Joan Caulfield isn't one of the top rated stars but she's charming here - bright, pretty, with a great figure, very likeable. She's a nerdy college professor raised at the college - a nice touch, kind of like Snow White - who does do song and dance production numbers in her bathroom wearing just a towel so you know there's a fire burning inside. She visits New York to appear at a conference and is pursued by artist Bob Cummings who wants to sketch her. She goes to a nightclub and there's various shenanigans - act two he turns up at the college to pursue her and sketch her. He blackmails her a few times so it has some consent issues, like many films of this time... I went with it in part because Cummings was charming and Caulfield seems into it. Her character is certainly very very keen to take her clothes off and get into a swim suit.
Act three Caulfield comes to New York to be with Cummings and he doesn't want to be with her because... oh some silly reason. He's upset that she wants him to focus on cheesecake drawings instead of profiles, which feels contrived.
Melville Cooper and especially Elsa Lanchester add pep to the support cast. The colors are bright and the tunes enjoyable - the film has a breezy tone and seems to glory in beauty and the female form in a non sleazy way. Maybe three stars is too much but I liked this.
Monday, September 30, 2019
Movie review - "Rio" (1939) ***
Enjoyable unpretentious melodrama from Universal with a strong cast - Basil Rathbone is reliably excellent as a French financier who is convicted of embezzlement so his off sider (Victor McLaglen) and wife (Sigrid Gurie) go to Rio near the penal colony. Gurie falls for a drunken engineer (Bob Cummings) just as Rathbone escapes.
This was well done. John Brahm does a solid job of direction, Rathbone and McLaglen are very good - I wish McLaglen had more to do in the second half but he is key at the end. Cummings is also effective in a non typical part - he's got a moustache and plays a drunk who gets redemption via loving Gurie. Gurie isn't very good - the role felt written for Marelene Dietrich.
The film was clearly meant to be set in Devil's Island but they never mention those words - I think it was a touchy subject for the French. The production values are effective - dingy bars, night clubs, etc. It pumps along, there is character work - Rathbone has a juicy role a man who loves his wife, is determined to let her go but can't.
This was well done. John Brahm does a solid job of direction, Rathbone and McLaglen are very good - I wish McLaglen had more to do in the second half but he is key at the end. Cummings is also effective in a non typical part - he's got a moustache and plays a drunk who gets redemption via loving Gurie. Gurie isn't very good - the role felt written for Marelene Dietrich.
The film was clearly meant to be set in Devil's Island but they never mention those words - I think it was a touchy subject for the French. The production values are effective - dingy bars, night clubs, etc. It pumps along, there is character work - Rathbone has a juicy role a man who loves his wife, is determined to let her go but can't.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Book review - "The First Jihad: The Battle for Khartoum, and the Dawn of Militant Islam" by David Butler
Decent recap of the famous siege of Khartoum. The Charlton Heston movie kept imposing itself in my head as I was reading it. This argues that the Mahdi established modern day military Islamism which you could say it was true. Gladstone was in a tricky place - he didn't want to invade the Sudan - I think Butler over relies on military solutions: what if they'd smashed the Mahdi's army, what then? There still would have been a power vaccum.
The narrative is strong because you know Gordon is going to die. There is an epilogue where Kitchener comes back and conquers. I wish it was footnoted.
The narrative is strong because you know Gordon is going to die. There is an epilogue where Kitchener comes back and conquers. I wish it was footnoted.
Book review - "Inside Out" by Demi Moore (2019)
I remember seeing a clip of Demi Moore on General Hospital and she already had X factor - the beauty of course, with that long flowing hair and deep dark eyes, and the acting but most of all the husky voice. That was her secret weapon. That's why when she was coming through she always seemed as though she was going to Make It- she seemed like a star. It didn't hurt she had a high profile love life (Emilio Estevez, Bruce Willis) but she had genuine charisma - more so than say Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy - and after being "promising" for most of the 80s she became a genuine box office draw in the early 90s.
Her decline as a star was surprisingly quick - she had two big noisy vehicles that underperformed, Striptease and GI Jane... both unfairly, I feel. She makes it sound like she basically decided not to act for a bit which is kind of true but not til after she'd made The Juror and The Scarlet Letter.
There is plenty here about Moore's family life which is fascinating. She was a character out of a soap opera - both parents charming rogues, her father was fond of getting in fights and charming and turned out to be not her biological father and killed himself, her mother was a charismatic beauty hopeless with men and money who constantly let down her daughter. Moore lost her virginity early, was raped as a teenager, very sexually precocious - she lived with a guy in his late twenties when she was sixteen, left him for his friend who she then married, slept with a different guy the night before her wedding. She was a California girl of the seventies I guess.
The book has lots of juicy stuff like
* doing heaps of coke making Blame It on Rio
* she got into acting because she became fascinated by her 70s neighbour Natassa Kinski (and dined with Roman Polanski who didn't try anything)
* she took Jon Cryer's virginity making No Small Affair
* only remembers a one night stand with Rob Lowe making St Elmo's Fire
* was forced to go to rehab before St Elmo's Fire
* got constantly criticised for her body by Adrian Lyne but doesn't hold it against him because him yelling out during the sex scenes was so comic and she turned out looking so good at the end
* she had to audition for most of her roles
* had threesomes with Ashton Kutcher.
Kutcher and Bruce Willis actually come out of the book very well - hard working, caring, dilligent, good father figures. Kutcher is a cheater who gets cold at the end but he's no monster and she says lots of nice things about him.
The one area of this I thought was skimpy on was making of various movies. The big ones are there like Ghost and Indecent Proposal and Charlie's Angels but nothing on The Scarlet Letter and The Juror and odd films like Mortal Thoughts, Now and Then, Wisdom, Nothing But Trouble, Deconstructing Harry. There's not even that much on Disclosure.
Still she's a fascinating character and it's extremely well written. I read this in one session.
Her decline as a star was surprisingly quick - she had two big noisy vehicles that underperformed, Striptease and GI Jane... both unfairly, I feel. She makes it sound like she basically decided not to act for a bit which is kind of true but not til after she'd made The Juror and The Scarlet Letter.
There is plenty here about Moore's family life which is fascinating. She was a character out of a soap opera - both parents charming rogues, her father was fond of getting in fights and charming and turned out to be not her biological father and killed himself, her mother was a charismatic beauty hopeless with men and money who constantly let down her daughter. Moore lost her virginity early, was raped as a teenager, very sexually precocious - she lived with a guy in his late twenties when she was sixteen, left him for his friend who she then married, slept with a different guy the night before her wedding. She was a California girl of the seventies I guess.
The book has lots of juicy stuff like
* doing heaps of coke making Blame It on Rio
* she got into acting because she became fascinated by her 70s neighbour Natassa Kinski (and dined with Roman Polanski who didn't try anything)
* she took Jon Cryer's virginity making No Small Affair
* only remembers a one night stand with Rob Lowe making St Elmo's Fire
* was forced to go to rehab before St Elmo's Fire
* got constantly criticised for her body by Adrian Lyne but doesn't hold it against him because him yelling out during the sex scenes was so comic and she turned out looking so good at the end
* she had to audition for most of her roles
* had threesomes with Ashton Kutcher.
Kutcher and Bruce Willis actually come out of the book very well - hard working, caring, dilligent, good father figures. Kutcher is a cheater who gets cold at the end but he's no monster and she says lots of nice things about him.
The one area of this I thought was skimpy on was making of various movies. The big ones are there like Ghost and Indecent Proposal and Charlie's Angels but nothing on The Scarlet Letter and The Juror and odd films like Mortal Thoughts, Now and Then, Wisdom, Nothing But Trouble, Deconstructing Harry. There's not even that much on Disclosure.
Still she's a fascinating character and it's extremely well written. I read this in one session.
Movie review - "The Squatter's Daughter" (1933) **
Bert Bailey and Edward Duggan's stage melodrama remains a solid piece of construction - it's a piece of its time with appropriate conventions but you can see its appeal to Ken G Hall and Cinesound: there is conflict, action and scope for spectacle.
This film version is hokey - Ken G Hall was still learning his trade and in particular he struggled with scripts until he found Frank Harvey. Look at the opening scenes with all the exposition - the neighbour talking about how they are scheming, then the squatter's daugther coming along to report on how they have been scheming... in later years Hall would have dramatised this
The pacing is slow and the acting awkward - a lot of the time the actors stand uncomfortably while delivering lines.
Jocelyn Howarth was given the role of a lifetime as the squatter's daughter - it's a great part, even now: you get to ride a horse, sing in an evening dress while playing the piano, go for a romantic stroll holding a koala, hang out at a pool. She is pretty and has spunk, though is inexperienced. Hall probably should have given her more close ups.
It looks fantastic, though - the cinematography is excellent and Hall was smart enough to put production value up front: in the first few minutes, in amidst all that clunky exposition, there's shots of sheep being mustered and a man galloping a horse across a paddock. The Australian scenery is beautiful. Frank Hurley shot it.
There is a lot of plot - Howarth is struggling to hang on to her family station which is being sabotaged by her neighbour's son (John Warwick); there's a mysterious stranger (Grant Lyndsay) who may or may not be on her side; the neighbour is going blind and returns to Australia after a trip to England; Howarth has a crippled brother in love with an Afghan girl whose father won't let her marry a non Muslim; there's stuff about Lyndsay's parentage (long lost family etc etc). There's also an elaborate ball at one of the homesteads complete with swim suit bunnies jumping in the pool and a "gum leaf band" of aboriginals which, er, is unusual. There's also some comic relief shearers - Fred MacDonald as a bagpipe playing one who is pursued by Howarth's horny cook.
The story doesn't seem to build though - there's no narrative momentum. Howarth isn't active enough - she drifts along with the action. So too does Lyndsay really the most active thing he does is secretly buy some of her sheep. The villains do a little more - but even that's muted as Warwick turns good. Les Warton the nasty overseer does all the bad stuff like kill the Afghan. (Side note - the Afghan characters are quite positively depicted. The crippled brother survives at the end along with the girl so presumably they can hook up)
The finale is decent - there's a bushfire where the actors seem really close to the flames. There's a solid fight in a creek and parallel action plot lines.
It's a shame Hall didn't remake this say a decade or so later when he had a better handle on narrative.
Lyndsay is so-so... a bit fey, like a lot of leading men around this time. You can tell the support actors have talent but they have been encouraged to play it like stage actors - apparently this was dialogue director George Cross' influence.
Awkwardly staged, a patchy script but enough things going on that it does hold some interest. Of course it is of historical note.
This film version is hokey - Ken G Hall was still learning his trade and in particular he struggled with scripts until he found Frank Harvey. Look at the opening scenes with all the exposition - the neighbour talking about how they are scheming, then the squatter's daugther coming along to report on how they have been scheming... in later years Hall would have dramatised this
The pacing is slow and the acting awkward - a lot of the time the actors stand uncomfortably while delivering lines.
Jocelyn Howarth was given the role of a lifetime as the squatter's daughter - it's a great part, even now: you get to ride a horse, sing in an evening dress while playing the piano, go for a romantic stroll holding a koala, hang out at a pool. She is pretty and has spunk, though is inexperienced. Hall probably should have given her more close ups.
It looks fantastic, though - the cinematography is excellent and Hall was smart enough to put production value up front: in the first few minutes, in amidst all that clunky exposition, there's shots of sheep being mustered and a man galloping a horse across a paddock. The Australian scenery is beautiful. Frank Hurley shot it.
There is a lot of plot - Howarth is struggling to hang on to her family station which is being sabotaged by her neighbour's son (John Warwick); there's a mysterious stranger (Grant Lyndsay) who may or may not be on her side; the neighbour is going blind and returns to Australia after a trip to England; Howarth has a crippled brother in love with an Afghan girl whose father won't let her marry a non Muslim; there's stuff about Lyndsay's parentage (long lost family etc etc). There's also an elaborate ball at one of the homesteads complete with swim suit bunnies jumping in the pool and a "gum leaf band" of aboriginals which, er, is unusual. There's also some comic relief shearers - Fred MacDonald as a bagpipe playing one who is pursued by Howarth's horny cook.
The story doesn't seem to build though - there's no narrative momentum. Howarth isn't active enough - she drifts along with the action. So too does Lyndsay really the most active thing he does is secretly buy some of her sheep. The villains do a little more - but even that's muted as Warwick turns good. Les Warton the nasty overseer does all the bad stuff like kill the Afghan. (Side note - the Afghan characters are quite positively depicted. The crippled brother survives at the end along with the girl so presumably they can hook up)
The finale is decent - there's a bushfire where the actors seem really close to the flames. There's a solid fight in a creek and parallel action plot lines.
It's a shame Hall didn't remake this say a decade or so later when he had a better handle on narrative.
Lyndsay is so-so... a bit fey, like a lot of leading men around this time. You can tell the support actors have talent but they have been encouraged to play it like stage actors - apparently this was dialogue director George Cross' influence.
Awkwardly staged, a patchy script but enough things going on that it does hold some interest. Of course it is of historical note.
Movie review - "The Kangaroo Kid" (1950) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)
Much mocked in its day and little remembered by history but this isn't bad. I actually enjoyed this a fair bit in part because it was so unpretentious but also because it had a decent story.
Many commentators - myself included - have poo-pooed this as simply an American Western shot in Australia which says little about Australia. I mean that is mostly true but it makes some attempt to wrap its head around Australia - the produced, T McCreadie was Australian and it was based on a story by Aussie Tony Scott Veitch.
It's well constructed for US audiences - it's about a Pinkerton agent (basically - called Remington here) played by Jock Mahoney sent to Australia to find a murderer. I will admit there's a lot of Americans in an Australian town - a miner played by Alan Gifford, his daughter player by Martha Hyer (later Mrs Hal Wallis), a barmaid played by Veda Ann Borg, Douglas Dumbrille as another businessman. The baddy is either Gifford or Dumbrille and while we figure out it's Dumbrille very quickly there's lots of solid conflict: Hyer loves local cop Guy Doleman, Gifford was a crook, Doleman suspects Mahoney of the crimes and arrests him.
Some annoying bits like why doesn't Mahoney tell Doleman he's an agent at the top instead of waiting til the end? Doleman could think he's a liar to keep that conflict going. They could have done more with Hyer thinking that Mahoney killed her father and more with the Borg-Mahoney romance; it feels perfunctory when they could have given it more juice... had her say be an ex of one of Dumbrille's off siders say (played by Grant Taylor and Frank Ransome).
But there is some lovely scenery - not of the outback interestingly but more of that Blue Mountains region; an aboriginal tracker who throws a boomerang; a pet koala; a script that emphasizes differences between the countries (Doleman points out to Mahoney you don't carry guns around); good tension between Doleman and Mahoney (Doleman is the secondary hero); solid comic relief from Alec Kellaway (it's more tiresome the woman who wants to marry him... this was a trope at the time, it's in Squatter's Daughter, and just makes him seem gay).
I would've liked more action but what is there is solid - a barroom brawl between Mahoney and Taylor/Ransome (seems that no doubles were used), the final chase and shoot out on a coach. The competence of the script sets it apart from most Australian films even now.
Many commentators - myself included - have poo-pooed this as simply an American Western shot in Australia which says little about Australia. I mean that is mostly true but it makes some attempt to wrap its head around Australia - the produced, T McCreadie was Australian and it was based on a story by Aussie Tony Scott Veitch.
It's well constructed for US audiences - it's about a Pinkerton agent (basically - called Remington here) played by Jock Mahoney sent to Australia to find a murderer. I will admit there's a lot of Americans in an Australian town - a miner played by Alan Gifford, his daughter player by Martha Hyer (later Mrs Hal Wallis), a barmaid played by Veda Ann Borg, Douglas Dumbrille as another businessman. The baddy is either Gifford or Dumbrille and while we figure out it's Dumbrille very quickly there's lots of solid conflict: Hyer loves local cop Guy Doleman, Gifford was a crook, Doleman suspects Mahoney of the crimes and arrests him.
Some annoying bits like why doesn't Mahoney tell Doleman he's an agent at the top instead of waiting til the end? Doleman could think he's a liar to keep that conflict going. They could have done more with Hyer thinking that Mahoney killed her father and more with the Borg-Mahoney romance; it feels perfunctory when they could have given it more juice... had her say be an ex of one of Dumbrille's off siders say (played by Grant Taylor and Frank Ransome).
But there is some lovely scenery - not of the outback interestingly but more of that Blue Mountains region; an aboriginal tracker who throws a boomerang; a pet koala; a script that emphasizes differences between the countries (Doleman points out to Mahoney you don't carry guns around); good tension between Doleman and Mahoney (Doleman is the secondary hero); solid comic relief from Alec Kellaway (it's more tiresome the woman who wants to marry him... this was a trope at the time, it's in Squatter's Daughter, and just makes him seem gay).
I would've liked more action but what is there is solid - a barroom brawl between Mahoney and Taylor/Ransome (seems that no doubles were used), the final chase and shoot out on a coach. The competence of the script sets it apart from most Australian films even now.
Saturday, September 28, 2019
Movie review - "For the Love of Mary" (1948) **1/2
Deanna Durbin's last movie isn't bad - not as good as her best films but inoffensive. She's actually in terrific form - bright, sparky, pretty, lively, full of energy. You would never know she was over filmmaking.
The plot is slightly creepy. She's a telephone operator at the White House and everyone in Washington is obsessed with her love life, trying to get her back with dull Jeffrey Lynn. She gets escorted around by Edmond O'Brien, still not looking like he should be a romantic lead, and is chased by Don Taylor. None of them is good enough for Durbin. O'Brien is too old, Taylor too odd (he's obsessed with fish and grew up on and island but doesn't look it... this role needed someone like Jon Hall) and Lynn looks ill.
I did like it that the President got involved in Durbin's love life, setting her up with Taylor... this is what the film should have been, Durbin dealing with a specific cupid, someone Charles Laughton could have played. If they couldn't show the President they should have narrowed the group down - like three congressmen or something, and had them act as her guardian angels. But they have too many people interfere and too many of them are pushing for her to get back with Lynn which she clearly doesn't want to do.
There's a few songs but it isn't really a musical. I wish Durbin had tried to do something on her own rather than just help Lynn - her later films were better when she had a specific goal, normally to become a singing star or to solve a murder, instead of just hanging off a man.
Still this is better than I thought it would be. She made worse movies.
The plot is slightly creepy. She's a telephone operator at the White House and everyone in Washington is obsessed with her love life, trying to get her back with dull Jeffrey Lynn. She gets escorted around by Edmond O'Brien, still not looking like he should be a romantic lead, and is chased by Don Taylor. None of them is good enough for Durbin. O'Brien is too old, Taylor too odd (he's obsessed with fish and grew up on and island but doesn't look it... this role needed someone like Jon Hall) and Lynn looks ill.
I did like it that the President got involved in Durbin's love life, setting her up with Taylor... this is what the film should have been, Durbin dealing with a specific cupid, someone Charles Laughton could have played. If they couldn't show the President they should have narrowed the group down - like three congressmen or something, and had them act as her guardian angels. But they have too many people interfere and too many of them are pushing for her to get back with Lynn which she clearly doesn't want to do.
There's a few songs but it isn't really a musical. I wish Durbin had tried to do something on her own rather than just help Lynn - her later films were better when she had a specific goal, normally to become a singing star or to solve a murder, instead of just hanging off a man.
Still this is better than I thought it would be. She made worse movies.
Friday, September 27, 2019
A to Z of Old Time Aussie Film Scandals
Reckon old Australian movies are boring? Well, to be honest, some of them are... but it didn't mean the people who made them were dull. Stephen Vagg decided to do an A to Z of the most colourful figures of the old Australian industry.
A is for Abbot, Brian - a leading man of the 1930s with bad teeth whose best known movie was Ken Hall's Orphan of the Wilderness (1936). He was also an enthusiastic sailor, perhaps too enthusiastic: in October 1936 he and a fellow actor, Leslie Hay-Simpson, decided to sail back to Sydney in a skiff from Lord Howe Island, where both had been making Mysterious Island (1936)... they were never seen again. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47500845)
B is for Berrell, Lloyd - a barrel chested New Zealand actor who always looked about twenty years older than his actual age, who played "Roo" in the original Sydney production of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. Was divorced from his first wife after he admitted to spanking her. Died of a heart attack en route to England while only 31 years old. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1351936723)
C is for Copelin, Campbell - dashing leading man of stage and screen, most commonly cast as a scoundrel. He had a mischievous side - in March 1932 he stole an aeroplane and took it for a joyride, crashing it into Sandridge Golf Links. He survived and, after a long convalescence, resumed his career. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article203739990)
D is for Dampier, Lily - an early star of Australian cinema who, when she was younger, had a secret marriage to a member of her father's theatre company. They were married for twelve months without telling anyone - he kept promising Lily he would get them a house but not doing it (this was a gambit in the old days to get naive women into bed) - and eventually she sued for divorce. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44083927) She had a successful second marriage to Alfred Rolfe, an actor and director, but died "suddenly" in her forties in 1917. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article163149184)
E is for E.V. Timms - an Australian novelist and screenwriter (Forty Thousand Horsemen) who spent much of World War Two guarding Italian POWs in the countryside. This wasn't as cushy a billet as it might appear - he was called into action when Japanese POWs broke out in Cowra in 1944 and helped suppress the uprising. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article96574427)
F is for Finch, Peter - one of Australia's greatest actors had one of the most colourful private lives, including being the result of an adulterous liaison between his mother and her lover; living for a period of time in Buddhist monastery and, later on, a brothel in Kings Cross (the madam was a big fan); working as a sideshow spruiker at the Sydney Royal Easter Show; seeing active service in the army in World War Two during the bombing of Darwin; and cuckolding Sir Laurence Olivier with Vivien Leigh. In 1935 he also saw one of his best friends, comic Bobby Capron, drown in front of his eyes while Capron was trying to save his dog, who had fallen in the river - Finch jumped in and saved the dog but not his friend. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12644720)
G is for Gavin, Agnes - one of Australia's first screenwriters, who made a number of movies with her husband John. Agnes had a colourful private live - her first husband divorced her for adultery (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article138631382), and she was later arrested and charged for menacing her neighbour with a hammer and threatening to chop her door down with an axe. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113291119)
H is for Howarth, Jocelyn - leapt to stardom playing the title role in The Squatter's Daughter (1933) she went to Hollywood and had an okay career in B movies as "Constance Worth" but received more publicity for her private life, including a disastrous marriage to George Brent and writer. She was in a car accident, had plastic surgery and died only 52 years of age. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78826965)
I is for the Influenza Pandemic of 1918, which killed at least 50 million people, including C Post Mason, director of The Martydom of Nurse Cavell (1916), one of the most profitable Australian films of all time (it cost around 500 pounds and made over 25,000). He went to New York to promote the movie and fell ill and died there. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168488323)
J is for Jack Cannot, a vaudevillian and silent film actor who struggled to get work in the industry down turn that followed the coming of sound. The killed himself by drowning in 1929 - the newspapers reprinted his suicide note, as they did in those days. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article133501507)
K is for Kay, Sydney John - a German musician who was touring Australia with a band when World War Two broke out and was interned here, despite being Jewish. He didn't hold it against usand stayed here after the war for over a decade, helping set up the Mercury Theatre with Peter Finch that would tour shows to factories. One of the shows was seen by Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh leading to them inviting Finch to England. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12644489)
L is for Leighton, Frank - Brawny Australian leading man, cast as the love interest for Hollywood star Helen Twelvetrees, brought out to Australia to star in Thoroughbred (1936) for Ken G Hall. She and Leighton began a hot affair, much to the annoyance of Twelvetrees' husband, who had perhaps unwisely accompanied her. The husband threatened violence against Leighton so Hall - a man who knew that the film must come first - arranged for some friendly members of the Sydney police force to put him on a boat to New Zealand for fishing. Hall wrote in his memoirs that Twelvetrees didn't seem to notice her husband's absence. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article184021322)
M is for Maguire, Mary - ingenue star discovered by Charles Chauvel who put her in Heritage (1935). She went to Hollywood, appeared in a few Bs, then headed to London where she married a World War One veteran, Robert Gordon-Canning... who had fascist sympathies and was interned during World War Two. Mary gave birth to their son while her husband was in prison and the son died young. Mary's career never recovered. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103809243)
N is for Nola Warren - a girl discovered on the beach by American author Zane Grey who cast her in the Australian shot film White Death (1936). Warren became a model and was involved in a scanalous divorce case where she fell pregnant to a man married to someone else. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article75892879)
O is for O'Mahoney, Jock - American stuntman start of the Australian bush pie Western The Kangaroo Kid (1952) who later in life was revealed to be sexually abusing his stepdaughter Sally Field. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47806324)
P is for patriarchs of acting dynasties - silent Australian cinema featured a number of overas actors who later went and begat film stars: Roy Redgrave (father of Michael), Barry Lupion (uncle of Ida), Lawson Harris (father of John Derek). Redgrave died out here. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page1238749)
Q is for queer actors... I'm guessing there were a few of them but it is hard to tell because this was not publicised at the time. Winton Welch, an actor married to film star Louise Lovely, was apparently gay - he definitely didn't sleep with her (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16328416) though he did flirt with other women (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168725795). Maureen O'Hara claimed Peter Lawford was caught in a male brothel making Kangaroo (1952) but she was a notorious homophobe. The actors Thelma Scott and Gwen Plumb were lifelong partners.
R is for Richards, Shirley Ann - the charming ingenue of many Australian films of the 1930s who had a decent enough career in Hollywood in the 1940s under the name "Ann Richards". Her brother Roderick was a soldier in World War Two, captured by the Japanese and died in POW camp in Borneo. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article248498597)
S is for Spencer, Charles Cozens - in many ways the godfather of Australian cinema, the man who financed Australia's first film studio and the early movies of Raymond Longford. He was forced out of the company he helped established and moved to Canada. In 1930 he had a mental breakdown and went on a shooting spree, killing one of his workers and wounding another, before drowning himself in a lake. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article242758823)
T is for Thompson, Lotus - stunningly beautiful Australian model who played "the girl" in some silent movies, then moved to Hollywood and struggled to get parts other than "the girl". In an attempt to revive her career in 1925 she poured acid on her legs saying she was sick of being judged for her beauty. This did lead to some more roles but her career eventually petered out. She revealed the leg thing was all a hoax. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article235494671)
U is for underworld figure Squizzy Taylor, who tried to make a go of it as a film star in Riding to Win (1923). (https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/squizzy-taylor-reel-life-gang-star) Also U is for underwater, filming - which killed cameraman James Bell while shooting footage for Typhoon Treasure (1938) on Green Island. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page1841791)
V is for Victor Upton Brown - Aussie rules coach who dabbled in filmmaking, appearing in The Kelly Gang (1920) and How MacDougall Topped the Score (1924). (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article234429274) He was one of many sports people who worked on films in the silent era, including Bob Chitty, boxer Dave Smith and the horse Desert Gold.
W is for W.J Lincoln, one of Australia's most prominent early writer-directors, whose drinking problem got so bad he was fired off Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford (1916) and was replaced by American actor (and later top Hollywood director) Fred Niblo. Lincoln drunk himself to an early death in 1917. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article155527204)
X is for X rating, a very loose excuse for me to group the Australian movies that were banned for screening in their home country: all bushranger films after 1912 to the 1950s, Sea Dogs of Australia (1913) (because it had footage of a war ship), The Woman Suffers (1918) (too racy) , The Blonde Captive (1931) (a particularly racist documentary)
Y is for Yinson Lee, William - a Chinese merchant who led protests against the advertisement for the Australian melodrama Satan in Sydney (1918) which tells the story of a German sympathiser who uses an opium den in Chinatown to lead Australian soldiers astray. Some posters were removed but the censor had no problem with it and the film was a hit. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article174833016)
Z is for Zelma Roberts - a screenwriter whose credits included Always Another Dawn (1948) whose husband was killed in action in World War Two. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46448257)
A is for Abbot, Brian - a leading man of the 1930s with bad teeth whose best known movie was Ken Hall's Orphan of the Wilderness (1936). He was also an enthusiastic sailor, perhaps too enthusiastic: in October 1936 he and a fellow actor, Leslie Hay-Simpson, decided to sail back to Sydney in a skiff from Lord Howe Island, where both had been making Mysterious Island (1936)... they were never seen again. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47500845)
B is for Berrell, Lloyd - a barrel chested New Zealand actor who always looked about twenty years older than his actual age, who played "Roo" in the original Sydney production of Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. Was divorced from his first wife after he admitted to spanking her. Died of a heart attack en route to England while only 31 years old. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1351936723)
C is for Copelin, Campbell - dashing leading man of stage and screen, most commonly cast as a scoundrel. He had a mischievous side - in March 1932 he stole an aeroplane and took it for a joyride, crashing it into Sandridge Golf Links. He survived and, after a long convalescence, resumed his career. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article203739990)
D is for Dampier, Lily - an early star of Australian cinema who, when she was younger, had a secret marriage to a member of her father's theatre company. They were married for twelve months without telling anyone - he kept promising Lily he would get them a house but not doing it (this was a gambit in the old days to get naive women into bed) - and eventually she sued for divorce. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44083927) She had a successful second marriage to Alfred Rolfe, an actor and director, but died "suddenly" in her forties in 1917. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article163149184)
E is for E.V. Timms - an Australian novelist and screenwriter (Forty Thousand Horsemen) who spent much of World War Two guarding Italian POWs in the countryside. This wasn't as cushy a billet as it might appear - he was called into action when Japanese POWs broke out in Cowra in 1944 and helped suppress the uprising. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article96574427)
F is for Finch, Peter - one of Australia's greatest actors had one of the most colourful private lives, including being the result of an adulterous liaison between his mother and her lover; living for a period of time in Buddhist monastery and, later on, a brothel in Kings Cross (the madam was a big fan); working as a sideshow spruiker at the Sydney Royal Easter Show; seeing active service in the army in World War Two during the bombing of Darwin; and cuckolding Sir Laurence Olivier with Vivien Leigh. In 1935 he also saw one of his best friends, comic Bobby Capron, drown in front of his eyes while Capron was trying to save his dog, who had fallen in the river - Finch jumped in and saved the dog but not his friend. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12644720)
G is for Gavin, Agnes - one of Australia's first screenwriters, who made a number of movies with her husband John. Agnes had a colourful private live - her first husband divorced her for adultery (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article138631382), and she was later arrested and charged for menacing her neighbour with a hammer and threatening to chop her door down with an axe. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113291119)
H is for Howarth, Jocelyn - leapt to stardom playing the title role in The Squatter's Daughter (1933) she went to Hollywood and had an okay career in B movies as "Constance Worth" but received more publicity for her private life, including a disastrous marriage to George Brent and writer. She was in a car accident, had plastic surgery and died only 52 years of age. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article78826965)
I is for the Influenza Pandemic of 1918, which killed at least 50 million people, including C Post Mason, director of The Martydom of Nurse Cavell (1916), one of the most profitable Australian films of all time (it cost around 500 pounds and made over 25,000). He went to New York to promote the movie and fell ill and died there. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168488323)
J is for Jack Cannot, a vaudevillian and silent film actor who struggled to get work in the industry down turn that followed the coming of sound. The killed himself by drowning in 1929 - the newspapers reprinted his suicide note, as they did in those days. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article133501507)
K is for Kay, Sydney John - a German musician who was touring Australia with a band when World War Two broke out and was interned here, despite being Jewish. He didn't hold it against usand stayed here after the war for over a decade, helping set up the Mercury Theatre with Peter Finch that would tour shows to factories. One of the shows was seen by Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh leading to them inviting Finch to England. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12644489)
L is for Leighton, Frank - Brawny Australian leading man, cast as the love interest for Hollywood star Helen Twelvetrees, brought out to Australia to star in Thoroughbred (1936) for Ken G Hall. She and Leighton began a hot affair, much to the annoyance of Twelvetrees' husband, who had perhaps unwisely accompanied her. The husband threatened violence against Leighton so Hall - a man who knew that the film must come first - arranged for some friendly members of the Sydney police force to put him on a boat to New Zealand for fishing. Hall wrote in his memoirs that Twelvetrees didn't seem to notice her husband's absence. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article184021322)
M is for Maguire, Mary - ingenue star discovered by Charles Chauvel who put her in Heritage (1935). She went to Hollywood, appeared in a few Bs, then headed to London where she married a World War One veteran, Robert Gordon-Canning... who had fascist sympathies and was interned during World War Two. Mary gave birth to their son while her husband was in prison and the son died young. Mary's career never recovered. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article103809243)
N is for Nola Warren - a girl discovered on the beach by American author Zane Grey who cast her in the Australian shot film White Death (1936). Warren became a model and was involved in a scanalous divorce case where she fell pregnant to a man married to someone else. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article75892879)
O is for O'Mahoney, Jock - American stuntman start of the Australian bush pie Western The Kangaroo Kid (1952) who later in life was revealed to be sexually abusing his stepdaughter Sally Field. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47806324)
P is for patriarchs of acting dynasties - silent Australian cinema featured a number of overas actors who later went and begat film stars: Roy Redgrave (father of Michael), Barry Lupion (uncle of Ida), Lawson Harris (father of John Derek). Redgrave died out here. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page1238749)
Q is for queer actors... I'm guessing there were a few of them but it is hard to tell because this was not publicised at the time. Winton Welch, an actor married to film star Louise Lovely, was apparently gay - he definitely didn't sleep with her (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16328416) though he did flirt with other women (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article168725795). Maureen O'Hara claimed Peter Lawford was caught in a male brothel making Kangaroo (1952) but she was a notorious homophobe. The actors Thelma Scott and Gwen Plumb were lifelong partners.
R is for Richards, Shirley Ann - the charming ingenue of many Australian films of the 1930s who had a decent enough career in Hollywood in the 1940s under the name "Ann Richards". Her brother Roderick was a soldier in World War Two, captured by the Japanese and died in POW camp in Borneo. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article248498597)
S is for Spencer, Charles Cozens - in many ways the godfather of Australian cinema, the man who financed Australia's first film studio and the early movies of Raymond Longford. He was forced out of the company he helped established and moved to Canada. In 1930 he had a mental breakdown and went on a shooting spree, killing one of his workers and wounding another, before drowning himself in a lake. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article242758823)
T is for Thompson, Lotus - stunningly beautiful Australian model who played "the girl" in some silent movies, then moved to Hollywood and struggled to get parts other than "the girl". In an attempt to revive her career in 1925 she poured acid on her legs saying she was sick of being judged for her beauty. This did lead to some more roles but her career eventually petered out. She revealed the leg thing was all a hoax. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article235494671)
U is for underworld figure Squizzy Taylor, who tried to make a go of it as a film star in Riding to Win (1923). (https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/squizzy-taylor-reel-life-gang-star) Also U is for underwater, filming - which killed cameraman James Bell while shooting footage for Typhoon Treasure (1938) on Green Island. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page1841791)
V is for Victor Upton Brown - Aussie rules coach who dabbled in filmmaking, appearing in The Kelly Gang (1920) and How MacDougall Topped the Score (1924). (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article234429274) He was one of many sports people who worked on films in the silent era, including Bob Chitty, boxer Dave Smith and the horse Desert Gold.
W is for W.J Lincoln, one of Australia's most prominent early writer-directors, whose drinking problem got so bad he was fired off Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford (1916) and was replaced by American actor (and later top Hollywood director) Fred Niblo. Lincoln drunk himself to an early death in 1917. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article155527204)
X is for X rating, a very loose excuse for me to group the Australian movies that were banned for screening in their home country: all bushranger films after 1912 to the 1950s, Sea Dogs of Australia (1913) (because it had footage of a war ship), The Woman Suffers (1918) (too racy) , The Blonde Captive (1931) (a particularly racist documentary)
Y is for Yinson Lee, William - a Chinese merchant who led protests against the advertisement for the Australian melodrama Satan in Sydney (1918) which tells the story of a German sympathiser who uses an opium den in Chinatown to lead Australian soldiers astray. Some posters were removed but the censor had no problem with it and the film was a hit. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article174833016)
Z is for Zelma Roberts - a screenwriter whose credits included Always Another Dawn (1948) whose husband was killed in action in World War Two. (http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46448257)
Movie review - "Up in Central Park" (1948) **
No one much likes the last few Deanna Durbin films. This one has a big budget, was based on a popular Broadway musical, and has a strong cast on paper.
I got used to Albert Sharpe's blarney as Deanna's Irish dad, and Vincent Price was fun as Boss Tweed. Dick Haymes is annoying as the reporter going after Tweed - his singing, his face, his crappy attempts at dancing. I am not a fan.
It doesn't help that Durbin is just "the girl". The story is about Price being crook and Haymes trying to bust him. If Universal had given Durbin Haymes' role maybe she would have stayed - or maybe not she'd been doing it since she was 13, but she wouldn't have ragged on the film so much.
The production values feel over the top - every set stuffed with props. For a musical there's not much singing or dancing - there's too much book.
I did like the theme of Durbin and Sharpe discovering that corruption was bad and America was a country where you shouldn't do this.
Durbin is lively and seems to be having a good time despite her Irish accent - which is ironic since she was getting sick of movie making. But there's too much Haymes. Ugh. I hate Haymes.
I got used to Albert Sharpe's blarney as Deanna's Irish dad, and Vincent Price was fun as Boss Tweed. Dick Haymes is annoying as the reporter going after Tweed - his singing, his face, his crappy attempts at dancing. I am not a fan.
It doesn't help that Durbin is just "the girl". The story is about Price being crook and Haymes trying to bust him. If Universal had given Durbin Haymes' role maybe she would have stayed - or maybe not she'd been doing it since she was 13, but she wouldn't have ragged on the film so much.
The production values feel over the top - every set stuffed with props. For a musical there's not much singing or dancing - there's too much book.
I did like the theme of Durbin and Sharpe discovering that corruption was bad and America was a country where you shouldn't do this.
Durbin is lively and seems to be having a good time despite her Irish accent - which is ironic since she was getting sick of movie making. But there's too much Haymes. Ugh. I hate Haymes.
Movie review - "I'll Be Yours" (1947) ***
Deanna Durbin was rarely more lovely or animated in this film, one of the best of her later efforts. She's bright and sparky and full of energy - often she played roles very sensible, maybe too sensible, but here she's going for it. I wonder why - was it the director? Was it the fact this was her last film with producer Felix Jackson who she married but was soon to divorce to marry Charles David? That she had just had a child?
Anyway she is captivated and helps propel some iffy material. She's a girl who comes to the big city and decides to help a lawyer who was nice to her. She's not immediately interested in him, which I liked - he's Tom Drake, not a fantastic lawyer, but effective here because he's got a character to play: a principled lawyer, who wears a beard and looks old before his time, who gets a good job due to Durbin but earns it through dilligence. He and Durbin have a convincing romance - it's lovely when they fall in love.
William Bendix is a comical waiter she banters with and who introduces her to Drake. Adolphe Menjou's part is more problematic - a tycoon who wants to seduce her, she says oh I'm married, so he gives the "husband" (Drake) a job. I guess that's... nice?
Still it does power the film. Durbin works well with Menjou and Bendix as well. She really seems to be having fun here.
This was written and produced by Felix Jackson - who soon after left Universal. He wasn't as good for Durbin as Pasternak but he definitely had his moments and I think this was one.
Anyway she is captivated and helps propel some iffy material. She's a girl who comes to the big city and decides to help a lawyer who was nice to her. She's not immediately interested in him, which I liked - he's Tom Drake, not a fantastic lawyer, but effective here because he's got a character to play: a principled lawyer, who wears a beard and looks old before his time, who gets a good job due to Durbin but earns it through dilligence. He and Durbin have a convincing romance - it's lovely when they fall in love.
William Bendix is a comical waiter she banters with and who introduces her to Drake. Adolphe Menjou's part is more problematic - a tycoon who wants to seduce her, she says oh I'm married, so he gives the "husband" (Drake) a job. I guess that's... nice?
Still it does power the film. Durbin works well with Menjou and Bendix as well. She really seems to be having fun here.
This was written and produced by Felix Jackson - who soon after left Universal. He wasn't as good for Durbin as Pasternak but he definitely had his moments and I think this was one.
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Movie review - "Because of Him" (1946) **1/2
There are so many good things about this movie I wanted to like it more. The three central players are strong - Deanna Durbin as an aspiring actor, Charles Laughton as a star, Franchot Tone as a writer. Durbin cons Laughton's signature and uses it to launch her career... and that's about it for story. She gets cast in Tone's play and Tone sulks and he thinks Durbin is hot for Laughton.
Durbin and Laughton are wonderful together - actually Durbin is good with Tone too (the age difference doesn't bother me as as much this third time... at least he can act). Laughton is fun as an actor, the film has genuine Broadway flavour.
But the material is weak. I wish Laughton had been given more to do. Tone is an idiot for thinking Durbin would go for Laughton. I didn't like Durbin for pretending to kill herself to get Laughton to feel sorry for her,and that she got a role in a play via presenting a letter to Stanley Ridges and singing 'Danny Boy' to Laughton (it should have been a musical and she could have sung and then been cast... I would have bought that). I didn't like Tone for taking his name off his play because he thought Durbin was lying or for giving Durbin the lead because he thought she was suicidal.
Writing all this out it hit me... no one is acting professionally. I wish everyone had just acted more professionally and I would have bought it.
It's a shame because the handling is bright and the playing good.
Durbin and Laughton are wonderful together - actually Durbin is good with Tone too (the age difference doesn't bother me as as much this third time... at least he can act). Laughton is fun as an actor, the film has genuine Broadway flavour.
But the material is weak. I wish Laughton had been given more to do. Tone is an idiot for thinking Durbin would go for Laughton. I didn't like Durbin for pretending to kill herself to get Laughton to feel sorry for her,and that she got a role in a play via presenting a letter to Stanley Ridges and singing 'Danny Boy' to Laughton (it should have been a musical and she could have sung and then been cast... I would have bought that). I didn't like Tone for taking his name off his play because he thought Durbin was lying or for giving Durbin the lead because he thought she was suicidal.
Writing all this out it hit me... no one is acting professionally. I wish everyone had just acted more professionally and I would have bought it.
It's a shame because the handling is bright and the playing good.
Movie review - "Christmas Holiday" (1944) **1/2
A real odd one out in Deanna Durbin's filmography - a kind of psycho thriller in the Gaslight/ Rebecca tradition only not really.
The credits on this are impressive - Durbin probably should have gone to MGM when she had the chance but Universal did try with her, hiring Robert Siodmak to direct and Herman Mankiewicz to write the script.
The storyline is about Durbin marrying Gene Kelly who is obsessed with his mother Gale Sondegaard. It actually takes a while to get around to this - Manckiewicz goes all non linear, introducing this soldier (played by some random actor called Dean Harens) who's been stood up by his girl, then he meets Durbin, who is singing in some dive and it takes forever for her to bring up the marriage to Kelly which is in the past.
I wonder if the piece wouldn't have been more successful if it had been linear. But maybe not because Durbin's character is very passive - she just marries Kelly and goes along with him, and it becomes apparent he's weird she still loves him, and even after he goes to prison and the mother slaps her and he comes back looking to kill her... she still loves him. Normally in this sort of movie the heroine comes to her senses and gets plucky. Not here.
You (or at least I did) keep waiting for Durbin to investigate and maybe even send Kelly to prison, and to have a big confrontation with Sondegaard, but it never happens.
The acting is decent - for me there was something slimy about Kelly's personality which works here. He's got charisma too which Harens doesn't have. Sondegaard is fun though her character needed another scene to resolve her story.
Robert Siodmak was a very good director and Mankiewicz wrote it with intelligence but it's still frustrating because Durbin's character is such a ninny. This was a big hit though.
The credits on this are impressive - Durbin probably should have gone to MGM when she had the chance but Universal did try with her, hiring Robert Siodmak to direct and Herman Mankiewicz to write the script.
The storyline is about Durbin marrying Gene Kelly who is obsessed with his mother Gale Sondegaard. It actually takes a while to get around to this - Manckiewicz goes all non linear, introducing this soldier (played by some random actor called Dean Harens) who's been stood up by his girl, then he meets Durbin, who is singing in some dive and it takes forever for her to bring up the marriage to Kelly which is in the past.
I wonder if the piece wouldn't have been more successful if it had been linear. But maybe not because Durbin's character is very passive - she just marries Kelly and goes along with him, and it becomes apparent he's weird she still loves him, and even after he goes to prison and the mother slaps her and he comes back looking to kill her... she still loves him. Normally in this sort of movie the heroine comes to her senses and gets plucky. Not here.
You (or at least I did) keep waiting for Durbin to investigate and maybe even send Kelly to prison, and to have a big confrontation with Sondegaard, but it never happens.
The acting is decent - for me there was something slimy about Kelly's personality which works here. He's got charisma too which Harens doesn't have. Sondegaard is fun though her character needed another scene to resolve her story.
Robert Siodmak was a very good director and Mankiewicz wrote it with intelligence but it's still frustrating because Durbin's character is such a ninny. This was a big hit though.
Movie review - "Smart Alec" (1951) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)
Fun mystery from Alec Coppel, based on his play Mr Smart Guy. It's only 55 minutes and races along - it's an early work for John Guillermin and he does an outstanding job, keeping it pacy and brisk. Actors are always moving around, the low budget is covered by keeping the action in a few rooms or doing it via close ups (eg the trial sequence). He has a neat final shot with a camera on a car or something pulling away.
I really liked the cast. I'd never seen Peter Reynolds in anything, at least I couldn't remember him - he's smug, smart, quick, bright, an ideal casting. The other actors are good too.
The story isn't great. I mean it's okay. Quite clever. I knew the twist of the ice bullet but wasn't sure what Reynolds was up to.
It did feel contrived that it goes to trial and no one notices the uncle isn't actually dead.. and that he would confess. These two things really were silly though Guillermin's pace pushes it through.
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Movie review - "Lady on a Train" (1945) **** (re watching)
Easily Deanna Durbin's best film since It Started with Eve - one of her strongest ever casts and scripts and while the genre is a little untypical she does it well.
You just wish it was better directed - Charles David does a workmanlike job but someone better could have made it sing. (David didn't do that much directing). He later married Durbin becoming her third and longest lasting husband - the producer Felix Jackson was her then husband so this must have been an interesting filming.
But he's got a good cinematographer, strong script, excellent cast and the support of a major studio.
After the last few films where Deanna chased after men or was passive it's great to see her with a specific goal here... investigating a murder which she witnessed that no one believes.
Durbin's specialty was playing sensible types so she's not entirely well cast - someone with a bit more ditzy-ness would've been more believable - but she is very winning. She's gorgeous, full of pluck and sings some songs... better known ones here including 'Silent Night' (oddly, to her unseen dad over the phone) and 'Night and Day'.
The support cast is a treat: Ralph Bellamy is excellent (scary at the end), Dan Duryea is always good, George Colouris, Allen Jenkins, Edward Everett Horton... I didn't mind David Bruce as the love interest - he's not as good as say Bob Cummings but it's a fun role, as a mystery writer roped in to help solve the crime, who spends a lot of time falling over, and stuffing up and it's to Bruce's credit that the character still has balls (it's great there's another girl interested in him - all Durbin films should have had this but surprisingly few didn't).
The first third of this I kept wishing David was a better director but the last two thirds it moved at a fair clip and got better and better. It was contrived all the stuff Durbin pretending to be a circus performer but I loved the scenes at the circus. There's movement and action and high spirits. It's one of Durbin's best films.
You just wish it was better directed - Charles David does a workmanlike job but someone better could have made it sing. (David didn't do that much directing). He later married Durbin becoming her third and longest lasting husband - the producer Felix Jackson was her then husband so this must have been an interesting filming.
But he's got a good cinematographer, strong script, excellent cast and the support of a major studio.
After the last few films where Deanna chased after men or was passive it's great to see her with a specific goal here... investigating a murder which she witnessed that no one believes.
Durbin's specialty was playing sensible types so she's not entirely well cast - someone with a bit more ditzy-ness would've been more believable - but she is very winning. She's gorgeous, full of pluck and sings some songs... better known ones here including 'Silent Night' (oddly, to her unseen dad over the phone) and 'Night and Day'.
The support cast is a treat: Ralph Bellamy is excellent (scary at the end), Dan Duryea is always good, George Colouris, Allen Jenkins, Edward Everett Horton... I didn't mind David Bruce as the love interest - he's not as good as say Bob Cummings but it's a fun role, as a mystery writer roped in to help solve the crime, who spends a lot of time falling over, and stuffing up and it's to Bruce's credit that the character still has balls (it's great there's another girl interested in him - all Durbin films should have had this but surprisingly few didn't).
The first third of this I kept wishing David was a better director but the last two thirds it moved at a fair clip and got better and better. It was contrived all the stuff Durbin pretending to be a circus performer but I loved the scenes at the circus. There's movement and action and high spirits. It's one of Durbin's best films.
Movie review -"Can't Help Singing" (1944) **
I sensed this was a stinker - no one seems to say anything good about it - and I was right.
It's main gimmick is that it's Deanne Durbin's sole colour film. It has production value to spare - set in the old west during the gold rush. There's plenty of outfits for Deanna, coaches, camps, horses, townships... but it all feels kind of pointless. I mean the West is pretty in colour but... a musical in the West, I don't know... the money would have been better spent for a comedy at Coney Island or something.
Deanna sings and is blond and is nice. It's a dumb story where she chases soldier David Butler to the West and instead falls for Robert Paige.
There's some comic antics involving Akim Tamiroff and a fellow character actor as con men. Thomas Gomez sort of just pops up at the end. There's no villain, no threat.
Robert Paige is a chunky unexciting romantic lead - not good enough for Deanna. Deanna needed more status - was it too much for Universal to have her go out west to pan for gold or be a sheriff or something? Or be a singer? Her best films were when getting the man was a side plot not the main plot.
The film does get some points for depicting President Polk!
It's main gimmick is that it's Deanne Durbin's sole colour film. It has production value to spare - set in the old west during the gold rush. There's plenty of outfits for Deanna, coaches, camps, horses, townships... but it all feels kind of pointless. I mean the West is pretty in colour but... a musical in the West, I don't know... the money would have been better spent for a comedy at Coney Island or something.
Deanna sings and is blond and is nice. It's a dumb story where she chases soldier David Butler to the West and instead falls for Robert Paige.
There's some comic antics involving Akim Tamiroff and a fellow character actor as con men. Thomas Gomez sort of just pops up at the end. There's no villain, no threat.
Robert Paige is a chunky unexciting romantic lead - not good enough for Deanna. Deanna needed more status - was it too much for Universal to have her go out west to pan for gold or be a sheriff or something? Or be a singer? Her best films were when getting the man was a side plot not the main plot.
The film does get some points for depicting President Polk!
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Movie review - "That Certain Age" (1938) ***
Deanna Durbin gets a crush on Melvyn Douglas but basically just bangs her head against a wall for 90 minutes which isn't that satisfying, although it's all sensitively handled and the star is in excellent form. Douglas is good too.
There's some sweet teen atmosphere - Durbin is putting on a play with some scouts. Her kind of boyfriend is Jackie Cooper who looks like a middle aged man already so isn't really a threat for Douglas.
It is sensitively handled, well acted - liked the troublesome little girl. There's not much of a story - Durbin is keen on Douglas, he's never going to do anything about it... she realises it's silly, the ending. I guess it's okay. It absolutely passes the time and is very simple. It just needed a subplot. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett did some work on the script reportedly.
There's some sweet teen atmosphere - Durbin is putting on a play with some scouts. Her kind of boyfriend is Jackie Cooper who looks like a middle aged man already so isn't really a threat for Douglas.
It is sensitively handled, well acted - liked the troublesome little girl. There's not much of a story - Durbin is keen on Douglas, he's never going to do anything about it... she realises it's silly, the ending. I guess it's okay. It absolutely passes the time and is very simple. It just needed a subplot. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett did some work on the script reportedly.
Movie review - "His Butler's Sister" (1943) ***
In Nice Girl? Deanna Durbin chased after Franchot Tone but he turned her down because she was too young - but now they're together and it feels slightly ick because he is old enough to be her father. But Tone can act and Durbin is very good - she totally commits to being into Tone, and you go with it for her.
The plot of this isn't bad - Durbin's brother Pat O'Brien is a butler to Broadway producer Tone and Durbin gets a job there as a maid to impress Tone with her singing. The execution is wonkier - there's a lot of contrived misunderstandings, with Tone not finding out Durbin is a singer and O'Brien's sister until appropriate points in unbelievable ways.
It's actually a return to form for Durbin after her dodgy last few movies. It has a strong atmosphere (it's set in a never never land of rich Broadway producers and their butlers - cutely there's a screen scroll at the beginning saying "we know there's a war on this is set before the war"). Lovely support from the maid and the various butlers in the building who all adore Durbin, including Akim Tamiroff.
The director was Frank Borzage and the film benefits from his skill and sensitivity. The musical interludes are well done, it looks good, Durbin is beautiful.
A surprise weakness is the Pat O'Brien part. His acting is fine but I didn't buy it that he barely remembered Durbin and I didn't like him for getting her sacked, and then liking her after she learned to sing. Really this person should have been an uncle and played by some old loveable character or something. The heart of Durbin films were often her relationship with a father figure - this should have been the one here, but it feels cold.
Still, as I said, better than her previous two movies - her best since losing Joe Pasternak.
The plot of this isn't bad - Durbin's brother Pat O'Brien is a butler to Broadway producer Tone and Durbin gets a job there as a maid to impress Tone with her singing. The execution is wonkier - there's a lot of contrived misunderstandings, with Tone not finding out Durbin is a singer and O'Brien's sister until appropriate points in unbelievable ways.
It's actually a return to form for Durbin after her dodgy last few movies. It has a strong atmosphere (it's set in a never never land of rich Broadway producers and their butlers - cutely there's a screen scroll at the beginning saying "we know there's a war on this is set before the war"). Lovely support from the maid and the various butlers in the building who all adore Durbin, including Akim Tamiroff.
The director was Frank Borzage and the film benefits from his skill and sensitivity. The musical interludes are well done, it looks good, Durbin is beautiful.
A surprise weakness is the Pat O'Brien part. His acting is fine but I didn't buy it that he barely remembered Durbin and I didn't like him for getting her sacked, and then liking her after she learned to sing. Really this person should have been an uncle and played by some old loveable character or something. The heart of Durbin films were often her relationship with a father figure - this should have been the one here, but it feels cold.
Still, as I said, better than her previous two movies - her best since losing Joe Pasternak.
Monday, September 23, 2019
Movie review - "Spring Parade" (1940) **1/2
This gets off to a wonky start with Durbin in a milk maid outfit taking a cow to market in Old Time Vienna. It took me a while to adjust to this never never land Austria, with its bands and army and milk maids and bakers.
Durbin goes to live with baker S Z Sakall and falls for an army officer who wants to be a composer - Bob Cummings, one of Durbin's best co stars. He has a big role here and is deal - bright, charming.
The plot has him more interested in a girl who lives at Sakal, Anne Gwynne. Durbin thinks he wants her and is upset when she realises she's wrong. There's some light misunderstandings, and Durbin tries to help his career with Emperor Franz Joseph I played by Henry Stephenson.
This whole film feels as though producer Joe Pasternak couldn't wait to go back to old Austria and Universal caved and let him do this.
Some dancing and singing and music. It was okay.
Durbin goes to live with baker S Z Sakall and falls for an army officer who wants to be a composer - Bob Cummings, one of Durbin's best co stars. He has a big role here and is deal - bright, charming.
The plot has him more interested in a girl who lives at Sakal, Anne Gwynne. Durbin thinks he wants her and is upset when she realises she's wrong. There's some light misunderstandings, and Durbin tries to help his career with Emperor Franz Joseph I played by Henry Stephenson.
This whole film feels as though producer Joe Pasternak couldn't wait to go back to old Austria and Universal caved and let him do this.
Some dancing and singing and music. It was okay.
Movie review - "Hers to Hold" (1943) **
This is a sequel to Three Smart Girls Grow Up - it was to be called Three Smart Girls Join Up which would have been fun. I know they partnered off two of the girls but they could have made one or two a widow so they could romance. They could have focused the romance on Durbin anyway.
Instead it's just her - her sisters are referred to, we see her parents and the butler, and they watch home movies of footage from the earlier movie. But this isn't good. And they should have made it an original because references to the earlier films just make you realise how better they were and how bad this is.
It starts badly with Joseph Cotten as the leading man - he's charming and all that but he was pushing 40 and Durbin was in her early 20s. I didn't like him pretending to be a doctor to get her address (she should be part of any deception it makes her passive otherwise), and hated that he kissed her without permission and held her hands so she wouldn't slap him. Then he turns up at a dinner ball thing and pretends to be a doctor to non hilarious results and kisses her without permission again.
Durbin is likeable and brisk as always, very pretty, wearing nice gowns. But her spark is less because she's not active. I wonder if Universal kept distracting her with clothes.
The film tries to contrast Durbin's high society world with down to earth Cotten and his mates - but Cotten is a natural aristocrat, that doesn't work, no matter how much gum Cotten chews. But she falls in love.
Around 35 mins in Durbin joins an aircraft factory to be near Cotten. This should have been the start of a movie - or the topic - she shouldn't have joined it for him. She spends most of her work thinking about Cotten and chasing him and it doesn't make sense because she's so sensible.
I wonder if they talked Durbin into this by giving her the prestige of Cotten as a leading man and getting her to play a grown up, who is sexually keen - but it's not fun. Cotten's comic sidekick isn't funny. I didn't like Durbin and Cotten.
There is some interesting vision of work at a munitions factory - this should have been the movie. The girl whose pilot husband dies - that could have been one of the sisters.
What a waste.
Instead it's just her - her sisters are referred to, we see her parents and the butler, and they watch home movies of footage from the earlier movie. But this isn't good. And they should have made it an original because references to the earlier films just make you realise how better they were and how bad this is.
It starts badly with Joseph Cotten as the leading man - he's charming and all that but he was pushing 40 and Durbin was in her early 20s. I didn't like him pretending to be a doctor to get her address (she should be part of any deception it makes her passive otherwise), and hated that he kissed her without permission and held her hands so she wouldn't slap him. Then he turns up at a dinner ball thing and pretends to be a doctor to non hilarious results and kisses her without permission again.
Durbin is likeable and brisk as always, very pretty, wearing nice gowns. But her spark is less because she's not active. I wonder if Universal kept distracting her with clothes.
The film tries to contrast Durbin's high society world with down to earth Cotten and his mates - but Cotten is a natural aristocrat, that doesn't work, no matter how much gum Cotten chews. But she falls in love.
Around 35 mins in Durbin joins an aircraft factory to be near Cotten. This should have been the start of a movie - or the topic - she shouldn't have joined it for him. She spends most of her work thinking about Cotten and chasing him and it doesn't make sense because she's so sensible.
I wonder if they talked Durbin into this by giving her the prestige of Cotten as a leading man and getting her to play a grown up, who is sexually keen - but it's not fun. Cotten's comic sidekick isn't funny. I didn't like Durbin and Cotten.
There is some interesting vision of work at a munitions factory - this should have been the movie. The girl whose pilot husband dies - that could have been one of the sisters.
What a waste.
Movie review - "Skirts Ahoy" (1952) **1/2
This MGM musical doesn't really have the star power to go over, it feels haphazard in the way some of them did under Dore Schary, but is full of so many song and dance acts it is endearing.
It's also surprisingly feminist - not overly, there's a song 'What Use is a Girl without a Guy'. but it is about three girls who join the army and want to stand on their own feet; Joan Evans gets rid of her patronising fiancee and Esther Williams chases Barry Sullivan.
The actors aren't up to it. Well Esther Williams is likeable - she has a nice presence - and throws herself into singing and dancing. It's a real musical number for her - it feels conceived for someone else and then she's put in it. She does a little bit in the pool but not much.
Joan Evans was groomed for stardom by Sam Goldwyn but she's bland. Vivian Blaine was a hit on Guys and Dolls but is too broad - at least she can sing and dance. Barry Sullivan is dull and I can't recall who the other guys were and I just saw the movie. I wish they'd gotten singer/dancers in the Evans and Sullivan roles. Sullivan plays an over age prat who is smug about women. Esther would have been better off without him.
Debbie Reynolds has a cameo and you wish she played one of the girls. Keenan Wynn had a cameo - he should have played Blaine's love interest.
It has colour and movement and some funny gags. I didn't mind it.
It's also surprisingly feminist - not overly, there's a song 'What Use is a Girl without a Guy'. but it is about three girls who join the army and want to stand on their own feet; Joan Evans gets rid of her patronising fiancee and Esther Williams chases Barry Sullivan.
The actors aren't up to it. Well Esther Williams is likeable - she has a nice presence - and throws herself into singing and dancing. It's a real musical number for her - it feels conceived for someone else and then she's put in it. She does a little bit in the pool but not much.
Joan Evans was groomed for stardom by Sam Goldwyn but she's bland. Vivian Blaine was a hit on Guys and Dolls but is too broad - at least she can sing and dance. Barry Sullivan is dull and I can't recall who the other guys were and I just saw the movie. I wish they'd gotten singer/dancers in the Evans and Sullivan roles. Sullivan plays an over age prat who is smug about women. Esther would have been better off without him.
Debbie Reynolds has a cameo and you wish she played one of the girls. Keenan Wynn had a cameo - he should have played Blaine's love interest.
It has colour and movement and some funny gags. I didn't mind it.
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Movie review - "The Amazing Mrs Holliday" (1943) **
Durbin's first film at Universal after the departure of Joe Pasternak. She's more grown up here, playing a teacher, but it's still a young ish part - she's the daughter of a missionary in China who smuggles some war orphans into the US. She pretends to be married to a rich man killed on the trip over to the orphans are helped.
It's weird to see Edmond O'Brien skinny as the leading man - after the war he'd eat himself out of these sort of roles. He can act but he still feels miscast - he feels too old though he was only late 20s at the time. It's also because I was unsure of what sort of character he plays. He should have been someone stuffy.
The orphans are cute - one of them is Australian, only one is Chinese. I thought they'd do more in the film - I feel there's maybe too many of them whereas only two or three.
It's not a very good movie. They try to veer away from what this piece should be - cute stuff with orphans melting hearts (what happens to the old ladies at the start? they're barely in it) and shenanigans with the deception. There's no villain. No threat. No fun. The guy she pretended to marry should have been villainous and/or sexy - a threat to O'Brien and Durbin. This is all basic stuff - Norman Krasna wouldn't have had any trouble.
It's all done sensitively - it's just not very fun. Jean Renoir apparently directed it and was fired. He dodged a bullet.
It's weird to see Edmond O'Brien skinny as the leading man - after the war he'd eat himself out of these sort of roles. He can act but he still feels miscast - he feels too old though he was only late 20s at the time. It's also because I was unsure of what sort of character he plays. He should have been someone stuffy.
The orphans are cute - one of them is Australian, only one is Chinese. I thought they'd do more in the film - I feel there's maybe too many of them whereas only two or three.
It's not a very good movie. They try to veer away from what this piece should be - cute stuff with orphans melting hearts (what happens to the old ladies at the start? they're barely in it) and shenanigans with the deception. There's no villain. No threat. No fun. The guy she pretended to marry should have been villainous and/or sexy - a threat to O'Brien and Durbin. This is all basic stuff - Norman Krasna wouldn't have had any trouble.
It's all done sensitively - it's just not very fun. Jean Renoir apparently directed it and was fired. He dodged a bullet.
Movi review - "Nice Girl?" (1941) ***
Sooner or later with child stars the same problem happens - when can you start showing them rooting? Universal took their time with Deanna Durbin - they were probably over cautious because she seemed so mature and grew up looking hot. She was 20 at the time of this, and seems old enough to have a crack at Franchot Tone (especially as so many male stars were romantically matched with women young enough to be their daughters)... but because she was Our Deanna they didn't go there here.
She plays the daughter of a professor, Robert Benchley (quite good) who is ignored by car crazy boyfriend Robert Stack so tries to seduce Benchley's associate Franchot Tone... who has spent time in Australia living with the pygmies. (For whatever reason there were often references to Australia in early Deanna Durbin films - Ray Milland in Three Smart Girls came from there).
Durbin has two sisters, a throw back to Three Smart Girls - a precocious one who has two kids fighting over her, and an elder pretty sister (Anne Gwynne) who just sort of hangs around and doesn't do much. There's also a gossipy maid who gets fondled by the postie (Walter Brennan).
Most of this is small town Americana stuff - Deanna does Andy Hardy and quite sweet. Stack is handsome and dopey which is what he's required to be. He's still more relaxed than he'd later become - he stiffened up as he went on.
It's not really much of a story - they spin it out a bit by having people think Durbin and Tone are engaged, and Durbin lies they are to annoy Stack, and then they have to get out of it, but it's very easy. The misunderstandings are contrived.
But it is quite sweet. Durbin looks grown up and quite sexy so honestly part of me was thinking Tone should have a crack.
She sings 'There Will Always Be an England' at the end of this.
She plays the daughter of a professor, Robert Benchley (quite good) who is ignored by car crazy boyfriend Robert Stack so tries to seduce Benchley's associate Franchot Tone... who has spent time in Australia living with the pygmies. (For whatever reason there were often references to Australia in early Deanna Durbin films - Ray Milland in Three Smart Girls came from there).
Durbin has two sisters, a throw back to Three Smart Girls - a precocious one who has two kids fighting over her, and an elder pretty sister (Anne Gwynne) who just sort of hangs around and doesn't do much. There's also a gossipy maid who gets fondled by the postie (Walter Brennan).
Most of this is small town Americana stuff - Deanna does Andy Hardy and quite sweet. Stack is handsome and dopey which is what he's required to be. He's still more relaxed than he'd later become - he stiffened up as he went on.
It's not really much of a story - they spin it out a bit by having people think Durbin and Tone are engaged, and Durbin lies they are to annoy Stack, and then they have to get out of it, but it's very easy. The misunderstandings are contrived.
But it is quite sweet. Durbin looks grown up and quite sexy so honestly part of me was thinking Tone should have a crack.
She sings 'There Will Always Be an England' at the end of this.
Book review - Travis McGee#9 - "Pale Gray for Guilt" by John D. MacDonald
I'm struggling to get through these McGee novels now. The set up is great - McGee avenging the supposed suicide of an old friend - but the bulk of this is dull real estate talk with a sting from McGee and the dull, smug Meyer. The ending is good with another exciting action scene on the boat and there is some decent description of small towns in Florida. But the middle section was hard for me.
He has a girlfriend Puss who hangs around and disappears - it turns out she thought she was going to die, so rooted McGee to feel better, then got better and... anyway I just wish she was more involved in the plot. He doesn't have sex with the grieving widow and gets high fives for it.
He has a girlfriend Puss who hangs around and disappears - it turns out she thought she was going to die, so rooted McGee to feel better, then got better and... anyway I just wish she was more involved in the plot. He doesn't have sex with the grieving widow and gets high fives for it.
TV review - "Unbelieveable" (2019) ****1/2
A TV drama about rape doesn't sound, to me at least, that exciting - I'm sorry, it just sounds depressing, but this is so incredibly well done. It's a fantastic true story and is superbly executed - the opening episode of the victim having to constantly re-tell her story, and not being believed, then the subsequent investigation.
The lack of belief in rape victims wasn't shocking - just as Pauline Hanson - but the fact police stations didn't talk to each other was. Seriously? In this internet age?
Superb acting though Toni Collette needed to be reigned in a bit more - when she meets Merrit Weaver for instance, she pays no notice to the character which I think is meant to be "in character" but doesn't feel real - she could have gotten all that movement into the scene without never even looking at her.
Also there's a lot of head tilting acting going on but that's unavoidable in cop shows I guess.
Gripping stuff.
The lack of belief in rape victims wasn't shocking - just as Pauline Hanson - but the fact police stations didn't talk to each other was. Seriously? In this internet age?
Superb acting though Toni Collette needed to be reigned in a bit more - when she meets Merrit Weaver for instance, she pays no notice to the character which I think is meant to be "in character" but doesn't feel real - she could have gotten all that movement into the scene without never even looking at her.
Also there's a lot of head tilting acting going on but that's unavoidable in cop shows I guess.
Gripping stuff.
Saturday, September 21, 2019
Movie review - "First Love" (1939) ***1/2
Joe Pasternak and Deanna Durbin do the Cinderella story and it's very charming with the star in excellent form as a girl who goes from a happy boarding school existence to live with her uncle (Eugene Palette). He's a distracted rich dude, his wife is an airhead into astrology, his son is a lazy drunk and his daughter (Helen Parrish) is a spoilt brat who makes her life hell. The staff love her though and help her have a romantic night out - Robert Stack is Prince Charming.
For the most part this is a charming, sensitive fable, well handled with lots of lovely bits. Stack is second billed but his role isn't very big - he only gets a few scenes (at the end he just rocks up).
The key relationship again is between Durbin and a father figure, in this case Pallette. Again, he's a neglectful guy who Durbin helps see the error of his ways, which is sweet. It's not so sweet that this results in him violently tearing down his wife's astrology charts and throwing them in the fire and yelling at her, and beating his daughter with a hairbrush. I get they want the worm to turn but does it have to be so violent?
Very well handled. Good acting - Stack is more lively than he would become later. Like many early Durbin's the finale has her sing and the key action played out visually. Cute stuff with an old maid teacher bursting into tears at the end - I loved how Durbin hugged her fiercely early on. I wish there'd been a bigger role for Marcia Mae Jones as her friend.
For the most part this is a charming, sensitive fable, well handled with lots of lovely bits. Stack is second billed but his role isn't very big - he only gets a few scenes (at the end he just rocks up).
The key relationship again is between Durbin and a father figure, in this case Pallette. Again, he's a neglectful guy who Durbin helps see the error of his ways, which is sweet. It's not so sweet that this results in him violently tearing down his wife's astrology charts and throwing them in the fire and yelling at her, and beating his daughter with a hairbrush. I get they want the worm to turn but does it have to be so violent?
Very well handled. Good acting - Stack is more lively than he would become later. Like many early Durbin's the finale has her sing and the key action played out visually. Cute stuff with an old maid teacher bursting into tears at the end - I loved how Durbin hugged her fiercely early on. I wish there'd been a bigger role for Marcia Mae Jones as her friend.
Movie review - "Three Smart Girls Grow Up" (1938) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)
Deanna Durbin looks so smarted, grown up and sensible at sixteen that when she invites Robert Cummings to a family dinner in this movie, her sisters think she's keen on him and you're thinking "she could have a crack here" because she looks old enough.
But in actual fact she isn't - she's trying to set Cummings up with Helen Parrish who is in love with Nan Grey's fiancee (William Lundigan). That's not a bad set up for a film but the movie has, for me, a few flaws - more time (at least another scene) needed to be spent in the Cummings-Grey romance and on the Lundigan-Parrish romance. I get at the end Grey running off to be with Cummings, but Lundigan calmly accepting a new bride...? On his wedding day....? This isn't 19th century royal Europe.
It's all well acted, very sensitively directed by Henry Koster. Durbin is excellent. Cummings plays a bit of a bohemian than he normally would, a musician with slightly longer hair - but he's charming and very good; it's the second biggest part in the movie.
There's a more serious subplot about Durbin's workaholic father neglecting his kids - most of these early Durbin movies were about her and a father figure. The dad is so absent minded though at times it felt like he had Alzheimers.
But in actual fact she isn't - she's trying to set Cummings up with Helen Parrish who is in love with Nan Grey's fiancee (William Lundigan). That's not a bad set up for a film but the movie has, for me, a few flaws - more time (at least another scene) needed to be spent in the Cummings-Grey romance and on the Lundigan-Parrish romance. I get at the end Grey running off to be with Cummings, but Lundigan calmly accepting a new bride...? On his wedding day....? This isn't 19th century royal Europe.
It's all well acted, very sensitively directed by Henry Koster. Durbin is excellent. Cummings plays a bit of a bohemian than he normally would, a musician with slightly longer hair - but he's charming and very good; it's the second biggest part in the movie.
There's a more serious subplot about Durbin's workaholic father neglecting his kids - most of these early Durbin movies were about her and a father figure. The dad is so absent minded though at times it felt like he had Alzheimers.
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Movie review - "Mad About Music" (1938) ***1/2
This has a Norman Krasna style set up even though Krasna didn't write it... Durbin is a girl at boarding school who can't tell the world her mother is a film star, so she makes up stories about her dad. Her class mates don't believe her so she plucks out Herbert Marshall to play the role.
It's quite sweet and well done, helped by the charm of Durbin, who is remarkably unannoying. Marshall is fine too - the crux of the film is their relationship (most early Durbin films were about her and a father figure, off the back of the intensity of the scene between her and Charles Winninger in Three Smart Girls).
She sings some well known tunes including "I love to Whistle" and "Ave Maria" (the latter with the Vienna Boys Choir). There's a sweet puppy romance with an American boy at another boarding school.
There's a serious subtext, about a girl being neglected by her mother, which is very well handled.
There's some excellent support performances from Arthur Treacher (Marshall's shocked valet) and Marcia Mae Jones (Durbin's bug eyed friend). I also liked Helen Parrish as the bitch - she popped up in a few B films. The mother isn't on screen very much which is probably good because otherwise we wouldn't like her.
I'm surprised they didn't devote more time to a romance between mother and Herbert Marshall. They meet, laugh and are sitting next to each other - that's it. Their courtship really should have been act three.
It's quite sweet and well done, helped by the charm of Durbin, who is remarkably unannoying. Marshall is fine too - the crux of the film is their relationship (most early Durbin films were about her and a father figure, off the back of the intensity of the scene between her and Charles Winninger in Three Smart Girls).
She sings some well known tunes including "I love to Whistle" and "Ave Maria" (the latter with the Vienna Boys Choir). There's a sweet puppy romance with an American boy at another boarding school.
There's a serious subtext, about a girl being neglected by her mother, which is very well handled.
There's some excellent support performances from Arthur Treacher (Marshall's shocked valet) and Marcia Mae Jones (Durbin's bug eyed friend). I also liked Helen Parrish as the bitch - she popped up in a few B films. The mother isn't on screen very much which is probably good because otherwise we wouldn't like her.
I'm surprised they didn't devote more time to a romance between mother and Herbert Marshall. They meet, laugh and are sitting next to each other - that's it. Their courtship really should have been act three.
Movie review - "Fiesta" (1947) ***
Esther Williams and Ricardo Montalban play twins - they probably should have played childhood sweethearts so the relationship had som urst.
This was fun. There's location work in Mexico, some dance numbers - including one to 'La Bamba'. Its very colourful and I liked the cast.
It really is Montalban's story - the plot is about his desire to be a musician but dad wants him to be a matador. Williams is his twin sister who in one bit steps into the bull ring for him which is quite progressive. But that apart she doesn't do that much - she's got a boyfriend John Carrroll so doesn't even fall in love on screen. Cyd Charisse is Montalban's love but they don't fall in love either.
This really needed to be a love story between Williams and Montalban to give her something to do - as it is, it kind of looks like she's into him. She only does a little bit of singing by the way.
Mary Astor plays the mother of Williams and Montalban.
This was fun. There's location work in Mexico, some dance numbers - including one to 'La Bamba'. Its very colourful and I liked the cast.
It really is Montalban's story - the plot is about his desire to be a musician but dad wants him to be a matador. Williams is his twin sister who in one bit steps into the bull ring for him which is quite progressive. But that apart she doesn't do that much - she's got a boyfriend John Carrroll so doesn't even fall in love on screen. Cyd Charisse is Montalban's love but they don't fall in love either.
This really needed to be a love story between Williams and Montalban to give her something to do - as it is, it kind of looks like she's into him. She only does a little bit of singing by the way.
Mary Astor plays the mother of Williams and Montalban.
Book review - "Baby Don't Hurt Me" by Chris Kattan
Saturday Night Live wasn't on network TV in Australia when I was growing up so we were mostly aware of it from movies made with SNL stars. I remember seeing the trailer for Corky Romano with Chris Kattan and knowing nothing about it but that wasn't unusual - we'd had Chris Farley and Mark Myer and Adam Sandler movies foisted on us.
Kattan didn't become a movie star though he had a few chances - Corky and A Night at the Roxbury and Undercover Brother. That's more than a lot of them get. From clips I've seen Kattan was an energetic very physical performer who liked to pull faces - the sort of comic that doesn't age well, physically I mean, though he's no orphan on that score. He became hooked on drugs and blames this on a neck injury - that's not surprising, it happened to Jerry Lewis, though it's clear from the book Kattan had other issues. He was needy, didn't always handle fame well, was chronically insecure about his career.
Kattan talks a lot about the origin of characters like the Roxbury guys and Mr Peepers which is only going to mean anything if you know them. He had a mixed relationship with the show - it gave him fame, his only real fame (he's done some stuff since then but none of it has really broken through). He quit the show, seems to regret it, has doubts, wonders about his place on the show, etc. Lorne Michaels has seen them come and go.
Mind you what could he have done once his films didn't do that well? Probably stayed on the show and tried another film, maybe. But his drug habit would have made that too tricky.
He was a pants man. He dated Zooey Deschenal, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Coolidge, the red haired girl from Clueless. He also had a fling with Amy Heckerling. This is the most interesting part of the book no matter how indiscreet. He also talks about his friendship with Will Ferrell, who formally ended their friendship by taking him aside and ending it.
It's a really fascinating read.
Kattan didn't become a movie star though he had a few chances - Corky and A Night at the Roxbury and Undercover Brother. That's more than a lot of them get. From clips I've seen Kattan was an energetic very physical performer who liked to pull faces - the sort of comic that doesn't age well, physically I mean, though he's no orphan on that score. He became hooked on drugs and blames this on a neck injury - that's not surprising, it happened to Jerry Lewis, though it's clear from the book Kattan had other issues. He was needy, didn't always handle fame well, was chronically insecure about his career.
Kattan talks a lot about the origin of characters like the Roxbury guys and Mr Peepers which is only going to mean anything if you know them. He had a mixed relationship with the show - it gave him fame, his only real fame (he's done some stuff since then but none of it has really broken through). He quit the show, seems to regret it, has doubts, wonders about his place on the show, etc. Lorne Michaels has seen them come and go.
Mind you what could he have done once his films didn't do that well? Probably stayed on the show and tried another film, maybe. But his drug habit would have made that too tricky.
He was a pants man. He dated Zooey Deschenal, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Coolidge, the red haired girl from Clueless. He also had a fling with Amy Heckerling. This is the most interesting part of the book no matter how indiscreet. He also talks about his friendship with Will Ferrell, who formally ended their friendship by taking him aside and ending it.
It's a really fascinating read.
Monday, September 16, 2019
Movie review - "One Hundred Men and a Girl" (1937) ***1/2
Sweet film with a simple idea - Deanna Durbin tries to get her unemployed musician father Adolphe Menjou some work so comes up with the idea of an orchestra of unemployed musicians conducted by some guy who was famous at the time.
The film lacked a villain and a third act twist; I also would have liked a little romance and was surprised none was put in.
But production values are high, there's plenty of music, Durbin is sweet but unaffecting and there are some solid character types in there like Eugene Pallette and Mischa Auer.
The film lacked a villain and a third act twist; I also would have liked a little romance and was surprised none was put in.
But production values are high, there's plenty of music, Durbin is sweet but unaffecting and there are some solid character types in there like Eugene Pallette and Mischa Auer.
Movie review - "Southern Comfort" (1981) ****
This looks even better than it did when I first saw in, in part because in this era of CGI and digital something shot in film on location seems so amazing.
The Louisiana National Guard seem terrible - lazy, lacking discipline, full of idiots, insubordinate. It does feel realistic though!
The core of the movie is a bromance between Keith Carradine and Powers Booth - two people totally unlike (Carradine's a party boy who's arranged whores, cheerful, snappy; Booth is a brooding loner who loves his wife and quiet time) who drift together because they're the only ones with any brains. This is very well done relationship - it evolves slowly, believably, and is superbly acted (they don't even become great mates, if I'm not mistaken Carradine at the end runs away leaving Boothe bleeding on the floor!) - it gives it a heart that's present in the great Hill films (eg Charles Bronson and James Coburn in Hard Times, Michael Pare and Diane Lane in Streets of Fire - it's not there in The Driver).
Maybe that's unfair about them being the only smart ones... Casper isn't dumb, just over officious. I guess he does charge off like an idiot at the end. The guy who's with him wasn't dumb - he just had bad lucky.
It's very well acted - people like Fred Ward and Brion James have showier parts but everyone is good. The Cajuns are scary.
The sequence at the end where they are at a Cajun village full of people, "safe" but not really, is immensely scary. Great last shot.
The Louisiana National Guard seem terrible - lazy, lacking discipline, full of idiots, insubordinate. It does feel realistic though!
The core of the movie is a bromance between Keith Carradine and Powers Booth - two people totally unlike (Carradine's a party boy who's arranged whores, cheerful, snappy; Booth is a brooding loner who loves his wife and quiet time) who drift together because they're the only ones with any brains. This is very well done relationship - it evolves slowly, believably, and is superbly acted (they don't even become great mates, if I'm not mistaken Carradine at the end runs away leaving Boothe bleeding on the floor!) - it gives it a heart that's present in the great Hill films (eg Charles Bronson and James Coburn in Hard Times, Michael Pare and Diane Lane in Streets of Fire - it's not there in The Driver).
Maybe that's unfair about them being the only smart ones... Casper isn't dumb, just over officious. I guess he does charge off like an idiot at the end. The guy who's with him wasn't dumb - he just had bad lucky.
It's very well acted - people like Fred Ward and Brion James have showier parts but everyone is good. The Cajuns are scary.
The sequence at the end where they are at a Cajun village full of people, "safe" but not really, is immensely scary. Great last shot.
Movie review - "The Golden Hawk" (1952) **
Swashbuckler from Sam Katzman which has a decent budget and strong story but is almost sunk by the miscasting of Sterling Hayden as the hero. I know Hayden was a real life hero into boats and stuff but he just looks too weird as a French privateer. There's something too American and contemporary about his appearance.
The film is notable for having two decent female roles. Rhonda Fleming has the time of her life as a woman who is a pirate and pretends to be a lady and she's doing it for her property - she flashes her bare back, dives in the water, fights with swords, flirts, slaps hands (Hayden is a bit rapey as per the convention of leading men at the time).
There's also Helena Carter in an unconvincing black wig as a Spanish lady who eyes off Hayden and wants him but is engaged to drip John Sutton - Hayden's dad! Part of me wishes Carter had Fleming's role - she's got more spirit, but Fleming is fine.
Still, the film didn't quite work for me. The story didn't build or something - it lacked momentum. I wanted more excitement. Maybe it was Hayden and Sutton who wrecked it. Anyways, it looks good.
The film is notable for having two decent female roles. Rhonda Fleming has the time of her life as a woman who is a pirate and pretends to be a lady and she's doing it for her property - she flashes her bare back, dives in the water, fights with swords, flirts, slaps hands (Hayden is a bit rapey as per the convention of leading men at the time).
There's also Helena Carter in an unconvincing black wig as a Spanish lady who eyes off Hayden and wants him but is engaged to drip John Sutton - Hayden's dad! Part of me wishes Carter had Fleming's role - she's got more spirit, but Fleming is fine.
Still, the film didn't quite work for me. The story didn't build or something - it lacked momentum. I wanted more excitement. Maybe it was Hayden and Sutton who wrecked it. Anyways, it looks good.
Movie review - "Late Night" (2019) ****
A film with a lot going for it - the acting is first rate, so is the writing, the love triangle is well done, the characters are likeable, the supporting characters well defined.
With one thing...
There just aren't any women hosts on late night that have been around for years. I mean, none. Joan Rivers did a bit. Samantha Bee is on cable now. But no one like Emma Thompson.
So this film has a big flaw in the middle - a lack of believability.
It's frustrating because the rest is so good. I did get over it and enjoyed the movie... but would get dragged back to the believability factor.
With one thing...
There just aren't any women hosts on late night that have been around for years. I mean, none. Joan Rivers did a bit. Samantha Bee is on cable now. But no one like Emma Thompson.
So this film has a big flaw in the middle - a lack of believability.
It's frustrating because the rest is so good. I did get over it and enjoyed the movie... but would get dragged back to the believability factor.
Movie review - "Easy to Wed" (1946) ***
In the 1950s MGM would go nuts remaking their earlier hits in color but they were already at it in 1946, adding colour and songs to Libeled Lady.
This one has a B grade cast - not in terms of box office draw or acting talent but in terms of star charisma. Van Johnson was hugely popular at the time - he's not as skilled as Bill Powell but is amiable and cheerful; he never seems too sleazy, possibly because he was gay in real life but that might just be his acting. In real life Johnson was best friends with Keenan Wynn and Wynn divorced his wife so Johnson could have a beard so it's fun to see them as friends here with Johnson pretending to go out with Lucile Ball...
It's so Johnson can pursue Esther Williams and get to to stop suing Wynn's paper. Wynn is a solid character actor but not a star; Williams is a star, in the water, and doesn't spend that much time in the water here - she really should have. She is pretty, with a strong athletic body (she's sunning herself in her first scene) and tries She's okay just not Myrna Loy.
Lucille Ball looks gorgeous in colour in some scenes and has her moments but she's not Jean Harlow. Wynn isn't Spencer Tracy. (I think Wynn is better as a villain or in more broadly comic parts).
There's some musical numbers but not a lot. Maybe it needed more.This started off well, I went with it, but got more of a strain the longer it went on - it stuck too close to the original, and I found myself wishing I was watching that.
Buster Keaton added some gags for the film. The colour is nice.
This one has a B grade cast - not in terms of box office draw or acting talent but in terms of star charisma. Van Johnson was hugely popular at the time - he's not as skilled as Bill Powell but is amiable and cheerful; he never seems too sleazy, possibly because he was gay in real life but that might just be his acting. In real life Johnson was best friends with Keenan Wynn and Wynn divorced his wife so Johnson could have a beard so it's fun to see them as friends here with Johnson pretending to go out with Lucile Ball...
It's so Johnson can pursue Esther Williams and get to to stop suing Wynn's paper. Wynn is a solid character actor but not a star; Williams is a star, in the water, and doesn't spend that much time in the water here - she really should have. She is pretty, with a strong athletic body (she's sunning herself in her first scene) and tries She's okay just not Myrna Loy.
Lucille Ball looks gorgeous in colour in some scenes and has her moments but she's not Jean Harlow. Wynn isn't Spencer Tracy. (I think Wynn is better as a villain or in more broadly comic parts).
There's some musical numbers but not a lot. Maybe it needed more.This started off well, I went with it, but got more of a strain the longer it went on - it stuck too close to the original, and I found myself wishing I was watching that.
Buster Keaton added some gags for the film. The colour is nice.
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Movie review - "Dirty Mary Crazy Larry" (1974) ** (warning: spoilers)
A big hit at the time -this was from Jim Nicholson, who was going to make it for his new post-AIP company. He died before filming began.
It's a 70s car chase movie so has a nihilistic tone and some cool cars. Peter Fonda looks groovy as the robber in cahoots with Adam Roarke. I always thought this was a Fonda-Susan George film but really it's about a trio - Roarke is with them the whole way! As Edgar Wright says the title should really include his character's name.
Roarke starts the film busting a girl in a shower and tying up her and her daughter who are both terrified - to blackmail Roddy McDowall into giving Fonda money. So I didn't like Roarke or Fonda much. I did like sexy sulky Susan George getting in their car without knowing what was going on.
But these aren't terribly interesting people having interesting adventures. Vic Morrow glowers in the seat of a helicopter or behind a desk. It quite like the shock ending where they died all ploughing into a train but really Roarke should have died earlier to give this some extra kick.
A big hit when it came out - one of Fonda's most successful movies.
Movie review - "Three Smart Girls" (1936) ***1/2
Really sweet film with a simple premise that I'm surprised hasn't been more remade: three girls find out their father is marrying a gold digger and set out to get him back. Really mother should go along but she is kept back in Europe - probably good idea since she's a bit dull.
Their main plan involves getting a gigolo to seduce the gold digger which is fun - only they accidentally get a genuinely rich guy, Ray Milland, whose family "own half of Australia". Milland plays a lord but I guess he's... an Australian lord?
It's really sweet and fun. Deanna Durbin was the X factor and she's charming - I don't like her singing (the genre not the ability, she's obviously very good) but there's not too much of it. She is bright and sparky and full of fun and is wonderful getting that final close up, delighted at her reunited parents.
Her sisters don't have her star power but they are fun too - Nan Grey and Barbara Read. Actually the whole cast is very strong - Mischa Auer as the genuine gigolo, Ray Milland (stepping in for Louis Hayward who was sick a few days into filming), Binnie Barnes as the gold digger, Alice Brady as her even greedier mother, Charles Winninger as the dad (the film is really a love story between Durbin and him).
They probably could have added another complication or two but this is lovely and it's no surprise it became a big hit.
Their main plan involves getting a gigolo to seduce the gold digger which is fun - only they accidentally get a genuinely rich guy, Ray Milland, whose family "own half of Australia". Milland plays a lord but I guess he's... an Australian lord?
It's really sweet and fun. Deanna Durbin was the X factor and she's charming - I don't like her singing (the genre not the ability, she's obviously very good) but there's not too much of it. She is bright and sparky and full of fun and is wonderful getting that final close up, delighted at her reunited parents.
Her sisters don't have her star power but they are fun too - Nan Grey and Barbara Read. Actually the whole cast is very strong - Mischa Auer as the genuine gigolo, Ray Milland (stepping in for Louis Hayward who was sick a few days into filming), Binnie Barnes as the gold digger, Alice Brady as her even greedier mother, Charles Winninger as the dad (the film is really a love story between Durbin and him).
They probably could have added another complication or two but this is lovely and it's no surprise it became a big hit.
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Movie review - "Freebie and the Bean" (1974) **1/2
Buddy comedy beloved by people who love the 70s - full of hyuck hyuck hyuck, talk about "spics" and "fags", women are sluts and nags and transvestites.
The direction by Richard Rush is very interesting - it's full of movement and action, and the acting is good across the board. I was particularly impressed by the action sequences - interrogating a man on top of a building (James Caan looks terrified), a shoot out in a dentists office, a fight in a packed female toilet. The car chases were more familiar but the whole movie has this real "oh my goodness they just went and shot this" feel about it.
Caan and Arkin are both excellent and have superb chemistry - I'm surprised they never reteamed. Or maybe they were too annoying on this one. It's one of Caan's best roles, suits him to a tee as a hung ho cop always justifying his corruption. It's a very morally ambigious movie - I mean our heroes shoot someone dead in a toilet when he's unarmed. He is a hitman but still.
It's a buddy comedy that claims to have invented the form - surely not, not even for cops.
I'm not wild about this sort of movie but I did like the acting, the look of it, some of the action. Jeez the seventies were nihilistic.
The direction by Richard Rush is very interesting - it's full of movement and action, and the acting is good across the board. I was particularly impressed by the action sequences - interrogating a man on top of a building (James Caan looks terrified), a shoot out in a dentists office, a fight in a packed female toilet. The car chases were more familiar but the whole movie has this real "oh my goodness they just went and shot this" feel about it.
Caan and Arkin are both excellent and have superb chemistry - I'm surprised they never reteamed. Or maybe they were too annoying on this one. It's one of Caan's best roles, suits him to a tee as a hung ho cop always justifying his corruption. It's a very morally ambigious movie - I mean our heroes shoot someone dead in a toilet when he's unarmed. He is a hitman but still.
It's a buddy comedy that claims to have invented the form - surely not, not even for cops.
I'm not wild about this sort of movie but I did like the acting, the look of it, some of the action. Jeez the seventies were nihilistic.
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Movie review - "Wild Bill" (1995) **1/2
I remember hating the script for this but watching the film it was a lot better. There are jazzy visuals - flashbacks, black and white stuff - but most of all a really superb cast. Jeff Bridges is a strong Bill, Ellen Barkin a superb Calamity Jane, John Hurt fine, good turns from James Remar, James Gammon, Diane Lane. Donna from West Wing pops up.
Hill shoves in tricks to keep the viewer interested - lots of Hickok's shoot outs at the beginning,
It does get annoying that David Arquette kept trying to kill Hickok and not going through with it and people hanging around a bar - the stage origins of the piece are most notable here.
Christina Applegate's character felt under ulitised.
I'm still not quite sure what the point of it is - I'm sure Hill could explain it eloquently in an interview but he doesn't do it via his film. It's amazing this was made. It's so arty.
It's very 90s in many ways - flashbacks to spiritual indians, having opium. Still, I didn't mind it as much as I thought I would.
Hill shoves in tricks to keep the viewer interested - lots of Hickok's shoot outs at the beginning,
It does get annoying that David Arquette kept trying to kill Hickok and not going through with it and people hanging around a bar - the stage origins of the piece are most notable here.
Christina Applegate's character felt under ulitised.
I'm still not quite sure what the point of it is - I'm sure Hill could explain it eloquently in an interview but he doesn't do it via his film. It's amazing this was made. It's so arty.
It's very 90s in many ways - flashbacks to spiritual indians, having opium. Still, I didn't mind it as much as I thought I would.
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Movie review - "Stunts" (1977) **
Stuntmen became all the rage in the late 70s with films like Hooper and this. Robert Forster investigates the death of his brother in a stunt, leading to several more stunts.
The cast is very good - in addition to the always reliable Forster, there's Fiona Lewis (who gets some feminism - when a lech hits on her she agrees provided he brings some extra men along, and she looks like she'd go through with it), Candice Rialson (starlet who bedded the brother and hits on Forster), Richard Lynch, Bruce Glover, Ray Sharkey, Joanna Cassidy.
It was directed by Mark Lester of Commando fame. It's slowly paced - despite the stunts it's more a murder mystery and trogs along. It needed more exploitation fun. There's not even nudity.
Rialson is wasted in a stock slutty role though she does get a good dramatic moment when she's been beaten up. The film is progressive in some interesting ways - Cassidy is a fully fledged part of the stunt team.
The best feature is the acting - the cast is very good. Forster is an ideal laid back hero. But it's a bit slow. This was the first production from New Line Pictures.
The cast is very good - in addition to the always reliable Forster, there's Fiona Lewis (who gets some feminism - when a lech hits on her she agrees provided he brings some extra men along, and she looks like she'd go through with it), Candice Rialson (starlet who bedded the brother and hits on Forster), Richard Lynch, Bruce Glover, Ray Sharkey, Joanna Cassidy.
It was directed by Mark Lester of Commando fame. It's slowly paced - despite the stunts it's more a murder mystery and trogs along. It needed more exploitation fun. There's not even nudity.
Rialson is wasted in a stock slutty role though she does get a good dramatic moment when she's been beaten up. The film is progressive in some interesting ways - Cassidy is a fully fledged part of the stunt team.
The best feature is the acting - the cast is very good. Forster is an ideal laid back hero. But it's a bit slow. This was the first production from New Line Pictures.
Movie review - "Flight of the Intruder" (1991) **
John Milius is/was at his best doing balls to the wall historical stories where he took the piss but also didn't. Adapting a best selling novel seems to have frozen him up.
It looks tremendous - production values are high and there's loving shots of bombers. But it's not exciting. There's no emotion.
Story wise it has problems. It's almost an hour before Johnson suggests bombing Hanoi - this really needed to happen within a half hour and it's easy to see all the stuff that could be cut out: the military patter with Danny Glover "hilariously" abusing his men, Tom Sizemore talking about his kid and the mother who is ugly but got a great body and he can trust the ugly ones more, comic antics at a bar with Vietnamese hookers and a brawl with fighter pilots.
It uses too many cliches - Willem Dafoe has a reputation for abandoning his fellow flyer but he only did it for half an hour before going back, people talk about their kids before dying, downed airmen go "give up on me".
It's actually an interesting idea for a story - bomber pilots have to deal with restrictive rules of war and get so frustrated they decided to take on Hanoi. But this really isn't dramatised in an interesting way - Dafoe and Johnson get out of it the moment they get in trouble, Glover sooks but then is conveniently shot down required he be rescued.
The characters are dull - tight, wound up, with none of Milius' flamboyant humour. There is humour but it's "hardy har har I'm in the military" humour. Thing is, there is scope for some movement - maybe not the hero (Brad Johnson's performance is a bit monotone - he has trouble expressing grief and anger - but he does form a solid center) but the Dafoe and Glover characters really could have been jazzed up. It needed more 70s Milius. You don't pay him to reign it in - have him go for it. There's not even the flamboyance of Sean Connery dialogue in The Hunt for Red October.
Action-wise the film is hurt by the fact flying a bomber isn't that exciting on screen - you cut to scenes of people in cockpits shaking... you really need them shot down. But when that does happen at the end it's not very exciting. Milius wasn't a very good director.
It looks tremendous - production values are high and there's loving shots of bombers. But it's not exciting. There's no emotion.
Story wise it has problems. It's almost an hour before Johnson suggests bombing Hanoi - this really needed to happen within a half hour and it's easy to see all the stuff that could be cut out: the military patter with Danny Glover "hilariously" abusing his men, Tom Sizemore talking about his kid and the mother who is ugly but got a great body and he can trust the ugly ones more, comic antics at a bar with Vietnamese hookers and a brawl with fighter pilots.
It uses too many cliches - Willem Dafoe has a reputation for abandoning his fellow flyer but he only did it for half an hour before going back, people talk about their kids before dying, downed airmen go "give up on me".
It's actually an interesting idea for a story - bomber pilots have to deal with restrictive rules of war and get so frustrated they decided to take on Hanoi. But this really isn't dramatised in an interesting way - Dafoe and Johnson get out of it the moment they get in trouble, Glover sooks but then is conveniently shot down required he be rescued.
The characters are dull - tight, wound up, with none of Milius' flamboyant humour. There is humour but it's "hardy har har I'm in the military" humour. Thing is, there is scope for some movement - maybe not the hero (Brad Johnson's performance is a bit monotone - he has trouble expressing grief and anger - but he does form a solid center) but the Dafoe and Glover characters really could have been jazzed up. It needed more 70s Milius. You don't pay him to reign it in - have him go for it. There's not even the flamboyance of Sean Connery dialogue in The Hunt for Red October.
Action-wise the film is hurt by the fact flying a bomber isn't that exciting on screen - you cut to scenes of people in cockpits shaking... you really need them shot down. But when that does happen at the end it's not very exciting. Milius wasn't a very good director.
Monday, September 09, 2019
Movie review - "The Accused" (1949) *** (warning: spoilers)
Entirely decent mystery, surprisingly fresh, because Loretta Young is obsessed over by a student who tries to rape her. She accidentally kills him and thinking no one will believe her tries to cover it up and of course it all comes undone.
It's well handled by director William Dieterle and the team for producer Hal Wallis. Wendell Corey is very good as a dogged detective and Bob Cummings is fine as the man who believes her - apparently Hallis wanted them to swap roles but Cummings is a better love interest.
The film lacks another twist or development - it's basically Young's lie unravelling. I felt it needed an antagonist with personal stakes - Cummings does but he falls in love with her. It needed like Douglas Dick's mother or something - who wanted to destroy Young (like say George Sanders and Judith Anderson in Rebecca).
It's also got a weird ending with Cummings making a passioned plea to the jury that Young doesn't get convicted and Corey going "I reckon we'll lose and they'll win" but we never find out.
Still a decent movie. I'm not a massive Young fan and it's a shame she can't be more active in the last act (fighting off a villain would have helped) but she quivers well and at least is a professional.
It's well handled by director William Dieterle and the team for producer Hal Wallis. Wendell Corey is very good as a dogged detective and Bob Cummings is fine as the man who believes her - apparently Hallis wanted them to swap roles but Cummings is a better love interest.
The film lacks another twist or development - it's basically Young's lie unravelling. I felt it needed an antagonist with personal stakes - Cummings does but he falls in love with her. It needed like Douglas Dick's mother or something - who wanted to destroy Young (like say George Sanders and Judith Anderson in Rebecca).
It's also got a weird ending with Cummings making a passioned plea to the jury that Young doesn't get convicted and Corey going "I reckon we'll lose and they'll win" but we never find out.
Still a decent movie. I'm not a massive Young fan and it's a shame she can't be more active in the last act (fighting off a villain would have helped) but she quivers well and at least is a professional.
The Cinema of Candice Rialson
For a few years in the mid 1970s, Candice Rialson was one of the most popular actors working in exploitation films. She was pretty, bright and vivacious, with an extremely likable screen presence and genuine flair for comedy. Her career fell victim to prejudice and her own lack of enthusiasm, but she nonetheless left behind a decent body of work, as well as inspiring the Bridget Fonda character in Jackie Brown (1997).
Rialson was born in 1951 in Santa Monica California, and grew up in Orange County. At eighteen she was crowned Miss Hermosa Beach, which led to a bit part in The Gay Deceivers (1969) and sparked her interest in an acting career. A lot of attractive girls want to be actors, especially in California, but Rialson, with her blonde hair, healthy build and peachy complexion, had an all-American look particularly perfect for the times (it was - or at least, was soon to be - the era of Farrah Fawcett Majors) and she received an offer to star in a low budget film called Pets (1973).
Rialson plays a hitchhiker who has a series of adventures: escaping from her controlling brother, being rescued by a black man, then kidnapping a sleazy married guy with a black girl she meets, picked up by a female artist (played by former Elvis Presley co-star Joan Blackman) for whom she poses and then makes love, and going to live with an artist who keeps her captive in his basement as a ‘pet’. It’s an exploitation film but one with ambition - there are some interesting shot compositions, it attempts to tackle an odd sort of theme (it was based on a series of one act plays and each section deals with people trying to imprison Rialson), and there’s a few moments which genuinely surprise you (like where the black girl throws a dog off a cliff). The main reason to watch it is Rialson who has to carry the whole movie on her shoulders and is very impressive. It's an action-packed part: she seduces two men – her abductee (an older guy) and a burglar - and is seduced by a woman; she's very natural on screen, comfortable with her body, believable in the role and sexy as hell, although she doesn’t get to show off her comic ability, so effective in later films.
Rialson went on to be cast in episodes of TV series like Adam's Rib and Shaft and TV movies like The Girl on the Late Late Show (1974). Producer Julie Corman of New World Pictures then offered her the lead in Candy Stripe Nurses (1974). This was a "three girls" movie, a melodramatic subgenre which typically focused on the adventures of three female friends, mostly romantic, in some exciting profession. Three girl pictures had been around since the 1920s - notable examples include Our Dancing Daughters (1928), Three on a Match (1932), The Best of Everything (1959) and Valley of the Dolls (1967) - but New World had given them a new lease of life with The Student Nurses (1971). This film, directed by Stephanie Rothman, took the formula and added more nudity, comedy and social comment; it was a huge commercial success and led to New World making four more 'nurse' adventures (Private Duty Nurses, Night Call Nurses, The Young Nurses, Candy Stripe Nurses), two films about teachers (The Student Teachers, Summer School Teachers), and one each about flight attendants (Fly Me), models (Cover Girls) and actresses (Hollywood Boulevard) (Fly Me and Cover Girls were pick ups, the others were done in house). Jon Davison, producer of The Student Teachers and Hollywood Boulevard, said the formula was to take three professional women, give each of them their own story and mix in sex, humour and some social issues from a liberal perspective; Jonathan Kaplan, director of Night Call Nurses, said Roger Corman would insist on frontal nudity from waist up, full nudity from behind, and no pubic hair. You could argue that other female-driven pictures at New World from this time were, in a way, also three girls movies, such as women-in-prison stories (The Big Doll House, The Big Bird Cage, Women in Cages, The Hot Box, Caged Heat, Black Mama White Mama, The Arena) and women-turned-gangster tales (Big Bad Mama, Crazy Mama).
Candy Stripe Nurses was the fifth and final New World nurse picture. It was written and directed by Allan Holleb who later told Ari Bass the studio "wanted a little social consciousness, a little romance, a little comedy and a little sex. Another requirement was they wanted a sex clinic." The movie is bright, breezy fun, albeit with the inherit dodginess of 70s "tits feminism" exploitation filmmaking. The plot is typical of the genre: the three girls are candy stripe nurses at the same hospital; the sexpot blonde (Rialson) tries to seduce a famous rock singer (the sexy comic plot), the uptight brunette (Robin Mattson) falls for a college basketball player who is being given speed by his coach (the kinky/medical issues plot), and the ethnic (Maria Rojo) tries to prove the innocence of a supposed armed robber (the political plot).
Rialson is vivacious and cheerful, delivering comic lines with aplomb and seeming almost wholesome as she constantly takes her clothes and off hops into bed with various men - she makes nudity and sex appear like natural, clean fun, never sleazy; you only wish she had a better storyline. Mattson also gives good value, and her romance with the jock is one of the best in the series; their seduction scenes in the gym are downright hot, because they're both clearly into it, and their characters have great inherent conflict (she's an uptown girl who wants to be a doctor, he's a sporty moron). However Rojo seem a bit too uncomfortably young for this sort of thing (although am I right in thinking that her sex scene was a dream sequence?). It doesn't help that she has to do her plot without the other girls whereas Rialson and Mattson get to be friends with one another; there is no sense of camaraderie between the three of them - it's like two movies, one with Rialson and Mattson, and Rojo off in her own storyline. I would count this as third best in the nurses series, after The Student Nurses and Night Call Nurses. It's clunky but has an enjoyable theme song and plenty of high spirits; Dick Miller, who was in a lot of these movies, has a small role as a heckler at a basketball game.
Rialson went into another exploitation film, Mama's Dirty Girls (1974), made for the short-lived Premier Releasing Company. This follows the Big Bad Mama (1974) template – a tough woman and her daughters use sex appeal to get what they want from men - with Oscar winner Gloria Grahame in the lead and Rialson as one of her offspring; it’s a more evil character than the former Miss Hermosa Beach normally played, but she’s quite good as a sort of Lolita-esque tease, who delights in tormenting chubby men. There are two other daughters, all of whom show a lot of flesh, including an utterly gratuitous shot of Candice staring at herself in the mirror to open the film. The acting is fine and it’s a great concept – the girls look for men to seduce and kill – but the movie is never as much fun as you want it to be. They didn’t quite get the story right – the pace is too slow, unlike Big Bad Mama where there’s lots of action, here it’s mostly hanging around houses, and there’s no driving narrative. Also, who wants to watch a three girls film where the guys triumph?
Rialson had small parts in an episode of Maude and the TV movie Guilty or Innocent (1975) as well as the Clint Eastwood action flick The Eiger Sanction (1975); these were prestigious projects but her roles weren't great - for instance in Eiger she was simply billed as "art student", and had just the one scene, throwing herself at Eastwood.
Rialson had a far better opportunity back at New World in Summer School Teachers (1975). It's one of the best of the studio's three girls movies, if not the best - and a lot of this is due to Rialson, playing a PE teacher who wants female students to play football and comes up against a sexist male coach (Dick Miller again). The other girls are Rhonda Leigh Fleming, who has an affair with a student, and Pat Anderson (veteran of Fly Me and Cover Girls), an art student who gets involved with another teacher and has a debate on pornography.
It’s high boisterious and amusing, a bit wonky in places (make that very wonky - in one scene you can see the boom in shot) but it flies along, with a lot of social comment (corruption, women sport, opportunity for women, etc) and a hilarious near-anarchic football game at the climax. It helps that the writer-director was a woman, Barbara Peeters, so the film feels like a screwball comedy rather than something sleazy. There is nudity – Rialson seduces a nerd teacher by a lake (and falls in), there's a more stylised sex scene involving Fleming which involves strobe lighting and ice cubes on the nipples (there's always a stylised sex scene in these pictures - there was an LSD one in The Student Nurses and a trippy one in Candy Stripe Nurses), and Anderson is frequently photographed with nothing on. But the women are confident and in control: they do most of the seducing, they stick up for each other and the sisterhood, and the messages are mostly positive – girls should be able to do whatever boys can do, physical fitness is good, corruption is bad. This is the best character Rialson ever played – she’s spunky, full of energy, fights for girl sports, encourages her overweight neighbour to exercise, seduces the nerdy teacher because she likes him (Peeters isn’t afraid to show Rialson’s gut in this love scene), and she loves her rowdy dumb brothers. Good fun - and much better than New World's other 'three teachers' entry, The Student Teachers.
Rialson tried to break into studio films again, and was cast in one scene in Silent Movie (1976) as a nurse slapping Marty Feldman... but it was re-shot with another actress. She was briefly in Logan's Run (1976).
New World came to the rescue a third time with Hollywood Boulevard (1976), a three girls movie about actresses, which was the debut directorial effort for the studio's in-house trailer editors, Joe Dante and Alan Arkush.The opening minutes of this features some sky diving stock footage, bare breasts and move in-jokes, pretty much setting the tone for the rest of the film, famously made as a bet by producer Jon Davidson who told Roger Corman he could shoot the cheapest film ever for New World. This was accomplished by incorporating footage from previous New World/Corman films: sky diving (Private Duty Nurses), car chases (Caged Heat, Crazy Mama), a period car crash (Big Bad Mama), roller derby (Unholy Rollers), Philippine action films (The Hot Box, Women in Cages, The Big Doll House), The Terror (they see it at the drive in), a futuristic car chase (Death Race 2000).
The film revolves around three girls trying to make it in Hollywood as actresses - Rialson, Rita Grey, and Tara Strohmeier, with Rialson having the biggest part. They are confronted by lecherous men and a mysterious killer - although the murder plot gets forgotten for great slabs of time. The picture has tremendous energy, a breezy tone, a love of movies (film buffs will love the in-jokes) and an amazing support cast including Mary Woronov, Paul Bartel and Dick Miller. Rialson is incredibly charming and a perfect leading lady; apparently Roger Corman wanted Roberta Collins (The Big Doll House, Death Race 2000) but the directors held out for Rialson – I'm a Collins fan but it was the right decision because Rialson brings not just looks and comic timing, but also a plucky underdog persona that is immensely appealing.
The film does suffer from some New World requirements of the time. There’s a scene where Rialson plays a rape victim which starts off funny but then becomes unfunny because she gets her top ripped off and is really traumatised by it. Later on Rialson watches the scene on screen while at a drive in, then is almost genuinely raped by the projectionist. These sequences feel out of place in an otherwise cheerful movie.
Of all the seventies exploitation starlets, I feel Rialson had the best chance of breaking through to mainstream stardom, or at least fame - she was attractive but not threateningly so, affable, skilled at comedy and drama, with a first-rate on-set attitude (none of her collaborators seem to have a bad word to say about her); you could easily see Rialson as, say a Charlie's Angel, or one of the kids in Eight is Enough, or as the star of an Aaron Spelling TV movie. But she never got the chance. In fact out of all the New World female leads, only one, Pam Grier, got the lead in a studio feature, and that was decades later, with Jackie Brown. Rialson, Roberta Collins, Pat Anderson, Claudia Jennings, Rainbeaux Smith... they all struggled to break through to the next level, leading one to conclude they were simply discriminated against in Hollywood.
So Rialson followed Hollywood Boulevard with the lead in a low budget comedy musical fantasy for AIP, Chatterbox (1977), the movie which Arkush and Dante suggest killed her career because she plays a woman with a talking vagina. There are actually worse concepts for a comedy, and with really smart handling this could have been worth watching – maybe even been quite feminist. But as used here the film is far too depressing: Candice’s character clearly doesn’t like her talking vagina, who creates nothing but trouble for her. She really goes through the wringer (Candice, not the vagina) over the running time– a lesbian tries to rape her, she’s put naked on a board in front of a room of scientists while her vagina sings (and she’s clearly not having a good time), she’s forced to perform a big song and dance number where her clothes get ripped off, her love interest is an insecure drip (are we meant to be glad she gets with him in the end?); if I’m not mistaken she’s also gangbanged. So although there’s plenty of nudity, it’s not that fun; this is in contrast to films like Summer School Teachers where her character was in control and the undressing came about due to her character’s decisions. It should be said, Rialson is very engaging in the picture, as usual; she’s a great trooper, giving 110% and manages to take the sleaze out of everything her character does (and still be sexy). There’s something actually quite moving watching her try so hard in a role that is killing her career in with every minute of screen time.
It was her last lead. 'Three girls' movies were out and male leads back in; she was shunted down the cast list for some B flicks, Moonshine County Express (1977) (co-starring Claudia Jennings, another 70s exploitation favourite), and Stunts (1978), and guest starred on Fantasy Island. Her last appearance was in Winter Kills (1979), a major feature, but she is billed as "second blonde girl" and mostly just rubs John Huston's crotch.
Rialson had had enough and retired from acting - and why wouldn't you, if after six years of work, including several leads, the best studio gig you could get was "second blonde girl"? She married, moved to Studio City and had one child. She refused an offer to come out of retirement for Hollywood Boulevard II (1989) and died of liver disease on March 31, 2006 in Palmdale California, only 54 years old.
It's a shame Candice Rialson didn't get more chances, but she did leave behind a decent legacy - Hollywood Boulevard has become a cult favourite and Summer School Teachers deserves to. In the pantheon of 70s exploitation goddesses, which includes names like Pam Grier, Margaret Markov and Roberta Collins, Rialson occupies an honoured place.
Main source:
Bass, Ari. "In Search of the Drive In Diva - Candice Rialson, New World's Legendary B Movie Goddess Steamed Up". Femme Fatale. Vol. 2 no. 2.
Trailers from Hell entries on The Student Teachers, Candy Stripe Nurses, Night Call Nurses , Chatterbox
Rialson was born in 1951 in Santa Monica California, and grew up in Orange County. At eighteen she was crowned Miss Hermosa Beach, which led to a bit part in The Gay Deceivers (1969) and sparked her interest in an acting career. A lot of attractive girls want to be actors, especially in California, but Rialson, with her blonde hair, healthy build and peachy complexion, had an all-American look particularly perfect for the times (it was - or at least, was soon to be - the era of Farrah Fawcett Majors) and she received an offer to star in a low budget film called Pets (1973).
Rialson plays a hitchhiker who has a series of adventures: escaping from her controlling brother, being rescued by a black man, then kidnapping a sleazy married guy with a black girl she meets, picked up by a female artist (played by former Elvis Presley co-star Joan Blackman) for whom she poses and then makes love, and going to live with an artist who keeps her captive in his basement as a ‘pet’. It’s an exploitation film but one with ambition - there are some interesting shot compositions, it attempts to tackle an odd sort of theme (it was based on a series of one act plays and each section deals with people trying to imprison Rialson), and there’s a few moments which genuinely surprise you (like where the black girl throws a dog off a cliff). The main reason to watch it is Rialson who has to carry the whole movie on her shoulders and is very impressive. It's an action-packed part: she seduces two men – her abductee (an older guy) and a burglar - and is seduced by a woman; she's very natural on screen, comfortable with her body, believable in the role and sexy as hell, although she doesn’t get to show off her comic ability, so effective in later films.
Rialson went on to be cast in episodes of TV series like Adam's Rib and Shaft and TV movies like The Girl on the Late Late Show (1974). Producer Julie Corman of New World Pictures then offered her the lead in Candy Stripe Nurses (1974). This was a "three girls" movie, a melodramatic subgenre which typically focused on the adventures of three female friends, mostly romantic, in some exciting profession. Three girl pictures had been around since the 1920s - notable examples include Our Dancing Daughters (1928), Three on a Match (1932), The Best of Everything (1959) and Valley of the Dolls (1967) - but New World had given them a new lease of life with The Student Nurses (1971). This film, directed by Stephanie Rothman, took the formula and added more nudity, comedy and social comment; it was a huge commercial success and led to New World making four more 'nurse' adventures (Private Duty Nurses, Night Call Nurses, The Young Nurses, Candy Stripe Nurses), two films about teachers (The Student Teachers, Summer School Teachers), and one each about flight attendants (Fly Me), models (Cover Girls) and actresses (Hollywood Boulevard) (Fly Me and Cover Girls were pick ups, the others were done in house). Jon Davison, producer of The Student Teachers and Hollywood Boulevard, said the formula was to take three professional women, give each of them their own story and mix in sex, humour and some social issues from a liberal perspective; Jonathan Kaplan, director of Night Call Nurses, said Roger Corman would insist on frontal nudity from waist up, full nudity from behind, and no pubic hair. You could argue that other female-driven pictures at New World from this time were, in a way, also three girls movies, such as women-in-prison stories (The Big Doll House, The Big Bird Cage, Women in Cages, The Hot Box, Caged Heat, Black Mama White Mama, The Arena) and women-turned-gangster tales (Big Bad Mama, Crazy Mama).
Candy Stripe Nurses was the fifth and final New World nurse picture. It was written and directed by Allan Holleb who later told Ari Bass the studio "wanted a little social consciousness, a little romance, a little comedy and a little sex. Another requirement was they wanted a sex clinic." The movie is bright, breezy fun, albeit with the inherit dodginess of 70s "tits feminism" exploitation filmmaking. The plot is typical of the genre: the three girls are candy stripe nurses at the same hospital; the sexpot blonde (Rialson) tries to seduce a famous rock singer (the sexy comic plot), the uptight brunette (Robin Mattson) falls for a college basketball player who is being given speed by his coach (the kinky/medical issues plot), and the ethnic (Maria Rojo) tries to prove the innocence of a supposed armed robber (the political plot).
Rialson is vivacious and cheerful, delivering comic lines with aplomb and seeming almost wholesome as she constantly takes her clothes and off hops into bed with various men - she makes nudity and sex appear like natural, clean fun, never sleazy; you only wish she had a better storyline. Mattson also gives good value, and her romance with the jock is one of the best in the series; their seduction scenes in the gym are downright hot, because they're both clearly into it, and their characters have great inherent conflict (she's an uptown girl who wants to be a doctor, he's a sporty moron). However Rojo seem a bit too uncomfortably young for this sort of thing (although am I right in thinking that her sex scene was a dream sequence?). It doesn't help that she has to do her plot without the other girls whereas Rialson and Mattson get to be friends with one another; there is no sense of camaraderie between the three of them - it's like two movies, one with Rialson and Mattson, and Rojo off in her own storyline. I would count this as third best in the nurses series, after The Student Nurses and Night Call Nurses. It's clunky but has an enjoyable theme song and plenty of high spirits; Dick Miller, who was in a lot of these movies, has a small role as a heckler at a basketball game.
Rialson went into another exploitation film, Mama's Dirty Girls (1974), made for the short-lived Premier Releasing Company. This follows the Big Bad Mama (1974) template – a tough woman and her daughters use sex appeal to get what they want from men - with Oscar winner Gloria Grahame in the lead and Rialson as one of her offspring; it’s a more evil character than the former Miss Hermosa Beach normally played, but she’s quite good as a sort of Lolita-esque tease, who delights in tormenting chubby men. There are two other daughters, all of whom show a lot of flesh, including an utterly gratuitous shot of Candice staring at herself in the mirror to open the film. The acting is fine and it’s a great concept – the girls look for men to seduce and kill – but the movie is never as much fun as you want it to be. They didn’t quite get the story right – the pace is too slow, unlike Big Bad Mama where there’s lots of action, here it’s mostly hanging around houses, and there’s no driving narrative. Also, who wants to watch a three girls film where the guys triumph?
Rialson had small parts in an episode of Maude and the TV movie Guilty or Innocent (1975) as well as the Clint Eastwood action flick The Eiger Sanction (1975); these were prestigious projects but her roles weren't great - for instance in Eiger she was simply billed as "art student", and had just the one scene, throwing herself at Eastwood.
Rialson had a far better opportunity back at New World in Summer School Teachers (1975). It's one of the best of the studio's three girls movies, if not the best - and a lot of this is due to Rialson, playing a PE teacher who wants female students to play football and comes up against a sexist male coach (Dick Miller again). The other girls are Rhonda Leigh Fleming, who has an affair with a student, and Pat Anderson (veteran of Fly Me and Cover Girls), an art student who gets involved with another teacher and has a debate on pornography.
It’s high boisterious and amusing, a bit wonky in places (make that very wonky - in one scene you can see the boom in shot) but it flies along, with a lot of social comment (corruption, women sport, opportunity for women, etc) and a hilarious near-anarchic football game at the climax. It helps that the writer-director was a woman, Barbara Peeters, so the film feels like a screwball comedy rather than something sleazy. There is nudity – Rialson seduces a nerd teacher by a lake (and falls in), there's a more stylised sex scene involving Fleming which involves strobe lighting and ice cubes on the nipples (there's always a stylised sex scene in these pictures - there was an LSD one in The Student Nurses and a trippy one in Candy Stripe Nurses), and Anderson is frequently photographed with nothing on. But the women are confident and in control: they do most of the seducing, they stick up for each other and the sisterhood, and the messages are mostly positive – girls should be able to do whatever boys can do, physical fitness is good, corruption is bad. This is the best character Rialson ever played – she’s spunky, full of energy, fights for girl sports, encourages her overweight neighbour to exercise, seduces the nerdy teacher because she likes him (Peeters isn’t afraid to show Rialson’s gut in this love scene), and she loves her rowdy dumb brothers. Good fun - and much better than New World's other 'three teachers' entry, The Student Teachers.
Rialson tried to break into studio films again, and was cast in one scene in Silent Movie (1976) as a nurse slapping Marty Feldman... but it was re-shot with another actress. She was briefly in Logan's Run (1976).
New World came to the rescue a third time with Hollywood Boulevard (1976), a three girls movie about actresses, which was the debut directorial effort for the studio's in-house trailer editors, Joe Dante and Alan Arkush.The opening minutes of this features some sky diving stock footage, bare breasts and move in-jokes, pretty much setting the tone for the rest of the film, famously made as a bet by producer Jon Davidson who told Roger Corman he could shoot the cheapest film ever for New World. This was accomplished by incorporating footage from previous New World/Corman films: sky diving (Private Duty Nurses), car chases (Caged Heat, Crazy Mama), a period car crash (Big Bad Mama), roller derby (Unholy Rollers), Philippine action films (The Hot Box, Women in Cages, The Big Doll House), The Terror (they see it at the drive in), a futuristic car chase (Death Race 2000).
The film revolves around three girls trying to make it in Hollywood as actresses - Rialson, Rita Grey, and Tara Strohmeier, with Rialson having the biggest part. They are confronted by lecherous men and a mysterious killer - although the murder plot gets forgotten for great slabs of time. The picture has tremendous energy, a breezy tone, a love of movies (film buffs will love the in-jokes) and an amazing support cast including Mary Woronov, Paul Bartel and Dick Miller. Rialson is incredibly charming and a perfect leading lady; apparently Roger Corman wanted Roberta Collins (The Big Doll House, Death Race 2000) but the directors held out for Rialson – I'm a Collins fan but it was the right decision because Rialson brings not just looks and comic timing, but also a plucky underdog persona that is immensely appealing.
The film does suffer from some New World requirements of the time. There’s a scene where Rialson plays a rape victim which starts off funny but then becomes unfunny because she gets her top ripped off and is really traumatised by it. Later on Rialson watches the scene on screen while at a drive in, then is almost genuinely raped by the projectionist. These sequences feel out of place in an otherwise cheerful movie.
Of all the seventies exploitation starlets, I feel Rialson had the best chance of breaking through to mainstream stardom, or at least fame - she was attractive but not threateningly so, affable, skilled at comedy and drama, with a first-rate on-set attitude (none of her collaborators seem to have a bad word to say about her); you could easily see Rialson as, say a Charlie's Angel, or one of the kids in Eight is Enough, or as the star of an Aaron Spelling TV movie. But she never got the chance. In fact out of all the New World female leads, only one, Pam Grier, got the lead in a studio feature, and that was decades later, with Jackie Brown. Rialson, Roberta Collins, Pat Anderson, Claudia Jennings, Rainbeaux Smith... they all struggled to break through to the next level, leading one to conclude they were simply discriminated against in Hollywood.
So Rialson followed Hollywood Boulevard with the lead in a low budget comedy musical fantasy for AIP, Chatterbox (1977), the movie which Arkush and Dante suggest killed her career because she plays a woman with a talking vagina. There are actually worse concepts for a comedy, and with really smart handling this could have been worth watching – maybe even been quite feminist. But as used here the film is far too depressing: Candice’s character clearly doesn’t like her talking vagina, who creates nothing but trouble for her. She really goes through the wringer (Candice, not the vagina) over the running time– a lesbian tries to rape her, she’s put naked on a board in front of a room of scientists while her vagina sings (and she’s clearly not having a good time), she’s forced to perform a big song and dance number where her clothes get ripped off, her love interest is an insecure drip (are we meant to be glad she gets with him in the end?); if I’m not mistaken she’s also gangbanged. So although there’s plenty of nudity, it’s not that fun; this is in contrast to films like Summer School Teachers where her character was in control and the undressing came about due to her character’s decisions. It should be said, Rialson is very engaging in the picture, as usual; she’s a great trooper, giving 110% and manages to take the sleaze out of everything her character does (and still be sexy). There’s something actually quite moving watching her try so hard in a role that is killing her career in with every minute of screen time.
It was her last lead. 'Three girls' movies were out and male leads back in; she was shunted down the cast list for some B flicks, Moonshine County Express (1977) (co-starring Claudia Jennings, another 70s exploitation favourite), and Stunts (1978), and guest starred on Fantasy Island. Her last appearance was in Winter Kills (1979), a major feature, but she is billed as "second blonde girl" and mostly just rubs John Huston's crotch.
Rialson had had enough and retired from acting - and why wouldn't you, if after six years of work, including several leads, the best studio gig you could get was "second blonde girl"? She married, moved to Studio City and had one child. She refused an offer to come out of retirement for Hollywood Boulevard II (1989) and died of liver disease on March 31, 2006 in Palmdale California, only 54 years old.
It's a shame Candice Rialson didn't get more chances, but she did leave behind a decent legacy - Hollywood Boulevard has become a cult favourite and Summer School Teachers deserves to. In the pantheon of 70s exploitation goddesses, which includes names like Pam Grier, Margaret Markov and Roberta Collins, Rialson occupies an honoured place.
Main source:
Bass, Ari. "In Search of the Drive In Diva - Candice Rialson, New World's Legendary B Movie Goddess Steamed Up". Femme Fatale. Vol. 2 no. 2.
Trailers from Hell entries on The Student Teachers, Candy Stripe Nurses, Night Call Nurses , Chatterbox
Movie review - "Sleep My Love" (1948) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)
A couple of studio veterans whose career was on the down slide - Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, Bob Cummings - and one who was on the up - director Douglas Sirk - combine for this thriller, which was produced by Mary Pickford.
It's an entirely decent version of Gaslight - Colbert wakes up on a train and doesn't know why; it turns out her husband is hypnotising her and trying to kill her. Once you know that the film doesn't really have anywhere to go - it needed another twist or two, really. And Colbert has to be a ninny for too long a period of time. But what's there is fine.
The cast is strong - Ameche is fun as a villain, making out with slinky Hazel Brooks on the side; George Colouris is a fake shrink; Bob Cummings plays the owner of an airline (Cummings was a pilot in real life) who for some reason is on a train when he meets Colbert and falls in love - there are slightly creepy overtones to this, falling for a distressed and half crazed woman, but the film doesn't explore them, keeping him heroic.
Some interesting touches - Cummings has a Chinese partner, Keye Luke, and attends his wedding; he's also got a best female friend, Rita Johnson, who does some patter - was she a well known comic or something?
It's an entirely decent version of Gaslight - Colbert wakes up on a train and doesn't know why; it turns out her husband is hypnotising her and trying to kill her. Once you know that the film doesn't really have anywhere to go - it needed another twist or two, really. And Colbert has to be a ninny for too long a period of time. But what's there is fine.
The cast is strong - Ameche is fun as a villain, making out with slinky Hazel Brooks on the side; George Colouris is a fake shrink; Bob Cummings plays the owner of an airline (Cummings was a pilot in real life) who for some reason is on a train when he meets Colbert and falls in love - there are slightly creepy overtones to this, falling for a distressed and half crazed woman, but the film doesn't explore them, keeping him heroic.
Some interesting touches - Cummings has a Chinese partner, Keye Luke, and attends his wedding; he's also got a best female friend, Rita Johnson, who does some patter - was she a well known comic or something?
TV review - "Fleabag Season 2" (2019) *****
Jaw droppingly good. I mean, literally - my jaw would drop at how good it was. One of those sequels better than the original. The original deserves props for setting it up but this takes it to another level. The opening episode is magnificent - the fight at the dinner party. The relationship with the priest is extremely well done so is the stuff with the sister, the dad, the sister's creepy husband...
I've come to believe for a show to be a hit it needs two X factor performances. Dad and sister are good, so is the priest, but the X fact is Phoebe and Olivia Coleman.
So many great moments - the monologue about hair, the creepy husband's speech at the end, the corporate dinner. Uh, so good.
I've come to believe for a show to be a hit it needs two X factor performances. Dad and sister are good, so is the priest, but the X fact is Phoebe and Olivia Coleman.
So many great moments - the monologue about hair, the creepy husband's speech at the end, the corporate dinner. Uh, so good.
Saturday, September 07, 2019
Movie review - "Dark Phoenix" (2019) ** (warning: spoilers)
A big flop despite a strong cast and very good story. The treatment isn't good though - it's got some very mediocre dialogue, so much of it is on the nose and repetitive. More crucially it misses big moments - I'm mean they're all there in theory but you don't feel anything when Jennifer Lawrence dies, or the relationship between Sophie Turner and Tye Sheridan (in his defence he can't act with his eyes) or the bond between Turner and James McAvoy, or between Nic Hoult and Jennifer Lawrence, Turner and Jessica Chastain, or the death of Turner. McAvoy and Michael Fassbender have some moments.
Some good bits - the final fight on the train is well done, Fassbender s in good form. But the resst is all curiously flat - it's weird the story s so solid, it should work, but it doesn't. It just feels silly, no camraderie amongst the X Men. Everyone talks about how they care about each other but you never believe it. It feels like a flat episode of a TV series with a decent budget - but the visuals are okay rather than amazing.
You wonder why they made it. Logan I get there was a point - it was the last act of a popular charcter. Is Phoenix popular? If that's the case make it all about her - she disappears from too much of the action and spends a lot of the final battle asleep. Logan was also a gritty version - that wouldn't have worked here but it could have been say a girl's fairytale.
Some good bits - the final fight on the train is well done, Fassbender s in good form. But the resst is all curiously flat - it's weird the story s so solid, it should work, but it doesn't. It just feels silly, no camraderie amongst the X Men. Everyone talks about how they care about each other but you never believe it. It feels like a flat episode of a TV series with a decent budget - but the visuals are okay rather than amazing.
You wonder why they made it. Logan I get there was a point - it was the last act of a popular charcter. Is Phoenix popular? If that's the case make it all about her - she disappears from too much of the action and spends a lot of the final battle asleep. Logan was also a gritty version - that wouldn't have worked here but it could have been say a girl's fairytale.
Movie review - "The Professor and the Madman" (2019) **1/2
Probably as good a film as could have been made from this book although I understand production was troubled. Mel Gibson plays the professor even though you think he'd be obvious casting for the madman - Sean Penn is very good, don't get me wrong, but Gibson's got that glint.
It's tricky material to adapt because there's a lot of talk about dictionaries and the two main characters mostly correspond via letters.
The film makes attempts to include women - Natalie Dormer as the wife of the man killed by Penn and Jennifer Ehle gets a big moment as Gibson's wife but she's basically just Gibson's wife and Dormer's basically someone's wife.
Eddie Marsan is excellent as a guard ditto Stephen Dillane and Steve Coogan. It looks great - there's a fantastic library where Gibson's character does work. Sometimes it gets movie-ish but I'm sympathetic as to why they did that.
It's tricky material to adapt because there's a lot of talk about dictionaries and the two main characters mostly correspond via letters.
The film makes attempts to include women - Natalie Dormer as the wife of the man killed by Penn and Jennifer Ehle gets a big moment as Gibson's wife but she's basically just Gibson's wife and Dormer's basically someone's wife.
Eddie Marsan is excellent as a guard ditto Stephen Dillane and Steve Coogan. It looks great - there's a fantastic library where Gibson's character does work. Sometimes it gets movie-ish but I'm sympathetic as to why they did that.
Friday, September 06, 2019
Movie review - "Extreme Prejudice" (1987) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)
I wonder if there's a four hour cut of this movie out there - it could do with it because there's far too much story for the running time. Really this is two movies rubbing up against each other - the saga of a covert special ops unit who wind up in Texas to do a job, and a Texan sheriff (Nick Nolte) whose childhood friend (Powers Boothe) is a drug dealer and both love the same woman (Maria Conchito Alonso).
Maybe all this could have worked if there'd been more rigorous with the storytelling but it takes an hour of the two groups to meet and the final confrontation is very rushed. It really needed to be act one setting them up then act two they have an uneasy relationship then act three is the big confrontation.
It's a shame because some of this is quite good. The action is done in full throttle late 80s way - lots of explosions, and big bangs and people falling through glass. Nolte is perfectly case as is Boothe and Michael Ironside; Alonso does what she can with her part. Clancy Brown is fantastic as one of the special ops guys - I wish his part had been bigger. Some of the smaller parts are well cast like the black bodyguard for Boothe, and the accountant with super thick glasses.
The finale is reminiscent of The Wild Bunch but this isn't as artfully written. In that movie the men had a specific reason to go to their deaths - it was a conscious choice to do it. Here the special ops crew make no such choice - only two of them find out about Ironside's betrayal. They needed to make a conscious decision.
At the end Boothe and Nolte are about to do a shoot out... the zombie unit have had this big fight and are all dead... then Boothe and Nolte resume their stand off. It's like, we don't care by then. There's been a massive shoot out.
The Mexican characters are mostly jabbering bit parts except Alonso, who is a possession, and I guess Boothe's sidekick.
Far too much time is wasted on setting up Nolte - there's an opening shoot out, then another shoot out then I think another shoot out where I think Rip Torn is killed (and we don't care even though he gives a good performance because he's just a crusty gun toting sheriff). The zombie unit arrive and set up... and the. bank robbery is not very well done, they're captured quite easily... I didn't think much of their skills no wonder Nolte captures them. There's not enough scenes between Nolte and the unit.
This film should have been simple. The zombie unit are ruthless but have some residual honor except for Ironside who has gone fully bad. Nolte has honor but Boothe doesn't. Nolte and Boothe both love the same woman.
The cast for the zombie unit is interesting - Ironside and Brown are very good, Bill Forsythe is a floppy haired sexual harasser (for a cover ops guy he makes a lot of lecherous call outs to women at an airport), Matt Mulhern was in Biolxi Blues, Larry Scott was the gay Lamar from Revenge of the Nerds. I'm surprised Hill didn't put a female in the zombie unit.
A bit of a mess but I did watch it. The way Nolte buttoned up his shirt to the neck was annoying - wasn't it really hot?
Maybe all this could have worked if there'd been more rigorous with the storytelling but it takes an hour of the two groups to meet and the final confrontation is very rushed. It really needed to be act one setting them up then act two they have an uneasy relationship then act three is the big confrontation.
It's a shame because some of this is quite good. The action is done in full throttle late 80s way - lots of explosions, and big bangs and people falling through glass. Nolte is perfectly case as is Boothe and Michael Ironside; Alonso does what she can with her part. Clancy Brown is fantastic as one of the special ops guys - I wish his part had been bigger. Some of the smaller parts are well cast like the black bodyguard for Boothe, and the accountant with super thick glasses.
The finale is reminiscent of The Wild Bunch but this isn't as artfully written. In that movie the men had a specific reason to go to their deaths - it was a conscious choice to do it. Here the special ops crew make no such choice - only two of them find out about Ironside's betrayal. They needed to make a conscious decision.
At the end Boothe and Nolte are about to do a shoot out... the zombie unit have had this big fight and are all dead... then Boothe and Nolte resume their stand off. It's like, we don't care by then. There's been a massive shoot out.
The Mexican characters are mostly jabbering bit parts except Alonso, who is a possession, and I guess Boothe's sidekick.
Far too much time is wasted on setting up Nolte - there's an opening shoot out, then another shoot out then I think another shoot out where I think Rip Torn is killed (and we don't care even though he gives a good performance because he's just a crusty gun toting sheriff). The zombie unit arrive and set up... and the. bank robbery is not very well done, they're captured quite easily... I didn't think much of their skills no wonder Nolte captures them. There's not enough scenes between Nolte and the unit.
This film should have been simple. The zombie unit are ruthless but have some residual honor except for Ironside who has gone fully bad. Nolte has honor but Boothe doesn't. Nolte and Boothe both love the same woman.
The cast for the zombie unit is interesting - Ironside and Brown are very good, Bill Forsythe is a floppy haired sexual harasser (for a cover ops guy he makes a lot of lecherous call outs to women at an airport), Matt Mulhern was in Biolxi Blues, Larry Scott was the gay Lamar from Revenge of the Nerds. I'm surprised Hill didn't put a female in the zombie unit.
A bit of a mess but I did watch it. The way Nolte buttoned up his shirt to the neck was annoying - wasn't it really hot?
I saw every Sonja Henie film so you don’t have to
Sonja Henie is one of those novelty athletes-turned-stars who could have only thrived in the Golden Years of Hollywood. Like Johnny Weismuller and Esther Williams, she became internationally famous in the sporting arena, moved into live shows, then was plucked up by the movies. She was signed to a contract by 20th Century Fox who devoted a lot of time, effort in money into showcasing her in a series of vehicles that hid her limitations and promoted her attributes. She made nine films at Fox, then two for International Pictures (the latter when it merged into Universal-International). All of them have high production values, excellent music and strong support casts. The quality of the scrips vary. Henie skates well but remained a limited actor throughout her career. Sometimes she was quite engaging; other times she seemed like a smug selfish Nazi.
According to the biography Queen of the Ice: Queen of Shadows Henie wasn’t a terribly nice person in real life, avoiding tax, smuggling money, offering minimal help to the Norwegian resistance during the war, stealing towels and bath mats from hotels, lusting after diamonds, and descending into alcoholism. On. In the credit column she worked hard, was ambitious, throve in adversity, had a lot of sex and was fantastic on the ice. Several skaters tried to copy her success - Belita, Vera Ralston - but none of them came near Henie.
If you’re interested in trying a bit of Henie, I’ve whipped up a table with their key information.
According to the biography Queen of the Ice: Queen of Shadows Henie wasn’t a terribly nice person in real life, avoiding tax, smuggling money, offering minimal help to the Norwegian resistance during the war, stealing towels and bath mats from hotels, lusting after diamonds, and descending into alcoholism. On. In the credit column she worked hard, was ambitious, throve in adversity, had a lot of sex and was fantastic on the ice. Several skaters tried to copy her success - Belita, Vera Ralston - but none of them came near Henie.
If you’re interested in trying a bit of Henie, I’ve whipped up a table with their key information.
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What title?
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What Year?
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Who is the love interest?
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Who supports?
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What’s the concept?
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What’s the weird stuff?
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What’s the verdict?
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One in a Million
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1936
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Don Ameche as a reporter
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Adolphe Menjou (manager)., Jean Hersholt (SH’s dad), Ned Sparks (comic relief), The Ritz Brothers, Borrah Minevitch and his Harmonica Rascals.
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Menjou discovers a Swiss girl and wants to turn her into a skating star but she wants to be in the Olympics.
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SH’s character competes at the 1936 Berlin Olympics where in real life Henie famously did the Nazi salute to Adolf Hitler. The plot concerns amateur status of Olympic athletes.
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A grab bag of a movie. Plays like a variety show with a whole collection of acts. Fascinating to see how they protect SH.
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Thin Ice
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1937
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Tyrone Power as a prince
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Arthur Treacher, Joan Davis (comic relief), Sig Ruman.
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Ski instructor SH falls for Power, not realising he’s a prince.
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SH and Power had an affair in real life and had nicknames for his penis and her vagina. Power has weird make up.
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Very light but fun.
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Happy Landings
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1938
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Don Ameche as a manager
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Cesar Romeo (band leader & fake love interest), Ethel Merman (singer),Jean Hersholt (SH’s dad), The Condos Brothers.
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Ameche and Romeo crash land in Norway. SH falls for Romeo and stalks him in New York then falls for Ameche.
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The plane crashes in Norway flying New York to Paris. SH’s character falls in love because a psychic tells her.
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Great fun. Very strong cast.
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My Lucky Star
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1938
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Richard Greene, as a college student.
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Cesar Romero (playboy & fake love interest) Buddy Ebsen (comic relief). Joan Davis (comic relief), Arthur Treacher, Gypsy Rose Lee (enemy).
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SH is hired to by Romeo to wear a lot of different clothes at a college.
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It’s set at a college which seems to be mostly a winter resort.
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Silly story. Poor male lead - Greene acts like an army officer doing amateur theatricals. Great skating.
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Second Fiddle
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1939
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Tyrone Power as a Hollywood publicist
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Rudy Vallee (movie star & fake love interest). Edna Mae Oliver, Mary Healy
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SH is a Minnesota school teacher plucked to play the lead in a film after a Scarlet O’Hara like search.
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The absurd idea SH would be cast in the lead of a non skating film. SH falls in love with Rudy Vallee because she’s told to.
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Dumb central idea. Poor.
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Everything Happens at Night
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1939
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Ray Milland and Bob Cummings, both playing rival journos. You’re never sure who she’s going to end up with.
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Maurice Moscovitch (her father).
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Milland and Ameche track down SH’s dad who is hiding from the Nazis in Switzerland
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Feels like the one SH film not originally devised for SH. Gloomy, almost film noir treatment.
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Interesting. Different SH movie. Strong male leads.
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Sun Valley Serenade
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1941
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John Payne as a band pianist
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Lynn Bari (the bitch), Milton Berle (manager), Joan Davis (comic relief) The Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Nicholas Brothers, Dorothy Dandridge.
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Payne’s manager arranges for him to adopt a Norwegian war orphan and discovers it’s SH.
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One of two film appearances by Glenn Miller. Also has Nicholas Brothers and Dandridge. Very pro-refugee.
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SH is particularly smug in this one but everything else is fantastic. Brilliant support cast. Glenn Miller novelty. Divine Bari and Nicholas brothers.
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Iceland
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1942
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John Payne, as a US soldier
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Jack Oakie (comic relief), Felix Bressart (father), Sammy Kaye and his Orchestra.
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US troops occupy Iceland and Payne accidentally romances SH.
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Iceland feels like it’s occupied by concert musicians.
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Confusing story. Iceland setting is novel.
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Wintertime
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1943
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Cornel Wilde, as the co owner of a winter resort.
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Cesar Romeo (fake love interest), Carole Landis (friend), Jack Oakie (comic relief), Woody Herman and His Orchestra.
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SH and her Norwegian tycoon father come to Canada to buy a ski lodge.
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The film touches on the invasion of Norway and uses it as a plot point. Set in Canada.
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Good fun. Great work again from Romero. Landis good fun. SH skates on black ice.
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It’s a Pleasure
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1945
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Michael O’Shea, an Irish American who had a brief vogue in the 40s as a leading man. He plays an alcoholic, possibly physically abusive ice hockey player.
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Marie McDonald, Iris Adrian, someone called Bill Johnson.
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SH is a skater at Madison Square Garden who is in love with an ice hockey player O’Shea and turns him into an ice skating revue star.
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SH tries melodrama. Does a dance number. SH and O’Shea make jokes about husbands hitting wives. The only SH movie in colour. Johnson keeps a secret from SH for two years for no good reason.
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SH given too much acting to do. Melodrama plots do not suited to her.
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The Countess of Monte Cristo
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1948
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Michael Kirby, a real life skater who was an okay actor, as an army lieutenant.
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Olga San Juan, Dorothy Hart, Arthur Treacher, Hugh French.
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SH is a Norwegian barmaid who pretends to be a countess to have a fun weekend.
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They hired a real skater to appear opposite SH and he hardly ever skates. This is one of her best movies and it flopped.
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A surprising delight. Olga San Juan is terrific. Breezy, fun, silly.
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