I went into this with a relatively open mind, not knowing much about it except it was an early Bob Clark work and has claim to being the first slasher film. Many of the tropes it either introduced or was one of their to exploit are highly familiar now - obscene phone calls, creepiness in the attic, POV of the killer, the phone call coming from inside the house, sorority girls - and maybe they were familiar then, I'm not that across the history of the genre, but it is very well directed - genuinely spooky and I got chills watching some scenes.
There is lots of effective poking around the house at night and going up to the attic and down to the basement etc. The logic of the script doesn't really hold up but if you go with it like I did you'll have a good time. Good use of obscene phone calls and an unexpectedly pseudo feminist bent as most of the bad characters are trying to oppress women - the killer is misogynist, Keir Dullea wants Olivia Hussey to have his baby even though she doesn't.
Hussey is a perfect slasher film heroine - beautiful, likeable, vulnerable (she looks so scared you have no confidence she'll survive). Margot Kidder has fun as the obligatory slutty friend, Keir Dullea is appropriately creepy and John Saxon does a cool turn as a cop (most of his scenes done in the one set, the cop shop). I didn't mind the ending.
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Movie review - "The Hour Before the Dawn" (1944) ** (warning: spoilers)
Veronica Lake had a hot streak matched by few other actresses in the early 1940s - she became a star very quickly with I Wanted Wings then appeared in a series of classics - Sullivans Travels, I Married a Witch, This Gun for Hire, The Glass Key. Her hair was a natural phenomenon, but the government asked her to cut it off because apparently it was harming productivity; she did, then gave hints she had potential as a dramatic actress in So Proudly We Hail.
This movie was her big shot as a proper drama star - it flopped and she was shuttled off to comedies and noirs. It's a crap movie but it's not really her fault - yes she's not very good, uncomfortable with an accent and not really capable of conveying too much depth, but lots of other people are bad too. Franchot Tone is less convincing as a Pom than Lake is as an Austrian refugee; the kid actor David Leland is truly shocking; John Sutton, a super wet drip got on my nerves something fierce as Tone's brother; the actors playing Lake's fellow agents all ham it up. There's some painful plucky Britons acting during an air raid.
There is novelty in Tone playing a conscientious objector but it also means he's passive for most of the running time, unaware his wife is up to no good. There's no chemistry between him and Lake - you never feel he loves her, or she feels anything for him other than contempt. Frank Tuttle's direction lacks atmosphere. And what's with that ending where Tone murders Lake - okay yes she's tried to kill him but she's run out of bullets so its murder - then cut to him happily flying in a bomber? This film is more irritating the longer it goes on.
This movie was her big shot as a proper drama star - it flopped and she was shuttled off to comedies and noirs. It's a crap movie but it's not really her fault - yes she's not very good, uncomfortable with an accent and not really capable of conveying too much depth, but lots of other people are bad too. Franchot Tone is less convincing as a Pom than Lake is as an Austrian refugee; the kid actor David Leland is truly shocking; John Sutton, a super wet drip got on my nerves something fierce as Tone's brother; the actors playing Lake's fellow agents all ham it up. There's some painful plucky Britons acting during an air raid.
There is novelty in Tone playing a conscientious objector but it also means he's passive for most of the running time, unaware his wife is up to no good. There's no chemistry between him and Lake - you never feel he loves her, or she feels anything for him other than contempt. Frank Tuttle's direction lacks atmosphere. And what's with that ending where Tone murders Lake - okay yes she's tried to kill him but she's run out of bullets so its murder - then cut to him happily flying in a bomber? This film is more irritating the longer it goes on.
Movie review - "The Great Gatsby" (1949) *** (re-viewing)
A fascinating movie that was hard to see for a long time, which was a shame because there were plenty of good things about it and it was a decent enough 40s Hollywood attempt to tackle F Scott Fitzgerald. It was a passion project for writer-producer Richard Maibaum who had made OSS with Alan Ladd and became convinced he was just the guy to bring Gatsby to life - and you know what he was right. Ladd is very well cast as an insecure guy with a ruthless streak who could become a gangster and pine after a long lost love, and feel ill at ease among high society.
As an actor he had his limitations, there's no denying it - he needed a better director than Elliot Nugent, someone who could protect him more. I wish this had been directed by John Farrow who apparently left the film after a disagreement with Maibaum over casting - Farrow wanted Gene Tierney not Betty Field, and I feel he was right. Field has her moments but got on my nerves; Tierney would've been just right.
Maibaum had to make dumb script things to get this pass the censor - the opening scene at Gatsby's grave with Carraway quoting proverbs, Nick Carraway doing a lot of "voice of conscience" acting. Others are simply shoddy writing such as the exposition when we first meet Daisy and they talk about Tom's past.
Other bits of this are clunky too - Ruth Hussey got on my nerves as Jordan (all that female golfing and apparent cynicism; I never believed she was into MacDonald Carey for a second); I wasn't sure what was the point of Gatsby's lustings over the wife of his mentor Henry Hull (it cheapened his love for Daisy showing this). (I would've loved to have seen more of Gatsby's rise to riches via being a gangster).
But much of it is superb - MacDonald Carey is perfect as Nick Carraway, Howard da Silva moving as George Wilson, Tom Sullivan is very good as Tom, Shelley Winters perfect as Myrtle, Ed Begley Jnr is great as Lupus and I always enjoy Elisha Cook Jnr. There's fantastic moments like Gatsby's reuniting with Daisy, the death of Myrtle and revenge of Wilson, and the climax. It's very much a half-good adaptation but it should've been better known and I wish Ladd had made more films along this line.
As an actor he had his limitations, there's no denying it - he needed a better director than Elliot Nugent, someone who could protect him more. I wish this had been directed by John Farrow who apparently left the film after a disagreement with Maibaum over casting - Farrow wanted Gene Tierney not Betty Field, and I feel he was right. Field has her moments but got on my nerves; Tierney would've been just right.
Maibaum had to make dumb script things to get this pass the censor - the opening scene at Gatsby's grave with Carraway quoting proverbs, Nick Carraway doing a lot of "voice of conscience" acting. Others are simply shoddy writing such as the exposition when we first meet Daisy and they talk about Tom's past.
Other bits of this are clunky too - Ruth Hussey got on my nerves as Jordan (all that female golfing and apparent cynicism; I never believed she was into MacDonald Carey for a second); I wasn't sure what was the point of Gatsby's lustings over the wife of his mentor Henry Hull (it cheapened his love for Daisy showing this). (I would've loved to have seen more of Gatsby's rise to riches via being a gangster).
But much of it is superb - MacDonald Carey is perfect as Nick Carraway, Howard da Silva moving as George Wilson, Tom Sullivan is very good as Tom, Shelley Winters perfect as Myrtle, Ed Begley Jnr is great as Lupus and I always enjoy Elisha Cook Jnr. There's fantastic moments like Gatsby's reuniting with Daisy, the death of Myrtle and revenge of Wilson, and the climax. It's very much a half-good adaptation but it should've been better known and I wish Ladd had made more films along this line.
Friday, January 29, 2016
Movie review - "Saigon" (1948) (re-viewing) **1/2
A film that feels cobbled together from elements of previous Paramount hit films, particularly ones starring Alan Ladd: he's a war veteran in the third world (as in Calcutta); he's a pilot tight with members of his bomb crew (Calcutta, The Blue Dahlia); one of the flyers is terminally ill (You Came Along); there's a dodgy criminal (Morris Carnovsky), his henchman (Luis Van Rooten) and mysterious police chief (Luther Adler); Veronica Lake is co star (The Glass Key, The Blue Dahlia); Ladd is kind of in love with his best male friend and they also both love the same girl (The Glass Key).
Normally Ladd's co stars are William Bendix and Howard da Silva and John Farrow directs. Here his best friends are played by Wally Cassell and Douglas Dick and the director is Leslie Fenton. Actually everyone does a decent job - Cassell is no Bendix but is amiable and Dick is effective in the most sympathetic role (the terminally ill friend who falls for Lake. Ladd's performance is a solid star effort - the role fits him like a glove, a tough guys guy who has had his heart broken in the past.
The story is better than I remembered, or at least starts off that way: Ladd finds out that Dick is terminally ill and decides to show him a great time; to finance it they take an expensive job from Carnovsky and winds up flying from Shanghai to Saigon with Carnovsky's secretary, Lake, and a mysterious suitcase. Dick falls in love with Lake but she loves Ladd. So far so interesting, and the film throws in a mysterious French policeman (Adler).
Then the movie gets murky. Ladd discovers that Adler and Lake are smugglers, which should come as a shock to no one, especially Ladd who clearly took the job to make easy cash - it feels unfair he doesn't return the money to Carnovsky; he agreed to do a job, why not do it? Carnovsky stays out of the action far too long - he appears at the beginning and then at the end, and the movie lacks a villain for the in between bit. I kept expecting Adler to do this but he's actually a decent copper when the film needed someone more enigmatic (or another character). There's too much stuff of our characters chugging along down river chatting when another complication was needed (a former Nazi, another baddy).
Wally Cassell sees Lake and Ladd kiss but there's no dramatic pay off - then Cassell saves Ladd's life and dies, which is a downer. The final fight where Carnovsky fights Dick who is conveniently killed feels underwhelming. Dick never finds out that Ladd and Lake have fallen in love so there's no confrontation.
The movie feels chopped up a bit, the victim of rewriting and or editing/shooting. Carnovsky has this great entrance talking about how he's a coward and pays his employees well, then never does anything interesting again. It seems as though Ladd is going to con Van Rooyen to betray his boss but he never does.
So for the first half I was going 'hey this is pretty good' then it goes down hill.
Normally Ladd's co stars are William Bendix and Howard da Silva and John Farrow directs. Here his best friends are played by Wally Cassell and Douglas Dick and the director is Leslie Fenton. Actually everyone does a decent job - Cassell is no Bendix but is amiable and Dick is effective in the most sympathetic role (the terminally ill friend who falls for Lake. Ladd's performance is a solid star effort - the role fits him like a glove, a tough guys guy who has had his heart broken in the past.
The story is better than I remembered, or at least starts off that way: Ladd finds out that Dick is terminally ill and decides to show him a great time; to finance it they take an expensive job from Carnovsky and winds up flying from Shanghai to Saigon with Carnovsky's secretary, Lake, and a mysterious suitcase. Dick falls in love with Lake but she loves Ladd. So far so interesting, and the film throws in a mysterious French policeman (Adler).
Then the movie gets murky. Ladd discovers that Adler and Lake are smugglers, which should come as a shock to no one, especially Ladd who clearly took the job to make easy cash - it feels unfair he doesn't return the money to Carnovsky; he agreed to do a job, why not do it? Carnovsky stays out of the action far too long - he appears at the beginning and then at the end, and the movie lacks a villain for the in between bit. I kept expecting Adler to do this but he's actually a decent copper when the film needed someone more enigmatic (or another character). There's too much stuff of our characters chugging along down river chatting when another complication was needed (a former Nazi, another baddy).
Wally Cassell sees Lake and Ladd kiss but there's no dramatic pay off - then Cassell saves Ladd's life and dies, which is a downer. The final fight where Carnovsky fights Dick who is conveniently killed feels underwhelming. Dick never finds out that Ladd and Lake have fallen in love so there's no confrontation.
The movie feels chopped up a bit, the victim of rewriting and or editing/shooting. Carnovsky has this great entrance talking about how he's a coward and pays his employees well, then never does anything interesting again. It seems as though Ladd is going to con Van Rooyen to betray his boss but he never does.
So for the first half I was going 'hey this is pretty good' then it goes down hill.
Movie review - "The Blue Dahlia" (1946) ****
I've seen this film a bunch of times now and the first half is easily the most vivid - Alan Ladd, William Bendix and Hugh Beaumount as veterans back in LA; Bendix ordering "bourbon with a bourbon chaser" and showing off the metal plate in his head; Ladd meeting his wife Doris Dowling and seeing she's got a lover Howard da Silva; Dowling telling Ladd how she accidentally killed their son; Ladd being picked up as a hitchhiker by Veronica Lake; Will Wright as the slimy hotel detective; the revelation of Dowling's murder.
The second half of the film things get murkier - Raymond Chandler supposedly wrote this while drunk and while I thought that was a Hollywood urban legend the film does feel like a movie written by a super talented man getting increasingly drunk. Ladd gets abducted and is slapped around a lot; the police sort of become protagonists; Bendix thinks he dunnit; the cops shoot the killer plain dead.
It all gets messy but because its Raymond Chandler it's always entertaining - the dialogue is first rate, George Marshall's handling is vigorous and the cast is sublime. Warner Bros did the best tough guy movies of the 30s and 40s but Paramount grouped together their A team for this one: Ladd, Lake, Bendix, da Silva, Dowling, and Wright stealing the show at the eleventh hour. Lots of booze, infidelity and corruption but also mates looking out for each other and the "cleanest" Ladd-Lake romance out of their four main teamings. Easy to watch.
The second half of the film things get murkier - Raymond Chandler supposedly wrote this while drunk and while I thought that was a Hollywood urban legend the film does feel like a movie written by a super talented man getting increasingly drunk. Ladd gets abducted and is slapped around a lot; the police sort of become protagonists; Bendix thinks he dunnit; the cops shoot the killer plain dead.
It all gets messy but because its Raymond Chandler it's always entertaining - the dialogue is first rate, George Marshall's handling is vigorous and the cast is sublime. Warner Bros did the best tough guy movies of the 30s and 40s but Paramount grouped together their A team for this one: Ladd, Lake, Bendix, da Silva, Dowling, and Wright stealing the show at the eleventh hour. Lots of booze, infidelity and corruption but also mates looking out for each other and the "cleanest" Ladd-Lake romance out of their four main teamings. Easy to watch.
Movie review - "Two Years Before the Mast" (1946) (re-viewing) ****
This was made in 1944 but not released until 1946 whereupon it became one of Alan Ladd's biggest hits. And deservedly so because it's a vigorous, pleasing adventure tale, with Ladd a little awkward in a cravat but actually trying to stretch himself as the spoilt son of a wealthy ship owner who gets shanghaied on the ship.
I've never read the original book - I know I should because its a classic and all that, but I have the feeling it's very boring full of descriptions of ships and locations, and that Seton I. Miller added the drama. This is only a guess - a dangerous thing when it comes to screenwriter contributions, but Miller knocked The Sea Hawk into shape and his name is on a lot of fine films - in that he knew structure very well but wasn't very original. Two Years Before the Mast the film is full of tropes that are thoroughly road tested, but effective - there's the spoilt rich man's son who is shanghaied; the apparently loyal first mate who has a crisis of conscience; the tyrannical captain; the third act mutiny; a beautiful Spanish girl who comes on board (just like The Sea Hawk!); the cabin boy whose illness prompts the crew to get whipped up; the decent author who records all the action; a comic relief Irishman.
Everyone brought their A game: John Farrow's direction always had a bit more spark in tales of the sea; Ladd is a sturdy hero (as in many of his classic films eg The Blue Dahlia, The Glass Key he gets beaten up); William Bendix is excellent in a very strong role as the torn first mate; Barry Fitzgerald and Brian Donlevy are effective; Darryl Hickman is likable. Most of all there is Howard da Silva's superb performance as the captain - driven, not unsympathetic, scary. Production values are outstanding.
There are flaws - it gets less exciting when things should heat up, and why not resolve Ladd's romantic subplot, or reveal what happened to the mutineers? But its an entertaining yarn and one of the best films Ladd made.
I've never read the original book - I know I should because its a classic and all that, but I have the feeling it's very boring full of descriptions of ships and locations, and that Seton I. Miller added the drama. This is only a guess - a dangerous thing when it comes to screenwriter contributions, but Miller knocked The Sea Hawk into shape and his name is on a lot of fine films - in that he knew structure very well but wasn't very original. Two Years Before the Mast the film is full of tropes that are thoroughly road tested, but effective - there's the spoilt rich man's son who is shanghaied; the apparently loyal first mate who has a crisis of conscience; the tyrannical captain; the third act mutiny; a beautiful Spanish girl who comes on board (just like The Sea Hawk!); the cabin boy whose illness prompts the crew to get whipped up; the decent author who records all the action; a comic relief Irishman.
Everyone brought their A game: John Farrow's direction always had a bit more spark in tales of the sea; Ladd is a sturdy hero (as in many of his classic films eg The Blue Dahlia, The Glass Key he gets beaten up); William Bendix is excellent in a very strong role as the torn first mate; Barry Fitzgerald and Brian Donlevy are effective; Darryl Hickman is likable. Most of all there is Howard da Silva's superb performance as the captain - driven, not unsympathetic, scary. Production values are outstanding.
There are flaws - it gets less exciting when things should heat up, and why not resolve Ladd's romantic subplot, or reveal what happened to the mutineers? But its an entertaining yarn and one of the best films Ladd made.
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Book review - "Warren Oates" by Susan Compo (2009)
Warren Oates was a grizzly character actor who has inspired a devoted cult for a few reasons: genuine talent, a hard drinking lifestyle, collaboration with auteurs like Monte Hellman and Sam Peckinpah, and some odd cult-y movies on his resume (Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Two Lane Backdrop, Cockfighter). He's been given a wonderful biography from Susan Compo - every actor should be so lucky to have a biographer as tenacious as her, you really couldn't wish for a more definitive account.
Oates came from Kentucky, spending the first few years of his life in a small town, the moving to the larger Louisville. Oates always looked like a former soldier and indeed spent two years in the Marines although it was in peacetime. It meant he could attend college where he got the theatre bug. He moved to New York where he succeeded in getting an agent and some work, plus making friends (including a young Steve McQueen), developing a drinking problem and a tendency to womanise.
What really got his career going was moving to Hollywood in the late 1950s. It was the heyday of the TV Western and Oates' rough, beady-eyed look made him perfect to play rustlers, outlaws, etc - once he hit town he was rarely out of work, even if it was often not particularly distinguished. He was lucky enough to find Sam Peckinpah, a director who liked Oates and used him well; his career also got a fillip from the TV series Stoney Burke and a stage performance of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (which I was unaware he'd done) plus the leads in some Monte Hellman Westerns like The Shooting.
In the early 70s Oates became kind of a star - maybe "character leading man" would be a better description. He played the leads in a number of movies, few of which were hits but all of which had a certain critical cachet today - The Hired Hand, Two Lane Backdrop, Kid Blue, White Dawn, Alfredo Garcia, 92 in the Shade. His biggest hits were more consciously trashy: Race with the Devil, Drum. He was greatly admired by the Movie Brat generation and worked with John Milius (Dillinger), Walter Hill (The Thief Who Came to Dinner), Spielberg (1941), Terence Mallick (Badlands), Dennis Hopper (Kid Blue).
To many people he was kind of a 70s Bogart - a character actor who developed into a star. Indeed, he played many Bogart like roles - Dillinger and a TV remake of The African Queen. But he never had a really popular star making vehicle like Bogart had with The Maltese Falcon or High Sierra and drifted back into support roles - though good ones since he was such a strong actor and so castable (Stripes, The Border). He died relatively young at 53 but considering how he punished his body with booze, drugs and alcohol, he had a decent innings.
I didn't know a lot about Oates but this fills in all the gaps - constant womanising; a surprising ability to get good looking women (he had an affair with Millie Perkins, which is a pretty good score); theatre scene of the mid west during his college years; the bo ho life of LA in the 60s, living on a boat in Marina del Rey and having drinks with Steve McQueen; the Montana scene of the 70s where you had Oates, Thomas Guane and Dennis Hopper running around sleeping with each other's wives; a surprisingly hippy nature.
Oates does come across as a bit of a wanker at times - a not very good father, lover or husband, irresponsible and clownish. But he was an artist and so much of his art remains and he's lucky to have been the subject of such a good book.
Oates came from Kentucky, spending the first few years of his life in a small town, the moving to the larger Louisville. Oates always looked like a former soldier and indeed spent two years in the Marines although it was in peacetime. It meant he could attend college where he got the theatre bug. He moved to New York where he succeeded in getting an agent and some work, plus making friends (including a young Steve McQueen), developing a drinking problem and a tendency to womanise.
What really got his career going was moving to Hollywood in the late 1950s. It was the heyday of the TV Western and Oates' rough, beady-eyed look made him perfect to play rustlers, outlaws, etc - once he hit town he was rarely out of work, even if it was often not particularly distinguished. He was lucky enough to find Sam Peckinpah, a director who liked Oates and used him well; his career also got a fillip from the TV series Stoney Burke and a stage performance of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (which I was unaware he'd done) plus the leads in some Monte Hellman Westerns like The Shooting.
In the early 70s Oates became kind of a star - maybe "character leading man" would be a better description. He played the leads in a number of movies, few of which were hits but all of which had a certain critical cachet today - The Hired Hand, Two Lane Backdrop, Kid Blue, White Dawn, Alfredo Garcia, 92 in the Shade. His biggest hits were more consciously trashy: Race with the Devil, Drum. He was greatly admired by the Movie Brat generation and worked with John Milius (Dillinger), Walter Hill (The Thief Who Came to Dinner), Spielberg (1941), Terence Mallick (Badlands), Dennis Hopper (Kid Blue).
To many people he was kind of a 70s Bogart - a character actor who developed into a star. Indeed, he played many Bogart like roles - Dillinger and a TV remake of The African Queen. But he never had a really popular star making vehicle like Bogart had with The Maltese Falcon or High Sierra and drifted back into support roles - though good ones since he was such a strong actor and so castable (Stripes, The Border). He died relatively young at 53 but considering how he punished his body with booze, drugs and alcohol, he had a decent innings.
I didn't know a lot about Oates but this fills in all the gaps - constant womanising; a surprising ability to get good looking women (he had an affair with Millie Perkins, which is a pretty good score); theatre scene of the mid west during his college years; the bo ho life of LA in the 60s, living on a boat in Marina del Rey and having drinks with Steve McQueen; the Montana scene of the 70s where you had Oates, Thomas Guane and Dennis Hopper running around sleeping with each other's wives; a surprisingly hippy nature.
Oates does come across as a bit of a wanker at times - a not very good father, lover or husband, irresponsible and clownish. But he was an artist and so much of his art remains and he's lucky to have been the subject of such a good book.
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Movie review - "And Now Tomorrow" (1944) ** (re-viewing)
One for trivia buffs - what film did Alan Ladd and Raymond Chandler make together that wasn't The Blue Dahlia? This is an atypical entry on both men's CVs, being a "woman's picture" - specifically, a medical melodrama. This was popular during the 30s through to 60s, usually movies based on best sellers - Errol Flynn made one (Green Light), so did Robert Mitchum (Not as a Stranger) - and subsequently drifted towards TV where they still exist.
This has got some potentially strong dramatic situations - Loretta Young is rich, beautiful and deaf; Alan Ladd is the brilliant doctor whose immigrant father was fired by Young's father; Young's fiancee Barry Sullivan is having an affair with her sister Susan Hayward. But it doesn't really do anything with them - Young forgives Sullivan and Hayward very quickly; Ladd loves Young and she loves him and after a bit of awkwardness they get over it.
The film badly needed a real melodramatic kick - say for Ladd to really hate Young and Hayward's family and swear vengeance on them; or for Young to actually die; or for Hayward to try and kill Young (Hayward plays it that way); or for Hayward to pursue Ladd; or a mill uprising; or something. The punches feel continually pulled.
Young changes outfits a few times. It is interesting to see Ladd in an atypical role - he's not bad; very much a TV soapie style performance but he's got the looks and the voice (I wish he'd been allowed to be angrier). Young is her standard weapie self; Sullivan is alright but isn't given anything to do - Hayward looks as though she could be a terrific bitch if only allowed. Cecil Kellaway pops up as a kindly doctor.
It's also interesting to see if you can spot Raymond Chandler-isms in the script - if anyone can confirm what his contribution was I'd love to know.
This has got some potentially strong dramatic situations - Loretta Young is rich, beautiful and deaf; Alan Ladd is the brilliant doctor whose immigrant father was fired by Young's father; Young's fiancee Barry Sullivan is having an affair with her sister Susan Hayward. But it doesn't really do anything with them - Young forgives Sullivan and Hayward very quickly; Ladd loves Young and she loves him and after a bit of awkwardness they get over it.
The film badly needed a real melodramatic kick - say for Ladd to really hate Young and Hayward's family and swear vengeance on them; or for Young to actually die; or for Hayward to try and kill Young (Hayward plays it that way); or for Hayward to pursue Ladd; or a mill uprising; or something. The punches feel continually pulled.
Young changes outfits a few times. It is interesting to see Ladd in an atypical role - he's not bad; very much a TV soapie style performance but he's got the looks and the voice (I wish he'd been allowed to be angrier). Young is her standard weapie self; Sullivan is alright but isn't given anything to do - Hayward looks as though she could be a terrific bitch if only allowed. Cecil Kellaway pops up as a kindly doctor.
It's also interesting to see if you can spot Raymond Chandler-isms in the script - if anyone can confirm what his contribution was I'd love to know.
Movie review - "China" (1943) *** (re-viewing)
Alan Ladd once played Casablanca's Ric Blaine on radio and here is his big screen entry into Ric Blaine territory - a cynical adventurer in an international hot spot who turns patriot at the 11th hour (Raven in This Gun for Hire was a former baddie who did good but really he was motivated more out of revenge than patriotism). He's in great form with his snappy dialogue, world weary air, leather jacket and cigarette - no wonder George Lucas remembered him when devising Indiana Jones.
For empathy he has a sidekick (though he's a business partner rather than friend), lumbering William Bendix, who does things like pick up Chinese babies by the side of the road whose mother has been killed and name them "Donald Duck", and milk cows, and talk about missing life on the farm, and speak up for Ladd. There's also Loretta Young as an American born and raised in China, who is leading a group of school girls to safety.
The structure of the movie is sound - Ladd and Bendix are oil dealers who've been selling oil to the Japanese in 1941 China; when the Japanese attack they flee to Shanghai, and Young basically nags them into taking her school girls with her.
There are only four American characters in this - Ladd, Young, Bendix and a girl who plays Ladd's lover at the beginning (a really interesting character - he asks if she wants to come with them but she refuses saying all her life's been spent running away from situations like this... creating interesting characters of mystery with only a few lines of dialogue).
Young tells Ladd he reminds her of her father - a cynical selfish man until he met Chiang Kai Shek and thereafter devoted himself to serving good old Chiang.
Pleasingly all the Chinese characters are played by Chinese actors and while the parts aren't very big they do get to be brave, strong, tough etc - the rape victim has to die because she "doesn't want to live" a la 1940s Hollywood but she's depicted as a bright, likeable person; the three "brothers" are all brave and tough (I get the feeling their parts may have been bigger under earlier treatments).
Most of the time this is fairly routine, if well done, war propaganda, with actors spilling into speeches about "the little guy" and "pitching in". But there's some remarkable scenes: the opening tracking shot as William Bendix runs through a bombed out city; Young and Ladd tracking down a girl, arriving to find her parents dead and the girl in the process of being raped by three Japanese soldiers, who Ladd then machine guns; the baby adopted by Bendix is killed; Ladd dies during the final assault. Do reviewers not remember this when the movie is dismissed as "simplistic war entertainment".
The story does feel a bit slight - I've written before it needed another subplot or character - like say a Japanese who did business with Ladd and/or who is pursuing him. Or a Chinese fifth columnist who betrays them. Or more on the Ladd-Young relationship - she's hoity toity and is repulsed then attracted; as it is she kind of nags him for one scene then they fall for each other in one scene. (It's got to be said though, their last romance scene with them chatting after they've kissed and presumably have had sex, is very charming and one of Ladd's most relaxed romantic moments on camera. He wasn't always great with his female co stars but he works with Young.)
For empathy he has a sidekick (though he's a business partner rather than friend), lumbering William Bendix, who does things like pick up Chinese babies by the side of the road whose mother has been killed and name them "Donald Duck", and milk cows, and talk about missing life on the farm, and speak up for Ladd. There's also Loretta Young as an American born and raised in China, who is leading a group of school girls to safety.
The structure of the movie is sound - Ladd and Bendix are oil dealers who've been selling oil to the Japanese in 1941 China; when the Japanese attack they flee to Shanghai, and Young basically nags them into taking her school girls with her.
There are only four American characters in this - Ladd, Young, Bendix and a girl who plays Ladd's lover at the beginning (a really interesting character - he asks if she wants to come with them but she refuses saying all her life's been spent running away from situations like this... creating interesting characters of mystery with only a few lines of dialogue).
Young tells Ladd he reminds her of her father - a cynical selfish man until he met Chiang Kai Shek and thereafter devoted himself to serving good old Chiang.
Pleasingly all the Chinese characters are played by Chinese actors and while the parts aren't very big they do get to be brave, strong, tough etc - the rape victim has to die because she "doesn't want to live" a la 1940s Hollywood but she's depicted as a bright, likeable person; the three "brothers" are all brave and tough (I get the feeling their parts may have been bigger under earlier treatments).
Most of the time this is fairly routine, if well done, war propaganda, with actors spilling into speeches about "the little guy" and "pitching in". But there's some remarkable scenes: the opening tracking shot as William Bendix runs through a bombed out city; Young and Ladd tracking down a girl, arriving to find her parents dead and the girl in the process of being raped by three Japanese soldiers, who Ladd then machine guns; the baby adopted by Bendix is killed; Ladd dies during the final assault. Do reviewers not remember this when the movie is dismissed as "simplistic war entertainment".
The story does feel a bit slight - I've written before it needed another subplot or character - like say a Japanese who did business with Ladd and/or who is pursuing him. Or a Chinese fifth columnist who betrays them. Or more on the Ladd-Young relationship - she's hoity toity and is repulsed then attracted; as it is she kind of nags him for one scene then they fall for each other in one scene. (It's got to be said though, their last romance scene with them chatting after they've kissed and presumably have had sex, is very charming and one of Ladd's most relaxed romantic moments on camera. He wasn't always great with his female co stars but he works with Young.)
Friday, January 22, 2016
Movie review - "This Gun for Hire" (1942) ***1/2 (re-viewing) (warning: spoilers)
Alan Ladd is so stunningly good as a hired killer in this thriller its remarkable he played so few baddies in his subsequent career - and a great shame. While he's only given the "and introducing" credit and the top line billing goes to Robert Preston and Veronica Lake, this is Ladd's movie through and through.
He is helped by beautiful photography and carefully constructed scenes and one of the all time great introductions - Ladd wakes up tousled haired from a nightmare, then goes out to work in his trenchcoat, is nice to his cat, is mean to a nasty land lady who is cruel to the cat goes a visits a man who he shoots dead, then he shoots dead the man's girlfriend because she just happens to be there, passes a little girl sitting on the steps who identifies him who he should shoot... but he can't go through with it. Then he meets up with his boss Laird Cregar who is alternatively fascinated and/or repulsed by what Ladd has done.
Then the movie gets a bit odder and war conscious, with it turning out that Cregar invests in nightclub shows on the side, and he goes to see Veronica Lake perform a number... and she's asked to go undercover by a kindly senator who thinks Cregar is a fifth columnist and needs evidence. It just so happens that Lake is the boyfriend of cop Robert Preston, who is investigating the murders committed by Ladd.
The Lake-as-undercover-agent plot sits uneasily alongside the Ladd-getting-revenge-on-Cregar-for-betraying him story. Its as though it was shoved in to build up Lake's part (she sings two songs), or else to placate the censor.
The movie slows down in between the half way and two thirds mark with Lake and Ladd on the lamb. I couldn't put my finger on it - it needed another complication or something, maybe some double dealing - or maybe it would've worked if Lake and Ladd had been able to enjoy more of a romance or they'd given Robert Preston more to do.
But then it perks up and becomes more like a Hitchcock action film a la The 39 Steps, with Lake pretending to be a guy to help Ladd from the police and Ladd leaping on to trains and then breaking into the baddy's mansion. This is effective and Ladd gets to redeem himself before perishing.
So the result is a mixture of film noir, WW2 propaganda and Hitchcock thriller, with a brilliant Ladd star performance, excellent support from Cregar, Tully Marshall and Preston, top notch female star work from Veronica Lake. Frank Tuttle isn't known as a top director and no doubt benefited considerably from the in house team at Paramount (eg John Seitz the DOP) but I thought he did a very good job.
He is helped by beautiful photography and carefully constructed scenes and one of the all time great introductions - Ladd wakes up tousled haired from a nightmare, then goes out to work in his trenchcoat, is nice to his cat, is mean to a nasty land lady who is cruel to the cat goes a visits a man who he shoots dead, then he shoots dead the man's girlfriend because she just happens to be there, passes a little girl sitting on the steps who identifies him who he should shoot... but he can't go through with it. Then he meets up with his boss Laird Cregar who is alternatively fascinated and/or repulsed by what Ladd has done.
Then the movie gets a bit odder and war conscious, with it turning out that Cregar invests in nightclub shows on the side, and he goes to see Veronica Lake perform a number... and she's asked to go undercover by a kindly senator who thinks Cregar is a fifth columnist and needs evidence. It just so happens that Lake is the boyfriend of cop Robert Preston, who is investigating the murders committed by Ladd.
The Lake-as-undercover-agent plot sits uneasily alongside the Ladd-getting-revenge-on-Cregar-for-betraying him story. Its as though it was shoved in to build up Lake's part (she sings two songs), or else to placate the censor.
The movie slows down in between the half way and two thirds mark with Lake and Ladd on the lamb. I couldn't put my finger on it - it needed another complication or something, maybe some double dealing - or maybe it would've worked if Lake and Ladd had been able to enjoy more of a romance or they'd given Robert Preston more to do.
But then it perks up and becomes more like a Hitchcock action film a la The 39 Steps, with Lake pretending to be a guy to help Ladd from the police and Ladd leaping on to trains and then breaking into the baddy's mansion. This is effective and Ladd gets to redeem himself before perishing.
So the result is a mixture of film noir, WW2 propaganda and Hitchcock thriller, with a brilliant Ladd star performance, excellent support from Cregar, Tully Marshall and Preston, top notch female star work from Veronica Lake. Frank Tuttle isn't known as a top director and no doubt benefited considerably from the in house team at Paramount (eg John Seitz the DOP) but I thought he did a very good job.
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
Movie review - "The Glass Key" (1943) **** (re-viewing)
I recognise this isn't among the top notch of 40s black and white classics - like say Casablanca or The Maltese Falcon - but it remains enjoyable because so many of its pleasures are no longer available from films: a fresh faced Alan Ladd at his most handsome, tough best - when he was in shape, and trying to do the best job he could (something not the case from the mid 50s onwards), inexperienced but very charismatic, doing some great anger; Brian Donlevy being top billed but really supporting Ladd as a tough political boss trying to go straight (surprisingly common in 40s cinema eg Meet John Doe, Mr Ace); William Bendix in a stunningly good performance as a henchman, homoerotically keen on slapping Ladd around in an extended sequence); supporting actors like Bonita Graville and Joseph Calleia; tough dialogue; stunningly good black and white photography.
It has a remarkable sophistication when it comes to sexuality and corruption - the world is so corrupt that Ladd can bully a district attorney how to work; Lake's father tells his daughter to romance Donlevy to help his political career and she doesn't mind; Ladd seduces Margaret Hayes in front of her husband Arthur Loft, even making out with her on the couch while Loft comes down and whines for her to go to bed, then she tells her husband to go away and the guy goes and kills himself (the hero drives a man to suicide by cuckolding him!!); Bonita Granville is clearly having sex with Denning despite being 18 ("I've been to his apartment lots of times"); Ladd destroys a will and arranges for a trial to be rigged; Bendix is forever keen to kill, shoot, torture people, and putting his hands all over Ladd; Ladd flirts with a drunk Bendix to get a confession from the latter; Ladd's delight as he whips Bendix up into a frenzy against Calleia then watches on silently as Bendix strangles Calleia; Ladd bullies the DA into arresting the wrong woman (Lake).
Hammett gets a lot of credit, deservedly, but I think some should go to screenwriter Jonathan Latimer, whose name is on so many classic movies. Stuart Heisler isn't a very well known director (neither was Frank Tuttle who did This Gun for Hire) but on the evidence available here anyway he did a good job.
Veronica Lake is beautiful and enigmatic - you've got so much goodwill towards her (or at least I do) that you over look her flaws. She and Lake are very effective, two blonde shorties, whose mutual smirking/contempt is effective. Re-watching this I felt Lake would've been better going off with Brian Donlevy who, after all, not only has money and ambition but hid the identity of the murderer to protect her.
The film is less effective as a love story between Ladd and Donlevy, which it kind of has to be to justify a plot where Ladd was so devoted to Donlevy and him to Ladd. The two don't have great "mates" chemistry (whereas Ladd and Bendix have chemistry) but the film has so many other things in it's favour I forgave it.
It has a remarkable sophistication when it comes to sexuality and corruption - the world is so corrupt that Ladd can bully a district attorney how to work; Lake's father tells his daughter to romance Donlevy to help his political career and she doesn't mind; Ladd seduces Margaret Hayes in front of her husband Arthur Loft, even making out with her on the couch while Loft comes down and whines for her to go to bed, then she tells her husband to go away and the guy goes and kills himself (the hero drives a man to suicide by cuckolding him!!); Bonita Granville is clearly having sex with Denning despite being 18 ("I've been to his apartment lots of times"); Ladd destroys a will and arranges for a trial to be rigged; Bendix is forever keen to kill, shoot, torture people, and putting his hands all over Ladd; Ladd flirts with a drunk Bendix to get a confession from the latter; Ladd's delight as he whips Bendix up into a frenzy against Calleia then watches on silently as Bendix strangles Calleia; Ladd bullies the DA into arresting the wrong woman (Lake).
Hammett gets a lot of credit, deservedly, but I think some should go to screenwriter Jonathan Latimer, whose name is on so many classic movies. Stuart Heisler isn't a very well known director (neither was Frank Tuttle who did This Gun for Hire) but on the evidence available here anyway he did a good job.
Veronica Lake is beautiful and enigmatic - you've got so much goodwill towards her (or at least I do) that you over look her flaws. She and Lake are very effective, two blonde shorties, whose mutual smirking/contempt is effective. Re-watching this I felt Lake would've been better going off with Brian Donlevy who, after all, not only has money and ambition but hid the identity of the murderer to protect her.
The film is less effective as a love story between Ladd and Donlevy, which it kind of has to be to justify a plot where Ladd was so devoted to Donlevy and him to Ladd. The two don't have great "mates" chemistry (whereas Ladd and Bendix have chemistry) but the film has so many other things in it's favour I forgave it.
Monday, January 18, 2016
Book review - "Ladd: A Hollywood Tragedy" by Beverly Linet (1979) (re-reading)
Why was Alan Ladd so sad? It's hard to fathom - he was so determined to be an actor for so long, putting in years upon years of plugging away, scraping together his pennies to attend acting school, playing all sorts of small parts, refusing to give up even though he had a wife and small baby to feed, finally getting regular work in radio and earning the devotion of Sue Carol, who pushed his career to the next level and eventually the career defining role in This Gun for Hire.
After a decade of effort he became an "overnight" star and remained a star, really, until he died - for the last few years he was a second tier star, for sure, but still a name capable of headlining movies. This was in part because Ladd tended to be co-operative and professional, but also because he made so many easily commercial films - Westerns, noirs, gangster flicks. He had several healthy children and step-children, a keen brain which meant he earned money with his investments and films, his own production company, a seemingly happy, devoted spouse... why did he become an alcoholic? Why did he get so puffy and so depressed he tried to kill himself in 1962 and take a (possibly accidental, possibly not) overdose of tranquilisers shortly afterwards?
No one ever really knows but Linet's excellent look at Ladd's life - I've read it a few times now and it holds up - offers clues: a father he never really remembered dying of a heart attack, guilt from burning down a house accidentally when he was young, lack of extended family (no grandparents, aunts, uncles), a poverty stricken childhood in the depression, a step father who died young of a heart attack, an alcoholic mother who killed herself in front of Ladd, guilt from divorcing his devoted first wife in favor of the ambitious Carol, crippling insecurity from his seeming lack of acting ability.
Ladd had enough drive to become a star but lacked the ability to enjoy it when he arrived. He was looked after pretty well by Paramount, who cast him in some decent vehicles - The Glass Key, The Blue Dahlia, Whispering Smith, even The Great Gatsby - but left them over money. In hindsight he probably should have stayed, where he was comfortable, although some of his movies for Warners and Warwick were entertaining. He definitely should have tried to push his range and work with better directors, because when he did - with George Stevens in Shane - it resulted in the biggest success of his career.
But he wanted to play it safe - when he should've tried cutting his price and/or pushing his name forward to work with people like John Ford, Howard Hawks, Hitchcock or Anthony Mann, he stuck with old professionals like Frank Tuttle and Gordon Douglas. He foolishly turned down the role of Jett Rink in Giant because it wasn't the lead, wasn't a particularly bold producer (unlike say Burt Lancaster) and just made more and more crap. He physically disintegrated, didn't appear enough times against a star of equal popularity, and his films got worse. Watching his last few movies is almost uncomfortable.
But in his day there was no one like Ladd - cold, ruthless, with considerable grace, blonde hair and that imposing voice. At his best he was a compelling star and it's a damn shame he didn't enjoy acting more.
After a decade of effort he became an "overnight" star and remained a star, really, until he died - for the last few years he was a second tier star, for sure, but still a name capable of headlining movies. This was in part because Ladd tended to be co-operative and professional, but also because he made so many easily commercial films - Westerns, noirs, gangster flicks. He had several healthy children and step-children, a keen brain which meant he earned money with his investments and films, his own production company, a seemingly happy, devoted spouse... why did he become an alcoholic? Why did he get so puffy and so depressed he tried to kill himself in 1962 and take a (possibly accidental, possibly not) overdose of tranquilisers shortly afterwards?
No one ever really knows but Linet's excellent look at Ladd's life - I've read it a few times now and it holds up - offers clues: a father he never really remembered dying of a heart attack, guilt from burning down a house accidentally when he was young, lack of extended family (no grandparents, aunts, uncles), a poverty stricken childhood in the depression, a step father who died young of a heart attack, an alcoholic mother who killed herself in front of Ladd, guilt from divorcing his devoted first wife in favor of the ambitious Carol, crippling insecurity from his seeming lack of acting ability.
Ladd had enough drive to become a star but lacked the ability to enjoy it when he arrived. He was looked after pretty well by Paramount, who cast him in some decent vehicles - The Glass Key, The Blue Dahlia, Whispering Smith, even The Great Gatsby - but left them over money. In hindsight he probably should have stayed, where he was comfortable, although some of his movies for Warners and Warwick were entertaining. He definitely should have tried to push his range and work with better directors, because when he did - with George Stevens in Shane - it resulted in the biggest success of his career.
But he wanted to play it safe - when he should've tried cutting his price and/or pushing his name forward to work with people like John Ford, Howard Hawks, Hitchcock or Anthony Mann, he stuck with old professionals like Frank Tuttle and Gordon Douglas. He foolishly turned down the role of Jett Rink in Giant because it wasn't the lead, wasn't a particularly bold producer (unlike say Burt Lancaster) and just made more and more crap. He physically disintegrated, didn't appear enough times against a star of equal popularity, and his films got worse. Watching his last few movies is almost uncomfortable.
But in his day there was no one like Ladd - cold, ruthless, with considerable grace, blonde hair and that imposing voice. At his best he was a compelling star and it's a damn shame he didn't enjoy acting more.
Sunday, January 17, 2016
Movie review - "Five Star Final" (1931) ** (warning: spoilers)
A bit disappointing. It sounded great - Edward G Robinson, a newspaper story in the vein of The Front Page, pre-code, David Shipman gave it a good wrap... but it's too creaky for me, as 1931 talkies tended to be. Also Robinson's character was passive most of the time - it's his publisher who wants to boost circulation, it's his publisher who gets the idea of re-activating an old scandal, it's his dodgy reporter (Boris Karloff!) who pretends to be a clergyman who get the inside scoop, it's the reporter's off sider who photographs the corpses. All Robinson does really is feel guilty and resign.
It's a shame because he makes an ideal newspaper editor and Aline MacMahon is a perfect yen-for-the-boss secretary. Karloff isn't quite believable as a journo but his presence adds to the fun. There's some hammy acting from the support cast - the woman who is the subject of the scandal and her husband and daughter. They do carry on and it's like "alright already calm down". But the scenes where the wife and then husband kill themselves pack a wallop - got to love pre code Cinema!
It's a shame because he makes an ideal newspaper editor and Aline MacMahon is a perfect yen-for-the-boss secretary. Karloff isn't quite believable as a journo but his presence adds to the fun. There's some hammy acting from the support cast - the woman who is the subject of the scandal and her husband and daughter. They do carry on and it's like "alright already calm down". But the scenes where the wife and then husband kill themselves pack a wallop - got to love pre code Cinema!
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Movie review - "Blown Away" (1994) **
I have an irrational fondness for this film because I reviewed it for community radio in the early 90s and was given a free copy of the soundtrack - and it's a good soundtrack with The Pogues and The Sundays and the actual score.
It wasn't very popular, despite featuring Tommy Lee Jones at his early 90s action film star peak, and it isn't very good. Movies about bomb disposal experts struggle because you know the hero isn't going to die and also it's hard to justify that many bombs unless you get the setting right. The Hurt Locker worked brilliantly because it was set in occupied Iraq, was an interesting character study, and you know it wasn't conventional Hollywood so the lead could be killed at anytime - along with any other character. In this you know that Jeff Bridges isn't going to die so most of the tension comes from wondering how his friends are going to be bumped off. Also bomb disposal in the 90s wasn't as high tech as it is now so you don't have the same mobile phones and trickiness - it's still very much red wire/blue wire sort of thing.
The plot has Irish terrorist Tommy Lee Jones escaping from prison and seeking revenge on former comrade Jeff Bridges, who has made a new life for himself in Boston as a bomb disposal expert (and he's awfully busy). That's not much of a story since we don't care about Bridges - we never saw him save those people, his presence is causing his team to die. It needed more people's lives to be at risk. I guess he threatens Suzy Amis and the kid but who cares.
Jeff Bridges has fantastic hair but he isn't a proper movie star - he's a good looking character actor, always has, always will be - but this film needed say Clint Eastwood or someone. Tommy Lee Jones would've been better - better certainly than in the role of baddy. Lloyd Bridges hams it up outrageously as Bridges' Irish mentor, though he gets what is probably the film's best moment - gazing at the sunset before setting off a bomb to kill himself. Suzy Amis is sweet as his wife.
There's some neat bomb stuff - the opening bomb diffusion scene at the uni is clever. But the drama never builds, it feels as though it lacks logic, the climax is undercooked (it takes place after Jones has been killed... something I remember also happening in another bomb story, the Michael Crichton novel Binary). Scenes feel tampered with and rewritten, as if a whole bunch of people were called in to punch up the script.
One thing I kept thinking while watching this movie is how needlessly expensive so many scenes are - Bridges going to see Amis at her job, which is playing in an orchestra and there's a full orchestra; the kid's party full of kids running around and the only real point is to show Bridges gets along with the daughter, Lloyd Bridges at the baseball stadium. It's like the studio went "Irish terrorists and a bomb disposal expert... it'll be Patriot Games meets Speed". Didn't turn out that way.
It wasn't very popular, despite featuring Tommy Lee Jones at his early 90s action film star peak, and it isn't very good. Movies about bomb disposal experts struggle because you know the hero isn't going to die and also it's hard to justify that many bombs unless you get the setting right. The Hurt Locker worked brilliantly because it was set in occupied Iraq, was an interesting character study, and you know it wasn't conventional Hollywood so the lead could be killed at anytime - along with any other character. In this you know that Jeff Bridges isn't going to die so most of the tension comes from wondering how his friends are going to be bumped off. Also bomb disposal in the 90s wasn't as high tech as it is now so you don't have the same mobile phones and trickiness - it's still very much red wire/blue wire sort of thing.
The plot has Irish terrorist Tommy Lee Jones escaping from prison and seeking revenge on former comrade Jeff Bridges, who has made a new life for himself in Boston as a bomb disposal expert (and he's awfully busy). That's not much of a story since we don't care about Bridges - we never saw him save those people, his presence is causing his team to die. It needed more people's lives to be at risk. I guess he threatens Suzy Amis and the kid but who cares.
Jeff Bridges has fantastic hair but he isn't a proper movie star - he's a good looking character actor, always has, always will be - but this film needed say Clint Eastwood or someone. Tommy Lee Jones would've been better - better certainly than in the role of baddy. Lloyd Bridges hams it up outrageously as Bridges' Irish mentor, though he gets what is probably the film's best moment - gazing at the sunset before setting off a bomb to kill himself. Suzy Amis is sweet as his wife.
There's some neat bomb stuff - the opening bomb diffusion scene at the uni is clever. But the drama never builds, it feels as though it lacks logic, the climax is undercooked (it takes place after Jones has been killed... something I remember also happening in another bomb story, the Michael Crichton novel Binary). Scenes feel tampered with and rewritten, as if a whole bunch of people were called in to punch up the script.
One thing I kept thinking while watching this movie is how needlessly expensive so many scenes are - Bridges going to see Amis at her job, which is playing in an orchestra and there's a full orchestra; the kid's party full of kids running around and the only real point is to show Bridges gets along with the daughter, Lloyd Bridges at the baseball stadium. It's like the studio went "Irish terrorists and a bomb disposal expert... it'll be Patriot Games meets Speed". Didn't turn out that way.
Monday, January 11, 2016
TV review - General Electric - "Committed" (1954) **
Alan Ladd once made a radio show called Box 13 - this was an attempt to turn it into a series, with Ladd reprising his on air role as Dan Halliday. The gimmick of the show was Halliday would ask people to contact him with trouble to give him ideas for stories; this one results him winding up in a lunatic asylum with people calling him a different name. That's not a bad set up for a story, but the short running time ruins things - instead of dragging out the paranoia we are told whodunnit very soon and the suspense is gone. It doesn't help that Ladd/Halliday figures things out almost straight away. Then there is a chase sequence, with Ladd escaping from the asylum and going on the run - this could have worked for a film or an hour long episode.
Ladd is a bit pudgy in the face, but is well cast. The supporting actors fit in well. This was shot by Ladd's regular DOP (John Seitz) and director (Frank Tuttle) so has more polish than many TV dramas of this time.
Ladd is a bit pudgy in the face, but is well cast. The supporting actors fit in well. This was shot by Ladd's regular DOP (John Seitz) and director (Frank Tuttle) so has more polish than many TV dramas of this time.
Sunday, January 10, 2016
TV review - "Making a Murderer" (2015) ****
Oh he's innocent... no he's guilty.... oh he's innocent... no he's guilty. It's Serial all over again as we go around and around in circles - actually that's not fair, I did in terms of making a little smug stay at home judgement. It's a gripping tale although to be honest I felt the pace went out in the second half when the eps became about the trial and consisted of trial footage. I'm uneasy about lawyers so keen to appear on TV but it's hard not to be moved by the fates of the accused and the dead girl and it's a remarkable achievement.
Wednesday, January 06, 2016
Movie review - "Drums in the Deep South" (1951) **
The King Brothers assembled some decent names for this Civil War actioner - Philip Yordan wrote the script, William Cameron Menzies directed, James Craig, Barbara Payton and Guy Madison starred, and Dimitri Tomkin did the score.
There are two plot strands - one a perfectly decent action/war tale about the Confederates determined to bring a gun up to some heights to blow up a Union train - this is quite smart and well done, if not enough to support a feature. The second strand is less successful - Confederate James Craig is in love with married Payton and his best friend Guy Madison fights for the Union... only Madison isn't interested in Pyton, she's married to Craig Stevens who is barely in the film off fighting in some other field of the war.
Payton isn't very good - the excitement and colour of her private life didn't really convey on screen, it's as though she wasn't that interested in what she was doing on screen. (She's not awful, just bland.) Craig is alright. Madison is as good as he normally is, ie. bording until he's required to act angry when he fails miserable. He disappears for most of the first two-thirds of te movie, another dramatic fflaw.
Several scenes are reminiscent of Gone with The Wind on which Menzies worked so memorably as art director: the opening scene taking place on the day war is declared, a scene where Confederate Miss Payton is molested by a Union soldier who gets shot (though to be fair this time the soldier is humanised, in a nice touch).
It's alright - the movie keeps threatening to be better than it is but it never gets there.
There are two plot strands - one a perfectly decent action/war tale about the Confederates determined to bring a gun up to some heights to blow up a Union train - this is quite smart and well done, if not enough to support a feature. The second strand is less successful - Confederate James Craig is in love with married Payton and his best friend Guy Madison fights for the Union... only Madison isn't interested in Pyton, she's married to Craig Stevens who is barely in the film off fighting in some other field of the war.
Payton isn't very good - the excitement and colour of her private life didn't really convey on screen, it's as though she wasn't that interested in what she was doing on screen. (She's not awful, just bland.) Craig is alright. Madison is as good as he normally is, ie. bording until he's required to act angry when he fails miserable. He disappears for most of the first two-thirds of te movie, another dramatic fflaw.
Several scenes are reminiscent of Gone with The Wind on which Menzies worked so memorably as art director: the opening scene taking place on the day war is declared, a scene where Confederate Miss Payton is molested by a Union soldier who gets shot (though to be fair this time the soldier is humanised, in a nice touch).
It's alright - the movie keeps threatening to be better than it is but it never gets there.
Tuesday, January 05, 2016
Movie revie - "Joan of Paris" (1942) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)
I'm going to have to revise my opinion of Robert Stevenson as director - not that I particularly had one it's just all those Disney credits made me kind of dismiss him. But his work really holds up - including the Disneys, and this interesting, beautifully shot war tale. It was made around the time of the American entry into World War Two but doesn't have the hysteria and breast-beating of other films from that period.
The basic set up is solid - five RAF pilots are shot down in occupied France and have to get home. The pilots don't feel terribly English - the only two we get to know well are Paul Henreid, as a Free Frenchman, and Alan Ladd, as a member of the gang who is mortally wounded.
It's a showy role for Ladd, who is pudgy faced and smiling. He's called "Baby", and appears and the beginning, getting shot as they escape; he then comes back to die around the two-thirds mark in a touching scene that drew him attention at the beginning of his career.
Laird Cregar is in top form as the villain, though the part isn't as big and I would've liked it. Thomas Mitchell isn't that convincing as a French priest. Michele Morgan was only in her early 20s when she played the woman who becomes martyred for the cause; I'm not a massive fan of her or Henreid which stopped me from enjoying this film as much as I probably would have. They kept speaking softly all the time and there were too many scenes of people walking around in the fog and whispering, as opposed to action.
It gets props for its atmosphere - this was in the early days of the war, so the Germans are very much on top. Fighting is a dangerous, deadly business. Yet it's also slightly dream-like and ethereal - like a Val Lewton film. An interesting, flawed war movie.
The basic set up is solid - five RAF pilots are shot down in occupied France and have to get home. The pilots don't feel terribly English - the only two we get to know well are Paul Henreid, as a Free Frenchman, and Alan Ladd, as a member of the gang who is mortally wounded.
It's a showy role for Ladd, who is pudgy faced and smiling. He's called "Baby", and appears and the beginning, getting shot as they escape; he then comes back to die around the two-thirds mark in a touching scene that drew him attention at the beginning of his career.
Laird Cregar is in top form as the villain, though the part isn't as big and I would've liked it. Thomas Mitchell isn't that convincing as a French priest. Michele Morgan was only in her early 20s when she played the woman who becomes martyred for the cause; I'm not a massive fan of her or Henreid which stopped me from enjoying this film as much as I probably would have. They kept speaking softly all the time and there were too many scenes of people walking around in the fog and whispering, as opposed to action.
It gets props for its atmosphere - this was in the early days of the war, so the Germans are very much on top. Fighting is a dangerous, deadly business. Yet it's also slightly dream-like and ethereal - like a Val Lewton film. An interesting, flawed war movie.
Friday, January 01, 2016
Movie review - "Rubber Racketeers" (1942) **
Some ripped-from-the-headlines el cheapo drama courtesy of the King Brothers which benefits from decent handling. Ricardo Cortez, who made I Killed That Man for the brothers, plays a gangster who gets out of prison and discovers tire rationing. He decides to make some money, but his moll falls in love with a decent mechanic.
There's good conflict in the moll being in love with the mechanic. The mechanic is a bit of a self righteous prat, whipping up his fellow factory workers into a vigilante mob. But there's lots of fascinating period detail: the moll (Rochelle Hudson) making wisecracks about rationing affecting make up, Hudson going to work at an armaments factory at the end, workers listening to praise from the president, the business of buying cars in war time.
The female characters are strong and there's also an unexpectedly good Chinese-American part - Cortez's servant who enlists to join the army, then comes back and won't help his boss when he finds out the latter is a war profiteer - he gets a heroic death and everything.
There's good conflict in the moll being in love with the mechanic. The mechanic is a bit of a self righteous prat, whipping up his fellow factory workers into a vigilante mob. But there's lots of fascinating period detail: the moll (Rochelle Hudson) making wisecracks about rationing affecting make up, Hudson going to work at an armaments factory at the end, workers listening to praise from the president, the business of buying cars in war time.
The female characters are strong and there's also an unexpectedly good Chinese-American part - Cortez's servant who enlists to join the army, then comes back and won't help his boss when he finds out the latter is a war profiteer - he gets a heroic death and everything.
Movie review - "I Killed That Man" (1941) **1/2
The King Brothers had a success with their first movie, Paper Bullets, so asked back that movie's star (Joan Woodbury) and director (Phil Rosen). The budget could accomodate a "name', Ricardo Cortez. It's not a bad locked room mystery - a group of people assemble to watch an execution, only to see the accused man be killed by a poisoned dart before he's going to reveal who his big boss was. Cortez investigates with the help of wisecracking reporter Woodbury, who is a lot of fun. There's another aspiring crime solver as well.
It's no classic, but there is heaps of story, I genuinely couldn't pick whodunnit (admittedly I'm bad at that), the concept is fresh. I also liked how Cortez kept arresting the wrong guy and Woodbury kept figuring out he'd made a mistake - this gives it freshness. Phil Rosen's direction keeps things ticking over and the acting is pretty good. It's a cheapie but engagingly so.
It's no classic, but there is heaps of story, I genuinely couldn't pick whodunnit (admittedly I'm bad at that), the concept is fresh. I also liked how Cortez kept arresting the wrong guy and Woodbury kept figuring out he'd made a mistake - this gives it freshness. Phil Rosen's direction keeps things ticking over and the acting is pretty good. It's a cheapie but engagingly so.
Movie review - "Calcutta" (1947) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)
I always enjoy this Alan Ladd potboiler - it was the movie that introduced me to Ladd, and also director John Farrow, and whenever I think of either filmmaker I'm inclined to think of Calcutta more than say Shane or Hondo. I've already reviewed it on this blog so I'll only make some random observations:
* June Duprez's performance gets worse every time I see this. It's not that bad a role - I mean, yes she does pine, but she gets to be a lounge singer as well. But she's wooden and off form.
* Gail Russell's performance gets better every time I see this. She seems so fragile and helpless - she makes a fantastic femme fetale. I'd rank her better than Mary Astor in The Maltese Falcon, in part because you'd more obviously believe/fall for Russell with those massive eyes. That final line "I'd hate to have killed you" is brilliant.
* Alan Ladd is great in this sort of role - tough, vengeful, misogynistic. But he struggles to convince that he falls for Gail Russell in anyway. Come to think of it, I can't recall Ladd being that effective in love with anyone on screen. Maybe in The Great Gatsby or The McConnell Story.
* The support cast is very strong. In addition to the always reliable William Bendix, there's great turns from Edith King, Lowell Gilmore and Paul Singh. The Paramount stock company weren't as strong as Warners (Rains, Greenstreet, Lorre, etc) but they do pretty well. The same could be said for the art department.
*It's really not fun to watch Ladd literally slap a confession out of Russell at the end.
*I generally tend to like films Seton I Miller writes. I will note his tendency to rip off other movies though - there's three musketeers of guys, two of whom are unhappy when one of them gets married (Gunga Din); the final confrontation where the man goes to the woman "he wouldn't have gone there alone you must have come with him" (The Maltese Falcon); the fat criminal (Casablanca, only here it's a woman).
*It's not very British (I think there's one British character in it, a cop) and not even that Indian. Really it could have been called "Saigon" or "Shanghai" or "Rangoon" just as easily.
* June Duprez's performance gets worse every time I see this. It's not that bad a role - I mean, yes she does pine, but she gets to be a lounge singer as well. But she's wooden and off form.
* Gail Russell's performance gets better every time I see this. She seems so fragile and helpless - she makes a fantastic femme fetale. I'd rank her better than Mary Astor in The Maltese Falcon, in part because you'd more obviously believe/fall for Russell with those massive eyes. That final line "I'd hate to have killed you" is brilliant.
* Alan Ladd is great in this sort of role - tough, vengeful, misogynistic. But he struggles to convince that he falls for Gail Russell in anyway. Come to think of it, I can't recall Ladd being that effective in love with anyone on screen. Maybe in The Great Gatsby or The McConnell Story.
* The support cast is very strong. In addition to the always reliable William Bendix, there's great turns from Edith King, Lowell Gilmore and Paul Singh. The Paramount stock company weren't as strong as Warners (Rains, Greenstreet, Lorre, etc) but they do pretty well. The same could be said for the art department.
*It's really not fun to watch Ladd literally slap a confession out of Russell at the end.
*I generally tend to like films Seton I Miller writes. I will note his tendency to rip off other movies though - there's three musketeers of guys, two of whom are unhappy when one of them gets married (Gunga Din); the final confrontation where the man goes to the woman "he wouldn't have gone there alone you must have come with him" (The Maltese Falcon); the fat criminal (Casablanca, only here it's a woman).
*It's not very British (I think there's one British character in it, a cop) and not even that Indian. Really it could have been called "Saigon" or "Shanghai" or "Rangoon" just as easily.
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