Movie review - Pink Panther#5 - "The Pink Panther Strikes Again" (1977) ***1/2

 Very funny. Simple concept - Herbert Lom tries to kill Clouseau - works brilliantly because it builds on the premise, i.e. the world sends assassins to kill him. Lesley Anne Downe is hilarious as a Russian spy who falls for him. Omar Sharif plays an assassin in a short scene.

Movie review - "A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" (1982) ***

 Sweet Allen take on Smiles of a Summer Night - nice to see him in a period tale (even though it didn't really need to be), out in the country. Pleasant to look at and accomplished actors. Jose Ferrer is in the Max Von Sydow part as the imposing man with an older woman he educates (Mia Farrow in her first film for Allen).

These films have more vigour than his later ones because he was making them about people his own age (even if it was a period film).

A nice, slight Woody. Tends to be overlooked but has plenty of charm - the inventions, the rural setting, the period detail. Julie Hegarty is funny as a liberated nurse. Actually all the cast is good. Maybe having two "free love" types among the women was too much - could it not be varied?

TV review - "Love Life" (2020) ***1/2

 A great concept, quite well done. Doesn't break new ground - it's still about a single gal in New York looking for love, with sassy best friends - but the anthology nature of the piece is effective and makes you reflect about your own life. I preferred the earlier eps. I really liked the one about the mother having a break down and the flashback to high school (was that guy based on Jake Gylenhaul? Was Augie based on Edgar Wright?)

Movie review - Pink Panther#4 - "The Return of the Pink Panther" (1975) ***1/2

 Classy. Fun. Christopher Plummer looks very handsome in the beginning but his hair is messy later on. Great role for Catherine Schell. Nice locations. Sellers in good form - it's great to see him after the ten year break. This really revived his career - that and for Edwards. Plenty of style and laugh out loud moments. Herbert Lom has a ball - the supporting characters in these films were underrated.

Book review - "The Glass Key" by Dashiell Hammett

 Took me a while to get through this. The famous scenes in the movies remain vivid - Ned being tortured, then seducing a woman whose husband kills himself. You can see why it was filmed. Corruption is so vivid.

Movie review - Pink Panther # 3 - "Inspector Clouseau" (1968) **

 Weird to see Alan Arkin in this part. I get why he was cast: The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming. This isn't bad. More odd. There's European locations but it lacks Blake Edwards' style.

Delia Boccardio is good looking. Beryl Reid is funny doing a highland fling. It's not a bad plot involving the theft of jewels. There's some groovy 60s thieves, mostly male unfortunately. People like Frank Finlay and Clive Revill are in it.

Arkin lacks Sellers' dignity. His poise. He tries. Doesn't disgrace himself it just doesn't work.

Movie review - Pink Panther#2 - "A Shot in the Dark" (1964) ***

 The second Clouseau film is based on a play that had nothing to do with him, but is the one that introduced Dreyfuss (Herbert Lom) and Kato (Burt Kwouk).  It's not bad - very French. Elke Sommer is fun as the maid Clouseau believes is innocent despite all evidence to the contrary. Some slapstick. A lot of slapstick actually. I did prefer the first movie but this has it's own style. A decent mystery.

George Sanders looks old. Bryan Forbes makes a cameo in the nudist sequence.

Movie review - "Running Scared" (1986) ***

 I've got a lot of affection for this because I saw it as a kid. The Chicago locations look great as is the cinematography. It's a shaggy dog film ambling along - "we gotta get Mendoza!" The cops all look the same, with beards. There's a lot of police brutality.

Gregory Hines is likeable but Billy Crystal is the real standout - he's believable as a cop and very effective. Should've done more action. Jimmy Smits is paying his dues in a thankless part ditto Dan Hadeya.

Some really funny moments eg intimidating Joe Pantaglio by saying "he has cash in his room" and decent action scenes. Other stuff less fun eg bullying the boyfriend of the girl Hines is sleeping with - what did he do wrong?

Book review - "Sweet Deams: The Story of New Romantics" by Dylan Jones (2020)

 Not bad. I was hoping for a more gossipy account. I felt it devoted too much times to descriptions of night clubs and magazines and street press. I wanted more music.

Movie review - "Mank" (2021) **

 I didn't like it. Cinematography and art dept are brilliant. They deserved their awards. I did like how its an expensive film that focuses on Upton Sinclair's attempts to be governor. Orson Welles fans got upset but the film isn't about him, really, it's about Mank.

But... it's not great. So much didn't feel real. Ben Hecht and others pitching a film to studio execs. Everyone standing around watching Mank do his speech. The marriage between Mank and his wife. The character of Marion Davies. The relationship between the brothers.  None of it felt real. This was a hard slog.

Movie review - "Glen or Glenda" (1952) **** (re-watching)

Remains fascinating. Compulsive. A true artist in his way. This is worth checking out. Hilarious yes but it does make you think and always holds the attention.

Book review - "Mike Nichols: A Life" by Mark Harris

 Fabulous book. Definitive. Nichols was a major player - this book captures it. The background, the upbringing, the college years (he could be mean - not surprised), comedy with Elaine May, straight acting, adventures as a director, early films, incredible success, great disappointment, exotic love life, terrible fathering (at first... he got better), finding his groove as a film director again, compulsive spending, addictions to drugs at a late age.

I was familiar with a lot of the hits - The Graduate, Virginia Woolf - but it was great to read about the disappointments - Day of the Dolphin, The Fortune, Fools. The theatre stuff is gripping. People seem to have really loved him. But he couldn't do everything as those who've seen The Fortune can attest.

A magnificent book.

Book review - "Farewell to the King" by Pierre Schoendoerffer (1970)

 You can see the appeal of this to John Milius - the white man becoming king of the jungle, fighting a noble war, the allusions to Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia (this feels like it was written as a vehicle for Peter O'Toole).

The character of the Botanist isn't much but the one of his boss, Colonel Fergusson is intriguing - tormented by what he must do to Learoyd, but willing to do his duty. Written in a nice brisk style. The Borneo characters are caricatures. The death of the wife and child probably could have happened earlier.

The story lacks something... maybe a developed female character,or a subplot or something. Easy to read though.

Movie review - "Radio Days" (1987) ****

 Woody Allen's charming valentine to memories of radio has aged well, for the most part. The scenes of him and his mates perving on a naked lady maybe not so much. Production values are a dream - it probably cost too much money (did they need to cut away to the scenes of digging up the girl). 

Plenty of surprises... you think a bad date for Diane Wiest will end with a rape attempt but it's ended via Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast, a girl you think will be rescued turns up dead, Seth Green spots a sub but decides not to tell anyone.

I wish Allen had gone back to radio for stories... he could've done one based in the industry for instance. Lovely wistful quality. Mia Farrow is the closest thing to a star but Diane Keaton makes a cameo and there's nice turns from people like Josh Mostel, Danny Aiello, Julie Kavner and so on.

Book review - "Your Turn to Curtsey My Turn to Bow" by William Goldman (1958)

 Goldman's second novel is more of a novella, running in a ck.130-odd pages. It's very simple and tells the story of a 17 year old who goes to summer camp where he falls for a girl and has a homoerotic friendship with a guy. The girl turns out to be a hooker and the guy cracks up, both things which felt like Goldman figured them out on the spot. Easy to read. The crack up stuff felt realer than the girl-is-a-hooker sho

Movie review - Pink Panther#1 - "The Pink Panther" (1963) ***1/2 (re-watching)

 Bright. Fun. Peter Sellers' part is a lot smaller than you think. Capucine is fabulous. David Niven fun. Claudia Cardinale gorgeous. Robert Wagner is fun too even if he's required to play a sex pest. There's breezy European locations - ski fields, small towns, etc.

It's a film of set pieces: shenanigans in a bedroom with Capucine trying to hide Niven and Wagner from Sellers, a long flirtation between Niven and Capucine (who is too old for her but kind of gets away with it because it's Niven), the finale chase scene with men in gorilla outfits.

Credits and theme tune are deserved classics. Cardinale should've given her jewel back to the people.

Book review - "The Beauty of Living Twice" by Sharon Stone (2021)

 Excellent introduction - the tale of her brain bleed. It's well written. Actor-y - lots of talk about spirituality and supporting HIV research and friends. I was hoping for more stuff on the movies, TBH. There's a little on Basic Instinct and Casino and some on the rough shooting conditions on King Solomon's Mines. An entertaining bit about her start in Stardust Memories. She has nice things to say about Arnie, Paul Verhoeven, Michael Douglas. She talks a lot about her friends and family. She doesn't mention Joe Eszterhas (which must have driven him wild). There's a fun anecdote about a producer who I assume was Robert Evans encouraging her to have an affair with who I assume was Billy Baldwin. She takes pride in The Quick and the Dead. Talks fondly about Bruce Wagner, mentions a first husband and that newspaper guy is alluded to as a lousy husband after her stroke (but she thanks him in the "thanks" section). She had dodgy health. Says nice things about Bruce Beresford.

I was hoping for more goss, to be honest, and more of the films. Nothing about Irreconcilable Differences or Catwoman or Police Academy 4 or the action films or the Mighty and The Muse or The Specialist.

She was so good looking and great on screen. I remember when Basic Instinct came out she was the flavour of the month but me and my mates had liked her since King Solomon's Mines. She was good then. I am genuinely surprised she didn't last longer as a star. Bad luck. Made a lot of films that would've sounded great on paper: Sphere, Diabolique, Sliver, The Mighty,The Muse. To be fair, not sure what she turned down.

Not a bad read just not what I was hoping. I'm glad she's doing better. Poor Joe Eszterhas!

Interview with Roy Ward Baker

 Full transcript is here.