Movie review - "At Long Last Love" (1975) **1/2

Not a perfect film, and it takes a while to get into it, but it did not deserve the shellacking it received from critics at the time. Mind you, I think we forget now how irritating Peter Bogdanovich could be - check out some talk show clips from the time.

He's got the benefit of Cole Porter songs, pretty photography, a decent budget, and Burt Reynolds, Madeleine Khan and Cybill Shepherd are all very likeable in the leads. Duilio Del Prete is okay - not bad or offensive, he's handsome and can carry a tune, I just kept forgetting he was in the movie.

Eileen Brennan is perfect as the maid and John Hillerman and Mildred Natwick fine.

I'm sure it was a jolt that this musical was made where the leads couldn't really sing and, in particular,dance - maybe the dancing was a mistake, I mean they try, but no one can really do it. These days however it doesn't seem to matter - so many people do musicals who can't really dance or sing. I think it offended people in 1975.

Also I admit the beginning is confronting when Madeleine Khan launches into a song and her voice wobbles.

Cybill Shepherd really copped it but she's good, full of energy and pep. She later got plaudits for doing this stuff on Moonlighting but she's already doing it here. Reynolds is very engaging.

It isn't a great script. These sort of things are harder to do than they seem and Bogdanovich gets the surface right - wacky heiresses, millionaire playboys, showgirls, the dialogue overlaps and is fast, butlers and maids - it's never that funny or memorable. If only he'd collaborated with, I don't know, Neil Simon or someone. (I had the same problem with his other fast talking ensemble pieces like She's Funny That Way and They All Laughed).

But it's cheerful, everyone seems to like each other, the live recording does add an extra dimension. I'm not surprised this one is coming back a little, reputation wise.

Movie review - "Notorious" by Ben Hecht

A lot of this wouldn't pass muster today - Devlin knocks out Alicia with a fist, and there's a lot of slut shaming going on. But it's an expert, adult film - it's clear Alicia sleeps with Alex and Devlin and lots of others. It's also expertly, but simply plotted - a superb star vehicle but also strong support characters: Alex, his mother, the other Nazis. The goodies are smart but so are the baddies and Alicia is active a lot of the time even at the end when she's dying of poison she manages to figure out what's going on.

One big set piece is going into the wine cellar which is cleverly done. I guess there's also the walk out at the end. The shooting script I read had added pages - three small scenes of a Greek chorus of secretaries at the CIA or wherever it was, to give it a happy ending, commenting on the honeymoon.

Script review - "Harots" by Moira Buffini ep 1

Excellent work - gorgeous use of language, strong and vivid characters, an interesting period of time and point of view (paid sex workers in the olde days) with a fresh take on marriage (to be feared because you'd lose your rights) and ownership (the dream of harlots was to be "bought" by a lord who would be responsible for your debts). Good family drama at core with mum and her two daughters. I did wonder how much "legs" it had... as in for a long running series... but it's a great piece of work.

Script review - "Prince of the City" by Jay Presson Allen and Sidney Lumet

Highly regarded look at police corruption. I respect it more than I admire it. It's obviously smart but it's long - scenes felt repetitive. I didn't get to know many of the characters. The domestic scenes weren't that interesting. A lot of New Yawk acting. Heaps of typos in the draft of the script I read.

The basic material is fascinating - a little-bit corrupt cop has a crisis of confidence and tries to help IA. He vows to not give up his partners but that's easier said than done. He has a cousin in the mob. The officials who help him are ambitious and flawed like his corrupt fellow cops.

There's some suspense where you think the main guy might die but the best stuff comes at the end, when one cop kills himself and other, Levy, tells the main guy to f*ck off.

Movie review - "Shamus" (1973) **1/2

As he so often was, Burt Reynolds is better than his material here. He's ideal as a private eye, sleeping on a pool table with a phone handing from a basket, confident but amiable so he doesn't seem like a lech, which his character is.

The script isn't up to the models of Raymond Chandler its aping - some scenes are direct steals of The Big Sleep including meeting a tycoon in a weird climate (here it's cold instead of hot) and where the shamus flirts with a librarian.

Burt gets beaten up a lot but comes through. The support cast isn't up to something like Harper. It's okay. Dyan Cannon is great with Burt and I wish they'd have made more movies together.

Rod Taylor played the same role in a TV movie which was a pilot for a proposed series.

Script review - "Room" by Emma Donoghue

Excellent script which benefits from lots of lovely touches and details. The examination of the relationship between the mother and son is first rate - especially in the language of the son. I read this and kept thinking "this role is a gift for any half decent actor but it'll be a bugger to find the kid".

The first half was the strongest for me because it dealt with an inherently tense situation - the escape sequence was very exciting. The second half is more character dram about what happens outside the room. It all feels true and logical (they find it hard to adjust, there's media attention, mum and dad have broken up) - but it's like the film has to be rebooted. That's the story they wanted to tell I know - but the fact is it feels very much like a separate film. Still good stuff. It was a moving experience to read.

Movie review - "Cruising" (1980) ***

A real end of the 70s movie - writers often can't resist the synergy of Sorcerer coming out the same time as Star Wars but William Friedkin still had enough cache to make this with what I assume was pretty much total freedom. Like Sorcerer its reputation continues to rise.

This copped it  at the time because it was about a gay serial killer and there weren't many gay characters on screen. In recent years it's been more appreciated as a period piece and people seem less touchy about the subject matter - possibly because it's a period piece, that time has passed... but also because there are a lot more gay characters on screen now. (Not saying things still don't have a way to go, just pointing out it's more than it was.)

It's a remarkably frank piece with cop Al Pacino going undercover in leather bars to find a serial killer. The scenes in bars are quite full on - not the nice dancing in Police Academy films but lots of sex,people standing around watching others having sex, rock and roll dancing, drugs. It's a sealed world- indeed one of the club managers instantly spots Pacino for a cop and tells him to leave! But by the end of the film he's got his act down pat - he seems to know exactly what to say. You can read this film a number of ways - one of those ways is a heroes journey where Pacino learns how to have sex with guys.

It doesn't spell out that he has sex with guys but it is implied. It affects his sex life with Karen Allen, he seems to know all the lingo at the end, when the police come in to rescue him he's all tied up and tells the cops that they're too soon.

It's a confronting film in a lot of ways. We get to spend a little time with some of the victims before they're killed, so we get to know and like them, and are with them as they get killed, which isn't fun.

There's lots of loose ends which I know Friedkin will say are deliberately ambiguous but personally I think is just sloppy screenwriting from someone who wasn't a professional screenwriter - they don't resolve the cops who force gays to have sex with them (Paul Sorvino just finds out the gays are telling the truth), they don't resolve if there's another serial killer, or explain who that tall black man in a thong is who comes in during the interrogation (apparently the cops would do that to make any complaint about police brutality seem silly - why not include a line to cover that?). There are hints of Pacino having a poor relationship with his dad which aren't chased up. Pacino learns the saying of the killer "I'm here you're here" even though it was misheard by others and we never find out why.

Pacino is frustratingly passive a lot of the time. He spends a lot of time hanging out, not really doing much detecting. The big breakthrough - the fingerprint on a movie machine - comes through other cops. He spends a lot of time chasing a suspect who we know isn't the killer because he doesn't look like the person who the killer is - because we've seen enough of the killer. I get this happens in investigations it just feels like a waste of time to watch. He does some detecting at the end but that seems to be mostly stalking this guy and breaking into his apartment.

One friend thought the ending implied that the evil spirit of the killer might have passed in Pacino, like The Exorcist - which does make sense, even though it's not clear, but is a case of a filmmaker ripping off their own successful work.

Personally I don't think he's the serial killer at the end. Why would he kill the playwright? The playwright was his friend - serial killers tend not to kill their friends. Also the playwright was a different look to the other victims. And the boyfriend does have a good motivation.

I did like the depiction of the  homophobia of the time - matter of fact and horrible: cops coercing drag queens into performing sex acts, serial killers of gay men only getting eight years, cops beating up a gay to get a confession.

Some excellent performances, including Pacino, Paul Sorvino as a cop (interesting limp), James Remar as a flamboyant dancer (he's good!), Ed O'Neil. Powers Boothe pops up with a funny scene as a salesman.

An interesting, challenging film.

Movie review - "Ice Palace" (1960) **

A big flop in its day despite Edna Ferber's solid track record and it's not hard to see why. Giant was such a big hit you wonder why they didn't study that more closely - the 1960 adaptation of Cimarron made similar errors.

Giant focused strongly on Elizabeth Taylor's journey, and her relationship with Rock Hudson and James Dean. That was the core of that film.

This doesn't seem to have a core. I guess it kind of has one in the relationship between Richard Burton and Robert Ryan. Burton is a sulky World War One veteran who can't get a job in Seattle so he winds up in Alaska. Ryan picks him up out of the ocean and they become partners. Ryan seems to kind of fall in love with him, as per the fashion of many films of the time, but the friendship flounders when Burton falls for Ryan's fiancee, Carolyn Jones.

The film pulls its punches on the drama though - Jones loves Burton and he loves her but he goes off and marries rich Martha Hyer. Jones gets upset, Ryan realises they're in love, and Ryan goes and sooks off. Jones doesn't get with Burton she kind of hangs around up the street. Hyer and Burton have an unhappy marriage but it's hard to care; Ryan goes and lives with the eskimos and has a kid with an eskimo woman who has no lines and dies in childbirth (this was typical of "liberal" Hollywood films of the time).

Hyer and Burton's kid grows up to be Shirley Knight, and Ryan's kid grows up to be Steve Harris and they wind up falling in love and having a kid before both conveniently dying. Their kid is Diane McBain, whose character apparently was the lead of the novel, but only appears in the last half hour here. She has a romance with Ray Danton, Burton's lawyer, during a very dull plot about Alaska trying to get statehood.

It just doesn't work. Ryan's character is meant to be moral and good but is just annoying,crapping on about Alaska and how much he hates Burton. Because Burton fell for his girl (they never did anything) and introduced fishing traps? I think Burton is meant to be racist in a way because he makes cracks about Ryans half breed kid, but early on in the film he sticks up for Chinese George Takei.

There is some sort of theme about contributing to Alaska versus taking, which is kind of interesting, but it isn't dramatised.

Really the film should've been about Carolyn Jones' character - an Alaska pioneer in love with two men, who tries to do the right thing, and raises women. It needed to be a female orientated story and have a star in this role - Jones is a good actor but not a star.

Richard Burton isn't comfortably cast as an American. Three generations of women are played by blondes who look the same and don't have differentiating characteristics: Heyer, Knight, McBain.

By the end it's hard to care.

But you now, I've got to say I didn't mind it that much, because my expectations were so low. It's an old fashioned melodrama with lots of story. I enjoyed the colour and the shots of Alaska - and the Alaskan setting is a bit of a novelty.

RIP Burt Reynolds

He hadn't been in good health for a long time but this is still sad. There was no bigger star in the period of 77-83... His work was always a lot more interesting than he got credit for (he'd done Broadway, hosted talk shows, turned director)... he'd often be a hilarious interview subject... no one was funnier or more self deprecating about himself... Then in 1983 he decided to do "Stroker Ace" instead of "Terms of Endearment" and it was like the movie gods cursed him... he had a run of bad luck like few other stars - "Man Who Loved Women", "City Heat", "Stick", "Cannonball Run 2", "Heat", "Malone", "Rent a Cop"... at least he came back for "Boogie Nights" and was never out of work... RIP Burt

A Top Ten

1) Boogie Nights (1997)

2) The Longest yard (1974)

3) Hustle (1975)

4) Deliverance (1972)

5) Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

6) Hooper (1978)

7) The Cannonball Run (1981)

8 ) Striptease(1996)

9) Sam Whiskey (1968)

10) Sharky's Machine (1981)

The troublesome production top ten

1) City heat (1984) - Eastwood fires director Blake Edwards

2) The Man who Loved Cat Dancing (1973) - Sarah Miles’ lover killed himself for a time Reynolds was suspected of murder

3) Heat (1986) - the 1986 William Goldman one not the Michael Mann - five directors one of whom Reynolds punched out

4) Stick (1985) - Reynolds directed and Universal made him refilm half

5) At Long Last Love (1975) - musical which got worst reviews of any Reynolds film til then (actually isn’t that bad)

6) Shark! (1968) - Sam fuller took his name off as director

7) 100 Rifles (1969) - weird sexual tension and fighting on set between Jim brown and Raquel Welch

8 ) Boogie Nights (1997) - Reynolds fights with PT Anderson so badly he refuses to be in Magnolia

9) The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) - Burt fights with Dolly and insists on singing

10) Switching Channels (1989) - should’ve been a comeback for Burt (we’d say this every few years in the 90s) - he fought badly with Kathleen Turner

Movie review - "King of the Roaring 20s: The Story of Arnold Rothstein" (1961) **

Gangsters came back into fashion in the late 50s with the success of The Untouchables and films like Al Capone. The latter was made by Allied Artists who went on to make this and The George Raft Story and others.

It's not a good movie. Chief debit is David Janssen, whose serious slightly constipated look suited The Fugitive well enough (and casting directors couldn't get enough of casting him as journos in late 60s epics). Janssen is so dull - never believable as a gambler despite the diaoogue, and not lively.

It's especially frustrating because Mickey Rooney is right there, playing his boyhood friend, and he would've been so much better - energetic, a believable gambler.

Joseph Newman's direction is polite rather than lively. Dan O'Herlihy is good value as a corrupt cop as is William Demarest as a William Demarest type and Jack Carson as a corrupt politico (Actually all three of them would've been better than Janssen). Diana Dors wades in her awkward-but-personality-strong way in a minor role - I wish she'd played the female lead instead of the girl who did, Dianne Foster, who isn't very good.

I wonder if there's a film in Rothstein? Is he better as a support character? 

Movie review - "Rampage" (2018) ***1/2

Fun, silly, entertaining film about a rampaging gorilla. Gets off to a good start with a woman dying in outer space, giving it stakes, setting up a serious subtext. The action is fast, it's logical enough.

Malin Ackerman occasionally goes overboard and Jeffrey Dean Morgan's accent got on my nerves. The film also sets up these friends of Johnson's - a work colleague and some students - that we expect to see again but they disappear. Jake Lacy is fun as Ackerman's brother.

The stardom of Jack Thompson

In 1975 Ken G Hall wrote that the one proper star of the Australian film revival in box office terms was Jack Thompson. And he was right - Graeme Blundell and Bruce Spence had been in hits, but they felt "one off". Thompson had star all over him - handsome, charismatic, acting ability, fantastic voice, swagger. And a definite star persona and successful films - the heroic ocker, successful with the ladies, loyal to his mates, great in a fight etc etc. It really started with Spyforce and was developed through Libido, Petersen and Sunday Too Far Away. Scobie Malone was a major stumble but those things happen - and he had a choice support role in Caddie; although not the lead the film was a bit hit and the role very much within the Thompson persona.

But how did he follow it up? The villain in Mad Dog Morgan, then two years off then he played a reverend in The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and a support role in Because He's My Friend. Then The Journalist, Breaker Morant and The Club - then The Earthling, Bad Blood and The Man from Snowy River.

He kind of stopped being a star. The only of these roles that was recogniseably "Jack Thompson was The Journalist and I guess Snowy - the latter was a glorified cameo.

I can make a case for the films he did - Mad Dog, Because His My Friend and Earthling had him support American actors, which would've increased his exposure to Hollywood. Chant was going to be a major movie - there was no typical "Jack Thompson" part in it.

But it is odd he would be the one star in Australian cinema in 1975, then leap into character roles.

I think basically the Australian industry didn't know how to exploit him as a star - and neither did Thompson.

Compare it with Mel Gibson. His career got cracking with Tim and Mad Max in 1979 - then he followed it up with Gallipoli and The Year of Living Dangerously and he was off to the races.

Now I'm not sure Thompson would've suited any of these roles - too old, too worldly. Gibson specialised in young innocents for a long time. He would've been weird in My Brilliant Career.

And also the films weren't really there. What else could Thompson have been in in 1976? Don't Party would've been good - an ensemble piece. In 1977 the films that would've suited the Thompson persona were poor - Raw Deal, High Rolling. He would've been miscast in say The Last Wave. They wanted him for Newsfront as Bill Hunter's brother but it was a support role. He would've been fantastic in Money Movers and The Last of the Knucklemen - but both flopped.

He turned down the Mike Preston role in Maybe This Time. Presumably also Duet for Four... (every Mike Preston role of this time feels like it was meant for Jack Thompson including Mad Max 2.)

I heard he auditioned for Flash Gordon. That would've been interesting. I'm not sure he would've matched with the view they had of Flash in that movie - naive, opened faced. Thompson always felt cocky.

The man with the career most analogous to Thompson, apart from Mike Preston who looked like him, would be Bryan Brown. You can imagine Thompson in every role Brown played - which at first were support parts but from Stir onwards were leads. Thompson would've been incredible in A Town Like Alice, Far East, Thorn Birds. Mind you, Brown was pretty good.

And Thompson had some good moments in the 80s. He did TV overseas in the early 80s. Had the lead in Waterfront and Burke and Wills.

But he got fat. By the early 80s he ceased to become sexy Jack Thompson - he became chubby Jack Thompson. So he drifted to character roles.

Anyway, so Jack Thompson has had a great career. But still you feel his value as a star was never quite exploited. In particular that period in the late 70s where he played no star roles fo ra number of years. A massive asset for the industry and it was not used.

TV review - "Rawhide Season 3 Ep 20 Incident of the Boomerang" (1961) ***

Fascinating for Aussies because it has not one but two Aussie characters - a cowboy played by Michael Pate (who provided the story and was presumably responsible for the incredibly broad Aussie isms) who encounters the gang, and his aboriginal offsider... played by Woody Strode. I wasn't sure he was meant to be an aboriginal but nope he has an aboriginal name and throws a boomerang and everything and yep he's played by Woody Strode.

They're travelling with Pate's fiancee, Patricia Medina, who is very flirty - Strode distrusts her and with good reason because she pants all over a shirtless Clint Eastwood (who's hardly in this... maybe two scenes - the focus of the ep is the guests).

It's not a bad story with decent twists - James Drury turns up, he's Medina's secret love, Eric Fleming won't let him join the gang, Drury is in cahoots with the Indians who attack Medina, Medina falls for Pate.

Very much of its tie. Remarkably stage bound.