Movie review - "The Small World of Sammy Lee" (1963) **1/2

 Easy to see how this would have worked as a one hander on TV. Easy to see how it flopped as a movie.

Many good things about it, don't get me wrong - excellent photography, Soho locations, glimpse of a world, a very strong cast.

If you like Anthony Newley you'll really get into this. There's a lot of him.

But it's repetitive. Newly (Sammy) tries to get money... almost gets some... loses it. It goes on a steady trail. He won't take money from the neighbour hot for him or the girl (Julia Foster) hot for him. He's in debt because he gambles. So it's hard to be too sympathetic.

He's also bad at his job - an MC at a strip club. When he has some bad luck he insults the customers. Lousy boyfriend. An idiot.

It's a frustrating movie to watch.

Warren Mitchell shines as his brother. Also good work from Robert Stephens and a lot of Aussies: Ken Wayne as a bartender, Kenneth Warren as a principled hired thug with a cocky younger partner (this subplot was for me the best thing about the movie). Roy Kinnear and Derek Nimmo pop up in the cast.

There's a lot of strippers, which is maybe why American company Seven Arts invested, but not a lot of sex. More would have helped.

Movie review - "East of Sudan" (1964) **

 I get they wanted to use stock footage but did they have to use so much? The basic idea of this movie isn't bad - group of survivors of a Mahdi attack trudge up river - but they fumbled the casting. Anthony Quayle good an actor as he is is far too posh speaking and inherently genteel to play a lower cast sexy brute of a sergeant, a part that needed, oh I don't know, a young Sean Connery or Patrick McGoohan.

Sylvia Syms should have been ideal as the hoity toity miss but for some reason here comes across as sexless - she was hot as anything in Ice Cold in Alex but not here. Maybe she needed J. Lee Thompson, not Nathan Juran.

Derek Fowlds is the other soldier, who is no threat for Quayle - would have been a better movie if he'd bee more of  a rival or villainous. Jenny Agutter, looking so so young, is the fourth member. She plays a non Brit if I saw that right.

The construction of action and scenes around stock footage is really annoying. People do things just to use stock footage and there's far too much narration during the opening montage

It picks up when the group run into black Africans and they're never sure if they'll be killed or not - this section is quite good.

But really not a good movie.

Best endings for an Australian film

 1) Crocodile Dundee (1986) - soaring music, great acting from the 50 worders, really clever piece of business

2) Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938) - Dad and Dave back on the farm, all the kids making out, Dad and Mum join in... it's very sweet

3) Mad Max 2 (1981) - all the Mad Max films end well but the grin of Mel as he sees Bruce Spence is hard to beat

4) The Castle (1997) - so darn sweet with moments of sheer joy: Tony Martin cameo, "We've Only Just Begun", "at first I thought it was polite but he seems to really like it"

5) Love Serenade (1997) - a great shock and surprise that is completely logically

6) Babe (1995) - "that'll do pig"... sniff

7) Gallipoli (1981) - a whack to the emotional solar plexus... stunning

8) Strictly Ballroom (1992) - exhilaration, get to your feet and clap then everyone go and dance

9) Breaker Morant (1980) - history provides it but what history

10) Dogs in Space (1986) - an ending which is both joyous and heartbreaking

Honorable mentions to Jedda, The Long Weekend, Starstruck.

Movie review - "The Cool Mikado" (1963) *

 A disaster. But fascinating. And in colour.

It updates The Mikado. It's set in Japan but never feels like it - it's clearly all shot in studio, there's hardly any Asians in it let alone Japanese. The songs are updated.

There's lots of people who are a little bit familiar but I think are more famous in England, like Tommy Cooper and Mike and Bernie Winter. Frankie Howerd has a role as Ko Ko, Stubby Kaye sings a few songs and rabbits on. There's some painful, painful comedy by soldiers. There's a romance. Lionel Blair does a dance. John Barry appears in his band. Dennis Price is in it, and Tsai Chin and Burt Kwouk.

I'm not familiar with the musical, but this was terrible.  There is movement and colour but it's the comedy that kills this.

Movie review - "Murder without Crime" (1950) **1/2

 J. Lee Thompson's directorial debut was based on his play - it's basically a four handed but he gets the camera to move around a lot and has a strong visual flair.

Derek Farr and Patricia Plunkett are a little dull in admittedly the dullest parts; they fight, he goes out and winds up picking up Joan Dowling, who is fun as a trump, as is Dennis Price, injecting some needed B grade star power as a blackmailer.

It feels slightly stretched out at 80 minutes; the tension that would've been present on stage doesn't survive the leap. But it's done with a bit of dash and is enjoyable, particularly Price. The American Walter Winchell style narrator is annoying.

Movie review - "Timeslip" (1955) **1/2

 Kind of sci fi but not really - it's more akin to a spy melodrama with its investigative reporter, wisecracking girlfriend, heavy set foreign villain, kidnapped person who needs to be rescued.

It's very briskly handled by Ken Hughes at his B picture peak; he also did The Little Red Monnkey for the producer who was in secret Tony Owen (Mr Donna Reed) of Todon. 

Two American leads - dancer Gene Nelson and Howard Hughes ex Faith Domergue. It feels very American in pace, which isn't a bad thing.  The beginning was a little reminiscent of The Quatermass Experiment. I wish it was closer; they don't use sci fi much. But a decent time filler.

David Williamson - top ten

1) Sanctuary - awesome masterpiece, a great two hander

2) A Conversation - perhaps his most emotionally devastating work

3) Emerald City  - classic comedy, the best argument for Australian culture I've come across

4) The Club - stunningly good tale of politics in sport

Those four for me are his pantheon.

5) Don's Party - vitally important to this country's cultural history but also hilarious in places

6) The Removalists - powerful

7) Nearer the Gods - his most successful history play

8) Up for Grabs - a frenetic, balls to the wall farce, very entertaining

9) Travelling North - moving, warm, affectionate

10) Jugglers Three - I haven't read this for ages, maybe my memory is wrong but I remember really loving it

Movie review - "Play It Cool" (1962) **1/2

 Early Michael Winner film which he never liked much but it's fun - absolutely does what it sets out to do which is provide a vehicle for  Billy Fury, whose acting is fine and has strong presence; the plot is silly, the romantic complications are contrived, but that is as it should be. There's some cheery moments, sex pest comments from the support characters (including Michael Anderson Jnr), lots of musical numbers from Fury and others (including Bobby Vee), atractive women..

Maybe anyone could have directed this but Winner handles it all with energy and verve. It's a shame it couldn't be in colour but Dennis Price gives the support cast some flair. One of Winner's best natured movies.

Movie review - "Deadly Strangers" (1975) ** (warning: spoilers)

 One of a few thrillers Hayley Mills made as she tried to reinvent herself. The main issue with this is it doesn't quite have enough plot for a feature and Sidney Hayers, who made a few enjoyable movies, doesn't have the style to cover that up.

Mills has a mumsy haircut that doesn't flatter her. Simon Ward appears as a guy who gives her a lift. Sterling Hayden has this random role where he's in it for about ten minutes as some old codger who gives Mills a lift and falls in love with her then disappears.

The big twist is (spoilers) its Mills who is the psycho when we think it's Ward. This is revealed by a newspaper headline with big photos of Ward and Mills. But hardly anyone seems to recognise them, which feels like a chat. We don't find out Mills is a psycho until the very end. It would have been a better movie had we found out earlier - gotten tension out of the last half hour knowing.

Mills does a bit of nudity here - shows her bum in a bath as she did in The Family Way, goes in lingere in a fantasy sequence, and goes topless. But she's got that unflattering haircut. Her performance is professional rather than inspired.  Ward isn't bad. The visual look is very 70s Britain.

Jimmy Sangster and Hammer simply told this story much better in the sixties.

Movie review - "Trouble in the Glen" (1954) **

 One of the films that helped kill Margaret Lockwood's career.  Is it so hard to rip off The Quiet Man? Republic and Herbert Wilcox got the same writer and Victor McLaglen. And if they couldn't get John Wayne they tried with Forrest Tucker.  

Tucker is no John Wayne - he can act and lumber but doesn't have the same charisma. He isn't helped by the dumb story. He's an outsider (an American who served in the army during the war) and so too are Margaret Lockwood and father Orson Welles. Why have three outsiders? 

Actually you don't need Tucker in the film. The movie should have been about Lockwood and Welles moving to Scotland, being fishes out of water... and she has a romance with Scotsman John McCallum. Tucker is an adjunct and so is that polio riddled girl they shove in and spend far too much screen time on

Also for a Scottish Quiet Man the film is incredibly non Scottish. The Quiet Man had Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald and all these Irish actors plus was filmed in Ireland. This feels totally un Scottish. It seems to have been mostly shot on the backlot and has non Scottish actors like John McCallum and Victor McLaglen. Was Finlay Currie not working?

The slackness of this just got to me.

Movie review - "3 Worlds of Gulliver" (1960) **1/2

 This one doesn't seem to get the love of other Harryhausens. I get why - it doesn't have the sense of adventure. Kerwin Matthew' dullness is more annoying here than for Sinbad. 

The film includes a lot of satire from the original with its jaundiced takes on rulers and politics. People have criticised this has been too differnt from Swift. I think the problem is it was too close to it.

Enjoyable effects. Dull support cast - Lee Patterson as some other foreign dignitary. Gulliver doesn't seem very interested in his girlfriend.

Movie review - "Cleopatra" (1963) ***

 The first half of this is terrific. Smart, witty, well acted. Elizabeth Taylor is fun in the title role and Rex Harrison isn't a soldier but the intellectual brilliance of Caesar is evident. Motives are clear, everyone is smart. Excellent support work from Martin Landau, Roddy McDowall and Richard O'Sullivan. The spectacle is sparing but awesome eg Cleopatra's arrival inRome.

The second half is less strong. The acting is still good - Burton steps up, though he looks silly with a sword - but the script wobbly. The spectacle feels more forced - did we really need to see so much of the Battle of Actium? The motivations less clear. Cleopatra wants... power but also Anthony. Anthony wants Cleopatra and power. But both are such whiny brats, it's hard to tell. Act one Cleopatra is smart as a whip. Act two Cleopatra is dumb, making silly decisions like declaring war on Rome and running away during the Battle of Actium. I think the passion of the two of them is meant to lead them to these bad decisions but it just seems silly. 

They have McDowall/Octavius lying in bed everytime there's a battle,  I think to contrast with the macho ness of Burton's Antony, but Antony looks like a fool especially drinking in strategy meetings.

After the Battle of Actium the film should wrap up but there's scene after scene: Burton being abandoned by his troops, charging the enemy, monologuing, Burton and Taylor saying goodbye to all these people who never got much screen time so it feels like a waste of time.

Still it is a smart epic. Looks gorgeous.

Movie review - "Alfie Darling" (1975) * (warning: spoilers)

 I can see the appeal of this project for Nat Cohen who ran EMI Films - a low budget sex comedy with high title recognition. There's no Michael Caine; instead we have Alan Price, who I had to google: he was in The Animals and tried an acting career.

If you're an Alan Price fan you might like this. I found him awkward and not very good. I liked that he wasn't a pretty boy but he got on my nerves.

He occasionally talks to the camera, was sleazy rather than charming, but the material doesn't help him. He's a real sex pest. He stalks Jill Townsend and harrasses her. Of course she falls for him even though she's high class and they have nothing in common. When she turns down his marriage proposal he threatens to kill her. I think this is meant to be romantic. She dies in a plane crash that kills 200 people. I think we're meant to care.

This film offended me. The opening scene had Alfie in the back of a truck with a topless woman. I'm sure they pitched it to Cohen as a modern day Confessions film. They should have done that. But there's actually not that much sex and nudity.

Joan Collins sparks things up as Alfie's older lover. She goes topless.

The odd interesting bit like Alfie's mate marrying a black woman and the wedding having a raggae band.A black Alfie would have made this worth making. Not price.

You'll vaguely recognise the cast.

Play review - "Operator" by David Williamson (2005)

 Highly entertaining workplace politics comedy with one of Williamson's most enjoyably slimy creatures, the workplace shark Jake who all office workers will recognise.

This was a lot of fun. Jake's plans were cunning. I enjoyed the setting of exercise equipment manufacturing -that was different. It does lose points for having the young woman want to go off with the divorced middle aged man at the end... I guess the happy ending was different but... oh anyways.

Movie review - "Firepower" (1979) **

 Lew Grade's idea of a commercial movie - old stars, exotic locations, explosions. James Coburn is actually quite good as a macho hitman type asked by the FBI to go after a crook. It's great to see him in a part with "balls" again.

Sophia Loren's role feels shoe-horned in. She's a woman avenging the death of her husband. It didn't need to be shoe-horned in... they have Vincent Gardenia hire Eli Wallach hire James Coburn who hires OJ Simpson... just have Loren hire Coburn and Simpson.

The plot should be simple but is needlessly complicated. It's about getting a Bad Guy. There's a few twists. Coburn has a twin - why not use that more? Why not give Loren more to do?

She and Coburn hop on and off boats a lot. Simpson is quite a good action hero. The locations are nice but not that nice. Too many of the actors are old - there aren't even young henchmen.

I liked seeing Victor Mature at the end in a scene that could have been cut out - why not have him as the big baddie though?

Michael Winner didn't do a very good job as a director. He was a better producer than director and by now he was assembling ingredients more than producing a film.

Play review - "Sanctuary" by David Williamson (1994)

 Stunningly good Williamson play  - smart, powerful, theatrical, about something. Two rich characters, tremendous tension, wonderful eb and flow. It's a masterpiece.

Book review - "My Lucky Star" by Margret Lockwood (1955)

 Charming memoir from Lockwood, quite early in her career, really - twenty years in. But, as it turned out, it came as she stopped being a film star.

It was an eventful life. She was born into Karachi, moved to England, started acting young, made a fair fist of it early on, helped by her beauty, talent, and the support of Gainsborough. 

I would have liked more about the movies and co stars - there's no a lot here. There is a lot about her husband, her mother, her lover "Bill", and most of all her daughter Toots, the great love of her life. This is very sweet.

Play review - "Dead White Males" by David Williamson (1995)

 Do I want to wade into this territory...? I'll try... 

The play remains surprisingly relevant in a post Trump world where people are fired up against the patriarchy. Williamson gives his ostensible villain, Swain, plenty of room to make his arguments and a lot of them makes sense, but he stakes the deck by having Swain try to root his students and support silly artists.

The post-modernism he mocks deserves it, to some degree. But other stuff as aged less well - women just wanting to be rammed by Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew, and the character of Stephen, the gormless children of academics who wants to be a mechanic (one in a long line of Williamson nerds who are the true love interest) feels like he's going to turn into an incel who will get on 4Chan in a few years. You can't say David can't analyse male behaviour.

I did like how he dramatised the issues at this stage of his career.: the daughter longing to be Aboriginal, the bitter mother, the grumpy old dad, the lonely aunt. He is good on families. 

It is imaginative and smart and a play of ideas. Some of it was whiffy.

Movie review - "The Internecine Project" (1974) **

 Michael Deeley barely mentions this movie in his memoirs - he was prouder of the way it was financed than the end product, it being financed from German tax shelter and a presale to Allied Artists.  It was shot in Britain but is basically a Hollywood film, a generic international thriller.

The basic idea isn't bad: James Coburn is up for a job so decides to kill off four people who know about his shady past.

Co written by Jonathan Lynn. Ken Hughes' direction is functional. James Coburn has his deep voice but the role lacks humour. Lee Grant is wasted a a journalist looking into the cast but it is fun to see her in a more glamorous role (they put vasoline on the lens).

It's not very thrilling or exciting. You know what's going to happen. It happens. It lacks a few twists and complications. There is a great twist ending but another twist two things in would have helped.

Play review - "Scarlett O'Hara at the Crimson Parrot" by David Williamson (2009)

 To my knowledge David Williamson has never written a musical, which is a shame when you consider his work ethic and gift for structure, but he came close with this piece, written as a vehicle for Caroline O'Connor. She plays a mid thirties ditz who works at a restaurant and dreams a lot, particularly of movies; I've seen this character before a few times (Play it Again Sam was one) but you can imagine O'Connor would be terrific in the lead.

Most Williamson plays you read it's easy to imagine them on stage; this one is more theatrical, involves more imagination - there is back projection, fantasy sequences, clips from films. It's more broadly theatrical which I think is great. Simon Phillips directed it and I'm sure he would have done a solid job.

There are some familiar Williamson types (alpha cook, sex-mad waitress, nerdish guy) but there is a genuine sense of camraderie among people at the restaurant. I also enjoyed the scenes with Scarlett and her mother - Williamson had a gift for characters of his parent's generation. This was quite a warm and fun play; in a minor key but sweet.

Movie review - "Sextette" (1978) **

 It's weird to watch. So weird. But how else to have done it? No one else could've played Mae West and Mae West was 85.

So they shove it full of songs and stars and shenanigans. It's silly but it has a compulsive fascinating. Tim Dalton completely commits, whether ogling Mae or singing "Love will Keep Us Together". George Hamilton also tries but isn't entirely convincing as a gangster. Neither is Ringo Starr as a European director, but it's fun to see him. Ditto Tony Curtis as a Russian, Dom De Luise as a manager flunky type. She has a chat with George Raft in an elevator.

It's odd. So odd. So camp. Jeez, Ken Hughes made some crap in the 70s.  Keith Moon is in it - he would be dead soon. Van McCoy pops up. And Alice Cooper. AND Walter Pidgeon.

It's got to be said some of the lines are funny. And the film does want to entertain. It's grotesque. 

There seems to be little cult for it - Myra Breckenridge is better known.

Play review - "Let the Sunshine" by David Williamson (2008)

 One of Williamson's more autobiographical later works, the tale of a lefty documentary filmmaker and his book editor wife who have moved to Noosa. I wish it had been more autobiographical - I confess I was looking forward to an Emerald City examination of the differences between Noosa and Sydney; we get a little of that, with satire of both places, but soon it develops into a family saga (it takes place over a few years) about the muso son of some lefties falling for the lawyer son of the business types. The muso becomes a little more right wing as he buys a studio, the wife gives up law, the parents sort of buzz around. The kids take over, there's a GFC.

It's an odd sort of play, as if Williamson couldn't pick a lane. The pessimism of the main lefty is affecting - is this how Williamson sees the world? He's depressed. Which I get. But the Williamson character drifts out of focus.

The character based on Kristen is fascinating: everyone loves her, she's smart, a success in business, the Noosa wife wanted to be her, the husband wants to schtup her, the David Williamson character adores her. I don't think there's been a female character in Williamson more put on a pedestal. Yet the last section has her being fearful of being a dud grandmother.

There's a lot of whingeing here. Lefties worried about the world, righties worried about lefties, boomers wanting more time with their grandkids. A lot of entitlement.

Did this play stop Williamson writing more autobiographical plays? Did his kids arc up? Did Kirsten? I actually wish he'd made it more autobiographical and really explored what it was like to live in Noosa - how his old friends responded, making new friends. I sense that would've been more interesting than what goes on here. Still, it's his play.

As always there are some funny lines and it tells a story.

Play review - "The Great Man" by David Williamson (2000)

 There's a lot to admire about this play. Williamson's stage craft was very assured at this stage - it takes place in real time, the conflict is solid, all the characters are different. There's a sulky son, a feminist second wife who was once into orgies, a satyr like painter, a Keating like pollie, a blousy working class first wife, a sexy journo... There are some cracker lines (such as Australia's sixties not happening to the seventies but being the best seventies there were), and it's heart is in the right place.

It just felt a bit overly simplistic. The sixties were great, Whitlam was great, the Labor Party sold out, we suck up to Indonesians. The arguments felt a little dinner party-esque - the characters felt thin as a result. Like they needed another dimension or twist or something. I enjoyed it's craft, just felt maybe Bob Ellis does this stuff better.

Play review - "Up for Grabs" by David Williamson (2000)

 Not one of Williamson's most highly regarded plays - it's probably best remembered as the one Madonna appeared in - but it's terrific. Moves like a freight train, fabulous structure, very funny, different characters: the dogged art dealer Simone, the swinging dot com couple, the ruthless tycoon who's closeted and his wife, the drunken old corporate art dealer. The stakes are high, the pace is frenetic, it's theatrical and great fun.  It also makes some serious points too about love of art and the importance of it. The world of the super rich and the art world felt real.

Madonna had good taste picking this.

Play review - "Family Values" by David Williamson (2020)

Its heart is in the right place. Nice to see an elder statesman playwright engaging in contemporary politics. Some funny lines -I especially love the dispute over lego. It has one of the best concepts of a Williamson play: a conservative judge finds his birthday party interrupted when his daughter drags in a fugitive refugee. The right audience would love this.

I found it terrible. One of Williamson's worst. People just spout things as if culled from the opinion pages of The Age. No nuance. Not even that much research, it seems. A lot of speeches. A lot of re-used tropes and characters: the lesbian sister and Christian brother was in Brilliant Lives for instance, a far better play which could dramatise the issue. It's on the nose to which you could argue "well it's just that sort of play" but then there's the lovely lego stuff and the mixture jays. The refugee is a 2020 noble savage (i.e. perfect only this case a medical student). Characters applauded speeches.

I did appreciate it mostly took place in real time and had decent suspense -the refugee turning up, the wife of one of the daughters working for Border Force. And this play has received some excellent reviews. It just wasn't for me.

Play review - "When Dad Married Fury" by David Williamson (2011)

 Williamson wrote this in a cranky mood - cranky at the ways of the world, the GFC, the crooked bankers, the death and greed. It's all Thatcher and Reagan, apparently, and democracy doesn't work because politicians can be bought. It's written with about as much insight and political sophistication as an old man on a rant. 

The concept is a rich old man is marrying a woman half his age. She's a grab bag of things rather than a person - Tea Party, Christian, anti-gay, anti-welfare, To Kill a Mockingbird fan. She felt like a series of punchlines rather than a character. 

There's a typical alpha businessman widow (did he cheat on his now deceased wife? what do you think), and two sons, one an impoverished academic the other an engineer; the academic has a wife who is the moral conscience of the piece (she wonders at the end if she is the only person in the world who cares... does Dave feel like this, watching the news? He should really read a paper from 1961 sometime to see how things haven't changed... and 1931) She wants her father in law to pay back the money her father lost before she finds out the father in law was a crook; that doesn't seem fair. After finding out he was a crook yes, but not before.

One of the characters temporarily left his wife after an infatuation - I know Williamson did that IRL but he's got to stop using it in plays.

The best bit was the widowed mother talking about her relationship with the dead guy who was ripped off by alpha. That's quite moving.

I wonder if he could have turned this around with a dramaturg and more drafts. I don't think so. Unlike the majority of his recent plays I don't feel this had potential there's not enough in it. The good stuff could've been used in other plays.

There are as always some funny lines and it tells a story.

Movie review - "Stardust" (1974) ***1/2

 I liked this more than That'll Be the Day - maybe because it was less British, and dealt with more things I had familiarity with. The fact David Essex doesn't rape anyone helps.

It's about his rise to fame as a rock star and discovery that - shock - it's not all it's cut out to be. The story isn't remarkable but it has great authenticity - Essex became a rock star with "Rock On" coming out between this and That'll Be The Day (how's that for a lucky break), his band includes people like Keith Moon and Marty Wilde.

The character of Essex's girlfriend was an enigma - she sort of hangs around but seems to love him genuinely, speaks in a European accent... but never really comes to life. They should have just made her Yoko.

I missed Ringo Starr but Adam Faith is actually better casting. I wouldn't believe Ringo as a ruthless manager with a crush on Essex, but Faith pulls it off. Larry Hagman is fun as a Colonel Tom Parker.

Great production design and costumes. Essex has more hair and costume changes than Joan Crawford.

Play review - "Nothing Personal" by David Williamson (2011)

 Williamson once claimed Robyn Nevin felt this was based on Cate Blanchett taking over from Nevin at the STC. That would have been amazing. Nevin, who survived the atmosphere of the 70s and marriage to the charismatic wife basher Jim McNeill to become the giant of Australian theatre; replaced by Blanchett, blessed with greater beauty and talent... that's an amazing jumping off point.

But he didn't. 

I was apprehensive at a Williamson play focusing on two women, they've never been his strong point, and that proves to be the case here. I didn't buy his take on th book publishing world; maybe it was accurate and well researched, but it didn't feel like it, at least not to me. It's also got too much tired overused Williamson stuff - an older male alpha who the younger woman can't resist fucking, a career striving woman who neglects her daughter, obsession with good reviews and making a career out of art, clunky dialogue.

Like all Williamsons though it can tell a story and has some funny lines. There's a genuinely moving scene where the younger girl's mother dies.

I wish he'd made it more about himself. Set this story in the theatre - a young playwright snapping at the heels of Davo. Or make him an artistic director. If worry about Cate/Robyn make the artistic director male. That would've been great.

The play did inspire a very amusing hatchet job from Bob Ellis and a highty entertaining subsequent correspondence between he and the Williamsons on Ellis' blog.

Play review - "Arcadia" by Tom Stoppard (warning: spoilers)

 My favourite Stoppard, I think - smart, clever, a crash course in some arcane subjects, very moving. It's not super ideal for radio because it's hard to capture the use of the space for different time periods and silent characters such as Gus; if you didn't know the play I imagine this would be hard to follow.

Love the unseen Mrs Chater, her seen husband, the blustering academic who cares more for fame than accuracy, and most of all the achingly beautitful ending, Septimus and Thomasina dancing, unaware that tomorrow she will be dead and he will be so crushed he becomes a hermit.

Play review - "After the Ball" by David Williamson (1997)

 Moving play by Williamson based on the death of his mother. She's an iconic figure in his career because her unhappiness manifested itself in such anger at Williamson's father that young Dave absorbed all the conflict... and developed a jaundiced view of women which manifests itself in his writing. She pops up as a character in What If You Died Tomorrow? but Williamson didn't often deal with the Greatest Generation - a shame, because he "got" them.

The plot of this involves mum dying, dad is dead, and the Williamson surrogate (a successful commercials director living in France) flashes back to his life growing up with his parents, and deals with his tricky relationship with his parents. It's very moving and powerful. The talk of social issues and the Way Australia Is and talk about private school fees and what-not clunks a little but only a little; it would get worse over time. Powerful ending.

Play review - "Managing Carmen" by David Williamson (2011)

There's one splendid section when this comes gloriously alive - the cross dressing football player puts on a dress on goes on a tear with his fake girlfriend. That's when you see what this piece is, at heart - a slightly over the top farce. It's not really a serious or even comic-serious look at cross dressing because it's too silly, and we only have the one cross dresser.

The manager of the player is a stock Williamson alpha, as is the sleazy jourmo character, the player is a cross dresser and that's about it, his girlfriend is a stock Williamson sexy hooker, the girl who tries to treat the player is... just a nice person.

It skims over a whole lot of fascinating areas that Williamson could have explored really well - toxic masculinity, notions of roles for people - but he can't. Which I guess is fine - if he pushed it into high farce which he does for a bit but then the girlfriend disappears and it's sort of played nationalistically but never believably.

 There are some really funny moments. Just wish it was better and he had a dramaturg on it.

Play review - "Brilliant Lies" by David Williamson (1993)

 Remarkable to compare with his later plays. Back then, if he had an issue he exactly dramatised and explored it - in this case sexual harrassment. He also developed his subplots better - the A plot is about a sexual harrassment in the workplace case, the B plot concerns abuse in the family. 

His characters are different - there's the regulation alpha male businessman and sexy woman who is basically a hooker, but also her lesbian architect sister and Christian brother and shonky broke businessman father. There is a solid mystery - we're never sure until the end what happened - and rich family scenes. It's a very good play.

Movie review - "Juggernaut" (1974) ***

 Not a disaster movie but a bomb disposal thriller. Such films are tricky to make because while it is a terrifying job on screen it's usually someone poking around wires and the bomb goes off or it doesn't and since Richard Harris is the star you can be confident it won't.

But the joy in this comes more with the peripheral details -the location footage of the cruiser (on the North Sea), David Hemmings and Harris and jo skydiving out of a plane, the quality of the cast, Omar Sharif's ship captain casually picking up Shirley Knight, Anthony Hopkins' constantly exhausted and sea sick wife, Roy Kinnear desperately trying to keep spirits up, the Pakistani waiter with a thick Scouser accent, Freddie Jones' superb performance as a resentful villain, Harris' cocky swagger (the best moment is him at the end clapping "Fallon's a legend"). Director Richard Lester said he had a great time making this and you can sense that.

Film review - "That'll Be the Day" (1974) ***

 A breakthrough movie for producer David Puttnam, though not director Claude Watham (the two men clashed during filming). It's not an obviously commercial story. I thought it was about a man who becomes a rock star because that's what the sequel was about and because David Essex plays the lead but he doesn't become a musician until the end.

It's a slice of life stuff in the school of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning but wasn't based on a best selling book. It hit a nostalgic sweet spot a la American Graffiti with a lot of songs and  a frank attitude to sex.

Essex isn't a great actor, in some scenes seems awkward, but he has the looks and charisma. His character rapes someone - it's realistically done, date rape, but still rape, which makes him an uncomfortable hero. The atmosphere and recreation of the times is spot on (says I who never lived with it, but it feels authentic) - the seaside camps, the fairs, roller skating rinks. The ending feels true. It's a gutsy movie to make; maybe not so much back then.

Play review - "Rhinestone Rex and Miss Monica" by David Williamson (2010)

 An enjoyable surprise from Mr Williamson - low key, simple and different. It's boy meets girl - he's a chippy who loves country and western and has a disabled son, she's a former vionlist who loves high class novels and classical music. They both live in Sydney's inner west and she doesn't have that much money so it's not exactly "Uptown Girl" but I love that they had different professions at least and Williamson seems to have done his research on music. 

I felt maybe it ended to soon - like they should've gotten together earlier broken up then gotten back together  - and also there were moments I feel missed. I know it was a two hander but I would've loved to have heard about her dealings with his son and wife, and him with her ex. I think Williamson would've gotten great stuff out of that. 

But easily among the better of his later plays.

Play review - "Amigos" by David Williamson (2004)

 I saw this on stage. It's a mixed bag. It's not terrible - there's some funny lines. No one talks about climate change.

It's about three men who were part of a four man rowing crew. One is dead, one is a drop out the other two are alphas... one is a surgeon the other a banker. 

Williamson doesn't really do much with the Olympic thing. I did like they won bronze. But really they could have been in any football team or even just at school. I felt like it was an opportunity missed.

It felt like it needed another few drafts. I think he could have played it all out in real time he didn't need to have all these short scenes and time jumps. It lacked something. Maybe the wife of the investment banker should have turned up with her tantric sex boyfriend - they sounded fun. Or more of a reveal. Or maybe the boyfriend of the dead rower. You didn't get much of a sense of friendship between the men.

I wish the younger wife didn't turn out to be a former hooker and that the wife we see wasn't a tired middle aged bitch. I did like the drop out character - the way he talked emotionally about his son was some nice writing.

Like I say, mixed bag. Williamson needed someone to push him more on this one.

Movie review - "Night Watch" (1973) **

 The sort of movie I should like. Movie stars. A script by Lucille Fletcher. A woman who might be going insane and a dodgy best friend and mysterious husband. Twists. 

But it doesn't work. Maybe Elizabeth Taylor was wrong for this sort of movie. She's in her frumpy stage. I mean, she's Elizabeth Taylor but... maybe she's too strong. Something.

Laurence Harvey is perfect. It's weird watching him knowing he was going to be dead in a year or so. Billie Whitelaw is good.

Maybe it's the direction. It lacks atmosphere. Maybe 1973 was too late. Maybe the cinematographer.

The film has its fans. I just wish... I don't know it was directed by Seth Holt or Freddie Francis or someone.

Movie review - "Green for Danger" (1946) ***

 Stylishly shot. Clever. Bright concept -a murder during an air raid. Strong cast. I wasn't blown away. Couldn't put my finger on it. Alistair Sim didn't help. He doesn't appear until a third of the way in, but I found him annoying. No hero apart from him.

Strong cast - Leo Genn, Trevor Howard, Sally Grey, Rosamund Johns. (I admit I got the last two mixed up.) Excellent cinematography. A lot of intelligence. I respected this more than enjoyed it. First movie ever shot at Pinewood apparently.

Movie review - "Thor: The Dark World" (2013) **1/2

 Absolutely fine. Just a little dull. Kat Jennings pops off the screen as does Tom Hiddleston and Chris Hemsworth. Rene Russo is flat, as is the villain, Thor's friends and, most suprisingly Natalie Portman. Couldn't they make a decent love story out of this?

Loud, expensive, some decent bits.

Play review - "Don Parties On" by David Williamson (2011)

 Hmmm... okay, okay, how do I feel after reading this... It's weird. Some of it was bad. A lot. Sometimes I kept going "stop! Stop the characters talking.?" Whenever anyone spoke about the environment or climate change or random names were inserted (Kerry O'Brien! Nick Minchin!) God, there was a lot of talk about climate change. So much talk about climate change.

It didn't feel real. The original was written from a place of honesty and frustration. Characters like Don and Mal and Cooley were brilliantly alive. It was a marvel of stage craft. The female characters weren't great but the world was skillfully evoked.

People here don't seem real. The statements feel cribbed from blogs or opinion pieces.

The teenage granddaughter Belle watches vampire movies and hates her father's new girlfriend and... that's it. Don's son Richard hates working in advertising and is infatuated and... that's it. Richard's lover is selfish and.... that's it? Why the f*ck are these characters in a sequel to Don's Party? Why should  we care? Did one of Williamson's sons leave their wife or something? That's no excuse to take up a great chunk of this play on these new characters.

Why pick the 2010 election? Because it was there? A female was elected PM for the first time but none of the characters here seem to care. Williamson should have held off until 2013. I guess he wasn't to know that (he did seem to sense it).

And yet... and yet...

Sometimes this rings true. There's just not enough of those times. Mack has died... Don says it hit him hard... but the characters barely discuss it. Other bits are more effective. The couples engaged in wife swapping, which shocks the kids, which I did like... Jenny had an abortion to Cooley - that's cool. Mal went to prison, which was great. Don wrote a book about them all which upset them which was good... Cooley is on oxygen and votes Liberal - I get that. The characters of Jenny, Kath and Helen are actually stronger here than in the original. I like how Don and Helen had a more serious thing. That was good. This isn't a write off.

Williamson seems unsure how to pitch Don. He and Kath are together, but Don is optimistic, satisfied with his place in the world, it seems... his wife got a degree, his kids are successful in their careers... he's lost his dramatic power

This could have been so much better. Remove the younger generation (they can be referred to but not seen). Reduce talk about climate change by 90%. Have Mack's death mean more. Mack and Jody had a connection - why not use her? Why not base it more on Williamson's life and have him successful and with a new wife (Helen) and have his old friends hate him? Or have Don and Helen decide to run away during this party. Bring back back that Liberal voting couple, Jody and Simon they were great value (Simon could have gone into business with Cooley). I'd bring in Kerry the artist and maybe even Evan too. Make Kerry a lesbian and she has hooked up with  Jenny or something.

William wrote a classic. Why did he junk half his characters?

Play review - "At Any Cost" by David Williamson and Mohamed Khadra (2011) (warning: spoilers)

A powerful central idea: a family bickering over whether to turn off the life support. It's ideal for theatre, and this definitely has "what would you do" moments. One senses unfulfilled potential in the play though - there is talk of euthanasia and the cost of keeping people alive and it's all important stuff. The vehicle with which to explore these issues doesn't do the issues justice. Says I, anyway. 

There is an honest ocker racist working class dad, two duelling bitch sisters (one rich the other a self righteous liberal), the composer brother who can't find a job after years (interesting to wonder if this is Williamson having a jab at one of his actor kids). They snap about the brother not getting a job and the rich sister being a bitch and the middle class sister being annoying; the skeletons feel very musty skeletons (I'm not your dad! I was abused! She had an affair!). 

It's two dimensional characters. The doctor is one dimensional - he is pleasant, courteous and dogged, though one sense he is keen to flick off the switch. It would have been a more interesting play had that been the case. 

A play that isn't up to its conception.

Play review - "Odd Man Out" by David Williamson (2017)

 An utter delight and complete surprise - Williamson shows he's still got it with this extremely enjoyable romantic comedy. Boy meets girl; girl is lovely and boy is handsome, rich, great in bed (like so many male Williamson lead characters in his 2010s plays) and adores her. What's the catch? He's got Aspergers.

The penny might have dropped for the girl earlier but this is a warm, funny, touching play, not mean. There's no lecherous middle aged male tycoons and horny greedy young women, and it acts as a tonic on his writing. He doesn't over complicate the plot - the complication is in the Aspergers and that's enough. I can't vouch for the accuracy of its depiction but it felt real to me. This could easily be turned into a low budget romantic comedy for streaming.

Play review - "Credentials" by David Williamson (2017)

 Lesser known latter day Williamson, written for La Mama I understand. It's another example of him having a great central idea - woman fakes her credentials - but doesn't really go into the subject matter of that idea, i.e. importance of education, people who fake qualifications. 

 What it really is, is the tale of two contrasting females, one the working class heroine, the other the upper class daughter of the person that working class is telling the story too. Both turn out to be hookers. Look, I get it, that happens, there were some funny laughs - it's just this writer tends to sexualise young women a lot. He could have told this story about young men who wind up as hookers - would he have been interested in that?

It has the Williamson virtues - it's accessible, it tells a story, there's some strong jokes. It covers a lot of familiar ground in the tale of the spoilt girl (private school, wants to be a filmmaker - do young filmmakers care about Bunuel?). These sections seemed to have more energy than the working class stuff which felt more written from the outside - but that may be my prejudice too.

Come to think of it, a lot of latter day Williamsons have a terrific central idea that he doesn't then explore, preferring to go back on old tropes (batty female teens, talking about sex, pretentious wives, adulterous middle aged men).

Movie review - "Trial of the Chicago 7" (2020) ****

 Enjoyed this a lot - great to see some smart, adult content. I felt it may have benefited from another draft and a different director - that may be unfair, just what I felt, that another "wash" would have streamlined things.

I don't know much about the trial so the details were fresh. The actors were very good. There aren't many women in it (girl who answers phone, honey pot) so Sorkin doesn't trip over the sexual politics, as a friend pointed out. I love the affection he has for the characters of the pranksters and Tom Haden; he even likes the Joseph Gordon Levitt prosecutor. The ending was a bit cheesy but I couldn't see how else you might do it.

Oh, shame no pictures of the real characters at the end. But an entertaining movie.

Movie review - "Secrets" (1971) **

Philip Saville, who directed this as well as providing the original story, earned his reputation making TV plays and this is like a TV play - serious, a bit pretentious, a series of two handers, a look at infidelity.

It's best remembered for Jacqueline Bisset's nude scene - and it's a dull movie so around twenty minutes in that's what you look forward to because there's not much going on.

It feels dodgy. It's one day in the life of a small family. Bisset and husband Robert Powell have a fight. She gets picked up in the park by a scruffy Scandinavian with a massive car phone. Maybe in real life Per Oscarssn was a stud muffin but to be frank he doesn't seem hot enough to Jackie B. Yet being a total stranger harassing her in the park seems to work - she goes to his place, he tells her about his dead wife, she dresses up as her, and they do it, and she has a topless orgasm, which is hot.

Meanwhile she's left her young daughter at the laundromat. She hangs out with the gardener and plants a kiss on him and he kind of responds then stops.

Robert Powell goes for an interview as a computer programmer and flirts with interviewee Shirley Knight. Or at least she seems to want to bonk him. That subplot was awful. so was the quasi pedophilia. That left Jackie Bi having afternoon sex.

It's meant to be significant. Saville went out with Diana Rigg for a long time - I think he was very good at charming stunningly attractive actresses into doing things.

Movie review - "Dulcima" (1971) **

 Why was this made? I guess it had a literary source material. It was cheap - a two hander. In short hand it sounds simple: woman uses old man's infatuation for her to her financial advantage, but when she starts rooting the local groundskeeper the old man gets out his gun. You can build to that. It's clear. Sexy and violent, all that.

But the treatment here is odd. It starts semi comic. Lyrical. John Mills in "character acting" mode with messy hair and accent. Carol White is the girl. It would have been better with a Julie Christie but White is fine. Mills is very pervy on her and so is the film. But they seem to like each other. The affair with the groundskeeper comes late in the piece. It's not sexy or full flung. But then there's this violent ending.

It's an odd movie. I think it needed to be trashier. They went for something more ambitious but didn't pull it off.

Beautiful locations. Bryan Forbes is to be commended giving so many inexperienced directors a go but it came a cropper for him more often than not.

TV review - "Eureka Stockade" (1984) ***

 A time in Australian TV that seems so long ago - the historical mini series period, when budgets were healthy and everyone well paid. This was a follow up to A Town Like Alice and wasn't as successful and it isn't hard to ascertain why. Adaptations of the Eureka Stockade fall into the same trap - trying to recreate history rather than dramatise characters.

So there's a lot of actors in fake beards and fake accents. The cast is incredibly strong but it's like there's this cover painting of in authenticity.

Too much of the drama is repetitive - there's two Irish women who give inspirational no nonsense talks to their men (one, Carol Burns is very good), there's two Irish man who makes speeches. The third lead woman (Amy Madigan!) sings songs and goes "why are you never home" to boyfriend Brett Cullen (who is the hearthrob of the show, and quite good - he was on The Thorn Birds and I presume got the gig that way). 

There are no real characters here, just beards, hats, accents, and speeches. Bryan Brown has dynamic charisma and his accent is fine, but the character he has to play is... feisty Irishman I guess. Bill Hunter is also a feisty Irishman, only more horny.  Rod Mullinary hams it up in a beard and German accent. The English governors act through their beards and moustaches and say things like "we can't let the miners get away with it".

As with the 1949 I think the dramatists were seduced by the colour and movement and apparent drama of the characters (Lalor had a romance and lost an arm... that sounds cool in theory) but couldn't bring them alive as people. Rather shamelessly they throw in a down syndrome character; it's got to be said, those scenes felt actually moving.

The second half is better as events kick in and the miners start fortifying and characters become less important. There is decent action (though for some reason the Kanopy copy I watched cut out the battle). And the story is interesting. I just wish it had been better.

Book review - "There's a Fax from Bruce" by Bruce Beresford and Sue Milliken

 Highly entertaining series of faxes between two old mates and collaborators. The films that get most attention are their specific projects, Black Robe and Paradise Road; there's probably a little too much on the latter film, as there was in Milliken's memoirs, come to think of it, but I get she's proud of the achievement.

The banter is rapid and fun and enjoyably bitchy at times - enjoying Tony Ginane's financial trouble. Miliken says in her intro she wanted to show how hard they worked and they do, I guess, but life it still pretty good - they're zipping around all over the place, and Beresford has a great life (he's always off skiing and hanging out with famous people).

The period covers 1989 to 1997 so basically an optimistic time - FFC, Fox Studios, etc. Beresford was coming off Black Robe a critical darling. During this period he made his worst movie a Good Man in Africa and had some bad knocks (getting booted off Bridges of Madison County) but we don't read that much about it. I would have liked more but understand maybe Milliken wasn't as across those projects.

Still, a charming fun read.

Movie review - "Killers of Kilimanjaro" (1959) **

The first proper version of the Maneaters of Tsavo was The Ghost in the Darkness but this was one of three unofficial versions made in the 1950s. It's one of Warwick Films' last efforts - their final action movie if I'm not mistaken, done as per their usual formula: American star and director, British crew, Commonwealth setting (in this case Africa).

It's late period Warwick so Anthony Newley and Anne Aubrey are on hand. Newley is a sort of comic relief company man who helps Robert Taylor build a train line and shoot at things. Taylor doesn't spend much time doing engineering. He mostly treks.

Anne Aubrey underwhelms as she tends to do in these films. It's not a very good movie. A lot of trudging. The lions and the train seem to get forgotten.

Location filming helps. Taylor and Newley are professional, even though neither feels comfortable cast. I just didn't care about this one. Plenty of bang bang it just seemed pointless.

Movie review - "Hoffman" (1970) ** (warning: spoilers)

 Odd the Bryan Forbes greenlit this. It is a two hander with Peter Sellers as one of the two, and he was a big name at the time - but this isn't a comedy. Not really. It's got some funny moments but it's creepy and rapey.

Sellers blackmails Sinead Cusack into shacking up with him for a few days. He doesn't try to kiss or mandhandle her so it's supposed to be... alright? It's creepy and uncomfortable and at the end when Cusack gets with him permanently you feel sick.

Sellers is excellent. Maybe that's part of the problem - if the character was played by someone more pathetic maybe it wouldn't have been as offensive.

Though I doubt it.

Cusack is lovely and charming. It makes this even more depressing to watch. Urgh. It's also boring. A lot of features based on TV plays suffered from feeling as though they had too little story. This is the case here.

Movie review - "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger" (1977) **

 Flat ish Sinbad adventure. Patrick Wayne looks the part but isn't that memorable as Sinbad; mind you, neither was John Phillip Law or Kerwin Matthews. Jane Seymour is utterly perfect as a princess who goes on the journey; she has a nude swim and flashes some bare back which was a bit racy. Tyrone Power's daughter plays another princess who goes along. But it's not terribly feminist both women spend most of their time being scared and/or serving food.

The story involves a quest but there was a lot of set up and talk and it wasn't that gripping. The stakes felt low. I mean, they were high on paper but watching it... I just didn't care. Maybe I saw it in a bad mood.

Some decent effects and action sequences. The end is set in the Arctic, which was at least ifferent. Patrick Troughton has a high old time as does Margaret Whiting as the villain.

Movie review - "Country Dance" (1970) **

 Some excellent acting from Peter O'Toole and Susannah York especially in the last third when the movie gets more serious. That's when the film seems to find its rhythm. Until then its a hard slog to be honest with the leads running around being flamboyant. It was hard to care about the antics of impoverished upper class. I knew O'Toole was hot for York so it wasn't a shock. I think more needed to actually happen.

Michael Craig is very good as York's estranged husband. There's also decent turns from Harry Andrews as another lord and Brian Blessed, without a beard, as a young buck who York sleeps with. The girl who plays the pregnant maid is a little dull.

Shot in Ireland. The film feels bog-gy which is appropriate. An attempt by J. Lee Thompson to make something with more street cred but I don't feel he does a good job. Compare his direction with that in say his Ted Willis adaptations where he got the camera right in there.

Movie review - "The Siege of Pinchgut" (1959) ***

 For a long time this movie was dismissed in histories of the Australian industry. Its reputation has risen in recent years. It's a frustrating film to watch because the central idea is brilliant and there's good things about it.

The opening is brilliant - an ambulance racing through Sydney (love the location footage) with anxious staff and driver and a bandaged patient. They get pulled over, then have to take a genuine sick person, and wind up at a hospital.

But instead of building the tension by keeping the gang stuck at the hospital there's a cut and bang they are at this safe house. How did they get there? Why have them go there? Why not get them on the boat.

They get on the boat and it breaks down, so you don't actually need that opening sequence. They arrive at the fort... take it over. Aldo Ray is so apologetic about it, it robs the piece of tension.

Some tourists arrive on the island. They don't seem to be in much danger of being busted. Then Grant Taylor comes and it gets exciting. But then Aldo Ray lets him go. His co conspirators are justifiably annoyed.

Ray's character is so dumb - always whining about wanting a new trial. We never find out if he's innocent or guilty by the way - the harsh copper says he's guilty and he's not disproved. He's too nice, no threat. He goes a little mad at the end.

There's no other threat among the group. Victor Maddern's character should have been harsh but he's amiable. Makes no sense he's along. Why not make him bad? How are they going to get off the island? 

Grant Taylor is in this as a cop who gets chased off the island then shoots Maddern. Watching this I felt maybe Taylor was justifably annoyed he wasn't playing that role. Taylor had a strength and gravitas that the hijackers could have used. They should have shot some people.

I liked the other Aussies. I guess I would but does anyone like the Brits in the cast: Heather Sears in a typically poor Ealing female role, Carlo Juistini has someone who seems as if they're going to be interesting but isn't, Neil McCallum is very poor as Ray's brother, Barbara Mullen as the mother who just whimpers (why not have her be a sex bomb who wants Ray or something.

Kenneth J Warren is a very good booming voice commissioner - I hadn't heard of him before. Gerry Duggan is great too. Ray might have been fine had he been given something to play.

The location is tremendous. Sydney Harbour looks fantastic. It does build effectively. 

I just wish they'd kept the original idea of making it about Germans in World War Two, and used more Aussie actors who would've been better.

Movie review - "The Loves of Joanna Godden" (1947) ***

Mostly enjoyable tale of life among farmers on the Romney Marsh with Googie Withers as a gal determined to farm despite disdain of her neighbours including hunky John McCallum. So far so feminist but it was Ealing so you sense she'll be miserable until she realises McCallum is the man for her, which is the case.

She does meet and fall for Derek Bond who admires her pluck only he disappears at sea (if I saw that right... they were just at the beach). An old codger likes her, too.

Jean Kent is great fun as her sister. She's not that individual, Kent, but she always goes for it, and her character livens up the piece. Really the film should have focused on both throughout - the good and bad one. I think that would have been more fun, and richer. But that would've been too many women for an Ealing film. Still the ending as is feels abrupt... McCallum is with Kent, she bails... so he goes for Withers. Which is realistic but not satisfying.

Chips Rafferty pops up - he made this after The Overlanders. I liked him because he seems like an old time English farmer with that gangly appearance; the accent is slightly disconcerting.

This has a slightly documentary feel of life on the marshes, which is what Ealing excelled in, so that works. Location shooting helps. Withers has strength as an actor. I enjoyed this.

Book review - "A Long time ago in a cutting room far away" by Paul Hirsch

 Entertaining editor memoir. Close up accounts of collaborating with famed directors like Brian De Palma, John Hughes and George Lucas and composers like Bernard Herrman. There's also depictions of working with Charles Shyer (nice but could never make up his mind), Duncan Jones, Herbert Ross (a great experience for Hirsch), Brad Bird.

Hirsch seems to be upfront and honest - I'm sure it's biased in his favour and those criticised will go "that's not how it happened" but he has great credits. He made a lot of genuine contributions to cinema history - persuading de Palma to hire Hermann, the credits and 'Let's Hear It For the Boy' sequences of Footloose, 'Twist and Shout' for Ferris Bueller. He tried to be a director for a bit but not too hard.

This is full of fun stories: having to cut out the bad actor who played Jabba in Star Wars, dealing with temperamental yet brilliant Herman, offending Brian de Palma on Mission to Mars, the moods of John Hughes, the indecision of Charles Shyer on the money pit of I Love Trouble, extracting the juice out of John Hughes movies, what went wrong on Pluto Nash (apparently the original script was funny), James Cameron sledging him on the day Titanic overtook Star Wars at the box office.

Occasionally gets a bit nerdy with talks of splicing and dubs and stuff but consistently interesting. Composers - get to know editors and be nice! They can wreck you with the wrong temp track/edit.

Movie review - "Nowhere to Go" (1958) ***1/2

 I'd heard about this for a long time - one of the last movies of Ealing, the directorial debut of Seth Holt, the film debut of Maggie Smith.

It's a striking work, clearly well directed - I'm surprised it took Holt a few more years to get his next feature. There's plenty of scenes with no dialogue following George Nader around. This was a great chance for Nader, who was a back up Jeff Chandler at Universal. He's fine... not great, but not bad. This film would have sung with a really good actor in the lead, like say Stanley Baker or Dirk Bogarde, but I like that Nader got his chance.

It's charming to see Maggie Smith as a young woman; her part isn't very big, she pops up at the beginning but then comes back in the third act.

Bernard Lee, M from the Bond movies, is Nader's fellow crim who helps the latter break out in a famous opening sequence. I also liked Bessie Love as the woman Nader cons.

The film felt ten to fifteen minutes too long. I wasn't quite sure why. Maybe that Smith disappeared then reappeared so the pay off of that relationship wasn't too satisfactory.

Gorgeously shot.

Movie review - "The Brothers" (1947) ***

 David MacDonald directed so many bad British movies the quality of this one is a surprise. It helps the story is simple - Othello on the Isle of Skye - and it was shot on location, so looks terrific and is a documentary-ish view of life on the island, and MacDonald came from docos.

Patricia Roc is lovely as the orphan girl who goes to work for laird Finlay Currie and is lusted after by his sons, Duncan Macrae and Maxwell Reed, as well as Andrew Crawford. There's excellent work from Currie, Macrae and Crawford, as well as Will Fyffe (another local) and Roc is very good. In real life she was a good time girl so knowing that makes this more enjoyable. She does a nude swim - at least her body double does - at long distance; we see her backside which has to be some sort of first.

Reed has the right brooding appearance but struggles to act - when he has dialogue he can barely get it out. When he doesn't talk he's fine. But honestly. Come on, Box, surely there were better people around? (Andrew Crawford for instance can act).

Stunning photography. Love the music. It's a tale about a woman in love with an abusive man, like The Seventh Veil also made by Sydney Box. It is one of his better films.

Movie review - "48 Hours to Live" (1959) * (warning: spoilers)

 Gets points for novelty - Anthony Steel in decline in a Swedish movie made in English in Sweden. Story acceptible B movie stuff though even by 1959 it was more likely to be found on TV, even the third act twist (his random friend is with the baddies).

I think Steel was meant to play a stock swashbuckling reporter like the one Rod Taylor did in Hong Kong. It's beyond Steel's abilities but he is handsome and has that nice voice and his polite performance at least as some professionalism. The support cast are more variable.

It's badly directed. Actors consistently play scenes in two shots against bland backgrounds. It was shot on location in Sweden but only a few scenes show off that. This could have been filmed anywhere. The Swedish accents give it novelty.

Occasionally when the scientist walks across a desolate beach you get an image of what this could have been.

Book review - "Patricia Roc" by Michael Hodgson

 Entertaining, affectionate biography of the star, an endearing heroine of the 1940s. Roc was lucky in many ways - pretty girl, well off background - who wanted to be in pictures. She had a pleasant on screen presence that ensured work in "girl" parts. She was fortunate to come up in the 40s when for a brief moment British cinema actually cared about promoting female stars. Roc had a "girl next door" quality that was spot on and became a name in Gainsborough movies such as Millions Like Us.

What makes the book interesting is the oddness of Roc's career - genuinely popular for a brief time. she kept in public attention due to support of people like J Arthur Rank, but when the tide went out it went out quickly. It also helps that Roc had a colourful personal life - she loved sex, always had affairs (Anthony Steel fathered her child), was nicknamed "bed rock". Married for money eventually, seemed to regret it... she was arrested for shoplifting. I think she missed acting but maybe was more into the lifestyle than the craft. I could be wrong.

Affectionate, easy to read book.

Radio review - "Dracula" by Bram Stoker adapted by LA Theatreworks

 Entertaining adaptation of the novel - it keeps its diary form. It spanks along and everyone has a high old time.

Movie review - "Day for Night" (1973) **** (warning: spoilers)

 Popular Truffaut movie goes down easy - I think everyone likes this, especially film people. Full of touches like Truffaut playing a director and Jacqueline Bisset as a movie star, and the composer playing himself and the director receiving parcels of movie books.

Like a lot of Truffaut it ambles along. The death of a key character is described off screen. The movie they're making seems terrible.

I enjoyed how Truffaut's director character didn't really care about anything except finishing the film - if people had breakdowns he shrugs them off. I feel in real life Truffaut would be more of a sex pest but the character he plays here is accurate.

Nathalie Baye as a crew member gets all these close ups and action towards the end of the film. It's endearing in a way. Bisset is great value, brings star commitment.  Her hair in the fake movie is terrible but she looks great in "real life". 

I missed Valentina Cortese's drunken diva and Alexandra Stewart's pregnant star - they were lots of fun, I felt both need another beat. Jean Pierra Leaud's annoyingness suits his character.

It's fun.

Play review - "The Slaughter of St Teresa's Day" by Peter Kenna (1958)

 Half a classic - fantastic characters and set up, great Aussie dialogue, and enough incident (daughter wants to be a nun, man just out of prison goes after mother and daughter, the boys drink, guns in the drawer). There's two men just out of prison, too much time is spent on Uncle Paddy's monologues. I feel it would've been better if Oona or Thelma had shot Horrie. But a solid piece of work. Grant Taylor was Horrie in the original production.

Movie review - "Windom's Way" (1957) ***

Not fondly remembered by many, but I liked it. I have affection for these Rank movies but the people involved did try to make a decent movie. It helps to have some excellent leads in Peter Finch and Mary Ure. And the script is quite left wing for Rank which gives it freshness - there is a lot of criticism of the white rubber company man (Michael Hordern) who only cares about profits and the white colonial officials who seem incompetent; the main antagonist is an Indian, who is quite smart and not unsympathetic.

It is still a 1957 Rank movie - the hero is a white man, there is brownface, it was shot in Corsica instead of where it is actually set. Peter Finch is very good - he did well as these tortured doctors in the third world. Mary Ure matches him as the wife - she's gorgeous, especially with her blonde hair swept back, fresh out of the water.  By Rank standards this gave her a decent role - although the plot is resolved half way through. 

The nurse who loves him, Natasha Parry in brownface, never does anything. The film isn't enough action and isn't enough melodrama - it's smarter, which is fine, but doesn't give the audience simpler baser pleasures.

It looks good. Beautiful colour photography. Frustratingly vague about being set in Malaya - it could be Burma. Why not just call them communists, etc? I was never quite sure how it was going to end. Maybe it would've been a bigger hit had Finch and Parry been a couple, then Ure died. Parry goes off to war. That would've had more emotional impact.

Diana Dors Top Ten

 1. Yield to the Night (1956) - easy. Her masterpiece.

2. Weak and the Wicked (1954) - extremely good prison film. A breakthrough for Dors.

3. A Vote for Hugget (1948) - Dors popped from the beginning, but this one she really shone. Hilarious comic work.

4. Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary (1953) - one of a series of low budget films where Dors gave brilliantly funny comic performances.

5. A Kid for Two Farthings (1955) -charming fable which has stayed with me longer than I thought it would. Dors is perfect.

6. Baby Love (1968) - kicks off Dors' blousy period that brought her great acclaim. Very effective in a small role.

7. The Long Haul (1957) - Dors is touching and good as ever playing a woman in love with trucker Victor Mature.

8. From Beyond the Grave (1974) - Dors hilarious in an all star anthology film.

9. Love Specialist (1958) - little remembered but she never looked better on screen.

10. On the Double (1961) - picked this one because she's go great and it makes you scratch your head why her second stint in Hollywood didn't yield better results.

Book review - "Watch Me: A Memoir" by Anjelica Huston

 Volume two is also entertaining and well written. If Dad dominated one, Jack Nicholson is the star of two, not surprisingly. He comes across extremely well - talented, kind, generous, a bit mercurial, not very faithful but basically decent. Huston also dated Ryan O'Neal in this period - his reviews are more mixed: could be charming and decent, but also violent... he thumped Huston once.

The first part of this book was the most compelling - Hollywood in the seventies, hanging with Jack and Ryan and the others, getting caught up in the Roman Polanski case (she's quite generous to Polanski), doing modelling shoots, occasionally seeing dad.

The book becomes less interesting, surprisingly, once Huston becomes an actor. The narrative is more "this happened and that happened" and her later partners are less interesting. I totally had no idea she directed. It's all well written though. She's had a wonderful career and charmed life but talks a lot about the people she's lost in the latter portion of the book.

Movie review - "The Saint's Return" (1953) ** (re-watching)

 Louis Hayward came back to the franchise in this attempt to revive it. It didn't work, but it's nice to see him - even if he's no George Sanders. I watched a copy of this - it was gloomy and dark, which may be the print but I did miss the lightness of Sanders.

The tone of this seems uncertain. Too serious. After a while I got used to tougher Hayward as the Saint but he still had a bumbling assistant.

Diana Dors livens things up with one scene. Why not give her a bigger part? She's got more charisma than the female lead. So frustrating. The lower budget doesn't help.

Belinda Lee Top Ten

In no particular order

1. The Secret Place (1957) - possibly her best British film. Some good Cliver Donner direction.

2. Nor the Moon by Night (1958) - not a good movie, but impressive location work, Lee looks gorgeous, and this was the film that she tried to kill herself during its making.

3. Messalina (1961) - everything you want in a dumb peplum: orgies, milk baths, gladiators, over acting. Great fun.

4. Miracle in Soho (1957) - the jury is mixed on this one, to put it mildly, but it has a lot of charm and Lee teams well with John Gregson.

5. Long Night in 1943 (1961) - a rare "serious" European film for Lee, a slice of neo realism, very well done, and she's strong.

6. Way of the Wicked (1959) - sex and drama among the mussell packing industry. Entertaining. Lee is gorgeous.

7. Phantom Lovers (1962) - one of Lee's last films, this is a charming ghost comedy. Her role isn't very big but the cast is good.

8. Blackout (1954) - solid B thriller which could have been more cynical. Lee suits the world of film noir well.

9. Who Done It? (1956) - Lee is Benny Hill's leading lady. Entertaining movie.

10. The Feminine Touch (1956) - Lee is jolly nice as a jolly nice nurse; she gets a chance to drive the action which was rare. I also like Dangerous Exile, but she was more active in this film.

Movie review - "Miracle in Soho" (1957) ***

 I'm getting to be a soft marker with these 50s British movies, I think. Few people have anything positive to say about this - Michael Powell is scathing in his memoirs... but then, he and Emeric Pressburger had just broken up.

It's not that well directed. The studio setting is very studio-y. The nationalities of the characters vary wildly, even within the same family. Belinda Lee's family is meant to be Italian but it is kind of a UN.

It's an interesting companion piece with A Kid for Two Farthings which was also about a specific place (in that case the East End) and had a hot blonde (Lee) but was an ensemble piece.

I like Pressburger's writing and this had a feel of community. I enjoyed Lee and John Gregson in the leads. I acknowledge that their love story is dodgy - he's a womaniser, she falls in love like a tonne of bricks, is a doormat. But I went with it in part because Gregson always comes across so affably and sensibly, the womanising irresponsible aspect of his personality seems like an act (I'm aware this is rationalising). I also went with it because Lee's characters's arc has fascinating parallels to Lee's own life... she's with a guy who is fine but a bit dull then falls head over heels for this more passionate person. Lee would do that only a year later.

It's toy town but it's sweet and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Could make an ideal musical.

Movie review - "The Wicked Lady" (1983) **

 Michael Winner's remake of the classic is very faithful - he follows the structure - and packs the movie full of great actors and production value. But it doesn't work - at least not as well. It might have been better going off on his own path making it truly trashy. There are some boobs but they seem added - if he went soft core the whole way the film would seem to have more point.

Everything feels off. In the original it was clear Lockwood was motivated by her mother's death... Dunaway says those lines here but Winner shoots her reaction in long shot, so it doesn't have impact.

The ages of the cast is all off. Dunaway seems to old - she was 42, but Lockwood at 31 or whatever made sense. Denholm Elliot is too old at 60 to play someone truly loved by Glynis Barber who was in her late twenties. Alan Bates doesn't feel dashing enough at 50.

On one hand I liked the Barber and Oliver Tobias were f*ck buddies but then it didn't make sense for the character - if Barber was like that how did she lose Elliot to Dunaway... because in the original Lockwood seduced him. But if Barber is sexually active...? Barber and Dunaway need to be different. And why would Barber want Elliot instead of Tobias? And why would Tobias want Dunaway instead of Barber? You never feel that Barber genuinely likes Elliot or that Dunaway likes Tobias.

It's frustrating. The whip duel at least livens things up. The Barber-Tobias sex scene is not very sexy - we all have different ideas of what that is, but I don't know too many people who see it that way. It is hilarious the way they cut in her body double.

A very useful exercise to show how a remake that's very close can still fail. It should have just gone full AIP/New World/Big Bad Mama style.

The best bit is John Gielgud and Dunaway - they match well.

Movie review - "My Wife's Lodger" (1952) **

 Diana Dors is lightning in a bottle in this film - sexy, poised, funny. She's perfectly cast as the flirty hot daughter of a lower class family. The crux of the story involves dad, Dominic Roche (who wrote the play in which this is based), coming back from the war to find the family (including Dors) barely interested, dad not sure what to do next in life, and a lodger having moved in and wanting the mother. That's a very strong idea and this gets off to a decent beginning; it touches on some The Best Years of Our LIves themes, i.e. after the war what next. Director Maurice Elvey keeps the pot boiling.

But there's not enough family scenes and far too many of dad hanging out with some boorish American played by Alan Sedgwick - they get drunk together and Dors is meant to find him cute, which doesn't work because she's too hot for him.

There's not enough Dors. But she does have a decent part and at least some screentime.

Movie review - "Idol on Parade" (1959) ***

An unexpected surprise - Warwick Films made its money off the back of a definite formula (action movies, British talent, American star, location shooting) but varied it for this one (low budget, musical comedy, British star)... and it's an enjoyable little comedy. Colour would have helped but Anthony Newley is extremely winning as the Elvis Presley like singer who is drafted in the army.

After watching Jazz Boat I didn't think Newley was a star but after this I've changed my mind - he seems sweet and likeable and can sing. I wish the romance subplot with Anne Aubrey had been stronger but  he has some enjoyable by play with his fellow soldiers including an oddly cast William Bendix as a sergeant (Bendix played a lot of sergeants but it's weird to see him in the British army - and he was getting too old by now).

The situations and jokes are stock but it's done with pace, polish and good nature.

Movie review - "It's All Happening" (1963) **1/2

I'd heard this was a quickie whipped up for release over a few weeks and maybe it was but it looks pretty good - pleasing colour photography and some quite elaborate musical numbers. It probably helped that it was shot in the studio but is done with a great deal of professionalism and polish. I'm surprised it didn't have more of a life on TV - maybe there were rights issues, or the music was too old time-y.

It's not very rock and roll - Tommy Steele had begun his transformation as musical star by now - but it works on its own terms. Don Sharp directs with typical polish and pace.

Steele has a character to play - a talent spotter who wants to perform but is too shy. The film loses points though by having him raise money to help an orphanage - I mean, seriously? 

There's also a silly subplot where the object of his affection thinks he has a wife and kids which is a waste of time because it's a misunderstanding. There's some stuffed shirts and drunken aristocrats and lots of musical acts I didn't know but a lot of talent is on display.

Movie review - "The Moonraker" (1958) **1/2

 Not the Bond movie but a swashbuckler based on  a play which predated the Fleming novel so they got dibs on the title. It's set in the English Civil War so like most movies set then the heroes are Cavaliers, but the Roundheads aren't painted as villains just tough.

The colour is pleasing, there's plenty of action and the story is solid, if unoriginal - George Baker is a noble who rescues royalists as "The Moonraker". He falls for a Puritan woman (Sylva Syms) who is engaged to a roundhead (Marius Goring).

So far, fair enough, but the film makes some odd decision - Goring isn't a villain he just has a politically different POV to Baker, so the last duel is between Baker and some other guy with dark hair who looks just like Baker. Too many people in the film look like George Baker, it was hard to tell them apart. (There's a servant character whose wife dislikes her husband's loyalty to Baker - he looked too much like Baker).

Sylvia Syms is beautiful and would be revealed to be incredibly sexy in Ice Cold in Alex but is dull here, just hanging around a manor house spouting lines. I did laugh at her in a puritan hat.

The biggest problem though is Baker who simply isn't a star. He's handsome enough and he can act, but he just lacks dash - all while watching this I kept thinking "you're not a star, a support maybe but not a star". They should've given this to Richard Todd or a new TV swashbuckler like Robert Shaw or Roger Moore or someone.

The support cast variers. John LeMesurier is a strong Cromwell, Goring has an interesting crazy eyed look as a Roundhead but his part should have been bigger. People like Paul Witsun Jones are fun. Gary Raymond is spectacularly unmemorable as Prince Charles, the future Charles II. Actors are normally a strong point of British films but this felt undercast.

It was directed by David MacDonald who made some of the worst British movies of the late 40s. This is one of his better pictures but it's still not that well directed; I think he was saved by his story, the photography and costumes.

Movie review - "No Smoking" (1955) **

 I think in the 1950s it was funnier to have comedies about pills that made you give up smoking before everyone realised how deadly cigareets were. So this hasn't aged well.

It does get points for boldness - it's a social satire, so though why it's low budget and stars off in a small town, they bring in the tobacco industry, the government and a trade war. Chemist Reg Dixon has invented a pill that stops smoking - but although Dixon was a comedy star and the film is kind of a vehicle for him more screen time goes to this American Peter Maryn. 

Lionel Jeffries with hair is the tobacconist who is Dixon's antagonist. The playing of these leads is all polished. Belinda Lee is an industrial espionage spy sent to interrogate Dixon by the tobacco lobby; she's pretty and it's nice to see her but actually it's not a huge role, and she plays it as a Marilyn Monroe imitatoin which was amateurish.

This was made by Tempean, a B picture outfit better known for their horrors. Based on a play co written by Aussie Rex Rienits. Location filming helps. It's not really funny but it is interesting.

Movie review - "Robbery Under Arms" (1957) *** (re-watching)

 I'm going dotty in my old age... I'm developing a fondess for this misfire. Now my expectations are low watching it is like putting on an old pair of shoes - it's the sort of fllm that plays on the ABC at 2am.

It's flaws are clear - it's not very exciting, and it doesn't work on the character relationships. It should be about Starlight and the boys and their dad, and the girls in their life... and the "good people in their life. And that's all there but it's not connected.

Some of it works. Its clear that one brother is shiftier than the other (Roland Lewis vs David McCallum both of whom are quite good) and that one sister is shiftier than the other (Maureen Swanson vs Jill Ireland, again both quite good).

But it's not clear how both brothers interact with Starlight and their father - which should be be the emotional crux of piece.

Starlight just sort of strolls in and out of the movie - he rocks up and goes "we are robbing cattle" and they rob cattle then he disappears and then he's captured off screen and escapes off screen, then they see him again and then he disappears so they go to the goldfields without him.. then Starlight happens to rock up and rob a town that the brothers just happen to be present in.

It's frustrating because all these things could have been fixed with a quick edit - strengthen the relationship between the boys and Starlight, show what he means to them compared with their dad. It feels so lazy that the robbery at the end is conincidental.

Support characters could have been made clearer - that Vincent Ball's neighbour for instance, is meant to be the goody goody that should inspire them. As it is he just pops in and out... they should have combined his character with that of Grace, the good girl... or combined with the trooper Goring, or made Vincent Ball into a villain.

And the nasty bushranger in theStarlight's band - the one who shoots the trooper and then later, shockingly, shoots and kills the mother of a small boy in the robbery (the best sequence in the film). His part could have been even bigger. Larry Taylor is the actor, I think.

The character of the father is completely under utlitised as is that of Warrigal. These should be key.

But lets look at the positives: the location photography,that laid back opening credit sequence, the sparing use of music creates its own atmosphere. The robbery sequence is strong, and I enjoyed the long distance shooting sequences. It's well acted - Roland Lewis and McCallum are effectively contrasting brothers ditto Swanson and Ireland. Finch is good.

There's barely any Aussies in the cast. I mean it's quite shocking how few. Finch, yes and Johnny Waddell and Vincent Ball. But Ball's sister, and the lead four, and the dad and mother... Why not use locals? Grant Taylor or Chips Rafferty or someone? I wonder what happened.

You could cut Starlight out of the film. He has no romance, no impact that the father couldn't do.

To keep what they had I would make Vincent Ball a cop... have him in love with the Marston sister. Have the sister in love with Starlight. Make the dad the fully evil one who kills.

Ah, there I go. Can't help nit picking. Better it exists than it doesn't. I just wish it was better.

Movie review - "She Walks by Night" (1959) ** (aka Love Now Pay Later) (re watching)

 Dubbed version of a German film starring Belinda Lee as a real life prostitute who was murdered. This doesn't show whodunnit - that's a POV killing from someone she knows. Lee looks like a drag queen.

This is fairly hard going. Jazz on the soundtrack. Dubbing. Black and white photography. Trashy milieu but because it was 1959 you don't even see that much.

Most memorable bits are the murder, and also where what seems to be a butch lesbian gives Lee a masseuse and seems into her. They don't go through with it - ten years too early.

Not a very good movie. Unpleasant - she has to be punished. Unmemorable men paw at her - bald old fat ones, a young guy she seems to love. No real insight.

Book review - "Stormy Petrel" by Rex Rienits (1963)

 This was a radio play then a TV serial then a novel so the material is thoroughly road tested. Rienits was a good, solid writer - better at structure than at dialogue but he knew how to dramatise. This one focuses on two men - Bligh and MacArthur - but has juicy support characters like fair weather Johnston and drunken judges advocate. It also has female representation with Bligh's daughter who loses a husband but finds love, and MacArthur's wife (whose part should have been bigger but at least she sticks up for her husband).

Rienits has great empathy for both Blight and MacArthur - Bligh is doing the Right Thing and is brave and kind but is also a terrible politician, cranky and officious, you can easily see why he would annoy people; MacArthur is greedy and power hungry but is given many chances to state his case. The arguments and conflict are clear, the world of Sydney at the time is skilfully evoked.

The character of Griffith the secretary who loves Mary is very effective- this is good soap and this was a great read.

Movie review - "Texasville" (1990) **

 There is something irresistible about Peter Bogdanovich returning to the scene of his greatest critical triumph and many of the key cast back, notably Cybill Shepherd and Jeff Bridges but also Tim Bottoms, Cloris Leachman and Eileen Brennan.

The original was about a universal theme - young people in a small town. This one is kind of universal - middle aged people who feel they've stuffed up their lives - but less identifiable, I feel. Jeff Bridges has made a fortune, but is facing bankruptcy. Cybill Shepherd has lost a child.

It's actually fascinating to view this through the prism of Bogdanovich's life - making this with his then ex Shepherd, after having stuffed up his career, and lost someone close to him.

The original was more of an ensemble piece, that gave several people a chance to shine. This it more a star vehicle for Shepherd and Bridges, particularly the latter, who is really the protagonist. The film's narrative arc centers around his mid life crisis.

There are two excellent support roles - Annie Potts, who steals the film as Bridges' wife, and Tim Bottoms, who is moving as the broken-headed Sonny. Come to think of it, Bridges and Shepherd are excellent two - both are better actors than in the original, particularly Shepherd; she's warmer, funnier. It's really good acting.

When the film relaxes it's a pleasure to be around - good actors in scenes that have room to breathe. Some of it is moving - Bottoms' mental state, the fact Shepherd lost a child.

But Bogdanovich made it without Polly Platt or Larry McMurtry (he did the novel but not the script). Bogdanovich was always a second rate screenwriter and we have scenes full of on the nose dialogue and silly bits. Too often he goes for the gag rather than truth, such as scenes with Bridges and his kids.

To be fair the story isn't as strong. It's really hard to care too much about Bridges' re-awakening feelings for Shepherd when he's married to Potts who is so clearly the perfect woman for him. Also he cheats on her in the movie - it seems comic, unmotivated, which I guess is fine, it's just hard to care. You really cared about the romances in the original because Bottoms loved Shepherd and Leachman developed feelings for Bottoms, and Eileen Brennan clearly still had feelings for Ben Johnson, and Bottoms and Bridges looked up to Johnson.

Brennan has barely anything to do, Quaid has the one comic note ("I'm going to prison"), Leachman's role is mostly "there there"... why not give these actors more to do?

Maybe this couldn't have been good but it could have been better. Don't write scripts, Peter!

Play review - "Sorting Out Rachel" by David Williamson (2018)

 Another frustrating late period Williamson because it's got a fantastic central idea - millionaire businessman had a secret Aboriginal daughter threatening his greedy children's inheritance - and then does barely anything with it.

I don't recall any play in more recent years where so much drama happened off stage - Williamson kills off the wife of the millionaire, and the Aboriginal nanny who was his lover, so they're not even characters, there's no confrontation. The play starts with the millionaire and the daughter talking... we don't have him or her find out, we don't see the reaction of the white daughter or her husband to the new development, we see the new daughter meet the white daughter but not her slimy husband.

Instead we get all these time jump scenes. The conversion of greedy selfish granddaughter Rachel from high school bitch to ferocious Aboriginal activist happens off stage - her friendship with her aunt just happens off stage. The Aboriginal daughter lacks any spark - she's just a hard working black woman.

There is clunky teen dialogue (Rachel blogs, she worries about blog critics) and shots at neo cons and climate change deniers that aren't worked into character voice.

On the sunny side I did like how Williamson has affection for all his characters in this one.  He is stronger with men - the millionaire and his idiot son in law are entertaining. He's less sure with the women - he's reluctant to mock them in the straight way.

I wish he'd rewritten this to all take place in real time, kept alive the millionaire's wife and former lover, and had it all played out in the one big confrontation.

Movie review - "The Gentle Touch" (1956) *** aka The Feminine Touch

 Ealing weren't great with female stories, but they did try with this one - its about four nursing students going through the motions.

It took me a while to get into this. The colour photography wasn't great and felt ill at ease with that Ealing documentary style. The movie but this stage felt a few years too old. It doesn't really take into account the new frankness in the way it could. There is a bit where a suicide attempt lady talks about having an affair - what was effective. More of that would have worked.

The lead actors tend to be hard to tell apart - the lead is Belinda Lee, as a good girl; the others are Delphi Lawrence, as someone just there to get a husband, Adrienne Corri as an Irish woman with a broad accent, and Henryetta Edwards as a public school girl. 

Those are four decent types but the playing is indistinguishable. The movie badly needs someone like Diana Dors, with a bit of pep and individuality (she would have suited Lawrence's role; Lawrence seems bored, the character is fun on the page but Lawrence doesn't seem to be having any). Edwards I forgot was in the film when she just quit. Corri doesn't have anything to do except speak in Irish. Surely there were other options around this time? But in fairness to the actors only Lawrence and Lee have much to do.

Every now and then you get a sense of what the movie could be - the girls worried when a colleague go missing, and when one wants to quit. But there's not enough of it. It doesn't compare well to say the 40s war films where there was more camaraderie.

I liked Lee. Her eloquent speaking voice is annoying and she is jolly sensible and no-nonsense, very pretty. George Baker is the doctor with whom Lee falls in love and they make a pleasant couple. Baker didn't have star factor but he was an ideal romantic foil.

The melodramatic bits of this work best - a little girl thinking she's going to die, a life that is saved. There needed to be more of this. Like, kill off a nurse. But the film feels more comfortable in documentary mode - a matron giving a speech, Baker diagnosing an illness. There is some low key feminism in nurses complaining they get the boot if they get married.

But I went with this. I like Lee - this was one of her better parts at Rank.

Diana Wynyard offers strong support as a matron.

Movie review - "Jazz Boat" (1960) **

 One of the films that helped kill Warwick Films. For some reason they left their formula of American stars in British action movies and made this low budget ish crime movie come musical. It was based on a story by Aussie Rex Rienits. I assume it was changed.

At heart this feels like a stock crime drama - Anthony Newley is an electrician who brags about being a thief; he falls into real thieves led by James Booth. It's black and white and looks gloomy.

Then around 20 minutes in it turns into a musical - Booth's gang sing and dance and look stupid. Then it goes back to being. crime drama.

Newley clearly had talent and was a fun support actor but seems to lack the drive of a star. He seems apologetic, holding back.

It's not well directed or well made. Needs to be in colour. Needs more of a romance. Newley spends all this time with a BFF, a Sidney Talfer look a like.   The cast also includes Lionel Jeffries as a comic cop and Australia's own Leo McKern as his boss.

Movie review - "Wicked as They Come" (1956) **

 This should be fun. I want it to be fun. The poster was great. Arlene Dahl sued Columbia because of the poster - she thought it was misleading. It is, not in a good way. A movie more like the poster would have been better.

I don't think Arlene Dahl is a star. Attractive, sure. She can act well enough. But this film needs a star.

It's about a Scarlet O'Hara ish style lead - a woman sick of poverty, hanging around gangsters (including Sid James! this was shot in England), who rigs a beauty contest so she wins and goes to England. Philip Carey is a scoundrel who loves her Rhett Butler style but she pursues married Herbert Marshall.

It's set in England but everyone in it seems to be American.

This film was boring. It was an attempt to make a Joan Crawford movie without Joan Crawford. Philip Carey isn't up to his role either - he's a smarmy prat.

The structure was off - maybe it would've worked better in flashback instead of all this set up. At least it acknowledges the effect of sexual assault on women - that's quite progressive. She does have to be saved by a man but something is better than nothing. It feels wonky all this time is devoted to her and Marshall but then the rich guy she marries isn't Marshall - it should have been him.

This was made by Ken Hughes. I saw a couple of great Hughes films and figured he was this undiscovered gem but this is simply dull.

Movie review - "Don't Make Waves" (1967) ***

 A bit of a mess - I wasn't sure what the point was but it is colourful and has some of my favourite sixties actors: Tony Curtis, Claudia Cardinale and Sharon Tate. There's always something happening it is bright and silly. You can see why it didn't make money. You can also see why it's always on TV.

Nice theme song. It took a pointlessly long time for Curtis' character to be established - he was too passive. Guy should have been a mover and shaker.

Robert Webber's tycoon should have been more of a threat. I did like Joanna Barnes has his wife. David Draper is very sweet as Tate's body building love. I wish more time had been spent showing a bond between Cardinal and Curtis but he spends all his time chasing Tate which is understandable but also makes for the ending seem rushed.

There's mudslides and parachting. It focuses a lot on middle aged people. I liked Jim Backus playing himself.