Movie review - "Miranda" (1948) *** (warning: spoilers)

Lively British comedy which made a star of Glynis Johns whose slightly otherworld nature (that betwitching twinkle in her eye, the sing-song voice) probably made her difficult to cast in leads. She is however an ideal mermaid - especially a man-eating one like this one.

Miranda nabs a doctor (Griffin Jones) who falls overboard while on holiday and whisks him off to her cave full of trinkets. She seduces him - I mean they kiss and there's a fade out and it fades up on them holding each other. In old movie speak that's sex- and the guy is married to Googie Withers. She forces him to take her to London, where she covers her tail by pretending to be in a wheelchair, and chases after Jones, his artist friend John McCallum (who she kisses, leading to a fade out as well... so presumably sex) and Jones' servant David Tomlinson.

Maybe she doesn't have have penile penetrative sex with all of them - McCallum says he's never seen her legs. But it still seems intimate - and she clearly shags Jones because she had his baby at the end. It's totally weird to see an old film where a minxy woman goes and seduces three guys and is the hero.

Googie Withers' smug wife walks around wearing stylish clothes and has lunch - no wonder Jones cheats on her. She doesn't seem too upset by it. McCallum's fiancee Sonia Holm seems mostly interested in hats and style; and Tomlinson's girlfriend Yvonne Owen don't match Johns either.

I should add that the acting is very good by everyone. McCallum is a handsome, virile hero who I was surprised didn't become a bigger star in British films (there were so many wet drips running around). Jones is fine and Tomlinson good. Margaret Rutherford is excellent as a nurse.

There is some solid mermaid humour, like Johns talking to the seals at the zoo and eating seafood.

Movie review - "Christmas Eve" (1947) *

Benedict Bogeaus tries to get bang for his buck with three stars in individual, though linked storylines. This has a pretty good basis for a film - Ann Harding is an old lady who wants to contact her three estranged sons. Reunited families works very well - look at say The Sons of Katie Elder. And the combination of George Brent, George Raft and Randolph Scott gives great contrast.

But it's a lousy movie. Very badly written. It's stuffed with plot - there is so much on, none of it interesting. It's like they took three separate films, truncated the scripts and stuffed them into this one. George Brent is a womaniser trying to marry for money who is loved by Joan Blondell; George Raft runs a nightclub in South America and tries to fight former Nazis and femme fetales; Randolph Scott is a rodeo rider who gets involved in an attempt to bust a baby adoption racker.WTF?

On top of this is the plot where Harding's relatives try to get her declared insane so they can get her money. If she was such a great mum why are they all estranged from her? Would Raft really have taken the fall for a weasel? so the brothers have nothing to do with each other?

I know Bogeaus wanted to shoot stories individually but it means we don't have many scenes of the brothers together, which should be part of the fun - and the stories tend to be back stories. This is a bad movie that annoyed me the more I watched it.

Book review - "The World and Its Double: The Life and Work of Otto Preminger" by Chris Fujiawara

To say Preminger has a variable reputation is putting it mildly - before I'd seen any of his movies I was familiar with several stories: a harsh bully on set, a brave fighter of censorship, capable of making classics and an inability to direct comedy.

All the stories turned out to be true. There were many fine things about Preminger: the man had guts; he was a fighter; he had some admirable progressive politics (I stress the word "some" - Robert Mitchum called him a "Jewish Nazi"); he took on the censor board; he made some great movies; he had a surprisingly large amount of success on Broadway; he was a decent actor.

Other things were less admirable - he was a horrid bully - not for the benefit of the work, he clearly did it for his own sadistic enjoyment, especially to tyro actors (Jean Seberg, Tom Tyron, John Philip Law); he couldn't direct comedy; his last batch of movies were stinkers; he was possibly a better producer than director.

He's a flawed, fascinating figure and he gets a very good book from Chris Fujiwara. It focuses on Preminger's art as director - there's lots of discussion how scenes are framed and camera movement and so on which to be honest I wasn't that interested in; I was more into the biographical stuff.

I didn't realise how many financially unsuccessful films Preminger made at Fox - Zanuck seemed to like him though (he'd fired him earlier but rehired him and enjoyed success with Laura); he was the ing of the noirs for a while but his great days were from the early 50s to early 60s where he seemed to hit the zeitgeist: The Moon is Blue was just sexy enough, The Man with the Golden Arm was just gritty enough, Advise and Consent just political enough, Anatomy of a Murder was just legal enough etc etc. He tried to keep up with changing times but ultimately didn't get the new liberation - also he was old.

Interesting bloke, interesting book.

Movie review - "Night World" (1932) ** (warning: spoilers)

There's a sub-genre of movie which could be called "a bunch of stories going on at a night club" films. I think they come out of musicals, where you'd have all these plots in the one location to justify songs.

This isn't a musical per se - it doesn't have time, clocking in at only an hour - but does have some dance sequences. Busby Berkley was involved and you can tell because you've got shots of chorus girls and their legs with POV shots through them.

This is a pre-code movie so it's a bit racy - low cut tops for the girls, there's a gay character (an effeminate man) at the club, lots of drinking, a sympathetic depiction of a dead man's mistress.

It's weird that the hero role is a drunken rich playboy - Universal were probably keen to find a lead role for Lew Ayres, who'd been in All Quiet on the Western Front. He's more comfortably cast than Boris Karloff, who plays the nightclub owner, who presumably they were looking to cast in something, anything after Frankenstein. Still Karloff's Karloff and it's fun to see him. Mae Clarke, then during her brief vogue as a star, pops up as the female lead. George Raft has an early role as a womaniser.

This start off fun, with all that movement and action but slowed down and became silly. Ayres is such a weak wet hero - I didn't believe it for a second when he punched out Raft. I did believe he would fall for Clarke, who is warm and lovely. It's a bit yuck how Ayres blames everything on his greedy bitch of a mother.

The ending feels really rushed and awkward and hilariously over the top with these gangsters rocking up and shooting Clarence Muse (whose wife has just died) and Boris Karloff and his wife (another shrewish bitch) and going to shoot Ayres and Clarke and then being shot by a cop. I wish Raft's role had been bigger - I kept expecting him to come back at the end.

Movie review - "Cat's Eye" (1985) **1/2

I have a fondness for this film because I saw it at the cinema when a kid. I thought then what I do now - it's a patchy half-success with good moments. The device used to cobble the stories together - a cat coming to the rescue - is kind of weird but has a charm, in part because there are so few cat heroes in films.

The stories are all strong - but the first two are very different in tone to the last. "Quitters Inc" is very good - it was great on the page - helped with a cast that includes James Woods and Alan King. I was thrown to see Drew Barrymore as Woods' daughter, who is meant to be disabled (she seems fine); it was fun to see James Rebhorn in the cast and Mary D'Arcy was sweet as Woods' wife.

"The Ledge" benefits from a strong cast, including Robert Hays (why didn't he become a bigger star?) and especially Kenneth McMillan who is terrifying as a mafia style boss. I felt maybe this one was too jokey - the terror of going around a ledge wasn't really nailed; Lewis Teague always had a lot of pace and action in his films but this one perhaps could've used more suspense. And what happened to Mike Starr's hoodlum character? Wasn't he meant to be hanging around McMillan?

"General" is a fun fantasy adventure with some excellent troll work. But it's very different from the others in tone because its fantasy - whereas the others were more realistic. The concept of "General" actually could have made a feature on it's own - it probably raises too many questions as a short (why are the trolls there, why are they doing it, etc). It sightly throws out the film. But it has a strong cast - Barrymore, Candy Clark, James Naughton (their house is elaborate - everyone in this film has a lot of money) and the cat.

Movie review - "Creepshow" (1982) **1/2

This film was a big deal among kids in the early 80s. I saw it recently at the Egyptian Theatre on the big screen, which is always good. It's a film of it's time. The very specific comic book treatment is entertaining. George A Romero wasn't always the most subtle director in the world, but he benefits from a strong cast and Stephen King's good writing.

I did feel there were too many stories - there were five. This sort of movie works better with only three, I feel.

The book end plot is entertaining. "Father's Day" is okay - very over the top and camp (dead man, greedy relatives) but alright. It's fun to see Ed Harris with hair and his disco mad fiancee. Romeo had a few balding blonde heroes in his films.

"The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" has a really strong performance from King - he should do more acting - and some good effects but is only one act. Farmer finds meteor, grass grows everywhere... the end. It needed something else to happen.

"Something to Tide you Over"is pretty good. I always remembered Ted Danson buried up to his neck with the water coming in and Leslie Nielsen is excellent as a crazy rich dude. It doesn't really make sense why Danson would go with Nielsen or dig himself into a hole - easier for Nielsen to have knocked him out. Danson's hair is interesting to watch.

I had forgotten "The Crate" was in this film. It's all over the shop - a story about a mysterious animal in a crate that's opened, mixed in with the story of a trampy wife (Adrienne Barbeau having the time of her life) and her henpecked husband (a miscast Hal Holbrook - he's too strong and sure it needed to be someone more obviously meek). This is dull and took forever and was full of bits that didn't pay off (eg introducing that new couple at the beginning).

"They're Creeping Up on You" is superb, the best segment. EG Marshall is great as Howard Hughes, basically, who is attacked by bugs. This was the smartest and best.

Movie review - "Race Street" (1948) ** (warning: spoilers)

Dore Schary slaps his name on this film as head of production, just so everyone knows. This was the third of four films George Raft made for RKO after the war - it was directed by Edwin Marin, with whom he worked a number of times around this time.

It's an unpretentious programmer with Raft ideally cast as a night club owner who goes looking for revenge when his bookie friend Henry Morgan is killed.  He keeps cop Bendix out of it.

There's interesting bits - it's set in San Francisco and there's some location shots of the city; Gale Robbins plays Raft's sister (she's much younger) and does this number filmed in a travelling shot; Marilyn Maxwell is pretty and vivacious as Raft's widowed girlfriend (I'm surprised she didn't become a bigger star); the scene where Raft discover Morgan's body. It's good how Raft dies and how professional the baddy operation is.

But this doesn't quite work. I kept wanting it to be better than it was. It's the story I think - there's no complication. Robbins doesn't do anything except sing when her character should have been under threat somehow or used to complicate things eg betray her brother, be in love with someone who is killed. There's a good bit where Maxwell is revealed to be still married to the main baddy.... but we have no final scene with her (she gets arrested off camera). Raft, Bendix and Morgan are all just friends instead of being motivated to be close - like brothers, or all kids who used to hang out with each other. Raft's sidekick cronies feel under-used. And while the direction has it's occasional flairs, overall things felt a bit flat.

Movie review - "Taxi" (1932) ***1/2

James Cagney doesn't do much actual taxi driving in this bright energetic piece from Warners which clocks in at just over an hour but has plenty going on. He comes into it surprisingly late - the first bit is about cab driver Guy Kibee who suffers at the hands of the mob. Cagney takes on the mob too and romances Kibee's daughter, Loretta Young.

Young is charming here, and achingly pretty - she has a freshness to her work that would soon be replaced by a stiffer performing style. She and Cagney are a sweet couple for the most part - he's very young too - although he has a hot temper and there's an unpleasantly abusive aspect to their relationship. He's got wife beater all over him.

They do have some lovely courting scenes - going to the movies (some in jokes for Warners fans), doing a foxtrot against a couple that includes a young George Raft (looking sinister and charismatic and you can see why he soon became a star even if he is super awkward with the dialogue). Cagney also calls someone a "rat" and dances with Young.

Brisk direction from Roy Del Ruth.

Script review - "Out of the Past" by Daniel Mainwaring (1946)

Excellent script, with tough dialogue that fairly leaps off the page - tough, spare, witty, full of subtext. I have found the story hard to follow in the past but not so much this time. But another problem remains - the first half of the film is about one thing (tracking down Kathie and the cash... I guess that's two things), but then changes to be about a whole other thing (getting out of trouble with the tax department). It's hard to readjust.

Gloomy, fatalistic, very adult (Jeff and Kathie are clearly having a sexual relationship). There are too many characters with the first letter "J" in their name.

Movie review - "The Lady's from Kentucky" (1939) **

A bright and sparky romantic comedy from Paramount that probably needed songs and colour and really top line stars but is fine. George Raft is animated and engaging as a hopeless gambler - which actually isn't that fun to watch at times he's a real addict. A pretty thing called Ellen Drew is the girl who owns a horse in which Raft gets an interest. Drew never had a massive career but I really liked her.

20th Century Fox would specialise in this sort of Americana - they'd ensure color. Raft always looks odd walking around in the country, but he is well cast. He and Drew do a bit of dancing.

The film throws away some opportunities - I kept expecting Raft's old gangster cronies to do more (why not threaten the horse more? why not have an old floozie type keen on Raft who goes against Drew?); ditto Drew's family. It's a bit yuck that self righteous horse race dude at the end doesn't want to have anything to do with Raft.

But there is an unexpectedly sweet and genuine love of horses, and a touching scene where a horse gives birth. It moves along at a fair clip. It's not a classic or even a particularly good movie, but it's absolutely fine.

Movie review - "I Stole a Million" (1939) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Little known George Raft film made in the period between him being at Paramount and Warners (this was at Universal). He's very well cast as a cab driver who winds up in a life of crime; he tries to get out when he falls for Claire Trevor, but keeps going back to it to make money.

Raft's character is given plenty of sympathy - he's always being picked on - but he is also clearly still a bit of a dill. Raft and Trevor have lovely chemistry - I like the work done by director Frank Tuttle. I don't want to overpraise Raft- he's still stiff - but he's effective and the film is made with care.

The script is melodramatic stuff - she gets pregnant, has a kid, winds up in prison, etc. The movie did feel as though it was headed towards a tragic ending with Raft being killed but that doesn't happen. It would have been more dramatically satisfying.

This isn't bad - I found it quite enjoyable and Raft gives one of his best performances, helped by working with the ever reliable Trevor.

Movie review - "Silver Streak" (1976) *** (warning: spoilers)

Colin Higgins' original script is a joyous pastiche of Hitchcock train movies - part Lady Vanishes, part North by Northwest with a bit of 39 Steps. Gene Wilder is the innocent travelling on a train who hooks up with a sexy blonde whose boss may or may not have been killed.

Patrick McGoohan is a great villain and Richard Kiel and Ray Walston are impressive goons. Jill Clayburgh is lively as the girl. Ned Beatty is a tubby lecherous vitamin salesman who turns out to be a secret agent - his body double clambers all over the train in what seems to be an extraneous sequence; and I wonder if the lechery was part of his act or just something his character liked to do.

The film is probably best remembered today for introducing the Richard Pryor-Gene Wilder partnership - but Pryor doesn't turn up until one hour in. He does give this movie a massive kick of energy.

I watched this film a lot on VHS at various holiday places growing up; it still holds up, except maybe for the blackface sequence and the bad body doubles. It does go on too long and occasionally got repetitive (Wilder gets kicked off the train and hops back on four times).  I laughed at how the cops gave Wilder a weapon at the end, expecting him to join in on the fighting.

Everyone wears brown slacks  - they seemed to be a thing in the 70s.

Movie review - "A Bullet for Joey" (1955) ** (warning: spoilers)

I always thought this was an Edward G Robinson movie and he's in it, but really the star is George Raft. He's the central character - an exiled gangster who gets a chance to return to the USA if he helps kidnap a scientist in Canada for the commies.

The Canada angle gives this some freshness, and I liked seeing Raft in a late lead. He was grey now and had smoked a lot clearly, but has presence and history and it was wonderful to see him cross swords on screen with Robinson.

Dramatically though I didn't feel this worked. I never like it when gangster films cross with anti-commie movies - the genres seem to belong to different worlds (or maybe it's just anti communist stuff ruins the fun). I had a similar problem with Johnny Allegro.

Raft's transformation from not-caring tough guy to hero felt underdone. There was no real logical evident reason for it. I thought Audrey Totter, as the dame, would be part of this, but she just kind of hangs around and talks to the scientist. Maybe they could have given more history to Raft and Robinson - but that doesn't work either.

The most emotionally involving subplot had this geeky librarian girl romanced by a suave gangster which results in her dying. This was effective - the film never manages to top it.

Peter Van Eyck is fine as the main commie and Lewis Allen is a fine no-nonsense director. There's some good tough slangy dialogue as well. I just wish it was better.

Movie review - "You and Me" (1938) **1/2

Really weird drama, there's nothing quite like it I've ever seen. It's based on a story by Norman Krasna, but was rewritten by Virginia Van Upp, and directed by Fritz Lang with music by Kurt Weill and stars George Raft and Sylvia Sidney.

The Krasna touch is most obvious in the setting and the set up - it takes place in a department store and has a Krasna-esque touch of fantasy: Harry Carey, who runs the store, hires ex-cons to give them a chance. One of them is Raft and the other Sylvia Sidney.

Sidney is lovely and sweet in a role that perfectly suits her and she has pleasing chemistry with Raft. It's well directed by Lang and is consistently interesting. I love the bit where Sidney and Raft's hands touch as they pass each other on an escalator. There's a weird bit at the end where Sidney crunches the numbers to show crime doesn't pay. Sidney takes a relatively racy shower.

The story is a mess - I'm not sure if this was Krasna or Van Upp. It feels very contrived Sidney doesn't mention she's on parole too - why would he care? Why keep it a secret? This kicks off the plot - he thinks she's having an affair and is jealous and its uncomfortable to watch. Raft is tempted to go back to a life of crime. There's scenes where characters watch people sing Weill songs - or sing them.

Robert Cummings is one of Raft's old cronies and he sticks out like a sore thumb, with his good looks among all these craggy old character actors.

I can't call this a success - but it's different, and imaginative. One of the more unusual pictures Raft made.

Movie review - "Rumba" (1935) ** (warning: spoilers)

George Raft and Carole Lombard are teamed again following Bolero but it isn't as good. There's many of the same elements - Raft wants to set up a nightclub, he has a wisecracking sidekick, there's a feisty woman who also wants him, he and Lombard dance together, its set in an exotic corner of the world (in this case Cuba), it ends with a dance between Lombard and Raft where Raft is under a death sentence.

But the story makes some errors, I feel - Lombard isn't a dancer, just a rich heiress who likes dancing - she's got no real drive or ambition herself. The threat here is made up - it's a great idea that Raft used to be in cahoots with gangsters who want to shoot him but at the end they go "oh it was all a publicity stunt" so there's no threat.

This film was post Production Code so its not as sexy or adult. Raft lives at the end, which is dull. There's a lot less going on - Bolero had war, and love triangles, and rags to riches. This has a crappy meet cute involving forged lottery tickets, a upstars-downstairs romance and lacks dramatic fire.

There is some nice dancing and Raft and Lombard have good chemistry - she has a warm and genuine-ness that helped overcome his stiffness. The sets and costumes will have interest.

Elvis Presley - Bottom Five

For the record an Elvis bottom five: 

(1) Stay Away Joe (1968) - hillbilly Indian comedy which might've been okay with some Indian actors in it but which drowns in a sea of brown face 

(2) Harum Scarum (1966) terribly cheap Elvis in Arabia (which sounds like it'll be fun but isn't) (3) Spin Out (1966) - terrible car racing film 

(4) Loving You (1957) - a slightly creepy tale of the importance of a controlling manager 

(5) Charro (1969) - nothing wrong with Elvis in a Western, it's just this is so lazy and cheap

Movie review - "Johnny Allegro" (1949) ** (warning: spoilers)

George Raft is working as a florist but he used to be a gangster and a war hero so he gets approached by mysterious Nina Foch who is married to shady George Macready - shades of Gilda no doubt (this too was made by Columbia). The difference here is... well, it's not very good.

It's a funny sort of film - it feels a bit all over the shop, like it was rewritten by a bunch of different people or had to incorporate a bunch of producers's notes. Raft and Foch go off to a tropical island where Macready is up to No Good

Will Geer is an extremely creepy FBI man. Nina Foch isn't one of the great femme fetales - not very glamorous or sexy, and I didn't like it how she was evil then sort of fell for Raft then went off with him at the end. She seemed opportunistic, which is good drama, but they don't really exploit it. It was like she was meant to die - it feels natural she should, it would have more natural dramatic impact - but then she doesn't.

I also got confused by the story - it should have been simple (about a counterfeiting plot, with baddies working for a foreign power), but I didn't get Foch and Macready's relationship (sham? genuine?) or why he killed the baddies then went after Raft. Raft is very obviously body doubled in his fight scenes. I did enjoy him (though it's weird to see him in so much daylight). Also liked Macready, especially running around on an island trying to kill people with a bow and arrow.

Movie review - "House Across the Bay" (1940) **

George Raft is in this but really its a Joan Bennett film. She's a singer in clubs (doing a Carmen Miranda style number!) who is spotted by Raft, a big time gambler/dodgy guy, who promptly falls in love. They marry and are blissfully happy... but Bennett is worried about rivals wanting to shoot him so she dobs him in to the IRS and he goes to prison. Nice! Double nice in that he gets ten years, not the one she was thinking. Which isn't very sympathetic and puts us off Bennett which is a shame since the subject of wives of prisoners on the outside is an interesting one.

Bennett makes friends with Gladys George, and is pursued by nice Walter Pidgeon (not introduced until 45 minutes or so in) and lecherous lawyer Lloyd Nolan.

The direction is brisk and the actors are fine. I'm not sure Bennett had the goods to be a top rank star but she's pretty and warm, and I enjoyed the novelty of seeing her sing two numbers (one as a Carmen Miranda type). Nolan is very good, and Raft enjoyable in a straight up gangster-but-decent part... (He didn't like to do them for Warners who were annoyed he went and played that sort of role for Walter Wanger.) Pidgeon could play this role in his sleep.

The story has promise but the script is wonky - it's all mis-shapen. It starts too early - with Raft not having met Bennett yet. We spend time with their courtship, then see them in love, and he goes off to prison. All these interesting characters and story possibilities are introduced and not developed - like the rival gang who shoot at Raft, why not use them? Or the character played by Gladys George, the fellow wife of a prisoner - why not use them more? And it's awfully easy for Raft to break out of Alactraz and swim across that harbour.

Maybe the script had to be reworked once Raft was cast or something to give him more screen time. Really the story should be about Bennett's struggle, her friendship with the girls, and her relationship with Pidgeon, with Nolan and Raft as the threats.

Or maybe it simply needed some more good old fashioned tabloid excitement - you could imagine Warners giving it the treatment with Bette Davis or Joan Blondell or something. Whatever, the film doesn't really work - though it's always a pleasure to spend time with actors like these during Hollywood's Golden Age.

Script review - "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" by Sam Peckinpah and Gordon Dawson

The greatest title of a movie ever? Reviews of this late period Peckinpah epic are mixed, to put it politely - some think it's a mess, others a masterpiece. I think it's got a bit of "unloved action film" chic about it, plus it's so obviously Peckinpah at his purest - full of whores and craggy middle aged Americans, set in Mexico, lots of violence, it feels like a cocaine-fuelled fever dream.

I love the fact the Macguffin is someone's head. I think it was a mistake to reveal so early that Garcia is dead - it means there's not much suspense when Bennie and his girl go looking for the corpse. Peckinpah tries to liven things up by having two men come along randomly and raping the girl - she's not too fussed but Bennie shoots them dead (he's described in the script as "soft" when we meet him but he sure learns how to kill fast).

Also too much time is spent by Bennie wondering why they want Garcia dead. I know that's what the character wants to know but we know it, and it's frustrating to hear him wonder. It feels long. I got confused in the script that Bennie goes to Spain (is that right?). Also he didn't die at the end. I think that was changed for the final film.

But there's plenty of action and violence, the script has integrity in its nihilistic attitude, I loved Bennie talking to the head. It's not a lot of fun to spend time with these people but it is interesting.

Movie review - "She Couldn't Take It" (1935) **1/2

It Happened One Night kicked off the screwball craze of the mid 1930s. This was made by the same studio, Columbia, with some of the supporting cast (Walter Connolly) and imported stars: George Raft and Joan Bennett. Neither of these two were known as Kings of Comedy but actually they're very lively. I was surprised by Raft especially as he could be stiff. He's still stiff here but energetic - good work from director Tay Garnett.

The plot set up isn't bad - rich Connolly is so sick of his wastrel family he agrees to go to prison for income tax; he meets bootlegger Raft, also in for tax evasion, who he makes trustee of his estate. Raft goes about smacking them into shape. It's fun with the useless brother and ditsy wife but a bit rape-y with Bennett - especially as she's not in to him for a while.

There's various wacky support acts - an actor who gets engaged to Bennett (Alan Mowbray), the ditsy son (James Blakely) and mum (Billie Burke)... but the latter two especially are not really developed. Wallace Ford acts up a storm as a neurotic gangster; Lloyd Nolan and Donald Meek are effective as gangsters. It has a lot of pace, cops running around in cars, and snappy dialogue. Not a classic but not bad. I think maybe dramatically it was a mistake to kill Connolly so early.

Script review - "Fletch" by Andrew Bergman

A really good script - tight, light, breezy. It keeps Fletch in every scene, the basic story is very strong - it reminded me of a Raymond Chandler novel, with two plots that seem to be separate apart from the hero, then turn out to be intertwined. I haven't read the original novel so I don't know what's Bergman and what's Gregory MacDonald.

The character of Fletch is great - smart alecky, irreverent. Chevy Chase was clearly cast by this draft because there's reference to "Chevy Chase ad libs". You can handle the smart arse ness because he's up against a rich rogue of villains: redneck security people, the snobby Underhills (though this script doesn't have the introductory moment which showed the Underhills as bullying the waiter - it seems Fletch just randomly picks the name here), rich Alan Stanwyck (who is humanised by meeting his nice parents... I really felt for them!), a pushy unseen wife (who I did expect to be paid off more than she was),  and most shockingly a corrupt cop (this film doesn't pull any punches about police corruption).

There are very clever bits of business - the Underhill account running gag, how Fletch gets out of being chased by the police (taking a leaf out of The 39 Steps and making a speech), going undercover as a doctor. It's breezy, bright and fun.

This draft doesn't have narration - I think that was a good addition. The supporting characters - Mrs Stanwyck, the police, Larry etc - come alive on the page. Really good work.

Radio review - Lux Radio Theatre - "Each Dawn I Die" (1939) ***

The Cagney-Raft prison film goes to radio, with Franchot Tone instead of Cagney (and Lyn Bari instead of Jane Bryan) - but it doesn't really matter because the story is more driven by Raft's character than Tone/Cagney's.

Tone is passive a lot of the time - thrown into prison, befriended by Raft who kind of falls in love with him, then busts out of prison ostensibly to help prove Tone's innocence, changes his mind, changes his mind again after hearing Tone won't dob, then busts back in prison.

Raft's better on radio than I thought he would be, without his great "look" - but then, the role is perfect for him and his tight-lipped delivery. No one else gets much of a look in.

Two silly things about the film are even more glaring here without visuals and Cagney's extra star power - the confusing stuff about Raft being annoyed Tone told the cops, and Raft going back in to prison to get a rat and help Tone. But it moves fast and is fun.

Movie review - "Bolero" (1934) **** (warning: spoilers)

George Raft came to movie fame as a gangster but before that he was a renowned dancer - and this movie gave him the chance to strut his stuff. He's a coal miner who loves to dance (can't have anyone think he was a nancy boy, but it's good conflict). He forms a successful dance partnership with Sally Rand but can't help banging her, making her jealous when he goes after other women. So the team breaks up... Raft enlists Carole Lombard (who doesn't appear until half an hour in) as his new partner, they're a success, he starts sleeping with her, then World War One breaks out... They break up because she's offended by his fake patriotism. He goes on to serve, is badly wounded, so much show he's told he shouldn't exert himself or he'll die; he meets Lombard after the war, when she's married a member of the aristocracy (Ray Milland in a creepy moustache); they dance on more time, to "Bolero", then Raft dies.

Raft does look like a young Valentino here with his swarthy good looks and slicked back hair. His voice is very New Yawk though and you can't help laugh when he says things like "I'm a Belgian". It is a great character - compulsive womaniser, dancer, ambitious, sexual, basically decent. I really liked it how he kept selfish for most of the running time (his career always comes first) but they give give him a lot of redeeming qualities, like a comic relief half brother (William Frawley in the William Demarest role), having a dream (to open a night club, which propels him for the whole film), giving him some gentle moments (like visiting the graves of his family, which makes the female lead fall in love with him... I think they re-used this in Nob Hill), have him pine for Lombard.

I also liked it how they had it that Lombard didn't want to go back to him at the end - she'd moved on with Milland and was very happy. Her dances with Raft were sexy - in the final dance at the end they're panting and exhausted and relieved like they'd had sex... at the end she's clearly still attracted to him and loves dancing but she's not in love with him anymore. He kind of dies with that not sinking in... which made it very moving.

Raft gets to do a bit of dancing, including what I think was a version of Charleston at the beginning, and moves very well. I got the impression he and Lombard were doubled in a lot of their dance scenes because so many of them are done in long shot. Raft's dancing at the end (to the title tune, with Lombard) contains some of his best ever screen acting.

Lombard is lovely. She wasn't a professional dancer but she covers well; very beautiful, and warm (Raft needed a strong co-star). She had Raft have genuine sexual chemistry. This is pre-Code so her character is allowed to be adult: she and Raft definitely have sex before they break up; she's allowed to be ambitious and marry a man who isn't Raft and not be punished.

Other adult stuff: Raft dances with older women for money; a woman goes to Raft "coming home with me?"; Raft flirts with older women to help progress his career; the women are all aware of the importance of money; William Frawley suggests Raft seduce Drake to keep her wage demands down; Lombard dances for Raft in her underwear; both Raft and Lombard are highly aware how sexually attractive other people find them.

Good support from William Frawley and Frances Drake (v beautiful). I recognise a lot of this is silly stock melodrama (coal miner who dances), much of it felt rewritten and full of "bits" but it's got Raft dancing, Lombard, Sally Rand, and a surprisingly moving ending.

Movie review - "A Dangerous Profession" (1949) **

The last of four movies George Raft made for RKO in the late 1940s and the only one to lose money. This starts off pretty good. There's an opening spiel from Jim Backus (who plays a cop) who explains all about what the bail bond industry is and it goes on too long; I thought this may have been put in after some re-cutting, which happened a lot at RKO when Howard Hughes owned it, but to be fair was a thing done at the time, when Hollywood was on a semi documentary kick eg T Men.

George Raft and Pat O'Brien run a bail bond business together - Raft is a former cop. He stakes money for Bill Williams, whose wife, Ella Raines, is loved by Raft. That's a good idea for a movie and the first half I went with this. Ted Tetzlaff directs with energy, it's set in that slinky world of night clubs, offices after hours, and police cells.

Raft still hadn't learned how to act - he never did, his delivery of lines remains awkward - but he's still George Raft. I didn't mind Ella Raines, and Pat O'Brien, Williams and Backus are good.

But the film muffs its opportunities. O'Brien and Raft have this intriguing relationship - a bit distrustful, hostile - which is dramatically great... but they don't really do anything with it. Ditto Backus. Both Backus and O'Brien are set up as if they are going to be baddies, ditto Raines... but none of them are. And it's a happy ending.

There's a lot of exposition in the dialogue and I had trouble following a fair bit of the film.

Also, why not use the who bail bond thing more - the world in which it's set? I mean it kind of it but at heart this is a stock investigating-a-murder-mystery story.

It's a shame because there's good things about this - it moves at a steady crisp, it's fun to see Backus play a hard arse cop instead of a clown. They just didn't get the script right.

Movie review - "Police Academy" (1984) ***

I can't be objective about this, I saw it so many times as a kid - and what's more, recited key pieces of dialogue, and had dialogue recited to m,e by friends. Some of it hasn't aged well - Mahoney sexually harrasses lots of people, the dialogue is littered with casual homophobia, it has a lot of 80s comedy moments (random topless women at parties) and many jokes do not hold up (eg the lecherous fake Italian making racist comments to a Japanese woman during the riot... isn't he supposed to be in love with Callahan by then? A lot of characters feel under-developed eg the henpecked husband (he has a great intro sequence then is kind of forgotten), the rich girl played by Kim Cattral (I kept expecting her rich mother to come back).

But it's beautifully shot, the score is memorable, I really liked the location they got for the police academy. Dramatically it's simple but very effective - within the first ten minutes they set up the basic situation: the police academy are accepting everyone and it really annoys the police... and the hero Mahoney is forced to become a police officer or he'll be arrested. Now that's good basic solid dramatic conflict - it gives Mahoney a goal (get kicked out) and an arc (to become a good cop); it motivates the baddies (to get rid of these recruits). There's a solid second act end point with Hightower and Mahoney getting kicked out

There are some excellent gags, like two bullies throwing some books out a window only to find the window is shut, and the wife running through backyards to catch her husband.

It's also extremely well cast. Steve Guttenberg is charming for all his sexual harassment; Kim Cattral is very sweet and teams well with Guttenberg; George W Bailey is an excellent villain (well supported by George Robertson, Brant Van Hoffman and Scott Thomson); Michael Winslow is great fun (a different kind of comic too - he gave the series a real point of difference); David Graf is hilarious in probably the series' best role; George Gaynes is hilarious as the ditzy commandant; Leslie Easterbook is fun as the well endowed Chapman; Bubba Smith is interesting looking and does provide some moral ballast when he sticks up for hooks on a race basis; Marion Ramsey is very relatable as Hooks; Bruce Mahler is well cast as the nerdy guy (I wish they'd used his wife more). Andrew Rubins' ladies' man and Donovan Scott's fat man are fine - though it was no loss they didn't return for other films in the series. (I did like Scott's arc where he got to beat up the bullies who taunted him at the beginning.)

This is more raunchy than later films in the series with some nudity, and gags like Bailey flying in to the back of a horse, and Georgina Spelvin performing oral sex on Gaynes and then Gutteberg (a nice call back).

Robert Mitchum Top Ten

Happy 100th birthday (dead) Robert Mitchum. Here is my Mitchum top ten

1) Heaven Knows Mr Allison (1957) - a nun and a sailor trapped on a tropical island... and it's done really tastefully!

2) The Sundowners (1960) - Mitchum as an Aussie - he doesn't nail the accent but he's the best American star who ever captured the essence of this particular type of Australian and makes me wish he'd been able to play one of the cutters in Summer of the 17th Doll instead of Ernest Borgnine

3) His Kind of Woman (1951) - bonkers film noir which is one of my favourite movies (with a nod to all his RKO noirs which are all great flawed fun eg Big Steal, Macao, Angel Face)

4) Farewell My Lovely (1975) - enjoyable Chandler adaptation with Mitchum as Phil Marlowe

5) The Winds of War (1983) - I actually haven't seen this mini series in like 30 years so I hope it holds up but I remember loving it

6) El Dorado (1967) - to my mind a better film than Rio Bravo (which it remakes) and made me wish he'd made more films with John Wayne (and James Caan for that matter)

7) Night of the Hunter (1955) - a film buff's favourite and a great scary movie

8) Out of the Past (1947) - fantastic noir

9) Cape Fear (1962) - he's a terrifying villain in a performance that one suspects was closer to the real Mitchum than anyone wanted to know

10) Matilda (1978) - sure there are heaps of better movies I could have put at number ten instead of a comedy made by AIP about a boxing kangaroo (Pursued, Thunder Road, The Longest Day, Crossfire) - but you watch this silly comedy, and see how Mitchum, despite his wealth, despite his age, despite the quality of the material, was still completely and utterly committing and you can see why he lasted so long

John Farrow Top Ten

In honour of that new doco they're trying to make about him:
1) The Saint Strikes Back (1938) - an excellent B, the best in the series, superbly handled by Farrow
2) Five Came Back (1939) - another terrific B film, a great thriller that not even Farrow himself could match (when he remade it)
3) Wake Island (1942) - for a brief time America had to make movies about losing battles and this is one of the best
4) China (1943) - good tough Alan Ladd adventure with a great opening tracking shot
5) Two Years Before the Mast (1946) - rollicking sea adventure with some great performances
6) Calcutta (1947) - a personal fave bc I love adventure mysteries set in studio-shot exotic backdrops and this is done very well
7) The Big Clock (1948) - a really terrific noir, perhaps the one film of Farrow's that was really embraced by buffs
8) The Sea Chase (1955) - flawed to be sure but an exciting story and full of novelty (John Wayne as a German, Germans as heroes, opening scene in Australia, etc)
9) Hondo (1953) - I never quite loved this as much as other film buffs do but it is a well done Western
10) His Kind of Woman (1951) - nutty film noir, re shot greatly by Richard Fleischer but still recognisably "Farrow", great fun

Script review - "Alien 3" by Walter Hill and David Giler

There's 101 scripts of Alien 3 floating out there on the internet - this one, credited to Hill and Giler, presumably has elements from the many other drafts done. From memory (which is vague) it's quite close to the final film.

It's written in that stripped back, pared style that Hill and Giler used on the first movie. It's not as good as that or Aliens though for a number of reasons. The basic story is flawed - Ripley crashes on a prison planet, which sounds kind of cool but nothing much is done with it. It's all male, there's a few religious nutters and some nasty types and a disgraced doctor - nothing overly complex or interesting. Certainly none of the characters pop like they did in Aliens.

The structure is closer to Alien - one creature on board knocking off everyone one by one. The first movie had the benefit of surprise - the people didn't know what they were dealing with, we didn't know who our hero was going to be, we didn't know Ash was going to be an android, etc. This one we know Ripley's our hero; there's no Android reveal; we know the alien is bad and the Company is bad. There's no weapons so basically it's the alien knocking off cast members periodically in un-memorable ways.

It is good Ripley is pregnant, and that Bishop II turns up and that Ripley kills herself at the end. I liked the character of Dillon, who helps Ripley. I didn't mind the doctor. But the prisoners all blended into each other - rich individual characterisations was never particularly Giler and/or Hill's strong suit.

It's a depressing movie - they kill off Hicks and Newt in the first few minutes, kill off Bishop later on. No one survives. It does have the integrity of that vision, it must be admitted.

Movie review - "Follow the Boys" (1944) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

I'd known about this Universal musical for many years because it had a small appearance from Orson Welles. Indeed, a whole bunch of stars appear in it doing musical acts, but because it was Universal in the 40s the stars are pretty second tier: Ted Lewis, the Andrews Sisters, Turhan Bey. (The studio's big musical money makers however - Deanna Durbin, Abbott and Costello - aren't in it.)

This sort of movie was popular during the war, studios trotting out their talent roster in some quasi variety show plot - Warners did Thank Your Luck Stars, Paramount had Star Spangled Rhythm. Presumably performers donated their talents, or at least gave at discount rates.

I was surprised how much screen time was devoted to George Raft, who wasn't under contract to Universal. But he had just made Broadway for the studio - and had left Warner Bros, and seemed keen to re-launch himself as a musical star. Now Raft got his break as a dancer, and he can dance - but he's not a fantastic musical star. He doesn't really "sell" a dance number, at least not here (maybe he could have with more rigorous handling). His acting persona doesn't really suit musicals and/or patriotic domestic dramas either - too stiff and tough. Really, his natural milieu was thrillers and action films.

But his character drives the "book" of the film. The first half hour focuses around Raft, and his courtship of Vera Zorina (as stiff an actor as Raft but they dance nicely together). Then war comes and the film starts to focus on Raft organising shows for the troops and the stars appear and do their acts. Occasionally we go back to Raft and his dramas. The conflict in the second half is really contrived: Zorina falls pregnant but Raft is impatient organising a show and she doesn't get around to tell him so they wind up separated. She makes a crack about him not serving and he doesn't tell her he tried but got not back. It's a weak reason for a separation and is lazy writing. You wonder why they bothered - why not have them fall in love on the road and have some other fight? (Did Raft want to re-do his history-of-vaudeville schtick from Broadway?)

But the acts are interesting - there's something for everyone. You've got the Andrews Sisters singing twice - once in concert, one on a boat that is hit by a torpedo. Some old broad Sophie Tucker does a few numbers. That creepy Ted Lewis does a number. Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan do their cut-price-Mickey-and-Judy routine. Jeanette MacDonald came out of retirement (or whatever she was doing) to sing two songs. Dinah Shore sings a few songs, very well (she's pretty and likeable - I wonder why she wasn't more of a film star). Arthur Rubenstein plays on the piano. Louis Jordan, a black band leader, performs for the black troops (depicted a little child-like but at least they're in the film... there's a few black performers actually) - and then Raft does a Charleston for them in the rain to "Sweet Georgia Brown" which is fun. W.C Fields looks in terrible shape as he does a very unfunny comedy sketch involving a pool cue. There's an unexpectedly touching bit where Jeanette McDonald sings to some injured soldiers in hospital including one bloke who is blind.  Some Latina type does a fantastic dance act.

Most of all there's Orson Welles doing a version of his Mercury Magic Show, which he performed during the war. Orson is handsome and charismatic and you wish he had the lead; he's clearly having fun, bantering with the audience and sawing Marlene Dietrich in half. (During this period Orson tried to set himself up as a sort of comedian - he had his own sitcom on radio and everything).

There's a meeting of a whole bunch of performers - Universal contract stars - being addressed by Raft and George Macready. They pan across the room and some people I recognise - Marlene Dietrich, Maria Montez, Orson Welles, Dinah Shore, Randolph Scott, Nigel Bruce, Donald O'Connor, Lon Chaney Jnr, and Andy Devine. Some people I didn't recognise at all. I think Susannah Foster was in there. But it's fun to see them all together.

The end is quite sweet when there's a speech (done in voice over - I'm not sure who by) about the importance of being a "soldier in greasepaint" - performing for the troops. It touches on the risks involved - Raft's character dies and at the end they go to the "honor roll" which lists Carole Lombard, Leslie Howard, Roy Rognan, Tamara, Charles King and Bob Ripa - killed performing for the troops. That's a good basis for a film - the camraderie, the risks. This isn't that film though - Raft feels a bit bad about being rejected for the army but most of the time is wasted on their dull marriage and contrived troubles.

It's frustrating because there's lots of good things about this movie - all the talent involved, the world of theatre performers in wartime. I loved the real footage of concerts, and servicemen in crowds, and little bits like a blonde girl swearing an oath promising she wouldn't divulge any military secrets. There's a great movie in here struggling to get out.

Aussie audiences will get a kick out of the Delta Rhythm Boys singing a song in New Guinea (on the backlot I presume). Also at the end Raft and his dad and sister travel to Brisbane when their ship is sunk. They don't get there unfortunately.

Grace McDonald is very pretty and lovely as Raft's picture but has nothing to do. George Macready pops up in a sympathetic role but is still creepy.

Lots of stars are mentioned who don't appear - John Wayne, Frederic March, Bob Hope, Cary Grant etc. They even show pictures of some of them at the end. Maybe they were sucking up.

Movie review - "Red Light" (1949) ** (warning: spoilers)

Roy del Ruth isn't that well remembered today but at one stage he had his own production company. This was going to be made by Monogram but they sold it to United Artists.

It's a half good film that could have been a great little B. It's got so many good bits - a perfect decent idea (tough trucking guy looks for his brother's killer), great cinematography, some atmosphere, San Francisco setting, George Raft in the lead, a support cast that includes Virginia Mayo (not a great actress but easy to look at), Barton MacLane, Raymond Burr and Henry Morgan.

But it's a mess. Two main flaws. One is the story - we know Burr killed Raft's brother because we meet Burr early on and he says he wants revenge against Raft and he gets Morgan to do it. So there's no mystery. You know who did it - you're told in the first scene pretty much that Morgan is going to do a job for Burr. So it's frustrating watching Raft take so long to figure it out. We aren't rewarded with a character study or extra twists. Mayo's role in the film is kind of pointless.

The second problem is tone. Raft's brother is a priest, which is fine, but it triggers a whole bunch of stuff in the last act to do with God. Raft searches for a Bible, it turns out the Bible was taken by a blind person who was going to kill himself but his life was saved by being talked out of it by a random cleaner (who we don't meet), Raft finds God and refuses to shoot Burr but it's alright because Burr gets electrocuted and has already killed Morgan (twice... first time it didn't stick so he does it again)... The film goes from tight, snappy film noir to sappy religious stuff, complete with organs playing and people praying. That sort of stuff can work if its set up, maybe... but it doesn't here. It's embarrassing.

A really disappointing film because it's got so much going for it, with that cast and photography.

Movie review - "The Man from Cairo" (1953) **

The last of three films George Raft made for Lippert Pictures, all unpretentious B movie thrillers - fillers, really. It's not a bad little film if you like that sort of stuff, so I do. It's helped by some location work in Africa, an exotic background (some bullion stolen from the French during the war and the action mostly takes place in Algeria, then a French colony),

It's also assisted by having a genuine star in the lead, Raft. This was his last lead role - he's an old dude now, he's clearly smoked too much in his life time, he's too old to for his female lead, his body double in the action sequences is not convincing at all, the eyes are sunken and the skin looks grey. And he still hasn't learned how to act. But he's George Raft, tough guy, and you feel an affection for him (I did, at any rate).

There's some slinky dames in cafes, including Gianna Maria Canale, and a decent support cast all trying to imitate people from Casablanca - a film Raft supposedly turned down (he didn't, but he definitely turned down a lot of good roles). They don't quite pull it off, the script is full of wonky contrivances - the whole set up involves Raft being a tourist who is mistaken for an American agent (who they don't kill for some reason).