Movie review - "Seven Year Itch" (1955) ***

 A one-joke film - man fantasises about cheating on his wife - but some of the variations on the joke are very funny, and Marilyn Monroe is incandescent. You'll see a lot of Tom Ewell - he's in most scenes - as the day dreaming wannabe Don Draper. Ewell works here - gumby face, self delusion... Jack Lemmon would've been too young, James Stewart wouldn't have been right.

Evelyn Keyes is his wife and Sonny Tufts not bad as the imagined love rival. Good on Sonny Tufts for being in a hit. It's Marilyn's film though.

Movie review - "Titanic" (1953) ****

Daryl Zanuck was attracted to this via its ability to use CinemaScope and the talents of Clifton Webb, who plays one of the several millionaires on the Titanic. The writers (Charles Brackett and his old Billy Wilder era collaborators Richard Breen and Walter Reisch) have given him a decent plot - he's trying to retrieve wife Barbara Stanwyck.

There's a role for other Zanuck favourites, like Robert Wagner as a young college boy (who's allowed to be heroic but still survive by cutting a rope and falling in the water), and Thelma Ritter as Molly Brown.

It's fun to see a scene where Wagner is trying to get information out of Stanwyck about the latter's daughter Audrey Dalton knowing that in real life Wagner and Stanwyck were getting it on. (She does seem very lively in the scene, as does he - it's a shame they didn't work together more). Later on she reveals to Webb she slept with some young guy on the beach, who impregnated her... this could've been a Wagner type!

Wagner is quite sweet - he sings a number and does a jig. Audrey Dalton is good as the stuck up daughter of Webb and Stanwyck. The subplot about Richard Basehart's drunken priest is a little dull. Thelma Ritter is fun as Molly Brown. Brian Ahern offers some star power as Captain Smith, ditto Edmund Purdom as Lightoller.

The last half hour is terrific with some wonderful moments like Webb's son, rejected by Webb previously, giving up his seat to go and die with his father.

I think this was a solid success rather than a big hit - because of its cost, I wonder if Fox made a profit on it - but it's one of the finest movies Webb made at Fox, not to mention Brackett.

Movie review - "Assault on Precinct 13" (1976) ***1/2 (re-watching)

 A film of wonderful mood: endless deserted streets, sun going down over baked roads, gangsters walking around killing people at random (ice cream truck guy, little girl), isolated phone booths, cut off precincts.  It's horror as much as action.

This version has mystery missing in the remake: the gang kill people at random, we don't know what the death row prisoner is in for or what happened to him. It's a super Hawksian take with these professionals banding together - the gal, the cop, the prisoners - to defeat the enemy. The death row prisoner channels Gary Cooper the cop John Wayne.

Very enjoyable. The low budget causes some dramas but it's compelling.

Movie review - "The King and I" (1956) ***

 It's definitely a movie but it feels like a stage play - the construction, the staging, the gags. You can hear the pauses for laughs, the moments that would've worked well. Shots are set up with mid body two handers to enable the stars to do their thing.

What a down-home hit: feisty female lead, strong male opposite her, urst for the 1950s ("ooh he's got so many kids and is shirtless I can dance with him but not have sex with him because he's coloured but he still adores me" ), lots of cute kids, some sappy romance among young lovers, king expiring on stage. It scolds imperialism but still pushes the superiority of the West. Like a lot of Rogers and Hammerstein it has a plot where a woman comes along to a man of power and goes "your household is a mess here let me fix it" (South Pacific, Sound of Music). Presumably that's why they were so popular.

The art direction and colour is glorious as is the CinemaScope photography. Deborah Kerr is fine, her kid is hideous and Yul Brynner is magnificent as the King. Rita Moreno is very good as the wife in love with another guy (the actor who plays him isn't as crash hot).

I enjoyed this a lot to start off but it went on too long. Plenty to admire. Nice songs just too many of them. Brynner is perfect.

TV review - "The Only Murders in the Building" (2021) ****

 Splendid murder mystery with engaging stars, plenty of twists, a theme (finding friendship and love later in life). Still can't avoid the villain doing a convenient monologue at the end but how else to do it. The three stars are terrific together. I enjoyed the Broadway gags too.

Movie review - "The Virgin Queen" (1955) **

 Bette Davis returns to the part of Elizabeth I, this one focusing on her relationship with another handsome young lout, here Sir Walter Raleigh played by Richard Todd.

There's bright colours and set design and it all looks splendid in CinemaScope - I assume that's a big reason why Fox greenlit this project.

Dramatically it's not very interesting. The Private Life of Elizabeth and Essex was stronger because it concerned a great love, built up to Essex leading a rebellion against Elizabeth and being executed..

This has less focus. It's about Walter Raleigh trying to persuade Elizabeth to finance ships and he marries Joan Collins which annoys Davis but not that much and she lets them go. The "baddies", Robert Douglas and Jay Robinson, are bad because they don't like Todd because... it's never really spelt out. I didn't care about Raleigh and Elizabeth because he was just after her cash and she was just a little egotistical but basically decent. There's no stakes.

They should've done the Mary Queen of Scots story with Davis as Elizabeth. That would've been more worthwhile. The one effective moment is when Elizabeth reveals herself to be bald. I guess when Dan O'Herlihy died.

Rod Taylor appears as a Welsh soldier delivering a message from the palace while Dan O'Herlihy is there - he passes on gossip that Collins is pregnant.

It was so hard to care. Todd and Collins were so selfish.

Henry Levin

 Talk about obscure. Hard to find anything about him.

He would routinely direct sequels, or films where he replaced the original director (at Columbia he stepped in for Charles Vidor several times - Guilt of Janet Ames and Man from Colorado).

He was raised in his parents' theatrical boarding house. Went on the stage at age two. He was a song and dance kid, playing in family burlesque. He would wear blackface and sing Jolson songs.

Levin graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. degree in economics, stage-managed for the Theatre Guild, ran a summer theater in Massachusetts and acted whenever he could.

In 1936 appeared on stage in Prelude to Exile see here.  Oct 1937 in to Quinto and Back review here.

Nov 1940 on stages in Glamour Preferred review here.

1941 stage manager for Two Storey House and acted on stage in Cuckoos on the Hearth see here.

June 1941 running Bass Rocks Theatre with Martin Manulis did production of Tovarich see here.

Dec 1942 signed to Columbia.

May 1943 signed as dialogye director at Columbia. See here

Making Where the Boys Are the cast thought Levin was keen on Dolores Hart - she admits she "got a lot of close ups".

Article on filming Aladdin is here.

Oct 1960 signed four year deal MGM see her.

Karl Malden called him "a decent craftsman totally lost with actors"... a "non director".

Movie review - "To Each His Own" (1946) ***1/2

 Expertly constructed "woman's film" that was a deserved hit and a tribute to the talent of Charles Brackett, who produced, provided the story and co wrote the script. His old Wilder-Brackett colleague Mitchell Leisen directed, very well.

Olivia de Havilland is excellent in the lead, a woman who has a child out of wedlock. Everyone loves her in this film - John Lund, a pilot who bangs her then dies, leaving her pregnant; Phillip Terry, the small town man who wants to marry her, always loves her, raises the kid, and whose wife hates her and keeps Olivia away from the kid; Bill Goodwin, a travelling salesman turned bootlegger who joins forces with Olivia making cold cream, and helps her become super rich. It's a brilliant role for Olivia, who gets to age, suffer, be poor and glamorous, love her child, be loved.

John Lund made his debut. A showy part - parts rather, he plays his own son. He has a virile presence that served to give a false image of his capabilities of a star (he could act well enough, he just wasn't a star).

Victoria Horn is nice as a no-nonsense nurse. Great last line. Brackett made some top line films away from Wilder and this is one.

Book review - "Born to Be Hurt: The Untold Story of Imitation of Life" by Sam Staggs

 One of Staggs' growing library of works on camp classics (which doesn't mean the films can't be good). This melodrama - race, sex, singing - is beloved by cultists, with its Douglas Sirk direction and Lana Turner recovering from the family stabbing.

The structure was slightly odd -I would've preferred a more straight up chronological approach. And it felt padded in places - I don't mind a long book but a lot of it felt like stretching. There's some original scholarship, but not that much.

I did appreciate profiles of people like Ross Hunter, Douglas Sirk, John Gavin, Troy Donahue, etc.

Book review - "Flashman" by George MacDonald Fraser (1969)

 The first in the series feels different, in hindsight, to what came later - darker, more spectacular, harsher. Flashman punches Judy in the face, rapes Nareem - he would not really do either again (though he was harsh to the Cleonie in Flashman and the Redskins). He is rewarded for his transgressions with fame and wealth although is punished too - he suffers three times at the hands of Gul Shah, a terrific villain, goes through the horrific retreat from Kabul (some of Fraser's best ever writing), gets exiled to Scotland, is cuckolded by his wife (though Fraser keeps it a little ambiguous).

Fraser's writing is often inventive - he gets Flashman out of trouble with a duel, in the dungeon (quick thinking means he outsmarts a dwarf) though Flashman is rescued several times. The satire of Elphinstone and company is excellent, there is a rich galaxy of characters including Cardigan, Avitable, Wellington, Akbar Khan, McNaughton, Burnes, Queen Victoria, the Duke of Wellington,  etc. The action sequences, particularly the murder of Burnes and the retreat, are superb.

Movie review - "Miss Tatlock's Millions" (1948) **

 There was a time Paramount really thought John Lund was going to be the next big thing - he starred in four Charles Brackett productions,of which this was number three.

It's a comedy where Lund is a stuntman (leading to an opening film sequence with cameos from Ray Milland and Mitchell Leisen - as in Hold Back the Dawn) who is hired by Barry Fitzgerald (not in a big role) to play the odd son of a rich family.  "Odd" as in mentally disabled and Lund spends slabs of running time with glasses and a slack jawed expression playing a Jerry Lewis character - stuff that has to be seen to be believed.  Lund was fine holding a hat and propping up a woman but called on to be "funny" he collapsed in a heap, as shown in My Friend Irma. 

The basic story of this is fine - impersonate a rich person to get money, clash with greedy relatives (including Monty Woolley and Robert Stack, here in a support role)... fall in love with your "sister" so you are torn. (Branded did a serious Western version of the story with Alan Ladd).

But it's so unfunny. Lund hasn't got the star charisma to pull this off. Watching him impersonate people isn't funny. Wanda Hendrix is pretty enough but there's no heat between her and Lund. Fitzgerald and Wolley pop in and out but there's no sense of tension, accumulating gags. Lund plays a character who is a dill sometimes, normal others.

Richard Haydn directed and plays a role. Charles Brackett wrote it with Richard Breen and produced. It's dull, not fun. It made some money - was a minor hit and profitable according to Brackett's diaries (I guess it mostly takes place in a house with B quality talent.)

Movie review - "Lightyear" (2022) ****

 Great fun. Clever, with heart (I teared up at the time jump stuff), some twists. I wonder what happened to the rookie with the sad eyes - that was set up for a plot that's not paid off. Everything else is. Not an origin story so much as the story of the movie that inspired the toy in Toy Story. Some exciting action sequences. Funny cat - which is admittedly used a lot to get the writers out of tight corners.

Movie review - "Garden of Evil" (1954) ** (warning: spoilers)

 Not a very well known Western but it has virtues - CinemaScope photography is expertly used amongst some mountain vistas, there's decent star power with Gary Cooper, Susan Hayward and Richard Widmark, plus Cameron Mitchell as "sidekick turned rapist" and Hugh Marlow, it's set in Mexico near the coast. It's full of interesting bits. The story has elements of Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Bernard Herrmann wrote the score.

I should've liked this more. The story is interesting in pitch - woman lures men into desert to find husband and gold. I think the woman was meant to be a femme fetale and logically she should die - she's responsible for Marlowe being crippled and Widmark giving up her life - but she's allowed to live and go off with Cooper. Cooper looks old and emaciated, as if he's dying. Hayward is competent but forced to be too restrained. She needed to be full vixen. Widmark is okay when given the chance - he often isn't given that chance. Mitchell's rapist cowboy is stock. He tries to attack Hayward, Cooper goes "bad boy" then scolds Hayward for leading him on.

A good movie in here struggling to get out though not without interest, especially for fans of the stars.

Movie review - "D Day the 6th of June" (1956) ** (warning: spoilers)

 Fox had a big hit telling the story of D Day in The Longest Day - this is more a romantic drama bookended by the D-Day attack. 

Robert Taylor and Richard Todd are soldiers taking part in the invasion. Taylor loves Dana Wynter. They're not much of a couple. He's married, she's posh, her dad is John Williams. Taylor liked this because it was reminiscent of Waterloo Bridge but that had more point because she was a streetwalker. It's really hard to care. Wynter is sort of with Richard Todd (barely in the film) who goes off and vanishes for a few years, she starts a fling with married Taylor, whose wife we never see, then Todd comes back injured and he's all noble about it, Wynter's dad kills himself out of feeling useless, then D Day happens and Taylor is injured and Todd walks on a mine and dies, and then back in England Wynter doesn't tell Taylor Todd has died so Taylor can go back to his wife. I think that's meant to be noble but it's hard to care. All the sympathy goes to Todd, who is brave, does a lot of fighting and dies.

Wynter is very beautiful and classy, Taylor is craggy handsome sucking down those ciggies. Edmond O'Brien is blustering and chubby as an officer who blabs about D Day to a journo and is traumatised by the Dieppe Raid (this was based on a book by a Canadian, apparently)... who is more interesting than any of the leads.

It's a weird movie, never seems to quite get it's tone right. Todd and Taylor should have been friends, Wynter and Todd should've been married. For a film with a high death toll set in wartime made by veterans there's little life to it.

Movie review - "The Gift of Love" (1958) **

 One of those films I don't think anyone remembers - except maybe completists for Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, director Jean Negulesco, and producer Charles Brackett. It's a remake of Sentimental Journey which was a hit in 1946 - very reassuring tale of living on after death which would have had resonance during the war. Maybe not so much in 1958, or it could've been the handling and stars.

This has Lauren Bacall and Robert Stack, who'd just been a hit together in Written on the Wind - but that film was stolen by Dorothy Malone and had Rock Hudson, who has a lot warmer screen presence. It's hard to care too much how Robert Stack fares after the death of Bacall.

Look, I've got a seven year old daughter so I got into this and the kid isn't bad. It's touching how she's determined to find a home and keeps getting rejected by families at the orphanage - and has a big imagination and doesn't get along well with science-y Stack. That's all fine.

It's just kind of pointless. Annoying theme tune.

Has that handsome late 50s Fox look. Like a lot of Brackett productions it's done with taste and care and is dull. Maybe with different stars... Hmm. No don't think that was it, either.

Movie review - "Niagara" (1953) **** (warning: spoilers)

 One of the best films Charles Brackett ever made - watching his post-Billy Wilder output I think he benefited from working on tougher, pulpier material where his good taste and class elevated things, as opposed to comedy, where it dragged the material down.

This uses CinemaScope for good instead of evil - the Niagara falls setting works a treat and the photography is spectacular. Marilyn Monroe has star power to burn even if it is to see her play a bad girl (a rare lead where this was the case - her first two leads for Fox were bad girls, this and Don't Bother to Knock).

There's some terrific dialogue - "to wear a dress like that you've got to start laying plans when you're right" - and a decent story, plus Monroe's charisma, excellent work from Joseph Cotten as the traumatised sap married to Monroe, and Jean Peters and Casey Adams very engaging as a normal couple on honeymoon at Niagara.

The film does lose a bit of steam in the last half hour, after Monroe's character is killed.

Movie review - "The Remarkable Mr Pennypacker" (1959) **

 Example of the Buddy Alder regime at Fox: contract stars, contract support, contract talent, glossy photography and CinemaScope, underwhelming box office, popular source material (hit play). It was produced by Charles Brackett, directed by Henry Levin and written by Walter Reisch - all of whom teamed far more successfully on Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

The star was Clifton Webb He'd played a family man a few times, including Cheaper by the Dozen which I think they aped here and also Holiday for Lovers which was also directed by Levin and had Jill St John (that may have been shot afterwards I'm not sure). Dorothy McGuire is Webb's wife. Neither seem that engaged by the material. I didn't buy Webb fathering all those kids. Burgess Meredith played the part on Broadway - maybe that worked.

Jill St John and Ron Ely are ingenues. Webb's kids include David Nelson, Ray Stricklyn and Joan Freeman.

It's all so nice. McGuire is a bit shocked that Webb had another family but gets over it. So do the kids. So do everyone. There's no second wife alive (she's dead) which would have given the piece some kick. I couldn't tell any of the kids apart - Jill St John wanted to get married, David Nelson hung around. There was some squabbling.

It didn't work. Looks great. Beautiful photography and sets. It's in the 1890s - for me a period that never comes alive. Too much art department or something.

Henry Levin once wrote this interesting account of working with Clifton Webb - it's here.

Movie review - "Teenage Rebel" (1956) **1/2

 The team of Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch take on this family melodrama, directed by Edmund Goulding, from a Broadway play. It's black and white CinemaScope and some old timey stars like Ginger Rogers and Michael Rennie with new names like Warren Berlinger.

Rogers left her first husband for Rennie, losing custody of her daughter who is now a teenager. She turns up and causes trouble. The bias of the film is in favour of the mother though it doesnt' demonise the teen, even if she is a bit grumpy.

The film is very reasonable. Perhaps too reasonable. Everyone is basically decent - Rogers, new husband Michael Rennie, old husband, old husband's new fiance, the girls at school, neighbour Berlinger, the girl. This film needed villains! For the girl to be a real bitch, or the other girls at school to be bitches, or the father to be a prick, or Rennie.

It's done with warmth, class and understanding -well made just a little dull. Brackett's Fox films lacked the acid of Billy Wilder. They all were intelligent and sensitive. Just didn't have the same oomph.

Some lovely moments like Rennie and Rogers dancing outside as the kids next door have a party. Berlinger's drag racer is quite a funny creation and I was nicely surprised he dumped the girl at an end.

The heart of this is in the 1930s more than the 1950s but it has charm. One of Rogers' better later roles. But too civilised.

Movie review - "Spider Man: No Way Home" (2021) ****1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 Wonderful movie - thrilling action, cleverness, heart, all that. Splendid acknowledgement of history - though part of me was disappointed Nicholas Hammond didn't appear. Hard not to cheer when Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire appear. A lot of second tier villains but Albert Molina and Willem Dafoe are solid (Jamie Foxx, Thomas Haden Church and Rhy Ifans are wet). Zendaya has a captivating screen presence, they Obi Wan Marissa Tomei. Benedict Cumberbatch is entertaining though the fake hairlines of him, and Tom Holland and all the Marvel leading men is beginning to be annoying.

I don't get why making everyone forget Peter Parker helped at the end but provided great stakes and emotion. Grand entertainment.

Movie review - "The Interceptor" (2022) **

 Plenty of cheese and high spirits in this cheerful Die Hard in on a se platform with Elsa Pataky having a high old time as a soldier who winds up as America's last hope when a secret American base containing missiles to intercept nukes is taken over by baddies led by Luke Bracey.

Familiar Oz actors like Rhys Muldoon, Colin Friels and Zoe Carides flesh out the support cast.

Movie review - "The Girl on the Red Velvet Swing" (1955) ***

 I think Fox liked Joan Collins as a sort of imitation Elizabeth Taylor - dark hair, dark eyes, saucy minx - yet this film saw her step in for Marilyn Monroe, who turned it down. It's a decent retelling of the Stanford White murder - producer-writer Charles Brackett enjoyed tales of high society, as befitting someone of his background.

This has second tier stars, though everyone is comfortably cast: Ray Milland, ageing as the dashing White, young Joan, and Farley Granger as the spoilt psycho Thaw. Pleasing colour and locations and it's competently put together. Interesting story.

The biggest problem of this film for me was that it didn't pick a lane. There's three interesting characters at the centre but none at the forefront. Punches felt withdrawn. Things felt censored. Like the Milland-Collins relationship. So it happened? It was sexual? He sent her to school? Is that a place where she could have a baby? Going to school feels weird and controlling. There is a controlling aspect to the relationship that's not really explored. Ditto the relationship between White and his wife - or Shaw and his mother. Or Collins/Nesbitt and her mother.

The script goes through events but I feel it would've been better if it had fixed on Shaw or White more.

Effective moments like Granger and Collins arguing in the snow causing words to echo, Shaw's creepy mother, the oddness of the swing.

Movie review - "The Model and the Marriage Broker" (1951) **1/2

 The Mating Season was enough of a hit for Charles Brackett to devise another Thelma Ritter starring vehicle. Here she is a marriage broker who tries to set up various people.

Ritter is charming but a little of her goes a long way, and there's probably too much of her here. For me, Jeanne Crain was the true revelation - I've never liked her much in everything but here she was terrific, as a department store model who keeps dating married men, and winds up kind of adopted by Ritter. She has a romance with Scott Brady who's commitment phobic-  although instead of exploring that he's really the standard unpleasant alpha from 50s Hollywood movies (I guess being an x ray technician is a little different), who tries to paw Crain, and only agrees to marry her when she won't put out. It's still the best work I've seen from Crain.

The main issue of this film for me was all the subplots - they're all over the place. Ritter has all these customers, but Crain isn't one, and his sister she's estranged from, and an old guy who's keen on her, and Michael O'Shea as a friend (who delivers this awful Capra-style speech to Crain about Ritter) who's hot for Ritter too (Ritter would've loved this film two blokes want to marry her). It is unique in celebrating romance amongst the less attractive including Miss Hathaway from Beverly Hillbillies and Zero Mostel. One of her clients, this Swedish guy at the beginning played by Frank Fontaine, seems mentally disabled. He's meant to be Swedish, I know, but he does not seem all there.

George Cukor directed.

Movie review - "Stalag 17" (1953) *****

 Superb POW film, based on a Broadway hit. William Holden is never better in a role that Wilder apparently had earmarked for Charlton Heston - as drafting went on however he realised Holden would be better casting and this was the film that kicked Holden up to the top rank. I've seen this too many times to be objective. The last fifteen minutes are thrilling, the structure devine, Holden plays one of the all time great heels.

Script review - "The Devil and Miss Jones" by Norman Krasna

 An original draft, slightly different from the film but only a little. It's wonderful, beautifully structured work. Every character is well rounded and pays off - the billionaire, his love interest, Mary the nice girl from the shoe store, Hooper the nasty manager, Joe the unionist. Krasna divides the action into set pieces - first day at work, the union meeting, the trip to Coney Island and police arrest. It's really pro union, quite remarkably so. A super comic screenplay - laughs, heart, romance, satirical point.

Movie review - "Spies Like Us" (1985) ***

 I loved this film as a kid. It still holds up alright. Well, mostly. Some dodgy humour. Alright, a lot (eg Chevy Chase with his hands on Donna Dixon's breasts).

Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd make an engaging team with distinct personals - cocky, lazy WASP and nerd. It has real scope with scenes shot in Morocco, etc. Some funny gags. Others miss. A sense of adventure.

Guy McElwaine at Columbia

 Reading Joe Eszterhas' memoir made me think about Guy McElwaine when he was head of Columbia. He mentioned McElwaine only had one hit in that time, Jagged Edge.

1981 he becomes Columbia president Price had been CEO since March 1979.

Feb 1983 Price decides to stay on when thought he'd be fired. Oct 1983 he takes over as CEO from Frank Price.  Price missed out on some big successes - Ghost busters and Karate Kid. 

Dec 1983 he greenlights Out of Africa.  Also overlooks recut of The Man Who Loved Women see here. And the bike film Yello Jersey.

The first film that started production under his reign at Columbia Studios was The New Kids. Columbia’s production increased during his reign with 14 films started in 1984 compared to 9 in 1983 but none of the 14 were hits when they were released. The biggest hit produced under his tenure was The Karate Kid Part II with a gross of $115 million.

June 1985 - rumours he would be fired but instead he was promoted to Chairman see here.

April 1986 - fired with 18 months left on contract. Replaced by David Puttnam in July.

Let's look at what they made around that time. (I pulled these from Wikipedia)

December 6, 1983     The Dresser
December 9, 1983     Christine    
December 16, 1983     The Man Who Loved Women * (kind of)

March 2, 1984     Against All Odds    
April 6, 1984     Moscow on the Hudson    
May 4, 1984     Hardbodies    
June 8, 1984     Ghostbusters    (a Price movie)
June 22, 1984     The Karate Kid
August 17, 1984     Sheena *   
September 14, 1984     A Soldier’s Story
October 19, 1984     The Razor’s Edge
October 26, 1984     Body Double
November 9, 1984     No Small Affair
December 14, 1984     Starman    
December 21, 1984     Micki & Maude
January 18, 1985     The New Kids*
February 15, 1985     Fast Forward

March 15, 1985     Sylvester
March 29, 1985     The Slugger’s Wife
April 26, 1985     Just One of the Guys
June 7, 1985     Perfect*
June 14, 1985     D.A.R.Y.L. Distribution only
June 28, 1985     St. Elmo’s Fire*
July 10, 1985     Silverado
August 2, 1985     Fright Night
August 16, 1985     The Bride*
September 13, 1985     Agnes of God*
October 4, 1985     Jagged Edge*
November 22, 1985     White Nights*
December 13, 1985     A Chorus Line  distribution only
December 25, 1985     Murphy’s Romance*
January 22, 1986     Desert Bloom
February 14, 1986     Quicksilver
March 14, 1986     Crossroads    *

March 21, 1986     Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation     Distribution only
April 11, 1986     Violets Are Blue
April 25, 1986     Crimewave     distribution only
May 2, 1986     Saving Grace     distribution only
Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling
May 30, 1986     Big Trouble
June 20, 1986     The Karate Kid Part II
June 27, 1986     American Anthem     Distribution only
July 25, 1986     Out of Bounds
August 8, 1986     Stand by Me * (bought it from Norman Lear)
A Fine Mess     Distribution only
August 15, 1986     Armed and Dangerous    
August 22, 1986     One More Saturday Night
August 1986     Stewardess School    
October 10, 1986     That’s Life!     Distribution only
December 12, 1986     Where Are The Children?
February 13, 1987     84 Charing Cross Road    
May 15, 1987     Ishtar    * 

He also greenlit Rites of Summer, Roxanne and Ishtar - see here. Also developed a sequel to Jagged Edge which became Physical Evidence. La Bamba and The Big Town apparently came through McElwaine

Apparently the failure of Crossroads led to him being sacked see here.

Movie review - "The Mating Season" (1951) **1/2

 Charles Brackett's first film after his breakup with Billy Wilder (he'd made some away from Wilder during their collaboration eg To Each His Own). He pulled in a bunch of collaborators from the Wilder days - Richard Breen and Walter Reisch as writers, Mitchell Leisen as director, John Lund as male lead. It does feel more Brackett than Wilder in that it's about class in America and concerns snooty society types.

It was made for Paramount but uses some 20th Century Fox talent - Gene Tierney and Thelma Ritter - and Brackett would soon go to Fox.

The plot has working class Ritter come to visit son John Lund, a rising exec, who has just married society gal Gene Tierney, whose mother Miriam Hopkins is a stuck up bitch. Both Ritter and Hopkins wind up living with the couple - only, the thing is, Ritter pretends to be just a cook. These sort of "parental deception" movie plots are always hard because you wind up hating the kid who goes along with it.

Tierney is very good, she suits this sort of part. Lund isn't bad - normally I don't like him but he just has to be a leading man here and he's handsome enough to score Tierney. Ritter is perfect as is Hopkins.

There are universal themes here - starting a marriage, different class backgrounds, worried about climbing the corporate ladder, worried about embarrassing family. Jan Sterling scores in a small role as Lund's secretary who has a crush on him. It's a well acted movie. Nice romanticism. Just has that central flaw I couldn't get over.

Movie review - "The Apartment" (1960) ****1/2

 I feel guilty for writing these sort of reviews because some people are so militantly in love with this movie I feel bad going "oh yeah it's good it's fine" without being hard core about it.

The clever idea is strong and lovely, the photography is divine. Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine are beautifully cast and very cute together although she show is stolen by a superb Fred MacMurray as a complete see you next Tuesday boss.

Very adult, smart, yet also romantic. It goes for a long time, over two hours, but the resolution is satisfying. I enjoyed it more on this viewing than I have in the past. I still get frustrated by Lemmon taking so much abuse why not explaining himself.

Showy support cast: Jack Kruschen the doctor (who slaps Maclaine around post suicide - I guess this was standard at the time), MacMurray's secretary, Ray Walston, Larry Keating and the other sleazy execs.

Movie review - "Queen of Blood" (1966) **1/2 (re-watching)

 Love the credits. The integration of Russian footage. The spookiness. Takes a while to get going - the story doesn't start til the last half hour. I have a lot of affection for this.

Movie review - "Ninotchka" (1939) ****

 A skilfully constructed vehicle for Greta Garbo, even if it takes us 20 minutes to see her but the time is well spent, setting up the three comic commissars who arrive in Paris from Russia to get some jewels, stuff up, and so they send in Greta.

She's fine. I'm not a big Garbo fan but she is well cast. Melvyn Douglas is her co star, a part that really needs Cary Grant, but he's fine too. Lots of fun to see Bela Lugosi in one scene as Greta's boss. The wacky Russians are fine. Ina Claire is good.

I loved how every character has a strong motivation, and how Greta doesn't sell out Russia - she and Ina Claire have a terrific collision where Claire whines about having to given up her Russian home and Greta points out what pricks the aristocracy were. I love how upfront Greta is about being turned on by Melvyn Douglas from the get-go. She's a strong character.

There is a long, unfunny drunk sequence - maybe it's me but I don't think being drunk is as hilarious as Hollywood filmmakers in the 1930s did. I never got the final gag with one of the Russians wearing a sign outside. 

I don't think this film is as amazing as others do but it is very good.

Script review - "Sliver" by Joe Eszterhas (warning: spoilers)

 Have never seen the film. It had a bit of a splash at the time, with Sharon Stone and that terrible UB40 cover of an Elvis track and the then hot Phil Noyce and Joe Eszterhas - but no one particularly liked it.

The script is very good. Simple, with three juicy star parts (Eszterhas often did that) plus sex, mystery and violence. Again it's about someone falling in love with someone who could be a killer, and is... but apparently in the film they changed it which ruined the point.

I actually think the key problem was the casting of Sharon Stone. Reading this, for the story to fly it really needed the lead to be played by someone who comes across as sexual inexperienced, shy... so when she calls for Zeke (the Billy Baldwin character) it's like wham, and she doesn't know how to deal with it. Like the Geena Davis-Brad Pitt relationship in Thelma and Louise. Sharon Stone always looks like she's been around the block.

The script totally makes logical sense. I'm surprised they had to reshoot it.

Book review - "Heaven and Mel" by Joe Eszterhas (2012) (re-reading)

 Gave this another read. Eszterhas comes out of it even worse than I remembered. Utterly without backbone. Working for Gibson despite his alleged bad behaviour, then ranting, then anger, putting his on in harm's way, only going after him after Gibson didn't like his script. Urgh. Very compulsive reading though.

Movie review - "Spirit of St Louis" (1957) ***

 Very sober and respectful for a Billy Wilder film, this focuses on the least controversial aspect of Lindbergh's life - his Atlantic plane flight. I felt Wilder would make a more memorable movie about the kidnapping, or the America first movement, or his war service, or his German mistresses. I get why he chose this version - presumably there was no "choice" due to Lindbergh being alive - but still...

James Stewart is famously too old to play the lead, though at the same time he was perfect casting (All-American, pilot). Even too old he's better than John Kerr (who turned it down!) would have been.

Wilder wanted to add a fictitious story how the journos around that night chipped in to pay for a hooker to sleep with virginal Lindbergh on the flight. Not a bad idea - some female love interset. He couldn't do it.

Hal Needham did some stunt work on this. Billy Wilder went up on the wings of the plane for one shot.

Two hours and fifteen minutes' running time. Not much happens on the flight - he chats to a fly, falls asleep at one stage (easily the best sequence).

It is of interest. You can't say it's a bad film. Well done and a little dull. Beautiful music. I remember my English teacher putting on a VHS and making us watch it. I guess it was safe material for schools, even though we would've learned more about human nature discussing Lindbergh's politics and kidnapping.

Movie review - "Crossbearer : a memoir of faith" by Joe Eszterhas (2008)

 I got the impression from Devil's Guide to Hollywood that Joe Eszterhas said everything he had to say in his memoir Hollywood Animal and that seems to be the case reading this. He covers old ground - the schizophrenia of his brother in law, his "redemption" via throat cancer, leading an anti smoking crusade, his mother's illness and death, his father's Antisemitism. He refers to the fact that he wrote Showgirls and Basic Instinct a lot - I sense he misses fame/being important.

To be fair there's some new stuff - about his battle to try and be a good Christian despite a lifetime of getting in conflict. He talks about attempts to make films - pitched a show about a tough priest, tried to get up another project - and none really work except Children of Glory. He says Hollywood kept at him to do violent/sexy films but he refused. He also took a $1.5 million cheque from the sequel to Basic Instinct.

He writes about his priests (including a black one from Uganda who he calls "Father Africa"), people who hassle him with scripts, his not particularly interesting domestic life, bullying a teacher who dared let his son study rap music, getting upset at religious connotations given to Le Bron James playing basketball. He mentions his admiration for Passion of the Christ and refers to Mel Gibson's arrest and Antisemitic outbursts while drunk... making his later collaboration with Gibson very ironic.

The most moving section involves his relationship with his daughter who was adopted out in the 1960s who has two girls with a degenerative condition.  I googled them (couldn't resist) and at least one is still alive and doing well, I hope the other is too. When the book was written though he was still estranged from his daughter Suzi.

There's really not enough material in this for a book. It should have been a long article. But it's of interest.

Book review - "Hollywood Animal" by Joe Eszterhas (re-reading)

 Still one of the best ever Hollywood memoirs, even if a lot of the material is over familiar now because Eszterhas keeps rehashing it in interviews and repurposing it for his other books. Epic sweep - Hungarian background, being a refugee, some (thought surprisingly not a lot) tales of journalism, breaking into movies, becoming a scripting superstar, then crashing, fleeing to Cleveland, fighting cancer and finding God... and then getting no more credits.

Eszterhas comes across as completely appalling a person - as does his second wife. Their behaviour on that Hawaiian holiday is particularly obnoxious. But to give him his due he is warts and all - and he has some self awareness here, which is lacking in his later books. Best segments are the ones on FIST, Flashdance, Jagged Edge, the fight with Ovitz, Basic Instinct and the cancer struggle. He can write a good tale for a rampaging narcissist. Colourful cameos by people like Bob Evans, Don Simpson, Sharon Stone, Richard Marquand, etc

Script review - "Jade" by Joe Eszterhas (warning: spoilers)

 The original draft of this script, so far as I know -I haven't seen the film, but I read the synopsis and it does seem some key changes were made by William Friedkin.

It's a perfectly decent thriller, albeit very similar to Basic Instinct and Jagged Edge which is presumably why it sold for so much money. The star part is a prosecutor involved in the investigation of a series of violent murders. He's in love with the chief suspect, a beautiful, sexy woman who loves sex... Katrina who turns out to be a prostitute called Jade, married to the lead's friend, Matt. There's a support red herring, we're never sure if the girl did it or not til the end... when it's revealed it was the husband. Which is fine.

It's got twists, a lot of harsh language, and sex. Friedkin should have shot the script but I think the bigger problem is no one got too excited about the star combo: David Caruso, Linda Fiorentino and Chazz Palmenteri, all very good actors, but were a bit "B" team. (I get why all where cast, they were all cresting).

Book review - "Rumpole of the Bailey" (1978) by John Mortimer

 First collection of stories, which I've always loved.

Rumpole and the Younger Generation - we meet Hilda, Nick, the Timsons, the original chambers (including Gutherie, Albert, Claude Erskine Brown)... plus Hilda's dad who was then alive. Ends with Guthrie becoming head of chambers and school kid Nick deciding to do sociology at uni not law.

Rumpole and the Alternative Society - Rumpole visits some old WW2 mates and defends a woman whom he falls in love (Mortimer always was a bit lechy) who has sold a lot of cannibis. A touching ending where Rumpole sees this woman go away for three years because of her alpha leftie boyfriend (a very real type). They should have brought that character back. 

Rumpole and the Honourable Member - he defends a Labor MP accused of rape. The man has a sort of Hilary Clinton type wife and it results in Rumpole slut shaming the accused on the stand. His prospective daughter in law challenges him on that, Mortimer lets her state her case, but his sympathy is clearly with Rumple and his dogged "we are all the same under the law". Albert the clerk gets fired in this one - he really didn't stick around for long.

Rumpole and the Married Lady -we get Rumpole's take on divorce when he represents a woman wanting to leave her husband. Very funny, clever. We meet Phyllida Trant in this one.

Rumpole and the Learned Friend - Rumpole is, hilariously, junior to Guthrie Featherstone as they defend a safe breaker. We meet his great adversary Judge Bullingham and Rumpole risks his career in the name of justice. I'm struck re-reading (listening rather, this is an audio book) these tales how much was set up in the first series. Mortimer struggled to construct as memorable characters later on. That's a little unfair I know, just observing.

Rumpole and the Heavy Brigade - Rumpole defends a "simple" man accused of murder and gets him off while set up to use. The charming friendship between Marigold Featherstone and Hilda begins here.

Movie review - "One Two Three" (1961) *****

 Superb Billy Wilder comedy with James Cagney as a Coca Cola executive who has to deal with the boss's hot daughter romancing a commie. It's very much in the style of The Front Page with a top level executive having to battle a series of issues - wife who wants to go home, daughter getting married, falling pregnant, parents arriving, MPs complicating, a nosy journalist, having to present the new son in law is a noble as in Lady for a Day, etc.

The characters are broad and big as befits the farce - Pamela Tiffin's spoiled rich girl, Horst Bucholtz's over the top hunk commie, Cagney's smart talking exec, the three comic commissars (right out of Ninotchka), the sexpot secretary, the gum chiewing kids, Germanic sidekicks, impoverished counts. The jokes come thick and fast.

The one aspect I didn't like was Cagney rooting his secretary (and having form on that). It was true to character I guess just felt unpleasant, made me feel sorry for the wife - better if the secretary was a sexpot but he loved his wife.

Red Buttons as a cameo as an MP.

Great fun.