Play review - "The Big Time" by David Williamson (2019)

 The frustrating thing about David Williamson's later plays isn't that they're bad, well not just that they're bad, is that they have so much promise and you could see how easily they could have been better. This has a showbiz background so you would assume the details are right and is on a topic very much up Williamson's alley - competitiveness.

It has virtues: it's heart is in the right place, it argues for a kinder word, it breezes along, it tells a story and you're never quite sure how it's going to turn out. I also liked the character of Rolly, the deadshit friend from school every bloke has - his life marked with constantly failure and disappointment. 

The rest just feels... wrong. The way people talk about writing, the conversations they have, the dialogue seems on the nose, people talking the subtext, the details. I liked the idea of an actor trying to get revenge on a colleague they were jealous of, this is very common at drama schools, I just wish Williamson had made the leads men instead of women; he's always been less comfortable writing the latter.

None of it felt real. How you pitched shows, how actors get roles. An actor going to direct a Hugh Jackman starring feature on the basis of a short, then going straight back to acting again and being so big a TV series can only be made with her in the lead...? Does that ever happen? 

An actor who worked on a soap complaining that she had no challenges - I know I'm biased because I work on a soap, but if she'd really been on a soap she would have been married three times, lost her memory at least once, been kidnapped... The play has that sort of lazy attention to detail that it accuses actors in soaps of. 

This goes for other things like the supposedly massive importance of ideas for a TV show (the idea doesn't sound terrifically original), the fact that Celia is "betrayed" by not being given the lead in a feature (I mean, f*ck off don't be so spoilt) and then by - get this - her boyfriend not making a sale of a TV conditional upon her being in it... come on, it's a multi million dollar investment and she breaks it off because she won't guarantee a job. 

Look I get that an ego maniacal fool would think that but Ceclia here is just this nice bland talented person. Maybe that's how Williamson should have pushed this - in broader territory with everyone ruthless. He's done a kind weak satire about ruthlessness. There's only one bad person - Vicky.

I know he was inspired by his sons. He should have made it actually about them - it might have had reality. The writer doesn't even feel like a writer.

Emerald City was wonderful. It felt real. This feels like something written from overhearing a few conversations.

I wish he would rewrite this.

Oh and structurally it's choppy - lots of short scenes, like a movie, many of the scenes could be cut entirely.

Movie review - "Tarzan Goes to India" (1962) *** (re-watching)

 This has two interesting concepts neither really developed - Tarzan a stranger in a strange land, in this case India, and Tazan is played by someone over 40, in this case Jock Mahoney.

He's helping delay a dam which is a slightly lumpy story. In Africa Tarzan always had a personal stake. That's not the case here.

It looks beautiful, was shot on location, John Guillermin directs well. There's a cute Sabu-esque Indian kid, and some sympathetic Indian grown ups but the main villains are white as well as Tarzan and most of the Indians are extras. There's no love interest which is a shame.

The action is well done and Mahoney looks like a Tarzan.

Movie review - "Red Line 7000" (1965) **

 A fascinating car crash of a movie, if you forgive the pun - because it is so absolutely purely Howard Hawks. Its full of fresh faces, the women keep trying to talk like Lauren Bacall, everyone hangs out and is noble in the face of death, there's overlapping dialogue, talk of professionalism, and being Hawksian.

And it could have worked. Hawks has a great feel for the camaraderie of the drivers and their women - they are groupies, though, just kind of hanging around. The basic stories aren't bad - a girl who dated a racer that died worries he's bad luck (this happens at the beginning though... it may have been more effective had we seen their relationship), a womanising driver has a fling with the sister of his boss and she goes head over heels, a man falls for the French girl of his rival but can't get over the fact she's used goods.

But the stories aren't really developed in interesting ways - we never see the bad luck girl with the guy who dies, so it doesn't matter much, and the new driver who loves her doesn't have a reason to do so; the womanising driver and the girl are just together then break up then he disappears from the movie; not enough time is spent on the rivalry.

Hawks needed to focus on the key six - it's hard enough doing that - but then the manager of the team gets all this screen time and so does Charlene Holt. There's a singer in there too. He doesn't do justice for the stories.

More importantly, the cast aren't up to it. James Caan is terrific - he's got "new star" all over him, you can see why people expected him to be one straight away. His character is loathsome, calling the girl he likes a slut because, gasp, she had a former boyfriend, but Caan is excellent. The other two racers, John Crawford and Skip Ward are far too anonymous - I kept getting them mixed up. Norman Alden was fine, but I kept forgetting who he was too. Couldn't they afford Walter Brennan?

Now the girls. Charlene Holt is fine... but I don't think they needed her character. Gail Hire is spectacularly bad with that voice. Laura Devon tries - has some moments - but really needed a better actor to play against. Mariana Hill is fun as a French girl, constantly dancing.  She gets to do some scenes with Caan.

There's not enough strong actors as Hawks later admitted. Not enough work on the story. Moments of pure camp like a song and dance number, and one of the racers competing with a hook once he loses his hand.

Still I enjoyed watching it. Everyone being Hawksian and not up to it.

Book review - "The Drowning Pool" by Ross MacDonald

 The second Lew Archer novel, I think - filmed with Paul Newman. There's a small town, drinkers, dodgy cops, a gay husband, a matriach, troublesome teen, a chauffer. It's a solid mystery. Archer didn't come alive for me the way Philip Marlowe did - maybe it's me. His philosophising can be interesting.

Movie review - "Sheena" (1984) ***1/2

 This isn't a fashionable opinion but at least I share it with Pauline Kael: I like this movie. It looks gorgeous, was beautifully shot on location, has a wonderful score. The script flies along -Lorenzo Semple was skilled at this even though David Newman was the one who did the heavy lifting - and John Guillermin was still on it at this stage.

Tanya Roberts' method like intensity takes some getting used to but once you tune in she's great fun and has the body of an athlete. I think it was a mistake to show her breasts and bare backside - I think bare back and implied nudity would have been fine, breasts is too pervy.

Ted Wass is an engaging hero, handsome and a bit klutzy, but an ideal partner. They shouldn't have put him in that red towel at the end.

I'm aware it's problematic with its white saviours and all that. I will argue in the film's defence at least it's in present day Africa and there are a lot of positive black characters (the Obi Wan, the president, the tribal leader) it's just most of them are killed. The Donovan Scott character could have been black. There are several white villains.

Enjoyable action - I loved the jeep charge at the end, Sheena wielding her arrow and bow, the flamingo attack. This is fun. There doesn't seem to be a cult about it though.

Movie review - "King Kong Lives" (1986) **

 Nothing wrong with the idea of a sequel, especially bringing in another ape. Really Kong should have fought the ape, but they decided to go romance... Maybe even that could have worked. I didn't mind the artificial heart - that's fine.

But this doesn't work.

For one there's no sense of adventure. Brian Kerwin discovers Lady Kong in Borneo and captures her - that's dealt with in about five minutes. The rest of the time the Kongs are stuck somewhere in the USA (I assume North Carolina, where this film was shot). They escape, then Lady is recaptured, then they escape again. The rampage is limited. Much of it is played for laughs: stepping on a sports car to the angst of a teen who doesn't know how he'll tell his parents, going past a golf course and being wacked on the head, another teen drives a motorbike between the ape's legs. The army shoot at it. 

More damaging, there's no sense of character. The leads, Linda Hamilton and Brian Kerwin could be cut out of the movie entirely. They have no relationship with the Kongs - none. It's a shocking misjdugement. Hamilton helps put in the artificial heart, it's true, but other scientists do that too. Kerwin discovers Lady Kong in Borneo but that's dealt with in five minutes, as a I said. The first half they have this bantering relationship then she offers up her sleeping bag and bam they're a couple. No more conflict. No difference of opinion. Compare Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange - he was an ecologist, she wanted to be famous, they came at different angles. And he really liked Kong and Kong loved Lange - it was moving. Now Kong doesn't seem to care.

The villain, John Ashton, is just bad because he's military. That's it - he goes to kill the ape because he doesn't like him, which I get. In the 1976 version Charles Grodin wanted to exploit Kong for money.

Wouldn't it have been easy to give the villain a better motivation? To have the apes have a relationship with Hamilton and Kerwin? Like Kong shouldn't have been unconscious for ten years - if he'd been alive and Hamilton was his keeper and they had this strong bond. And if Lady Kong loved Kerwin. That would have made sense.

There are occasionally effective bits. When rednecks come against Kong and he tears into them is very satisfactory. Linda Hamilton and Brian Kerwin are pretty. You get a glimpse of Hamilton's boob - okay, I get it, I'm stretching for good things to say. The effects are fine. John Ashton hams it up. I like the score.

But it has a dumb story and is full of silly decisions.

Movie review - "Mr Patman" (1980) *1/2

 John Guillermin directed three massive hits in a row then wound up doing this odd psychological thriller/character study in Canada, part of that country's film boom which consisted of aging stars in movies that couldn't find finance in Hollywood. What happened? Did he yell at one star too many? (I'm guessing yes - he was a notoriously cranky director.)

This is an ambitious piece made by people unable to execute it. James Coburn is oddly cast as a nurse who works the night shift in a psych ward. Coburn is too strong an actor for this to work - there's no sense of insanity, going made. Donald Sutherland would have been much better. Coburn is a stud muffin - several women throw themselves at him, including landlady Fionala Flannagan, doctor Kate Nelligan, some crazy ladies who are nude. The latter is at least lively and this movie might have been better going in a more trashy direction - with a murder or something. 

I've called this a psycho thriller but it isn't really - it's more of a character study, and not that interesting. 

It's low on atmosphere and movement and is just a dull movie. I've attached a copy of a prospectus advertisement.

Movie review - "The Tracker" (1988) **

 The last film from John Guillermin is a polite late 80s Western with Kris Kristofferson absolutely fine in the lead. Maybe he's too clean cut and groomed for a role that required someone more grizzly - Kristofferson in ten more years, say, or Tommy Lee Jones.

It's kind of like The Searchers with some baddies kidnapping some women and Kristofferson leading a posse. Scott Wilson is a head baddie, the female characters are paper thin, most conflict is between KK and his sophisticated big city son played by Duck Philips of Mad Men.

Duck's character arc is to learn the benefits of killing people. He struggles to kill, is reluctant to kill, he inspires KK to not shoot Wilson but then KK is punished for this by being shot by Wilson, and Duck is forced to kill Wilson. Because when all is said and done killing is the only way, right?

It's politely directed in that late 80s TV style. The dust feels clean. Look it's fine.

Movie review - "Miss Robin Hood" (1952) **

 Are there any decent Group 3 movies? I'm sure there's some. Maybe. This was hard going. It's the classic sort of film with decent ideas but it doesn't have enough faith in the ideas to hold a movie so they add all this stuff.

Margaret Rutherford running an orphanage engaged in crime is strong enough on its own and Richard Hearne writing a comic strip on his own might be worthwhile but mixing them doesn't work. We barely see the comic book don't get a sense of the character or what the adventures are or what happens at the orphanage. Rutherford is fine but I found Hearne charmless.

This was annoying. Talented actors like James Robertson Justice and Sidney James are wasted. Ian Carmichael pops up. I found it annoying,  stuffed with bits.

A cult comic strip loved by kids could be gold. So too could a criminal orphanage manner. They ignire the gold and add bits. It's frantic and unshaped.

I think John Guillermin wasn't very good at comedy, too.

Movie review - "Tarzan's Greatest Adventure" (1959) **** (re-viewing) (warning: spoilers)

 I'm really enjoying re-watching John Guillermin's movies. This was great. When I watched it again I wasn't impressed as I was when I first saw it - because that was off the back of seeing the Tarzan movies in chronological order, and I noted how the quality kept falling and this was such a leap back to form. So I didn't have that context. But as the film went along it just kept being great.

The photography helps - that wonderful Ted Scaife grainy colour. Location filming in Kenya is a plug (though there's a fair bit of studio work). Simple story but full of novelty - Tarzan speaks English, helps out the local district officer, he is injured with blood. 

The villains are outstanding - Anthony Quayle, Sean Connery, Nial MacGuinness, Al Mulcock, sexy Scilla Gabel. I liked Sara Shane as Tarzan's busty, feisty love interest  - they have sex. Scott isn't an awesome Tarzan - he seems like a bodybuilder rather than someone living in the jungle - but he's fine.

Tough action. Love the ending where Tarzan kills Quayle and does his yell.

Movie review - "Waltz of the Toreadors" (1962) **

 Maybe you had to be there. This was a hit on the stage. Did people care about adulterous army officers? Maybe Ralph Richardson and Margaret Leighton made them care.

Peter Sellers mugs. He made this a hit in England - he had a hot streak at the time. I like Sellers. At least I think I do. This was a hard slog. Leighton's in it, she can act. Dany Robin is fine, I suppose. I wanted a bigger star. John Fraser isn't up to it. Maybe neither was director John Guillermin. He whinged that the producers ruined it. But did they?

It looks handsome. Cyril Cusack is in it. And Prunella Scales. I didn't find it funny. Or that it had any point.

Movie review - "I was Monty's Double" (1958) ***

 The gimmick is they got the real guy to play himself and Monty. I gather the real Clifton James - Aussie born - was more of a character; we don't see that, and it goes in soft on Monty. This film could be remade now both are dead.

But those restraints happen. The script was by Bryan Forbes who has a role at the end (quite heroic, helping John Mills wipe out some crack German troops). I think it helps this was written by an actor because there's lovely acting stuff - James thinking he's being hired for a film and bringing along a scrapbook of his reviews, James having last minute nerves, getting up on stage and worrying about blowing it.

John Mills and Cecil Parker have fun as intelligence men. I think they could have added a female glamour  - Parker has a secretary, and the gag is she's plain... why not have her engage in a romance with Mills or James? It can be chaste. There could have been more humor.

But then again, maybe that would have made the fictitious last third, where James is kidnapped, less exciting. This is well done - Germans knife English sentres in the back and are ruthless.

Support cast full of familiar faces like Marius Goring, Leslie Phillips, Michael Hordern. An entertaining, skilled movie.

Play review - "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" by Herman Wouk

 Really solid courtroom drama. Three knock out characters - everyone knows Queeg but two others are standouts: the snotty, snivelly novelist Keefer who turns into the villain, and the heroic Jewish lawyer Greeberg. Maybe this is out of line, but I imagine these characters are Herman Wouk wrestling with himself. He can identify with the superior novelist, who is an Iago, proud of his petty achievements, but also of Greenberg, who worships old WASP sailors and the navy.

The story tries to have its cake and eat to to - Greenbeg is sorry for Queeg yet Queeg should clearly have been replaced; what else could they do?

Fascinating drama. The technical mumbo jumbo is also terrific. Surely an inspiration for A Few Good Men.

Movie review - "The Towering Inferno" (1974) **** (warning: spoilers)

 Pure entertainment. Disaster films were mocked at the time but this has so much going for it: genuinely exciting storyline, skilled script by Sterling Silliphant that juggles a lot of balls in the air, confident handling from John Guillermin, decent stunts and effects, and a genuinely starry cast: some B listers sure (Robert Vaughan, Richard Chamberlain, Susan Blakely, Robert Wagner), and camp casting (OJ Simpson) but two genuine former A listers (Fred Astaire, Jennifer Jones) one on the slide (Bill Holden) and three at the top of their game (Newman, McQueen, Dunaway).

Dunaway has the least to do though she looks gorgeous and is good. Wagner has a moving trapped and death scene with his girlfriend. Chamberlain is great fun - I'm surprised Dunaway didn't ask for his part. Newman and McQueen are entertainingly heroic. I did expect Holden to die. Jones' death is a real jolt.

There's a death mother and a cat, but some of it is genuinely moving. The fire starts quite quickly into the action and it's scary in that Newman is on to the problem straight away.

Excellent fun.

Book review - "A Story Lately Told" by Anjelica Huston

 Huston is one of those improbable people who you can't help liking even though in many ways she was born on third base - stunning mother, father John Huston, unconventional looks which led to modelling work, a lead role in a feature for her first acting gig, growing up in Ireland with sidetrips to London and Europe and everywhere, really.

It wasn't all easy. Mum died in a car crash, dad was often not around, there were plenty of sex pests. This goes up to her moving to LA which began her relationship with Jack Nicholson. There's fascinating accounts of Huston household life and making her movie and her lover, the photographer Bob Richardson. Huston is a beautiful writer. I was hoping for more muck raking but that's me.

Movie review - "Rapture" (1965) ** (warning: spoilers)

 Odd film. It's head scratching why Fox made it. I know Zanuck was on a French kick but still... Maybe he liked the idea of Patricia Gozzi having a crush on runaway crook Dean Stockwell. Rozzi is barely legal - actually I don't think she is legal. I think she was 14 when she made this and she gets into bed with Stockwell for the third act.

I wasn't sure if she was meant to be insane but I think it was reality. I mean here is a girl who makes a scarecrow and thinks Stockwell is the scarecrow. Was he into her or not? I wasn't sure.

Melvyn Douglas isn't that French as her dad but he's fine - just old to have a 14 year old daughter.  Gunnel Lindblom is Gozzi's hot nanny.

John Guillermin directed this. He throws in atmosphere, moves the camera, does a good job. He doesn't get the DNA of the film - presuming that was possible.

It might have been better had they made this a more conventional thriller - girl in love with man on the run. But it's unclear abuot the other character's motivations.

I didn't mind this for a while but eventually got sick of it.

Movie review - "King Kong" (1976) ****

 I was totally in the mood for this. It's tongue in cheek but the core relationship is serious i.e. Kong's love for Jessica Lange. Lange's character is self centred and dumb but at least is consistent; Lange is gorgeous. Jeff Bridges is very 70s hunky with his pro ecology status and long hair - the film gives him plenty of things to do.

The most pointlessly dopey aspect of the film comes at the end when Lange and Bridges are hiding out in NYC and Kong finds Lange. There was no need for that - it's dumb, and Kong could have just kidnapped Lange at the beginning of his rampage.

The sense of adventure is high; Charles Grodin is fun as the oil exec (very cleanly motivated); John Barry's score is lush; the animal suit antics are fine; Ed Lauter popped up. It's moving at the end with Kong's heartbeat stopping. I missed dinosaur island but at least there is a killer boa.

I think people will remember this fondly a lot longer than Peter Jackson's version which seems to have vanished in collective memory (even though I enjoyed that when watching it).

Movie review - "Never Let Go" (1960) ***

 I get why this wasn't a hit but time has been kind in part because we know now that Peter Sellers would not make many more dramatic performances, and Richard Todd became less of a star, and it was a very early appearance from Carol White.

It's a gripping crime tale, modest ambitions but made with terrific pace by John Guillermin. Sellers gets the most attention by Todd is excellent as a weakened, battered down man, a cosmestics salesman who is facing the sack, whose car is stolen by car thieves led by Sellers.

It turns out Todd has a tradition of quitting but in this one he's determined to guts it out. It's a brave performance by Todd, who plays a weak and hopeless person, although by the end end he grows a big dick and becomes a man by beating up Sellers.

Sellers is a terrifying, shouty villain, smacking around teen Adam Faith and Sellers' mistress Carol White, desperate for acceptance. I get audiences wanted to interpret it comically - but it's richer than that.

Jazzy score plus When Johnny Comes Marching Home over the credits. Fresh photography. Strong acting. I liked Todd's slimy work rival. The part of his wife is thankless - Elizabeth Sellers steps in.

Movie review - "Another Man's Poison" (1951) **1/2

 Much disparaged and not entirely successful but there is a good movie in here struggling to get out. The plot needed to be simplified. Also I think every guy in the movie should have wanted to shag Bette Davis. Gary Merrill clearly does, which is great (he and Davis are an excellent on screen couple you can imagine them having drinks, slapping each other around and having make up sex every night); Anthony Steel is meant to be sleeping with Davis but while he's handsome he can't convey lust; Emlyn Williams as a smug neighbourly vet should love David too but he's asexual.

Davis was an excellent actor but the film was unsure how to pitch her - she should have gone full throttle, been a complete villainness. The film has good twists - the final poison drinking, the reveal she's rooting Steel, Merrill pretending to be her husband - but feels inconsistent.

I think maybe it was a mistake to make her a writer and not something more obviously sexy like an actor. Or maybe that would have worked. She could have been costumed more flatteringly.

The movie should have been about passion: everyone hot for Davis, her hot for Steel, furious when rejected etc. There's not enough sex in it. Maybe that wasn't within directing Irving Rapper's skill set. 

Still not as bad as some have dismissed it. It suffers next to All About Eve but on its own level is fine.

Movie review - "Storm Over the Nile" (1955) *** (re-viewing)

 Decent remake of The Four Feathers (1939) where the cast is actually better but they don't get a chance to do anything more since it's basically a shot for shot remake.

Anthony Steel is fine in John Clements' part. It's only when you see two actors play it did it sink in - this isn't much of a role. Hardly any time is spent exploring the cowardice option - he's a coward for about two scenes. Then when he's heroic he is mostly in blackface.

Mary Ure, a beautiful and talented actor, is wasted in a nothing part. Laurence Harvey isn't as good as Ralph Richardson - Harvey was really only good as swines, and the character here is too noble, too stuffed; you can see him trying to act, holding it in. James Robertson Justice isn't as good as C Aubrey Smith but it's fun to see him. Geoffrey Keen is fine as are Ronald Lewis and Ian Carmichael but only Keen has much to do. (They should have killed off Lewis or Carmichael).

It's fun to see Christopher Lee pop up as an Arab. The photography and location work remains impressive. It's a satisfying story. Cheeky of Korda to try a second bite of the apple but it worked - this was a hit.

Movie review - "Harry Black and the Tiger" (1958) ** (re-viewing)

 This doesn't work. It should - the basic story is solid. There's location filming in Africa. Maybe Stewart Granger isn't up to the role - it's a meaty part: a hunter who lost part of a leg trying to track down a tiger that is tormenting a village.

Maybe he's too put upon - attacked by a tiger, crippled, he has a whimpy mate, he doesn't get the girl. He doesn't get a chance to kick ass. That Indian nurse seems a little into him - they should have developed that.

It's not that exciting. There's no real personal stakes in the tiger hunt until the end when a brat kid runs away and that's only a short time. The tiger should have killed Barbara Rush - to give Granger a reason to go for it.  The tiger kills a kid but the Indian characters are given such little screen time it doesn't have much impact.

Steel has a different ish role - a coward, bit of an incompetent but not all that bad. He's not up to it. Can't convey emotion. Barbara Rush is too polite at the girl. Needed to be someone more obviously hungry for love.

They dub the voice of the kid. Bad move. I remember bad dubbing in Northwest Frontier as well. Something about poor dubbing of kids in late 50s movies shot in India. The stuff about protecting the kid's image of the cowardly father reminded me of Shane.  But in Shane Van Heflin was a brave man who deserved respect he just wasn't a professional gunfighter; here Steel is this mediocrity in someone else's country whose incompetence causes Granger to be injured twice.

It is weird to see all these white characters acting as if its pre 1947 in India when it is set after World War Two. They should have just set it before the war and had another reason for the injury.

Nice location work. But dull. You can see why it wasn't a hit.

Movie review - Xmen#5 - "X Men First Class" (2011) ****

 Matthew Vaughan doesn't have the reputation of a Chris Nolan but he sure can make a solid comic book movie. This for me was the best of the franchise so far, a very smart, stylish, well made piece of entertainment.

It had the benefit of a decent origin story - Xavier and Magneto have such a fascinating conflict, and Mystique also is compelling. Vaughan has cast it perfectly - Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy seem like friends, Jennifer Lawrence brings X factor, and others like Rose Byrne, Nicholas Hoult, January Jones, Kevin Bacon, etc are all very good. I guess some of the minor X men aren't that memorable. I loved seeing Michael Ironside in a big budget movie.

It is a little pervy - Zoe Kravitz, Jones and Byrne all strut around in lingere like, well, Claudia Schiffer and Lawrence discovers the joy of going nude and blue and tries to seduce Fassbender.

It dragged around the two third mark due to bloat but recovered, in part because the central conflict is so strong, you can't go wrong with Nazis, and Magneto such a justified protagonist.

Very entertaining.

Movie review - "Town on Trial" (1957) *** (warning: spoilers)

Good, tough British crime film - one of a bunch financed by Columbia, who totally got how to make international appealing British movies: no cosiness, a lot of pace. 

This was co written by Ken Hughes, normally a director, a man who I'm coming to increasingly appreciate. It was produced by Maxwell Setton, another man whose films I seem to always enjoy. The director was John Guillermin - it's less of a surprise for me to like his work.

Guillermin does a strong job - flourishes, and energy. John Mills gives a strong performance as a detective investigating the murder of a sexy hotpants girl in a small town. 

I love the class criticism - the townsfolk are irritated by Mills and dislike the girl because she was flashy. I'm surprised the Yanks didn't remake this.

I'm also surprised that the girl Mills is interested in wasn't threatened at the end. And that there's a second killing (of a girl who does an exotic dance beforehand) and she dies... we meet the parents (dad is Geoffrey Keene) so the death has weight.

Charles Coburn is in this as a nasty seeming doctor - it's as if he's channelling his Kings Row performance and this film is a little like that movie which is praise.

There doesn't seem to be stakes at the end - like who cares if the killer falls off the Church steeple, Mills is silly to go up.

But a strong movie. Fast paced. You can see Guillermin growing in confidence.

Movie review - "Adventure in the Hopfields" (1954) **1/2

 Decent, brisk, efficient movie for the CCF directed by John Guillermin who does a fine job. It stars Mandy Miller who had been in Mandy and is very good as a girl who smashes her mother's china then goes picking to pay for it. No one seems to bat an eye as she gets on a train and then goes to work. What was the labor market like in 1954 England.

Strong fire finale. Plenty of story.

Movie review - X-men#4 - "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (2009) **

 Wolverine gets his own movie - it skips over him fighting with his brother in World War Two, and then we go into a brand new team full of mutants including Deadpool, then by minute 18 he's out, and with a girlfriend. Nothing wrong with banging through story but I wonder if they do it too quickly.

It's the classic sort of movie which seems unsure of its core. Which is dumb the core is so obvious: it should be about Wolverine and his brother, and Wolverine and his girlfriend. But the actor who plays the girl isn't up to it, and the film seems unsure of itself - it smells of "hey lets put this in" so you've got a bit of Ryan Reynolds, then a bit of Will Am I, and a bit of Taylor Kisch (who comes in at the end, and a bit of the blob, a bit of all these other movies.

It's a great example of how you can go wrong if you don't focus on the core. This movie has a core but doesn't focus on it.

It feels like a patchwork quilt. Not good. There were added quips and bits like Wolverine throwing his cigar on some flame. It just got annoying.

Play review - "The Graduate" by Terry Johnson

 This is a radio version of the play adaptation of the film - the cast includes Kathleen Turner and Bruce Davidson.  It was never that wild about the film - maybe it was over praised. It adapts quite well to stage, the writer did a good job. From memory the second half seemed changed more - there's a scene between Mrs Robinson and her daughter, and a different build up to the finale.

The second half is less entertaining - less Miss Robinson, more doormat Elaine and lot more Benjamin being stalker-y and rape-y to Elaine. He's a psycho. I'm on Mr Robinson's side. But there are laughs. Turner is very good - actually the whole cast are.

Movie review - "Operation Diplomat" (1953) **1/2

 Low budget British B which is a little like  Crisis  - Guy Rolfe is a chain smoking doctor brought in to operate on a man of mystery. Sidney Telfer is in it. The suspense doesn't really built - Rolfe is let off the hook - but it's crisply done and has plenty of story or 70s minutes. It's got much more pep than many British As around this time. Some attractive female co stars. Anton Diffring pops up.

Movie review - "The Crowded Day" (1954) ***

 A decent "three girls" movie from Adelphi, who made low budget comedies and tried with this unsuccessfully to move into the "big time". i.e. mid tier Rank movies, of which this resembles.

They have two Rank stars, John Gregson and Joan Rice, who are well cast as a couple of coworkers who have a romance. There's also Josephine Griffin as a single girl who gets pregnant and Vera Day as a starsruck girl who allows herself to be seduced by Sidney Talfer who pretends to be a director.

Technically it's a four girl movie - there's a subplot about Patricia Marmont being secretly married to a man in a wheelchair who is quite controlling.

There's dark aspects to this, especially the Griffin plot - the mother of the man who slept with her calls her a slut, a man tries to rape her, her boss says she'll have to go away while pregnant and gives her a home where she can have the baby and says she can have her job back.

It's cute how Gregson - who was in Genevieve - plays a character obsessed with a car. It's not at all believable how the man who knocks up Griffin comes back.

Apart from that Talbot Rothwell's script is warm and empathetic as is John Guillermin's direction (It's weird to see him associated with this sort of movie, but he does a solid job... he was Adelphi's main director).

Strong cast including Sid James, Rachel Roberts, Joan Hickson, Freda Jackson.

Play review - "Amadeus" by Peter Schaeffer

 So good. It has a million dollar idea - Salieri is jealous of Mozart, who does everything wrong, but also has the talent that only Salieri can appreciate. Excellent drama with music - two astonishingly wonderful central characters. The others struggle to get a look in but Constance as her moments.

Radio play reviews - "Playback" and "Poodle Springs" by Raymond Chandler

 Props to the BBC for including these two stories in their Philip Marlowe series - the weakest novel and an unfinished novel. Neither have a strong story. Playback is Marlowe chasing after a girl on a train. Poodle Springs has him married and whining about being a kept man. For completion's sake. Poodle Springs especially he seems to be horribly abusive because his wife just wants to live in a nice house.

Movie review - "Tiger of the Seven Seas" (1962) **

 A surprisingly feminist pirate movie, at least by the standards of English speaking cinema - the hero is a woman, Gianna Maria Canale, who takes over her dad's pirate operation: she is an excellent fighter and even beats her own boyfriend (Anthony Steel) in a duel. And her antagonist is another woman, a smart rich one, Maria Grazia Spina.

Steel looks old and tired here - the drinking was kicking in. He's still in shape and has all his hair, he just looks old. He seems emasculated. Not that interested. Steel played a number of emasculated characters, eg the infertile sook in A Question of Adulteryy.

John Kitzmiller, a black American (he was in Dr No) is Canale's mute sidekick, Turpentine, if I'm not mistaken. At least POC have presence (even if he dies saving his mistress).

There's decent production value but it's poorly directed and choreographed. There's no life to it - despite the story. It's one of those set ups that should have worked - imagine Maureen O'Hara or Yvonne de Carlo in it. But it's sluggish. The bad dubbing doesn't help. Steel had a deep speaking voice better than his dubber.

Movie review - "A Question of Adultery" (1958) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 This gets points for novelty for being a 1958 film about artificial insemination though I don't think they get the story right - it's a divorce hearing, and Anthony Steel is trying to dump wife Julie London for having a baby via artificial insemination.

Steel is a jealous, impetuous racing car driver influenced by his wealthy father (Basil Sydney), who punches out people who make eyes at London. London seems to be a femme fetale but actually loves Steel. They get back together at the end and you go "oh no" because it' an all too believable example of an abusive relationship.

London is quite a good actor, sexy and of course can sing - she sings a song in the middle of the movie rather randomly. Steel is mostly wooden - is he dubbed in the scene where he cries out at London on the beach - but actually well cast as a possessive, jealous member of the aristocracy.

The movie is full of nutty moments - Steel taking London on the beach, London singing, flamenco, Anton Diffring as a man who spends a night in a chalet with London. Frank Thring and Donald Houston are both excellent as opposing counsel.

It's not a complete success but is consistently interesting.

Book review - "The Moving Target" by Ross MacDonald (1949)

 The first Lew Archer novel which I read because of the Paul Newman. It's a solid mystery without Chandler's flourishes but tight and well done. I miss William Goldman's humour but the ending was emotional because the relationship between Archer and Arthur was stronger. Archer doesn't talk to his ex in this.

Play review - "Lost in Yonkers" by Neil Simon (1990)

 Simon won the Pulitzer for this. I think it was more a lifetime award, but this is a fine play. Elements are familiar - 1940s New York, two brothers, immigrant Jews, father is a salesman - but it is focused more on women, in this case crusty grandma and the slightly nutty Bella, one of Simon's best creations: desperate for love, eccentric, confused. It's simple not over done - Uncle Louis is with the mob but there's no big fan for instance.

Written with warmth and humour.

Movie review - "Emergency Call" (1952) ***

 Nice, tight little British B film which deservedly gave a filip to the career of Lewis Gilbert who directed and co wrote it. There's a really solid central idea - a 5 year old girl is going to die, and she has a rare blood type. Doctor Anthony Steel and cop Jack Warden follow up leads: a boxer who is meant to throw a game, a black man who is reluctant to give blood to whites, a criminal.

The film stumbles at time - there should be more prominent women (Steel should have been a female, the mother of the girl just hangs around) and worked on its relationships (Steel and the mother, Steel and Warden). Also the movie makers weren't up to the black character subplot - Earl Cameron doesn't want to give blood because a German rejected it during the war... which seems cheating (why not have a British person reject it?)

But it moves fast, there's an in-built ticking clock, and the film is populated with delightful character actors: Earl Cameron, Sidney Talfer, Sid James.

I liked this movie. Warner goes through the motions but he's fine. Steel is limited but he is ideally cast as a doctor. There are enough lively actors around them.

Movie review - "I Magliari" (1959) **1/2

 I watched this because Belinda Lee was in it but her part is relatively small (she doesn't come in until the film is half over). It's about Italian workers in Germany, and much of their behaviour is boorish and not that interesting. But after a while this grew on me - I got into the rhythms of the story.

Belinda Lee is good as another man eater though she has this drag queen make up on that she seemed to use whenever she worked in Germany. But in her quiet moments she's effective. She's the wife of the boss of one of the workers who has an affair with said worker (played by Renalto Salvatori, who you might recognise. Alberto Sordi has another lead.)

There's decent developments - lots of local prejudice - and fascinating cultural details: the coffee shops, the dancing, the Teddy Boys, the rock and roll. Location filming helps.

Diana Rigg Top Ten

 Looking back on Diana Rigg's career it's remarkable how few feature films she made, but then the British film industry was in a dodgy shape in the 70s and 80s and she always seemed to be the sort of actor who would take six months off to live with a lover in a commune... But anywhere here is my top ten of Diana Rigg that deliberately excludes The Avengers because it is too easy

1) On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) - my favourite Bond movie, and she's one of the best Bond girls. It is the most three dimensional part - the trashy party girl who finds a new meaning in life, an erratic gambler, superb lover and car driver. Brilliant decision to bring her in to compensate for Lazenby's inexperience. The scenes where she flirts with Telly Savalas to buy time for Bond's assault on Piz Gloria are a definite series highlight.

2) The Assassination Bureau (1969)- swinging sixties at its most random: Rigg plus Oliver Reed plus Savalas plus... Jack London??? Basil Dearden maybe wasn't the most ideal director for the material but it is interesting.

3) The Hospital (1971) - the only Paddy Chayefsky people seem to talk about any more is Network but this take on the medical system also has moments of brilliance too (if you can look past yet another Chayefsky subplot about a middle aged man schtupping a younger woman) and Rigg is terrific.

4) Theatre of Blood (1973) everyone who has received a bad review dreams of doing to critics what Vincent Price does in this hugely entertaining movie with Rigg matching him ham for ham

5) Diana (1973) - look I've never seen this but I just love the idea Diana Rigg was given her own sh*t sitcom... it was like a rite of passage at the time for British actors (Rachel Roberts was in one too)

6)The Great Muppet Caper (1981) - splendid fun, genuinely clever script, fantastic Charles Grodin-Miss Piggy love story

7) Evil Under the Sun (1981) - one of the reason Agatha Christie is so successful is that the person murdered always deserves it and Diana Rigg is fabulous in this movie (which is actually quite solid I feel it just needed a few bigger stars)

8) King Lear (1983) - this film tends to get forgotten because it was shot on video tape from memory but I can still recall Olivier and Rigg tearing it up

9) Witness for the Prosecution (1982) - a film in the shadow of the Billy Wilder version but I always really liked it and Rigg is extremely good

10) Game of Thrones - great end-of-career part... in a show full of terrific characters Riggs was still a stand out, a no-nonsense practical matriarch

She should have made more movies but I get the impression she did exactly what she wanted to in life.

Movie review - "How to be Very Very Popular" (1955) **

 Betty Grable's last movie suffers under the leaden direction of Nunnally Johnson. Johnson wrote and produced How to Marry a Millionaire which also starred Grable, but directing these things are harder than they look.

It doesn't help that it's not a musical when it should be, or that Marilyn Monroe turned down the lead and they used Sheree North.

Grable was getting a bit old and doesn't have a character to play - North isn't much of a performer, but doesn't have a character to play either. Compare it with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes a movie which has some similarities to this... two dames in a strange environment, meeting Tom Noonan and Charles Coburn. The lead gals were very different (Jane Russell would've been fab in this).

North does a dance towards the end and she's sensational - and you go "they should have had her doing that all the way through".

And Johnson has no fun with the culture clash of showgirls at college. I mean, you think it would be obvious - show girls with street smarts clashing with boys with book smarts - but they do little with the situation.

Robert Cummings, normally made for this material, seems odd in a crew cut as a perenial student and there's no life win Tom Noonan.

Movie review - Michael Shayne#2 - "Sleepers West" (1941) *** (re-watching)

 I like train movies and the stars - Lloyd Nolan, Lyn Bari, Mary Beth Hughes. It's a little Narrow Margin as Nolan escorts witness Hughes in a train to give evidence; Bari is a His Girl Friday type reporter desperate for the story. There's a neat subplot where Hughes romances an alcoholic married man.

The film loses some pace when it gets off the train - it's a shame it couldn't have stayed on the whole time.

Movie review - "Commando" (1962) *** (warning: spoilers)

 Stewart Granger fled to Europe in the sixties, a decision that ultimately put the wind out of hs career, but this is a surprisingly enjoyable action movie. It's a guys on a mission tale, the mission being to capture a rebel leader in 1961 Algeria - the heros are French Foreign Legion.

This was a surprise for me. It's a tight action movie - I saw a crappy print but there's plenty of action, it's filmed on some sort of location, they attempt to have a cross section of soldiers (Dorian Gray as a hooker, there's a soldier who slept with a 14 year old girl,the rebel leader).

The ending is bleak but feels realistic - most of the team die, the guy they captured is released for political reasons. 

It's absolutely one of Granger's better 60s movies.

Movie review - "West 11" (1963) **

 Michael Winner's first "proper" movie I guess - it's an odd combination of angry young man slice of life drama and Strangers on a Train. Alfred Lynch is the disaffected man, who constantly changes jobs, has an off-on relationship with Kathleen Breck. Winner wanted Sean Connery for this part, and Oliver Reed, either who would've been better than Lynch who isn't bad so much as just far too laid back - it's like he's falling asleep in some scenes.

Winner also wanted Julie Christie over Breck - I've got to say I like Breck she's lively. Eric Portman is in it as the man who proposes murder. Diana Dors is a girl who knows Portman and Lynch.

Others in the cast include names like Kathleen Harrison, Finlay Currie and Australia's Gerry Duggan, Marie Ney and Peter Reynolds. David Hemmings, who would be in Winner's The System, had a small role. Francisca Annis pops up.

It's interesting to contrast this with The System. It doesn't have that film's energy. I don't mind the melodrama of the murder plot but it's too little - it feels awkwardly shoehorned in. It's like Lynch and Breck are in one movie than Portman strolls in from another movie, a 1940s Gainsborough thriller or something. Oliver Reed would have been much much better than Lynch - he would have had the dynamism and murderous intent to make the role sing.

Still it's interesting. There's glimpses of Notting Hill at the time - Lynch walks past a nationalist rally, he goes to coffee bars, ec.

Movie review - "The Huggets Abroad" (1949) *1/2

 An example of the commercial ineptitude of Sydney Box's Gainsborough  - take a solid bunch of actors playing recognisable types and put them in a stupid story. The Huggetts decide to emigrate to South Africa so they... get a truck and drive across the desert? What? Who does that?

They don't get further than Algeria. There's the balding son in law, a new girl playing his wife (Dinah Sheridan), an American diamond smuggler. Petula Clark sings, Susan Shaw looks hot, there's some Arabs and French Foreign legion forts.

The actors are fine. But its so stupid, the Huggetts driving across the desert.

Movie review - "Happy Birthday to Me" (1981) *1/2

 J. Lee Thompson was a survivor. In the early 80s he turned his hands to a slasher. This isn't badly directed - one scene where a person is killed by a parked motorcycle with a spinning wheel reminded me of the scene in Northwest Frontier where Herbert Lom tried to get a kid to shove his hand in a spinning wheel.

The acting is strong. Glenn Ford is in this, a decent size part, and Melissa Sue Anderson the lead. Several support actors looked vaguely familiar.

But the script was confusing. It went on too long and gradually annoyed me more and more.

This film will have its fans.

Radio play review - "The Long Goodbye" by Raymond Chandler (BBC play)

 Decent adaptation of the classic story. Removes Lisa, focuses on Terry and Eileen Wade. The characters of Roger Wade and Eileen come across very strongly.

Movie review - "Jupiter's Darling" (1955) **1/2

 The film that ended Esther Williams' career at MGM. It's bizarre in that she went out on such a resolutely untypical film - sure its got George Sidney, Dorothy Kingsley and Howard Keel, but it's a musical satire about Hannibal invading.

The script was written by a woman which may explain why Esther's character is more in charge- she goes out to meet Hannibal, played by Keel in one of his best performances.

The tunes are fine. The Marge and Gower Champion dancing with elephants is cute. The Champions aren't much as actors - this is a debit. The number which is pro slavery is a bit yuck. George Sanders feels under utilised. There's a fair amount of action.

This film is odd - but done with that MGM pizzaz. And it's sheer randomness is endearing.

Play review - "Broadway Bound" by Neil Simon

 This does cover some familiar ground but I liked it a lot - Eugene and Stanley don't have much of an arc, they write a comedy sketch, but it is interesting to see a dramatisation of the dynamic between Neil and Danny Simon. The plot about the dad leaving the mother feels as though it should have been in Brighton Beach Memoirs but it has genuine power. The character of the aunt feels as though she needed another scene and I would have liked to have met Eugene's girlfriend (seeing her interact with the mother would have been interesting). The George Raft sequence is Simon at his most skilled and confident. The socialist grandad is terrific.

I keep feeling this play should have been merged with Brighton Beach Memoirs - you don't really need the show biz stuff, or you could have down played it (had it be for a talent show or something).

Play review - "Biloxi Blues" by Neil Simon

 The movie improved on the play but the play is excellent, for me better than Brighton Beach Memoirs because it is stronger dramatically and funnier. Maybe I just found WW2 more interesting than Jewish families.

Simon's skill never more apparent than in two showpieces scenes - the troops talking about their last five days, and the reading of the journal.

Female characters aren't much - the hooker was funny but Daisy was dull. This is compensated by some superb characters - the wishy washy soldier, the drill sergeant with a steel plate in his head and most of all Epstein, Eugene's fellow Jew, smart, Talmudic and full of trouble... he's really the protagonist as much as Eugene.

It is a serious comedy too about Jewishness and homosexuality and the importance of participation in the army. This deserves to rank among Simon's masterpieces.

Movie review - "The Square Ring" (1953) ***1/2

Little known Ealing movie which I was keen to see because it was based on a play by an Aussie, Ralph Petersen. It tells a series of stories about boxers that take place over one night - there are spivs, gangsters, molls, announcers.

It's well done: Ealing enjoyed this sort of semi documentary male focused entertainment. There's lots of familiar faces like Sid James (announcer) and Sidney Telfer (betting man); Joan Collins pops up as a girlfriend threatened by a gangster, Kay Kendall is a shady lady who tempts boxer Robert Beatty into a fight he shouldn't do.

I'm not wild about Beatty but he has the best part - his death packs a wallop, Jack Warner is a kindly trainer, Roland Lewis impresses in a character part as a nervous boxer (he was a character actor trapped in a leading man's body, Lewis), Bill Travers is in it as well as people like Maxwell Reed.

There's always something happening and it has pleasing atmosphere.

Movie review - "Cosh Boy" (1953) ***

 Decent melodrama - always something happening. This film inspired a moral panic - it tells the story of a young Jimmy Cagney style teen who beats up ladies. They were called cosh boys because they used coshes.

The lead is James Kenney who I'm surprised didn't become more of a name - maybe the market for teen gangsters was small.

Snotty Brit critics whined about Joan Collins not being right as a lower class girl but she's lovely and effective - I believed her as a naive thing in over her head, the hot girl in a poor area.

Solid acting across the cast from the teens to the adults. The exception is pompous wooden American Robert Ayers as the boyfriend of Kenney's mum who comes in and smacks the kid around - the finale is the cops giving him time to give the kid a thrashing. Because that's what was wrong, see.

Directed by Lewis Gilbert who does an accomplished job. It has life and energy.

Movie review - "Moon Over Miami" (1941) ***

 Ah, this is fun. It's in colour, it takes place in Miami, the leads are women out to nab a rich husband, they hang around a nightclub where there's production numbers

Betty Grable is very sweet and fun - too nice to be a genuine gold digger but since she's never going to actually be one it doesn't matter. Carole Landis is nice as her friend but she doesn't have a distinguishing character to play - she's just a blonde friend; it's a shame they couldn't have given her something individual to act.

Don Ameche and Robert Cummings are two of the best light comedians ever so the male department is well handled. Charlotte Greenwood and Jack Haley are the low rent third options - I think they were once famous.

The film stumbles a little in the third act - I think when Ameche pretends to be poor. But there's always a fun number. Greenwood is funny. Grable is a sweetheart.

Movie review - "The Good Die Young" (1954) ***

 A half success. An excellent cast - characters rarely cross which would have meant that clever scheduling would have kept the budget down.

It's about four men who decide to pull a heist. Everyone has an interesting story, though the impact is lessened by the fact that for all four of them it's a woman's fault... Stanley Baker is a boxer who gets injured but his drag of a wife gives their savings to her useless brother. Richard Basehart wants to move to America with wife Joan Collins but her bitch of a mother Freda Jackson does a fake suicide. John Ireland is a soldier whose bitch of a wife Gloria Grahame is cheating on him with her co star (she's an actor). Laurence Harvey is a ne'er do well rich kid whose wife (Margaret Leighton) won't bail him out.

The only one of these who is "bad" is Harvey - who is completely utterly bad. It's a very showy role. Harvey gets a great introduction, and looks fun with his bouffant hair. Sometimes he's effective - other times he seems amateurish. It's a bit all over the shop. I did love seeing him and Robert Morley as his dad and cuddly Morley telling Harvey how much he hates him. And it's fascinating to see Harvey married on screen to real life wife Margaret Leighton, skiving off her - which is what he did in real life.

Stanley Baker is excellent as an anti-hero. I get the feeling that Romulus (who made this) were more American minded saw him play a more sympathetic role.

 I liked John Ireland too though Gloria Grahame felt wasted - her one good moment was seeming to be turned on when he announced he had a plan, but then Ireland throws her in a bath. 

Basehart is dull. I had trouble remembering who he was when I saw him on screen. Collins does well in a not much role but Jackson is great campy fun.

The big fault of the movie - the heist isn't suggested until 1 hour 10 minutes in. And there's only 20 minutes to go. They should have known each other from the outset, been old army pals (they're all veterans - the movie is pleasingly cynical on the troubles of veterans). Harvey could have suggested the heist early - they all go "no no no" and then change their minds. They decide to do it too quickly and too late.

The other problem is that more needed to be done with the women.

The ending - criminal walking to a plane on the tarmac - feels influenced by The Asphalt Jungle.

Movie review - "The Long Goodbye" (1973) **** (re-watching)

 Maybe I'm being peer group pressured into that four stars. I like Elliot Gould as Marlowe, I think that works. I love the use of soundtrack - overlapping dialogue and radio. I love the little quirks like the security guard who impersonates movie stars.

Sterling Hayden and Mark Rydell are stunningly good in their parts. Rydell is terrifying - it's a shame he doesn't get a come uppance/resolution. Nina Van Pallandt and the guy who plays Terry Lennox are more variable.

I didn't mind the finale - I totally got why Gould did it. It's better than being a little sook.

Arnie is in it.

Movie review - "Turn the Key Softly" (1954) ***

 Entirely decent melodrama about three women who leave prison and who we follow over the next 12 hours. All are tempted to return to crime - prostitute Joan Collins because her new fiancee, who has waited for her, is so dull; Yvonne Mitchell, who took the fall for crim boyfriend Terence Morgan; and Kathleen Harrison because she just likes stealing.

It's a lot of fun - three good actors in the lead, a solid support cast, some location filming, it cuts around from storyline to storyline, it's quite adult (Collins talking to her old colleagues, Mitchell and Morgan have sex).

I enjoyed this. I'm developing an appreciation for 50s Collins.

Script review - "The Blue Dahlia" by Raymond Chandler (re-reading)

 I'm reading the novels so thought I'd re-read this. The dialogue is sharp, everyone is drunk - Buzz arrives wanting bourbon with bourbon, Helen the wife who is killed is drunk, Johnny the hero is always drinking. The plotting feels murky - it did feel as though he wrote it drunk, but then I felt that about his novels too.

It's very convenient Joan just turns up  -this could have been fixed. I actually think it works that the house detective and not Buzz did it - Buzz is a great read herring. That third fiend is just there for exposition.

Movie review - "Cape Fear" (1962) ****

 Robert Mitchum is electrifying - it's a brave performance in a way showing what a complete prick he could be.

He teams well with Gregory Peck whose decency and dullness (maybe that's unfair) is a wonderful counterpoint. Bergen rises to the occasion, particularly in the rape sequence - it's so powerful. 

I can understand the censor's unease about some because Peck's daughter (Lori Martin) looks really young. I mean, she looks twelve or something.

A simple story brought to life by excellent cast and writing plus divine photography and Bernard Herrmann's score. It's not exactly a barrell of laughs.

Superb support work from Barrie Chase the girl who got raped - is this is sensational role. Was this Joan Henry's influence on J. Lee Thompson? You don't normally see this kind of sensitivity.

The one flaw - the plan of Peck's character at the end, luring Mitchum into a trap with just one deputy. That's so risky and dumb. And not needed - they just could have Peck and his family go into hiding with a bodyguard.

And the final fight sequence probably drags on a bit.

Movie review - "The Passage" (1978) *1/2

 This starts off well - shepherd Anthony Quinn is asked to escort a scientist to Spain during World War Two. There's some excellent actors and scenery. It should work. It doesn't.

Compare it with another guys on a mission movie from J. Lee Thompson - The Guns of Navarone. That had a ticking clock, a definite imperative; and the characters all interacted in interesting ways.

This one has James Mason, his wife Patricia Neal, a son and a daughter - there's no character differential or interaction, no byplay. Why not have one a traitor? A Nazi? Why not kill one? Daughter Kay Lenz is forced to have sex with Malcolm McDowell. Lenz goes topless but because it's rapey it's not fun.

McDowell camps it up - Swastika underpants, hammy acting, throwing matches over his shoulder. His scenes involve torturing Michael Lonsdale by pouring boiling water over him, dousing Christopher Lee in gasoline and setting fire to him, shooting his own men, raping Lenz. At least he has energy, I suppose.

But at the end when he turns up after surviving an avalanche I wanted to kick the screen.