Movie review - "Prometheus" (2012) ** (warning: spoilers)

In space, no one seems to have heard of quarantine - at least not until the mid point. Until then you've got people on a strange planet taking off their helmets because they can breathe air, not caring about anything, bringing back to the ship willy-nilly. Two workers don't want to be around creatures but then later one of them reaches out to touch a creature. No one seems excited at the prospect of going to a planet to discover life. After they discover aliens the captain and his crew seems bored. People knock out others, run around the ship, and no one seems to notice or care. There are lots of pop culture references to things like Lawrence of Arabia and Stephen Stills (because you know people today make pop culture references all the time about the 1880s).

It's got two of the least believable characters in science fiction films in recent years - Holloway, played by a Billy Zane imitation, who is meant to be an archeologist but seems to have wandered in from a media studies course, doesn't seem remotely interested in the discovery of alien life (because they're dead, as if it wasn't enough); and the captain, who doesn't seem interested in what's going on either, then at the end we're meant to believe he's going to make this big sacrifice on nothing more than a hunch (and his two other pilots, about whom we know practically nothing).

The characters in the first three Alien films all felt real - they were doing their jobs, worried about overtime and their health, bitched about their boss, wanted promotions, defended their surrogate daughters; they were cowards and/or stoic, gung ho, some were in over their heads, others got religion. No one seems real here. No one. No one worries about quarantine, or health, or the fact they've discovered an alien civilisation. No one's particularly professional or good at their jobs. It's a bad script, with lousy character work, and the sort of confusion that comes from far too much talking about it.

The spaceship in the first three movies all felt realistic - cramped, dirty, battered. Prometheus here is like a flying hotel with massive corridors and rooms. Who is the crew? What are they doing? Do they have an attitude to the incredible events taking place? Where is the emotion?

The movie is also disastrously undercast. Noomi Rapace is one of the least memorable female leads in recent years - it's a great role but she does nothing with it. Logan Marshall-Green and Idris Elba do what they can with their roles, which are awful. Charlize Theron isn't that great either although at least she does push ups in her underwear. Michael Fassbender comes off best as the android - but wouldn't he look at a more recent film than Lawrence of Arabia in 2093?

Some positives - the murder scenes are exciting and well done, the storm is terrific, it looks amazing. The variation of the chest bursting scene with Rapace perforing an abortion on herself is gripping if not very logical. If Ridley Scott had gotten his head out of his backside and realised he was making a "discover nasty alien"movie and just concentrated on making the best one he good then he was in with a chance. But I think they waffled too much about what sort of film they were doing, shying away from being too Alien-like, and so instead of giving pulpy material A-grade treatment, they gave waffly material pulp treatment, with swishy visuals and effects. Did Walter Hill or David Giler have anything to do with this? If not, it's a bit cheeky for them to be credited as producers.

Movie review - "Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven" (1948) **

Guy Madison was a handsome kid who made bobby soxers sigh in a short appearance in Since You Went Away but who was soon exposed to be a particularly wooden actor - never better demonstrated than in this romantic comedy. It's a kind of young-folks-in-the-big-city lark, complete with female lead Diana Lynn who played a variation of this part in My Friend Irma. Both get up to adventures - he's a newspaper journo turned aspiring playwright, she's a hitchhiker who winds up in a swim suit on Coney Island, there are wacky pickpockets, crusty old bartenders, zany little old ladies, theatre producers, shenanigans with a horse, etc.

It's like the book for a musical only there aren't any songs and it isn't in colour. Also, the leads are basically failures - Madison doesn't make the grade as a playwright, Lynn isn't much good at anything, neither of them make a go of it in New York City, and it turns out they both really want to raise a ranch for horses in Texas. Then why leave Texas to go to New York? Madison gets an inheritance - he could have just spent it on the ranch and that was that.

The supporting cast try and it moves along at a fair clip. Audie Murphy pops up at the beginning as a newsroom boy in Madison's paper. You can glimpse the famous Dallas Book Depository. But this is pretty ordinary. Directed by William Castle!

TV review - "Heroes II: The Return" (1992) ***1/2

The sequel to The Heroes has even stronger material, albeit with a very different tone - the disastrous Operation Rimau, which ended with 23 men dead, either killed in action or executed by the Japanese. It means there's this aura of melancholy doom hanging over the whole operation - very unusually for a guys on a mission story, you know that there's going to be no happy ending (well, unless you count the fact that they maybe blew up a few ships... no one's sure).

I liked this even better than the original - there's more story, less training, less standing-around-tensely-waiting-for-the-Japanese-to-attack-then-realising-oh-no-they-don't, more action (the Aussies kick some arse and have their arses kicked), some incredibly moving death sequences. Peter Yeldham did a terrific job with the adaptation - the first half isn't that great, a bit too close to the first one (training, getting the gang together, lots of officers saying "by crikey I tell you it can't be done") but then it gets better when the mission goes haywire, and the second half is excellent. 

It starts with the war over and Simon Burke investigating what happened to the men - a brilliant solution to avoid shooting gallery story telling. It also ensures the piece is historically accurate while still being exciting because you get different points of view what happened (e.g. how the Aussies met their deaths in Singapore - some versions say they were honourable about it, others claim they went screaming and fighting as they were killed; being unsure whether the mission was a success).

Some gripes - the fact so many men went on the mission means it's hard to tell who is who. Yeldham focuses on a few men, to personalise them - but the cast is mostly (to my eyes in 2012 at least) unfamiliar. A bit more stunt casting like Craig McLachlan (who is fine) actually would have been better. Also I wish it was better directed - Don Crombie does an okay job, but you wish it was better. Cutting back to Miranda Otto, as the wife of one of the men, gets repetitive. (I know why they did it - to have some female presence - but there's not a lot of variation.) The beards in the final act are a little hokey.

But a worthy tribute to a great yarn. A typically Aussie war story, like Gallipoli on a small scale - a reckless mission that almost worked but failed due to blunders, Aussies being extremely brave and gutsy, ultimately to no avail, everyone dying.

Movie review - "Flame of Araby" (1951) **

Everyone's favourite Arab princess, Maureen O'Hara, is looking for love after her father carks it. She finds herself attracted to deep voiced, hunky Bedouin chief Jeff Chandler. The plot is complicated and a bit dim, but basically involves O'Hara trying to persuade Chandler to win a horse race so she'll be set free, so there's some swimming in an oasis, lots of 50s Universal urst, hammy acting, and no revolution or uprising. Indeed, there's a disappointing lack of action.

Chandler looks great with a terrific voice but he's not much of an actor and it shows here. O'Hara does her red haired spoilt spirited princess thing well - it's funny to see her so inappropriately Arabian. The support cast is top notch including Maxwell Reed, Lon Chaney Jnr, Susan Cabot and Buddy Baer.

Movie review - "Night Passage" (1957) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Audie Murphy normally was the only star in his movies but here he's in support of a bigger name - James Stewart. This is a Jimmy Stewart-Anthony Mann Western made without Anthony Mann - the director quit the project in pre-production, replaced by James Nielsen, but the spirit of their earlier collaborations hangs over it: there's beautiful location photography, atmosphere, Stewart has a strong relationship with the baddie who kind of isn't a baddie.

As in Winchester 73 the villain is Stewart's brother - played by Audie Murphy in one of his most effective performances. (I keep describing Murphy's performances as "effective" rather than good because I can never seem to call him a good actor.) He's a sympathetic villain, obviously tough, very sure of himself, quick on the draw - for my mind he outshines James Stewart, although Stewart is the better actor, and it's a shame he isn't introduced into the film earlier, or the reveal that they are brothers is held off.

Indeed, it's a shame the film isn't better. It's got some great things going for it - the mountain setting, the rivalry between the brothers, the Stewart-Murphy combination, Stewart sings two songs with an accordion which at least is novelty value. Other stuff isn't that great - Stewart doesn't have much of a character to play (a former railway guard given the job of catching a crook); Brandon de Wilde from Shane is in it and is annoying; Murphy comes in too late; Dan Duryea, normally excellent, hams it up as one of those real baddies who come along to redeem the anti-hero; the female parts are poor.

Still in Audie Murphy land it's an above average Western and makes you wish he appeared with other big stars more often so he didn't have to carry the movie on his own shoulders all the time.

Movie review - "The Doctor's Dilemma" (1959) **1/2

Civilised entertainment from Anthony Asquith and Anatole de Grunwald - the latter also adapted the play, instead of getting their usual collaborator Terence Rattigan to do it. Maybe it would have been a better film had that been done - maybe not.

The plot involves Leslie Caron (very sexy in a not-much role) asking doctor John Robinson to cure her artist husband Dirk Bogarde, even though he's a brat. The doctors debate ethics and so on - much of which is no longer applicable in this day and age (there are still plenty of ethical questions - it's just so specific to its time, though. the barbs don't drive home). I never bought the set-up - there seems to be far too much time for John Robinson to make up his mind. And they never really get at the drama of the situation (i.e. whether a brilliant bastard should take precedence over a dull but decent person) - it's talked about, but you never feel it.

The story is really Robinson's rather than Bogarde's - maybe it would have been a more popular film if the two had swapped roles. Having said that, Bogarde is excellent as a caddish artist (he has another wife waiting for him); he was always good as unsympathetic manipulators, although his death scene goes on and on and on. Caron's part isn't much - when all's said and done she's an enabling doormat. 

Excellent support cast including Robert Morley and Felix Aylmer, plus great colour and sets and funny lines. A half-success but not bad.

Movie review - "Bullet for a Badman" (1964) **

The seven Westerns Audie Murphy made for producer Gordon Kay in the 60s were all a bit same-y - you'd have Audie on the trail of a bad guy, with whom he'd have a bit of a bromance/love-hate thing going on, plus a girl played by a starlet in the middle. There'd usually be a posse containing a bad cowboy, some Indians and nasty outlaws along the way.

Here at least the bad guy is played by Darren McGavin, who turns in good work as the outlaw who used to ride with Audie, and who's ex wife is now Mrs Murphy. The adventures are fairly unexciting - encounters with baddies, Injuns, shot outs on rocky cliffs. It also seems to have about three endings. Edward Platt, Chief from Get Smart, pops up in the support cast. Very average, plodding entertainment. Audie Murphy fans will be interested to see him play a family man with a wife and child.

Movie review - "Gunpoint" (1966) ** (warning: spoilers)

Minor Audie Murphy Western from the period when too many of them looked like episodes of a TV show - low budgets and character actors to match. He's a sheriff who forms a posse to take off after a gang of outlaws who've robbed a bank and kidnapped his ex. Accompanying him is his ex's new flame and a few scenes reminded me of Streets of Fire.

There's Indian attacks, some nasty horse thieves, a treacherous deputy... it's enough colour and movement, I guess, all of it done before and better. The most memorable bit at the end involves Audie, who is struggling with his eye sight, in a shoot out with his ex's gambler fiancee - unable to shoot him he still manages to outwit him.

Audie Murphy is fine - solid rather than exceptional, but he doesn't have much of a character to play. Denver Pyle has a potentially juicy role - a deputy jealous of him - but this is all played out too early. Warren Stevens has some good moments as a smooth gambler who is quite sympathetic because although he's an anti-hero he does seem to love Audie's ex - but she's got to go off with Audie because he's the star.

Movie review - "The Admirable Crichton" (1957) *** (warning: spoilers)

This was probably JM Barrie's second most popular play after Peter Pan because of its gimmick - upper class family washes up on a desert island where the butler proves himself superior to everyone. It's kind of offensive in a way that the Britishers are shown to be happily supporting a strict class system provided the right person in charge - on the island they're all as happy as larry to call Crichton "Guv" and tug their forelocks in the way the contented natives do in Sanders of the River.

But this piece has a lot of charm. It's in colour, shooting took place in Bermuda rather than a studio which helps a lot, Kenneth More is perfect in the leading role (he was best known for playing middle class types but he's completely at home as a butler), the supporting cast includes some expert drolls as Cecil Parker and Miles Malleson (I wasn't as wild about the Edith Evans type character who seems to be a man in drag), there is some very sexy support via Diane Cilento and Sally Ann Howes, running around the island in not much. Howes' performance is really good - very good looking, spirited and gorgeous, she's totally at home on the desert island, and conveys the genuine sadness of the ending... Kenneth More, while being badly treated by the upper class twits he saved at least gets to go off with hot little Diane Cilento and a fortune in pearls, but Howes is stuck with her dreary fiancee and role in society. It's really touching. I've always liked this movie, and while the gags on social structure creak, the romance of living on a desert island remains effective and it's a great star vehicle for More and Howes.

TV review - "The Heroes" (1988) ***

Remember when Australian made a lot of these? Alas, it's a time gone now. This is a worthy version  of the famous Operation Jaywick - that's a back handed compliment in a way but it can't be helped. 

Part of the problem are the true facts - it was an amazing achievement, would have been terrifying, and it's great to see a tale of special ops where the Aussies are the heroes (even if led by a Brit)... but it doesn't change the fact that there's an awful lot of crouching down in a boat, guns loaded but not fired, waiting... it's hard to make dramatic. 

Peter Yeldham does as good a job as anyone could - maybe it would have helped with a more exciting director than Don Crombie behind the camera, although he does a workmanlike job. I think also the material doesn't quite suit the four hour treatment.

Still, there's lots to admire - a superb cast (Paul Rhya left me a little cold with his actor-y work as Lyons but top work comes from John Hargreaves, Chris Morsley - what happened to him?, Tim Robertson, John Bach - a great action hero - Bill Kerr, Cameron Daddo, David Wenham, etc), beautiful photography, terrific theme song from Pete Best. And it's got this wonderful melancholic aura over it because you know most of the characters went and died in Operation Rimau shortly afterwards.

Script review – “Breaking In” by John Sayles

Wonderful character study of an experienced thief who mentors a young protégé. He's smart, very good at his job, independent and lonely... he does it because he wants someone to show off to. This is kind of cinema Chekov - like The Last Detail, funny, realistic, human and sad. The technical detail about being a burglar all feels authentic, as does the small town atmosphere. Even though this sort of plot has been done before it all feels fresh, even the young crook's affair with a hooker. (She wants to be an actress and is  a film buff - characters in Sayles movies often talk about movies). Sweet and lovely. I can see why it didn't make a cent at the box office.

Movie review – “The Divorce of Lady X” (1938) **

Jolly japes amongst upper class twits with star power and colour photography but its crappy 30s British technicolour photography and the stars are Laurence Olivier (handsome, technically proficient but a bit too obviously technically proficient) and Merle Oberon (acting like she’s the prettiest girl in school, which she was). There’s also some very weak material – a fog leads Oberon to boss her way into Olivier’s hotel suite and she falls for him; he thinks she’s married, she isn’t but lets him think she is, to, er, test him I think and… look, it’s really stupid. Ralph Richardson hams it up and Binnie Barnes is also on hand as well as some character actors. 

I assume Alex Korda wanted to make this to showcase Oberon, who wears a variety of fashionable outfits and hats, as well as some “hey isn’t this cute” male pajamas. She and Olivier aren’t the best rom com couple but they are game, and Olivier’s performance in particularly grew on me. They are the best thing about this astonishingly lame comedy and it makes a fascinating companion piece to Wuthering Heights.

Movie review – “No, No Nanette” (1940) **

Victor Mature’s stage success in Lady in the Dark saw him cast as a prop for leading ladies in screen musicals for the next decade. Here the star is English favourite Anna Neagle, in one of several films she made with hubby Herbert Wilcox in Hollywood at the outbreak of World War Two. It’s a half arsed piece, consisting of a lot of running around and frantic activity and a plot revolving around a Broadway show and Neagle’s uncle getting into an amorous trap with an actress. Neagle is pursued by Broadway producer Mature and artist Richard Carlson; the latter is the genuine love interest.

It’s a half arsed musical – there aren’t even any proper production numbers, just sort of half ones ('Tea for Two' plays a lot on the soundtrack but never gets a proper guernsey). It’s in black and white and has little dancing or production value. There is a strong support cast including Roland Young, Helen Broderick, Zasu Pitts, Even Arden and Billy Gilbert.

Movie review - "A Time for Dying" (1969) **1/2

Audie Murphy's last film only features him for around 20 minutes or so but it's not a bad one for him to go out on - he produced it, the director was Budd Boetticher, Murphy gets to play Jesse James (who he played in Kansas Raiders years ago), it's a decent story, Victor Jory does a cameo as Judge Roy Bean.

The star is some guy called Richard Lapp in the role that Murphy would have played 20 years earlier - a fresh faced kid who is deadly with a gun and keen to make his reputation. He decides to become a bounty hunter but winds up in marriage with a pretty young thing, meets Jesse James, and gets in totally over his hand.

The film feels cut-about and too short, or missing something, the two leads are poor (she is pretty) and it's got that late 60s feel where it feels like a late 60s TV show. But it's consistently interesting, and Murphy really shines in his small role.

Movie review - "Gunfight at Comanche Creek" (1963) **

This Audie Murphy western suffers from low budget, slack handling, incredibly intrusive (and not needed) narration, but does have a good story: a gang of outlaws break out prisoners, get them to lead their hold ups, then kill said prisoners to collect the reward. Audie goes undercover to bust them, during the course of which the baddies kill an innocent deputy and a fellow agent tracking Audie in a scene right out of T Men (which the writer of this clearly seems to have seen - the narration is even reminiscent).

Audie is given a sexier image here - in his opening scene he's kissing some hot tramp whose boyfriend interrupts, he sexually harasses the female lead after dark (in one of those this-is-supposed-to-be-charming scenes). It doesn't suit him. He's better with the bang-bang. De Forest Kelly gives the support cast some class as one of the main baddies.

Movie review - "Six Black Horses" (1962) **1/2

Audie Murphy only worked with a couple of first-rate writers  a few times in his career - this was one, with a script written by Burt Kennedy. It's no classic but it's much better than a lot of Audie's 60s output, benefiting from some strong characterisations and good performances.

It starts with a bromance between loner Audie and gunslinger Dan Duryea, who saves the little guy from an unjust hanging; they are hired by mysterious Joan O'Brien to travel through hostile Injun country, and discover that O'Brien wants Duryea dead. She tries to persuade Audie to help him off Duryea, but although he's falling for her, he's torn with loyalty for his new friend.

O'Brien's character is one of the most meaty in ever in an Audie Murphy western (not that hard to do): beautiful, brave, driven by vengeance, handy with a gun, an ex-prostitute; Duryea is also intriguing - self-loathing, bitter and haunted, wanting to make a connection with Audie. Audie Murphy plays, well, Audie Murphy but he does offer the film a needed moral centre.

I don't want to overpraise this - it's directed by Harry Keller who was a hack, and misses opportunities here wholesale (there's a couple of encounters on the road with Indians and outlaws which are suspenseful enough but which a really good director could have knocked out of the park). Joan O'Brien  - best known as the big boobed love interest in Operation Petticoat - is given a gift of a part and does very little with it (she does look fetching in her back sombrero and white shirt). But Murphy is strong, Duryea excellent, there is a decent amount of tension and strong character work, and more homoeroticism than an Australian film.

Movie review - "Drums Across the River" (1954) **1/2

Another remarkably pro-Indian film from Audie Murphy - he starts out hating them because they killed his maw, despite his paw (Walter Brennan) being on their side... but gradually comes around the supporting them, even taking up arms to protect them against ruthless mining interests. The climax involves Audie leading a group of bad white men to be killed by Indians!

It's a good solid Western with strong support from Walter Brennan and Lyle Bettger, a weak female lead (Lisa Gaye), a femme fetale character (Mara Corday) who you think is going to be important but isn't. Audie is in excellent form as a little young guy who gets picked on (he's wrongly blamed for some crimes and avoids a lynching) but is tougher than everyone thinks. He's got a great character to get his teeth into here - a guy full of hate and violence, who comes to see the benefits of pacifism and avoiding wars, but is still deadly with a gun; he romances girls, gets arrested, busts out of prison, worries about his dad... it's great.

There's also a black leather gunslinger with a smile who was surely ripped off from Jack Palance in Shane, Jay Silverheels, a good amount of action, and a fast pace.

Movie review - "Lady Godiva of Coventry" (1955) **1/2

Oscar Brodney isn't one of the best known screenwriters out there but in his own way he was quite influential for drawing attention to so many periods of history during his time under contract to Universal. He must have had a set of encyclopaedias in his office or something because a lot of his costume pictures make some attempt at factual basis - this, Sign of the Pagan, Little Egypt.

This was no doubt made to feature the charms of Maureen O'Hara who plays the title role but the actual star is George Nader, who was Universal's back up to Rock Hudson and Jeff Chandler. He's a Saxon noble in the time immediately prior to the Norman invasion, although there's already Saxon-Norman conflict, and the king wants him to marry a Norman but he wants to marry a Saxon so he hooks up with  Godiva, and he's a rebel only he's not and.... any way it all gets a bit complicated. There's three wacky old guys Nader winds up in gaol with (one played by Victor McLaglen), O'Hara uses a lot of passive aggression to get her way, some ambushes and tax collecting... and eventually Godiva goes for her ride, in a disappointingly obvious body stocking. (Although O'Hara does get props for her long hair which is gorgeous - and annoyingly held up for most of the film).

It's a bit silly, Nader isn't much of a lead but he's okay (the film would have been better off had O'Hara carried more of the action), there's good colour and production value, plenty is happening, at least it's a bit different. Oh and Clint Eastwood has one line and you can see who he is.

Movie review - "Walk the Proud Land" (1956) **

Audie Murphy occasionally played real people - Billy the Kid, Bill Doolin, Jesse James, himself. Here he's John Clum, an Indian agent good at persuading Indians go on to the reservation. It's not surprising to see him do this in the context of his career because Audie Murphy films were often sympathetic to Indians - even when they massacred white people (e.g. Column South) they usually had good motivation to do so (usually because of the treachery of a white). However this is one of the rare times when he played an out-an-out pacifist - as a result this was not a hit at the box office.

It was one of a series of interesting movies Murphy made for Universal in the wake of the tremendous hit that was To Hell and Back - over a few years he tried his hand at service comedy, boxing biopic, Graham Greene, Ernest Hemmingway. It didn't last and he went back to straight-up Westerns. It's a shame - it's also a shame this movie isn't better. I wanted it to be, it's got a nice humanitarian message, Anne Brancroft as an Indian girl who falls for Murphy. But it is dull. There's not enough action or tension, and too much of Murphy walking around going "hey put down that gun", and overlong domestic shenanigans with Pat Crowley, Murphy's wife, being worried about Bancroft. Doing the right thing by the Indians doesn't have to make for boring story telling - look at Broken Arrow - but that's what's happened here. It does have pleasing production value and support cast.

Movie review - "Boys in Brown" (1949) **1/2

Juvenile delinquents were a bit of a craze in late 40s British cinema - Brighton Rock, The Blue Lamp, Good Time Girl and this, among others, gave plenty of wayward teens for audiences to go tsk tsk at, and enable socially progressive filmmakers to push their agenda. This one is set in a borstal institute, the Brits equivalent of juvey, run by the humane but dull Jack Warner and his humane but dull assistants - and I know this is my warped twentieth century mind but I can't help wondering if the characters they play in real life would be molesting these kids.

It's a bit of a star line up - Richard Attenborough is a nervy, dim teen crook who gets busted driving a getaway car (it's a version of his In Which We Serve coward performance). Dirk Bogarde is clearly experienced but very effective as a manipulative, handsome prisoner with a regional accent - yes, years before The Servant Bogarde was impressing in manipulative roles. Jimmy Hanley is good but he seems too old with his pot belly and receding hairline - indeed, most of the prisoners seemed too old.

As melodrama this isn't bad - Hanley gets out of prison and falls for Attenborough's girl, there's a quite exciting escape sequence in the finale. Some of this is laughable, though - Bogarde's amateur hour theatrics when he has his breakdown at the end, Hanley walking around with shorts pulled up like he's a sixty year old Queenslander at a bowls club, the final chat by Warden and his mate about the wheat and the chaff. (Actually every scene involving Warden and the guards is bad and self-righteous).

Movie review - "Seven Ways from Sundown" (1960) **

The best Audie Murphy Westerns of the 50s had verve, pep and pace - by 1960 Universal evidently weren't keen to spend any money on them, because this looks very cheap. It's also lethargically directed and feels like a long, mediocre episode of a TV show. Audie is a green Texas ranger who heads off after villainous Barry Sullivan with a kindly old marshall. When kindly old marshall dies, it's up to Audie to bring the man back himself.

What follows is a really, really dull battle of wills. Sullivan was a good actor and Murphy could be effective, but neither have a character to play. There's no historical background or complexity, just a lot of he-pulls-a-gun-then--he-pulls-one. Sure they encounter some Indians, and gunslingers, and women... but there's no progression. It all feels repetitive. The filmmakers were probably hoping for a work along the lines of the Randolph Scott's Ranown cycle, but they miss by miles.

Book review - "Marie" by H Rider Haggard

I really enjoyed this book even though it was a bit cheeky of Haggard to give Allan Quartermain another wife - "oh yeah didn't I mention her? Yeah I married her before Stella - told Stella all about her." Right. 

But it's one of his most exciting novels, full of terrific action sequences - the initial siege of the farmhouse, Quatermain's trek to join the starving Voortrekkers, visiting the Zulu chief's kraal, the final massacre of the Boers, two shooting competitions (one ho-hum, the other very exciting with life and death stakes) Quatermain's  court martial and escape. 

The character of Marie is sketchily drawn (she's young and pretty and that's it) - there's a villainous rival in her lecherous cousin and further complications provided by her half-mad father. Both these things feel like they are straight out of Victorian stage melodramas (complete with a very unconvincing death bed confession with exonerates the hero) and the villain is so naughty you're surprised he's allowed to get away with what he does, but its provides for effective structure. The English-Boer clash adds to the drama (Marie is a Boer and her father is opposed to Quatermain). 

Like a lot of Quatermain books it has a melancholy quality because you know that the hero is going to be widowed.

Movie review - "Posse from Hell" (1961) **

As the 1960s were ushered in, Westerns were becoming more psychologically complex and, well, neurotic - so when Audie Murphy gets together a posse to chase after a bunch of outlaws who've shot up a town, said posse all squabble amongst themselves - it consists of a townie, vengeful brother, Indian who suffers racial prejudice, pompous old fool and, later, a rape victim. No wonder Audie would rather get the baddies by himself.

It's quite dark material - the girl abducted by the outlaws is raped, it starts with a bunch of townspeople being innocently gunned down (including the marshall), several of the posse die, there is a kind of "arc" involving Audie learning to find the good in people or something. But after a promising beginning and despite a cast including Lee Van Cleef and John Saxon (townie with whom Audie has a bromance) it proves to be slow and uninvolving. The handling isn't particularly inspired, and it feels too much like television.

Movie review - "The Gun Runners" (1958) **1/2

I've become something of an Audie Murphy fan lately which is why it was a disappointment to find him simply not up to the task as the hero in this adaptation of To Have and Have Not. Bogart and Garfield have big shoes to fill, and Murphy doesn't get there. Part of it's the script - not that it's bad, it's good, with great dialogue... but it's too much for Murphy. 

In his Westerns he's protected by not having much dialogue, and being very well cast (normally as some little guy with a chip on his shoulder, or  naive innocent). He's simply not that convincing as an old school sea captain, or a person protective of his alcoholic shipmate, or in love with his wife (Patricia Owens). 

There are several domestic scenes, well written ones, showing the love Murphy and his wife have for each other; these and some tough talk exchanges make you long for Robert Mitchum, or James Stewart - even a Tony Curtis. Murphy isn't dreadful, he doesn't wreck the film - it's just a part that requires a different sort of star.

It's a shame because for most of the part this is a quite enjoyable tale, even if it does remind you of the Bogart film. The story is a good one, Don Siegel keeps it all moving at a fair clip, Eddie Albert is a strong villain, there's plenty of action, and a support cast that also includes Jack Elam and Lee Strasberg. I can't imagine the film was that successful as Murphy returned almost exclusively to Westerns for the whole of the 1960s.

Movie review - "Tumbleweed" (1953) **

Audie Murphy was always well cast as a little guy who people picked on for stuff that wasn't his fault - here he's a wagon train guard falsely accused of abandoning his post shortly before a tribe of Indians attacked and killed all the men, leaving only two women. One of them, the pretty but bland Universal starlet Lori Nelson, has a yen for Audie but her newly-widowed sister wants her to marry rich Russell Johnson (who, like Nelson, made a couple of films with Nelson).

The opening sequences are exciting as Indian massacres almost always are in Westerns, it's not a bad story, and the direction does some interesting things capturing the desolation of the West (wind swept plains, clambering over rocks, that sort of thing). It seems to lack something - an extra subplot, or maybe just a better female lead - to stop it from being one of Murphy's better movies.

Movie review - "The Wild and the Innocent" (1959) **

Audie Murphy and Sandra Dee aren't one of the most famous screen teams but they go together okay - Murphy is a little too old for the role (and her) really but his Texas drawl shyness is used to good effect here as a trapper innocent in the ways of the world who heads into town to sell some things. He is accompanied by a young woman (Dee) whose no-good dad tried to sell her. Both are overwhelmed by life in the big smoke (well, so it seems to them even though it's only a town), and both are tempted by sexy figures - Murphy to "dance hall" girl Joanne Dru, and Dee to sheriff and owner of the dance hall Gilbert Roland. Roland seems enamoured of Dee but wants her to work in his dance hall.

The jokes aren't much but it does have a charm. It's technically a Western but there's not a lot of action - a little shot out here and there, a brawl. Mostly it's hillbillies looking bug eyed at the fair on a holiday, getting ripped off and being innocent of sex - I kept thinking of Ah, Wilderness, North to Alaska or even Hound Dog Man. Murphy's pursuit of Dru is quite touching - at least he has Dee as a back up. The sexual politics are unsurprisingly dodgy - Murphy has the option of buying Dee who cleans herself up and falls for him, then is determined to nab him; later on he rescues her from the dance hall. Jim Backus is in the support cast.

Movie review - "30 Minutes or Less" (2011) **

Disappointing follow up from the team that made Zombieland despite an excellent cast. A minor fault is you never think the comic crook duo of Danny McBride and Nick Swardson are a genuine threat; a more major one is that I never bought why Jesse Eisenberg do the robbery. There were too many opportunities for him to call the police or army or someone, anyone. And the fact is they steal an innocent person's car and trash it and rob a bank and scare the hell out of people (even when Eisenberg is delivering pizzas he's running red lights, smoking cones behind the wheel and driving on footpaths). It takes a lot of fun out of it. Why didn't they have the female lead kidnapped at the 30 minute mark instead of waiting until the last act? It would have made it all make sense.

There is fun to be had - some of the lines are hilarious, the lead actors are all very talented (I hope Aziz Ansari becomes  film star). But they all feel like ad-libbed bits thrown in by the actors - the actual story itself is a lot of not particularly involving plot and noisy action. The female lead is completely under-developed (it would have been a better film had this been beefed up say like Emma Stone in Zombieland). It seems like everyone had a good time making it.

Movie review - "Column South" (1953) **

Audie Murphy Western that starts off fairly ordinarily with a tale of poor old Indians being blamed for the death of a prospector when it was white folks who done it... then picks up a level when the US Civil War is about to start and pesky Confederates try to whip up Indian trouble so they can exploit it for the South. It's not one of his best Westerns but it's still pretty entertaining with plenty of action towards the end and a decent story.

Joan Evans isn't much as the love interest but there's Dennis Weaver as an old Indian (!) friend of Murphy's, and Ray Collins as a copperhead. Murphy is a real old liberal in this - he's very pro-Indian because his dad organised an Indian massacre and despite his Texan accent he is strongly pro-union.

Movie review - "Safe House" (2012) *** (warning: spoilers)

Decent Hollywood action film which has the benefit of two of the film capital's more talented stars, a reasonably original premise, and a novel setting (i.e. Cape Town, South Africa). As if to compensate, it develops into what William Goldman calls "Hollywood horseshit" - supposed bad ass Denzel Washington coming back to rescue Ryan Reynolds... really? The real baddies are - gasp - the CIA. And Ryan leaking stuff on the internet because, you know, that's moral. Come on...

But it is a good set up. Safe houses are an interesting concept - and I was looking forward to seeing Denzel do some of this master manipulation his character is supposed to be famed for. We see a glimpse of it but not a lot - the rest of it is mainly running/driving around Cape Town going bang bang, which is quite well done, albeit with one too many easy escapes from tight spots. (I wonder: was there more complex drama between the two lead characters in the original script? Or maybe not - they get out of the safe house awfully fast and it becomes more of a man-on-the-run movie.)

The South African locales are lovely - it's a shame there's not a decent sized South African role in it (seriously - it's packed full of Americans except for Ryan Reynolds' girlfriend, who is French). Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this - I just wanted to love it, and I didn't.

Movie review - "Lore" (2012) **1/2

Cate Shortland's follow up to Somersault is another coming of age story about a young woman, only this time it's 1945 Germany. Mum and Dad are top Nazis and after the Germans surrender the Allies whisk them off to a camp, so Mum tells the eldest daughter to take herself and four younger siblings (including a baby!) 900 km across country to Hamburg. The war is over and they are in the American zone, two things which make the action less exciting, even with a baby. There is a creepy guy who seems to fall for the girl, who may be a rapist or Jewish or a killer or all three.

It's beautifully made and photographed, the performances from the kids are all excellent (particularly the lead actor, who reminds me of a young Michelle Williams), and it feels like it's genuinely taking place in 1945. There are some good bits, such as an unexpected death, and I liked the enigmatic relationship between the lead girl and the guy, with it's mixture of suspicion, lust, trust, romance, hate, and general creepiness. But it ambles and feels as though it goes on too long - for all the German dialogue and setting, it's very much feels like a not-very-plot-heavy Australian film. Shortland is really talented, I just wish her films had a stronger story.

Book review - "Nada the Lily" by H Rider Haggard (warning: spoilers)

Not as well known as She or King Solomon's Mines and not as good structurally - it's a bit all over the shop in places and occasionally repeats (two tyrannical Zulu kings getting overthrown) - but it's a wonderful, sweeping epic, full of action, pain, romance, blood and regret. It's only a quarter of the way through and we've already had people driven out of their kingdoms, blood feuds, making friends with a future king, vengeance, romance, separate siblings. 

Mopo flees to the kingdom of Shaka with his sister, who the king takes as his wife. She gives birth to a son, who Shaka wants dead (so no heir will grow up to overthrow him) but Mopo fakes the death and raises him as his own. He grows up to be Umslopogaas, who we know will die in Allan Quartermain, giving his a bittersweet quality, and who falls for his supposed sister Nada the Lily, who he later finds out he can marry.

It's melodramatic, passionate and terrific, full of great characters: brave Umslopogaas, Gwali the wolf king (his ally), wily Mopo, the beautiful Nada (so hot she causes wars), Umslopogaas' jealous wife, the mediocre tyrant Dingane, various witch doctors and brave Zulu warriors. There are hardly any white people in it - mostly Boers who are referred to rather than participate in action.

Wonderful dramatic scenes, such as Shaka wiping out Mopos's family, the rescue of young Umslopogaas, the death of Nada while holding his hand through a gap in the cage, Gwali's brave death fighting off scores of men with his wolves nearby. It's a cracking read and someone should make a film out of it.

Movie review - "The Dictator" (2012) **1/2

I wanted to like this movie more than I did, but while it has some great moments (e.g. the dictator's wall of conquests, the sports competition) it never seemed to work for me. There was an aura of "trying too hard" about it, gags striving but never quite making it, and some of them being too old and obvious e.g. gags about feminist women with hairy underarms running an organic co-op, doing a turd from high up on a wire. Maybe I couldn't get past the fact that the Dictator, who they try to make sympathetic (he's lonely, the people he sent off to be executed just emigrate to the US, he falls for Anna Faris), is still, even at the end of the movie, a sexist, anti-Semitic, anti-Democractic murderer whose regime is full of torture. His country would have been better off having democratic reforms and selling all the oil to China. That's right - in this movie the antagonists are pro-democracy.

The support cast is excellent, particularly Jason Mantzoukas as the Dictator's ally, and Sasha Baron Cohen throws his heart and soul into it, but for me it just doesn't get there.

Movie review - "Joe Butterfly" (1957) **

Hollywood went on an service comedy kick in the late 50s, with a whole bunch of light hearted movies (and also plays and TV shows) set in the military, featuring slightly shonky supply officers, bewildered leads, blustering officers and wacky natives: Teahouse of the August Moon, No Time for Sergeants, Mister Roberts, The Geisha Boy, Don't Go Near the Water, The Imitation General.

This one seems very much inspired by Teahouse of the August Moon, being set in post war Japan (immediately post war, i.e. 1945 even though the country doesn't seem particularly covering from war) and details the adventures of several workers at a military magazine. This is Audie Murphy's only flat out comedy but he's actually not the lead (despite his top billing) - that's actually George Nader, as the Mister Roberts-esque straight man. Murphy plays an Ensign Pulver-esque photographer who is always getting in trouble. And Burgess Meredith slants it up as a local Japanese, a la Marlon Brando. Fred Clark plays, well, Fred Clark (i.e. blustering officer) and Keenan Wynn plays, well, Keenan Wynn (troublesome officer).

There was no reason Murphy couldn't have made more comedies - he had a naive, aw-gee-shucks quality which was castable... but he'd never be special in comedies the way he would be in action movies, with all that simmering violence underneath. And he doesn't really have much material to work with here - just a guy who gets  up to some not very interesting shenanigans. It's breezy enough and is in colour and it might while away an afternoon in front of the TV if you don't get too offended by Burgess Meredith in makeup.

Movie review - "The Spider's Stratagem" (1970) **1/2

A decent enough story - man returns to his father's home town to look into why he was assassinated by the fascists in 1936 - and the direction is always interesting: pans, the same actor playing the father and the son, unique shot compositions. But it drags and I found it dull and lacking emotional connection.

Movie review - "The Kid from Texas" (1950) ***

Audie Murphy's first Western and although he's inexperienced he's extremely effective as Billy the Kid - all cherub cheeks, small in stature, thick Texas drawl, shy, quick on the draw, uneasy around women and civilisation yet drawn to both, easily offended, loyal to those who are kind of him, greatly affected by music (it soothes the savage beast), moves like lightning... and most of all full of seething violence and resentment which is barely beneath the surface. You can sense it burning within him constantly - it's as though when he shoots someone he's relieved.

Universal had a habit of freely raiding history for their costume pictures - well, they weren't making a documentary and at least they pay some lip service to it. We have Governor Lew Wallace, Pat Garrett, a stand in for Tunstall, the range war, a break out, and Billy's eventual death at Garrett's hands. It's done while he's drawn to a window listening to Gale Storm play the piano, which is a nice King Kong-esque touch.

This film has bright colour, a fast pace and plenty of action, and a great central character. I liked it a lot and I hope Murphy was proud of his work in it.

Movie review - "Hell Bent for Leather" (1960) **

This Western has some pretty locates and a decent enough idea - Audie Murphy is mistaken for a killer and lazy marshall Stephen McNally decides to kill him and collect the reward because he couldn't be bothered chasing the real killer. He takes Felicia Farr hostage and they fall in love. But there's not much more to it: they go over the mountains, some nasty cowboys turn up and threaten them.

Audie made a series of above-average Westerns but this isn't one of them. The pacing is slow, the action unexciting, there's no real personal drama. I always like seeing Felicia Farr in things (she's got this great voice) and she's good here but Audie doesn't have much of a character to play (he's just a regular guy). Director George Marshall isn't on fire, the budget feels low (three aren't many characters), McNally hams it up, the character of the real killer could probably have been used more. It does have a kinky title but that's about it.

Movie review - "The Quiet American" (1958) ***

This ranks with Red Badge of Courage as Audie Murphy's best know film - both stick out like glowing thumbs amidst his line ups of Westerns and occasional other genres. He is kind of an odd fit in this world of Graham Greene, Joe Mankiewicz, Michael Redgrave and character actors, with its seedy back streets, neo colonialism, and highly literate dialogue... but this works for the film. The American is an odd man out in this world, with his naivety, gosh darn decency and determination to make a difference whether the locals like it or not. For the most part he's effective - he only really struggles in the scenes where he and Redgrave have long-winded chats about politics, which clunk (and Redgrave doesn't cover himself in glory in these scenes either either, so I feel the fault of this is more Mankiewicz's).

This film gets points for its sheer novelty: a literate adaptation of a famous book about the Americans in Vietnam in the 50s which isn't complimentary about them. It's very adult (Redgrave has a mistress who Murphy pinches), has plenty of talk, gives you something to think about, and some of the support performances (e.g. the weary detective) are spot on.

But it's been fatally muted - Murphy isn't an American agent but a rich American meddling in politics just out of interest, which feels just silly; the Vietnamese girl is nothing - played by an Italian, and passively passéd around from man to man like chattel (she was a cypher in the book too); the girl doesn't go back to Redgrave at the end (I guess he had to be punished - at least this scene gives her some backbone); Murphy isn't complicit in any bombings it's all a Commie plot). So it doesn't criticise American presence - what it is, is a study of jealousy, with Redgrave motivated purely because of the woman and nothing else. It does work on that level - it's just not as good as it could have been. It is also a bit flabby.

Movie review - "For Better, For Worse" (1954) *1/2

When critics talk about the smug British cinema of the 1950s you couldn't find a better (or is it worse?) example than this domestic comedy about a young couple who decide to get married. They are played by Dirk Bogarde at his matinee idol fame (this was the year Doctor in the House came out) and Susan Stephens who looks pop eyed all the time and can't act. They are fresh and young and it's in colour but the result is smug blandness at it's most 50s - wacky music emphasising every comic point, light adventures (breaking the news to her parents, selling a car, moving into a small apartment which is actually big for London today).

So many of their problems are their own fault - Bogarde doesn't have a job when he proposes (he's 23, she's 19), he gets a job, insists she give up her job, she brings in too much furniture, they spend too much money, they get married, squabble, kiss, there's more stuff to do with furniture. There are lots of older character actors - Bogarde and Stephens are really the only young people in the film with sizeable roles. Stephens' eyes pop out some more. J Lee Thompson adapted the script (based on a hit play, apparently) and directed, doing neither well. Cecil Parker adds some style as the bride's father, even if he doesn't have  a character or decent lines to work with. Sid James pops up too.

Movie review - "No Name on a Bullet" (1959) ***

Ingmar Bergman meets Audie Murphy - I'm not kidding. Okay maybe I'm exaggerating but the filmmakers had obviously seen The Seventh Seal because Audie Murphy is an angel of death (a gunslinger) who rides into town and ends up playing a chess game with nice doctor Charles Drake. It's a very literate script, with lots of talk about death coming to us all and the importance of law and order, and full of enigmatic references to things that have happened in the past. (Gene Coon is the credited screenwriter). Murphy's killer is a fascinating character - he works by goading his victims into going to shoot him first, so he uses psychology (e.g. pretending to rape someone's daughter); he's quick on the draw but uses his brains more; he seems to develop a man crush on Drake because Drake has principles.

Director Jack Arnold handles things well, although occasionally the acting from the support cast is a bit iffy, and there are some odd/slow spots (e.g. Drake's father looks more like his brother, the ending is a little confusing when he really needed a pow). But it's generally an intriguing, intelligent western that should be better known.

Movie review - "Ride a Crooked Trail" (1958) **1/2

Enjoyable Audie Murphy western with the little guy as an outlaw who shoots the lawman after him, but gets mistaken for him when he turns up in a town. The town is ruled by a ruthless yet humorous judge (Walter Matthau) who is a little like Judge Roy Bean (always fining people, making up the law as he goes along), and the impersonating hero makes this feel like the filmmakers might have seen The Westerner. Complicating things are Gia Scala as a girl who knew outlaw Murphy who is forced to be his wife and a little kid.

Matthau is fun but if I'm honest he was a little too young and inexperienced at this stage of his career to knock it out of the park. Also his character at first is set up to be this bad ass but he softens and disappears from the action. Gia Scala's performance isn't much either but the fact she has a European accent at least gives this some novelty. Henry Silva pops up as the main villain, a gunslinger - Matthau should have been a baddie, too, but them's the breaks. This is still good fun, with some decent suspense and a believable transformation of Murphy from outlaw to respectable family man.

Movie review - "The Adventures of Tintin: The Search for the Unicorn" (2011) ***

Probably the best film that could be made from a Tintin comic... or is it? There's certainly a lot of love and care, the technical stuff impresses, the casting good (Jamie Bell, Andy Serdakis), the script very respectful... But there's too much noise, chases and crash boom-bang and a John Williams score that never seems to end. That's a personal opinion of course - others may like it, especially kids. But I can't help feeling they missed a lot of the satire in the comics, the characters don't seem as rich (there's Bianca Casatfiore but no Calculus), the villain is a bit light, it... I don't know, it just doesn't get the magic. Maybe they missed out by not going to the island a la Red Rackham's Treasure. I'm glad it did well though and that there will be a sequel.

Movie review - "Room at the Top" (1959) ****

Marvellous film which was a bit hit but then became unfashionable to admire compared to later British kitchen sink movies - not as arty or something. It was a ridiculous thing to happen because this is a superb movie, very well directed, scripted, and acted.

Laurence Harvey gives his best performance as Joe Lampton, who is always described as ruthless - he certainly wants to get ahead, and why not? What's wrong with that - he's an accountant for the council at a low level, smart and capable... why shouldn't he better himself? His bosses like him - what right do they have to warn him off seeing rich Heather Sears? (To be fair the film doesn't criticise this, I'm taking task with the critics who simplify it).

Lampton is very sympathetic here - yes he chases after Heather Sears, but because she's good looking and likes a challenge, he isn't necessarily interested in her dad's money (just her position). He's good in bed - Sears obviously likes the first time they have sex (this is startlingly frank), and Simone Signoret likes him too. He works hard, makes friends easily, is nice to his parents who he doesn't disown. He's certainly more likeable that Sears' smug boyfriend, always going on about his war service, or Signoret's faithless, cruel husband. Yes, he's sexist but Signoret calls him on it. Yes, he drops Signoret but only after her husband points out he will fight it all the way - and he marries Sears but only after refusing a bribe from her father and finding out that Sears got pregnant. He sells out by not going off with Signoret regardless (who is broke up with then asked back) but even at the time knows it's the wrong decision and it clearly destroys him.

The film tackles class head on - Lampton goes on about it a lot, as do other characters, in a way that seems real. It also embraces sex - Lampton is a sexual beast, there are post-coital scenes with Signoret and Sears, he has sex with another woman in an alley. Signoret is superb, all melancholic sexiness and warmth. (I wonder if James Woolf, Laurence Harvey's sponsor and occasional lover in real life, related to this part - all the references to her being older and past it but the only person who loved him.) Sears isn't as good but is effective as a pretty, spoilt thing who nonetheless has some spirit.

A few things clunk - it's a drag to see Lampton beaten up by toughs as a sort of punishment for his behaviour (this sort of scene is always in movies about lotharios - it was even in Shame), it was funny to see him start social climbing by participating in amateur theatrics, some of the supporting performances of upper class types seem over the top. But it remains a gripping, strong drama.

Movie review - "Woman Hater" (1948) *1/2

Maybe I'm being mean with the rating but this was very hard going. Stewart Granger wanted to play comedy and he does okay - he clearly tries, even if he was no Kenneth More - but it's a lousy story and he doesn't have chemistry with Edwige Feuillere. 

Granger is a lord who hates women, thinking they're dumb, and hears that movie star Feuillere is sick of men - so he sets out to seduce her for a bet. It's the sort of silly concept that would probably get green lit today, done without romance, warmth, charm or sexiness. The gimmick has Granger pretend to be... wait for it... an estate manager. What sort of impersonation is that? Why not be a butler or gangster or something with a bit of contrast?

Nicholas Phipps wrote the script (from a story by Alec Coppel) and although he specialised in light entertainment any breeziness is killed by the players and Terence Young (a miscast director if there ever was one). Granger falls into some mud on horseback, the two leads get drunk together, Feuillere pretends to drown not once but twice, there are wacky elderly servants who have their own shenanigans. 

If set in period, with proper light comedians, and in colour, this might have worked, but as it is here, it's very hard going.

Movie review - "The Guns of Fort Petticoat" (1957) ***1/2

A really excellent Audie Murphy western - I'm probably overpraising it but it's quality took me by surprise. Come to think of it, I don't know why it should - the more of his films I'm seeing the more I realised he should be better known as an actor (I think it's because (a) too many of the films he made were Westerns and (b) he didn't work with enough famous directors).

This one as Audie as a Texan serving with the Union Army during the Civil War, who deserts in the wake of the Sand Creek Massacre in order to warn his old neighbours that the Indians are coming. They hate him because his conscience made him fight for the Union, so response is slow. Also, all the guys are away fighting so it's mostly all women. But a corpse makes them pick up their pace and soon the action turns into a siege story.

There are lots of entertaining subplots: the women are an interesting combination of dance hall girls, Christians, former flames, tomboys, old crones; there's also a little boy who hates traitor Murphy, and a treacherous man who has impregnated one of the girls. (Throw in a no good man who impregnated one of the girls and some Mexicans who are convinced there's gold in the fort.) 

Well handled by director George Marshall, lots of good action (siege stories almost always work) and the supporting cast are good too.  Audie has fun bossing the women around as if they're soldiers. 

It's not a feminist tract by any means (one of the women say that they don't expect men to tell them how to raise babies and she doesn't expect them to tell men about strategy) but it offers a greater variety of roles for women than you normally see in Westerns.

Movie review - "Dick Barton Strikes Back" (1949) **

A much more confident and accomplished film than Dick Barton, Special Agent - it feels like a real movie, is fast paced and well done. Dick and Snowey investigate a baddie (Sebastian Cabot) who is developing a destructive ray. There's less jokes and a treacherous femme fetale and plenty of action. My main gripe is the fact that the ray has this annoying "ding" sound which goes on and on and is really irritating - so much so that an otherwise exciting finale is almost ruined. Still, it's an enjoyable piece of kiddie entertainment, very clearly a forerunner for the James Bond films.

Movie review - "Dick Barton, Special Agent" (1949) **

In it's own way a very influential film - an early success for the fledgling English company, Hammer, which prompted them to make a series of films adapted from pre-established radio/TV shows, which eventually led to Quatermass and the horrors. I'd never heard or read any Dick Barton stories and watching it I was aware of the need to catch up. Barton was a secret agent, who mucked around with some friends, had achieved a level of fame... it felt a little like some of the jokey Bulldog Drummond movies. It's not really a star vehicle either for Barton - as much screen time is given to his mates and the enemies.

The plot involves baddies trying to kill Barton so he won't stop their plan, which I would have thought drew attention to it. But it's a good plan... destroying Britain with bacteria in the water supple. It's tongue in cheek and fast paced with ex Nazi villains and outlandish ambition in the story lines - I would love to see Simon Pegg and that crowd up date this. It does creak though - the low budget is evident, the acting over the top and it feels more like an adapted radio play than a full-on film. It kept reminding me of old Australian films.