Radio review - Lux - "Jolson Sings Again" (1950) **1/2

The Jolson Story was such a hit that Columbia decided to come up with a sequel, which just gets over the line in terms of a reason to exist - it covers Jolson's divorce and remarriage, decline in career, and recover in popularity by singing to the troops, including the making of The Jolson Story. This includes the bit where Al Jolson meets Larry Parks - although Jolson here is played by Jolson himself (which means the songs are done very well). The best scene for me is where Jolson and his new wife go back to the home he used to live in with his previous wife - Hollywood films of the time rarely touched on divorce. Less great is the kindly Hollywood producer who decides to bring him back to fame. Barbara Hale and William Demarest repeat their film performances. Jolson jokes (actually he probably wasn't joking) at the end about being up for a third film which Demarest quips should be called Jolson Sings Again and Again and Again.

Movie review - "Teen Wolf Too" (1989) **

We've grown so used to Jason Bateman Mark 2 that it's a shock to remember how long he's been around. He gives a nice enough performance in this unnecessary sequel, which gets points for trying to keep continuity: we see a return of Styles (a new actor - did the old one turn it down?), Chubby, the coach, the assistant Dean, Scott's Dad. Bateman's character has more of a goal - he's really into science - and a really pretty "girl next door" co-star, with John Astin providing decent support as a greedy dean. But the adventures are almost exactly the same with boxing instead of basketball (not a good swap since boxing is individual). There's a singing-a-60s-song sequence inspired by Ferris Bueller's Day Off and two hot bad girls instead of one which creates vision of werewolf threesomes which are not followed through. 'Send Me an Angel' is on the soundtrack.

Movie review - "Teen Wolf" (1985) **

Michael J Fox was so hot in 1985 I remember the scream from girls in the audience as his name went up on screen. But despite the terrific title this underwhelmed me as a kid and it remains so - no real good gags, or scenes. I guess it was funny how he uses his voice to order beer, and the scene where he's seduced by the blonde is hot. 

But most of this is dull, obvious ("you gotta be yourself"), encourages dangerous behaviour (surfing on top of a van) and poorly structured (if Fox doesn't really want to be a basketball player what are the stakes of him playing). It's also oppressive - "the good girl" doesn't seem particularly interested in anything Fox thinks or wants about the future, she's always invoking his father and nostalgia about them growing up together or defending the home town. 

A lot more depth in I Was a Teenage Werewolf.

Radio review - Lux - "Johnny Apollo" (1941) ** (warning: spoilers)

Burgess Meredith isn't the first actor one thinks of as a replacement for Tyrone Power, but it was radio and his voice has presence and authority, and he ends up giving a fine performance as the young man who becomes a gangster after his corrupt millionaire father is revealed to be a crook. Edward Arnold plays Dad and Dorothy Lamour is the girl he falls for (she sings a song). There's a soft element at the centre of this - Meredith never becomes much of a gangster, Arnold is set up to die at the end to save his son but he doesn't, and Meredith doesn't go down in a blaze of glory but only for a couple of years.

Movie review - "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer" (1935) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

The film that kicked off the British Empire cycle of the late 1930s, giving lots of employment to English actors in Hollywood - not that there are many of them in this film, which has three American leads. One is specified as American (Richard Cromwell) the other Canadian (Gary Cooper) the third they claim is English and ignores his accent (Franchot Tone). Still, despite this it's incredibly pro-Imperial - there's a long speech about how Cromwell's father has devoted his life to the Empire, how sacrifice is how only a small handful of men can rule of the natives, Gary Cooper starts off being hostile to Cromwell's father then comes to realise what a great man he is.

George MacDonald Fraser once said this was the film that evoked India for him more than any other and it seems authentic, with it's polo games (the Brits play a lot of polo in this movie), markets, back alleys, soldiers quarters, palaces, head quarters, etc. It's not hard to see this influence on the Flashman series, with it's cowardly lead, British India setting, and soldier who puts on make up and goes to spy on treacherous Indians. (I liked this chap - he wasn't the lead, but he gave the impression of an English upper class type who went into army work for something to do.)

Dramatically it's fascinating. The plot has newby Cromwell assigned to his father's company and getting scolded by dad all the time - yet Tone and especially Gary Cooper take a very proprietal interest in him. Indeed, Cromwell is such a useless soldier (he goes AWOL because his dad is mean, he gets lured into a trap by a femme fetale, he breaks under torture and gives away vital information, the only really heroic act he does in the final fight is stab someone in the back) and Tone and Cooper really go all out to help him (they stick up for him with superior officers, defy orders to rescue him), it's hard to understand why... unless of course Cooper is sleeping with Cromwell. There's a strong homo-erotic subtext to this movie, with Cooper and Cromwell walking around without their shirts, torture, a bromance between the men, and the only female character is a femme fetale... no wonder Gore Vidal liked it.

Most of the action takes place at the end, but that's very exciting. And you don't guess what happens - you expect Cromwell to be brave on the rack but he cracks... but is allowed to survive, whereas brave Cooper dies. Cromwell conveys a weakness which helps the role, Cooper is okay, and Franchot Tone really excellent. Guy Standish and C Aubrey Smith are typical Raj types.

Movie review - "Tomorrow is Forever" (1946) **

He got too fat in the 50s but during the 1940s Orson Welles could have been a Hollywood leading man - he had looks, charm, great speaking voice, a hot wife in real life, a twinkle in the eye. Yet he only occasionally essayed this on screen - as Harry Lime, the "young man" segments of Citizen Kane - seemingly preferring to put on false noses, accents, beards, and old man make up. He's the handsome young Orson for a few minutes here, playing the young husband of Claudette Colbert who goes off to World War I. He's badly injured and she thinks he's dead, so goes and marries a dull, decent chap (George Brent). He comes back with a beard, accent and adopted child (Natalie Wood) then in a very poor coincidence goes to work for Brent who invites him over to his house to meet his family...

This is an incredibly soapie film, with violins playing over most of the lines, Claudette Colbert suffering nobly, Brent watching on like a bland idiot, and Richard Long being a handsome young lunk as he was in The Stranger. It is of interest for Welles performance which is hammy but not without interest, an appropriate in tone. Wood is really excellent.

The film has a very strong anti-Nazi stance (Wood's parents were killed by Nazis, Long wants to enlist in the Eagle Squadron - it's 1939). There is also talk about a future world where the rich won't own as much as they used to. It never overcomes two big contrivances: how Welles runs into Colbert, and the fact that Long doesn't know his real father is Welles (neither were needed). It's also drawing a long bow that Colbert doesn't recognise Welles but I went with it. Still fans of Welles and Colbert will find this interesting.

Movie review - "Second Fiddle" (1939) **

Having helped make Sonja Henie movie star, 20th Century Fox didn't let her flounder - she got large budgets, cream support casts (Rudy Vallee), top rank composers (Irving Berlin) and co-star (Tyrone Power), and a script artfully constructed to minimise her limitations. Here she plays a teacher from Minnesota (to cover the accent) who is amped as a possible star for a Hollywood film.

Tyrone Power was a very big star by this stage, certainly bigger than Henie's normal co-stars (Don Ameche, Richard Greene, John Payne) - maybe he had a slot available. Or maybe he enjoyed working with Henie with whom he had an affair, and knew that in Henie films it's normally the guy who drives the action.

For all the bells and whistles though, this film is weak at it's core: firstly it's not remotely believable that Henie would be picked for a role that doesn't involve skating (she remains awkward and chubby and stilted with dialogue), and secondly the guts of the romance plot has Power setting up a false romance between Henie and Vallee for publicity - and Henie buys it. She finds out and runs back to Minnesota - which makes her an idiot, and means there's no real relationship between her and Power. Power says he's fallen for her (we don't see why) and at the end she decides she falls for him (we don't see any loving scenes between them). So it's hollow.

Some cute Hollywood in-jokes ("are the Ritz brothers really brothers?" "no they're related to the Dead End Kids"). One skating sequence happens in the imagination, which is slack.

Movie review - "Barney's Version" (2010) ***

Mid life crisis cinema about a dissatisfied, self destructive boomer who nonetheless manages to make a pile of cash in a sexy industry and have three hot wives and some famous friends. I would probably find it extremely annoying if it was Australian but this had the benefit of being unapologetically Canadian - fanatical ice hockey fans, a house in the country - and also Paul Giamanti's performance in the lead. It's a star studded cast - Minnie Driver, Rosamund Pike (bland but pretty, as always), Dustin Hoffman, Bruce Greenwood, etc - plus a lot of cameos from Canadian directors. It's from a popular novel and felt like it.

Movie review - "Come and Get It" (1936) ***

Howard Hawks didn't always collaborate peacefully with Sam Goldwyn (to put it bluntly) but there's a lot of fun to be had in this adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel, especially in the first third, with spectacular photography of the logging industry (trees crashing down, things being blown up, snow capped mountains, etc), fun and games with Edward Arnold and Walter Brennan palling around in a saloon with Frances Farmer. But then Arnold goes off to marry a rich man's daughter, we jump forward twenty or so years and the action slows down. You can see what's going to happen (Farmer's daughter will fall for Arnold's son Joel McCrea) so you're just watching it all play out.

Arnold wasn't a typical movie hero, being very large and imposing - indeed, he only enjoyed a few years as a leading man before being shunted off to character parts - but he's effective here. He has drive and passion - you can buy that sassy Farmer would be interested in him. Farmer is great in the double role, especially as the singer - tough, sexy, lonesome, longing, etc. Joel McCrea impresses as Arnold's son - I aways remembered the "hey dad I've invented this thing it's called a paper cup" scene. There are nice scenes between Arnold and his daughter, Andrea Leeds (who reminded me of Olivia de Havilland). She marries some handsome lunk, Frank Shields, who they might have been experimenting as a star in waiting - I googled him, he was a tennis player. He acts like one. Walter Brennan is effective in his role as a very dim friend (he never seems to realise Arnold wants to bang his daughter).

William Wyler reshot lots of this after Sam Goldwyn expressed disapproval with the cut. There are some "Hawksian bits" e.g. early banter between Joel McCrea and Frances Farmer over making candy - which might have been directed by Wyler. Some of the soft lighting close ups of Farmer towards the end feel very Wyler.

Movie review - "Nightmare Alley" (1947) ****

After World War Two Tyrone Power tried to get his teeth into more meaty roles with this and The Razor's Edge and he rose magnificently to the challenge - he's very impressive here as a ruthless, but likeable and charismatic (hey, it's Tyrone Power) carny who pushes his way to the top. I didn't know there was a "top" in carny land but apparently there is: he uses sex appeal to seduce Joan Blondell to giving him secret codes to help pretend to read minds, accidentally kills Blondell's husband by giving him some dodgy alcohol, becomes a nightclub psychic, gets in cahoots with a shrink to rip off rich people by exploring their past. Because this was 1947 he can't get away with it - the cops go after him, the shrink betrays him, he hits the bottle.

Colleen Grey has one of the sexiest entrances I can remember in Hollywood history, in her strapless, backless trapeze outfit - she starts as a strong character, being proud of the way Power manages to scam people, falling for him and having sex, taking part in his nightclub act - but then as it goes on she turns into the ever-loving' thing who stands by her man and her performance becomes too close to the one she gave in Kiss of Death. 

 

Superb support work from Joan Blondell as a seen-it-all carnie who nonetheless has a code of honour, and Helen Walker as the shrink (perhaps "coded" as a lesbian - she wears mannish clothes in one scene and Power and her don't have a romantic relationship), Mike Mazurki as a carny operator and Ian Keith as a drunk. Beautifully photographer.

While the ending is conventional and there are Hollywood elements (e.g. the ending) it's not hard to see why this has a cult. Some of this is remarkable: Power's character criticises religion straight out (basically calling it a con) in a way remarkable for a Hollywood film; Grey and Power have pre-marital sex; the shrink isn't punished for what she does; Power winds up biting the heads off chickens. Great stuff.

Radio review - Lux - "Hold Back the Dawn" (1941) ****

Billy Wilder was a refugee and former gigolo so it's no surprise he penned this tale of a shifty European (Charles Boyer) living in Mexico and trying to marry his way into America - he sets his eye on a school teacher (Susan Hayward, stepping in for Olivia de Havilland). Paulette Goddard is a fellow European who has married and sets her cap at Boyer; there's further complications from an investigating US official. It's done with cynicism and intelligence, at least at first - of course he has to reform. That isn't done very believably but the rest is terrific. The tale is bookended with Boyer telling his story with Cecil B de Mille playing himself in order to make money before he is arrested (he needs to pay for Hayward's operation) - so ten years before Sunset Boulevard here is de Mille playing himself in a Wilder script.

Movie review - "One in a Million" (1936) **

The film which launched Sonja Henie to movie stardom - Daryl Zanuck tried to reduce his risk as much as possible, keeping her dialogue to a minimum, surrounding her with some top support actors (Jean Herscholt and Adolphe Menjou), giving her the experienced Don Ameche as a love interest, and minimising her time on screen.

She's not in this film very much - the bulk of shenanigans involves dodgy Menjou and his singing protege (not Lyn Bari but the girl who plays her looks like Bari and it was known as the Lyn Bari part), journo Ameche, the Ritz brothers (who do lots - and lots - of routines). Henie pops up every now and then to skate and smile smugly as Ameche romances her - there's a serious story about her father having been kicked out of amateur sport because he made some money to help her, but she isn't given much of the action. The general feeling is like an old style 30s musical revue, with lots of different acts on the bill.

Henie comes across as a smug, chubby, pretty enough Nordic who is good on the ice but not that comfortable with her fellow actors, although Ameche does what he can. It doesn't take much to imagine this Henie heil Hitler-ing it, or being obsessed with money, fame and cock, like the real Henie was. (Part of this is set during the 1936 Winter Olympics which were held in Bavaria, making it a rare Hollywood film set in Nazi Germany which is quite positive about the country, even though politics isn't discussed - is this why the film wasn't well distributed?)

If you like the Ritz Brothers you'll enjoy this because there's plenty of them. But it doesn't have the charm of later Henie vehicles.

Radio review - Lux - "Wake Up and Live" (1943) **1/2

A very young and awkward Frank Sinatra is cast as a very young and awkward page at a radio station (shades of Kenneth from 30 Rock!) who actually has a great singing voice but is scared of the microphone. A girl gets him to sing into a mike that he thinks is dead but actually people hear it and he becomes a star - sort of like the Phantom of the Opera. There are also plots about a columnist and producer. Aimiable, dim entertainment with some famous tunes such as 'Embraceable You' a'nd 'Dancing in the Dark. At the end spiel Frank talks about his new son. Bob Crosby (Bing's brother) and Marilyn Maxwell co-star.

Movie review - "China Doll" (1958) **

Victor Mature didn't often get the chance to work with top flight directors but Frank Borzage's great days were clearly behind him with this dull melodrama. Despite being set in an interesting time - American flyers in China in 1943 - he manages to suck all the excitement and thrills out of the story leaving us with racist, sexist codswallop. Mature, looking very old, is an American pilot who after a big night on the tiles finds himself in possession of a Chinese woman. He tries to get rid of her but priestWard Bond explains it'll be an insult and she might be forced into prostitution (dad sold her), so Mature keeps her on as housekeeper. She can't speak any English and follows him around like an obedient dog so of course they fall in love and she gets pregnant. He marries her, they separate, she dies in a Japanese bombing attack and he dies.... but their baby daughter is allowed to live.

Mature emotes effectively towards the end - he wasn't a bad actor, and it's not his fault the film is awful. (It's also slow and dull). I normally like movies about pilots in the third world but this takes itself too seriously. The supporting cast is of some interest, including Stewart Whitman and Bob Mathias.

Movie review - "A Night to Remember" (1958) ****

If you ever want to look at the difference between American and British film industries compare this version of the Titanic stories - no real stars except Kenneth More, and even he's very much a cog in a big wheel; no histrionics; a lot of stiff upper lips and telling of the facts. It's still powerful drama, though - even more effective for being restrained. 

 This shows the best and worst of British society from the time: the rigid class structures, oppression of the lower orders who want to go to help (it's just as strong as the 1997 film on this), arrogance of the rulers, the frightfully decent behaviour of the toffs (playing cards, putting on dinner jackets to go out in style, letting women and children go first) but also the lower orders (playing music, etc). It puts a lot of emphasis on the "if only" factor with plenty of scenes about the Californian and ignoring warnings.

More's Lightoller doesn't really do anything dynamic except ensure women and children go first, but he behaves well as they all do. It's striking how many scenes were copied in the 1997 Titanic: asking the designer of the ship if we wanted to make a run of it, the poor people running upstairs and gasping at the glory of it, etc. 

 

Occasionally the lack of star names meant it was hard to tell who was who - it's a bit bland-Britishers-of-the-50s at times - but everyone steps up and tries. And of course the Titanic is so inherently dramatic - I can't think of a version of this story that has failed to be moving: the insistence that the ship can't sink, the "slow burn" of the drama with everyone going down in calm weather, etc. It was a ship sunk by irony.

Movie review - "Cobra" (1925) **

Campy, crappy Rudolph Valentino film with our hero as a lecherous Italian count who begins a bromance with a rich, lesser good looking American and goes to work for him in New York. He falls for a nice, innocent secretary but struggles with the lure of other women (cobras, he calls them) - in particular Nita Naldi, who marries his friend. He tells her she's not interested and she replies "tell me that when you're holding me in your arms". He goes with her to a hotel but doesn't sleep her - she calls up her plan B and they both die in a fire. His mate figures it out and falls for the secretary - Valentino decides to give up his one chance at true love, do the decent thing by his mate and go home.

I'd heard this was awful but it was fine - Rudy is in dashing form, the role suits him to a T, the story isn't bad. The girl who plays the true love secretary isn't pretty enough but Nita Naldi is great fun as the femme fetale.

Movie review - "Jungle Book" (1942) ***

It can't have been easy coming up with star vehicles for Sabu so Alex Korda returned once again to Rudyard Kipling. It's an inevitably episodic version of the famous short stories, with the British very much in the background and the focus on Mowglai and his animal friends, with the baddies being some villagers convinced the young boy is no good. Some of the effects and animal stuff still works well, some is hokey. The musical score is beautiful, an absolute masterpiece, and the final fire is effective. But it feels very unsatisfactory that we don't know what happened to Sabu and his girlfriend, especially as there was no sequel.

Movie review - "My Week with Marilyn" (2011) ***1/2

The Prince and the Showgirl isn't a particularly memorable film but the circumstances of it's production were: the world's greatest sex symbol working with the world's greatest actor, both of whom also had legendary spouses. It wasn't a disaster or even that drama packed (compared to say Raintree County) but the personalities were so strong: Arthur Miller, Vivien Leigh, Terrence Rattigan, Paula Strasberg, etc.

Film buffs in particular will derive a lot of enjoyment from this - references to getting the rewrites from Terry (Rattigan doesn't appear), a cameo from Jack Cardiff complete with his cap, roles to Arthur Jacobs and Milton Greene. The work is sympathetic to Monroe: lots of men warn Eddie Redmayne not to fall for her because she'll destroy him, and that she's not as naive as she appears - but we never see that. Everything we are shown is her being a little lost and insecure, and Laurence Olivier not being very nice for scolding her (presumably through to jealousy). 

 

Surprisingly it was very sympathetic to Vivien Leigh (Julia Ormond, believable) - no glimpse of the notorious nutter and cheater here, just a woman afraid of getting old and losing her husband, and being nice to Marilyn. It's also very nice to Dame Sybil Thorndike (Judi Dench, excellent) who is shown to be loving and supportive- there's a wonderful actor moment where Marilyn keeps fluffing her lines and she asks Marilyn if she wouldn't mind going over lines to help her.

Not all the female characters are sympathetic - Paula Strasberg (Zoe Wanamaker, terrific) is depicted as a bit of a freeloader, continually boosting Marilyn's ego and perhaps not with her best interests at heart. Milton Greene doesn't come across very well.

Colin Clarke is dead now so the filmmakers had a free hand with the characterisation. It's a half success - Eddie Redmayne is at least a different sort of male lead, not a conventional pretty boy; at times I found him irritating, other times winning. The real Clarke seems to have been one of those British upper class types who benefit from family connections: Dad an art historian, family friend of Vivien Leigh, related to people who work at Windsor Castle, he went on to have a not-much career making documentaries for British TV, which is an extension of the private school system anyway.

I got the feeling at times the film had been cut for pacing - scenes such as the opening ones involving Clarke's family feel abrupt, Emily Watson comes and goes, Judi Dench disappears for long slabs. And the low budget hurts at times - the crowd and filming scenes feel like they could have done with more extras. But the acting is strong, the production design a delight and Michelle Williams does excellently in an impossible role. She's not Monroe but who is, and she comes as close as anyone I can remember.

Radio review - Ford Theatre - "Green Pastures" (1948) ***

Patronising but also fascinating and the stories were good to start off with: the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, Noah, Moses and God's decision to send Jesus down. This felt condensed (I know all these plays are but some feel it more than others) but is done with vigour and benefits from a strong performance by Juan Hernandez in the lead role as Da Lawd.

Radio review - Lux - "Sangaree" (1955) **

Dull melodrama set in post American Revolution Georgia, with Arlene Dahl and Cesar Romero falling in love amongst law suits and squabbles over plantations. Romero is a doctor who wants to work for the poor; Dahl has a nasty fiancee who wants the plantation. They all own slaves presumably so who cares? This sort of thing is okay on TV with colour and pretty Dahl and sets and stuff but on radio the creakiness of the story is well exposed.

Movie review - "Fire Down Below" (1957) **

A more expensive work from Warwick Films, with three big Hollywood names instead of the normal one plus a British star. There's no Pom even though the story is set in the Caribbean - Jack Lemmon and Bob Mitchum are two sailors who give a ride to sultry Rita Hayworth; Lemmon falls her her, only she's got the hots for Bob. Yep, it's another retread of Gilda with Rita as a mystery woman with a Past who sings and dances and is loved by two men who really love each other. But it doesn't have Gilda's atmosphere, eroticism and tang.

There are some Warwick regulars in small roles: Anthony Newley (thankfully only a small part), Bonar Colleano, Bernard Lee. Indeed in the second half Lemmon gets stuck below decks in an accident and Colleano and Lee become the heroes to get him out - Hayworth and Mitchum disappear from the movie for something like half an hour. Then they come back to help Lemmon get out of being stuck, by provoking him I think. Well, Mitchum does, Hayworth just hangs around.

Lemmon tries but is really miscast - he's never a sexual threat for Mitchum. Hayworth also tries, wears a swimsuit, dances well, does her schtick - but she was getting too old to play a Destroyer Of Men (you believed Gilda could sweep all before her but not Rita here). 

 

It's also a sexist film - everything is the fault of Hayworth, the noble black character hates her. Yet she goes off with Mitchum at the end - even though everyone is sad poor Lemmon's had his heart broken. Why? The girl was plainly trouble, Lemmon is an idiot for falling for her - it's not as though she led him on. Why does the finale concentrate on Lemmon and getting his leg amputated and not smuggling?

It's a really dumb story. There are pleasant views of the Caribbean in colour and some enjoyable tunes and carnival sequences.

Radio review - Lux - "The Westerner" (1940) ***1/2

Maybe Walter Brennan wasn't a great actor but he was a great personality, and never more effectively cast than as Judge Roy Bean, the ruthless, Lily Langtry-worshipping law West of the Pecos who is hoodwinked by horse thief Gary Cooper, which makes Bean surprisingly sympathetic - even when later on Cooper picks up the cause of the homesteaders against Bean. Doris Davenport repeats her film role too as the woman who basically spots Cooper as good husband material and sets about converting him. Cooper later whinged that Brennan's part outshone him, which it does, but the fact his character is initially a bit duplicitous makes him a lot more interesting than usual.

Movie review - "High Flight" (1957) **1/2

Service drama from Warwick Films which is remarkable for it's similarities to the later Top Gun - like that it's set in a training school for pilots (only here they are British), and the lead character (Kenneth Haigh) is a devil-may-care type who won't be a team player and pulls stunts using planes, whose father died mysteriously on an operation with the instructor (Ray Milland) with whom our hero buts heads but also respects for his ability (and reminds him of when he was young). There's a comic fellow pilot (annoying Anthony Newley) and some comic escapades and japes at the school with a homoerotic aspect (here it's men in drag rather than volleyball), a training segment which almost goes wrong, a pilot who freaks out, a climax that involves a hostile engagement in peace time (in this case over East Germany), a crusty sergeant (Bernard Miles) and crusty superior (John Le Mesurier).

There's no real romantic subplot, which is bewildering. The comedy is idiotic and the plot surely felt cliched even back then but it's quite entertaining, with decent aerial footage and some of the air stuff feels realistic. The climax is good, with a solid crash - it just lacks an emotional punch.

Movie review - "The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw" (1958) **1/2

Many of Kenneth More's films in the late 50s were aimed towards the American market, not to much success. This was perhaps his most concerted attempt to crack it there, complete with American director (Raoul Walsh), co-stars and an especially constructed plot aimed at using More's appeal in a way to cross over to Americans: it's a fish out of water comedy, with More as an English gun salesman who goes Out West and encounters gunslingers, saloon gals, and Indians. The joke is meant to be that the locals think he's a dab hand with guns when he's not - but he's gun salesman so the fish isn't really out of water.

More does his Kenneth More thing with aplomb: the cheery, hail-fellow-well-met Englishman abroad, able to get along with everyone whether they are Indians or gunslingers, but a stickler for rules and proper behaviour, unshowily brave. His co-star, Jayne Mansfield, is a major debit - her performance is dreadful, and they don't even put her in any revealing outfits, despite appearing in a saloon show (although she does get to mime a decent tune, 'I Love You'). She and More don't have much chemistry either. William Campbell, Henry Hull and Bruce Cabot all give the sort of supporting actors in Western films you'd expect them to give regardless of the star. Sid James is in it too as a drunk.

It's amiable enough: More's in good form, the depiction of the Indians is sympathetic, the colour photography is pleasing. The running gag about the undertaker being constantly disappointed that More isn't killed surely was old even at the time and they milk the concept of More being a blood brother to the Indians for all it's worth. It's a shame Robert Morely didn't decide to come out west (he's in the beginning and that's it).

Movie review - "Young Adult" (2011) ***1/2

Those explaining Chekov to younger audiences could do worse than pointing to this as an example of the Russian's style: funny but not really, sad but not gentle, low key story telling, characters hung up on the past, people in love with others who don't love them back, worries about social status and money. It took me a while to get into Charlize Theron - I thought maybe they could have gotten a more expressive interest - but after a while I got it: she plays it like the school bitch, never asking for sympathy or patting the dog, a scowl on the face. Like her the movie refuses to take sides or offer easy answers: the husband is a drip but happy, his wife seems to be nice but is she, small town life isn't demonised or deified, Theron ignores her parents who don't seem to care that she thinks she's an alcoholic, the little sister who asks to go with her is knocked back. It's a brave Hollywood movie that surely could not have been made without the success of Juno.

Excellent performances, including Patton Oswald in the best role (fat, tormented, funny, geeky) - and pretty much everyone else. A very grown up, mature film about immaturity.

Radio review - Lux - "The Letter" (1941) ****

The original three of the film's cast - Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall and James Stephenson - are united for this excellent radio production, which only really struggles in the final scene as it's hard to convey Davis' murder by the dead man's wife as effectively with words. Marshall isn't quite believable as a rough man of his hands as the role really requires but is spot on when it comes to playing a slightly dim cuckold willing to stick by his wife no matter what. Stephenson is very good as the lawyer attracted to Davis to the point where he breaks the law (his wife is given a short effective scene where she idiotically prattles about vowing not the make a cocktail while Davis was on trial - a good sharp contrast to Davis). You could point to the slippery cultured double dealing Chinese lawyer as an example of Hollywood racism but the white race is hardly well represented here. I wondered if Marshall's and Stephenson's characters wound up in a Japanese POW camp.

Movie review - "Simon and Laura" (1955) **

Years before the reality TV craze there was this satire of TV with Peter Finch and Kay Kendall as a real life married couple of the theatre (who are said to rank below the Oliviers and the Attenboroughs - I put them on the level of Michael Denison and Dulcie Grey), whose career is in a slump and marriage is on the rocks, who are hired to play a married couple on TV. Their servants are hired to play themselves (yes, even though they haven't got much money they still have enough for servants) and romantic complications come from Ian Carmichael (as the producer, who sets his cap at Kendall) and Muriel Pavlov (the screenwriter who becomes entwined with Finch, even though she loves Carmichael).

The basic story isn't bad - complications include the addition of a child - but it's very badly handled and executed. Finch is very bad - even his biographer Elaine Dundy calls his performance "interestingly bad". He could play comedy, as his stint in Dad and Dave Come to Town showed, but he's completely out of his element here in a part that needed Kenneth More. 

 

Kendall isn't that great either in a role which should have suited her. Over the top playing and mugging, and a lack of reality about a situation which isn't that far from reality.

Movie review - "Passage Home" (1955) ** (warning: spoilers)

Peter Finch's first movie under a long term contract for Rank is directed with crispness by Roy (later Ward) Baker, has a bright co-star in Diane Cilento (her first lead) and a superb support cast but isn't much. It's the story: Cilento is a woman on board a ship, and that's about it really. The crew don't like the potatoes they have to eat so Geoffrey Keen throws them overboard but doesn't tell and Finch gets a bit paranoid - but it's very much Captain Queeg lite. The men below decks mumble but there's no mutiny, Finch and Anthony Steel both love Cilento but don't fight over her, Finch tries to rape Cilento and Steel stops him but there seem to be no consequences, Finch gets drunk but recovers to rescue the ship during a storm, the potatoes aren't really paid off, Cilento and Steel go on to be married by Cilento seems sad for some reason.

It's like there's no read point to it and the whole thing is drama with one hand behind it's back. There's lots of good stuff: a decent storm sequence, a sexy bit where a drenched Cilento is kissed by Steel, the acting is solid (the support cast includes Hugh Griffith, Bryan Forbes, Michael Craig, Patrick McGoohan, Geoffrey Keen), Cilento is a sexy different sort of female lead to British actors at the time (with that husky voice and exotic looks), Finch is a believable ship captain, even Anthony Steel is fine. But I kept waiting for the Germans to attack or for Finch to kill someone or... anything, really.

Movie review - "The Eagle" (2011) **1/2

Based on a famous juvenile fiction novel which is maybe why so many problems which I thought would have been obvious weren't fixed up: the story doesn't start until 35 minutes in when Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell go on the quest, then once they do it's quite easy for them to locate the missing eagle. They just get directions, raid the camp and escape. This work lacks some thing - a subplot, more emotional stakes, a complication, something. It looks terrific, though - the opening half hour (even though it could have been lopped off and you could have still told the story) is very exciting, with some terrific action. Actually this is the best part of the movie - it's like they ran out of money.

Donald Sutherland lends some class - but his part isn't needed. And I didn't buy that Jamie Bell would pick Channing over his own people simply because he gave his word of honour or there's a bond of honour. (Yes, this is another one where you can read in homoerotic subtext if you want.) I get Kevin MacDonald loved this as a boy but I wish he'd fixed it up.

Radio review - Ford Theatre - "My Sister Eileen" (1948) ***

Before Two Broke Girls and Laverne and Shirley there was this tale of two girls trying make a go of it in the big city - it probably wasn't the first (every time you say something is the first a French film that came before it pops up) but it was one of the first big hits - as short stories, a play, then a film, and a sitcom, radio show, and musical.

This is based on the film and has Shirley Booth repeat her stage performance as the less pretty sister who lives with pretty Eileen in Greenwich village. Wacky landlords, lecherous men, romantic interests, flustered cops and judges - they're all here.

The host says the climax with subway men crashing through their walls was one of the most imaginative in Broadway - well, maybe it was then. Eileen is an annoying character, just being good to look at and wanting to be an actor, but her sister is funny.

Radio review - Lux - "The Wizard of Oz" (1950) ****

Judy Garland reprises her legendary role and several of the best known songs are here - two 'Over the Rainbow's, 'If I Only Had a Brain', 'We're Off to See the Wizard' and 'Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead'. The work is such an institution it defies criticism, rather like the Atlantic Ocean. At the end Judy talks about bringing along her three year old Liza. The one the audience love the most is the Cowardly Lion - every line of his gets a big laugh. Nothing's as universal as a coward, I guess.

Movie review - "The Detective" (1954) **1/2 aka "Father Brown"

Probably the best version of the Father Brown stories, turned into a vehicle for Alec Guinness by director Robert Hamer, he of the very high reputation, in part because he died so young. It's not a remarkable work, more a solid piece of entertainment that will be of most interest to fans of the stories and/or Guinness. He's bespectacled, fuddy-duddy and a dab hand with martial arts. He's also constantly in trouble with his superiors and police for getting involved in investigations.

The guts of the plot concerns a bromance between Father Brown and Flambeau (Peter Finch) whose should Brown is determined to save even though he is robbed by him. Brown even hides the guy from police and there's one scene where they wrestle and Brown lies on top of him which are things to make you go mmmm.

It's not overly clever or entertaining or even clever, but it's not too bad. There's some nice photography, cute lines, neat sets (hidden catacombs and so on) and art design (religious items). The support cast is very impressive - it includes Joan Greenwood (she of the sexy voice) in a nothing role as a rich friend of Brown's, Cecil Parker as his boss, Bernard Lee as a cop. Finch gives an accomplished performance - his biographer Elaine Dundy raves about it; I wouldn't call it that great but it's solid work (he gets to put on disguises - fellow priest, old man - and be suave and sophisticated).

Radio review - Ford Theatre - "Double Indemnity" (1948) ****

Burt Lancaster and Joan Bennett would have made good casting in a film version of this story - Bennett was a dab hand at femme fetales as her work for Fritz Lang especially showed (not to mention her real life involvement in the Jennings Lang-Walter Wagner triangle), and Lancaster made a good sap. He doesn't have the sleaziness of Fred MacMurray but he's more easily duped as he was in a fair few film noirs. This adapts the movie rather than the novel directly so it's full of that wonderful dialogue and it condenses well (even if the role of the daughter's boyfriend is reduced).

Movie review - "The Heart of the Matter" (1953) ***

Trevor Howard was born to play a Graham Greene hero - weary looking, wound up, tormented, slightly shabby, a whisky priest. Even though his Inspector Scobie starts off as principled and respected (he won't take bribes), he has the aura of failure: he's unhappily married, his only child has died, he's Catholic but doesnt seem to get a lot of fun out of it, he is passed over for promotion, he lives in a crummy colony (Sierra Leone) and even though its 1942 he doesn't seem to do any important work.

Things don't get better - he talks to a priest (Peter Finch, very good in a small but showy role) who is depressing; he falls for a young woman (Maria Schell), a liaison which causes him to be blackmailed into looking the other way to a diamond smuggler; his wife comes home from a trip, and he can't bring himself to leave his wife for the young woman so he decides to kill himself. He doesn't actually do it outright - presumably the censor was responsible for the change where he basically induces his death.

It's handled with intelligence and sensitivity but I agree with George Orwell in that I found the story a little silly. Maybe it's because I'm not Catholic, but I couldn't invest in Scobie's dilemma vis a vis mortal sins, and confession, and God and all that - if he was tormented about God, then why have the affair in the first place? And why get so torn up over it? I guess I understood Scobie's reasoning (he wanted to stop hurting people), I guess, I just couldn't follow the emotion. At the end I was going "don't be daft". But like I say, Catholics may find more to it.

It is good how there are no real villains: his wife Elizabeth Allan does want to get out of Sierra Leone but does try to make a go of it; Maria Schell is a sweetheart mistress; George Colouris' corrupt ship captain is sympathetic, even Gerard Yurey's dodgy smuggler is understandable. It does take a swipe at Denholm Elliot's smarmy attempted lover (Elliot looks so young! Michael Hordern doesn't.).

Radio review - Lux - "The Lemon Drop Kid" (1951) **1/2

After his success with Sorrowful Jones Bob Hope returned to Damon Runyon land as a tout who accidentally gives a wrong tip to a gangster and has to raise ten grand. He does it by exploiting a little old lady for charity purposes. Hope is lively and suits the milieu, even if it got a bit tired and things like him pretending to be a woman don't transfer well to radio - his sometime mistress Marilyn Maxwell plays his girlfriend here. Naturally he makes a joke about Democrats and there are some ad-libs which crack up the audience.

Movie review - "Jassy" (1947) **

Dull Gainsborough melodrama, which helped kill off the cycle despite the fact it was shot in Technicolor and stars Margaret Lockwood. Part of the problem is that Lockwood doesn't play a villain - but she's not really a heroine either. She plays a half gypsy villager who goes to work for a once-rich family impoverished due to dad's gambling.

There's plenty of plot and characters: a blacksmith's daughter is literally struck dumb, an aristocratic gambler (Dennis Price) is caught cheating and shoots himself, women cheat on their husbands, Jassy's (Lockwood's) father is killed, Lockwood becomes friend with Pat Roc (who is the daughter of her former employer), then she becomes head of staff of the noble responsible for her father's death (Basil Sydney), who she then marries. There's poisoning, second sight, and a fair bit of whipping.

It's a mess: Lockwood seems to be shaping up as this sympathetic villain, whose good father was killed by a drunken rich noble, who she then dominates, marries and refuses to sleep with in revenge... but he is killed by the deaf girl. And Lockwood is united with the spunky noble (Dermot Walsh) guy. Pat Roc seems to be the good girl in love with the spunky noble but in actual fact she loves someone else. Was this rewritten?

They tampered with the formula too much on this one. Colour doesn't really help it much either. Lockwood isn't in great form and Dermot Walsh a poor Stewart Granger substitute but Basil Sydney and Dennis Price are fine, as is John Laurie and Ernest Thesiger.

Radio review - Ford Theatre - "Carmen Jones" (1948) ***

The famous Hammerstein version of the Bizet opera - his book isn't much, full of Lawdy-Lawdy characters but the tunes remain good. The action has been changed to WW2 America among African Americans - presumably thought to be hot blooded like a Spanish. This is done with the original Broadway cast members so fans of the show will want to check this out (Howard Teichmann condensed the script)but it left me a little cold.

Movie review - "Storm Over the Nile" (1955) ***

You wonder why the Kordas bothered making it, especially since they used the same script as the 1939 film, which was shot in colour, as well as much new footage. Was it a desire to employ some actors? Make some easy money? It must have been to do it in Cinemascope.

It still works - it's a good story of high adventure with a background in cowardice (although that isn't really explored apart from the opening sequence of little Harry Faversham being scared). Anthony Steel steps in for John Clements and does about as little with the role as Clements did, but he's handsome and dashing and not that irritating (he's a bit more expressive than Clements). Laurence Harvey replaces Ralph Richardson as the soldier who goes blind in the desert, the part that gets the bulk of the sympathy (giving up the woman he loves when he realises that Harry is still alive and a hero) - he's not as good an actor but he does try. And the part doesn't require that much acting - mostly being blind, and noble about love.

Mary Ure is pretty enough but bland, James Robertson Justice is an excellent substitute for C Aubrey Smith, Geoffrey Keen offers good support, and there's some familiar names in the support cast: Ronald Lewis and Ian Carmichael as the other two friends (neither of whom have a character really) and Christopher Lee as an Arab.

Movie review - "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (2011) ***1/2

I don't recall enjoying a film's art direction more in recent years: smoky back rooms, whisky decanters, rain sodden fields, dingy cafes, creaky old kitchens, shabby uniforms, old filing cabinets. It brings the world of Le Carre to life in many ways more than the script, which is more confusing than it needs to be - I know this wasn't the easiest story in the world to adapt, but surely they could have gotten more tension out of the final sequence, which is confusing rather than scary. Why not see Smiley's wife? Why not make it clearer Smiley was sacked over the Budapest fiasco?

Gary Oldman isn't that great as Smiley - he looks fantastic, but lacks the pain, the sense of history and loss. But the others around him are terrific - Colin Frith, Toby Jones, Kathy Burke (who makes me long for a sequel), Tom Hardy (adding some needed physical energy), Ciarin Hinds, Mark Strong, etc. 

 

I liked the bit with Mark Strong mentoring a fat kid and encouraging him to join the world, and the Russian woman calmly reading the paper while Strong is being tortured, etc. Lots of lovely touches like that and it's a good movie you just wish it was amazing.

Movie review - "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" (1960) ***1/2

Kitchen sink melodrama which has aged very well, partly because of the crispness of Tony Richardson's handling, partly due to the fact it doesn't get overly moralistic, but mostly because of Alan Finney's charismatic lead performance. He's angry, handsome, boozy, funny, smart, lazy - it's not hard to see why he caused so much excitement.

The film wouldn't work without a compelling lead performer: a bloke who doesn't work as hard as he could at his (admittedly mind-numbing) job; has an affair with a married lady (Rachel Roberts); spends all his money on alcohol and the odd movie. 

 

He does have good qualities: he is affectionate to his mistress; takes his beating like a man; and most of all has spirit. You can see why Shirley Ann Field, who is lovely, is attracted to him - he's got more life in him than anyone else around. It's going to cause her a lot of drama down the track, though.

(You can't help wonder what happened to Finney and her: a couple of kids, infidelities, lots of drinking and watching TV/sport, the eventual loss of his job due to modernisation/market inefficiencies. I like to think they emigrated to Australia or Canada. At least young men in Finney's time had the chance of a job - now in many places they don't.)

Movie review - "Guns at Batasi" (1964) ***

Fascinating action-drama set during the last days of British rule of an unnamed African country. The changeover seems peaceful until the British-appointed government is overthrown in a coup, leaving Brits unsure what to do - especially the sergeant's mess who are cut off, complete with a visiting left wing, naive MP (chain smoking Flora Robson), a cute, horny UN worker (beautiful young Mia Farrow in her first role after Britt Ekland pulled out because of husband Peter Sellers) and an injured African captain who was meant to take over but has been ruled a traitor.

Richard Attenborough plays the martinet RSM in charge, who ultimately defies the mutinous Africans. He is initially depicted as a figure of fun, obsessed with regulations and the army, but when the pressure is on is the only one who really seems to know what to do. Attenborough's performance has been much praised and it is definitely striking - I felt he was over acting at times, but would like to hear from any British army veterans before making that call.

A subject like this is a political minefield, with it's hot topic subjects of imperialism, militarism, race, emerging democracies, etc. You continually look at "what is this film supporting?" Well it is sympathetic to Attenborough, a brave man in a hard position - but he is also a bit of an idiot who is clearly keen for action, perhaps overly so; it mocks the chain smoking naive Robson with her belief that Africans are picked on (and her looks are teased), but she's not dumb and has a reasonable point of view; it is harsh on the rebellious African officer (Earl Cameron) - yet he is allowed to state his case.

On more conventional matters the film works well: it's tense and exciting as most siege stories are, moves at a smooth clip; the story isn't predictable; the acting is fine; John Guillermin's direction tight and skilful. You probably didn't need the Farrow subplot (she has sex with a private, John Leyton), but it does add a dash of youthful glamour. The cast includes John Meillon as an Australian sergeant (called "Aussie") and a pre-throat operation Jack Hawkins.

Movie review - "Source Code" (2011) **** (warning: spoilers)

It's a relief to see a Hollywood movie that is original, smart and full of plot twists, kind of like Groundhog Day meets 24. The science probably doesn't make any sense (I'm not strong on science) but it was believable enough for me - and there was emotion, too: Jake Gyllenhaal wanting to say goodbye to his father, his romance with Michelle Monaghan, his friendship with fellow soldier Vera Famiga. The little you know about it the more you're more likely to enjoy it, as you try to figure out what's going on along with Gyllenhall. Full of great shocks, like seeing Gyllenhaal's half destroyed body. The movie did feel as though it went to it's natural end when he kisses Monaghan and everyone is laughing (a lovely ending) - but then it kicks on into a parallel universe where Gyllenhaal takes over this other guys body permanently which leads to a whole new bunch of questions (e.g. does he remember his past? how is he going to get along with his host body's new family?). And now I'm starting to pick why would a terrorist blow up a train, then a city? Why not just the city? Okay, I'll stop now. I really enjoyed it.

Radio review - Lux - "The Story of Alexander Graham Bell" (1945) ***1/2

The victory in Europe was celebrated by Lux with a recreation of the famous biopic. Don Ameche reprises his best known role (from his 30s heyday anyway) as the inventor of the telephone. In the chat at the end Ameche admits to being a little sick of people constantly kidding about inventing the phone (guest host Mitchell Leisen points out that the army called phones "Ameches"). He is very engaging as the young inventor constantly pushing the technological envelope with June Duprez stepping in as his deaf wife. Some charming visual bits I remembered form the film inevitably don't make it but it's done with a lot of intelligence and charm. Ameche talks at the end as being about the star in a film where he played the inventor of the silencer.

Movie review - "They Were Sisters" (1945) **

Ab odd-one-out amongst Gainsborough melodrama because it seems so modern (Madonna of the Seven Moons was set in the 1930s but it felt 19th century). It also lacks star power (despite the presence of James Mason in excellent villainous form), interesting costumes and production design, and excitement. It's not very good.

There are three sisters: whimp Dulcie Grey who marries caddish James Mason and becomes a boozer; dull Phyllis Calvert who married even duller Peter Murray Smith (possibly the wettest leading man in British film history - surely the armed services hadn't enlisted all the vaguely virile-seeming leading man); slutty Anne Crawford who marries a dull husband (Barrie Livesy) but wants to cheat with Hugh Sinclair.

Calvert is ideal in her bland part but Grey and Crawford don't have the charisma and familiarity of Margaret Lockwood, Pat Roc and Jean Kent (part of the fun of these films was being reunited with the same actors). Some of the acting from the kids is dreadful - same for the acting of the adults. I can't recall a blander collecting of male stars than Smith, Livesy, Sinclair and even the young kids - Mason is the only one with balls. None of the girls have that much spirit either.

It's dull, without any sense of energy or pace - it goes for almost two hours. It was popular, though, with the female audience no doubt enjoying differing female characters (dull, slut, victim). There is some good melodrama, such as Mason offering Calvert his kids if she supports him in court; Grey going bonkers with booze and oppression - but not enough of it.

It is sociologically fascinating, like most of these sort of films: Calvert talking at the end about all the people like this, the fact that Crawford is allowed to cheat on her husband and run off to South Africa with her lover, leaving her daughter behind with her sister and not be punished (she is said to miss her daughter in a letter at the very end but we've never gotten the sense she likes her). But you'd be much better off watching The Man in Grey or The Wicked Lady instead.

Movie review - "Operation Amsterdam" (1959) **

A terrific idea based on a true story - two Dutch exiles and a British officer go to Amsterdam just prior to the fall of Holland and try to retrieve some diamonds, but are worried about a traitor. But it misses. Most notably there isn't really that much of a sense of impending doom, tension or excitement - it's awfully easy for them to drive around in a car while the shooting's going on (they see people talking in a cafe), the relationship between the men and a girl who helps them (Eva Bartok) feels perfunctory, the shoot-outs are bland. They worry about there being a traitor or fifth columnist... but there is none. Even some stuff which should have been gold about the fate of Jews in Holland comes across flat - one or two plead to go back to England but our heroes just sort of say "sorry no can do" and that's that.

Peter Finch is the star but just as big a role goes to Tony Britton as the British officer. Finch and Bartok have a quasi romance but it isn't much chop (it's hardly a love story because she'snly just mourning her Jewish fiancee... who she doesn't even know is dead). A real shame - you want a top director to remake it. Finch is a believable Hollander (at least to my untrained eyes) - I believed him both as a diamond expert and someone capable of strangling a Nazi to death.

Radio review - Lux - "Green Dolphin Street" (1949) **

Kiwis will find this story especially interesting as it's an MGM take on life in their country during colonial days - "New Zealand, where English laws won't reach you". There's two fugitives, a murderer on the run (Van Heflin) who goes into timber, then years later a drunken English navy officer (Peter Lawford) who worries about being busted for desertion. They wind up working together, drunken bum drunkenly writers to the wrong sister (Lana Turner) who comes out to see him who the other guy secretly loves and forces drunken bum to marry despite fact that drunken bum actually loves the woman's sister (Donna Reed) who becomes a nun.
Utter codswallop done which doesn't feel vaguely New Zealand-ish, but fascinating - there are talks of Maoris not liking the British, Heflin is down with the Maoris, Lawford and Turner own "the most fancy house in Dunedin". Heflin and Turner are solid - Lawford's weak voice and poor performance are indicative of why he never became a big star.

Radio review - Suspense - "The Kandi Tooth" (1948) **

Sequel to The Maltese Falcon with Sam Spade again coming across Gutman and Joel Cairo in search of an ancient jewel, in this case a jewel from Kandi (Sri Lanka). There's also a new femme fetale. It feels a lot like a rehash (I mean, did they have to be searching after an artefact from the old world?) but it is enjoyable in a way and I enjoyed the fact the jewel was shoved into someone's teeth. Howard Duff plays Spade, as he did on radio - there's an overlong introduction from Robert Montgomery, who recently played Philip Marlow, who talks to Spade about detectives. (This is a 60 minute installment).

Movie review - "Yield to the Night" (1956) ***

Diana Dors wasn't the greatest actor in the world but is very effective as a woman on death row for killing her lover's lover. She was married and working as a perfume saleslady when she fell for Michael Craig (very good too), who pined over a no-good woman. When she drove him to suicide, Dors decided to get paid back. Dors is married so it's kind of like she gets revenge on the other other woman.

Fascinating on many levels: Dors is the hero but has an adoring husband willing to take her back who she consistently treats like dirt; she clearly killed the woman deliberately (it was a crime of passion but thought-out passion); she threw herself at another man despite being married; she isn't very nice to her mother. Yet you do feel for her - at the end it's clear she doesn't want to die and hates having to go.

J. Lee Thompson's direction is excellent, full of tight pacing and gritty faces, and there are some strong performances from the others. Much of the action is repetitive - another visit from mum, another from the reporter, the prison guards being nice, another visit to the doctor and reverend - but it still grips as it heads towards the execution and the ending packs a wallop.

Movie review - "Village of the Damned" (1960) ***

So very highly regarded by fans I found it a little disappointing - not the story, which is superb, more the treatment, which is occasionally silly: the over acting kids (the main one is funny rather than scary), hammy villagers, lack handing, telepathic-induced accidents causing a laugh. George Sanders isn't bad as the intellectual who is one of the victims of Midwich, initially delighted to discover his wife is pregnant then slowly coming to realise that the kids are evil. I think it means more to people who saw it on TV when they were young.

Some touches I always remembered and loved from the book are missing: the little old lady who becomes pregnant and is later convinced she can tell the kids apart, at the end when the kids are excited about Sanders coming around before he blows them up (I think they did this to make our hero more sympathetic). It's a shame because there are a lot of these sort of touches at the beginning - ones on the impact on the whole community (e.g. virgins and married women whose husbands are away falling pregnant) - but they are increasingly discarded as the movie goes on in favour of the kids being creepy.

Barbara Shelley is good playing one of her I-see-to-be-classy-but-in-actual-fact-I'm-a-seething-mass-of-neuroses roles (only here the neuroses are about being a mother rather than wanting to have sex with some evil man/vampire). Michael Gwynn plays the part of a skinny middle aged man with a good speaking voice - there was always someone like that in a British film around this time.

Radio review - Lux - "Bride by Mistake" (1945) **

Laraine Day and John Hodiak were very much the B team of romantic comedy but they are amiable enough in this remake of The Richest Girl in the World from Norman Krasna.It's been updated for the war so Hodiak is now a soldier and is seems to make less sense that no one knows what the richest girl in the world looks like. Also Day's actions are basically repetitive and sadistic - continually pushing him towards her secretary to prove her love for him.

Movie review - "Red Dog" (2011) ***** (warning: spoilers)

Why can't we make more Aussie films like this - plenty of good photography and stunning landscapes but few have this good a heart, egalitarian ethos and warmth. It's not perfect - I wasn't wild about the framing device, which occasionally went for gag over truth - and it didn't seem right they were all having this party remembering the dog when the dog wasn't even dead and in fact was dying in the next room (when he walks away at the end he might be just wanting to get some peace and quiet). And Rachel Taylor hooking up with Luke Ford in this felt like it slightly cheapened her feelings for Josh Lucas (I know a deal of time had passed in "film time" but watching it seemed too quick.)

Also it could have done with a touch more sense of community - it's all there, just sometimes it felt "pasted on" as opposed to organic. But there's nothing quite like a dog devoted to his master, waiting a la Greyfriars Bobby then searching all over the country to find him - and collapsing on his grave. A dog outliving his master- it's just not right. It's a pleasant change to see a film that's pro-union, pro-friendship, pro-dog. Very old school Aussie (which means that ethnics are okay as long as they're comic).

Movie review - "The Intruders" (1969) **

They should have been able to make a decent movie from Skippy but this just like an episode of the TV show and not a very good one - some smugglers are at work in Malacoota, but the Hammonds get involved because Waratah National Park is a long way from there. Sonny and Clancy wind up kidnapped by the baddies who talk on themselves and Skippy hardly does anything. Come to think of it, neither does Ed Devereaux, Tony Bonner, or any of the others - most of the running time is spent with the criminals.

It looks impressive in the way that most Australian films of the 1960s did - colourful and clean, with some gorgeous blue seas. But Lee Robinson, for all his considerable talents as a producer and documentary filmmaker, was never that good directing drama and by this stage he hadn't improved.

Movie review - "The Change Up" (2011) **1/2

Some very talented, likeable stars and hilarious lines but too much of it is false - Jason Bateman surely wouldn't risk his legal career and ditto Ryan Reynolds his acting career to prove themselves. Olivia Wilde is stunning and her body double has a nice arse but she's not convincing as a girl who secretly likes baseball and beer and is just a regular guy. It might have been better if the two leads weren't good friends but rather enemies. It whimps out too - as if Bateman isn't going to have sex with Wilde when he has the chance.

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

Some divine casting - the faces of the scouts look so real - and wonderful detail but so much of the excitement is sucked out of the script, scenes are dragged on too long, it skips over the real heart of it (giving players no longer regarded as top rate a second chance). The story is interesting, it makes you think and play fantasy team additions in your head while watching. There were a bunch of versions of the script - I read an Aaron Sorkin draft which included a wife for Brad Pitt's character and a lot more life and energy.

Script review - "Platoon" by Oliver Stone

George MacDonald Fraser pointed out that this film shows why American lost Vietnam - they didn't have an army. Squabbling amongst themselves, whacked out on drugs, ill disciplined, cowardly, stupid, poor strategy... it's depressing to think a war was fought that way. Barnes spends most of his time tormenting fellow soldiers, Chris has battle success going nuts with a gun, even Elias the "good soldier" (homoerotically described by Stone - in the script he's an India) is stoned most of the time and leading a drug taking ring. There is not one good soldier in the whole script except for maybe the captain. Powerful and moving and terrifying. No love letter to the Vietnamese either, who wail, shoot and torture.

Movie review - "Anvil" (2009) ****

Breathtakingly good doco about a real life Spinal Tap - a heavy metal band that never quite made it but kept going on through the bromance of it's two key creatives and their never ending dreams. Unbearably touching in its depiction of friendship, the loyalty of fans (who turn up no matter what), principles (a musician can't sell on the phone), the love of family (a sister pays money for an album), the lies and conman-ship of the industry,the dreams of all (including the wives). Beautiful.

Movie review - "Super 8" (2011) ***1/2

Charming sci fi which reminded me of the days making Super 8 films growing up - it captures the excitement, formalities, bickering, jealousies, challenges etc - including a sweet semi romance with a young girl. Like many sci fi films it's on the side of the aliens rather than the government and there is too much special effects and explosions at the end.