Movie review - "The Cheap Detective" (1978) **

 I really like Neil Simon, like the actors here, but disliked this movie. It plays like an extended sketch and a not particularly funny one. Also the styles don't mesh. Bogart in The Maltese Falcon is different from Bogart in Casablanca - war is different from the big city, it doesn't work. I didn't care. It was smart arsey and annoying.

I did like it that elder actresses got the chance to shine. Louise Fletcher channelling Ingrid Bergman, Fernando Lamas channelling Paul Henreid, Ann Margret channelling Lauren Barcall, Marsha Mason channelling Gladys George, Madeleine Khan (best of all) channelling Mary Astor. Eileen Brennan is in there too. So is John Houseman, Dom de Luise, Sid Caesar, James Coco.

Mel Brooks did this better.

There was a lot of Bogart spoofing in the 70s - this, Murder by Death, The Black Bird, The Man with Bogart's Face etc.

Movie review - "Joseph Andrews" (1977) **

 Tony Richardson returns to the Henry Fielding well that served him so lucratively in Tom Jones but the public didn't go for this one. Richardson liked the film and said he felt the film was unfairly marketed as Son of Tom Jones when it wasn't really. Richardson argues it was more a pastoral love story than a romp. Look, it's half romp and half love story.

It lacks the energy of Tom Jones. People like Peter Bull, Hugh Griffith and especially Ann Margret play it in high old style - Ann margret is great value as Lady Booby, caked in white make up, lusting after Peter Firth. Firth is a bit of a nothing in the lead - he has none of Albert Finney's dash, he sort of plods along. It's hard to care. Natalie Ogle is dull as his love interest.

It's not a bad movie, and I went with it for a bit, but it became dull over time. The last third was especially hard.

Movie review - "Operation Finale" (2018) **

 Decent enough version of the Albert Eichmann capture story, which has been filmed a lot. I'm not sure if this adds much that is new (though I haven't seen those earlier versions so I could be wrong). It feels dragged out at 2 hours and isn't that exciting. The material is inherently interesting but we don't seem much of the complexity of the time - Argentine and US involvement, for instance. Ben Kingsley and Oscar Isaac are fine. I liked Nick Kroll as an Israeli intelligence op and that burly bald guy.

Movie review - "Carnal Knowledge" (1971) ****1/2

 I liked this when young but it means more to revisit in later years once you've you had more experience in relationships. So much was all too familiar, either personal or observed - young men chatting about what they can "get" out of women, passing various obstacles to get what they want, putting women on pedestals or treating them purely as sex objects, the hatred Jack Nicholson's character has for women, the rationalised abuse, in a way.

Some of this was electrically good - the fight between Nicholson and Ann Margret, the dialogues between Nicholson and Art Garfunkle.

The film is a triumph of casting, acting and directing (not that the other bits aren't good too). Jack Nicholson became a great but remember he was relatively new to stardom. Art Garfunkle, who is excellent as the passive, timid Sandy, was known as a singer (and remains mostly known as a singer). Candice Bergen and Ann Margret were both regarded as jokes; both are superb particularly Ann Margret in the more spectacular part, yelling, flashing her breasts, committing suicide and so on. Bergen's part is more tricky because you keep wondering why's she with Garfunkle and Nicholson. The Cynthia O'Neal part is maybe a little sketchy - she's with Garfunkle but wouldn't mind a shag with Nicholson and is mean about Ann Margret.

Mike Nichols' direction is perfect - clinical and full of insight. The original script is here. You can tell it was envisioned as a play - it's mostly two handers -  but it has been rendered cinematically.

At times watching this I wondered how influential it had been for Woody Allen films. Allen always goes on about Bob Hope, Bergman and Fellini, but this felt like later Woody Allen - Husbands and Wives but also things like Annie Hall; even the music score with tracks like Mood Indigo was familiar.

Movie review - "The Return of the Musketeers" (1989) ***

 I remember the general lack of excitement when this came out - the 1973 and 1974 films were hits but it wasn't as though they were hugely iconic, I mean there were lots of other versions of the tale that kept playing on TV. 

Still, I didn't mind it - and I don't mind it now. It's a shaggy dog sort of movie, ambling along with its various subplots the way that, well, the 1973-74 versions did. It does lack the big emotional undercurrent of the original Musketeers - there's no Milady killing D'artagnan's Constance, and then being captured and executed, with Athos being Milady's ex. 

It has some good ideas - having the villain be Milady's daughter Justine, adding a new spunkrat (C Thomas Howell) to be Athos' son, and introducing Cyrano de Bergerac, Louis XIV, Charles I, and Oliver Cromwell.

It's the serious moments here that works best - the killing of Milady's executioner, the death of Charles I, Richard Chamberlain and Oliver Reed getting heavy with Philippe Noiret. It's a shame there wasn't something else of more emotional weight to match the death of Milady or Constance - like say one of the Musketeers. Lester/George MacDonald Fraser clearly couldn't bring themselves to kill off Justine.

The band don't get back together until the end - it's York and Finlay for a bit, then York, Reed, Finlay and Howell, then Chamberlain comes in at the end. But that's dramatic.

The acting is good. I enjoyed Michael York's ageing juvenile interpretation of D'artagnan, Oliver Reed is excellent as always as the moral but boozy Athos, Chamberlain so much fun I wish we'd seen more of him. Frank Finlay gets some screen time but struggles to make an impact - it may be his character. Kim Cattral is a lot of fun as the villainess and C. Thomas Howell at least looks the part as Raoul. It's said to see Roy Kinnear knowing he'd die making this. Bill Paterson is spectacularly good as Oliver Cromwell - the best depiction of that character on screen I've seen.

This film is always a little bit in second gear but I enjoyed it.

An aside: maybe this would've done better had it been a remake of The Man in the Iron Mask. A big role for a newer star, a more road tested source material, you could still have used the original stars. Just a thought.

Movie review - "CC and Company" (1970) *

 Roger Smith and Alan Carr revived the career of Smith's wife Ann-Margret with some shows in Las Vegas and TV specials. They then decided to go back into films, but were "choosy" turning down The Maltese Bippy and Song of Norway to do... RPM and this. (Then, to be fair, came Carnal Knowledge.)

Smith wrote the story and screenplay so one presumes he wanted to put his wife forward but actually this is more a star vehicle for whoever plays CC - and that's Joe Namath, the football star. This film might thus be of interest to people who remember him as a football personality - doesn't mean as much to Australians.

It's not a great role for Ann Margret - I guess she gets to wear different outfits but she's very much The Girl. In her opening scene she is almost raped by some biker friends of Namath (including the ever reliable Sid Haig) then Namath rescues her and she flirts with him as if nothing happened. Then later on she gets kidnapped (by bikers led by the even more reliable William Smith) and has to be rescued. Oh there's a romantic interlude.

Nothing wrong with putting Ann Margaret in a biker movie - it's a commercial genre and Ann Margret could ride a bike. Why not make something with her as a biker? Get her racing, doing stuff. Make her active. Have her do more dancing, more singing... show off your wife, Roger Smith!

 This film was so boring.

Book review - "The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman (1974)

 Excellent sci fi novel, apparently written partly in response to Starship Troopers but also Vietnam. The stuff about homosexuality becoming standard in the future with straights as a minority doesn't age well but the rest does - the high tech descriptions, the time condensation, the depiction of the military, the disintegration of life at home, the matter of fact use of high tech and drugs such as suits that come to the rescue when you have a piece of you chopped off. It also works emotionally because at heart it's a love story and a very moving one. The deaths of various parents is also well handled. A very good book.

Movie review - "The Swinger" (1966) *

The film that killed Ann Margret's career as a film star, it would seem (she kept starring in films but I think Hollywood went off her as an A lister after this). It's fairly dreadful. 

I like Ann Margret, I like director George Sidney. I get what they were going for here - a wacky jazzy musical comedy in the vein of their earlier hit Viva Las Vegas. And the world of men's magazines has... okay inherent ickiness but possibilities of satire.

Only it's not a musical. There's some dance numbers (Ann Margret is a member of a dance troupe) and one or two songs but it's not a musical. Which is a big thing since the plot is so light. It's got the thinness of an Elvis plot only without songs. 

And without Elvis. Anthony Franciosa is the lead. He's a decent enough actor but why not get a guy who can sing? And dance? So they can do musical numbers together? Surely there were people around. He doesn't have any chemistry with Ann Margret.

The plot is thin and confusing. She's a girl who wants to get her stories published in a girlie magazine (why? it's a girly magazine). So she pretends to be a swinger to impress them (why? go to another magazine). And succeeds so much that editor Franciosa decides to teach her to be a good girl (why?) That's confusing and dumb and pointless.

Ann Margret wears a lot of different clothes. She's a great looking girl and is sexy and can sing and dance but the material defeats her. There's a striking scene where she is in a bikini thing gets covered in paint and rolls around on the floor, years before Tommy.

Robert Coote plays the owner of the girlie magazine. There's several scenes where he's chasing women around desks. This was considered comic at the time but it is kind of rapey. Yvonne Romain plays Coote's daughter who is Franciosa's fiance - meant to be a bitch for some reason.

I guess the final gag where the two leads crashed into each other and died, and then they replayed it was funnier.

But it's a terrible, terrible, incompetently made movie.

Movie review - "Bus Riley's Back in Town" (1965) **

 After the success of Splendor in the Grass William Inge couldn't cop a break, on Broadway or Hollywood. This was based on a script and one act play of his, but Inge disliked what was done to it so much he had a nom de plume put on, "William Gage".

I haven't read the original script so I don't know what was changed - apparently Ann Margret's role was beefed up - but it still feels like an Inge work. To wit, it's about a hot young stud who makes women pant who rocks up in a small town.

He's played by Michael Parks whose James Dean esque looks are exploited to the nth degree. He is propositioned by a lonely middle aged gay man, and panted over by various housewives as he sells vacuum cleaners, is lusted by his ex Ann Margret and adored by his sister Kim Darby and school age young thing Janet Margolin.

Actually, in the second half the added Ann Margret bits feel more obvious. She goes to a packed diner/cafe place and does a dance, and later does a sexy dance in a bedroom. These scenes feel weird and clash with other scenes where her character is depicted sympathetically.

I understand the filmmakers nervousness but if they wanted to jazz up the material they could've done it with sex scenes - like have Parks and Ann Margret in bed more often, having chats, flashing bare backs. Like Room at the Top or (to give a recent American example) The Cincinnati Kid or something. There's nothing wrong with beefing up Ann Margret's part - she's a more engaging character than Janet Margolin. But the depth isn't there.

Also the film needed small town atmosphere but seems to have been shot on the Universal backlot. It's made with Universal cheapness.

I think director Harvey Hart tried but this movie needed that little more care and sensitivity to work. It's hard to do rough adaptations of Bill Inge. They are about a time and place as much as the characters.

Movie review - "Kitten with a Whip" (1964) ** (warning: spoilers)

 A good trashy film inside here struggling to get out. It's got vague Touch of Evil vibes, especially in the last act which is set in Tijuana - Harry Keller produced this and it was made by Universal, and there's a jazzy score.

Ann Margret acts up a storm as a 17 year old delinquent who winds up in the bed of aspiring politician John Forsyth and proceeds to make his life a mess.

Forsyth is professional in a terrible role - his character is a complete dill, finding this girl, not reporting her, letting her stay overnight, buying clothes for her, dropping her at the bus station, then letting her run all over him, invite her friends over. It's probably the most emasculated male lead I can remember seeing. He doesn't even kiss Ann Margret. I kept waiting for the worm to turn but he doesn't punch out the kids, he lets her drive him over a cliff at the end, it's Ann Margret's testimony that gets him off (a complete deux ex machina). The boys die via an accident.

 Ann Margret's performance is undisciplined but she's full of pep and energy and is clearly trying. It's not her fault the movie is bad, and the direction is quite crisp. The main problem is the script. It never feels believable that Forsyth lets Ann Margret stay overnight and buys her stuff - they might've gotten away with that had all the action played over the course of one night but not two nights. Not unless he slept with her, which he should've done. It would've made Ann Margret's actions more understandable.

She's a psycho who is a little lost - they could've done a lot with that. But the film feels afraid to develop the relationship between her and Forsyth too much. If he'd slept with her it would've made him suffering a lot more fun.

There are all these interesting ideas that aren't developed. Like Forsyth's wife - it's hinted there's trouble in their marriage but we only see her once, in a phone call. Why not bring her in to the third act? Why not use the character of that wife (Pamela Brown) of his friend (Richard Anderson)? Why not use the friend more? Why not have one of them killed off? 

I did like the two psycho guys - Peter Brown and Skip Tyler give good perfomances and have delineated characters, as charming educated psycho and more brutish psycho. When the film is a home invasion movie it works better.

It's a film that pulls its punches and wastes its opportunity. Could and should have been so much better.

Movie review - "Lady for a Day" (1933) ***1/2

 Why this is better than the remake:

- it's shorter - the plan kicks in by 29 minutes, the face is faster.

- it's contemporary so was made when there was a depression actually on

- May Robson was unknown so you're not sitting there all the time going "that's Bette Davis"

- Glenda Farrell is a much more believable gangster girlfriend than Hope Lange and isn't given that boring backstory.

- Having lesser known stars in the leads means it works better as what it is, a community story.

Entertaining and a pivotal film for Capra and writer Robert Riskin.

Movie review - "Pocketful of Miracles" (1961) **

 Frank Capra's last movie (though he didn't intend that to be the case at the time) is a remake of his earlier hit Lady for  Day. It has bright, garish colours, as if set in toy town, and is an alright time-filler.  I have memories of it being on TV on Sunday afternoon. 

Peter Falk shines in an early role. It was Ann Margret's first movie and she's lovely - always better as a good girl. She sings a song. At times watching this I wondered if it could be a musical - I think other people had the same idea after Guys and Dolls. Some random handsome American plays her Italian fiance. He warbles a tune too.

I quite enjoyed the family of pan handlers - the little person, the mute girl. I know it was hokey but it worked.

Glenn Ford is miscast as a gangster hero, though not as much as Hope Lange who plays his dancer girlfriend. Bette Davis is also miscast playing "old lady" (a few years down the track it wouldn't matter) though I got more used to her.

In the second half the story kicks in and it became especially watchable (though Ford disappears from the action). But then at the climax I watched Davis introducing all these New York figures be introduced to the Italian count I went "who cares if the count approves or not... like he's an Italian count, Italy got smothered in the war and depended on American kindness". That's when it hit me the story didn't update that well.

Maybe it should've been set in Las Vegas - but do they have panhandlers. More could've been made of Davis' alcoholism... that's a ticking clock that was never used. Ditto Mitchell's drinking problem. No romance between her and Thomas Mitchell?

Movie review - "Bonfire of the Vanities" (1990) **

 I was inspired to watch this again after listening to the podcast on the movie by TCM. The main feature of that was Julie Salomon's recordings of interviews at the time. But actually production of the film wasn't too tough - Bruce Willis was a bit egotistical, Melanie Griffith was insecure, the budget went over but... it was reasonably professional. Pages are dedicated to some guy getting a shot of a concorde, as if it mattered.

The film isn't very good. But then I wasn't wild about the novel. Not an easy novel to adapt - it's all about multiple characters and atmosphere. Maybe Robert Altman could've done it.  Sidney Lumet. 

 It had to be about someone we enjoyed seeing suffer. It's not fun to watch Tom Hanks suffer. He seems too nice.

It's mean about the black people. Shows the kid who is in a coma has his CV artificially pumped up as an honours student, shows the black preacher as a cartoonish figure, makes a cheao joke about his mother wanting $10 million to buy clothes.

It has no feel for New York. The sense of divide. It's too stylish.

The film is about nice Tom Hanks not really doing anything bad except root Melanie Griffith and even that's not too bad in the world of this movie because Kim Cattrall plays the wife as a caricature. And in this story every one is mean - Melanie lies on the stand, his wife leaves him, Bruce Willis writes nasty articles, protestors yell at him, his firm fires him, his co op kicks him out of the building. But then Bruce Willis has a change of heart and comes to the rescue. And white dad Donald Moffatt says he loves him.  And judge Morgan Freeman asks everyone to be decent when Hanks triumphs (well, escapes prosecution) by lying that he made a tape with dad's approval. Go the patriarchy!

Bruce Willis feels off as a drunken journalist. Michael Caine or some old boozy Brit would've been better. Melanie Griffith is actually the best cast.

The miscasting was bad but they distorted the novel into a stock Hollywood hero's journey but still tried to be faithful which means the film just comes off as really racist. That's why people got upset about it.

Movie review - "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" (1966) **1/2

 The reputation of this film is mixed despite its interesting cast. It started very well with that wonderful opening number 'Comedy Tonight'. It is bright and funny and the Spanish locations are fine. 

But after a while I kept thinking "this probably played better on stage" especially the broad comic antics of people like Zero Mostel (slave), Phil Silvers (slave dealer).

The cast includes Michael Crawford (male juvenile), Australia's own Annette Andre as the girl of his dreams, Michael Hordern as Crawford's dad.

Movie review - "Wagon Train" (1940) ***

 First in what would be a long series of B Westerns at RKO starring Tim Holt. They tried him in a few already and decided to star him in a bunch, replacing the presumably more expensive George O'Brien.

Holt is tracking down his father's murderer, a businessman up to No Good. Martha O'Driscoll is the girl. Ray Whitley is the sidekick. Edward Killy directed.

Holt as an amiable boy next door boyishness that suits his heroic character. There's some songs, a cute baby, a decent story, Indians on the warpath. It ticks a lot of boxes. It feels adult in places - the Indians wipe out a farm house leaving a shellshocked O'Driscoll (we don't see the attack but see her reaction). Some impressive action such as a fire.

Script review - "The Paper" by David and Stephen Koepp

 No one talks about this film but I liked it when it came out and feel the script held up. It's a 24 hours in the life of movie, the life being people who work at a New York tabloid, though not an evil one. There's Bernie the head business guy I guess, Alicia the other business person and Henry the editor. Some bits really shine - the whiny reporter going on about his ergonomic chair, Bernie telling Alicia that they cover the rich people's world they don't live in it, Henry stealing off the New York Times surrogate, Henry's pregnant wife meeting a source and laughing at his jokes. A nice movie.

Script review - "Pulp Fiction" by Quentin Tarantino

 This script was over exposed at one stage. Now it's nice to look back and appreciate for what it has always been - a clever, exciting piece of work, in which you wish Mr Wolf did something more clever. It's like a novel with various side characters clearly having full lives (eg the Columbian cab driver, English Dave, Lance's wife), A surprisingly moral piece. Vincent's poor bowel control is crucial - going to the toilet leads to his death, leads to the robbers taking control of the Diner, leads to Mia's overdosing.

Tim Holt Top Ten Non-B Western Films

1) Stella Dallas (1937 version)

2) Stagecoach (1939)

3) Swiss Family Robinson (1940)

4) Back Street (1941 version)

5) The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

6) Hitler's Children (1943)

7) My Darling Clementine (1946)

8) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

9) His Kind of Woman (1951)

10) The Monster That Challenged the World (1957)

That's an amazing collection of films for a B Western movie star. Who else matches it apart from John Wayne?  (I will acknowledge Holt's contribution to the bulk of these isn't that critical.)

Movie review - "Blurred" (2002) **1/2

 Bright Aussie teen film with plenty of energy, engaging cast and good ideas. It doesn't quite work. The problem is easily identified... in my opinion anyhow... and it was something not picked up on my any of the critics that I read. All the central situations have potential but they aren't developed.

Craig Horner is besties with Veronica Sywak and Kristen Schmid and they hook up. Great scenario - when three becomes a crowd. Horner is very good. But that happens at the end, after we've just hung out with them, when it needed to happen earlier, and we play out the real drama i..e Horner finding life without his best friends.

Tony Brockman wanting to break up with Jess Gower because it's schoolies. That's great. But then Brockman just sits on a seat and gets wasted with a girl and... nothing much happens. Gower grabs Jamie Croft to root him and... she doesn't. No story progression. You could've spun it any sort of way. Had a romance. A fight. Just some relationship progression. But instead they jump up and down on the spot.

Mark Priestley and Travis Cotton as two yokels going to schoolies - great. But they just yokel around, run into Damien Garvey, do more yokeling. Then they meet the two private school girls and it looks like they might get off on them... and you go "that's the story. Those four having a romance." But they dismiss it in one scene.

Nathalie Roy as a posh girl meeting some raucus boys, but one seems nice... That has promise. Girl letting to let hair down. But we find out straight away the boy is a lout. No progression.

The film is good in its serious moments - Horner realising his two friends want to root, Horner making friends with Roy at the beach,  Gower and Croft saying goodbye.

A lot of the comedy is uncomfortable. I don't mean to sound old but two girls getting wasted and driving a limo erratically on the road... that's frigging dangerous. The scenes where Nathalie Roy is surrounded by boozy aggro boys is realistic in a really unfun way.

Book review - "Razzle Dazzle The Battle for Broadway" by Michael Riedel (2015)

 Super entertaining look at Broadway of the 70s and 80s... its decline then Chorus Line led revival. There was maybe a little too much on the Schubert organisation for me.

Full of colourful characters, Michael Bennett leading the way. It gives Frank Rich a shellacking, which is entertaining. It maybe warps the view of Broadway by focusing on the hits - tales of a few more flops might give a more accurate figure. And jeez every hit production is full of personal narrative of triumph. I don't think Phantom of the Opera can play the underdog card.

Book review - "Dune" by Frank Herbert (1965)

 Talk about world building. Herbert build a world, and a universe, and a language, and a system and, well, heaps. He uses the Jesus myth and history and came up with a compelling mythology. It's a first rate story.

Sometimes it got bogged down in detail and I needed someone to have a sense of humour but it is truly epic.

Lots of nice touches like the good Duke Leto having a propaganda arm. The action sequences are surprisingly short.

The Breaking of Bumbo (1971) ** (warning: spoilers)

 Part of Bryan Forbes' slate at EMI Films this is a swinging sixties film that probably came out too late. Maybe he was also thinking it could be another Virgin Soldiers but there had been The Jokers, If, and all those sorts of movies.

It's also about the guards at Buckingham Palace which kind of limits its appeal  - that's a very specific demo unlike National Servicemen. 

Richard Warwick is an engaging chap who makes his role unsleazy though he lacks a little in the charisma department. (The original director wanted Chris Cazanove.) Joanna Lumley is great fun as the protestor he hooks up with.

There's anarchic humour and a bleak ending with Warwick getting his head blown off and no one caring. But it was hard to care.

Edward Fox is in it. It's a relic of its era (even though the film never got a proper release).

Book review - "Starship Troopers" by Robert Henlein (1959)

 Love the movie. Fascinating to read the book and note the differences - the characters are all in there just often different: Carl doesn't meet Johnny and gets killed on Pluto, Carmen is a character Johnny goes on one date with, Johnny's dad lives and joins the army, Diz is a guy who we barely get to know, Ace pops pu then disappears. I think the film did a good adaptation. Though it didn't fix the fifth act.

The action scenes are well done. Love the training detail. It is a bit fascist - like Ancient Rome fascist (it's still a democracy just with a limited franchise). There's a lot of military mentality talk - going on about equipment, and horseplay and what not which feels realistic and is dull.

Book review - "A Splurch in the Kisser: The Movies of Blake Edwards" by Sam Wasson

 Interesting analysis of Edwards' films. I was hoping for a more traditional biography because Edwards had such a colourful life and put it into his films. Not what I wanted but on its own terms worth a read.

Movie review - "Stagecoach" (1966) **1/2

Not bad. Nice colour and locations. Good cast. I wasn't wild about Alex Cord as the Ringo Kidd. Ann Margaret is ideal as a hooker. Mike Connors is fine as John Carradine. Stefanie Powers is the pregnant lady Louise Platt. Robert Cummings is better than Barton Churchill. Van Heflin is ideal as George Bancroft. Bing Crosby is very good as Thomas Mitchell. I liked Keenan Wynn as the baddy. I could've taken or left Red Buttons.

The direction, by Gordon Douglas, lacks the poetry of John Ford but is competent. It doesn't have the emotional connection and warmth of the first. But it isn't bad and it is in colour.

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

 Fun RKO A minus I think you'd call it. Clearly inspired by Warner Bros movies of this time - RKO didn't make a lot in this line. Quentin Tarantino really likes this movie. Jaunty fun. Great to see Sanders as a heroic leading man.

Movie review - "The Lady Vanishes" (1979) **1/2

 I grew up hearing nothing but bad things about this movie. I think people were just so offended by it. But it has nice locations, stylish widescreen photography.

Some changes are fine, like turning Margaret Lockwood into a Carole Lombard screwball heroine played engagingly by Cybill Shepherd. I like Elliot Gould as a shaggy haired reporter. Their banter, where he talks about her legs and she talks about the men she married, is the most clearly George Axelrod bit of the movie (Axelrod wrote the script).

Other changes were silly. Why not keep someone trying to kill Angela Lansbury only for Shepherd to get a conk on the head? And have that cause her brain injury rather than Cybil doing it drunkenly.

Why not have Cybill Shepherd and Elliot Gould dislike each other at first and banter? Like getting him kicked out of the hotel room. And I missed the Oxford-Cambridge joke. And Shepherd wants to kiss Elliot Gould two thirds of the way through... why not hold off until the end? Did the nun get captured at the end? I wasn't sure.

Still it is a recognisable remake. There's Charters and Caldicott, the adulterous lovers, the nun who works for the baddies but helps them. Herbert Lom is always reliable but too familiar as a baddie - and I think the part would've been better with someone younger and more charming, more of a potential romantic threat to Gould for Shepherd. Angela Lansbury is fine as always but maybe too believable as a spy - dotty, old, tubby Dame Mae Whitty was more fun and unexpected.

I do think they would've been better off, if they wanted to remake it, updating it to the present day and setting it behind the Iron Curtain. I mean, they still had trains then.

The big issue I think is the direction from Anthony Page. He's not bad - perfectly servicable. But there's none of Hitchcock's atmosphere - the menace underneath at the beginning, the sense of Englishmen abroad, the paranoia of the main girl, the light by play.

It occurred to me at the end when Gould and Shepherd sing the tune Lansbury gives them that they were meant to co star in At Long Last Love - both can sing. Lansbury too. Not too late for a musical!

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

 I had heard this film was terrible. It isn't. I mean it has flaws but it's always interesting. Even the fact the film ends with Valentino in a box match a la Rocky and it was made by the producers of Rocky is interesting.

Rudolph Nureyev is Valentino and does okay. He's got the looks, the build, can dance, has charisma. Russell protects him - he shoots him dancing, with his clothes off, strutting around. It's effective.

As a movie buff I enjoyed seeing representations of Jean Acker, Nijinsky, June Mathis (Felicity Kendall), and various executives.

Michelle Phillips  is his main wife. She's beautiful (naked in one scene) but not as effective. Slightly miscast, I felt. However the film is best when focusing on their relationship. The story loses it when she disappears.

Leslie Caron pops up as Nasimova. The last act of the film is odd. Up until then I was having a good time watching this. Ken Russell films are always interesting.

Movie review - "Shaft in Africa" (1973) ***1/2

 Great fun. I haven't seen the other Shaft films so I can't judge compared to that - I gather this changed the tone, sending a New York boy to Africa.

But the fact that he's black gives it wonderful freshness. It's still not that common to see black American movie leads set in Africa. This was shot in Ethiopia so the visuals are fantastic. Richard Rountree is lively and the film has resonance because it's about the modern day slave trade and the baddies seem to be South Africa and when two whites torture a black man at the end with wires you know that sort of thing was going on in South Africa.

Striling Silliphant seems to have at least done some basic research on African culture - of course clitorechtomy gets an airing. It did think it took a little long to get going - Shaft gets kidnapped and undergoes these tests before going on a mission when they could've just asked him to go on the mission.

Vonetta McGee is great value as the female lead and even more fun is Neda Arneric as a nymphomaniac who gives Frank Finlay head in the back of a limo, gets turned on by watching husky blacks on the side of the road, and is turned to good after a session in bed with Shaft.

Three's scenes in France and New York on top of Africa which gives everything a globe trotting feel - almost like James Bond. A good time at the movies if approached in the right spirit.