with that, as long as the action is good, which it is, and the deaths vary, which they do. The wolves are a scary threat, and Liam Neeson has the tormented male action hero down pat by now. But the story doesn't really develop - it's one person killed at a time, with no real twists and turns, and differences among the group raised then resolved quite quickly. (NB Liam Neeson's plan actually turns out to be a bad one in hindsight - they would have been better staying at the plane).
The fact its a star vehicle lessens the suspense since you know Liam will be alive at least for the final confrontation. Also the other characters aren't really well defined - there's the guy with glasses, the one called Diaz... but it's hard to tell who is who really when they are running through know and their faces are buried underneath snow, beards and parkas.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Movie review - "The Greatest Show on Earth" (1952) ***
Cecil B de Mille goes to the circus and comes up with a terrific spectacle - there's elephants, trains, big tops, trapeze artists, clowns, heaps of montages of the circus moving, songs and lots and lots of movie stars. For all their colour and movement, though, circuses aren't that dramatic, so a lot of the action here feels pasted on - a train crash, a man on the run hiding out.
Betty Hutton isn't very beliveable as a trapeze artist but Cornel Wilde is completely convincing. Charlton Heston has the look and presence to cover his stiffness in a role that really would have been better played by Burt Lancaster or Kirk Douglas (he spends a lot of his time walking around like he's constipated). Dorothy Lamour is completely wasted in a nothing part, Gloria Grahame does her patented sexpot thing, and I really liked the gimmick of James Stewart covering his face all the time in clown make up (I went with this plot). Edmund O'Brien pops up at the end.
This shouldn't have won the Best Picture Oscar but is likely and colourful and has enough pulpy story and movie stars to keep you watching.
Betty Hutton isn't very beliveable as a trapeze artist but Cornel Wilde is completely convincing. Charlton Heston has the look and presence to cover his stiffness in a role that really would have been better played by Burt Lancaster or Kirk Douglas (he spends a lot of his time walking around like he's constipated). Dorothy Lamour is completely wasted in a nothing part, Gloria Grahame does her patented sexpot thing, and I really liked the gimmick of James Stewart covering his face all the time in clown make up (I went with this plot). Edmund O'Brien pops up at the end.
This shouldn't have won the Best Picture Oscar but is likely and colourful and has enough pulpy story and movie stars to keep you watching.
Movie review - Bergman#1 - "Crisis" (1946) **1/2
Ingmar Bergman's debt as a director is a small town melodrama that reminded me, oddly enough, of late 50s Sandra Dee soap - you can imagine Dee as an 18 year old girl growing up in a small town raised by a nice, dull piano teacher, when her flashy, trashy mother comes back to take care of her. Careful He Might Hear You territory with a teenage girl - even down to the girl having a fling with her mother's even trashier lover, and the temptations of life in the big city not being as wholesome as a small town.
It's not typically Bergman stuff (although the girl seems to contemplate suicide and there is a fair bit of misery) but it's fascinating. The small town sequences includes a scene where the kids get bored with an adult concert and have a party where they boogie-woogie on the piano (this felt very late 50s Hollywood), and there's some racy bare back some the teenage girl (even racier, she actually sleeps with the guy).
This is soap but its accessible, reasonably well made and acted (Ingra Landgre is the girl). I've seen a lot worse in this genre, and it's fun to think of Bergman paying his dues.
It's not typically Bergman stuff (although the girl seems to contemplate suicide and there is a fair bit of misery) but it's fascinating. The small town sequences includes a scene where the kids get bored with an adult concert and have a party where they boogie-woogie on the piano (this felt very late 50s Hollywood), and there's some racy bare back some the teenage girl (even racier, she actually sleeps with the guy).
This is soap but its accessible, reasonably well made and acted (Ingra Landgre is the girl). I've seen a lot worse in this genre, and it's fun to think of Bergman paying his dues.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Movie review - "The Ten Commandments" (1956) ***
I'm starting to have an increasing appreciation for the films of Cecil B de Mille - he was a showman who liked to give customers their money's worth. This has got everything: religion, babies being killed, lots of handsome men walking around barechested and beautiful women with plunging necklines (I had no idea Ann Baxter was so well endowed), a cast that includes a combination of established stars (Charlton Heston, Baxter), recently blacklisted veterans (Edward G Robinson, Vincent Price), exciting new comers (Yul Brynner), teen idols (John Derek), stage knights (Cedric Hardwicke), sexpots (Yvonne de Carlo), starlets (Debra Paget) and lots and lots of extras.
The first part of this was the most enjoyable as drama - it's pulpy Biblical family drama with Moses being sent down river in reeds and raised among Egyptians. The story of Moses resonates so much because it's such a great yarn - an orphan raised with wealth, becoming aware of his origin and the plight of his people, deciding to take their side no matter what the cost and winding up a slave, then eventually leading them to freedom. (Ben Hur surely borrowed from it - as did much Disney).
Once Moses hears the call, the film becomes a lot less fun, with all these firebrand statements and Charlton Heston looking ridiculous in his beard and robe. God is such a hard arse in this story - killing Egyptian children, bringing on locusts and plagues... But once the Hebrews are allowed home, de Mille unleashes some tremendous spectacle: masses of extras, bright colours, a still-impressive Red Sea parting, a terrific orgy around the fattest calf (de Mille was always a lot more comfortable with sexy, decadent entertainment than serious religion)
Moses isn't an easy role to play and one could mock Heston's stiff performance but he does have the right gravitas; de Carlo and Baxter impressed me in roles that you would have expected them to have swapped; Derek is mainly handsome and that's it; Paget has quite a big role (a woman who becomes a mistress then becomes redeemed); Robinson and Brynner are really excellent - Robinson has intelligence, humour and shrewdness despite being a villain and adds some much needed cynicism, while Brynner is very charismatic.
It's big and goes on forever and is a bit creaky but still impresses.
The first part of this was the most enjoyable as drama - it's pulpy Biblical family drama with Moses being sent down river in reeds and raised among Egyptians. The story of Moses resonates so much because it's such a great yarn - an orphan raised with wealth, becoming aware of his origin and the plight of his people, deciding to take their side no matter what the cost and winding up a slave, then eventually leading them to freedom. (Ben Hur surely borrowed from it - as did much Disney).
Once Moses hears the call, the film becomes a lot less fun, with all these firebrand statements and Charlton Heston looking ridiculous in his beard and robe. God is such a hard arse in this story - killing Egyptian children, bringing on locusts and plagues... But once the Hebrews are allowed home, de Mille unleashes some tremendous spectacle: masses of extras, bright colours, a still-impressive Red Sea parting, a terrific orgy around the fattest calf (de Mille was always a lot more comfortable with sexy, decadent entertainment than serious religion)
Moses isn't an easy role to play and one could mock Heston's stiff performance but he does have the right gravitas; de Carlo and Baxter impressed me in roles that you would have expected them to have swapped; Derek is mainly handsome and that's it; Paget has quite a big role (a woman who becomes a mistress then becomes redeemed); Robinson and Brynner are really excellent - Robinson has intelligence, humour and shrewdness despite being a villain and adds some much needed cynicism, while Brynner is very charismatic.
It's big and goes on forever and is a bit creaky but still impresses.
Movie review - Bergman#14 - "A Lesson in Love" (1954) ***
The words "Ingmar Bergman comedy" don't instantly fill me with a sense of delightful anticipation, but he did make many films about adultery and the middle classes which is the topic of many a comedy (particularly the theatre) so why not? This is about a gynaecologist who is having an affair with a patient so his wife tries to hook up with her ex... the gynaecologist's former best friend.
It's a comedy of remarriage and instead of Cary Grant and Irene Dunne we've got Eva Dahlbeck and Gunnar Bjornstrand. Dahlbeck is bright and lively (even if she doesn't appear until half an hour in) and Bjornstrand gives a good performance, even if he looks a bit too old and middle aged (like a stuffy Kevin Kline) when someone handsome would be more fun.
Bergman's touch is actually quite light here and the film bubbles along like a typical Hollywood comedy of the 40s and 50s, complete with wacky support characters and a climactic brawl in a nightclub - albeit with a slightly racier tone that you were allowed to have in Sweden. The plot construction isn't as strong - Bjornstrand's lover just appears at the beginning and never again, the false love interest/best friend character is never a threat because he doesn't really like Dahlbeck; around the two-thirds mark it ran out of pace. But it recovers and has a sweet, bright finale.
I never ever would have watched this if it hadn't been for Bergman and I don't know if I ever will again but it's a surprisingly fun movie.
(NB If I'm not mistaken that's a boom in shadow around half an hour in.)
It's a comedy of remarriage and instead of Cary Grant and Irene Dunne we've got Eva Dahlbeck and Gunnar Bjornstrand. Dahlbeck is bright and lively (even if she doesn't appear until half an hour in) and Bjornstrand gives a good performance, even if he looks a bit too old and middle aged (like a stuffy Kevin Kline) when someone handsome would be more fun.
Bergman's touch is actually quite light here and the film bubbles along like a typical Hollywood comedy of the 40s and 50s, complete with wacky support characters and a climactic brawl in a nightclub - albeit with a slightly racier tone that you were allowed to have in Sweden. The plot construction isn't as strong - Bjornstrand's lover just appears at the beginning and never again, the false love interest/best friend character is never a threat because he doesn't really like Dahlbeck; around the two-thirds mark it ran out of pace. But it recovers and has a sweet, bright finale.
I never ever would have watched this if it hadn't been for Bergman and I don't know if I ever will again but it's a surprisingly fun movie.
(NB If I'm not mistaken that's a boom in shadow around half an hour in.)
Play review - "The Bush King" by Alfred Dampier and W.J. Lincoln (1901)
This was an 1893 play from WJ Lincoln rewritten by Dampier to great acclaim in 1901, and which formed the basis of a 1911 (now lost) silent film. It's an enjoyable bushranger melodrama, featuring many common aspects of the time - a handsome hero (Edgar) who doesn't get along with his rich land-owning father; the father is is killed by the hero's villainous cousin, determined to get hold of the family property; hero is wrongly accused of the crime and is convicted of murder (shades of For the Term of His Natural Life), but escapes and becomes a bushranger, Captain Midnight. He romances a squatter's daughter as "Charles Fenton" (shades of Robbery Under Arms), despite being loved by Elsa, faithful daughter of Edgar's old friend Ned. He falls out with the bushrangers he's meant to be leading, and despite a jealous Elsa betraying him, manages to put away the bad guys and be reunited with the woman he loves.
There's a lot that's good about this - the set up is simple and clear, the characters are well motivated, and it's full of incident and action (much of which is inevitably described - eg Edgars's escape from gaol - but a bit of it we see eg rescuing Elsa from the hands of the villains). You can easily see why it would have made a good movie - there's several escapes and chases on horse back plus shoot outs and romance.
The best thing about it is the terrific character of Elsa, the brave woman who loves Edgar, constantly putting her life on the line for his (she even pretends to be Captain Midnight on horseback to draw police fire away from him), even though he loves another, being torn by jealousy and betraying him but changing her mind. I didn't mind her drunken bushman father Ned (created by Dampier to give himself a role) and the comic youngsters Wattie and Tottie (reading it you can see that in the right hands these parts would have been effective), plus a great line up of villains: evil cousin Vincent, his aristocratic partner in crime Stirling, the dodgy Joe, nasty bushranger Tom.
But there's a lot of problems. Much of the plotting is dodgy, Midnight is a lousy bushranger (he hardly robs anyone before having pangs of conscience), the character of Thelma (the squatter's daughter, Edgar's true love) is practically nothing and feels introduced too late, Edgar/Fenton/Midnight has hardly more complexity or interest and he doesn't do that much heroic stuff - Elsa seems far braver. He also doesn't clear his name - that's up to Joe turning evidence and the efforts of the police. The final wedding sequence feels like padding.
Still any skilled adapted would have fixed this in a screenplay and it's a shame no enterprising film company shot this in the 1930s.
There's a lot that's good about this - the set up is simple and clear, the characters are well motivated, and it's full of incident and action (much of which is inevitably described - eg Edgars's escape from gaol - but a bit of it we see eg rescuing Elsa from the hands of the villains). You can easily see why it would have made a good movie - there's several escapes and chases on horse back plus shoot outs and romance.
The best thing about it is the terrific character of Elsa, the brave woman who loves Edgar, constantly putting her life on the line for his (she even pretends to be Captain Midnight on horseback to draw police fire away from him), even though he loves another, being torn by jealousy and betraying him but changing her mind. I didn't mind her drunken bushman father Ned (created by Dampier to give himself a role) and the comic youngsters Wattie and Tottie (reading it you can see that in the right hands these parts would have been effective), plus a great line up of villains: evil cousin Vincent, his aristocratic partner in crime Stirling, the dodgy Joe, nasty bushranger Tom.
But there's a lot of problems. Much of the plotting is dodgy, Midnight is a lousy bushranger (he hardly robs anyone before having pangs of conscience), the character of Thelma (the squatter's daughter, Edgar's true love) is practically nothing and feels introduced too late, Edgar/Fenton/Midnight has hardly more complexity or interest and he doesn't do that much heroic stuff - Elsa seems far braver. He also doesn't clear his name - that's up to Joe turning evidence and the efforts of the police. The final wedding sequence feels like padding.
Still any skilled adapted would have fixed this in a screenplay and it's a shame no enterprising film company shot this in the 1930s.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Movie review - "Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow" (1959) *
I was looking forward to seeing this movie after reading it was a kind of AIP transitional film from their juvenile delinquent movies to the Beach Party epics, but it's really dull and stupid. A bunch of teenagers ride their hot rods and hang around a local cafe (where they watch a band whose gimmick is firing a gun into the ceiling). A pompous middle aged journalist is doing a piece on the kids (a terrible idea), there is a rival gang causing trouble, a slumber party goes to too long, some parents worry about the morals of their kids... none of it is interesting. Half way through it switches into a haunted house mystery, which isn't that interesting either.
As for the glimpses of Beach Party stuff, well... there's a comic bit where a little old lady drives a jalopy while a comic parakeet makes noises, some cute nerds. The haunted house sequence is would be touched upon with The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini, I guess. There are some songs but this badly lacks star value - there are no real names, not even John Ashley. In black and white too. This does mark a nadir of AIP movies but better ones did follow.
As for the glimpses of Beach Party stuff, well... there's a comic bit where a little old lady drives a jalopy while a comic parakeet makes noises, some cute nerds. The haunted house sequence is would be touched upon with The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini, I guess. There are some songs but this badly lacks star value - there are no real names, not even John Ashley. In black and white too. This does mark a nadir of AIP movies but better ones did follow.
Sunday, December 09, 2012
Play review – “Watch the Birdie” (1961) by Norman Krasna
One of Krasna’s lesser known farces
although it features several elements of his big hits: the protagonist is a
bright young girl trying to make it in the big city who gets up to some racy
adventures and falls in love with a nice young man. The gimmick here is quite
sexy – she’s a secretary for a lawyer who realizes she can make decent coin
being the other women in divorce suit photos.
That’s not a bad idea but Krasna doesn’t
really develop it – I kept waiting to for a husband to be a really major
character or a wife involved in the suit, but the major complication comes from
some guy who is in love with her who turns out to work for the IRS and the
girl's income isn't declared. There's an unexpectedly heavy subplot about the
lady who originally did the job who is smacked around by her husband.
It's alright, with some okay lines, I liked
the complication of a security check being done on the girl, and the
professional photographers, but is fairly minor farce.
Movie review - "Macao" (1952) ***
Not a great movie, not even then, but cherishable today because they don't make 'em like this anymore. And Jane Russell rarely had a better partner than Bob Mitchum, all sleepy eyed sexuality perfectly matching her Amazonian physique, and they have some enjoyable bantering dialogue to match.
They both wind up in Macao, quite seedily depicted here. Russell is looking for work and winds up as a singer in a nightclub (of course - she sings "One for My Baby and One for the Road"); Mitchum is travelling through and takes a shine to her, and is mistaken for a copper. Brad Dexter the baddy can't leave the city without being arrested which makes him unexpectedly sympathetic. Gloria Graham is wasted as his moll, William Bendix is great fun as a travelling salesman/investigator as is Thomas Gomez as a local.
There's some great shots of side streets and slinky bars and a plot that's a bit confusing; Mitchum is too passive and occasionally it's too silly. But it's fun, and I really wish Mitchum and Russell had made more movies together.
They both wind up in Macao, quite seedily depicted here. Russell is looking for work and winds up as a singer in a nightclub (of course - she sings "One for My Baby and One for the Road"); Mitchum is travelling through and takes a shine to her, and is mistaken for a copper. Brad Dexter the baddy can't leave the city without being arrested which makes him unexpectedly sympathetic. Gloria Graham is wasted as his moll, William Bendix is great fun as a travelling salesman/investigator as is Thomas Gomez as a local.
There's some great shots of side streets and slinky bars and a plot that's a bit confusing; Mitchum is too passive and occasionally it's too silly. But it's fun, and I really wish Mitchum and Russell had made more movies together.
Movie review - "The Candidate" (1972) ***
A highly regarded political satire, a mixture of Hollywood liberal wish fulfilment and documentary realism. Robert Redford is one of those wet dream candidates - handsome, smart, idealistic, a man who cares, Democrat royalty, working as a legal aid lawyer. He is tapped to run for Congress in a race that no one thinks he'll win so he can say anything he wants (which doesn't strike me as realistic but maybe I'm wrong).
I was in two minds about this. On one hand it felt over-rated because Redford's character is such a cypher - we never get a sense of what makes him tick, what drives him. You might go "well that's the point" but it isn't because he's clearly a man of achievement. I would have liked to know a bit more about his relationship with his father (Melvyn Douglas), who is reluctant to endorse him, and wife (Karen Carlson, from The Student Nurses) who is all for it. Redford's performance doesn't fill in the blanks, either - he's very handsome and charismatic but not a great public speaker. There's no Aaron Sorkin type arias or Gore Vidal wisecracks.
However what does make this special is the sense of verisimilitude about it - the script writer was heavily experienced in American politics and is shows: the back room shenanigans, meeting people on the campaign trial (a sexy groupie who strokes his hand, a dazzling encounter with Natalie Wood, running into a crazy druggie talking about his dog, people who throw water at him), the workers doing stuff on ads. Michael Ritchie really directs it well. It is a film worth watching I was just a bit disappointed considering all the raves I've heard about it.
I was in two minds about this. On one hand it felt over-rated because Redford's character is such a cypher - we never get a sense of what makes him tick, what drives him. You might go "well that's the point" but it isn't because he's clearly a man of achievement. I would have liked to know a bit more about his relationship with his father (Melvyn Douglas), who is reluctant to endorse him, and wife (Karen Carlson, from The Student Nurses) who is all for it. Redford's performance doesn't fill in the blanks, either - he's very handsome and charismatic but not a great public speaker. There's no Aaron Sorkin type arias or Gore Vidal wisecracks.
However what does make this special is the sense of verisimilitude about it - the script writer was heavily experienced in American politics and is shows: the back room shenanigans, meeting people on the campaign trial (a sexy groupie who strokes his hand, a dazzling encounter with Natalie Wood, running into a crazy druggie talking about his dog, people who throw water at him), the workers doing stuff on ads. Michael Ritchie really directs it well. It is a film worth watching I was just a bit disappointed considering all the raves I've heard about it.
Movie review - Bergman#12 - "Summer with Monika" (1953) ***1/2
My first Bergman teen film - because that's what it is, really, a melodrama teen film about two youngsters whose parents want to break up their romance so they head off to an island and live an idyllic existence for a time, until reality comes crashing back in when they start worrying about food and the girl gets pregnant.
A simple story, very well done with two excellent performances from the leads, particuarly Harriet Andersson. David Shipman wrote that the movie was misogynist, which I didn't feel at first, but the end of it does seem that way, with the poor guy just trying to make a living while his tramp of a woman (who up til then had just been high spirited and engging) can't resist c*ck.
The photography is beautiful and poetic, the story compelling for the most part, the direction deft. This is what the adaptation of The Delinquents should have been more like.
A simple story, very well done with two excellent performances from the leads, particuarly Harriet Andersson. David Shipman wrote that the movie was misogynist, which I didn't feel at first, but the end of it does seem that way, with the poor guy just trying to make a living while his tramp of a woman (who up til then had just been high spirited and engging) can't resist c*ck.
The photography is beautiful and poetic, the story compelling for the most part, the direction deft. This is what the adaptation of The Delinquents should have been more like.
Movie review - "A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas" (2011) **1/2
Kal Penn looks old tired and a bit fat here - which I guess gives his character some depth, but makes him sad rather than fun to be around. This does deal with the aging juvenalia of it's two leads - Harold is settled down, working and trying to have a baby, while Kumar is a bit lost.
I'm not a big fan of stoner comedy, but there is some hilarious stuff in here, like a baby on cocaine, Harold's Mexican relatives, and dealing with Snta. Neil Patrick Harris re-appears, doing a musical number (funny) and making fun of his status as a gay role model (the gag here is he's only pretending - not funny). The movie makes fun of all races equally - Jews, Indians, Koreans, Russians. Like many boysie comedies it seems to find women who want sex of men and men being reluctant to do it very funny.
I'm not a big fan of stoner comedy, but there is some hilarious stuff in here, like a baby on cocaine, Harold's Mexican relatives, and dealing with Snta. Neil Patrick Harris re-appears, doing a musical number (funny) and making fun of his status as a gay role model (the gag here is he's only pretending - not funny). The movie makes fun of all races equally - Jews, Indians, Koreans, Russians. Like many boysie comedies it seems to find women who want sex of men and men being reluctant to do it very funny.
Movie review - "Thin Ice" (1937) ***
Sonja Henie works at a winter resort where she falls for Tyrone Power, who, unbeknownst to her, is a prince. That's not a bad plot for a Sonia Henie musical - it gives her opportunities to skate, and there's enough bright deception, her accent is well covered, the bulk of the plot is driven by Power, there's plenty of time for other performers to take center stage (eg Joan Davis, who sings two songs).
Power's ridiculously unconvincing make up is funny, and he and Henie have good chemistry (they had an affair in real life); there's good support from people like Arthur Treacher and Melville Cooper, and the skating sequences are really spectacular. The plot probably should have had a false love interest for Power but I did like it's use of Ruritanian politics.
Power's ridiculously unconvincing make up is funny, and he and Henie have good chemistry (they had an affair in real life); there's good support from people like Arthur Treacher and Melville Cooper, and the skating sequences are really spectacular. The plot probably should have had a false love interest for Power but I did like it's use of Ruritanian politics.
Movie review - "Only Angels Have Wings" (1939) ****
A perfect Howard Hawks movie, which demonstrated his themes and skill like few others - to wit, it depicts a group of men being wisecracking and displaying grace under pressure while being professional, Americans in an exotic corner of the world, a woman who falls in with them and can hold her own in their company, and lots of terrific dialogue.
Cary Grant at first looks a little silly as a hard bitten flyer with his clean shaven face and sombrero but actually it's one of his best performances. Jean Arthur is great fun as the sweet show girl who winds up stranded with them, and there is fine support work from Thomas Mitchell, who has the typically Hawksian bromance with Grant.
Rita Hayworth's career shot up several notches from being in this movie as an ex of Grant's; she's extremely pretty but not much of an actress - but the beauty is enough. Richard Barthelmess has a haunted, doomed look which perfectly suits his character, and there's real camraderie amongst support actors like Sig Ruman and Noah Beery Jnr.
To be honest the model plane shots look a little silly now and it feels like it goes on for a half hour too long (there's a plane crash, then another plane crash), but it's wonderful atmosphere and sense of adventure hasn't dated a bit.
Cary Grant at first looks a little silly as a hard bitten flyer with his clean shaven face and sombrero but actually it's one of his best performances. Jean Arthur is great fun as the sweet show girl who winds up stranded with them, and there is fine support work from Thomas Mitchell, who has the typically Hawksian bromance with Grant.
Rita Hayworth's career shot up several notches from being in this movie as an ex of Grant's; she's extremely pretty but not much of an actress - but the beauty is enough. Richard Barthelmess has a haunted, doomed look which perfectly suits his character, and there's real camraderie amongst support actors like Sig Ruman and Noah Beery Jnr.
To be honest the model plane shots look a little silly now and it feels like it goes on for a half hour too long (there's a plane crash, then another plane crash), but it's wonderful atmosphere and sense of adventure hasn't dated a bit.
Movie review - "Forbidden World" (1982) **1/2
Sci fi epic from the late days of Roger Corman's New World, made to use sets from Galaxy of Terror though on a lot lower budget. It's an even more brazen rip-off of Alien, taking place on the one ship and with a creature who is just like the alien. But I enjoyed it a lot more than Galaxy of Terror - it's directed with a lot more energy, there's no rape sequence and considerably more pace.
Few New World sci fi pics had more gall about the amount of nudity on display - this has the Amazonian June Chadwick and the gorgeous Dawn Dunlap, who despite being on a space ship, find many opportunities to take their clothes off (a sauna, sex; there's even a scene with the two girls having a shower together to convey some exposition). There is some unfortunate combination of violence and sex, but the idea of using cancer to kill the monster is interesting, and I enjoyed the flash cuts.
This is certainly not in the league of Battle Beyond the Stars but remains daggy, trashy fun, and I'm surprised the director didn't have more of a top-level career.
Few New World sci fi pics had more gall about the amount of nudity on display - this has the Amazonian June Chadwick and the gorgeous Dawn Dunlap, who despite being on a space ship, find many opportunities to take their clothes off (a sauna, sex; there's even a scene with the two girls having a shower together to convey some exposition). There is some unfortunate combination of violence and sex, but the idea of using cancer to kill the monster is interesting, and I enjoyed the flash cuts.
This is certainly not in the league of Battle Beyond the Stars but remains daggy, trashy fun, and I'm surprised the director didn't have more of a top-level career.
Movie review - "The Plainsman" (1936) ***
Gloriously silly Western which pillages history like few others but is actually quite fun. Jean Arthur is adorable as Calamity Jane, who pines for Gary Cooper/Wild Bill Hickok, who does have Arthur's picture and at one stage says he loves her, but for the most past seems monumentally uninterested in her - or in any woman. He's far more focused on old mate James Ellison/Buffalo Bill, who has a new wife.
Even if this makes Cooper another in a very, very long line of gay cowboys, it's a decent enough set up for a Western, and Cecil B de Mille throws in some other standbys - to wit, an American selling guns to the Indians, a scene where the Indians complain about their land being stolen (just to cover those liberal bases before they're mowed down).
History buffs will just have to let go and enjoy the sheer gall of a movie where Abraham Lincoln's wife says "we'll be late for the theatre" and drags in Custer and his troops to be massacred. There is lots of decent action, an impressive cast (including Charles Bickford as a baddy and a young Anthony Quinn; I'm surprised Ellison didn't come a bigger star), terrific production values, a strong story, Arthur is cute. De Mille knew how to pour it on and he does here in spades.
Even if this makes Cooper another in a very, very long line of gay cowboys, it's a decent enough set up for a Western, and Cecil B de Mille throws in some other standbys - to wit, an American selling guns to the Indians, a scene where the Indians complain about their land being stolen (just to cover those liberal bases before they're mowed down).
History buffs will just have to let go and enjoy the sheer gall of a movie where Abraham Lincoln's wife says "we'll be late for the theatre" and drags in Custer and his troops to be massacred. There is lots of decent action, an impressive cast (including Charles Bickford as a baddy and a young Anthony Quinn; I'm surprised Ellison didn't come a bigger star), terrific production values, a strong story, Arthur is cute. De Mille knew how to pour it on and he does here in spades.
Movie review - "Get the Gringo" (2012) **
This starts marvellously, with a fun sequence of Mel Gibson in a clown suit fleeing cops with a dying partner, trying to race to the Mexico border, and some funny narration. And at first things are promising - Mexican cops steal his money and Mel winds up in an eccentric prison where you can live the high life if you have contacts but if you don't it's not going to be fun.
Unfortunately as the movie goes on it gets less and less interesting. Mel's character remains sketchy, his story uncompelling; what should be about getting the money and getting out of gaol becomes more about helping a little ten year old kid not have his liver cut out (it's like there are two narratives operating side by side); excellent Mexican actors are given types to play rather than characters; the world of the prison is interesting enough, but then the last third is mostly set outside it back in America; and some scenes just felt plain unrealistic, such as the shoot out with three American gun men.
It's not that funny and there's some unexciting bang bang at the finale, where Mel is a super hero, plus some yucky gore in the form of liver transplants and torture, and a confusing epilogue. I get where they were trying to go with this - it's a sort of Out of Sight vibe - but they didn't have Elmore Leonard. Mel is in good haggard form, I just wish the movie had been better written and directed.
Unfortunately as the movie goes on it gets less and less interesting. Mel's character remains sketchy, his story uncompelling; what should be about getting the money and getting out of gaol becomes more about helping a little ten year old kid not have his liver cut out (it's like there are two narratives operating side by side); excellent Mexican actors are given types to play rather than characters; the world of the prison is interesting enough, but then the last third is mostly set outside it back in America; and some scenes just felt plain unrealistic, such as the shoot out with three American gun men.
It's not that funny and there's some unexciting bang bang at the finale, where Mel is a super hero, plus some yucky gore in the form of liver transplants and torture, and a confusing epilogue. I get where they were trying to go with this - it's a sort of Out of Sight vibe - but they didn't have Elmore Leonard. Mel is in good haggard form, I just wish the movie had been better written and directed.
Friday, December 07, 2012
Movie review - "Torrid Zone" (1940) ***
Few movies ripped off others so brazenly - this one takes its inspiration from Only Angels Have Wings (American show girl stuck in nameless South American country and has adventures with tough, wisecracking Americans working for an American company down there who seem to run the place), The Front Page (Pat O'Brien tries to talk company man James Cagney out of retiring to a desk job) and Red Dust (trashy but honest Ann Sheridan chases after Cagney who is involved with a woman married to one of his co workers).
It doesn't always work - the piece shifts tone, and doesn't always seem to understand what worked about those plots in the other film. For instance, there's no real connection between Cagney and the married woman (whereas Clark Gable genuinely falls for Mary Astor in Red Dust) or Cagney and her husband (they don't really like each other - whereas in Dust they were good friends); O'Brien's friendship with Cagney seems underdeveloped.
But the Only Angels Have Wings stuff is pretty good, with Ann Sheridan excellent value as the show girl (check out that low cut dress we first see her in), and she teams well with Cagney - even if, oddly, Cagney doesnt appear for the first 20 minutes or so (at first it seems like O'Brien will be the hero). There's lots of bright dialogue, it's fast paced with a strong cast (including George Tobias, who is very fun as a local bandit).
It's also fascinating to see O'Brien and Cagney bossing around the locals as if they run the country. (Which, in this time of United Fruit, American companies may well have done - but it's rare to see a Hollywood film so shameless about its own country's imperialism).
Wednesday, December 05, 2012
Movie review - "The Ghost Train" (1941) ***
Enjoyable, unpretentious British comedy thriller based on a well-known play. It's a vehicle for Arthur Askey, a comic I'm not too familiar with, but he's very lively and engaging. There's not a lot of story on display here - I was surprised how much comedy "business" took up the running time - but the atmosphere is enjoyable: a cross section of British types stuck at an isolated train station, a mysterious legend, a creepy old station master, a midnight ghost train, a possibly insane woman turning up along with her brother, some fifth columnist Nazis, a secret agent.
It's all rather fun - I was absolutely in the right mood to watch it and it worked a treat.
Monday, December 03, 2012
Movie review - "Underwater" (1955) **
A famously expensive money loser from RKO which made me scratch my head as to how it could have cost so much money. Location shooting maybe, and water - but it may as well have been done in the studio. Old Paramount/Universal south sea movies have better production value; a boat on an ocean pretty much looks like a boat on an ocean.
The dim plot has married couple (why have them married?) Richard Egan and Jane Russell go diving for treasure with their old friend Gilbert Roland and a girl than Roland meets who has a boat, Lori Nelson - plus some random priest. You keep expecting there to be some twist - someone of these to die, or turn traitor, or have a love triangle... but nothing. Everyone kind of gets along.
I expected to at least have plenty of shots of Jane Russell in revealing costumes and plunging cleavage, but she doesn't do much, just wrestles with a Mexican accent. You get more cleavage from Richard Egan, who looks like her strolled off the set of a peplum, and walks around in his shorts a lot, as does Gilbert Roland. Nelson doesn't even get into a bikini that much.
There are some racist villains - some dopey Mexican shark hunters who are like the bandits in The Treasure of Sierra Madre - who are no real threat (get this: the finale ends when the baddies are just paid off instead of being overcome). The goody goody priest feels like something from out of Mara Maru, the underwater footage looks murky and dull, the plot is unexciting. Lovers and Luggers did this much better over twenty years before.
The dim plot has married couple (why have them married?) Richard Egan and Jane Russell go diving for treasure with their old friend Gilbert Roland and a girl than Roland meets who has a boat, Lori Nelson - plus some random priest. You keep expecting there to be some twist - someone of these to die, or turn traitor, or have a love triangle... but nothing. Everyone kind of gets along.
I expected to at least have plenty of shots of Jane Russell in revealing costumes and plunging cleavage, but she doesn't do much, just wrestles with a Mexican accent. You get more cleavage from Richard Egan, who looks like her strolled off the set of a peplum, and walks around in his shorts a lot, as does Gilbert Roland. Nelson doesn't even get into a bikini that much.
There are some racist villains - some dopey Mexican shark hunters who are like the bandits in The Treasure of Sierra Madre - who are no real threat (get this: the finale ends when the baddies are just paid off instead of being overcome). The goody goody priest feels like something from out of Mara Maru, the underwater footage looks murky and dull, the plot is unexciting. Lovers and Luggers did this much better over twenty years before.
Play review - "Love in E Flat" (1967) by Norman Krasna
One of Krasna's least known plays - it was not a hit and was never filmed - is definitely not one of his best, despite being in his wheelhouse i.e. a romantic comedy farce. The main problem is the idea - a young couple live together in an open relationship, which is a little shocking (Krasna trying to move with the times) until you realise that she just wants to get married; she discovers that he has been bugging her conversations, which makes me not like him, and so she bugs him and starts to lie about an ex boyfriend, which makes me not like her. So while there's some frantic running around and funny one liners (this is more "gag-gy" than typical Krasna comedies) you don't really care of sympathise, even before the painfully predictable finale (hey - they both love each other and want to get married) comes into view. It badly lacks a false love interest - as in a genuine person, not a made up one.
Movie review - "In the Presence of a Clown" (1997) **
Bergman's career as a big force in international cinema seemed to send with Fanny and Alexander but he kept churning out work in Sweden. This was one of his last films, made when he was 79 or so - it's a jolt to see something that looks so "modern" (it was shot on video tape). But it's still the same bunch of great actors and long scenes about the human condition.
This has the benefit of a great central idea: a 54 year old man is in a lunatic asylum and wants to make a movie. But it drags on - it's almost two hours - and after initially getting into this (initial talks with a shrink, a hallucination about a topless clown, the ex wife) it dragged on and seemed to run out of story and interesting ideas. Like all Bergman films there will be people who really liked this but I wasn't not wild about it and had trouble watching it all the way through.
This has the benefit of a great central idea: a 54 year old man is in a lunatic asylum and wants to make a movie. But it drags on - it's almost two hours - and after initially getting into this (initial talks with a shrink, a hallucination about a topless clown, the ex wife) it dragged on and seemed to run out of story and interesting ideas. Like all Bergman films there will be people who really liked this but I wasn't not wild about it and had trouble watching it all the way through.
Sunday, December 02, 2012
Movie review - "Out of the Past" (1947) **** (warning: spoilers)
One of the most famous film noirs there is, which ticks all the boxes - a complicated plot involving dames, sex, betrayal and a pile of cash which is impossible to follow; a doomed hero wearing a trench coast; a femme fetale; a Mr Big who has tentacles everywhere; gorgeous shots of cigarette smoke (I wonder how many people took up the habit after seeing film noir); darkened alleys and corrupt small towns; the innocence of the great outdoors; redemption and death; wise cracking and nihilistic dialogue ("baby I don't care"); a good but honest woman; a downbeat ending; the theme of being unable to escape your fate.
Robert Mitchum is in great form as the smart detective who gets sucked into the tale by two vipers: Jane Greer (who never became a big star - I guess she lacked the charisma of Ava Gardner - but is good here) and Kirk Douglas, who is superb. Strong support cast, too, and wonderful atmosphere.
The story has a problem - instead of building momentum it restarts around half an hour in when Mitchum is given a whole new mission (i.e. find the tax records). And does it really need to be so confusing?
Robert Mitchum is in great form as the smart detective who gets sucked into the tale by two vipers: Jane Greer (who never became a big star - I guess she lacked the charisma of Ava Gardner - but is good here) and Kirk Douglas, who is superb. Strong support cast, too, and wonderful atmosphere.
The story has a problem - instead of building momentum it restarts around half an hour in when Mitchum is given a whole new mission (i.e. find the tax records). And does it really need to be so confusing?
Friday, November 30, 2012
Play review - "Robbery Under Arms" (1890) by Dampier and Walch
There was a time when more Australians would have seen this theatre adaptation than actually read the famous novel. (Or at least a version of it.) It's been jazzed up and changed considerably: they've taken a cop and turned him into a villain who tries to man-handle the Marston's sister (a la Kate Kelly); there is a nice police officer who admires Starlight; Starlight is now a member of the English gentry who came to Australia because he took the blame for a crime committed by another member of his family (a la For the Term of His Natural Life); two comic Irish cops are added; Starlight is allowed to live to marry Aileen.
A lot of this is a mess - it's a jolt to introduce the Morrison sisters; momentum feels lost when Starlight seems to be killed and then Dick escapes. But the addition of a villainous copper works, Moran remains a strong antagonist, there's some great bits like Aileen pulling a gun on some people. The boring character of George (the "contrast with the life of crime" character) is still there - did anyone consider turning him into a villain? Plenty of action and incident - you can see how audiences would have liked it. A lot more successful than the 1957 version. This was the basis of a now-lost silent film adaptation.
A lot of this is a mess - it's a jolt to introduce the Morrison sisters; momentum feels lost when Starlight seems to be killed and then Dick escapes. But the addition of a villainous copper works, Moran remains a strong antagonist, there's some great bits like Aileen pulling a gun on some people. The boring character of George (the "contrast with the life of crime" character) is still there - did anyone consider turning him into a villain? Plenty of action and incident - you can see how audiences would have liked it. A lot more successful than the 1957 version. This was the basis of a now-lost silent film adaptation.
Movie review - "Highway Dragnet" (1954) **
A minor B picture, mostly notable for being an early screen credit (I think it might be his first) for Roger Corman. He helped provide the story and is down as a co-producer - and certainly the tale isn't too dissimilar to the first he did for AIP, The Fast and the Furious. Richard Conte is an ex-GI who is falsely accused of murder and has to go on the lam, hooking up with a good looking girl - actually two good looking girls.
The film is a lot more polished than many of Corman's early films - in addition to Conte it's got Joan Bennett and Wanda Hendrix as the female leads (Bennett is the suspicious one, Hendrix is horny). The characters' motivations seem to go all over the shop - instead of hiding people go into plain view, the women don't bail when they clearly should.
There's an interesting finale at a house half filled with water and it's novel to see something set in Nevada at the time. Conte isn't really engaging as a star but at least can act; I enjoyed the trashy blonde and Hendrix's cuteness; Bennett looks old. Only really for completists of 50s film noir or Roger Corman. Or Richard Conte (hey, you never know - there might be some).
The film is a lot more polished than many of Corman's early films - in addition to Conte it's got Joan Bennett and Wanda Hendrix as the female leads (Bennett is the suspicious one, Hendrix is horny). The characters' motivations seem to go all over the shop - instead of hiding people go into plain view, the women don't bail when they clearly should.
There's an interesting finale at a house half filled with water and it's novel to see something set in Nevada at the time. Conte isn't really engaging as a star but at least can act; I enjoyed the trashy blonde and Hendrix's cuteness; Bennett looks old. Only really for completists of 50s film noir or Roger Corman. Or Richard Conte (hey, you never know - there might be some).
Movie review - "Barbary Coast" (1935) **
Early work from Hawks has some pep and great production design plus a strong turn from Edward G Robinson but it got on my nerves. Mostly I guess because I don't like Miriam Hopkins, who I never thought was a very good actress - with those funny lips and exaggerated acting. She plays a woman who turns up in Gold Rush San Francisco to find her fiancee has been killed so she goes to work at a saloon run by Robinson.
The movie is almost half over before she runs into poet slash gold miner Joel McCrea who speaks in flourishing rambling monologues more typical of writer Ben Hecht than someone McCrea should be playing. He's later so shocked to find Hopkins works in a (gasp) saloon (that hussey!) they he gets drunk and gambles away all his money. He's meant to be the hero and Hopkins can't help falling for him. What happened to Hawks' admiration for spirited, independent women?
Robinson runs San Fran with an iron fist so some locals get together and start stringing up his henchmen (well played by Brian Donlevy)... these are also meant to be the heroes too because they are not punished. Hopkins sobs some more, Robinson gets jealous then has an unconvincing change of heart...
This simply isn't that good.
David Niven has a very small role but I blinked and missed him.
Movie review - "The Native Born" (1913) by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan
The third in Bailey/Duggan's unofficial "squatter's daughter trilogy" where the material from a successful first play were rather ruthlessly rehashed: a handsome lead actor, a comic co-lead (written as a lead for Bailey), comic relief law enforcement, dastardly villains and his even more villainous off sider, a squatter's daughter heroine who is feisty and brave but actually doesn't do much action, a comic spinster, a piece of paper, rescues. This has the benefit of being set in Mount Kosciusko in the alpine region which is different.
There are some first rate comedy scenes, no doubt indicating the success of On Our Selection. The partnership of Duggan and Bailey soon wound up but they had an impact on Australian theatre like few others.
There are some first rate comedy scenes, no doubt indicating the success of On Our Selection. The partnership of Duggan and Bailey soon wound up but they had an impact on Australian theatre like few others.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Movie review - "Last of the Mohicians" (1936) ***1/2
In making his own version of the famous novel, Michael Mann paid tribute to Philip Dunne's adaptation for this one, saying he really knocked the book into shape. He did too, focusing the drama on the clash between Hawkeye and the Heyward, making the action flow logically, and creating believable romance.
I noted Mann made some changes - for instance, here the movie ends with Hawkeye and Heyward going to rescue Cora (both determined to die for her) and not the fight between Magua and Chingachook, and also here Heyward is allowed to live (so too is the colonel); this movie is a bit more sympathetic to that character and the British although the American-British tension is still shown. It also puts more emphasis on the Alice-Uncas romance.
It's a very exciting movie - I didn't expect to keep watching but I did. Randolph Scott is fine as Hawkeye (there's not much you can do about those fur caps), Binnie Barnes is bland as Cora but Herbert Wilcoxon is ideal as the stuffy Heyward, Robert Barrett and Heather Angel are likeable interracial lovers (as if they're going to be allowed to live) and Bruce Cabot a wonderful villain. Not particularly well directed - imagine if John Ford had been able to have a go - but great fun.
I noted Mann made some changes - for instance, here the movie ends with Hawkeye and Heyward going to rescue Cora (both determined to die for her) and not the fight between Magua and Chingachook, and also here Heyward is allowed to live (so too is the colonel); this movie is a bit more sympathetic to that character and the British although the American-British tension is still shown. It also puts more emphasis on the Alice-Uncas romance.
It's a very exciting movie - I didn't expect to keep watching but I did. Randolph Scott is fine as Hawkeye (there's not much you can do about those fur caps), Binnie Barnes is bland as Cora but Herbert Wilcoxon is ideal as the stuffy Heyward, Robert Barrett and Heather Angel are likeable interracial lovers (as if they're going to be allowed to live) and Bruce Cabot a wonderful villain. Not particularly well directed - imagine if John Ford had been able to have a go - but great fun.
Book review - "Flashman and the Great Game" (1975) by George MacDonald Fraser
Fraser was at his peak around this time, consistently turning out Flashmans of high quality. This is perhaps the best of them all - I thought it would make the best movie because it tells the one story, whereas the others are often broken into two halves. It is also the most emotionally devastating of the series - an odd description for a Flashman novel I know but it suits. Usually in Flashman stories you can be a bit removed from the impact of what happens, as Flashman is, but in this one people that Flashman knows, likes and even loves go through turmoil and are killed, sometimes horribly: the Rani of Jhansi, Skene the political officer, Ibrahim Khan his former blood brother (who grows up to become the same surly Pathan fighter who consistently pops up in Flashman books), Scud East, the horny Mrs Leslie. You feel their deaths - it really packs a wallop.
Inevitably this slants towards the British side of the mutiny although the Indian side is depicted sympathetically - the buffoonish thoughtlessness of the English missionaries, the incompetence of (some) of the army and politicians, the cruelty of British reprisals; against that are the horror of the massacres at Meerut and Cawnpore, the struggle at Lucknow, the viciousness of the Russian agents.
This contains some of Fraser's best writing: some brilliant one liners (e.g. Flashman looking down our noses at them like proper Britons should do with rebellious natives who've got the drop on them, "I shan't be writing to mother about this"), excellent descriptions of action, great comic set pieces (like Kavanagh running out from Cawnpore), first rate sketches of historical figures (Queen Victoria, Palmerston, Cardigan, Campbell, Havelock), moving sections (the death of Scud East and the Rhani), memorable fictional creatures (e.g. the civilian colonel), and the brilliant finale with Flashman strapped to a gun by Brits who think he's a mutineer. There's even a very witty coda with the revelation that Tom Brown's School Days has been published. He does use the "n" word an awful lot.
As a side note, I don't think Flashman was ever braver than he is in this novel. He says he's a coward all the way but he goes on all the missions he's sent on, and never shirks his duty even in Cawnpore. He probably had no other option but there's no "pure Flashman" moments like throwing women out of sleds or anything like that. I've read it about five times and still enjoy it.
Inevitably this slants towards the British side of the mutiny although the Indian side is depicted sympathetically - the buffoonish thoughtlessness of the English missionaries, the incompetence of (some) of the army and politicians, the cruelty of British reprisals; against that are the horror of the massacres at Meerut and Cawnpore, the struggle at Lucknow, the viciousness of the Russian agents.
This contains some of Fraser's best writing: some brilliant one liners (e.g. Flashman looking down our noses at them like proper Britons should do with rebellious natives who've got the drop on them, "I shan't be writing to mother about this"), excellent descriptions of action, great comic set pieces (like Kavanagh running out from Cawnpore), first rate sketches of historical figures (Queen Victoria, Palmerston, Cardigan, Campbell, Havelock), moving sections (the death of Scud East and the Rhani), memorable fictional creatures (e.g. the civilian colonel), and the brilliant finale with Flashman strapped to a gun by Brits who think he's a mutineer. There's even a very witty coda with the revelation that Tom Brown's School Days has been published. He does use the "n" word an awful lot.
As a side note, I don't think Flashman was ever braver than he is in this novel. He says he's a coward all the way but he goes on all the missions he's sent on, and never shirks his duty even in Cawnpore. He probably had no other option but there's no "pure Flashman" moments like throwing women out of sleds or anything like that. I've read it about five times and still enjoy it.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Movie review - "Frog Dreaming" (1985) **
If Brian Trenchard Smith had had better luck with the scripts he filmed he might have had a career more like Simon Wincer's - not that he's had a bad career, it's just his filmography lacks something like a Phar Lap or Free Willy, which he was perfectly capable of making. This kids film is full of energy, charm, verve and pace, and for a while you forget the basic story isn't that great. But it isn't that great and ultimately this isn't that good.
He's not helped either by Henry Thomas' rather flat performance in the lead. He seems monumentally uninterested in what's going on, at times even bored; compare his work with that of Rachel Friend, who is obviously less experienced and can go over the top, but you can see the emotion all over her face. They have a cute tween urst relationship (it's actually kind of a menage a trois, with Friend's little sister Tamsin West also involved) which helps Thomas; so too does the fact Thomas plays several scenes with Tony Barry, who is very good as Thomas' guardian. (It's a shame Barry never got to play a super dad for a long stint on a TV show he is the perfect laconic Aussie dad. Even if he is a Kiwi.)
The plot as Thomas investigate mysterious goings on at a water hole. But there are no real stakes - unlike BMX Bandits where the stakes were high (wanting to raise money for a BMX track, stopping a robbery, baddies who wants a robbery to go ahead, the MacGuffin of the walkie talkies), this has none. The only thing driving Thomas is curiosity, there's no real reason to uncover the mystery, there are no real baddies except Friends understandably protective dad (why not throw in some thieves or something?), and Thomas is passive at the climax.
It's a real shame because the direction is brisk, the support cast great and the scenery wonderful. Aboriginal lore is rich fodder for for a kids film - it would be worth revisiting.
He's not helped either by Henry Thomas' rather flat performance in the lead. He seems monumentally uninterested in what's going on, at times even bored; compare his work with that of Rachel Friend, who is obviously less experienced and can go over the top, but you can see the emotion all over her face. They have a cute tween urst relationship (it's actually kind of a menage a trois, with Friend's little sister Tamsin West also involved) which helps Thomas; so too does the fact Thomas plays several scenes with Tony Barry, who is very good as Thomas' guardian. (It's a shame Barry never got to play a super dad for a long stint on a TV show he is the perfect laconic Aussie dad. Even if he is a Kiwi.)
The plot as Thomas investigate mysterious goings on at a water hole. But there are no real stakes - unlike BMX Bandits where the stakes were high (wanting to raise money for a BMX track, stopping a robbery, baddies who wants a robbery to go ahead, the MacGuffin of the walkie talkies), this has none. The only thing driving Thomas is curiosity, there's no real reason to uncover the mystery, there are no real baddies except Friends understandably protective dad (why not throw in some thieves or something?), and Thomas is passive at the climax.
It's a real shame because the direction is brisk, the support cast great and the scenery wonderful. Aboriginal lore is rich fodder for for a kids film - it would be worth revisiting.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Play reviews - "Time and the Conways" (1937) by J P Priestley
Before Alan Ayckborn played around with time there was Priestley - in 1919 the Conway family irritatingly blather about garbage, then we fast forward to 1937 where they irritatingly whine about how hard their lives are. It's a cute idea and there is some power because people's lives are ruined and disappointment ensued - I just didn't really like any of the characters.
Movie review - "Quartet" (1948) ***
Every now and then omnibus films are really popular - this kicked off a vogue in the late 40s, there was another one in the late 60s with Amicus horror tales. These four stories here come from Somerset Maugham, and are very sensible dramas sensibly adapted by R. C. Sherriff. That's kind of a back-handed compliment but this is an extremely competently made movie. It does feel like TV at times, but the quality of acting is very high and the stories are quite good.
The first one has Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne briefly reunited in a story of Radford worrying about his son going off the rails; then Dirk Bogarde plays perhaps the first in what would be a long, long line of men not particularly interested in women, a rich man's son determined to play the piano; following that is George Cole as a man who marries a woman way too hot for him (Susan Shaw) (not that this is the point of the story - that's to do with her not wanting him to fly a kite); then Cecil Parker worries about his wife writing a racy novel.
Noel Coward once observed Maugham always looked on the human heart as a necessary organ rather than something to be listened to (I could be paraphrasing) - emotions are dealt with in a matter of fact way. Mai Zetterling and Honor Blackman are achingly young and gorgeous, Bogarde was effective already, it's crisply directed. Civilised entertainment all round.
The first one has Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne briefly reunited in a story of Radford worrying about his son going off the rails; then Dirk Bogarde plays perhaps the first in what would be a long, long line of men not particularly interested in women, a rich man's son determined to play the piano; following that is George Cole as a man who marries a woman way too hot for him (Susan Shaw) (not that this is the point of the story - that's to do with her not wanting him to fly a kite); then Cecil Parker worries about his wife writing a racy novel.
Noel Coward once observed Maugham always looked on the human heart as a necessary organ rather than something to be listened to (I could be paraphrasing) - emotions are dealt with in a matter of fact way. Mai Zetterling and Honor Blackman are achingly young and gorgeous, Bogarde was effective already, it's crisply directed. Civilised entertainment all round.
Movie review - "Dad and Dave Come to Town" (1938) ****1/2
(This article was previously published by the AFI)
When I was a student at AFTRS many moons
ago, I wanted to do a paper on a classic Australian film. Our lecturer, the
very lovely and passionate Jane Mills was all for it, “as long as it wasn’t
bloody Dad and Dave Come to Town again”. I remember thinking at the time,
“Jeez, Jane, what brought that on?” but I never asked why. I don’t think Jane
hated the film – although that’s always a possibility – I think she was just
sick of its position in the Australian cinematic firmament: a pre-revival
comedy that people actually enjoyed watching. Well, I was talked out of it
twelve years ago, but the time has come to bring this film back under the
spotlight.
You don’t hear much about
Dad and Dave nowadays, but there was a time – the first half of the twentieth
century, to be precise – when Australians couldn’t get enough of them: the
comic antics of these Queensland farmers were eagerly consumed by the public
through scores of short stories, several magazines, best-selling story
collections, a phenomenally successful theatre adaptation and its sequel, two
popular silent movies in the ‘20s, four even more popular sound films in the
‘30s, comic strips, and a radio show that ran for 15 years, not to mention
inspiring countless rip-offs (The Hayseeds, The Waybacks, Possum Paddock). For
a while there, Dad and Dave was the most blue-chip flop-proof franchise in
Australian show business. Several actors played Dad Rudd but the one most
identified with the role was New Zealand-born Bert Bailey, who essayed the
irascible farmer in thousands of stage performances from 1912 to 1929, and a
tetralogy of movies for Ken G. Hall the following decade.
Hall launched his directing career with a
Dad and Dave film, On Our Selection, and although he went on to make
sixteen more movies over the next decade, he always returned to the Rudds
whenever he needed a sure-fire hit. In 1938 this was particularly urgent since
the English government had ruled that Australian films no longer counted as
British under local quota laws. Hall could no longer rely on overseas sales for
his films; profits needed to be made in the domestic market, and in Hall’s mind
the best way to ensure that was to make a comedy with a popular star – and no
Australian star was bigger than Bert Bailey as Dad Rudd.
Hall’s own favourite of the Dad and Dave
films was Dad Rudd MP, but Dad and Dave Come to Town remains my
favourite of the series – indeed, of all Hall’s movies – because it has the
biggest heart. You don’t often hear the word “heart” used in discussing Hall’s
films, even by Hall. He would talk about stars, publicity, production value,
female interest, the importance of a good climax, special effects, the public
always being right, character actors, showmanship and sound recording
equipment, but rarely emotion. This put him apart from filmmakers who wore
their hearts more obviously on their sleeves, such as Raymond Longford and
Charles Chauvel, and who (therefore?) enjoy greater artistic reputations. But
the best of Hall’s movies had heart in spades, most of all Dad and Dave Come to
Town.
There’s probably a lot of people who
haven’t seen the film (it’s bewilderingly difficult to get hold of today –
brushing up for this article, I had to see a copy at the NFSA office in
Sydney), so I should give a quick synopsis: Dad (Bert Bailey) is engaged in
various comic shenanigans at his farm when he learns his brother has died and
left Dad a house and woman’s fashion store in the city. Dad travels there to
investigate, taking his wife (Connie Martyn) and two eldest children, Dave
(Fred MacDonald) and Jill (Shirley Ann Richards), with him. The house,
Bellavista, is under the regime of the housekeeper, Miss Quince (Marie D’Alton)
while the store, Cecille’s, is being deliberately run into the ground by the
treacherous manager, Rawlins (Cecil Perry), who is secretly in cahoots with
Pierre (Sidney Wheeler), the owner of a rival store. Dad installs Jill as
manager, and she updates the stock, gets rid of Rawlins, promotes the
floorwalker Entwistle (Alec Kellaway), and hires a new publicity agent, Jim
Bradley (Billy Rayes). Jill decides to completely refurbish Cecille’s and host
a major fashion show; Dad agrees to finance it all but has to mortgage his farm
to cover the costs. Pierre then reveals he lent Dad’s brother a thousand pounds
and sends in the bailiffs to repossess the store during the fashion show, but
Dave fights them off with the help of Entwistle and his new girlfriend Myrtle
(Muriel Ford). The show is a big success, Pierre arrives to call in the debt –
only for Dad to be bailed out at the last minute by his old neighbour, Old Ryan
(Marshall Crosby) and all ends happily.
Why do I love this movie? For starters,
it’s a very good script, well-structured and tight. “Well-structured” isn’t a back handed
compliment – as a writer, I know how hard that is to achieve, and is a
something many films fail at time and time again. The action moves along
briskly and logically, stopping several times for comic set pieces, which were
usually written by an uncredited gag team. Some of these creak (Dad and Myrtle
sabotaging Pierre’s front display), some are obscure (I’d love someone to
explain the busman’s holiday joke to me) but others are first rate, such as
Bill Ryan (Peter Finch!) asking Dad for Sarah Rudd’s (Valerie Scanlan) hand in
marriage when Dad thinks he wants to buy their dog. There is also some of the
best rom-com dialogue in Australian cinema history (admittedly not a very big
field) in the exchanges between Jill and Jim Bradley, which are bright, snappy
and clever. The script is certainly far superior to any in Hollywood’s Ma and
Pa Kettle series, which tended to be repetitive, and ranks up with the best of
the Andy Hardy series at MGM in the ‘30s and ‘40s.
I’ve always enjoyed Dad and Dave Come to
Town for it’s acting, too. Bert Bailey and Fred MacDonald had been playing Dad
and Dave since 1912 and could have done it in their sleep by now (they probably
did at times), but Hall kept them lively. Peter Finch makes a wonderful feature
film debut as Bill Ryan, looking like he stepped straight off the farm, skinny
as a rake with his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down like a yo-yo; Finch was
dreadful in some of the British comedies he later made like Simon and Laura, but he’s very funny here.
Jill Rudd is easily the best role Shirley
Ann Richards ever had. Richards had an appeal similar to that of the young
Olivia de Havilland – she looked like a good girl, but there was always a
twinkle in the eye; virginal but with the promise of a lively honeymoon.
Throughout her career Richards usually had to play against handsome elder lunks
or gentlemen players, even in Hollywood – this film marked the one time she was
matched against a spirited actor who seemed her contemporary, Billy Rayes.
Rayes was an American touring the country with his juggling vaudeville act when
cast as Jim Bradley (Hall frequently press-ganged touring foreigners into his
films) and this seems to be his only movie – a great waste, for his scenes with
Richards snap and crackle.
But the really great thing about this film
for me isn’t its script or acting, it’s the fact it’s so warm and inclusive.
The Rudds may bicker, but deep down everyone loves and supports each other: all
the Rudd kids work for their father; Dad hires Jill to manage Cecille’s and
puts her in charge of all decisions; Mum is supportive of her husband and
daughter. Outsiders, too, are brought into the family fold: Bill Ryan is a
moron but Dad allows him to marry Sarah because they love each other; Jim
Bradley is a cocky city slicker, but Dad likes and respects him, and he becomes
part of the Rudd family circle; so, too, do dimwitted but loyal sales girl
Myrtle, gay Entwistle, and reformed-bad-girl-model Sonya (Leila Steppe). In
fact, the only really nasty people in the whole film are Pierre and Rawlins
(both of whom have pencil moustaches – make of that what you will). Yokels,
gays, press agents, farmers, models, feminists, all under the one roof – it’s
not SBS but this is pretty multicultural stuff for 1938.
It’s also remarkably progressive. Okay,
yes, Entwistle is a gay stereotype with fluttering wrists and obsession with
women’s clothes, but he is clearly out, which was unusual for the time (“all he
can think about is frocks – why, he can’t even see the woman inside them,”
cracks Rawlins) and while he’s mostly played for laughs, he’s also a brave,
loyal friend of the Rudds, with a kind heart and good ideas how to run the
store; he works hard, and puts his body on the line to fight off Pierre’s
bailiffs at the end. Entwistle is definitely camp but he’s no camper than
Jonathan Kurtiss (Damien Bodie) on the TV show Winners and Losers and
was even more popular with audiences – indeed, he was brought back to the
series in Dad Rudd MP.
The film is quasi-feminist, too, with Dad
handing over the reigns of the business to his daughter Jill, who calls the
shots, tells Jim “Don’t call me girlie”, says she doesn’t want to be “stuck
away in a little country town” for the rest of her life, is her boyfriend’s
boss, and shows female solidarity with Sonya. She’s a far better feminist role
model than Sarah Hardy in the Andy Hardy series, who was always mocked whenever
she expressed a desire to find a job, or any of the daughters in the Kettle
movies, who just wanted to get married. Mum Rudd isn’t much of a role – it
never has been (her arc in this film consists of reclaiming the kitchen at
Bellavista from Miss Quince) – but at least she has a brain, encourages her
daughter’s ambition, and inspires her husband by telling him to man up rather
than using the blathering, absent-minded idiotic platitudes of Ma Hardy over in
MGM land.
I also like it how Dad and Dave Come to
Town supports capitalism with a heart. The Rudds appreciate the value of a
buck: Jill’s ambition is admired, modernization is important, Dad makes sure he
checks the books of any business he’s involved in, and extols the virtue of
hard work. But it’s not capitalism of the unrestrained Thatcherite kind: Jill
lets Rawlins resign even after his duplicity has been exposed to make it easier
for him to get a new job; Jim criticizes Pierre for trying to crush “the little
guy” in business; Jill lets Sonya keep her job despite knowing she’s a thief
because she’s basically a good person; Dad goes into debt to expand the
business when he thinks it’s worth it. And the film makes the
rarely-made-but-valid point that making something isn’t enough, you need to
publicise it, too. (Indeed, Jim Bradley is one of the most positive depictions
of a publicity agent in cinematic history – handsome, bright, loyal, and smart
– and surely ex-publicity man Hall’s fantasy version of himself.)
I love the coda of this movie, where Dad
realises that city folk are just like country people down deep (“whether it’s
poured out of a tin pot or a billy, it’s tea just the same”), and the Rudds
have a Christmas Party where all the kids make out. Dad not only takes this in
stride, he pulls Mum on to his lap and announces he’s going to join in on the
fun, making this one of the few Australian movies to end with implication of
characters over fifty having sex.
But my favourite bit of all comes in the
climax. Pierre turns up after the fashion show, demanding one thousand pounds.
Dad, by then deeply in debt, can’t pay it – but he’s bailed out by his
neighbour and sparring partner, Ryan, who writes Pierre a cheque on the spot.
“Where I come from, a man sticks to his mates,” explains Ryan, in a scene that
never fails to move me. I love this moment because it says a lot about what I’d
like Australia to be – a place where you squabble with your neighbours but when
the chips are down you help each other out.
Dad and Dave Come to Town isn’t Citizen
Kane. It’s a bit creaky, some performances whiff of ham, there are a
couple of jokes I just plain don’t get, and the pacing occasionally feels off.
And if you don’t like old movies, or old Aussie humour, you probably won’t like
it at all. But I love it. It’s got yokels loose in the city, two great
juveniles, witty dialogue, comic dogs, Bert Bailey acting up a storm, a young
Peter Finch making his mark, slapstick, Shirley Ann Richards and Billy Rayes
lighting sparks off each other, and that great feeling of inclusiveness,
tolerance, family and mateship that marks the best of Australian populist
entertainment – the same sort we later saw in The Overlanders, They’re a
Weird Mob, Crocodile Dundee, Neighbours, Packed to the
Rafters and The Sapphires. And the fact that the the film is not
commercially available on DVD is a downright scandal.
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