Book review - "Leadership in War - Lessons in those Who Made History" by Andrew Roberts (warning: spoilers)

Highly enjoyable series of essays about war time leaders - Churchill, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Thatcher, Eisenhower, Marshall, Nelson, De Gaulle. Familiar if you've read Roberts other writings but still easy to digest and thought provoking.

Movie review - "Blackout" (1954) aka Murder by Proxy ** (warning spoilers)

Early work from Hammer - when they were just a B picture outfit, though only a few years away from glory. Terence Fisher directed, Michael Carreras produced. Belinda Lee, who would've been great in a Hammer horror, is gorgeous as the femme fetale.

This has an exciting set up - in a nightclub Lee proposes marriage to a drunk Dane Clark who wakes up and discovers Lee's father has been killed and he might be a suspect. But the film doesn't develop it. Too many scenes outside. Too much talk about business and stuff happening off screen.

At first I loved Clark's American ness because it meant he was isolated in London... but it turns out he has a family there including an ethnic momma. Lee is gorgeous and can act and is way too good looking for Clark, who had no business being a leading man.

Fisher didn't have enough time to do a first rate directing job - there's long takes, I assume it's for budget. This start to promisingly. Fantastic opening scene. It slows down and becomes dull.

Movie review - "Joseph and His Brethren" (1962) **

The story is very satisfying - it has a marvellous end. They were always talking about making a version in the 50s with Louis B Mayer and Rita Hayworth.

This has Geoffrey Horne who had a good role in Bridge on the River Kwai and vanished into... this. Sets and costumes fine. It feels directed by the 1st AD but was actually Irving Rapper, one of those directors who obviously needed the studio system.

Presumably he's why the cast is so strong - Felix Alymer as Joseph's dad, Robert Morley as Potiphar and Belinda Lee as the skanky wife. Morley is miscast but he and Lee are badly missed in the second half.

Movie review - "Barney" (1976) **

The producers got Columbia to pony up cash for this so good on them but it's not that great. A shipwreck leads a boy and convict to traipse through the bush but it never feels that dangerous or urgent. They cut away to the boy's father looking for him, panicking, then back to the kid who is having an high old time.

The film has amiable charm - it's sweet and the leads can act. Maybe Spike Milligan who has a cameo should have played the lead. It needed villains, more urgency, romance, something... just needed more work done on the script. They don't feel in danger.

Movie review - "A Dangerous Summer" (1982) * (warning: spoilers)

Dumb. So dumb. Quenin Masters is a poor director. Why didn't they do a straight up fire disaster movie. This is about a series of arson attacks. Tom Skerritt is fine. James Mason adds class. Wendy Hughes turns up to be killed in a swimsuit. Kim Deacon plays Skerritt's daughter though at first it seems she's like his school girl lover.

The film feels cut-about, rewritten. Brian Trenchard Smith apparently directed some footage that was used - I wish he'd directed it.

Ray Barrett is a fire fighter. I wish they'd done more with him. I wish they'd tied in Skerrit more to the movie - they could have cut him out.

I wish this wasn't so bad. Hospitals Don't Burn Down shows how it should be done.

Movie review - "Obsession" (1949) *** (warning: re-watching)

Always worth another look in part due to the enjoyable ham of Robert Newton's performance but also the crisp handling from Edward Dymytryk, who I think at heart was an excellent B picture director who lost something when he "graduated" to As.

This starts like the clappers with Newton scheming, getting a gun, confronting wife Sally Grey about an affair. I love the little comments in the Newton club scenes about England being broke - this felt like Aussie writer Alec Coppel having fun.

The action gets bogged down. Sally Grey plays it as trampy but is allowed to live. The American is geeky. The film probably could have used another character to be killed. I loved Nauton Wayne.

TV review - ep 1 of "The Borderers" (1968) ***

Location work on film exists uneasily with video tape studio work. Solid acting. I mostly watched it to see Grant Taylor, the Aussie actor who moved to England. He fits in well - he looks the part. The acting is good. There's a skinny Michael Gambon. Plenty of story. This period in English/Scottish history is full of excitement and incident and should have inspired more films/TV shows.

Movie review - "Secret of Blood Island" (1965) **

Late in the day follow up to The Camp of Blood Island (I don't think it's a sequel) is one of the few Hammer films to have a female protagonist - Barbara Shelley crashes in Malaya in 1944 near a prison. She's got super urgent information about an "invasion of Malaya" that is going to happen soon (that was a long way off in 1944... I wish they'd put in more thought to the Macguffin).

She hides in the camp, so pretends to be a man... which is a silly premise but has potential, and having made the decision to use it Hammer should have committed. You can see the scenes - "take your clothes off", "share a bed", all that stuff. But the movie is very restrained on the sex issue - only one prisoner tries to molest her and he's wounded. She has a quasi flirtation with some guy but that's about it.

The film is weighted too much toward s the men as well - Charles Tingwell as the top British officer, Patrick Wymark. All the acting is very good.

There's no Japanese. Michael Rimmer is in yellowface. Come on Hammer there must have been some Japanese around.

There's a little sadism and torture (and implied rape of Shelley by the Japanese I think) but it's not as full on as Camp.

Movie review - "Action in Arabia" (1944) *** (re-watching)

George Sanders in a bright Casablanca knock off at RKO - where Bs like this were more A minuses.  I love seeing Sanders as a hero.

There's a jaunty support cast full of vaguely familiar playrs. Lenore Aubert the second female lead speaks a lot like Ingrid Bergman. She's introduced too late in the day - the first half of the movie is shenangians in a nightclub the second half is action stuff in the desert with an arab leader. It feels like the film was heavily rewritten at some stage.

The direction isn't particularly energetic and I felt it slacked off as they left the city. But it has charm, the novelty of the setting and Sanders in action mode.

Movie review - "My Brother's Keeper" (1948) **1/2

A half good movie - a decent enough crims on the run tale with George Cole and Jack Warner escaped from prison. A dumb subplot with David Tomlinson as a reporter whose editor keeps interrupting Tomlinson's honeymoon Front Page style. Why have this? Why not have them cross with the crooks? Why not have the wife's life in danger?

Films made under Sydney Box at Gainsborough were always half good - they'd have these decent ideas and casts but not be there.

Warner is excellent. Great death running through a bomb field. Decent location work. I love his character and relationship with his exes. Cole is fine - might've been better with a stronger character though. Cole is too wet and weak. It needed a third strong character - not Tomlinson, a driven cop or something like they had in Runaway Train. And a stronger relationship between Cole and Warner.

Movie review - "Riff Raff" (1947) ***1/2 (re-watching)

Maybe the rating is too high but I was absolutely in the mood for this - some black and white third world backlot stuff from RKO. It's set in Panama but is really never never land.

RKO Bs were great - maybe because the A unit was so wonky there was a very good chance of promotion. Ted Tetzlaff really tried with a memorable opening silent sequence. It's one of Martin Rackin's better scripts too seeming to fleece from all sorts of Bogart movies - Pat O'Brien and Percy Kilbridge seem to be like Bogie and Brennan in To Have and Have Not while O'Brien and Anne Jeffreys ape Bogie and Bacall.

Oh, it's silly, but it's fun. I don't know what Kilbridge is doing driving a cab in Panama but he adds to the joy; Jeffreys is gorgeous, far too hot for O'Brien who is fat and old but that's part of the movie's charm - that he was a big a star as they could get, and he's lying on the couch when we meet him with his gut hanging out...

The story is fine, the supporting cast had a lot of zest - people like Walter Slezak. Some decent action. With this and The Window I'm really surprised Tetzlaff didn't do more as a director - maybe he started too late.

Movie review - "Make Me an Offer" (1954) **

No one has much good to say about the Group 3 films of the early 50s. This is one - it's not much. The novel sold well and was turned into a musical.Maybe it needed songs.

It's about Finch who is an antiques dealer into vases and stuff. It's hard to make that cinematic and this film doesn't manage it - there's not even decent antiques form.

This is the sort of role that needs a breezy star like Kenneth Moore. Finch was more of an actor than a star. I am so ambivalent about him in this movie. I watch him going "he's not bad, his performance is fine... I just don't care." There's a sweet moment where he finds the vase that he loves and smiles and it's solid acting but... the film's not really about that. You don't get the sense he actually truly loves the vase. Maybe I'm just more indifferent to Finch than I realise.

The guts of the plot has him trying to get this vase off Felix Alymer. I didn't follow all the stuff with him selling it and what not. The girl is Adrienne Cori... only she's not because Finch is married. That's dumb. The girl should have been single and it should have been a romance.

Finch's wife seems miserable. They've got two kids - it's weird seeing him play a family man. Maybe the character needed to be more Jewish or something. I dunno. This film just is very underwhelming.

Movie review - "The Day they Robbed the Bank of England" (1960) ***

Decent heist film. Lacks a little zing and is maybe hampered by Aldo Ray in the lead. I like Ray normally but he seems out of place in England of 1900 or whenever this is set. Maybe he was particularly drunk.

It's a shame because the lead role is ideal for an American - an Irish American helping the IRA rob the bank of England. Its hooked up with politics - they're ordeed to stop at times because Home Rule might happen which is a great complication.

Keiron Moore booms as a fellow thief and Elizabeth Sellers is alright as the Girl but the film is mostly memorable for two support characters - Peter O'Toole, full of youth and life as the idiotic upper class twit who gives Ray all this inside information then begins to twig (easily the best role - I think O'Toole was offered Moore's part and figured out accurately that the other one was the one to nab) and Albert Sharpe was a drunken tunnel digger. This maybe needed less Ray and more of the support cast but the period detail gives it difference.

Movie review - "Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga" (2020) ***

A bit flabby, Will Ferrell is maybe too old for this stuff and to co star against Rachel McAdams, and I wondered about Americans mocking Icelanders (is that still okay?)... but the film's heart is in the right place. There's lots of songs and colour, not to mention spectacular Icelandic scenery.

I also liked that Ferrell gave the movie to McAdams essentially - she has the biggest journey, for lack of a better word. Pierce Brosnan rocks up as he often does in Europudding movies. The money spent on Jonsi was well worth it.

Movie review - "Pirates of the Caribbean: On a Dead Man's Chest" (2006) ***

Johnny is fun. The script is solid, though it has a bit of Part 2-itis. It does feel overlong and bloated. Some very clever action sequences - a three way sword fight, spinning on the wheel. I like the writing better than the execution. It's ambitious. It tries to be a good film.

Problems in the first movie are exacerbated. Several characters remain underwhelming - Jack Davenport (and I like that actor) and the guy with a beard who is Depp's 2IC. I wish Tom Holland had done more - presumably he will in part three.

Orlando Bloom struggles even with the addition of a father. He and Keira Knightly seem monumentally disinterested in each other - they don't seem that keen in what's going on.

Heart. Maybe that's it - the film doesn't seem to have a heart. Best moment was the final kraken battle and Johnny D leaping into the creature. There were too few of those.

Movie review - "The Calendar" (1948) **

Edgar Wallace's original play was a hit in 1929 - it may have virtues which escape this sluggish film adaptation.

John McCallum is handsome and tall with an impressive voice but is a limited actor who was exposed here - his drunk actiong especially. I think he would have been fine in war films and dramas supporting a female star but here he's carrying the action.

Greta Gynt is very beautiful and can act. So too Sonia Holm. But I wondered why this was made. It's not exciting. There's not a lot of laughs for a comedy. No thrills for a drama. It's a story.

I so didn't care about this story. I had trouble following it but got the basic gist. I didn't care about any characters.

There's some location footage of Ascot, so if you like horses you could dig it. Diana Dors is in it briefly as a maid - I wish she'd had a bigger part. Like it she'd played the lead and McCallum the object of desire - that would be good,

Sydney Box wasn't a very good studio executive.

Movie review - "The Upturned Glass" (1947) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

One of a series of thrillers with Sydney Box's name attached - they all seem to have the same problem: a solid premise, bright ideas, effective moments but go wonky.

This has James Mason at least at his glowering peak. Lawrence Huntington's direction is solid. Pamela Kellino and Rosamund Johns are perhaps second-level but they do the job.

Good premise -driven surgeon Mason falls for married Johns, who then dies mysteriously. He's convinced it was Kellino, kills her, then realises he's mad so kills himself.

I think it was a mistake to not have Johns' husband as a man character. They probably should have had Johns be revealed to be alive. Also it would have been better had Mason been after a man rather than Kellino - it's unpleasant he goes after a woman.

The doctor character who appears at the end is too convenient - it would have been better had he been a friend/colleague of Mason's or something, instead of appearing with this convenient kid who gets injured. The character of Johns' child is under-used.

All the ingredients for a first rate thriller are here but they don't pull it off. Still it was enjoyable.

Movie review - "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl" (2001) ***1/2

It's overlong and feels bloated - I normally really like Hans Zimmer scores but this one not so much. But the film has a touch of magic about it - it's spooky and atmospheric and genuinely scary. The idea to use the ghosts from the game was a splendid one.

There is Johnny Depp who is marvellous with his rock star swagger. Orlando Bloom is completely fine as the straight man which you need in a world of character actors. Keira Knightley is wonderful - stunningly beautiful and spirited. Geoffrey Rush is fun, as is his motley crew.

Too long and the action sequences feel heavy and cumbersome but all the ghost stuff is great (this is more a ghost story than an action pic).

Movie review - "No Love for Johnnie" (1961) ***

Highly regarded in accounts of the careers of Peter Finch and Ralph Thomas, so I was keen to see it, but it was underwhelming. The skill that went into it was evident - it is a well made movie, Thomas does a strong job (it's easily one of his best movies) and Finch is typically excellent.

I had more problems dramatically.It sort of flounders. Finch is a Labour MP who doesn't get a cabinet position and then sooks a bit. His wife leaves him, his neighbour upstairs (Billie Whitelaw) has the hots for him, he goes and roots a 20 year old (Mary Peach).

Are we meant to care? He doesn't seem to have much drive or ambition he just sort of ambles along. He's keen to have sex with Peach, that gives it some narrative and she has sex with them then calls it off sensible. He's not good at his job - he never seems to care about his constituents, or even that in to any of his women.

There's some bed scenes with Finch and Peach - I think they were hoping for another Room at the Top but it didn't happen. Harvey's desires in that film were clear and understandable. He was faced with a clear moral choice which made things exciting. This plods along.

There's nothing at stake - when his wife suggests they try again it means nothing because they don't like each other and also she's a communist holding his career back so it's good it doesn't work out; the plot with Whitelaw goes nowhere; he gets to have sex with Peach, and she breaks it off causing no trouble. I mean he misses her but that's it. It's not a good match politically.

Reviews were kind. I think they were influenced by the fact the author of the novel died prior to publication.

The acting is uniformly strong - people like Stanley Holloway, Donald Pleasance, etc.

At the end I was like... oh... right. Well. Nicely done. But dull.

Movie review - "Tower of Evil" (1972) **

One of the films from producer Richard Gordon who I have a soft spot for because he was such a film buff. This is at heart an old fashioned people in a haunted house movie - specifically The Old Dark House, there's even a madman in the attic -, jazzed up with nudity, violence, sex, talk of masturbation, implied oral sex, etc.

The house is on an island but it's all shot in a studio. Interesting cast including Deryck Fowlds, Jill Haworth from Cabaret, Jack Watson, Bryant Halliday, Robin Askwith in a dubbed American accent, Aussie actor with a beard Mark Edwards (whose face doesn't seem to have expression - he was in Blood from the Mummy's Tomb).

It's not particularly well directed, but has some spooky moments.  The director seems to linger over the bare asses of the men as much as the nude women.

Movie review - "The Blind Goddess" (1948) ** (warning: spoilers)

The bloke who wrote the play on which this was based sounds interesting - Boer War service, top KC, high profile cases, Labor government minister, part time playwright.

I'm sure this was fine on stage - the tale of a libel trial. Its hard to get too excited about libel cinematically - it's all words. The back story of this does sound cinematic - ripping off post war programs in Prague. Hello Third Man. But we don't see it.

There's lots of clipped voices and slicked hair. The cross examinations are fine. Eric Portman is always decent value. I liked seeing Michael Denison at first but his character got on my nerves. Claire Bloom is lovely in a "girlfriend" part. Anne Todd's character has possibilities -a woman who had a fling with Denison and is willing to lie for husband Hugh Williams; if they'd trashed her up, had her sleeping with Denison, and being ruthless, then it might be fun. I did laugh how unconcerned Portman seemed to Williams' probable suicide at the end.

But this isn't a very good movie. I wouldn't recommend seeing it unless you love British libel trials or Eric Portman.

The film vanished from my mind not long after seeing it.

Movie review - "The Fantastic Four" (2015) **

I went with this for the first half hour - it was pared back, laid back, but fine, with a strong cast. Around half an hour in it started to wobble then got sillier and sillier and ended up a boring mess.

So much felt not real - this company paying a fortune for these teens to run experiments, the teens getting drunk and breaking in, the vagueness of the villain's goals ("world domination!").

Why is the government bad for wanting control over this? What was the original cut? Could it have been better?

Maybe if the film had started with Miles Teller on the run. Maybe if it had embraced the kids at school concept and done a teen movie version.

I do feel it would have been a better movie with one third the budget.

Movie review - "Wanted for Murder" (1946) **1/2

One of a series of film noirs the British film industry turned out in the late 40s, possibly because they were cheap to make rather than public demand. Eric Portman is excellent if perhaps too old to play a mummy's boy, son of an executioner, serial killer.

He taunts Scotland Yard with his crimes, but is also tormented - easy to read queer subtext into this. Some location filming helps as does a glimpse of rationing London - Derek Farr and Dulcie Gray go to a restaurant and can only order two or three things.

Farr and Gray seem like real people, the mood is down beat and the pace is fast. This isn't a masterpiece but it is enjoyable.

Movie review - "Daybreak" (1948) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Follow up to The Seventh Veil from Sydney Box, Ann Todd and Compton Bennett but, crucially, no James Mason.

It's not a bad story, and has a strong gimmick - a hangman is going to hang a man for the hangman's own murder. Not enough is used for the hangman's gimmick and the film feels emotionally cheating by using two suicides.

There's some convoluted stuff whereby Portman is a barber and a hangman and pretends to inherit some barges... it's like one too many things. Ann Todd is alright, Portman is excellent.

Maxwell Reed has a smouldering look that no doubt looked good on stills, and there were a few "new Stewart Grangers" around this time, but he's awful. He might've been alright if he didn't speak but he attempts a Dutch accent and it's like he had a stroke.

The barge setting is different, the support cast features some decent names like Bill Owen and there's decent atmosphere. It was cut about by censors so it's not all the filmmakers' fault.

Movie review - "The Spider and the Fly" (1949) **1/2

The first film from the reactivated Mayflower Productions, benefits from atmospheric Robert Hamer direction and strong leads. The story is good too though I wonder about the structure - detective Eric Portman chases thief Guy Rolfe, and both men kind of love each other and also a girl, Nina Grey, who works for Rolfe. Portman gets Rolfe two thirds in and the last act it's World War One and Portman arranges for Rolfe to get out of prison to spy. It's like they started the whole movie again. Shouldn't that be the whole story?

Portman is typically excellent; Rolfe is impressive too, he steps up. Grey less so but I don't think it's her fault, she doesn't get enough screen time - more scenes would have helped (I would have revealed she was a spy then played it out more).

Should be remade. I'm surprised they kept this as a French story - could've worked as a American or British one.

Movie review - "Day of the Panther" (1988) **

My memories of this movie are better than watching it again. The story is functional though full of cliches - white man raised to fight like Asian, very white dominated (even his Obi Wan is white - John Stanton).

Some camp factor like the aerobics instructor gal doing a "sexy" dance to the hero and John Stanton doing kung fu. Michael Carman camps it up though again my memory was that he was funnier. Eddie Stazak is fine. He has a decent look and can fight.

Typically fast pace, some decent fights and interesting use of Perth locations like the water and an ampitheatrei.

Movie review - "Christopher Columbus" (1949) ** (warning: spoilers)

How did Sydney Box manage to blow 500,000 quid on this? There's a few shots of ships, and some costumes but a remarkable lack of spectacle - I guess it's in colour but crappy 40s British colour, some scenes on ships, a few castles. Frederic March is in the title role - why? He was clearly on the decline. They would've been better off using someone local.

It's not an interesting story. Columbus raises money. Flirts with kathleen Ryan in some scenes that were inserted later apparently. Goes to the Indies. Helps start the slave trade. Gets opposition at home. Feels un appreciated. The end. Seriously, that's it - the film just ends.

I'm not a Frederic March fan but even they surely struggle with this. Boring. Not even good to look at. Was Sabatini's original novel any good? Did Sydney Box make any decent films at Gainsborough? I think he was a one picture wonder - The Seventh Veil. I don't mean to be mean, he had a lot of ability, Andrew Spicer wrote an excellent and fascinating book on him but... look at the scoreboard.

Movie review - "Playing Beattie Bow" (1986) **

I haven't read the original novel - surely it made more sense than this effort, which felt confusing. The opening trippy sequence was effective but after that it was hard going. Maybe "hard" is the wrong word - more dull. Another underwhelming effort from director  Don Crombie - I wonder why Caddie was so good, and also The Heroes.

It could be the script though Peter Gawler has done some fine work - but I found it confusing. Also lacking in excitement. Not much was done with this modern gal in old time Sydney. The electric music score is annoying. The huge set is wasted. The romance is undercooked - one minute Peter Phelps is into Imogen Annesley then he's not, is that right? The accents are variable. The action scenes underwhelm (a fire where Annesley has to jump off a building).

There's some adult content - Annesley winds up in a brothel and needs to be rescued (her boob gets groped) in a scene which could have been removed from the film without it impacting anything else - but that's not why it works.

Annesley is fine but her role probably should have been played by Nikki Coghill who simply is a better actor and far more animated (and just as good looking). Coghill is better at conveying what the character is thinking.

Kids might like it.

Movie review - "Caravan" (1946) *** (re-watching)

These films are fun. Silly but fun. They tried to make them better but didn't understand why they worked and killed the fun.

This has unrealistic sets, which kept the budget down and made the story more believable because it takes place in never never land. 

Stewart Granger is excellent as is Robert Helpmann; Dennis Price imitates James Mason, and isn't as good , but this is one of his better works. Jean Kent is fine - great character but she is second tier. 

Anne Crawford is a debit - I'm sorry she died young in real life, but she is. Her character doesn't help - bland blonde English lady.

We didn't need all those flashbacks at the star, but it moves at a decent clip - English films forgot how to move. It gets Gainsborough requirements - a good guy and a bad guy, both into sex; a good girl and a bad girl; the bad girl isn't really bad but is foreign and sex mad so dies; the good girl suffers but gets the guy. Why was that so hard for Sydney Box to understand?

Movie review - "The Earthling" (1980) *

It's hard for an Aussie to listen to the dubbed voices of Alwyn Kurts, Olivia Hammett and Jack Thompson. It does pack an emotional wallop to witness Ricky Schroeder watching his parents going over a cliff crying out "daddy"... but even that has comical moments with the accident being caused by Thompson's bad driving (he just has to reverse doesn't he?) and dubbed yelling.

William Holden is a good actor though not terribly convincing as an outdoorsman and certainly not as someone who grew up in Australia. Maybe Robert Mitchum could have been more convincing with his Sundowners heritage. (Poor old Rod Taylor clearly wasn't a big enough star).

The film could have done with baddies out to get Schroeder.

Sam Arkoff presented this - it's a Filmaways movie rather than an AIP one.

The locations and cinematography are beautiful. It has an impact on me as a dad because Schroder cries for his parents. There's resonance in that director Peter Collinson died of cancer shortly after filming ended age only 44 - and Holden died shortly after too. 

But it's a poor movie. Ambling along. Holden miscast. Too many Americans.

Book review - "Operation Chastise: the Dambusters Raid 1943" by Max Hastings (2020)

A comprehensive look at the dam busters raid by one of the best war historians around. Lots of detail- less of those terrific anecdotes though that Hasstings is so good at.

He praises the heroism but down plays the importance of the raid - it was important but not that crucial and was not followed up the way it should have been, because Bomber Harris was a bit of a dill (must bomb cities! must bomb cities!)

I like how he paid tribute to unsuccessful pilots who perished and/or just failed - he points out correctly they were just as brave as Gibson.

It's got to be said though this felt like a less strong book from Hastings - familiar territory, stuff that we'd heard before. I enjoyed it but it wasn't as good as his others.

Talk by Paula Prentiss in Feb 2020

I watched a talk by Paula Prentiss at a screening of The World of Henry Orient.

Some takeaways
- she seemed lovely and a bit mad - I don't say that in a derogatory way but she was off with the fairies
- talked about her luck and joy and the importance of finding joy
- Texan accent can still be heard
- said she auditioned with Dick Benjmin at Northwestern performing from A Hatful of Rain, going all method and joking how actor-y it must have seemed
- Joe Pasternak gave her a new surname - he discovered Deanna Durbin and Doris Day and was a big believer in alliteration
- she had warm memories of everyone especially Where the Boys Are
- this random actor stood up and said he was in The Black Marble with her and dropped off an envelope gave his name said he was Christian Slater's father then left

I went up to get a photo but there were all these fans who had piles and piles of things for her to sign - one must have had twenty. I got a photo - talked about Australia and No Room to Run which she remembered fondly. She was concerned about Australia - all the country being on fire.

I talked briefly with Richard Benjamin, told him Quark had been on Oz TV a lot growing up, and commiserated over the recent passing of Buck Henry.

What a long time ago now it seems.

Movie review - "Horror Express" (1972) ***1/2 (re-watching)

Put this on for fun. Spanish actors pretending to be in Russia. Lee and Cushing. A script that gleefully raids The Thing. Telly Savalas stealing the show in the last 20 minutes. Some attractive women. Dodgy effects. The romance of a train. Rasputin like figure.

Great fun. Love it.

Movie review - "All at Sea" (1977) *

Grundys attempted to make an Australian Carry On movie for TV - maybe it would have done better as a feature with more nudity (though there is some eg Abigail).

It has to be seen to be believed. Achingly unfunny. The sheer fact is exists gives it some fascination, especially with the cast that includes Noel Ferrier. Stuart Wagstaff, Abigail, Joy Chambers, Megan Williams (in a bikini in one scene), Mike Preston, Cornelia Frances.

Cornelia Frances as a woman whose sexual energy is unleashed is funny. Williams looks lovely.  Wagstaff is under utilised. The rest simply have poor material.

It looks cheap, like it was shot in Sydney motel - which it was, apparently.

Book review - "Apropos of Nothing" by Woody Allen

Still digesting this. It's long. Fascinating. Some of it's great. Some of it is off putting. Random thoughts:
- nice to read him paying tribute to people who helped him (eg Danny Simon and other random writers, Jack Rollings) - does he similarly mentor other people
- excellent accounts of growing up in Brooklyn and his family
- interesting on his influences eg Tennessee Williams, Kaufman and Hart, SJ Perelman Bob Hope
- Louise Lasser section is especially fascinating 
- his putting himself down gets a bit wearying - after a while it's like "alright already" especially has he overdoes the self depecation at times
- his greatest achievement is rescuing Soo Yi from her life of servitude apparently (Mia didn't take her to one show or museum!)... couldn't he have just said it was meeting her
 - for someone who says he hardly dated actresses he seems to talk about the ones he dates a lot eg Louise Lasser,  Mia Farrow, Diane Keaton, Jessica Harper, Stacey Nelkin
- he constantly talks about how he's on good terms with all his exes except Farrow
- he hammers Farrow.
It's an odd book.  I'm still processing how I feel about it.

Book review - "Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker" by Barry Sonnenfeld

Very well written. Some great moments. I actually didn't have that much fun reading it, though, I've got to be honest. Not quite sure why.

Interesting stuff, like his observations as to why DOPs generally make bad directors (they promote their old crew, so still think like a DOP - he used someone he'd never worked before). Funny story about working in porn but even that is a little off (he gets covered in sh*t). He clashed with Penny Marshall on Big. Scott Rudin is very colourful.

He falls into rich person's troubles at times - the plane crash story, he whines about being put on the cheapest private plane. Excellent insight into being a DOP.

Movie review - "The Light at the Edge of the World" (1971) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Splendid rocky locations and lighthouse. Yul Brynner ideal as a pirate. Kirk Douglas in some late period stardom - he also produced.

At first I wondered why this movie cost so much. But then boats become involved - Douglas clambered over them, there's boats on the rocks, etc. That wouldn't have been cheap.

Good solid concept - Douglas is at a lighthouse that's taken over by pirates led by Brynner, who turn it into a wrecking location.  The development is less assured - Douglas runs around rocks and doesn't seem to have a plan; he kills the odd pirate then goes and hide again; his actions don't stop Eagger being pack raped and his associate being killed.

Surprisingly violent - the pirates kill Douglas' co workers relatively mildly, but when they get a boat to crash they go about killing women and children, hacking away. Later on a man Douglas rescued is flayed alive (skin ripped off) before Douglas shoots him dead, Samatha Eagger is pack raped by the ship's crew (which does happen off screen at least) on a ship which is blown up by Douglas so they all die.

Brynner seems more interested in Douglas than Eagger but at least it's well cast.  Not very tense. Strong idea - they should remake this.

Movie review - "The Everlasting Secret Family" (1988) **

Nutty movie. Fascinating. A friend said it managed to be both homoerotic and homophobic. It's so odd.

For the first half hour or so it was promising. Private school student Mark Lee is seduced by politician Arthur Dingham who then uses Lee who seduce other elements of society. "Oh so it's like a thriller that will be interesting" I thought and awaited for thriller shenanigans. Nope.

Then it sort of hinted that Lee was going to try to find the secret of immortality and then I thought "oh it's going to be a sort of horror/fantasy thing" and waited for that. Nope.

Lee falls for Dingham's son to Heather Mitchell (Paul Goddard) and they... fall in love. The end. Huh?

Why was this film made? How did it get financed? Ginnane was involved? It's a real head scratcher.

It's not particularly well directed, like most Michael Thornhill movies, but again like most of his movies at least has ambition.

Louis Nowra plays a snide suit salemsan in the vein of the one in Sunset Boulevard and does very well.

Movie review - "The Overlanders" (1946) ***1/2 (re-watching)

Chips Rafferty perfectly cast. Gorgeous photography and locations. John Fernside solid support. Daphne Campbell perfect - blonde, cool, an excellent horsewoman, enigmatically sexy. Peter Pagan not that great - bouffant hairstyle, he seems a little camp. I get why Campbell didn't want to be with him. Henry Murdock and Clyde Combo splendid. Great kid actor.

Harry Watt not as great on drama as shooting but there's always something happening - river crossings, missing horses. Film could've done with a villain maybe - or maybe that wouldn't have worked.

A really first class movie though - one of the best British movies from a very strong cinematic decade from that country. It's a shame Ealing/Rank couldn't work it out in Australia more.

Movie review - "Strike Me Deadly" (1963) **1/2

Ted V Mikels became a cult favourite with some odd ball movies and an exotic lifestyle but this debut feature is a very accomplished piece of low budget movie making, as good as anything from Corman did in the late 50s (except for maybe Corman's Chuck Griffith classics).

The first third is terrific - fast action with a crazed shooter trying to kill Gary Clarke. It benefits from location filming in Oregon - its in the wilds, there are waterfalls and cliffs and a bushfire.

The film loses pace in flashback - it becomes this sort of intense drama between Clarke and a woman and... actually I got a little confused. Some impressive production values in the nightclub. I do wish there was more action. But the last act is action.

Totally non schlocky, a very impressive looking debut from Mikels.

Movie review - "Bush Christmas" (1947) *** (re-watching)

Ralph Smart should be better known than he is, some of his films really hold up. This is charming, simple, with lovely locations and excellent kid actors. Chips Rafferty, John Fernside and Stan Tolhurt are solid as the thieves. Why did Rank make no more kids films here?

It's a shame it isn't in colour. The pace can be a little slow. But the acting is good - and I love how they vary the types of kids (English, spectacles, girl, aboriginal, little, older).

They could have done more with the Christmas angle maybe. But it's very sweet. A deserved success.

Book review - "The Satan Bug" by Alistair MacLean (warning: spoilers)

Written under a nom de plume but Maclean eventually came out of the closet. Exciting. Clever. A virus has been stolen from a lab. I used to find virus stories boring but no more in this post-COVID era. The first two thirds is very Agatha Christie - not a lot of action. Investigation, suspects, etc. Then the last third is action and it's great.

I wish there had been more action but it is a smart, tough, clever adventure from Maclean's golden period. Some better characters - the enigmatic lead who seems to be disgraced but actually isn't; his wife's father; the villain.

Some violent deaths.

Book review - "Blue City" by Ross MacDonald (1947)

Filmed with Brat Packers in the 80s - it is about a young man, but here he's a war veteran which is a hell of a difference from an 80s Brad Packer. This reminded me actually of a Western - lone man goes into town, finds out his paw was shot dead in the main street, deals with crooks and an uncertain constabulary, falls for a girl from the saloon (they have sex).

Fresh writing, the hero makes mistakes, quite a high death toll. Tough dialogue. I enjoyed this.

Movie review - "Bungala Boys" (1961) **

Everyone loves Bush Christmas so it's a surprise it took the CTF so long to make another movie in Australia and even more surprising that it was such a dud.

Oh, maybe "dud" is too heavy. It's not very good. It has a strong "world" - surf clubs - but is mortally wounded by dubbing all the actors into this sort of cockney English. Even Leonard Teale. The kid actors are dubbed by people who seem to be too old.

The hero is a little kid who looks up to his elder brother who is a smug surf life saving prat. There's none of the easy egalitarianism of Bush Christmas - no decent female or black part. No decent villains either just some random delinquents who periodically come along to cause trouble.

The views of Sydney beaches are nice. That's about it.

Movie review - "Backroads" (1977) **1/2

A short feature - clocks under 60 minutes. Great pair of lead performances from Bill Hunter and Gary Foley. Foley should act more - he's got the looks, the intensity. Their relationship is the best thing about the movie.

There is a lot of driving. I could have done with more crime to be honest. Sometimes it had dull spots. The Julie McGregor part isn't a lot of fun - she joins the gang, and spends most of her time being manhandled by funny accent Terry Camilleri in the back seat and the others don't seem to notice or care. I wish she'd been allowed to develop more of a relationship with Hunter and Foley instead.

TV review - "Robbery Under Arms" (1985) Part 1 **

Maybe it was impossible to successfully film a story as a mini series and a feature film at the same time... or maybe this was just wrongly executed. I'm looking here at ep 1 of the mini serires.

It has some of the pleasures of 1980s 10BA filmmaking - a healthy budget, impressive production values, stunning photography.

It lacks star power apart from Sam Neill, though Steve Vidler is fine in what is really the biggest role. Tommy Lewis is excellent as Warrigal.

Episode one seems to have a lot of padding - horse galloping and jumping, shenanigans, people punching each other out (there's a lot of that), a cricket match.

We don't have any character development - no real exploring of the relationship between the brothers, or the brothers and their father. Neil and Lewis are just outlaw and sidekick. I got the women mixed up. This a shameful waste of time.

Chris Cummins, who had a moment in the mid 80s (Anzacs) is the innocent brother. Deborah Coulls, who I recently saw being murdered in Lady Stay Dead gets the best female part, the one of Kate.

It's interesting this was directed by Don Crombie and Ken Hannam, two directors who started their careers with a bang then who trailed off. Hannam was probably the better director but seems to have been the more temperamental, sooking during filming.

Play review - "Two Brothers" by Hannie Rayson

Astonishingly terrible play which one feels obliged to defend because it was pilloried by Bolt and Henderson, but after you acknowledge that those two are terrible men who've damaged the cultural fabric of the nation, this is a bad play.

It's got a fantastic central idea- a tale of two brothers, one conservative, one a small l liberal - and a great set up - the conservative has killed someone.

But Rayon writes with no empathy, no understanding, "Eggs", the bad brother, not only kills, he finds he enjoys killing, he orders refugees not to be kicked up, he's a bad husband, a father who drove one son to drug taking and betrays another one, a bad brother, a bad uncle. Not that the other characters are much better - the women sigh and are trampled, the "flaw" of the liberal brother is he was a pants man, the refugee is a stock wailer (a trope in many pieces from left and right wing writers - no humanity, no humour, no complexity, just wailing).

Alright so it's didactic, well Clifford Odets could be didactic - but Odets could use theatre. This starts off promisingly with a murder and then three interlocking speeches but then it's all short scenes, done TV stye. The tension inherent in the set up - a murder is committed and people are on their way - which really should have been the whole focus, is thrown away.

This feels like it was written by a fired up first year uni student who researched it by reading The Age and talking to a racist uncle, not an experienced playwright.

Movie review - "The Lighthorsemen" (1987) **

It looks a dream - beautifully shot, gorgeous design and landscapes, etc. It's heart is in the right place. But it's so flawed as a drama. The 1940 film had a silly storyline but it moved. This doesn't move. It keeps stopping.

It's as though Ian Jones constantly wanted to "surprise the audience by doing the unexpected" and just sucked the drama out of it. The Aussies are going to brawl with the Brits and... the Brits cheer the Aussies. So there's no brawl. No pay off. Gary Sweet has to shoot a horse... who we've just met. We meet Peter Phelps in rural Victoria and all these horses... then jumps to the desert. Why even have the scenes in Victoria. (The opening spiel indicates it will tell the story of the horses as well as the men, and that would've made sense... to set up that it was going to tell the story of a horse as well).

I guess it was interesting to have Phelps as a hero who realises he can't kill - that was different. If not very exciting.

The film doesn't have a clear hero, which, I mean I get it, but it's unsatisfactory. You've got Peter Phelps as the newbie, Jon Blake as the swashbuckling Han Solo type and John Walton hamming it up as an ocker and Anthony Andrews as a spy. Actually Blake hardly does anything until the end except hang around when he's the most heroic at the end. The film's soul is in a mini series, I think - all those different protagonists would have worked better.

The one time the film takes flight is during the final charge - with rapid editing, and fire, and there's momentum rather than just endless elegant shots of horse riding on the horizon.

They would've been better off starting with the climax and plotting backwards - really focusing the movie around Blake, Walton and Phelps. I think ditch Andrews altogether - he pulls focus. Make a horse the main character. I'm not joking. They don't service their leads enough - like, that chat Phelps has with an officer about not wanting to shoot... give that to Blake.

The romance between Phelps and Sigrid Thornton is so undercooked - he's a patient, she's a nurse, the end. Thornton is professional but looks bored. She seems too old for Phelps. Betty Bryant's role in Horsemen was great - she was active, dressed as a boy, spied, saw her father killed, got laid. Here Thorton puts her hands on a brow and writes a letter.

Gerard Kennedy looks silly. Shane Briant and Tony Bonner make it feel like TV.

It's beautiful. But stately. Images rather and action.

Play review - "The Torrents" by Oriel Gray (1955)

This has a great story behind it - equal first to Summer of the Seventeenth Doll. But it isn't very good. Or funny. Sorry! Woman goes to work for newspaper... that's kind of cool. Love triangle with her and father and son - great. But the drama is undercooked and the jokes aren't awesome. I preferred Burst of Summer from this author, it had more wallop.

Movie review - "The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith" (1978) ****

I can't get over the fact  people were surprised this didn't make its money back. It actually did quite well at the box office considering its subject matter - but it was expensive.

A marvellous film though. Powerful. Incredibly well made. Better on second viewing because you know a time bomb is coming.

Tommy Lewis is heart breaking as Jimmie - so cheerful. So smart. And he explodes.

Angela Macgregor is wonderful with her prematurely middle aged face and low rent nature. Ray Barrett is terrifying as the vicious, rapist cop. Liz Alexander is the picture of smug middle class ness. Ruth Cracknell is wonderful. Actually everyone is good. Maybe Tim Robertson's accent isn't so crash hot. Bryan Brown pops up as does Arthur Dignam, Ray Meagher, Peter Sumner.

There's actually not a lot of violence in it. But when it happens it breaks screen taboos - Jimmie kills old ladies, young girls, a baby.

This is a masterpiece.

Movie review - "The Empty Beach" (1985) **

Some moments remain vivid in my mind from watching this when I was young - the bright explosions at Bondi Pavillion at the end and Ray Barrett asking a cop who shot him how old he is, Nick Tate being stabbed in the surf, Bryan Brown accusing Belinda Giblin of stirring the shit...

This has bright photography, and Bondi at it 80s best, plus Bryan Brown in the lead. I haven't read the original book so don't know what if anything was changed but it's not a very good mystery - real estate developers and investigative journalists. It lacks a sense of reality and atmosphere. I don't think it was particularly well directed or written. Maybe it needed voice over.

There are some decent actors in the support cast who I would like to have seen more of - especially Ray Barrett but also John Wood. There's also some actors who are weak links. I found Joss McWilliam's killer effective. But it feels under cast in the support actor section.

There's decent moments - I like the final shoot out for all its silliness, and Cliff Hardy in the old persons home.

Movie review - "Dogs in Space" (1987) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

The sort of movie I once disliked because of its ambling narrative and the fact it glamorises the too cool for school brigade (the late seventies punk scene in Melbourne wasn't that influential, was it?), but as time goes on I guess I've mellowed, and it does really capture a time and place.

Michael Hutchence is effective even though he doesn't do that much apart from show his shaggy hair; Saskia Post does most of the heavy lifting - she's lovely and her death packs a real wallop.

Lots of effective moments, which is good since it's a film of moments - watching Countdown, Gary Foley and the feminist yelling at a party, Chris Haywood rabbiting on, the nerd trying to study (I liked this plot it grounded the story). Michelle Bennett, later producer and then a friend of Hutchence, pops up as a casual pick up - she's stunning.

Movie review - "Target Harry" (1969) **

Roger Corman doesn't talk a lot about this movie - he took his name on it - but he did make it, he does a cameo, brother Gene produced.

It was one of a series of unhappy experiences Corman had with the major studios, in this case ABC.

It starts with a bang - literally - car chase and an assassination. The pace is fast generally. The cast is outstanding. Vic Morrow isn't an asset. I'm not overly familiar with him as an actor - this movie puts him front and center. He glowers. Mumbles. If you're a Vic Morrow fan you'll enjoy this more, let's put it that way.

But the support is divine: Suzanne Pleshette (looking gorgeous, channelling Mary Astor), Victor Buono (channellng Sidney Greenstreet), Michael Ansara (channelling Peter Lorre). I wish there'd been a bigger part for Charlotte Rampling (gorgeous), the daughter of Stanley Holloway who is killed. I actually wish there'd been a bigger part for Holloway too.

There are some scenes with sex and violence which feel inserted after the event - apparently this happened, which may explain why Corman took his name of it. The locations are enjoyable.

Movie review - "Oz" (1976) **1/2

A movie that's very endearing in its seventies-ness, with windswept roads, panel vans, short shorts, Ross Wilson soundtrack, glam rock finale, groupie hero. It has a very clever central idea, an updating of the Wizard of Oz -an idea that really could havee taken off with a bigger budget and script. I think it could have been a great musical.

I'll be honest I'm not overly wild about it - too ambling. And Gary Waddell and Michael Carman - actors I really like - play characters who are super offensive for too long. At the end they're nice to Dorothy and the camraderie kicks in and I thought "that's what the film should be" - it came a little late. The villain isn't very good.

Still, to take a walk on the sunny side... Bruce Spence has charm as the surfy afraid of water (alas, the budget doesn't let us see that) and Joy Dunstan is engaging as Dorothy.  The tunes are nice. I liked actors playing multiple parts.

This wasn't an inherently low budget idea - I so wish they'd had a bit more time and money to do it justice.

Movie review "27A" (1974) **1/2

I feel it was a TV movie more than a feature but good on them for doing something this uncompromising. It feels, smells and looks so real, the low budget is artfully used. It benefits considerably from Robert McDarra in the lead - only in his forties, alcohol killing him.

The film is was most reminiscent of was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with a patient being tormented by an orderly - in this case Bill Hunter. Richard Moir pops up as a patient. The film would have been better had it gotten more into other patients-  like the aboriginals who made up a great portion of the population (such as Eddie Gilbert the cricketer).

The story as is is a little repetitive. McDarra escapes. Doesn't do much - goes on a bender, Sees a crummy show. Goes back in. It's hard to get too upset that the government had the power to retain him indefinitely when we see what he does when he gets free is scrounge money and drink.

But a wonderful central performance, I like that the doctor was sympathetic and not evil, some memorable faces among the support cast. The movie has an atmosphere.

This is the sort of movie that I had to force myself to watch - I've been meaning to see it for years but never got around to it - and am glad I did.

Movie review - "Patrick" (1978) *** (re-watching)

Stylish. Clever. Some great moments. Susan Penhalgion's performance never gets the credit she deserves maybe because she was English. She's a very good woman in peril. And the movie feels seventies.

I got Rod Mullinar and Bruce Beeby mixed up. Maybe one of them should have worn a moustache or something.

Robert Helmann and Julia Blake are great hammy fun. I kept expecting Helpman to die. Nicely shot. Great music

There's some flabby passages. Richard Franklin's handling isn't as good as it would be in Roadgames. But there's some tremendous moments too. And the film has archetypal power - the man in love with the nurse, being possessive. There's some feminism in the script with Penhaglion dealing with all these controlling predatory men (something that popped up in a few Everett de Roche scripts).

A very good movie. I remember it spooking me when I saw it on tv and it retains that power.

Movie review - "Fatty Finn " (1980) ***

Loved this as a kid. Not as good as in my memory but still much to admire. Bright colours. Period detail. (Glebe was used.) Decent script. I loved the cricket references. Episodic but linked with a narrative - Fatty consistently gets ahead and falls back.

Ben Oxenbould is ideal, as are his mates. The kid who plays Bruiser isn't as strong. Enjoyable turns from Noni Hazelhurst, Bert Newton, Gerard Kennedy, Lorraine Bayley - although the biggest adult part is the cop.

There's a scene where Oxenbould meets Robert Hughes - and I did worry about Hughes running loose on that set.

Fatty's dad is a deadbeat, as is Tiger's - some to think of it so was Smiley in the Smiley movies. Something about Oz kids films.

Movie review - "The FJ Holden" (1977) ***

Michael Thornhill's drama-free style works better here. This is like an observational documentary more than a narrative feature - though there is an overall narrative, which helps it, because it's focused around Paul Couzen's relationship with Eva Dickinson. Both these actors were raw but effective - I'm surprised neither had bigger careers.

I recognised support players like Sigrid Thornton, Graham Rouse, Gary Wadell. The film feels authentic. The rituals - leagues club, work, family dinners, parties, trips to the mall. Tight family and friend units but rife with lack of ambition and bullying. I liked how the movie paid attention to family units - films about young people often focus on them, but here the families clearly influence the characters as much as the friends.

Some things are shocking in their matter of factness - Dickinson sleeps with Couzen's mate before him, because she's expected to do it. Couzens work mates beat him up because it's hilarious. People aren't depressed. I think they need a hobby.

I had to adjust myself to the rhythm of this movie but eventually got into it.

Movie review - "Newsfront" (1978) ****

Maybe it's because I've been watching so many Bruce Beresford films that I found the pace for this slow. But actually it isn't slow... it's deliberate. It's a stealth movie that builds. It became more and more effective.

It would mean more to me if I remembered the times depicted, but I heard about it, and it was an interesting time in Australia - the post war idealistic recovery period, with its communism fears and ALP split and growing American influence.

Marvellously cast. Bob Ellis had a real feel for the time, people and place. Like many Australian movies it just sort of ends - there's no build to Bill Hunter telling his brother to get stuffed. Also the conflict is muted - Gerard Kennedy's brother character isn't in the movie much, he's at the beginning then disappears then comes along at the end (he and Hunter never seem like brothers); and the rivalry with John Ewart is really some squabbles and that's about it.

But that does make it realistic. Pared back. Australian. I love how Phil Noyce used Ken G Hall's know-how for this.

Bill Hunter is a different sort of lead. Very effective. Wendy Hughes is excellent - achingly beautiful and a good actor (doing a lot with expressions). Bryan Brown, Drew Forsyth, Don Crosby, Lorna Lesley, Angela Punch, Chris Haywood are fantastic - everyone except Kennedy he and isn't bad, not really, just not as good as original choice Jack Thompson. Mark Holden is in it. And Steve Bisley. Plus a lot of reliable 50s faces like Tony Barry, John Clayton.

Bob Ellis gave a lot of credit to the music, which has been poo-pooed but the music is very effective. I don't think this is the greatest Australian film of them all, as many do, but it' s excellent.

Could it be remade for the 1980s?

Book review - "Walkabout" by Louis Nowra

Excellently written essay on the movie. Nowra is not only a strong writer, he looks at films in a different way to me, so it stimulates the brain. He's also worked on movies so knows how they are made. This is probably the best of this series.

Book review - "I am Legend" by Richard Matheson (1954)

Masterpiece. Elegant. Concise. Doesn't waste time. The sequence with the dog devastated me. I admit I forgot about Ruth. Amazing ending. Why has this not been filmed properly?

Movie review - "Puberty Blues" (1981) ***1/2

I loved the TV series but this film holds up well in its ripped from the headlines way - it was contemporary but doesn't sell out. The two lead girls are rough but perfect, they look authentic, as does the boys.

Bruce Beresford excellent in anthropological studies, and this is definitely one - the kicker being these aren't working class girls but middle class girls chasing after social acceptance.

The face that has stuck with me is Freda - the not good looking girl who sleeps around and is ignored. She was heart breaking and I hope the character on which she was based is happy. Geoff Rhoe has a nice presence. I related to the parents a lot more this time around. Beresford keeps the pace fast though I did feel they could do more with the climax. He really was on a hot streak around this time. I think only Ken G Hall matched it.

Movie review - "The Long Weekend" (1978) *** (re-watching)

A sort of sequel to Don's Party with John Hargreaves and Briony Behets is middle class types recovering from some couple swapping and an abortion by heading to the country, where they whinge, make a mess, shoot things.

An eerie, effective movie that one has to be careful not to overpraise or else you might cause false expectations but is extremely good. Beautifully shot. Wonderful use of sound. Editing. So on.

Everett de Roche scripts often had well rounded female characters compared to others in the genre - the influence of his wife? He did have six daughters or something.

The quality of this gave a false picture of what Colin Eggleston movies would be like from this point on. (There's quite a few Aussie directors who fall into the "one good movie only" category.)

Book review - "The Barry McKenzie Movies" by Tony Moore (2005)

Interesting look at the two films. I would have liked more on the production details, but that is me. Moore is more interested in the cultural impact. Bringing in Mark Latham as part of the tradition of larrikinism was interesting - it might be ideal to do a revised edition exploring this (the evolution of the larrikin to something else etc etc). The affection Moore has for his subject is endearing.

Movie review - "War of the Satellites" (1958) ** (re-watching)

I was lucky enough to see a good looking print of this which showed off Flloyd Crosby's fine photography. It's not a bad movie. Famously made very quickly to cash in on Sputnik but there's intelligence at work. Seems influenced by Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Dick Miller isn't well cast in the lead. Richard Devon is good as a scientist who gets possessed. Susan Cabot has a strength and intelligence that is effective.

The space ship looks silly - it's like a living room. It's not a bad movie. Nothing special. Really for completists of Corman, Cabot or Miller.

Movie review - "The Getting of Wisdom" (1977) **1/2

A film that's suffered under the shadow of Picnic at Hanging Rock and My Brilliant Career - especially the latter, even though it was made earlier.

It does feel familiar - a coming of age period piece with its spirited heroine battling against society etc etc. It lacks three things Career had: female gaze (Beresford directs with great pace and energy, and strong casting all that stuff... but doesn't have the nuance that Armstrong brought), the X factor of Judy Davis and Sam Neill (Susannah Fowler is fine, just not Judy Davis), and a more coherent story in the relationship between Davis and Neil. This does have Fowler's relationship with the older girl, which is sensitively handled, but introduced late in the day. Maybe the film would have been better if it made more of the lesbian angle.

Barry Humphries is fun. Candy Raymond is excellent - her three Beresford performances were all different: seductive slightly insecure suburban minx, French school teacher, slightly bogan investigator. John Waters is strong value. Sigrid Thornton (who in hindsight probably should've played the lead) is a bitch like she was in FJ Holden. Kerry Armstrong is in it too. I vaguely recognised the other girls.

I loved the cricket scene. 

It moves with speed, has intelligence and literacy. I think the two main reasons Beresford thrived while other contemporaries faded were his literacy (he was always optioning books) and the pace of his films.

Movie review - "Between Wars" (1974) **

Dull. Ambitious. But dull. Michael Thornhill may have watched a lot of movies but clearly hadn't learned how to create drama.

There's intelligence on display here. It's different. We get World War One but the hero is a doctor. We glimpse psychology after the war, the rise of the New Guard. German internships. That's interesting.

A little bit.

The hero, Corin Redgrave (love the voice... but could not an Aussie have played this?) is regressive, passive. He has a fling with a sexy dame but it's not very sexy. Neither is his marriage to Judy Morris.

It's weird this film was written, and financed. I mean, was Frank Moorhouse that big a name? Michael Thornhill?

Movie review - "The Last of the Knucklemen" (1979) *** (warning: spoilers)

Tim Burstall was a bit cocky in the mid 70s about having his finger on the commercial pulse but like all directors soon discovered it was harder than it looked. The public didn't go to this. Or anything he made after Eliza Fraser, really.

It's a shame because this is a decent movie. Beautifully shot, some tough locations, a strong cast. It feels a little Sunday Too Far Away - men being tough in the outback - even though I think the play came first.

There's memorable scenes - the poker game between Mike Preston and Michael Duffield, some brawls, visiting the prostitutes. It's an interesting world.

But it lacks focus. Sunday had Jack Thompson this one is more all over the shop. It's an ensemble piece which is fine, but it lacks some unifying event. I guess Mike Preston is trying to take over from Gerard Kennedy... but that doesn't unify the other strands. You've got Michael Caton being a newcomer, and a guy who looks like Honey Badger the football player being mysterious, and a subplot about a robbery in the city which feels outlandish, and Duffield being old, and the prostitutes... It feels diffuse. The robbery stuff clangs - an escaped con working there feels natural but the story here feels at odd in its melodrama to the rest... especially Honey Badger being a kung fu expert.

I think more work needed to be done on the adaptation. Maybe really focus it around Preston trying to take over the gang. Use Kennedy more - he's hardly in the film. They can be trying to get allies. Or it takes place over one night. Or something.

I wonder if this is one of the films that David Williamson was referring to when his surrogate in Emerald City goes "I see films and know how they could be made to work but no one gives me a call."

Still, much to admire - an excellent chance for Duffield (who has a far bigger role than Kennedy), people like Steve Bisley are in it and so on.

Movie review - "The Club" (1980) ***

Williamson's play is a masterpiece, Bruce Beresford should have been an ideal director, and the cast is perfect - every single one. But the film isn't much. It's fine, but no way near the play.

The problem is easy to spot -in a desperation to "open the material" the play has been restructured so it is presented chronologically. We start with the champion player (a skinny John Howard, which is weird) being offered money and Graham Kennedy signing a personal cheque. Exchanges that all unfolded in real time on stage are spread out on screen - over at least a month, with a coda of the grand final that would be months later.

I didn't mind the grand final coda, it was very satisfying to see John Howard integrated into the team, but the rest it was a mistake. It dissipated the tension. The play piles it on - coach Jack Thompson is about to be fire, so is president Kennedy, so is top player Howard, Harold Hopkins is leading a strike, Alan Cassell and Frank Wilson are trying to organise a coup... it's wonderful. Here it drags on. The dialogue is the same, but time is strung out instead of compressed.

They just should have filmed the play -  you could have opened it up by  ducking into different rooms and parts of the ground, like Beresford did in Don's Party but stringing out the time line doesn't work. Also some exchanges which felt naturally like intimate talks take place in all these public arenas.

So the film doesn't work as well as it should.

Which is a shame since the casting is perfect - Wilson, Cassell, Howard, Hopkins, Thompson... and most of all Kennedy, who is magnificent.

Movie review - "Manganinnie" (1980) **1/2

A film made with love. It's heart is in the right place. Beautiful locations. The two leads are very good. It is a little dull. A lot of trudging around. There's some sort of pirates in the third act but they're not in it very long.

It has an achingly painful subtext because you know Manganinnie's whole tribe is going to be wiped out. Yet the story on screen lacks drama - it needed another character or something. And it felt like a cheat somehow that Manganinnie could return the girl at any moment.

Full of beautiful moments like singing for the dead girl. But there aren't enough of them.

Movie review - "Cuthroat Island" (1995) **

A film that put back pirate movies another decade and helped kill Carolco and Geena Davis' reign as movie star. She's not super convincing as a pirate but looks great with her long hair and willowy tops.

Big. Noisy. Glossy. Unexciting. I liked the colours. It always moved. Simple story ineptly executed - I got confused with all the map stuff. How hard is it to do a map story?

Weird to see Matthew Modine as a pirate. They never quite get a fix on his character. Weird to see Geena Davis as a pirate. Frank Langella suits this world.

I expected the dodgy script and odd casting. I was surprised how unmemorable the support cast where - the actors who played members of Davis' crew. Random dull black guy. Kid actor. Monkey. Random crusty people.

A mess. Still, it was a big colourful studio pirate picture.

TV review - "You Can't See Round Corners" (1967) various episodes ***

Creaky, often on the nose, the sets wobble. But its interesting - quite adult (Carmen Duncan and Ken Shorter have sex). Being a TV series it can explore the nuances of the novel more and I feel updating it to Vietnam from World War Two works.

Duncan is moving as the girl who loves Frankie. Ken Shorter is solid too. It is interesting to have such a down beat lead character. I mean, he's a deserter. So it was gutsy of Channel Seven.

Movie review - "Teenage Doll" (1957) **

Roger Corman's second film for the Woolner brothers is similarly female-crim-centric and doesn't have locations but has a better writer, Charles Griffith. It's about a female gang determined to get revenge when one of their member wind up dead.

It could have done with more trashy girl gang action than melodrama - like Thunder Over Hawaii and Beast from the Haunted Cave, come to think of it. There's lots of characters set up - a daughter of a cop, a sister of a woman who seems to be a mistress. a Mexican American who suffers persecution, a woman whose dad is sleeping around... but not really developed. This could have done with another draft or two and thirty more minutes.

I felt gypped there wasn't a big inter girl fight. Some groovy slang- wish they'd be more. This is the sort of film you keep wishing was better. They should remake it,

Handling competent rather than inspired. Barbara Mouris pops up. The lead is Fay Spain who isn't that great. Nicely shot. Richard Devon is a cop.

Corman clearly liked being around women. I think they complained less and were less confrontational. Still, these actors rarely played better parts.

Movie review - "Lady Stay Dead" (1981) *

Of all the genres they made in Australian cinema in 1981, this belongs to the genre that remains most common - psychos tormenting women - which says something about society, but also about the resilience of low budget genre.

Terry Bourke strikes me as one of those directors who can clearly produce but aren't very good directors. It's cleverly put together - one psycho, one location. Its pervy - full frontal nude swim from Deborah Coulls, who then has her head shoved in a fish tank the poor thing.

Chard Hayward throws his heart into the role of the psycho. Actually so does the whole cast. Louise Howitt screams a lot. Her character should have taken more control in the third act. Roger Ward kind of takes over, though it is fun to see him.

A lot of the second half choreography makes no sense. It's mean. Cruel. Exploitative. The film will have its fans.