Play review - "Robbery Under Arms" (1890) by Dampier and Walch

There was a time when more Australians would have seen this theatre adaptation than actually read the famous novel. (Or at least a version of it.) It's been jazzed up and changed considerably: they've taken a cop and turned him into a villain who tries to man-handle the Marston's sister (a la Kate Kelly); there is a nice police officer who admires Starlight; Starlight is now a member of the English gentry who came to Australia because he took the blame for a crime committed by another member of his family (a la For the Term of His Natural Life); two comic Irish cops are added; Starlight is allowed to live to marry Aileen.

A lot of this is a mess - it's a jolt to introduce the Morrison sisters; momentum feels lost when Starlight seems to be killed and then Dick escapes. But the addition of a villainous copper works, Moran remains a strong antagonist, there's some great bits like Aileen pulling a gun on some people. The boring character of George (the "contrast with the life of crime" character) is still there - did anyone consider turning him into a villain? Plenty of action and incident - you can see how audiences would have liked it. A lot more successful than the 1957 version. This was the basis of a now-lost silent film adaptation.

Movie review - "Highway Dragnet" (1954) **

A minor B picture, mostly notable for being an early screen credit (I think it might be his first) for Roger Corman. He helped provide the story and is down as a co-producer - and certainly the tale isn't too dissimilar to the first he did for AIP, The Fast and the Furious. Richard Conte is an ex-GI who is falsely accused of murder and has to go on the lam, hooking up with a good looking girl - actually two good looking girls.

The film is a lot more polished than many of Corman's early films - in addition to Conte it's got Joan Bennett and Wanda Hendrix as the female leads (Bennett is the suspicious one, Hendrix is horny). The characters' motivations seem to go all over the shop - instead of hiding people go into plain view, the women don't bail when they clearly should.

There's an interesting finale at a house half filled with water and it's novel to see something set in Nevada at the time. Conte isn't really engaging as a star but at least can act; I enjoyed the trashy blonde and Hendrix's cuteness; Bennett looks old. Only really for completists of 50s film noir or Roger Corman. Or Richard Conte (hey, you never know - there might be some).

Movie review - "Barbary Coast" (1935) **

Early work from Hawks has some pep and great production design plus a strong turn from Edward G Robinson but it got on my nerves. Mostly I guess because I don't like Miriam Hopkins, who I never thought was a very good actress - with those funny lips and exaggerated acting. She plays a woman who turns up in Gold Rush San Francisco to find her fiancee has been killed so she goes to work at a saloon run by Robinson.

The movie is almost half over before she runs into poet slash gold miner Joel McCrea who speaks in flourishing rambling monologues more typical of writer Ben Hecht than someone McCrea should be playing. He's later so shocked to find Hopkins works in a (gasp) saloon (that hussey!) they he gets drunk and gambles away all his money. He's meant to be the hero and Hopkins can't help falling for him. What happened to Hawks' admiration for spirited, independent women?

Robinson runs San Fran with an iron fist so some locals get together and start stringing up his henchmen (well played by Brian Donlevy)... these are also meant to be the heroes too because they are not punished. Hopkins sobs some more, Robinson gets jealous then has an unconvincing change of heart... 

This simply isn't that good.

David Niven has a very small role but I blinked and missed him.

Movie review - "The Native Born" (1913) by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan

The third in Bailey/Duggan's unofficial "squatter's daughter trilogy" where the material from a successful first play were rather ruthlessly rehashed: a handsome lead actor, a comic co-lead (written as a lead for Bailey), comic relief law enforcement, dastardly villains and his even more villainous off sider, a squatter's daughter heroine who is feisty and brave but actually doesn't do much action, a comic spinster, a piece of paper, rescues. This has the benefit of being set in Mount Kosciusko in the alpine region which is different.

There are some first rate comedy scenes, no doubt indicating the success of On Our Selection. The partnership of Duggan and Bailey soon wound up but they had an impact on Australian theatre like few others.

Movie review - "Last of the Mohicians" (1936) ***1/2

In making his own version of the famous novel, Michael Mann paid tribute to Philip Dunne's adaptation for this one, saying he really knocked the book into shape. He did too, focusing the drama on the clash between Hawkeye and the Heyward, making the action flow logically, and creating believable romance.

I noted Mann made some changes - for instance, here the movie ends with Hawkeye and Heyward going to rescue Cora (both determined to die for her) and not the fight between Magua and Chingachook, and also here Heyward is allowed to live (so too is the colonel); this movie is a bit more sympathetic to that character and the British although the American-British tension is still shown. It also puts more emphasis on the Alice-Uncas romance.

It's a very exciting movie - I didn't expect to keep watching but I did. Randolph Scott is fine as Hawkeye (there's not much you can do about those fur caps), Binnie Barnes is bland as Cora but Herbert Wilcoxon is ideal as the stuffy Heyward, Robert Barrett and Heather Angel are likeable interracial lovers (as if they're going to be allowed to live) and Bruce Cabot a wonderful villain. Not particularly well directed - imagine if John Ford had been able to have a go - but great fun.

Book review - "Flashman and the Great Game" (1975) by George MacDonald Fraser

Fraser was at his peak around this time, consistently turning out Flashmans of high quality. This is perhaps the best of them all - I thought it would make the best movie because it tells the one story, whereas the others are often broken into two halves. It is also the most emotionally devastating of the series - an odd description for a Flashman novel I know but it suits. Usually in Flashman stories you can be a bit removed from the impact of what happens, as Flashman is, but in this one people that Flashman knows, likes and even loves go through turmoil and are killed, sometimes horribly: the Rani of Jhansi, Skene the political officer, Ibrahim Khan his former blood brother (who grows up to become the same surly Pathan fighter who consistently pops up in Flashman books), Scud East, the horny Mrs Leslie. You feel their deaths - it really packs a wallop.

Inevitably this slants towards the British side of the mutiny although the Indian side is depicted sympathetically - the buffoonish thoughtlessness of the English missionaries, the incompetence of (some) of the army and politicians, the cruelty of British reprisals; against that are the horror of the massacres at Meerut and Cawnpore, the struggle at Lucknow, the viciousness of the Russian agents.

This contains some of Fraser's best writing: some brilliant one liners (e.g. Flashman looking down our noses at them like proper Britons should do with rebellious natives who've got the drop on them, "I shan't be writing to mother about this"), excellent descriptions of action, great comic set pieces (like Kavanagh running out from Cawnpore), first rate sketches of historical figures (Queen Victoria, Palmerston, Cardigan, Campbell, Havelock), moving sections (the death of Scud East and the Rhani), memorable fictional creatures (e.g. the civilian colonel), and the brilliant finale with Flashman strapped to a gun by Brits who think he's a mutineer. There's even a very witty coda with the revelation that Tom Brown's School Days has been published. He does use the "n" word an awful lot.

As a side note, I don't think Flashman was ever braver than he is in this novel. He says he's a coward all the way but he goes on all the missions he's sent on, and never shirks his duty even in Cawnpore. He probably had no other option but there's no "pure Flashman" moments like throwing women out of sleds or anything like that. I've read it about five times and still enjoy it.

Movie review - "Frog Dreaming" (1985) **

If Brian Trenchard Smith had had better luck with the scripts he filmed he might have had a career more like Simon Wincer's - not that he's had a bad career, it's just his filmography lacks something like a Phar Lap or Free Willy, which he was perfectly capable of making. This kids film is full of energy, charm, verve and pace, and for a while you forget the basic story isn't that great. But it isn't that great and ultimately this isn't that good.

He's not helped either by Henry Thomas' rather flat performance in the lead. He seems monumentally uninterested in what's going on, at times even bored; compare his work with that of Rachel Friend, who is obviously less experienced and can go over the top, but you can see the emotion all over her face. They have a cute tween urst relationship (it's actually kind of a menage a trois, with Friend's little sister Tamsin West also involved) which helps Thomas; so too does the fact Thomas plays several scenes with Tony Barry, who is very good as Thomas' guardian. (It's a shame Barry never got to play a super dad for a long stint on a TV show he is the perfect laconic Aussie dad. Even if he is a Kiwi.)

The plot as Thomas investigate mysterious goings on at a water hole. But there are no real stakes - unlike BMX Bandits where the stakes were high (wanting to raise money for a BMX track, stopping a robbery, baddies who wants a robbery to go ahead, the MacGuffin of the walkie talkies), this has none. The only thing driving Thomas is curiosity, there's no real reason to uncover the mystery, there are no real baddies except Friends understandably protective dad (why not throw in some thieves or something?), and Thomas is passive at the climax.

It's a real shame because the direction is brisk, the support cast great and the scenery wonderful. Aboriginal lore is rich fodder for for a kids film - it would be worth revisiting.

Play reviews - "Time and the Conways" (1937) by J P Priestley

Before Alan Ayckborn played around with time there was Priestley - in 1919 the Conway family irritatingly blather about garbage, then we fast forward to 1937 where they irritatingly whine about how hard their lives are. It's a cute idea and there is some power because people's lives are ruined and disappointment ensued - I just didn't really like any of the characters.

Movie review - "Quartet" (1948) ***

Every now and then omnibus films are really popular - this kicked off a vogue in the late 40s, there was another one in the late 60s with Amicus horror tales. These four stories here come from Somerset Maugham, and are very sensible dramas sensibly adapted by R. C. Sherriff. That's kind of a back-handed compliment but this is an extremely competently made movie. It does feel like TV at times, but the quality of acting is very high and the stories are quite good.

The first one has Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne briefly reunited in a story of Radford worrying about his son going off the rails; then Dirk Bogarde plays perhaps the first in what would be a long, long line of men not particularly interested in women, a rich man's son determined to play the piano; following that is George Cole as a man who marries a woman way too hot for him (Susan Shaw) (not that this is the point of the story - that's to do with her not wanting him to fly a kite); then Cecil Parker worries about his wife writing a racy novel.

Noel Coward once observed Maugham always looked on the human heart as a necessary organ rather than something to be listened to (I could be paraphrasing) - emotions are dealt with in a matter of fact way. Mai Zetterling and Honor Blackman are achingly young and gorgeous, Bogarde was effective already, it's crisply directed. Civilised entertainment all round.

Movie review - "Dad and Dave Come to Town" (1938) ****1/2

(This article was previously published by the AFI)

When I was a student at AFTRS many moons ago, I wanted to do a paper on a classic Australian film. Our lecturer, the very lovely and passionate Jane Mills was all for it, “as long as it wasn’t bloody Dad and Dave Come to Town again”. I remember thinking at the time, “Jeez, Jane, what brought that on?” but I never asked why. I don’t think Jane hated the film – although that’s always a possibility – I think she was just sick of its position in the Australian cinematic firmament: a pre-revival comedy that people actually enjoyed watching. Well, I was talked out of it twelve years ago, but the time has come to bring this film back under the spotlight.

You don’t hear much about Dad and Dave nowadays, but there was a time – the first half of the twentieth century, to be precise – when Australians couldn’t get enough of them: the comic antics of these Queensland farmers were eagerly consumed by the public through scores of short stories, several magazines, best-selling story collections, a phenomenally successful theatre adaptation and its sequel, two popular silent movies in the ‘20s, four even more popular sound films in the ‘30s, comic strips, and a radio show that ran for 15 years, not to mention inspiring countless rip-offs (The Hayseeds, The Waybacks, Possum Paddock). For a while there, Dad and Dave was the most blue-chip flop-proof franchise in Australian show business. Several actors played Dad Rudd but the one most identified with the role was New Zealand-born Bert Bailey, who essayed the irascible farmer in thousands of stage performances from 1912 to 1929, and a tetralogy of movies for Ken G. Hall the following decade.

Hall launched his directing career with a Dad and Dave film, On Our Selection, and although he went on to make sixteen more movies over the next decade, he always returned to the Rudds whenever he needed a sure-fire hit. In 1938 this was particularly urgent since the English government had ruled that Australian films no longer counted as British under local quota laws. Hall could no longer rely on overseas sales for his films; profits needed to be made in the domestic market, and in Hall’s mind the best way to ensure that was to make a comedy with a popular star – and no Australian star was bigger than Bert Bailey as Dad Rudd.

Hall’s own favourite of the Dad and Dave films was Dad Rudd MP, but Dad and Dave Come to Town remains my favourite of the series – indeed, of all Hall’s movies – because it has the biggest heart. You don’t often hear the word “heart” used in discussing Hall’s films, even by Hall. He would talk about stars, publicity, production value, female interest, the importance of a good climax, special effects, the public always being right, character actors, showmanship and sound recording equipment, but rarely emotion. This put him apart from filmmakers who wore their hearts more obviously on their sleeves, such as Raymond Longford and Charles Chauvel, and who (therefore?) enjoy greater artistic reputations. But the best of Hall’s movies had heart in spades, most of all Dad and Dave Come to Town.

There’s probably a lot of people who haven’t seen the film (it’s bewilderingly difficult to get hold of today – brushing up for this article, I had to see a copy at the NFSA office in Sydney), so I should give a quick synopsis: Dad (Bert Bailey) is engaged in various comic shenanigans at his farm when he learns his brother has died and left Dad a house and woman’s fashion store in the city. Dad travels there to investigate, taking his wife (Connie Martyn) and two eldest children, Dave (Fred MacDonald) and Jill (Shirley Ann Richards), with him. The house, Bellavista, is under the regime of the housekeeper, Miss Quince (Marie D’Alton) while the store, Cecille’s, is being deliberately run into the ground by the treacherous manager, Rawlins (Cecil Perry), who is secretly in cahoots with Pierre (Sidney Wheeler), the owner of a rival store. Dad installs Jill as manager, and she updates the stock, gets rid of Rawlins, promotes the floorwalker Entwistle (Alec Kellaway), and hires a new publicity agent, Jim Bradley (Billy Rayes). Jill decides to completely refurbish Cecille’s and host a major fashion show; Dad agrees to finance it all but has to mortgage his farm to cover the costs. Pierre then reveals he lent Dad’s brother a thousand pounds and sends in the bailiffs to repossess the store during the fashion show, but Dave fights them off with the help of Entwistle and his new girlfriend Myrtle (Muriel Ford). The show is a big success, Pierre arrives to call in the debt – only for Dad to be bailed out at the last minute by his old neighbour, Old Ryan (Marshall Crosby) and all ends happily.

Why do I love this movie? For starters, it’s a very good script, well-structured and tight.  “Well-structured” isn’t a back handed compliment – as a writer, I know how hard that is to achieve, and is a something many films fail at time and time again. The action moves along briskly and logically, stopping several times for comic set pieces, which were usually written by an uncredited gag team. Some of these creak (Dad and Myrtle sabotaging Pierre’s front display), some are obscure (I’d love someone to explain the busman’s holiday joke to me) but others are first rate, such as Bill Ryan (Peter Finch!) asking Dad for Sarah Rudd’s (Valerie Scanlan) hand in marriage when Dad thinks he wants to buy their dog. There is also some of the best rom-com dialogue in Australian cinema history (admittedly not a very big field) in the exchanges between Jill and Jim Bradley, which are bright, snappy and clever. The script is certainly far superior to any in Hollywood’s Ma and Pa Kettle series, which tended to be repetitive, and ranks up with the best of the Andy Hardy series at MGM in the ‘30s and ‘40s.

I’ve always enjoyed Dad and Dave Come to Town for it’s acting, too. Bert Bailey and Fred MacDonald had been playing Dad and Dave since 1912 and could have done it in their sleep by now (they probably did at times), but Hall kept them lively. Peter Finch makes a wonderful feature film debut as Bill Ryan, looking like he stepped straight off the farm, skinny as a rake with his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down like a yo-yo; Finch was dreadful in some of the British comedies he later made like Simon and Laura, but he’s very funny here.

Jill Rudd is easily the best role Shirley Ann Richards ever had. Richards had an appeal similar to that of the young Olivia de Havilland – she looked like a good girl, but there was always a twinkle in the eye; virginal but with the promise of a lively honeymoon. Throughout her career Richards usually had to play against handsome elder lunks or gentlemen players, even in Hollywood – this film marked the one time she was matched against a spirited actor who seemed her contemporary, Billy Rayes. Rayes was an American touring the country with his juggling vaudeville act when cast as Jim Bradley (Hall frequently press-ganged touring foreigners into his films) and this seems to be his only movie – a great waste, for his scenes with Richards snap and crackle.

But the really great thing about this film for me isn’t its script or acting, it’s the fact it’s so warm and inclusive. The Rudds may bicker, but deep down everyone loves and supports each other: all the Rudd kids work for their father; Dad hires Jill to manage Cecille’s and puts her in charge of all decisions; Mum is supportive of her husband and daughter. Outsiders, too, are brought into the family fold: Bill Ryan is a moron but Dad allows him to marry Sarah because they love each other; Jim Bradley is a cocky city slicker, but Dad likes and respects him, and he becomes part of the Rudd family circle; so, too, do dimwitted but loyal sales girl Myrtle, gay Entwistle, and reformed-bad-girl-model Sonya (Leila Steppe). In fact, the only really nasty people in the whole film are Pierre and Rawlins (both of whom have pencil moustaches – make of that what you will). Yokels, gays, press agents, farmers, models, feminists, all under the one roof – it’s not SBS but this is pretty multicultural stuff for 1938.

It’s also remarkably progressive. Okay, yes, Entwistle is a gay stereotype with fluttering wrists and obsession with women’s clothes, but he is clearly out, which was unusual for the time (“all he can think about is frocks – why, he can’t even see the woman inside them,” cracks Rawlins) and while he’s mostly played for laughs, he’s also a brave, loyal friend of the Rudds, with a kind heart and good ideas how to run the store; he works hard, and puts his body on the line to fight off Pierre’s bailiffs at the end. Entwistle is definitely camp but he’s no camper than Jonathan Kurtiss (Damien Bodie) on the TV show Winners and Losers and was even more popular with audiences – indeed, he was brought back to the series in Dad Rudd MP.

The film is quasi-feminist, too, with Dad handing over the reigns of the business to his daughter Jill, who calls the shots, tells Jim “Don’t call me girlie”, says she doesn’t want to be “stuck away in a little country town” for the rest of her life, is her boyfriend’s boss, and shows female solidarity with Sonya. She’s a far better feminist role model than Sarah Hardy in the Andy Hardy series, who was always mocked whenever she expressed a desire to find a job, or any of the daughters in the Kettle movies, who just wanted to get married. Mum Rudd isn’t much of a role – it never has been (her arc in this film consists of reclaiming the kitchen at Bellavista from Miss Quince) – but at least she has a brain, encourages her daughter’s ambition, and inspires her husband by telling him to man up rather than using the blathering, absent-minded idiotic platitudes of Ma Hardy over in MGM land.

I also like it how Dad and Dave Come to Town supports capitalism with a heart. The Rudds appreciate the value of a buck: Jill’s ambition is admired, modernization is important, Dad makes sure he checks the books of any business he’s involved in, and extols the virtue of hard work. But it’s not capitalism of the unrestrained Thatcherite kind: Jill lets Rawlins resign even after his duplicity has been exposed to make it easier for him to get a new job; Jim criticizes Pierre for trying to crush “the little guy” in business; Jill lets Sonya keep her job despite knowing she’s a thief because she’s basically a good person; Dad goes into debt to expand the business when he thinks it’s worth it. And the film makes the rarely-made-but-valid point that making something isn’t enough, you need to publicise it, too. (Indeed, Jim Bradley is one of the most positive depictions of a publicity agent in cinematic history – handsome, bright, loyal, and smart – and surely ex-publicity man Hall’s fantasy version of himself.)

I love the coda of this movie, where Dad realises that city folk are just like country people down deep (“whether it’s poured out of a tin pot or a billy, it’s tea just the same”), and the Rudds have a Christmas Party where all the kids make out. Dad not only takes this in stride, he pulls Mum on to his lap and announces he’s going to join in on the fun, making this one of the few Australian movies to end with implication of characters over fifty having sex.

But my favourite bit of all comes in the climax. Pierre turns up after the fashion show, demanding one thousand pounds. Dad, by then deeply in debt, can’t pay it – but he’s bailed out by his neighbour and sparring partner, Ryan, who writes Pierre a cheque on the spot. “Where I come from, a man sticks to his mates,” explains Ryan, in a scene that never fails to move me. I love this moment because it says a lot about what I’d like Australia to be – a place where you squabble with your neighbours but when the chips are down you help each other out.

Dad and Dave Come to Town isn’t Citizen Kane. It’s a bit creaky, some performances whiff of ham, there are a couple of jokes I just plain don’t get, and the pacing occasionally feels off. And if you don’t like old movies, or old Aussie humour, you probably won’t like it at all. But I love it. It’s got yokels loose in the city, two great juveniles, witty dialogue, comic dogs, Bert Bailey acting up a storm, a young Peter Finch making his mark, slapstick, Shirley Ann Richards and Billy Rayes lighting sparks off each other, and that great feeling of inclusiveness, tolerance, family and mateship that marks the best of Australian populist entertainment – the same sort we later saw in The Overlanders, They’re a Weird Mob, Crocodile Dundee, Neighbours, Packed to the Rafters and The Sapphires. And the fact that the the film is not commercially available on DVD is a downright scandal.

Movie review - "Violent Playground" (1958) **

I became used to seeing David McCallum as a sensitive young man in his early films but he's very effective here as a glowering juvenile delinquent - moody, handsome, just wanting a cuddle. This probably would have been better regarded amongst teenagers had he been more of a protagonist - but unlike James Dean, Elvis or Tony Curtis movies, the real hero is a middle aged man: cop Stanley Baker.

Baker is a terribly decent copper who cares about the kids, you see - in this case the Irish living in Liverpool. He pretends not to be but of course he is - with the benefit of falling for McCallum's hot sister, Anne Haywood.

Unfortunately the movie becomes more conventional as it goes on, with McCallum turning into just another gangster, holding a schoolroom full of kids hostage, but being unable to beat the power of wise middle aged men (Baker, Peter Cushing as a priest, a teacher).  It all feels superficial and a bit patronising - it's a shame because McCallum is so charismatic. If they'd made his character the leading one I think this would be a minor teenage classic, much loved by baby boomers, but the filmmakers can't resist shoving their wisdom and platitudes in. The location filming does help and there are some exciting moments.

Movie review - "Esther Waters" (1948) **

Dirk Bogarde didn't serve much of a supporting role apprenticeship in the movies - he was playing leading men pretty much from the get go. In hindsight it's not that hard to understand, with his dark, Byronic good looks he was so easily castable. (He stepped in for a role that was meant to be played by Stewart Granger.) He is clearly inexperienced here but he isn't bad as the dashing man who seduces poor old Esther Waters and knocks her up, causing her no end of grief.

That ushers in the best section of the film for me - Esther copping it from nasty employers, trying to make a go of it. Then Bogarde comes back with a dodgy moustache and there's this plot about him being a bookie and lots of scenes of horse racing.

Kathleen Ryan is a sensible, not overly pretty heroine - no-nonsense and very British, like a smarter Phyllis Calvert. It's pretty minor melodrama, lacking the flourish of the best Gainsborough - no one really seems to have any fun and Bogarde lacks the sensuality of a Granger or James Mason. Still, he's a lot better than many British leading men of the time.

Play review - "An Inspector Calls" by J.P. Priestley

Gripping mystery drama with a point - maybe it's a bit pat (that we are all responsible for each other) but its worth making and the drama holds because so much of it we know happened and happens: a worker sacked for asking for more money or offending a rich client, a poor girl shunted aside because they're from the wrong class. The mystery structure helps too - at the bottom you're keen to find out exactly what went on - even if the self righteous inspector (the socialist wet dream man) got on my nerves a bit.

Movie review - "The Serpent's Egg" (1977) ***1/2

This Ingmar Bergman film doesn't have that many fans, and it's often bagged, but I really liked it. It's much better than The Touch - the subject matter is so much richer and varied, for starters, being set in 1923 Germany as people go to cabarets, have kinky sex and the Nazis gain in power.

It takes a while to get used to seeing David Carradine in a role clearly meant for Max Von Sydow but once I did I liked him. He's a Jewish American whose brother has killed himself in Germany and gets involved with his ex (shades of The Third Man) Liv Ullman isn't that good as the girl but it is fun to see her dressed up doing cabarets.

There's a lot going on here - dances, Nazis beating people up, an investigating policeman (Gert Frobe), black American men having sex with prostitutes, Carradine having a breakdown at the police station, mad doctors doing experiments, a tormented priest. Maybe it's a bit uneven and is not typically Bergman but I enjoyed it.

Book review - "Pop Life: Inside Smash Hits Australia 1984-2007" (2011) by Marc Andrews, Claire Isaac, David Nichols

Smash Hits has a special place in my heart because in the years 1985-86 it was my Bible - a terrific, well informed, expertly written fortnightly magazine that seemed so witty and clever. I'd read Countdown magazine before hand but it always seemed a bit unsatisfactory. Smash Hits was perfect - right price, it came out plenty of times, well respected, funny, good pictures, a bright style.

It was a great time to be reading it too because in hindsight the mid 80s could be seen as the end of the glory days of pop/"80s music" - Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Ultravox, Live Aid, etc. I can't remember when  I went off it exactly but I do recall by 1987 I wasn't reading it. I saw a copy the following year and it seemed to be so much younger. I'm sure this was partly me but also consider the big acts around that time - Bros, Kylie Minogue (that's pre-good Kylie), Rick Astley. You had more manufactured bands, less of the new romantic types who wrote their own songs.

The magazine went on for a fair amount of time after that: I was surprised to hear it was still going in 2007, fuelled by booms in the pop scene (the Britneys and boy bands of the late 90s, the talent shows of the noughties).

This is a bright, breezy account from three former writers on the magazine - Andrews and Isaac have the most vivid personality (both are still journos while Nichols, who didn't work for the magazine that long, is now an academic). Andrews places the magazine and pop in the context of the gay scene of the time - looking back so many pop acts were gay pioneers e.g. Culture Club; Isaac is a fan girl who made good.

The stuff about internal workings at the magazine isn't that interesting, but some of the adventures in the mag trade are - I loved stories like Jason Priestley drunkenly ranting about the Vietnam War and a pre-media savvy Kylie letting her guard down, plus the prejudice of the record industry and radio towards pop. A funny, breezy book befitting its subject - although part of me wishes they'd done it as a magazine.

Script review - "The Sea Hawk" by Seton I Miller and Howard Koch

Part of Wisconsin Press' superb Warner Bros script series, which would publish old movie scripts along with an introduction. Errol Flynn expert Rudy Behlmer is the guy here and it's an excellent work recounting the story of Sabtatini's best selling novel, which didn't really form the basis of the movie but the author's name was still heavily used in advertising because it was thought to be box office. The story is actually the creation of Seton I Miller, a scriptwriter not very well remembered today but who came up with a cracking yarn, perfect for the time, heavily inspired by the career of Sir Francis Drake prior to the Spanish Armada.

He was rewritten by Howard Koch, who came up with the terrific chart scene but kept the structure and characters - although I'm sure he improved it. It's a five act structure which, as Behlmer points out, doesn't repeat - intro scene, the first pirate attack at sea, court intrigue, Panama action and capture, escape, final fight. The romance is well interwoven (although Maria isn't a particularly memorable character) the villains are imposing. Thorpe is a deliberately different sort of hero for Errol Flynn to play - more tight lipped and noble. It's an enjoyable read and a tribute to Hollywood in its great days.

(NB you probably won't like it if you are Spanish though).

Movie review - "Pickup Alley" (1957) **

Warwick Productions always aimed their films at the American market but were usually recognisably British. This one feels as though it was made in Hollywood - it's set partly in America, almost all the characters are Americans, the treatment feels American, with it's jazzy score and film noir photography.

The plot has interpol detective Victor Mature tracking down drug dealer/murderer Trevor Howard (!) and in hindsight can be seen to foreshadow the James Bond movies: you've got a handsome middle aged chain-smoking agent travelling to various exotic hotspots (Athens, Lisbon, London) chasing after a super villain and getting involved with the villain's girl (Anita Ekberg, who looks like a Bond film). It's not in colour, which is a drag, although there is some location footage.

There's a real lack of sex - Mature and Ekberg don't really have much chemistry - and not a lot of action, mostly a lot of people hanging around in black and white photography looking sweaty. It's more a cop movie than an action tale - there are an awful lot of cops, interrogation scenes and a climactic shoot out at the docks - although it moves along well enough. 

Mature isn't that much - I kept forgetting he was avenging his sister and the "I'm going to defy my superiors to get my man" feels tired, but it is fascinating to watch Trevor Howard playing an action man baddy, shooting people and clambering over rooftops.

Movie review - Bond#6 - "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969) *****

I was this on the big screen finally at the Hayden Orpheum with a Lazenby Q and A in October 2012 - a terrific night because he was in great form, helped by an affectionate crowd, a good MC in Gary Maddox, and a hot girl from Die Another Day next to him which seemed to tickle his fancy. He played up being the old Aussie dinosaur, into birds and booze, and got great laughs.

I've seen this movie countless times but never on the big screen. It's such an awesome movie, with emotion, suspense and action. Some random thoughts:
* It's surprisingly New Wave direction - way out sound, jump cut editing, sped up action sequences. The influence of the late 60s, I guess: also in the garish decor during the opening hotel sequence and some of Bond's suits (that purple!).
* It's a really good script - perhaps Richard Maibaum's best (he always paid tribute to Ian Fleming's excellent source novel - he's the sole credited writer, although I understand some guy was brought int to do a little polish). It spanks along, has a first rate story - logical, clever - plus strong character development (Tracey and Blofeld are very well rounded), some funny lines. Occasionally it goes over board (e.g. "he had lots of guts") but it's extremely well done.
* Diana Rigg's Tracey is one of the all time best Bond girls - beautiful, heaving cleavage, spirited, a fast driver and top skier, she loves Bond. She actually has a decent back story - a wild child desperate for love - but never becomes a door mat. She's sexy, brave, smart and classy, plus dramatically interesting; very few Bond girls matched her. Indeed I'm not sure I can think of any who do. Also because she dies she's kind of perfect for him. I never get sick of that moment at the ice rink where Bond is surrounded and he doesn't know what to do and Rigg turns up on ice skates - it's terrific.
* Gabrielle Ferzetti's Draco is my favourite Bond sidekick/ally - firm, sexist, loving, in over his head. A dream father in law, who asks you to root his hot daughter, will pay you a million bucks to marry her, and can organise a helicopter raid on an alpine hideaway. I try to forget he's a member of the Mafia. Still, he's a professional (I love the moment in the attack on Piz Gloria when Draco's henchman is setting the explosives and asks his boss about the Englishman. Draco simply replies that he knows the schedule. What a cool dude!)
* Blofeld's plan is very clever and believable - a virus he plans on unleashing via hot girls around the world... in exchange for amnesty and cash and recognition for his title, which was a nice change. Telly Savalas' Blofeld is the most virile and tough of them all - he gets out there on his skis himself, not just sitting on a chair patting a cat, and he is also oddly human (a snob who falls for Tracey, attracted by her title as her looks).
* Some of the support Bond girls are seriously hot - Catherine Schell in particular. Not so much Angela Scoular, but she's a very good comic actress, which is important for that role.
*Ilse Steppat is an all time great Bond villain hench-woman - she ranks up with Lotte Lenya in From Russia with Love. She's brilliant - fat, dour, deadly.
* I always forget there's another Aussie in this movie: Anouska Hempel, who plays one of the angels of death.
* George Lazenby's performance has been much discussed. I will say this - he's excellent in fight scenes, is very good looking and masculine, has a great voice, is inexperienced and isn't as good an actor as Sean Connery but I find him a very effective Bond. He is helped greatly by having Rigg, Ferzetti and Savalas to play scenes against - and by having his voice dubbed by George Baker as Hilary Bray.
*The time when I most felt Connery's absence was in the scenes between Bond, Q and Moneypenny - especially the ending when Bond gets married but also the beginning when he resigns. Having an actor who had more of an on air history with Bernard Miles, Desmond Llewellyn and Lois Maxwell for these scenes would have helped give them more resonance.
* I love the care chosen in the smaller parts: the sandy haired agent who is killed on the mountain; Ferzetti's men (the pocked-marked guy who seems to be Draco's main henchman and the black dude); Blofeld's agents; Draco's young lover.
*John Barry's music was never better - with wonderful lush scores to go with the alps and the romance. There's a moving theme song, 'We've Got all the Time in the World' which is re-used well. Louis Armstrong helped too (even if it's used in a falling in love montage that feels very late 60s).
*The alpine setting is gorgeous and results in some brilliant action sequences. Bond's escape from Piz Gloria in particular is a smorgasboard of non-stop action - there is some cable car tension, then a night ski chase, a fight in a bell factory, ice skating, a car chase that involves participating in a car race, a romantic interlude in a barn, a day time ski chase, then an avalanche! It's real Indiana Jones stuff.
*There are some flaws in the story - I believed (just) that Blofeld wouldn't kill Bond straight away once he knew who he was but would he have him put away in a poorly locked storage room near the cable car engine?
For me this is the greatest Bond film. The first half is slow build, setting up character and plot, a little bit of action, some suspense, lots of impersonation and sex... then the second half is non stop action. A masterpiece. And it's a damn shame Peter Hunt never made any more Bonds or Lazenby never made any more Hollywood movies as a star.

Book review - "Peter Finch" by Trader Faulkner

Someone once wrote that the really first rate biography of Peter Finch has yet to be written - I think that's really unfair, because there are two first rate bios which came out close to each other, this and one by Elaine Dundy. (There's also a memoir from his second wife which is worth reading.)

This has the advantage of being written by an actor who was a pupil and friend of Finch's, and being done soon after Finch's death, so there's lots of interviews with people who knew him well, plus some excellent analysis of his acting. Particularly useful is the stuff about Finch's theatre work in Australia and in England in the early 50s. A very good book and an important look at Finch.

Movie review - "Hour of the Wolf" (1968) ***1/2

This Ingmar Bergman film stars marvellously - a pre credit title sequence explaining that an artist has gone missing on an island, a credit sequence with the sounds of a film crew, Liv Ullman explaining to the audience about her situation, the creepy atmosphere of the wind swept island. Max Von Sydow is a tortured artist with his younger ever loving wife Ullman who adores him (I bet Woody Allen loves this).

Von Sydow is beset by demons - memories of past incidents, fears of his own inadequacies, visions of killing a small boy and past lovers. He visits a weird dinner party which is like something out of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, winds up his his naked ex spread eagled on a table wearing face paint.

It's part horror film part surrealistic fable part Gothic fairytale part... well, anything. It's hard going at times, occasionally spills into silliness (sorry Bergman fans but that's what it felt like), atmospheric and impactful. I would love for Bergman to have made a straight out horror film but this is quite close (in the way that Shame is his war film).

Movie review - "Cabin in the Woods" (2011) **1/2

Maybe I was in a grumpy mood watching this or something but I found this take on teen horror films irritating a lot of the time. The "it's all a big game" twist has been done lots before - Seven Keys to Baldpate, The Game, Galaxy of Terror - and Scream deconstructed the horror movie a long time ago. The thing Scream did better too was provide a story that was really fun, scary and satisfying on it's own terms with some great twists and interesting characters, which Cabin in the Woods doesn't have.

There are archetypes, not characters, which I know is the point but makes it hard to sustain - especially when the actress who plays the virgin is bland and the guy who played the stoner is irritating. And the fact is young people are still killed violently and bloodily, which doesn't really do it for me (for all the meta-ness on display the filmmakers still can't resist having a pretty topless girl get her head chopped off). Adding to the mix is that fact it's not particularly well directed.

It is clever, sometimes extremely clever - I loved them making Chris Hemsworth dumb and suggesting to everyone that they split up - and occasionally it hits this note of delirious insanity, particularly the outbreak of monsters at the end. But I do think you can tell it was written in three days and people tell Joss Whedon he's a genius a lot.

Movie review - "Skyfall" (2012) ****1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Very good James Bond film which I felt fell short of being an absolute classic. The opening motorcycle chase felt a bit too close to the Bourne films; the plan of the villain is really, really complicated when you think about it (there are a lot of easier ways for him to act); it's surprisingly sexless even if Bond has sex a few times (Daniel Craig's Bond is far more professional and focused on the job - Sean Connery and Roger Moore seemed to enjoy sex more); Albert Finney's part appears written for Sean Connery (and really should have been played by a Scotsman); Naomie Harris isn't much in what is a dream role; it probably slows down too much in the "breather" before the final attack.

But Daniel Craig is excellent; it's visually stylish (Sam Mendes lets his DOP do some awesome visuals which you don't often see and admittedly do sometimes take you out of the film e.g. a fight on the top of a Shanghai skyscraper, a burning Scottish mansion); I loved the homage to Bond's beginnings with mention of his parents; Judi Dench has never been better; Javier Baderm is one of the all time-great villains (with a homoerotic yen for Bond to boot); Berenice Lim Marlohe is wonderful as a femme fetale; Ben Whishaw is a superb Q and made me furious they persisted with John Cleese as long as they did; Ralph Fiennes is intriguing and a great red herring; the opening credits and theme song are first rate, as are the nods to the series history. It's a really respectful Bond film which also adds lots of fresh stuff and is more British than usual (lots of Union Jacks and most of it is set in the UK).

I do feel sorry for Pierce Brosnan, with everyone going "gee how good is Daniel Craig and isn't that a great idea to have someone getting revenge on M" when that was the plot of The World Is Not Enough. But it's a real roller coaster emotionally satisfying,

Movie review - "Dangerous Remedy" (2012) **1/2

The story of abortion rackets in Victoria in the 60s and the efforts of one man, a Scottish doctor, to stop it. This starts brilliantly, with a horrid backyard abortion, and it's a rich world with some incredibly powerful sequences such as the raid on the abortion clinic. But as a drama it doesn't quite work.

Jeremy Sims' performance feels off with his "this is an accent" accent; the filmmakers can't resist the temptation to make the cops pure black hats instead of going for any ambiguity (William McInnes makes some potentially interesting counter arguments but they burn his character by having him beat up Susie Porter). For a film about abortion it concentrates an awful lot on people who don't have abortions - Sims' crusading doctor (we never really get a sense of what is driving this for him), McInnes' tight arse cop, Susie Porter's assistant (who I kept expecting to get pregnant but no... she gets cancer, though), Maeve Dermody's hot girl with false eyelashes (I thought she was fictional so she could get pregnant because she spends most of the time just hanging around holding hands... but it turns out she was a real character. Which makes me wonder why her romance with Jeremy Sims is so undercooked.)

I know the above people were real, and they didn't get pregnant, but still - it felt like a cheat. Like making a film about the 60s civil rights era that focuses on white people or something. To compound it the movie gets increasingly silly as it goes on - all these disjointed scenes of confrontations in alley ways, and cars taking potshots, and Sims being a super detective. I get they were going for film noir, I'm aware a lot of it really happened, but it doesn't feel real, or realistic.

There's a lot of good stuff on display: the production design is immensely enjoyable, the cast is a dream (Gary Sweet pops up among many others), it's a different look at Australian history. I just wish it had been better.

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

Ben Affleck is one of the more intelligent Hollywood star-directors out there - people like Kevin Smith would say that in the easy noughties but it didn't seem that way with all those bad films he made, but he's proved them wrong since. Still, he can't resist stealing Canadian glory in the interests of a Hollywood movie. The bravery and intelligence of their northern neighbours are played down - there's even a scene where the CIA whinge about the Canadians getting credit because it's a secret mission. Boo hoo. They're just annoyed because the Canadian Caper was one of the few things they didn't stuff up with the fall of the Shah.

Look, to be fair this movie doesn't hold back from criticism of the US foreign policy - their role in the 1952 coup, kicking out a democratically elected leader; the complete failure of the CIA to pick that the revolution was going to happen (it doesn't hold back on the craziness of Iranian extremists at the time). It's just annoying that having done that Affleck snubbed the Canadians, add a line swiping the British and New Zealand embassies not taking Americans, and depicts every Iranian character as a chanting/ranting idiot (except the guy who is the liaison for the film crew).

I do think Affleck was right playing up the thriller aspect - although when they go to Hollywood there's no way the movie can resist turning into farce, which is does, but it doesn't overwhelm the life and death stakes. Alan Arkin and John Goodman give good performances, even if Arkin's character is fictional and both characters speak in lines which sound like grabs for the trailer. Affleck gives a restrained, bearded performance - a little more charisma and believable tough guy-ness wouldn't have hurt in this role (which needed a young Tommy Lee Jones or Robert Duvall).

The characters of the American hostages are a debit. It's cute that the actors all look similar to their real counterparts but they lack individuality and sympathy - only Kerrie Bishe really stands out. (She was the only one I cared for anyway -  the rest seemed to get buried underneath glasses and moustaches).

I am bagging this movie far more than I meant to. There is so much to enjoy - it's a great story, the opening attack sequence is brilliant, the Hollywood angle is fresh, I enjoyed the finale too even though I got the sense it was Hollywood hype, the period detail is an utter delight. It could have had about 15 minutes cut out (Affleck loves scenes of people arriving places) but compared to most Hollywood films these days this stands out like a beacon.

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

Extremely funny movie which contains many laugh out loud moments, and a simple structure well executed, even if Mark Wahlberg is too old for his role. They keep calling him 35 but he doesn't look it, and there's a real gap between him and Mila Kunis. Both give good performances, though, as do the people who helped create "Ted". (The special effects are well done).

Jam packed with pop culture references, I mean really jam packed: Flash Gordon, Flying High, Boogie Nights, Tom Skerritt, Norah Jones, etc. It also went on too long, and the Joel McHale section didn't really work (the tone felt out or something), and it's got that strand of misogyny you often find in boysie comedies (there are a couple of scenes with these hot chicks just kind of standing around eg. the one at Wahlberg's work, the ones at Kunis' work) but was generally a lot of fun.

Movie review - "The Five Year Engagement" (2012) **

The team that made Forgetting Sarah Marshall fail to come up with something as good, despite a very talented cast, including two charming leads, and some very effective moments, including the use of one of my favourite songs, "Sweet Thing" by Van Morrison. The main problem is the story, which is based on a weak concept that doesn't improve on execution. Knocked Up or Sarah Marshall was based upon strong conflict (pregnancy, a third party) but in this case the only reason the characters can't get married is because, well, they're reluctant to do so. Instead of just driving to Vegas or a registrar they hum and haw, and it drags on and on and does feel like a long engagement.

This wouldn't matter if we really got into the characters, in the matter of say Two for the Road, which I occasionally got the impression this was trying to go for, but we don't. (Two for the Road had more story than this.) There are some lovely bits of observation, and insight into being a couple, but there's too much schtick for it too work as a drama-dy. (The finale feels as though it's straight out of How I Met Your Mother, which is a good show it just feels too broad and not realistic, and thus out of the tone of the rest of it). Supporting actors come on and do their comic turns (as opposed to playing real people), there's lots of "business", some really dull complications (they breaks up and she goes for Rhys Ifans),  and it goes on and on.

It's really frustrating because there is a good movie inside here - Emily Blunt and Jason Segel are movies stars who we like, and Mindy Kalin gives a stand out supporting performance. Maybe this needed to be more snapshots in their whole relationship, like Two for the Road, or maybe it needed more in-built conflict like she can't get married because of paperwork or something. I don't know, but the film doesn't work.

And what is it with Hollywood's current obsession with food vans? Happy Endings, What to Expect When You're Expecting, this...

Movie review - "Violent Saturday" (1955) ***1/2

Victor Mature stars but its actually an ensemble piece - a heist film crossed with small town melodrama. Stephen McNally turns up to rob a bank in a small town where the son of the mine owner (Richard Egan) is a drunk with a slutty wife, the mine manager (Mature) has a kid who is embarrassed about him because of his lack of a war record, the bank manager (Tom Noonan) likes to perve on a nurse who falls for Egan, there are some Amish farmers (led by Ernest Borgnine) whose farm the robbers hide out in.

It's surprisingly entertaining, with plenty of going on and an exciting robbery sequence and good action afterwards. Egan was never much of a star but could be effective as a support and is good as a weakling; Borgnine is fun as an Amish farmer who discovers the joys of violence; Lee Marvin is terrific as a glue sniffing robber who is mean to small children. Mature is professional but has the worst subplot - who gives a stuff if his whiny baby boomer brat thinks he's a hero? The little turd will probably turn on him when the sixties hit. Some of the female actors - Virginia Leith, Margaret Hayes - are hard to tell apart.

Book review – “Memo from Darryl F Zanuck”

Not as enjoyable as other memo books for Selznick and Warner Bros, this is nevertheless interesting enough. It’s clear that Zanuck was a fine script editor (his thoughts on story are first rate – John Ford and Joe Mankiewicz never worked on better scripts than the ones they did for Zanuck), gutsy (backing Gentlemen’s Agreement, Wilson, Pinky), derivative in his creative ideas (he was always remaking stories and pinching ideas fom previous movies), constantly sniping at Jack Warner (his old boss), owner of a healthy ego (like Selznick he is always invoking is track record and claiming to accurately predict failures), polite to great talent, smart. 

It lacks a little fire - maybe Zanuck wasn't as good on paper, maybe the records aren't as strong... or the book is too short. Still, very entertaining.

Movie review - "Galaxy of Terror" (1981) **

James Cameron’s second film for Roger Corman following Battle Beyond the Stars and it clearly influenced his work for Aliens – this is another tale about a small crew who land on a deserted, windy, darkened planet and are picked off one by one. But unlike Battle (or Aliens) this has a black heart – it’s a mean film where characters are killed nastily by their own fears (a device popularized in Forbidden Planet). There are severed limbs, exploding heads, stabbings and, in a particularly notorious scene, a rape and murder. 

This last sequence was finished by Corman himself who insisted on it – for all Corman’s fine track record in promoting  women and having positive female roles on films (and his record stands up) he was very rape happy around this time. I do think he was motivated be genuine commercial concerns rather than kicks but it doesn’t make it any more fun to watch. (To his credit - I guess you could call it that - he is completely upfront about this in the featurette on the DVD.)

The other big draw abck from this film is the characters are so sketchily defined. I know there’s not a lot of time but that didn’t hurt Battle Beyond the Stars – I think it’s just what happens when John Sayles doesn’t write your sci fi epic. So despite a cast that includes Eddie Albert, Erin Moran, Zalman King, Robert Englund and Ray Waltson, it’s hard to remember anything different about them. Its also not particularly well directed either (by Bruce Clark, who is a Kiwi) and is generally uninspiring stuff. The most notable about the thing, apart from the novelty of seeing Erin Moran in a science fiction epic, is the rape sequence... but that is so not a good thing.