Movie review - "The Mirror Crack'd" (1980) ***

 After two Peter Ustinov films as Hercules Poirot, EMI Films did Miss Marple as their all star Agatha Christie effort. It didn't do as well - maybe the market tapped out, maybe it lacked the exotic location factor, maybe viewers prefer Poiriot.

Angela Lansbury is a strong Marple and the cast includes some legends - Liz Taylor, Kim Novak, Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis - plus some decent secondary names: Geraldine Chaplin, Edward Fox. Anthony Steel pops up in the film within a film. Film  buffs will like this and the fact the central story was based on Gene Tierney.

Too much time is spent on Edward Fox, film buff, investigating the case. We don't care about him - we want to see Marple. I'm sympathetic to the filmmakers though - he has an excuse to ask questions, Marple doesn't. But Lansbury is hardly in it. She pops in and out then appears at the end. It's a shame they couldn't have distorted the book a bit more to have her, I don't know, go work at the mansion or something.

It is fun to see Taylor, Rock, etc... but no one is actually that good. Liz Taylor wasn't a star by this stage - she was an ex star. Ditto Novak. Hudson never seems like a director.

Oh I'm sniping. This was fine. Just not as good as the Poiots.

Movie review - "Back Street" (1961) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 Ross Hunter loved his remakes. This takes on an old Universal melo from 1933 and 1941, doing it with Susan Hayward who was a decent star but doesn't bring the camp that say Lana Turner or Joan Crawford would have bought.

The problem with remakes of melodrama is the central issue still has to be relevant. Race was, very much, for imitation of LIfe. Being a permanent mistress I'm not sure had the same appeal in 1961. Or I might be wrong. This film did well at the box office.

The film lacks decent support parts too. Its undercast in some key roles, like the other guy in love with Hayward, Hayward's old mate. Imitation of Life had stronger cast. The kid who plays Gavin's son is terrible. It is fun to watch it and go "okay boomer".

There are flaws. But it has a solid dramatic structure. Good ending with wife Vera Miles madly driving the car, killing herself and Gavin. Solid ending with Gavin calling Hayward on his death bed. I was more involved than I thought it would've been.

I think it would've been better if Miles had been mentally ill instead of an old boozer - and if they'd made it clearer that Gavin worried about the safety of the kids.

I was also nicely surprised by Gavin's performance. He was warm and relaxed in the scenes with Hayward - they work well together. I think it would've helped if Miles and Gavin had older kids - like a Sandra Dee part. That person confronting Hayward would've been better than the kid.

Movie review - "Five Against the House" (1955) **1/2

Phil Karlson's Columbia thrillers have a deserved cult these days. This has the benefit of a bright idea - four over age college students (two are Korean War veterans) get an idea to rob a casino for a bit of a lark. I thought maybe this might work more if they were bored veterans in the suburbs but college students does work as one is clearly attracted by the mental challenge (Kerwin Matthews), one is a bored f-wit (Alvy Moore), another has bad PTSD (Brian Keith). I guess it's three - there's a moral fourth one (Guy Madison) in love with a singer (Kim Novak).

Guy Madison was quite good - he has a no-nonsense persona, a little lightweight but he's used well. Keith is excellent. The film would've been better with a better actor in the Matthews role, a less annoying actor in the Moore role, and if Madison's and Novak's characters had been more greedy. The film kind of gets worse as it goes on - it gets lighter. There's no threat. keith goes mad but doesn't kill anyone. No one dies. Madison persuades him to give himself up. Why don't they make Novak bad? Or have her kidnapped? Or kill someone? Or have a big baddie? William Conrad looks great as a casino operative but he's not used enough. Location filming in Reno helps.

The college students are boorish - picking on a freshman, whining, not working too hard.

Movie review - "The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders" (1965) **

 The public that turned out in large numbers for Tom Jones didn't come to this. Maybe it was Kim Novak versus Albert Finney and definitely director Terence Young isn't known for his comedy (comedy in Bond films is very different). 

One reviewer wondered if people preferred to see men behaving badly in a sexual way to women but I'm not sure that's true - few films were more popular than Gone with the Wind or The Wicked Lady. But those two films have what this doesn't - clearly defined goals. Scarlett O'Hara wanted Ashley - it propelled her through the whole film, into three marriages, through a war, to even help Ashley's wife. Lady Skelton wanted excitement (and also true love) because she was recovering from the death of her mother.

Moll Flanders is ill defined here. What does she want? What drives her? It would've been easy to adjust what's here. She could've forever loved that dissolute rich brother at the beginning, sought vengeance on him.

Similar mistakes were made incidentally on the adaptation of Forever Amber. 

The other thing those successful films had which the unsuccessful ones doesn't is a "good" character to contrast. Moll/Novak needed a "good girl" to compare to and also there needed to be two guys who loved her truly. Richard Johnson is there for one. 

There's sped up cameras, and the cast that tries - no one is slumming and some are perfect: Leo McKern, Lili Palmer, Angela Lansbury, George Sanders, etc. There is real heat in the scenes between Novak and Johnson - they fell in love - and the film would've been much better if it had centered around their relationship.

These films are hard to do. Terence Young can't pull it off. But the biggest issue isn't evne Novak's performance it's an inability to convey what Moll Flanders is or why she is the way she is or why she does what she does. She sort of goes from one set piece to another. The skinny dips which is fun but not enough.

TV review - "Party Down Season 3 ep 1" (2023) ****

 A relief. Lizzy Kaplan is missed but great to see the old gang back and I loved that people moved on except Ken Marino and Martin Starr. Felt really strong that Adam Scott became  a teacher. Love the use of COVID. eps consistently fine. Weakest ep was the last one but it was redeemed by the eleventh hour cameo.

Movie review - "Marry Me" (2022) **

 The gimmick isn't the strongest - diva pop star marries guy with "marry me" sign in crowd - but the basic premise (romance between pop star and ordinary guy) is solid as shown by Notting Hill. But this isn't very well done. J Lo is terrific, looks great, sings and all that. Owen Wilson has old charm but looks a bit old - sorry. Sarah Silverman flouders around a little and characters who should be sparky fun - J Lo's manager, dresser and arranger person - are dull. Give talented actors something to play, please! The manager from Game of Thrones seems like a particular lost opportunity - sad eyes, slumped shoulders.

It doesn't lean into the fun of the premise really either. I mean, sort of - she goes to maths class, people react, he gets on social media. At the end it's kind of fun J Lo trying to find her way to Wilson by flying coach - this gives an insight into the sort of fun film it could've been (rich girl slumming! poor guy living it up!)

Movie review - "Dark Star" (1974) ***

 One of the all time great debut features even though it's probably a Dan O'Bannon film as much as a John Carpenter movie. The plot is about a ship travelling around destroying unstable planets. Really it should be a short feature, there's not a lot of story, but there's terrific stuff - the Monster, the captain not being dead, the ending.

Movie review - "Phffttt" (1954) ***

 Famously odd title from an unproduced George Axelrod play. It's a comedy of remarriage, starting with Jack Lemmon and Judy Holliday getting divorced, going off to have adventures (he with Kim Novak, she with Jack Carson) before winding back together.

The two stars are charming even if director Mark Robson maybe isn't king of comedy. Some lovely stuff like Holliday being asked out by one of the stars of her radio soap (she's a writer) - we think it's a seduction but it's actually pitching writing out his co star who he loathes.

Novak has a gift of a role as a ditz who Carson sets up with Lemmon, a slightly crazy type - the sort of scene-stealing part that Holliday would've knocked out of the park. She can't really do it - she tries, she's got charisma, but she can't really act. It's endearing in a way, like a lot of Novak performances.

I didn't buy that the couple would get together at the end - I mean, they got divorced for a reason - but there's a lot of talent in the cast and the script has some great moments, like Lemmon realising wanting to read a book was why he got divorced and then not wanting to read the book.

Movie review - "Vertigo" (1958) ****1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 The greatest film of all time? That is pushing it. But there is certainly a lot of admire. The brilliant hypnotic score. Saul Bass' titles. The opening sequence plunges you straight into action. The stylish design and look. Funky visuals. Use of colour. It's maybe too long. Though hard to cut.

Kim Novak is used brilliantly. Hitchcock captures two aspects of her - the beautiful blonde goddess, enigmatic and alluring versus the trashy insecure shopgirl.

The film actually kicks up a notch in the last third with the reveal because Novak becomes the protagonist. It's about a woman hungry for love, who's been kicked around, and this guy pays her attention - she's willing to put up with it even though he's abusive. It's fantastic.

James Stewart maybe isn't good looking enough for her to be so devoted but I guess he is a film star. And his nervous intensity is used brilliantly - all that wartime PTSD.

Barbara Bel Geddes shines as the nice bitch in love with Stewart. This was a good addition from Sam Taylor, who downplayed the contribution of Alec Coppel.

Still ti's Novak who is the soul of the film - her longing. While Stewart is its possessive soul.

Not hard to see why it wasn't a hit. It's depressing.

Movie review - "Labyrinth" (1986) **1/2

 I remember seeing this in the cinema as a kid and it didn't work for me. Linear nature of the storytelling perhaps. It needed another character. Maybe the tone was too dark.

But I can see why it's beloved. The simplicity. The design. David Bowie. A lot of imagination. Some Terry Jones jokes. No wonder Jim Henson is beloved. Jennifer Connelly is lovely if a bit of a blank slate. The songs aren't that great.

Movie review - "Boys Night Out" (1962) **

 One of the last of the New York set sex comedies - though they continued a little longer on Broadway, I think, where you could be more risque. It has a decent central idea with plenty of potential - four businessmen who commute to Manhattan from Greenwich decide to pool resources and get a bachelor pad, and come into contact with Kim Novak, a sociology student who is studying them.

The movie has gloss, Michael Gordon directing, some star power, including Tony Randall who plays it the right tone. I'm not sure the stars are right - James Garner and Kim Novak channelling Rock Hudson and Doris Day, I guess. Garner, as someone noted, always makes films feel like TV. He doesn't have the affability of Hudson or Jack Lemmon. Novak is beautiful and has that "quality" but the role needed someone with more spark like Marilyn, Natalie Wood, Doris Day. 

Howard Duff and that other guy aren't really funny. I think they wanted Gig Young for Duff's part - he would've been better (so might Jim Backus who has a small role). The wives, who include Patti Paige, are colourless. I had trouble telling the married guys apart - that's a basic error. They don't play different types of roles. The annoying boomer kids made me laugh.

Billy Wilder would've gone for it, and Sidney Sheldon or Norman Krasna could've made it funny. But it never seems sure of its tone. Once you know Garner is a divorcee you know he will wind up with Novak - and the script never seems to know how sleazy to make him (he has no love life, he's boringly reluctant to go along with the plan()

You know what would've been better? Had Garner been a player - all the others were jealous of him. They want to imitate his life. He falls for her.

The ending farcical situations when all the wives collide with the husbands feels sluggish and dull because you can't tell them apart.

This would be worth remaking.

Movie review - "The Notorious Landlady" (1962) **

Odd fish. Jack Lemmon is an American diplomat in London who moves into a rental owned by landlady Kim Novak who is American. Fred Astaire is Lemmon's boss and Lionel Jeffries steals the film as a British cop. Turns out the rumour is that Novak killed her husband.

Some talented people - the script is credited to Larry Gelbart and Blake Edwards, Richard Quine directed. Lemmon acts his tail off. Novak tries as she always seemed to and is erratic in her way - charismatic, beautiful, poor then effective in the one scene and back again.  That English accent in her opening scene is pretty whiffy.

It doesn't work. I like these actors. It's a little all over the shop. Why is it in London? As a farce it's spread out. Is it funny? You could cut Astaire out of the film. Lemmon never believably falls for Novak, even if she does look good and goes topless in a bath (flashes a bare back - the times were a changin').

I mean it's got stars. It's not in colour. I don't know what to think or say. It annoyed me. Wasn't for me.

Movie review - "The Tamarind Seed" (1974) ***

 Julie Andrews goes back into spy territory, as a British secretary romancing a Russian diplomat Omar Sharif. They're not a bad team. I bit weird. Andrews is so sensible and mannered as usual but she is a star and she suits the character - as a sensible woman with a taste for running off with married men. Andrews is recovering from one affair, and starts another. Sharif plays his role like a Latin lover but that suits him.

The film has pleasures. John Barry's lush score, Maurice Binder's credits, both James Bond like. Smart characters. Excellent support cast - Sylvia Syms is superb as the wife of gay spy Dan O'Herlihy, Syms is shagging Bryan Marshall who works for Anthony Quayle, who is also excellent as a head spy. Russian spies include Oscar Homolka and Kate O'Mara (office girl). I like how it was set in Barbados. There's a shoot out at the end.

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. 

Movie review - "Strangers When We Meet" (1960) **1/2

 "Ah I'm successful at work but creatively dissastifised and my wife is a nagging bitch and I want to root my hot neighbour". There were a few films like these in the late 50s and 1960s based on best selling novels.

Kirk Douglas is the writer surrogate, a frustrated architect whose wife Barbara Rush has the gall to want him to do well in his career. He sees Kim Novak and pretty much puts the hard word on her straight away, asking her out to building sites. A less intense more "everyman" actor may have been more effective - someone like say Jack Lemmon or James Stewart or even old dying Gary Cooper.

It's got 1960 Hollywood gloss - widescreen, colour, stars, art deco, all that stuff. Richard Quine films from this period often offered such pleasures.

The Douglas character is a bit of a lech. I was pleasantly surprised how much sympathy the film showed the female characters. Novak says she's in love with Douglas, but it's clear she's lonely because her (gay? asexual?) husband doesn't want to touch her sexually. Novak's performance is variable as her performances tend to be. She's got that allure, body, insecurity, as well as the awkward line readings. There really was no star like her - charismatically awkward.

The real surprise is Barbara Rush who actually has the best part. I thought she'd be a nagging wife but she's not. She wants to do what's best for her husband's career and family, and she stresses their marriage is going wrong, Walter Matthau (who steals the film) sleazes all over her, she figures out what's going with Novak.

It's really hard to care about Douglas, with his hot wife, hot lover, famous client who agrees to his design, boss who offers him a dream job in Hawaii. I don't get the sense he and Novak love each other but it works dramatically because I think he wanted a root, and she was lonely.

Ernie Kovacs is Douglas' client. There's some odd subplots that don't quite work - Novak's mother had an affair and when Novak starts doing it she goes "it happened to you". The plot about a truckie who sort of date rapped Novak but not really (I think) and becomes obsessed with her feels underserviced.

Other things work better like the device of Douglas building Kovacs' house through the story.

So an interesting movie. Flawed. But there's tuff in it.

Movie review - "Your Place or Mine" (2023) ***

 Not the most original thing in the world but it was a relief to watch something on Netflix with two stars, care taken in the plotting, decent support roles and a basic degree of competence. Ashton Kutcher kind of made this story before in Valentine's Day but he's an engaging presence as is Reese Witherspoon.  Zoe Chao steals the film as Kutcher's ex but really the whole cast is strong.

Movie review - "Ant Man and the Wasp" (2018) **

 Quips. Slick. Inserted emotion. Hair plugs. Stars. Evageline Lily is a little dull. The film focuses more on her family - Michael Douglas and her looking for her mother Michelle Pfeiffer. Villain who isn't really bad just sad and thus redeemable. Quips. People like Michael Pena , Judy Greer and Bobby Canvale coming back.

But really the only reason for this to be made is money. I get that's why the first was made but that had some fun with the concept and a hero that needed reforming. Now he's reformed there's no point.

Movie review - "Bell Book and Candle" (1958) **1/2

 Kim Novak makes a very good witch for most of this - all sultry eyes and ethereal nature. She sets her cap at James Stewart and puts him under a spell and shenanigans ensue involving his fiancee (Janice Rule), her brother (Jack Lemmon), a wacky writer (Ernie Kovacs), and a housekeeper who is also a witch (Elsa Lanchester). 

Novak struggles a bit in the third act when she's required to actually fall in love with Stewart, but is she a film star as is he. It's got a glossy look, reminds me of the sort of thing my grandma used to love, old style sophistication. There's a comic cat.

Movie review - "Baywatch" (2017) **

 All the names on the credits indicate a long development process but at least they landed appropriate stars - Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, neither of whom is shy about taking the old shirt off. It's bright and breezy with some funny lines. Priyanka Chopra and Alexandra Daddario add a dash of glamour.

But full of annoying things too. Like, why not open with the TV credit theme song, one of the greatest of all time? Why make it R rated and have a bunch of swearing? To be edgy? It's Baywatch.

Kelly Rohrbach, Ilfenesh Hadera and Jon Bass don't quite  work. In the girls' defence they don't have any real role to play. There's no distinguished characteristics.

There's some cute teasing of Baywatch being cops. But overall it felt like this was an attempt at a Lord/Miller film which didn't make it. The basic story was fine I think it was more the characterisations - no one had anything to play except Efron and Bass.

Script review - "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" by William Goldman (re-reading)

 A script of set pieces ending in a revearsal gag. Sundance's intro. The fight with Logan ending in the kick in the balls. Meeting Etta the reveal that he knows her. Train robbery sequence. Bike riding musical number. Etta's departure. Final shoot out. Some catch phrases don't land - "I got vision and the rest of the world wears bifocals" etc. In hindsight, wonderful material - two friends, time running out, manage to repeat the past, a woman comes along for both to be in love with and she's part of the gang giving it female appeal, moving ending.

Movie review - "Pushover" (1954) **1/2

 I thought this film was about cuddly Fred MacMurray being taken in by slinky dame Kim Novak but actually it's about stud muffin cop MacMurray seducing gangster moll Novak to try and find if her boyfriend robbed a bank. That's a strong idea as is the fact Novak may be playing him. She became a star with this and while her lack of ability is clear she also has charisma and is well protected by director Robert Quine.

There's a dull subplot about MacMurray's fellow cop Phil Carey romancing Dorothy Malone - one of these should've been shonky. I like the subplot about the drunken cop who has morals and EG Marshall is superb as the head cop.

Surprisingly little of Novak on screen - she's a lot at the beginning not so much later on. Lovely black and white photography.

The film is decent. Lacks another plot. Like Double Indemnity had the daughter and her boyfriend - something like that. The gangster boyfriend maybe vanishes too early - they could've used him more. Or made Dorothy Malone bad, like I suggested.

Movie review - "Revolution" (1985) **

 Hugh Hudson's feature directing career was comet like - Chariots of Fire, Greystoke then this. He made other films of course but none seemed to register. The account of the making of this is in the brilliant My Indecision is Final. It's a classic director-not-good-at-narrative film: stunning vistas, sweeping shots of extras, stunningly good period recreation. The costumes, sets and dirt all feel so real.

The dialogue is minimised as if worried about reaction to how characters talk. Pacino copped it but his accent is no weirder than

The plot involves Al Pacino and his son - the latter enlists in the Revolutionary army so Pacino joins up to keep him alive. That's not a bad idea for a movie. But Hudson can never put it together as a cohesive emotional story.

There are moments - arriving on a boat in the war torn town, enlisting, the British troops in a line marching to attack, English officers chasing captured American prisoners like hounds while wearing face paint, Natassa Kinski yelling at her family for wearing face paint,

Connective tissue seems to be missing - Kinski walks around looking at the injured, then she's in a field looking at the injured Pacino and his son, then she'd back in town and sees Pacino again. Kinski walks around a lot looking for Pacino. Pacino is captured basically by the American army then seems free then is captured by the British then seems to get free. He finds his son who was still captured then is free. Somehow he and Kinski fell in love.

Richard O'Brien is a mean Briisher. I think Donald Sutherland is rooting these drummer boys is that right?

Kids die. There's bloody stumps. Corpses. Groaning. Nihilism.

I think at heart this should've been a gritty low budget film like The 317th Platoon. But Hudson can't resist big sweeping vistas either. This sunk him. Apparently the recut fixes some problems but it's impossible to imagine it improved it too much.

Movie review - "True Spirit" (2023) **

 Sweet film based on the Jessica Watson story. Tegan Croft is very likable as Watson, Josh Lawson and Anna Paquin and some other actors hang around the house as her parents, Cliff Curtis is a crusty mentor. Todd Lasance is a smarmy journo.

It's hard to make an engaging film about a solo sailor, let along one where everyone has to be nice because they're based on real people, but it's heart is in the right place and it's nice to have a family you can watch with your little daughter.

Thoughts on Michael Callan (1935-2022)

 I was thinking of doing a piece on Callan but I'm not sure there's one in me at the moment. Still, I felt I should jot down a few thoughts.

An interesting quasi-star, was Callan. He had looks and the backing of a Hollywood studio but the studio system was in decline. 

He was born "Martin Calinoff" in Philadelphia in 1935 - dad ran restaurants - and was something of a showbiz baby, taking singing and dancing lessons at an early age, and appearing on local radio shows. He was a very good dancer, later saying his idol was Gene Kelly. “I thought unlike Fred Astaire, Mr Kelly has that double whammy of sex appeal… Not that I even knew what sex appeal was, but I liked athletics and he moved like an all-star athlete.”

By the age of fifteen he was dancing professionally in local nightclubs. Two years later, when he graduated from high school, he moved to New York, got work in summer stock in St Louis, performing under the name "Mickey Calin".  Callan/Calin/Calinoff successfully auditioned for a small part on Broadway in The Boyfriend with Julie Andrew (you might've seen the Ken Russell film version), playing various parts over seven months; he was then in Catch a Star. He also danced on television and in nightclubs. 

Then came the big big break - Riff in West Side Story. "“There were a great many kids like me up for that part,” said Callan. “I was told I was too cute! Imagine! But I really wanted it, I was asked if I could backflip, so I did a backflip, and eventually, after a year of rounds, I got it. Riff set me on my way.”

Riff is one of the best parts, if not the best part, in one of the greatest musicals of all time and really established Callan, who was in it for seven months. During the show's run he was spotted by Joyce Selznick a famous casting director (her discoveries included James Darren) and she signed Callan to a seven year contract to Columbia off the back of his appearance. 

The studio system was dying off but there was a bit of a revival of signing young talent in the late 1950s, especially at studios that made a lot of television and continued to make B pictures, like Columbia. The studio also signed Evy Norlund, Glenn Corbett, Carol Douglas, Jo Morrow, Margie Regan, Joby Baker, Rian Garrick, Joe Gallison, and Steve Baylor... not a big list of future stars.

Callan was, however, given what those actors weren't - a nice support part in a big budget film, They Came to Cordura, playing one of several seemingly heroic soldiers escorted through the Mexican desert by Gary Cooper along with Rita Hayworth. The studio put him in a low budget circus picture for Sam Katsman, The Flying Fontanes. They also put him in a Dick Clark teen film, Because They're Young (as a delinquent trying to go good who romances Tuesday Weld) and he danced in Pepe. In Oct 1960 he left Columbia's record arm to sign with Paramount (see here) but he never enjoyed Darren's success as a singer.

Callan had looks, and could move, and act. But I think the main thing holding him back was he gave off a sort of intense swaggering self-love vibe. I'm not saying he was like that in person, not at all - but he lacked the sensitivity of say a Tony Curtis or Rock Hudson. He had charisma and was a potential star but needed careful handling.

Callan auditioned for the film version of West Side Story but didn't get it - possibly due to his Columbia contract, possibly they wanted a fresh slate. But he did dance in the film Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961), opposite Deborah Walley as Gidget. He was one of the troops in Mysterious Island .

He was well cast as a thug tormenting a puffy Alan Ladd in 13 West Street and romanced Deborah Walley again in Disney's Bon Voyage! The latter film demonstrates the issue with Callan - he lacked the affability of Tommy Kirk and when he rough houses Deborah Walley it's really scary. As I wrote in a piece on this film "he was a good looking guy, Callan, who could act, and dance, but his performances often had a strand of cruelty about them, he looked like a villain, and I really didn't want him and Walley to wind up together."

However he had a big hit with The Interns as a compromised doctor. Callan was in this alongside a lot of other Columbia contract talent like Cliff Robertson. It was a fun role with some meat in it - Callan plays a super ambitious intern, who dates a rich girl but also sees an older nurse on the side so she'll help his career; this gives him a packed schedule which leads him to take drugs... it's very well done and handled, leading to Callan breaking down at the end. The film was a hit and would have rejuvenated Columbia's faith in him. 

David Merrick offered Callan the lead in a Broadway musical, I Can Get it for You Wholesale, but they couldn't agree over money apparently so Elliot Gould took the part instead - and wound up marrying his co-star Barbra Streisand.    In November 1962 he talked about how he had his own publicist - see this here.

Callan had a showy small part as a pimp in Carl Foreman's cynical war picture The Victors - he's not in the film for very long and the leads went to other new faces (George Hamilton, George Peppard), and Callan presumably thought "hey why not me" but at least the film was a big hit.

The did The The New Interns, one of the few to return (along with Stefanie Powers and Telly Savalas with Dean Jones playing James MacArthur's role). He didn't have as much to do in this one, which hurt the film - in the original his character was comic and romantic but also serious, here he's just comic (in drag for one sequence) and romantic (Barbara Eden); the film hints it's going to deal with his character's past as a druggie, which would've been great, but throws it away. It's a NAGOATO sequel (not as good as the original).  Still it encouraged Columbia to sign him to a new six picture contract. Jack Lemmon had started his film career at Columbia and many pieces from this time would refer to Callan being a new Jack Lemmon.

Callan was announced for a film musical remake of Cover Girl which was never made and a Broadway musical Kelly. See here. But Callan was lucky to miss out on the Broadway Kelly which shut after one night

There was talk of Callan starring in King Rat from the novel by James  Cavell about a smooth operator in Changi during World War Two.He would've been perfect. But he lost out to George Segal who was also in The New Interns which must have really really hurt. Because that film, while considered something of a commercial and critical disappointment, kicked up Segal to a higher plane that he never really left. In fairness, Segal had more acting chops than Callan - he'd done heaps of Broadway and TV.

 It wasn't over yet - He did guest stints on television, Breaking Point and Twelve O'Clock High, then had his biggest hit to date as Jane Fonda's love interest in Cat Ballou but most of the attention for that movie went to Fonda and Lee Marvin. 

He was sent to England for You Must Be Joking, a farcical army comedy for Michael Winner - Callan was cast at Columbia's insistence but didn't do much for the film's box office. He doesn't fit in the movie, he sticks out - the whole film is like a trial run for Winner's better The Jokers.

In August 1965, Callan signed a four-picture deal with Columbia. Jackie Cooper, former actor turned exec at Columbia's TV arm, Screen Gems, offered Callan the lead in a pilot for a sitcom Occasional Wife. Callan asked Cooper what he needed TV for: Cooper replied, "This year we're asking you to do the series. In three years you may be asking us?" The deal was a good one -  $100,000 a year plus a percentage according to this. This didn't last long.  TV Guide did a profile on him here which refers to a partying lifestyle, "a reputation along the Sunset Strip-Vegas axis as one of the great new swingers. He had a Sinatra-like coterie of hangers on and regularly made the columns."

A1967 interview with him is here. Occasional Wife only lasted a season but marked a major shift in Callan's private life as he left his wife for his co star, Patricia Harty. 

After the sitcom was axed Callan might've been expected to return to movies or television but instead he appeared in a musical in Las Vegas, That Certain Girl. See here

In 1968 he was in a TV version of Kiss Me Kate with Robert Goulet.

By the late 60s Callan was out of fashion, Ric Dalton style - he no longer had the film offers or television lead offers. It was a very very quick fall, especially considering The Interns and Cat Ballou had been so popoular and not that long ago. I wonder if there were behaviourial/temperament issues. I have no proof of that - it's just conjecture.  But it does seem odd that a good looking, charismatic performer, who could act and move, didn't get any more leads. This was the time of spaghetti Westerns, war films in Yugoslavia, and telemovies. There were star parts going for former contract stars. But Callan didn't get any.

Not that he was unemployed. Callan kept busy on episodic TV like The Mary Tyler More Show ,That Girl, The Name of the Game, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Ironside, Marcus Welby, M.D., Griff, McMillan & Wife, Barnaby Jones, 12 O’Clock High, Quincy, M.E., Charlie’s Angels, Simon & Simon, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, The Bionic Woman, four episodes of Murder, She Wrote, and eight episodes of Love, American Style.. Callan also made the occasional feature like Frasier the Sensuous Lion, The Magnificent Seven Ride, Lepke and the Cat and the Canary. He did have the lead in 1974's The Photographer which was kind of remade as 1982's Double Exposure - in both Callan plays a psychotic photographer. See trailer here.  

He appeared in theatre around the country - a lot of musicals like Anything Goes, The Music Man (program here), George M, Bar Mitzvah Boy plus plays like Absurd Person Singular. He produced some musicals.

I don't think Callan was a great lost star. He was unlucky in that Hollywood made less musicals when he hit down  - at least less dancing musicals. He would've been fantastic as Riff in West Side Story  - too cruel to be Tony though.  The tide went out really quickly for him though. I mean, to go from a sitcom to being a permanent guest? I wonder if something else happened.

Callan appears as a character, in a way, in the novel version of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Agent Marv talks to Ric Dalton about Dalton's Western, Tanner, directed by Jerry Hopper, in which Dalton appeared alongside Ralph Meeker and Callan, and Dalton criticised Callan for "sounding like  a Malibu surfer".

TV Guide

Movie review - "The World of Suzie Wong" (1960) **1/2

 Big hit for William Holden - and actually I think it was his last one until The Wild Bunch. He scored with interracial romance in Love is a Many Splendored Thing only here the race is a genuine non white actor, Nancy Kwan, stepping in for Frances Nyen.

It's glossy, in colour, widescreen, location filming in Hong Kong. The sexiness was, at the time for a Hollywood film, cutting edge although apparently reduced from the play. It helped that it was set in Hong Kong - not too confronting, what goes on tour etc. 

The piece struck a chord as a novel, play and film. There's a fantasy I think of running off to the Orient, painting and having a hot Asian hooker fall in love with you. And the girl is such a child like idiot maybe she's  not too threatening to white female audiences. That's just a theory - but I know some women who enjoy this film. Feels mean to kill her baby at the end. It gives the piece some emotional kick I suppose but strewth.

There's some racist Poms for Holden to be superior to - and some nice Poms so the British market doesn't get too upset. Michael Wilding is quite funny as a businessman who visits the brothels (Ron Randell played this role on Broadway). Sylvia Syms copes well in a thankless part as Woman in love with Holden. She just kind of hangs around and is encouraging. 

Nancy Kwan does have charisma. Holden was starting to look old but he's got X factor too. Weird to imagine a young William Shatner played that role on Broadway - a young person would've given it a totally different dimension.

It drags in places but there's enough nice photography and colour. I have nostalgic affection for these pieces they remind me of Saturday night movies from Bill Collins.

Movie review - "Addams Family 2" (2021) **

 Not very good. Some decent animation but lazy gags, dumb story ideas (Wednesday's biological father), too much reliance on pop culture.

Movie review - "The Punch and Judy Man" (1963) **

 Tony Hancock's first starring vehicle went well but then he sacked his writers and had his car accident and it all went a bit wonky. He cowrote this with an experienced writer (Phil Oakes) and has a solid support cast so it didn't go crazy, but this didn't tickle the public's fancy.

It's got a lazy seaside atmosphere which probably means more for people who experienced it - Punch and Judy shows, magicians.  

The plot has Hancock attend a swanky function to help his social climbing wife. It ends in chaos.

I didn't like this film much. Hancock is terrific - fully fleshed face,all the emotions there. But it's dull. Or unfunny. There's a long piece with Hancock and some kid eating a sundae which I think is meant to be funny. Syms is good. I think a better cast actress would be more effective but she does a good job. People like John Le Mesurier are in it.

Nicely shot. Boring. Sorry, Hancock.

Movie review - "The Quare Fellow" (1962) **

  Not that well known Irish-British film despite being based on a Brendan Behan play and with two stars, Patrick McGoohan and Sylvia Syms. McGoodhan is a prison guard on death row.

It was made by Bryanston the short lived company that made a lot of worthy movies. They kept the budget low. A good idea but ultimately didn't work.

I understand this was changed from the stage play. I wasn't quite sure of the point of this was. I think the play was focused on the prisoners - the prisoners barely register here.

McGoohan is a warden on death row. He sort of flirts with Sylvia Syms who is the wife of a condemned prisoner. That's a bit contrived. Syms is quite good. So is McGoohan. Actually all the acting is good. Location work helps a lot. (It was shot in Dublin.)

Play review - "Design for Living" by Noel Coward

 Lots of quips. The novelty of a menage a trois is still novel. Not a lot of really funny lines. Solid structure. Fun with the right cast.

Radio play review - "The Lion in Winter" by James Goldman

 Splendid. This one was an LA Theatre works production. Alfred Molina as Henry II. It snaps, crackles and pops. Twists, viciousness, wit and fun. Eminently quotable. So much fun. Yet emotionally harsh too.

Movie review - "The World Ten Times Over" (1963) **1/2

 Wolf Rilla movie about 24 hours in the lives of two flatmates - Sylvia Syms is visited by her dad (William Hartnell) and tells him she's pregnant; June Ritchie is seeing a married man (Edward Judd). 

I wanted to like this film more than I did. The photography and some of the acting is superb - Syms in particular is terrific. People really like June Ritchie although I felt she was a little OTT. Too much screen time is spent on whiny Edward Judd, a rich man who whines about how his father made him marry this woman. We see him complain about this to Ritchie, his father and his wife. What a whinger.

Donald Sutherland is in it being teased in a nightclub.

The film is described as being about two lesbians and you could read it that way. I think it's about two girls who are mates who have a track record of dating shits and decide to make a go of it together rather than relying on men. So the ending is quite feminist.

Not much happens except Ritchie tries to kill herself at the end. But it's interesting. Great to see a social realist film focus on women (there were  a few eg Taste of Honey, Smashing Time, Georgy Girl).

Romantic track record of Sylvia Syms in her early films

 * My Teenage Daughter - falls for cad who drives a Bentley, crashes parties, knows "jive" and is responsible for her aunt's death

* The Birthday Present - married to man who goes to prison

* No Time for Tears - nurse who falls for sleazy doctor

* The Moonraker -Puritan who falls for Cavalier

*Woman in a Dressing Gown - young woman falls for married man

* Ice Cold in Alex - falls for older military guy

*Bachelor of Hearts - falls for German exchange student

*No Trees in the Street - pimped out to gangster Herbert Lom

*Ferry to Hong Kong - falls for alcoholic Curt Jergens

*Expresso Bongo - stripper in love with promoter Laurence Harvey

*Conspiracy of Hearts - nun

*World of Suzie Wong - in love with man in love with Asian

*Amazons of Rome - Roman in love with Barbarian

*Flame in the Streets - in love with black Johnny Sekka

 *Victim - married to gay Dirk Bogarde

*The Punch and Judy Man - married to Tony Hancock

*The World Ten Times Over - in love with a woman

Movie review - "Flame in the Streets" (1961) **1/2

 This was a TV play then a stage play by Ted Wills. John Mills played Sylvia Syms' lover in Ice Cold in Alex but here they're father and daughter, more appropriate casting.

It's heart is in the right place and some scenes retain their power, such as flinging abuse around, and the issues are still relevant.

People say speeches rather than be real characters. I didn't get the sense Johnny Sekka and Sylvia Syms really loved each other. Or than anyone is a real person. Maybe the dodgy black landlord. The teddy boy racists are just that. Earl Cameron's decent worker is a decent worker.

It's got solid point-counterpoint arguments (Mills wife points out he's never home, Cameron's white wife Ann Lynn shows a more troubled side) but it never comes alive.

The final riot is independent of the main drama. It should've been part of it - like disaffected employers are behind it and specifically target Cameron. And there's not enough oomph. Syms should have died maybe, or Cameron's wife - something to give it more point.

Good on Rank for making it, and in colour and CinemaScope. At least it gives black actors something to play.

Movie review - "Amazons of Rome" (1961) **

Account of Cloelia, who fought the Estrucans - I'm not super familiar with it though I have heard of Horatio at the bridge and he's in this too. But mainly its Cloelia being captured by Etruscans who are fighting Rome, falling for a Barbarian general, escaping with women, returning to fight.

The leads of this are remarkably odd for a peplum - Louis Jourdan as an Etruscan allied barbarian bent on invading Rome, Sylvia Syms as Cloelia. Jourdan looks especially odd. He's always snacking on an apple which is an actors choice but grates.

Syms has a plucky boyishness which actually sells the character - a little more realistic than the usual statuesque maiden. And while she moons over Jourdan she gets to do more action than him. It's a better role than most of her "girl" parts in British films.

Movie review - "No Time for Tears" (1957) **

 There were a few nurse movies made in Britain in the 1950s - White Unicorn, The Feminine Touch. The novelty of this one is it's set in a children's hospital.

The cast includes Flora Robson, Sylvia Syms and Anna Neagle. The doctors include Anthony Quayle, Michael Hordern and George Baker plus Australia's own Alan White. Joan Sims and Richard O'Sullivan are in there.

Baker plays a love rat doctor who breaks Sym's heart.

Made by Associated British though you're likely to think it's a Rank movie.

Chipper. Nice colour. Episodic. Syms is plucky. But she never had the individuality of say Diana Dors. Some moments can't help but move such as the blind boy. The pantomime show sequence is random - it's as though the filmmakers lacked confidence in the material.

There's probably too many characters and plots - these sort of movies always work best when they focus on a few characters.

Directed by Cyril Frankel - one of the few Anna Neagle movies not directed by Herbert Wilcox.

Movie review - "The Birthday Present" (1957) **1/2

 Interesting drama perhaps better suited to a TV play but still well handled by director Pat Jackson. Tony Britton is a toy sales rep who is busted trying to smuggle an item past customs - a gift for his wife, Sylvia Syms. He tries to keep it secret.

It's very well written and observed. The kindly customs officer, the nasty customs officer, the hail fellow well met co workers, the incompetent solicitor he approaches, another not particularly good lawyer who pleads his case, the snooty judge who sentences him to prison, the unfeeling prison guards.

There is a remarkable sense of events going out of control - Britton gets busted, thinks it's a minor thing, but events snowball. Britton is fine - he's a bit smarmy which adds an element to it (because he's shocked this is happening to him) but I wonder if this would've done better with more of an everyman. Or if had been about Sylvia Syms.

Nicely shot by Ted Scaife. Support cast includes familiar faces like Jack Watling. 

Syms doesn't have a good part. She worries. That's about it. The film seemed to run low on plot after the one hour mark. More complexity from her might've helped. Like if they'd have a kid and/or a lechy best friend moved in. The piece avoids self righteousness until the end when Geoffrey Keen gives a speech

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

 Herbert Wilcox and Anna Neagle tried to move with the times, and good on them, they had a hit with this - a tale of widow Neagle trying to stop daughter Sylvia Syms rooting. Okay that's an exaggeration - she falls for a Bad Penny (Ken Haigh in an early role) who crashes parties, knows jive and drives a Bentley, ignoring the dull farmer who likes her. Bad Penny needs cash, tries to get it off a little old lady who dies of a heart attack. Syms winds up in prison.

Decent melodrama. You can see why Syms would go for Haigh. Neagle is sensible, easy to mock but also empathetic. She's effective.

It's a little silly. Disobey mum and wind up in prison. But it strikes at universal themes.

Movie review - "Bachelor of Hearts" (1958) **

 Amiable dim British comedy about a German student who goes to Cambridge - Hardy Kruger was hot stuff at the time due to The One That Got Away. A German in England isn't really high concept, at least not here. He misunderstands some slang - that's about as much fish gets out of water. The original idea was for a cockney kid to go the Cambridge - that might've had more point.

Cambridge is full of prats as depicted here, so I guess that's accurate? They have japes, smoke pipes, wear sweaters, drive old cars, play dress ups, occasionally go to a lecture.

The cast includes Ronald Lewis, John Richardson, Barbara Steele.  They don't give Richardson much dialogue. Or Steele - but there's no mistaking her look.; Lewis is quite amiable.

Kruger is fine, I guess, though his character is very lechy - he practically entraps Sylvia Syms. Maybe the film would've been better had it been about a female German student - Romy Schneider. Or maybe simply that he just needed a character to play. His German student is too affabble and well adjusted. If he came in as a cliche Tuetonic, no sense of humour, and learned how to soften... that's an arc. But he comes in amiable and goes that way.

The writers were Leslie Bricusse and Frederic Raphael, then collaborators.Location work helps and the colour photography is pleasing. It's amiable. I laughed at the moment where Kruger dresses as versions of the guys to go after their women and in one he acts like an angry young man and the girl gets turned on at him being "so angry". That was funny.

It's a curio. Amiable. Dim. Kruger plays cricket in one scene.

Movie review - "Black Sunday" (1960) aka The Mask of Satan **1/2 (re-watching)

 Few horror films have more of a full on opening - Barbara Steele convicted of being a witch by her brother, a mask of spikes is put on her face, and someone rams it into her. Welcome to Italian horror!

This has two British leads, both starlets from Rank - Barbara Steele and John Richardson.

Beautifully shot in black and white - most Bava movies look stunning. Atmospheric castles and crypts. The dubbing was hard to get used to - not very good.

Steele is compelling. The film didn't come alive for me though. I wish it did. I want to like it, it looks so marvellous. Too slow. Decent story. Maybe it lacks a monster who comes alive, a decent relationship. Maybe that's it.

Movie review - "Tarzan the Ape Man" (1981) **

 Made in the red heat of Bo Derek mania following 10 this was a smart idea - take some pre existing IP, add Bo Derek, and stir.

Interesting opening with Wilfred Hyde White and others telling the story in voice over. Jane/Derek is in Africa looking for her father Richard Harris - and the first fifty minutes or so is devoted to them, and John Philip Law, before Tarzan appears.

It's beautifully shot - Derek's skill as a photographer is evident - with tremendous locations. John Derek isn't a great action director - he loves slow motion. Though Bo being attacked by a python was quite effective at first but then Tarzan fighting it slow motion wasn't, nor is the final duel between Tarzan and a baddy.

There's campy scenes like Bo frolicking nude in the sea and going the grope on a sleeping Tarzan watching by an orangutang and Bo pained in white stuff by third act baddies talking to Harris who tells her to leave your body and we'll go on a ferris wheel soon.

Richard Harris chews the scenery and looks awful but does give this a bit of life. There's a lot of objectification of O'Keefe's body so in a way this film is kind of progressive.

It's not terrible. Some reviews were hysterically bad but I think they were silly. I mean the film is silly but it's fine.

Book review - "The Egos Have Landed: Rise and Fall of Palace Pictures" by Angus Finney (1997)

 Most "zeitgeist" film production companies have a similar trajectory - scrappy beginnings, have a hit, then another hit, then become red hot, and some flops send them crashing to earth. Occasionally they last longer if bought out by a studio (eg Miramax) or the mangers are particularly stingy/brilliant (Working Title, New World).

British cinema is littered with crash and burns, from the bigger scale - Ealing, Korda, Hammer, Thorn EMI, Rank - to smaller, like Goldcrest, Bryanston and Palace. Palace was a distributor/cinema chain that had success in the early 80s moved into production. Run by Steve Woolley and Nik Powell they were very cutting edge - distributed Evil Dead, Diva, etc - and moved into production via a close relationship with Neil Jordan which resulted in The Company of Wolves, Mona Lisa, and The Crying Game - by which time the company was bust.

Their actual run was very small - from hits like Mona Lisa and Scandal, they did a bunch of flops (The Big Man, Dust Devil) which they couldn't afford - that and over expansion so they went under.

Powell and Woolley went out on The Crying Game though so were still attractive to investors and came back as Scala. This was good for Britain but means the book doesn't have that epic "if only" quality of say My Indecision is Final, about Goldcrest, or National Heroes.

Still it's an entertaining read full of lively characters like the two leads, plus people like Richard Stanley and (alas) the Weinsteins. Palace's record really was amazing.