Movie review - "Rock All Night" (1957) ** 1/2 (re-watching)

 I saw I gave this two stars the last two times I watched it - now it's up to two and a half. I enjoyed it more. The cheapness. The oddness. The cheekiness of a film padded from a 30 minute siege play, with some musical acts, Roger Corman stock company, Abby Dalton singing badly, The Platters singing two songs at the top and never being seen again (how would Corman have used them more? as a hero?), Mel Welles as a beatnik agent (very Charles Griffith), Barbara Mouris as a boxer's wife, Beach Dickerson as a boxer, Ed Nelson as a person who gets killed.

It's not really believable Miller can talk down gangster Russell Johnson at the end but there's lots going on. The film has a charm and it's only 60 minutes.

Movie review - "This Happy Breed" (1944) **

 Amazing to think in wartime they stumped up colour for a domestic drama without much spectacle - but such was the impact of In Which We Serve. Oh there is some spectacle - a fun fair, a parade, some action during the General Strike, walking past the king's coffin - but it's not really needed, it could've been shot cheaply.

I didn't like this. I hated it. I appreciated some of it. The opening shot with the camera panning down. The scene where someone is told of the death of a son and his wife off screen but the camera holds on the garden. (Why not show the accident though?) David Lean was already very confident as a director.

But I couldn't care less about this family. These working class tories who unthinkingly support the establishment. A daughter's boyfriend dares to suggest changes to the status quo, worries about poverty and wages, and is mocked and sorted out. A daughter dares to want to be something more than a boring housewife and mother and is scolded by a horribly oppressive childhood friend (John Mills) who she doesn't like and her own parents, especially her dad, then runs off with a married man, which okay was scandalous, but the parents make it all about them. What a pack of whingers.

I'm sorry their son died and his wife but they sort of die for convenience and it doesn't seem to affect them too much apart from one scene.

Celia Johnson is good as the mother. Robert Newton feels all wrong as the father, as if he's slightly sending it up. Newton seems more interested in his friend Stanley Holloway than his wife, and he seems drunk telling her daughter to give up dreams, and complaining about the British people daring to want peace (you can make a good anti appeasement argument - it's not done here).

John Mills is good even if his character is clearly controlling (the girl never says she loves him and then she later gives their kid to her parents to raise while she goes to Singapore!)

I recognise that people would feel differently if they knew these characters and lived through this period, but I felt they were wankers, and I haven't felt that about other Coward characters.

There's so many scenes where you go "why didn't they dramatise that" - the accident that killed the son, John Mills running into the daughter, John Mills spending time with the daughter.

This film sucked.

Movie review - "The Swinging Barmaids" (1975) *

 Little known 70s Chuck Griffith script even though a director - Gus Triokis - is a little bit known as is the star William Smith. It's an exploitation film about a serial killer who knocks off cocktail waitresses at a strip club. Smith isn't the serial killer he's the cop.

We see it from the serial killer's point of view which is a drag. He goes around befriending and killing women. It's a movie for people who like that kind of thing.

It's got none of Griffith's humour and imagination but has a solid structure.

Play review - "Shadows of the Evening" by Noel Coward (1966)

 Part of Coward's Suite in Three Keys this is a good play - this really was a return to form for him. This has some grunt. It's about a publisher who is dying - his mistress invites his wife over to tell her. The stakes are big but what gives it power is Coward gets to tell his philosophy about mortality.

Movie review - "Beast from the Haunted Cave" (1959) **1/2 (re-watching)

 The South Dakota locations give this freshness, though it must've been a tough shoot, But they're really out there in the snow. Some good acting by Frank Wolff. Michael Forrest is a dull hero but the role is dull. Chuck Griffith resuses the Key Largo plot again - Wolff's moll falls for Forrest - but it's a smart low budget script.

Could've done with more monster. The last section in the cave is fantastic with the monster in creepy caves capturing people in webs.

Movie review - "Attack of the Crab Monsters" (1957) *** (re-watching)

 The script is good. Not the direction which throws away chances of suspense - arriving at the island, the missing former inhabitants - and drama - a promising love triangle is barely dealt with.

But there's creepiness with the voices of the other scientists calling out, the outrageous huge crab claws, the intensity of the cast. It could've been a masterpiece but for a cheapie film you can see why it was a big hit.

Play review - "Come into the Garden Maude" by Noel Coward (1966)

 Not very funny and I've read this is supposed to be funny but it's not bad. A rich millionaire and his whiny wife bitch about the Europeans, then the husband falls very quickly in love with a European lady.  Coward has used people telling nagging wives to get stuffed a few times (eg Fumed Oak), there's an element of misogyny about it - I mean, he didn't have to stay married - but the conflict is strong.

Radio review - "Cause Celebre" by Terence Rattigan (1975)

 Rattigan's career had its up and downs but it's lovely he had a last big fat old hit with this account of the Rattenbury case. It's set in the 1930s so Rattigan knew how people talked. The material is about sex, repression, people going crazy - so in his wheelhouse. It feels a little fresher with more explicit references to sex, hookers, cocaine, impotence and so on. 

This is the 1975 radio version. It leaps around in time.

Movie review - "In Which We Serve" (1942) ****

 A big hit in the US, contributing to the British delusion that its industry could regularly match Hollywood. Noel Coward is a little odd at times as a naval captain - it does it in clipped unemotional tones which means the audience can project. But it can also be effective when his ship is blown up and Coward is covered in oil bobbing around in the ocean.

Mountbatten was a very ineffective officer in World War Two and afterwards - his career is littered with failure, death and destruction - but it is interesting to see a film based on a ship that sunk, not a great victory. It feels more true and I think that's what audiences responded to - the adversity.

The flashback device works well. The ship sinks and we cut back to the lives of its sailors. There's a little bit of Coward and his posh wife Celia Johnson, their kids (to whom he seems monumentally uninterested) and servant. There's also some cheerful lower orders, including John Mills. There's a young officer, Michael Wilding, plus Bernard Miles.

You can mock it especially the Coward-Johnson scenes - like when the maid comes in and finds out Coward's alive. The lower orders tug their forelocks.

But it has immediacy and authenticity. These people lived and these things happened. And it's about defeat, a perservering - Dunkirk, Norway, Crete.  There's no victory, just survival. There's not too much Coward, plenty of time goes to others (Richard Attenborough in a star turn a a coward, Mills shines as a "good bloke" a persona that would take him to the top). And some scenes pack a wallop like the three girls at home having bomb fall on their head. The film got better as it went on. A tribute to the British industry.

Movie review - "The Astonished Heart" (1950) **1/2

 Noel Coward couldn't put a foot wrong in World War Two in cinema as well as the stage - In Which We Serve, This Happy Breed, Brief Encounter, Blithe Spirit. He couldn't seem to put a foot right after the war. He wrote and starred in this and directed it so he can't duck responsibility.

Some of this isn't bad. The story is simple but meaty - a shrink who is used to dealing with human emotions can't handle his when he falls for a woman (Margaret Leighton) while his wife (Celia Johnson) looks on. It's the same storyline as The Deep Blue Sea only with the guy breaking down. Maybe it would've been more effective with it as a woman breaking down. Actually no, there's nothing wrong with it being a guy if it had the right actor.

Michael Redgrave was cast, but kicked out during filming and replaced by Coward. I didn't see any Redgrave footage but Coward doesn't work. He was looking old, which isn't fatal, but is too restrained and never believably in love with Margaret Leighton. He has some effective-ish moments (there's some witty gags) but it's all in lower gear. He needed stronger directors to push him. Anthony Darborough and Terence Fisher are the credited directors but I can't see them pushing Coward. Coward himself regretted Carol Reed didn't direct.

Leighton looks beautiful (she wasn't often shot flatteringly) and is good as is Johnson. The central flaw is Coward. Who else could've played it? I think John Mills could've cut loose - maybe.  James Mason, definitely. And Trevor Howard, even Robert Newton. Coward's limitations didn't matter in In Which We Serve because he was protected by the uniform and action and also there were other protagonists - here it weighs on his shoulders. All the action is emotional. And he doesn't have David Lean.

Because it deals with sex, obssession and suicide there is plenty of raw material here, but it's not exploited.

Movie review - "Atlas" (1961) ** (re-viewing)

 Roger Corman's attempt to jump on the peplum bandwagon suffers from a lack of extras and genuine spectacle, as he himself admitted. There's too many scenes which look cheap - battles, crowd scenes. These are inherently expensive.

It's a shame because the film has a lot going for it. The basic story is good - Frank Wolff cons Michael Forrest (Atlas) to fight for him, and Forrest falls for Wolff's gal, Barbara Mouris. Woff is superb - hugely pleased with himself, evil, clever, sly. Forrest is okay a bit bland - the plot requires him to be an idiot for act two. Mouris is very good as a gangster's moll, basically - leggy, warm, fun, smart, haunted.

I did like the battle at the end from the US shot bits where Dick Miller can be seen fighting a few times.

Movie review - "Innocent Sinners" (1958) **1/2

 British cinema of the 1950s loved movies about kids. Usually they got involved with a criminal which gave the piece a central relationship. Not here. It's about a girl who grows a garden in a bombed out area. She boards with a nice couple, the father is a struggling waiter, David Kossof - who was also a father figure in Kid with Two Farthings which was a better movie, but more happened in it. Growing a garden isn't that exciting. And this is in black and white in bombed out London - it's not that pretty.

It picks up in the second half when the stakes are larger - the girl's male friend is arrested for fighting an adult who tried to stop them stealing dirt,  the girl is put in a home. Things are resolved by a Santa Claus figure, lonely dying cashed up Flora Robson.

I wasn't wild about Kossof kicking out the mother because she's a hooker - to separate someone from their mother felt like it needed another thing. But the film is an honest attempt to make something decent.

Lyndon Brook and Susan Beaumont are ingenues.

Movie review - "Bucket of Blood" (1959) *** (re-viewing)

 Fun to watch this again. Doesn't have the same heart as Little Shop of Horrors because Dick Miller is more of a killer (even if the first two killings are accidental). Also Barbara Mouris (a good actor) isn't into him in any way other than admiring his heart. I think that was a mistake dramatically.

I loved Julian Burton as a beat poet he's brilliant. Tony Carbone is another beatnik. Bert Convy is that undercover cop who is killed.

I saw a good quality copy. It's nicely shot. Low budget but tech qualities are fine. Not up Little Shop but good.

Play review - "Fumed Oak" by Noel Coward

 In a lower class household a man comes home and tells his nattering wife and mother in law to F off. That's about it. It might mean more if we'd seen the man get hen pecked. I don't think it's that funny he punched his mother. There are some funny insults.

Play review - "Family Album" by Noel Coward

 A family squabble, sing some songs and wonder about their father's will. I didn't like this. Some funny lines and moments and maybe it played better with Noel and Gertie but it isn't that interesting.

Play review - "Conversation Piece" by Noel Coward

 An old musical from Coward set during the Napoleonic War though it could have been modern -a dodgy French sends his ward to romance a rich idiot. This is an album version with Noel playing the dodgy French and Richard Burton as the rich idiot. I think we're meant to find it charming when the French guy has feelings for the girl in that Gigi like incestuous way. The songs are not to my taste but the gold digging stuff is fun.

Louis Hayward was in the original production. Richard Burton's part isn't very big here.

Movie review - "Whirlpool" (1959) **

 The Rank Organisation once again tries to hide it's making a British film. This is set in Germany. Juliette Greco is a woman stalked by William Sylvester. She hops on a trawler with OW Fisher, who was a German star at the time. Muriel Pavlow and Marius Gording are an English couple who work on the trawler.

The basic story isn't bad. Woman chases stalker, flees for help from romantic hero, complicated by others (Goring is weak, Pavlow it's hinted loves Greco and is jealous).

But it's hampered by a few things. Greco and Fisher have nil chemistry. They don't seem into her. Fisher has this sort of kindly doctor vibe when the role needs someone tougher, rugged - or at the very least more into Greco. It's not very nice either that he agrees with the cops to use Greco as bait for Sylvester and doesn't tell her. Why not?

Greco doesn't seem into him (she hated Fisher during filming). The film never seems sure how to pitch her. How hard could it be? She's a Bad Woman who falls in love and is redeemed - that's what should happen. But it doesn't happen.  Sylvester is good as the psycho.

There's a promising subplot with Pavlow jealous of Greco but they don't do anything with it. Pavlow should've been used by Sylvester in some way. The way they are here they could've been cut out of th film.

The setting of a tugboat on the Rhine is a little different and there's some pretty ish pics of the Rhine. But it's a tugboat on the Rhine. It's not that visually spectacular. The boat heads towards this whilrpool at the end and I'm sure in real life that's very dangerous and exiciting but here it just looks a bit wavy and the tugboat is really big so you never feel in danger. They may as well have set it in Scotland among the craggy rocks of the Orkneys or something.

Movie review - "Floods of Fear" (1958) ***

 An odd film. Rank were so determined to crack the international market they set this entirely in America, around the Mississipi, with an American lead (Howard Keel) and British co stars pretending to be American (Anne Heywood, Cyril Cusack, Harry Corbett). Why not set it in England? Anyway, no one went.

I've got to say, this was a decent movie though. It's visually really excellent, exciting. Takes place in a flood. Keel and Cusack are escaped crooks. Heywood the Girl. Keel is Unjustly Convicted and Seeking Vengeance. That's all fine. Cusack is a giggling psycho, very effective. I liked Heywood. 

It's an unpretentious B. Keel is a A picture star in musicals but not in non musicals. He's not hot enough either to go shirtless as he often does here.

Some spectacular sequences of things crashing in the water, scrambling around. This looks different. Nicely shot. Technically accomplished.

It's just weird John Davis of Rank tried to go for the international market with these B pictures. They were fading out in Hollywood. The successful Rank pictures were based on true stories, adventures, things that were unique.

Play review - "Red Peppers" by Noel Coward

 Fun. Silly. Would've been great to see with Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence. The story is about a squabbling pair of vaudevillians. They bicker, patter and sing songs. Argue with management and a comic. That's about it. Not story heavy. A star vehicle, which is why the star-free film version flopped.

Play review - "Pretty Polly" by Noel Coward

 Listened to a radio version of a short story by Coward which was adapted for television and film. It's sweet and slight. Virginal Polly's mum dies so she goes to Singapore. Her uncle is a rake and she roots an Indian-Chinese. It's a good experience, they separate no harm done. No conflict. If the guy was a woman it would have more kick - as would the fact if Polly fell hard. But it's fine.

Movie review - "Creature from the Haunted Sea" (1961) **1/2 (re-watching)

 The last of the Corman-Griffith black comedy trilogy. It's a madcap adventure with lots of fun stuff - the irreverent nature, the fact a clean shaven Robert Towne plays a leading role, the circumstances of its inception, the comedy of the monster with ping pong ball eyes.

It's not that a good movie. It was made too fast, even for Corman - it seems rushed and it's not that well directed. Little Shop of Horrors had more heart because Jonathan Haze was motivated by love and the monster just wanted to be fed - it wasn't his fault he was hooked on blood. There was a lovely core to the film. 

This doesn't have that. Everything is a joke, and there are funny jokes, but there's no heart. Towne falls for a local girl who comes up at the end out of nowhere when it's been set up he's going to fall for Betsy Moreland, the creature is introduced far too late (this is the biggest flaw of the film), Tony Carbone is a joke gangster, ditto Betsy Moreland when some seriousness or at least genuine emotion would've helped. My attention drifted off a bit.

The best thing about it is the garnish around the side - the gags in the narration, the Beach Dickerson being allowed to impersonate animals, Dickerson impersonating animals, Moreland singing a song 'Creature from the Haunted Sea' on a boat while there's fighting (apparently this was added by Monte Hellman - I assume it's a homage to Claire Trevor in Key Largo), the gags about Towne's secret agent name. It's quotable.

Play review - "Bon Voyage" by Noel Coward (1968)

 A shorter Coward play about people on a cruise ship. There's a gossipy American, a honeymoon couple who never pay off story wife, some old duffers... and a boozy male quipster who falls for the Coward surrogate, an over fifty author. This aspect is interesting because you can real into it Coward's personal story - I'm sure he had flings like this. Also interesting is that the man is  a walking red flag (love bomber, drunk). I listened to a play version of a short story coward wrote.

Movie review - "The Gypsy and the Gentleman" (1958) **

 The frustrating thing about Rank was that their ideas were solid but they could never get the execution right. It was a good idea to bring back the Gainsborough melodrama style, and some solid talent spotting that saw them assign the film to Joseph Losey, and allow him to cast Melinda Mercouri as a gypsy, and Keith Michell and Patrick McGoohan as the other leads. There's nice colour and sets - it's an expensive film, looks good, is peopled with colourful character actors like Flora Robson and Nigel Green.

But yet again Rank demonstrated it didn't understand Gainsborough and the script is both simple and confusing.  The emotional lines aren't clear and the cast lopsided. These films worked with "good" and "bad" characters - normally two good and two bad, who would intersect. But here Michell is a wastrel rake, who marries a gypsy for... spite? Love? Lust? It's never clear. Neither is Mercouri's motivation. She loves McGoohan I think? Wants Michell for cash? That would've been good. But it's confusing.

I would've had Michell not be a rake. Make him good. (There is a "good" male, a whimpy doctor who loves Michell's sister but he barely registers.) Or at least make it clear he genuinely loves Mercouri. I was never sure. Hold off the reveal he's got no money. Have McGoohan more clearly drive the plot. Make it clear that Michell loves Mercouri and she loves McGoohan. It's not clear. It's frustrating. 

It's a shame because the three leads have presence (the good girl, Michell's sister, is bland) and it's gorgeous looking. Losey made interesting failures.

Play review - "Easy Virtue" by Noel Coward (1924)

 I always think this is going to be a comedy but it's a drama although set amongst the silly set. The son of an upper middle class family arrives home with a new wife who was divorced. It's decent drama, written from the heart, and good tough conflict, with nice subtext about being judgey. I felt it was a two act play more than a three act one - once the wife realises she doesn't much love or even like the son any more it's got nowhere much to go. Still, a good play.

Book review - "I, the Jury" by Mickey Spillane (1947)

 No tougher private eye than Mike Hammer. He just wants to shoot crooks dead, has a hot body without doing exercise, has a sex bomb secretary, sleeps with nymphomaniacs, hooks up with a hot lady shrink, scowls at whimps, is only nice to a cop who's a friend, avenges his dead buddy. Great fun if taken in the right spirit.

Movie review - "SOS Pacific" (1959) ***

 From that late 50s period where John Davis was obsessed with the international market. I don't think anyone quite liked this - it's always referred to derisively - but it's quite a good little B thriller. Joseph Losey originally developed it and he would've done a better job but Guy Green's handling is fine.

The two British leads, Richard Attenborough and John Gregson, are the baddies, or antagonists - Attenborough is one of his snivelling cowards, here more channelling Peter Lorre (the film has a 40s Warners vibe) while Gregon's pilot you think is going to be heroic and he is for a bit but he has a crack up which is actually really interesting (though he redeems himself by offering up himself as shark food).

It probably shouldve been in colour. There's definitely too many characters - I kept saying "you could consolidate". Like Eva Barok is a potential love interest for Eddie Constantine (billed fifth or something but the star) but then he hooks up with Pier Angeli. What's the German do apart from give advice how to use a radio? The cop escorting Constantine could've been combined with Attenborough. Or killed. Jean Anderson is just there. Not as skilfully written as say Five Came Back. 

But there's no better ticking clock than an atomic bomb test!

Play review - "Peace in Our Time" by Noel Coward (1947)

 This play isn't as revived as much as other Coward works despite the high concept -it's set in an alternative London where the Germans won the war. Maybe this came out too soon after the war, when people didn't want to think about it. Kenneth More was in the original production.

I really liked this. I recognise its flaws - too many characters (could've done with a rewrite), perhaps too long a period of time when shorted may have been more effective (I acknowledge Coward wanted the war to end). Depiction of a Nazi occupied England very believable - fair weather journos, woman sleeping with enemy, Churchill shot, royals in Canada, everything a bit shabby. (Strategy wise I'm not sure how invasion would've worked from the west. From Africa through France I guess.)

Powerful scenes like a daughter being taken away to be tortured. Tough stuff. Needed another draft but easily one of his best post war works.

Movie review - "Little Shop of Horrors" (1960) **** (re-watching)

 Look, I get it. The humour is broad, and hammy - and really, really old school Jewish. It's like vaudeville. Roger Corman's direction isn't great. He just sort of puts the camera there. But he could harness Charles Griffith who has a clever idea, wonderful structure and off the wall ideas. The basic concept of course but side gags like a cop whose kid has died, and the odd characters like Dick Miller eating flowers and Jack Nicholson loving pain.

It's rough and broad and mad but still holds up.

Play review - "South Sea Bubble" by Noel Coward (1951)

 This was disappointing. I was looking forward to Brits behaving badly in a far flung colony, being pompous and silly and Noel Coward-y but this isn't fun. It borders on a drama but it's not that serious. It's more like a... super light drama, I guess, marked by Coward's reactionary politics. The plot involves a progressive governor clashing with a die hard conservative native politician - hahahah he went to Harrow hahahaha he's more conservative that the Brits hahahaha he's against free public toilets (this subplot gets a lot of time - is it meant to be witty?). The wife hangs out with the hardliners son who makes a sleazy move. She conks him on the head, the later on the hardliner tries to use this as blackmail to make the progressive governor on his wife.

There's a subplot about a Coward/Maugham type writer visiting which doesn't go anywhere. The liveliest character is a gossip. Why not have the wife (played by Vivien Leigh) as a man eater, like Edwina Mountbatten was? Why not use the novelist? The story is resolved too easily - the son turns up and says no hard feelings. There's no real jokes unless you find conservative natives funny.

I would love to have read a Coward take on a British outpost where he just went for everyone. But he doesn't really make fun of anyone here. His fangs were blunted.

Play review - "Nude with Violin" by Noel Coward (1956)

 This was fun because it's got people behaving badly, which was when Coward was at its best. The plot involves an artist who has died and his "valet" reveals the artist never actually painted. I wonder if it might've been effective to meet the artist who sounds interesting. The feelings the daughter has for her dead dad is touching. Making fun of art is low hanging fruit but it's fun and bright.

Play review - "Relative Values" by Noel Coward (1951)

 One of Coward's post-war works. A comedy. It deals with a Hollywood star which is fun but when I heard the plot I got worried - an upper class twit is getting married to a film star, who is sister to the maid of the lady of the manor. I was concerned the hero would be one of Coward's forelock tugging lower orders, who loves being a maid, and I was right.  There's also a super conservative butler.

I liked it when the Hollywood star turns up to pursue the sister. It has a bit of vim and pizzaz. There's something in the Hollywood star trying to cover up her origins. I just didn't like the ole faithful maid lovin' her mistress and the final toast against social equality. I know, that's me and that's Coward, but I can see why it wasn't a big hit.

Play review - "Song at Twilight" by Noel Coward (1966)

 Also known as "The last good Coward play". I haven't read enough of his works to vouch for that but it was well received. Yes because he was in it but also this has guts. It's about an old author visited by an old love. She's had face lifts, they bitch and snipe, she calls him on being gay, and he cops to it. Which was Coward being honest. The author's wife knowing it and accepting it - that felt true too. 

It's an honest, tough, funny, bitchy play.

Movie review - "Rockets Galore" (1957) **

 No one has much good to say about this delayed sequel to Whiskey Galore! made after Ealing stopped operations but its spirit lived on. There are some good moments. It is in colour and has Scottish scenery. There's an unpleasant vibe about the army wanting to kick people out for a rocket range... that's a good villain I guess, it's just not fun.

Donald Sinden is the officer sent to investigate. His romance with Jeannie Carson (who sings several songs) has a lot of potential, they match well, but feels patchy - we don't see them properly meet, or see her shock when it's revealed he works for the army, or see them fall in love.

The cast is very strong. Ronnie Corbett has a small role early in his career. There's some funny gags and satire, like about the English not understanding the Scots, and the Brits having a German rocket scientist, and the stuff with the seagull was sweet. There are good moments. And if I were John Davis I might've greenlit this too - even if it was a late gap sequel, colour is a reason to film it. But Michael Relph wasn't as good a director as he was producer.

Play review - "Waiting in the Wings" by Noel Coward (1960)

 Coward's post war plays don't seem to be revived as often as his 30s/40s output. This one has a little more life than the others, owing to its excellent concept - its set in a retirement home for old actresses, giving showy parts to old grand dames. The concept is better than the play.

I really wanted to love this. The idea is so good. But there's no jokes. Where are the self centered ego maniacs, the flamboyant types of his earlier works? They're just kind of... sensible.

Two of them have a feud, but it's sorted out after one chat. I mean, one chat. It's a decent chat but it's so quick. Why not jack it up? The conflict comes from a newspaper doing an article but that is dealt with.

Why not have them fight over a man? A role? A kid? Power in the home? Use the concept, Noel!

I wish he'd rewritten this. Some good moments like a woman meeting her son.

Play review - "Still Life" by Noel Coward

 Basis of Brief Encounter  - in this one they actually have sex, which they didn't in the film from memory. It has its loud comic sex mad cockneys which grates a little but is written with tenderness and empathy and great warmth.

Play review - "The Vortex" by Noel Coward

 Coward is famed for his comedies but he made his reputation with this drama. It still holds up - it's about a fabulous, ageing woman attached to her son. Mum is having an affair and the son is a drug addict. They both tear strips off each other at the end and it totally works.

Movie review - "The Whisperers" (1967) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 Didn't know anything about this movie apart from the fact it was from Bryan Forbes for Edith Evans. That's the way to see it. It's a series of incidents that happen to a little old lady who lives in a shabby area in some shabby town. She hears voices. The man who gives her her dole is nice. Neighbour Nannette Newman, with a black lover, isn't nice. She has a deadshit son (Ronnie Fraser) and husband (Eric Portman) both of whom are involved in crime. She's conned by a bratty lady.

Still it's post war England so she's got some government assistant and National Health. People do try to help her.

It's moving. I like how Evans remains a mystery. The relationships are well evoked.

This is a film festival movie but it is interesting. Great chance for Evans and also Eric Portman, at the end of their lives.

Play review - "The Little Foxes" by Lillian Helman

 First rate melodrama as William Goldman put it about a post-Civil War family of new rich. Two brothers, one smart the other dumb, and dopey son, the imposing Regina. Classic second act curtain with the guy having a heart attack. You need to watch out for over-acting.

Movie review - "The Undead" (1957) ***1/2 (re-watching)

 Easy to mock with its dancing little people, dancing witches, cheapie high school play sets... but I don't care. I love it. The ambition, the intelligence and literary quality of Griffith's script. A little more money in the budget would've done wonders - the AIP Poe treatment - but it has its charm. Alison Hayes is a knock out.

Movie review - "Blind Date" (1959) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 I gather this was Joseph Losey's first hit in Britain. It ushered in a strong period for him. It's not that a great film, although there's good things in it. Hardy Kruger (as a Dutchman) is arrested for the murder of a woman (Michele Presle) he was seeing - Stanley Baker is the cops.

Losey and his two screenwriters were blacklisted so there is a pleasing lefty American dig at the class system - Baker has a posh boss who puts pressure on Baker to arrest Kruger, because the deceased is connected with a Lord (who we never spend much time with - a mistake I feel).

In flashbacks to Kruger's relationship with Presley he's possessive and moody and controlling so could easily be a killer. This is in the film's favour to a degree although you sense at heart it's misogynist and you'd be right. 

The ending feels like it was inspired by Vertigo - I could be wrong though the dates kind of work out... she's not really dead, she's alive, she killed the mistress as a plot with the husband.

It's not an expensive film - mostly Baker interrogating Kruger, and flashbacks are Kruger and Presle in a studio. (These are quite racy scenes and I think helped the film do well at the box office.) Kruger's outsider status helps. I think the film would've been better though with an English actress instead of Presle - more clearly establishment.

Movie review - "Jacqueline" (1956) **

 I've never read a Catherine Cookson novel I've no doubt they are very good. This was based on one, Rooney another.

British movies of the 1950s were normally good with kids. Not this one. She's a charmless kid who likes to brag about her deadbeat father. I think we're meant to warm to him even though he works at the dock yards with vertigo, endangering others.

Dad is John Gregson, who is an affable presence. Gregson felt it needed someone like Victor McLaglen and he was right. This should be a "hulking ape humanised by his daughter" story so work. They should have motivated his drinking more and killed off his wife (bland Kathleen Ryan) and other child (Richard O'Sullivan) so that it was just him and his kid against the world. That would've given us some sympathy for him.

As it is, he drinks despite having a wife and two kids, he endangers people at his work by hiding his vertigo, he gets possessively jealous over a guy who likes his wife... I'm all with his mother in law. If you had mother in law trying to take the kid off him when the wife is dead - it would've been more primeval.

The kid sings at the church at the end, and it hit me this is the same plot as a Shirley Temple film, with Jacqueline melting the heart of a crusty old manager. But as depicted here, the dad is a drunk - he's just going to keep drinking.

There's also a subplot which could've been cut out - a romance between Maureen Swanson and Tony Wright. I'm not sure what the parents' concern is - is one Protestant and the other Catholic? That would've made more sense.

Rank really didn't know how to make commercial films in the Hollywood mode.

Nicely shot. And some good Irish actors like Cyril Cusack.

Movie review - "The Spaniard's Curse" (1959) **

 Starts promisingly - man condemned to death for murder condemns all those part of it - but then bogs down into conventionality. Lee Patterson and Susan Beaumont make dull leads investigating. Tony Wright is more at home here as a cad then in his tough guy parts but his limitations tell after a while.

One of a series of Bs produced by Roger Proudlock but there's been money for extras and Michael Hordern's in the support cast. I wish they'd spun this out into a sci fi /fantasy direction, it would've given it some kick.

Movie review - "Meet Cute" (2022) ****

 Smart, enjoyable... rom com I guess is a description although that's not quite there. A riff on Groundhog Day but darker, it goes there, with the mental illness of Kaley Cuoco's character, and also Pete Davidson (SNL grads make very good leading men in female star vehicles because they have their comedy thing going on). Lovely depiction of New York. I maybe didn't like the middle section when it expanded the powers of the time machine, I felt that unpacked too many questions but it all works.

Movie review - "Suspira" (2018) **

 This is naughty of me but I haven't seen the original. I like Dakota Johnson and admire her how she's using her stardom - this is a remake but from a classy director (Luca Guadagnino) who has a fresh take. It's not that scary and goes on forever. Tilda Swinton in dual roles.  Mia Goth shines in her part. Neat ballet outfits. A bit dull. And long. World War Two Significance. Sorry. Nice use of Jessica Harper cameo.

Movie review - "Midsommar" (2019) ***1/2

 Everything a horror movie should be - smart, atmospheric, consistently creepy, anchored by a star turn from a great actor, Florence Pugh. It maybe could've been a bit shorter. Fantastic music.

Movie review - "Tiger in the Smoke" (1956) **

 The first half of this film is pretty good set in a fog drenched London as people look for Havoc, a man who they think was dead who is back and killing people. He was a commando in World War Two who disappeared and was evil. This is all scary and effective, even if because it's a Rank film they keep cutting back to bland Muriel Pavlow as the guy's wife, and Donald Sinden as her fiancee, and some random priest. However there is Havoc's old gang who lurk around the fog, they are good value.

But then when Havoc is revealed, after this great build up, he's played by Tony Wright who is just a bad actor and isn't up to it. Donald Sinden, Michael Craig or Stanley Baker could've played the hell out of it - look even Anthony Steel would've been better than Wright.

Then the film gets bad and its compounded by having the last act in the day in France at this house. They should've kept it all at night all around London. And when Pavlow doesn't remember Wright it's dumb.

They could've cut Sinden's character out of the film, and had a cop become interested in Pavlow. 

So many things they should've done. Still, effective moments.

Movie review - "Seven Thunders" (1958) **

 These Rank films of the late 1950s misfired in such interesting ways. This has a fascinating backdrop - the Old Port of Marseilles, a hive of gangsters and crooks, which was cleaned out by Vichy and Germans in 1943. Many Jews were deported but also others - it's a terrific subject and you can imagine Warner Bros making the hell out of it in the 1940s. 

The best bits of this film concern it - a German soldier accidentally killing a small boy, this is very affecting, and newsreel footage of the actual city being blown up. The film doesn't nearly gasp the storytelling opportunities - there is some Jewish presence, but no gangsters, who were a big thing in Marseiles at the time.

The central story is more basic but fine - two escaped POWs are hanging around trying to escape. They are played by Stephen Boyd, who Fox thought was going to be a star, and Tony Wright, who Rank thought was going to be a star. Neither are that good. Boyd is better than Wright who just doesn't have what it takes. If Rank wanted to appeal to Americans why not make one American instead of dumbly importing a second tier American based director, Argentine Huge Fregonese. Boyd and Wright have no rapport. If you don't think much of Dirk Bogarde and Kenneth More, try watching films where they aren't cast first.

They walk around the place, having quite a lot of freedom of the town (for POWs on the run they're outside a lot). Boyd romances a French girl,Anna Gaylor, despite having a girlfriend back at home (why not make her Jewish?). Wright hangs out with another expat, Kathleen Harrison, who adds some professional spark.

Then there's this whole subplot which is a whole other movie - James Robertson Justice is a doctor who is a serial killer. That's based on a true story, which is strong enough for its own film. I mean, that guy was amazing - doctor who would kill his patients, would pretend to run an escape route and off customers by saying you need to be inoculated, then going on the run and saying he only killed Germans, and working with the resistance. It's too interesting for this movie - it pulls focus. It feels weird that the race against the  clock at the end is Boyd racing to find Wright before Wright is poisoned by Justice - I mean the whole city is being evacuated by Germans and we're in this serial killing plot that Boyd isn't aware of, and then Justice dies in a deux ex machina car accident (why not have one of his victims' relatives kill him? Or Wright? Or Germans?)

At the end Wright, Boy and Taylor go off on the boat and all these people have had their homes destroyed.

This would've been far better dropping the Justice plot altogether and replacing it with something related to gangsters and Jews - and then making a separate film about Justice's character.

Movie review - "Brandy for the Parson" (1952) **

 A Group 3 movie which means location photography, technical polish,  forced sense of fun. James Donald and Jean Lodge are on a yachting holiday when they come across Kenneth More who is a smuggler. Everyone can act; More is simply more charismatic than Donald. It's a shame they didn't push a love triangle. I liked Lodge she was very pretty. It's a dull movie though. Nice location work. And at least the actors are on the boat - no back projection.

Movie review - "Never Let Go" (1953) **

The sort of film that one senses just would've been more fun in the 1930s under Louis B. Mayer's MGM rather than Dore Schary's. Clark Gable is a journo in Mosco who falls (too quickly) for Gene Tierney, a ballerina. Another expat Richard Haydn marries a Russian too played by Belita. Both women are stuck at home. Then the boys go rescue.

Lacking in suspense and even romance - the courtship is rapid. Instead we get a long unfunny scene where Haydn out-drinks a Russian. The plan isn't that clever. Kenneth More brightens things up as a British journalist who helps the couple.

It's not in colour. I mean, it's okay.

Play review - "Present Laughter" by Noel Coward (1939)

 I'd never read this play before. It's very fun. About a very handsome popular actor who has women throwing themselves at him - his ex, another one, a deb. There's also a narky maid and a playwright. Everyone's very theatrical and selfish. I wonder why this was never turned into a film. You can see why stars would want to play it. It's meant to be based on Coward himself but could easily be about say Rex Harrison.

Play review - "The Browning Version" by Terence Rattigan

 Elegant jewel from Rattigan. Easy to mock on one hand - as William Goldman says, the wife is a whore, the husband is weak, the only wisdom lies in bachelors and young boys. But he does write with empathy and sympathy, Croker Harris is another Rattigan character with a low sex drive so the wife goes looking for it elsewhere. She's a snob but she's got nothing else. I thought maybe she could've been given a little speech. The tyranny of the headmaster and the world - polite, dogged, unknowingly patronising - is well conveyed, as well as the fact that, well, the Crock probably wasn't a very good teacher, with his self indulgent puns. The play doesn't always take easy sides. Maybe it does for the guy Frank. But the scene where he breaks down is powerful as is the reveal it was a put up, and his small act of defiance at the end is rousing.

Movie review - "We Joined the Navy" (1962) **

 Producer Danny Angel probably thought this was a sure thing - Kenneth More in a Doctor in the House style comedy set in the Navy. Only he was too old to play a youngster, so the three young parts go to skinny other actors one of whom is Derek Fowlds, and More plays the James Robertson Justice type role, only he's more of a cheeky officer cynical about the navy who tells the truth too often.

This is why it's weird he and the three midshipmen are sent to the South of France to work with an American ship, captained by Lloyd Nolan, alongside nurse Joan O'Brien. There's a bit of clash but no culture clash - the Americans are here just to appeal to Americans but not much thought has been put into it. Here the Americans are the sticklers for the rules and the Brits are incompetent. 

There's a series of unfunny adventures - though I did smile when they hired dancers from the follies berges. The film never seems to quite know how to pitch its tone. It really needed to be about jolly japes from the youngsters but then they distort it by casting More and having to give him screen time. And his romance with O'Brien is underwhelming. He didn't have much luck with his American co-stars.

There's nice colour photography and location work in the south of France. The film throws in some old school racism with the navy having to rescue a captured American from a fictitious town - I don't mind the idea, but it's dumbly played here, with the Brits being hugely incompetent and More unrealistically saving the day. Mischa Auer plays a double role. 

This is one of those early 60s British comedies which still pretended it was the 60s eg A Pair of Briefs.

The best bit is the cameo from Dirk Bogarde as Simon Sparrow. He offers such a jolt of charisma and professionalism that he makes you wish that Bogarde and More had been reunited on a project. Or More had taken over the Doctor role when Bogarde didn't want to do it.

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

 Probably Rank's best comedy even if at heart it's an Ealing comedy - Henry Cornelius had left that studio. William Rose is the MVP here, with a very funny script. There's too much whining from Dinah Sheridan admittedly - she's fine, the right, age, just a whinger. John Gregson is charming in his knockabout way. Both are overshone by Kenneth More and Kay Kendall, who shine as the smug, pleased, bumptuous Ambrose and the leggy, trumpet playing model.

I know it was accidental this film was so good but it does work. The cast, the concept, the footage of the chats while driving the cars (i.e no back projection), the clever scripting of the final race (which takes up over half an hour), the music, the colour. Kendall has a very funny drunk scene playing the trumpet, there's nice support cast.

The four protagonists things works too. Like it did for Gone with the Wind and the Gainsborough melodramas. A good couple and a bad couple. Here, because it's comedy, the "badness" is muted - but More and Kendall are different, a lot more flashy. Why didn't they use this method more? I know Gainsborough changed it, foolishly. Maybe they didn't understand it.

Movie review - "The Raven" (1963) ***1/2 (rewatching)

 Put this on for some comfort food. Marvellous three old stars, Lorre, Price and Karloff, plus two new ones, Hazel Court and Jack Nicholson.  Olive Sturgess is sweet as Price's daughter. Final magic duel underwhelming.

Book review - Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (2017)

 Fantastic story. I got so nervous reading it the crimes were so hideous I admit I googled the ending to check it wasn't going to be another American genocide with no justice. Took a while for it to kick in because characters kept being introduced and killed. I'd never heard of this story. Great yarn. Moving.

Play review - "The Deep Blue Sea" by Terence Rattigan

 Wonderful play, Rattigan at his peak, exploring an area he knows well - the passionate versus the respectible. Hesther, she of the high sex drive, as married low sex drive Bill Collyer, and thrown it all away to run of with high sex drive Freddie Page, who doesn't really love her. There is a neighbour, Mr Miller, a former doctor struck off for an unmentioned scandal, possibly homosexuality.

Rattigan writes with a great deal of warmth and empathy for all his characters, even Freddie. He depicts the shabby world with its bookies, and seen it all landlady, with tremendous insight. It's great theatre with its cramped setting. The incompetence of the Vivien Leigh film version annoys me after reading this.

Movie review - "The Comedy Man" (1963) ***

 At its heart this is a Tv play but a very good one about a struggling actor. Well, I mean it's about a struggling actor which isn't that interesting but it does capture the life - the humiliation, boozing, jealousy, waiting, rejection, camaraderie, loneliness, compromises.

He has a successful friend (Edmund Purdom!), a fuck buddy (Billie Whitelaw), a young woman (Angela Douglas) who sleeps with him but then goes for his agent (Denis Price), an old colleague (Cecil Parker),

There's a party where two blokes dance - that's quite striking. (They're all listening to Chubby Checker).

Written by Aussie Peter Yeldham.

Play review - "Private Lives" by Noel Coward (1930)

 Fun high concept comedy of remarriage about a divorced couple who run into each other on their new honeymoons - famous written in four days. A couple of gags maybe wouldn't fly (eg about a stillborn child, hitting people) but it is witty, and if it's about a couple in a self destructive relationship, that gives it subtext but also everyone is rich and upper class so it doesn't matter.

Play review - "Blithe Spirit" by Noel Coward

 Tight, bright, funny. One of Coward's best. Simple idea - medium brings back dead wife of novelist, who is jealous of new wife. Lots of fun. Actor proof.

MoviMovie review - "Some People" (1962) **

 Kenneth More's top billed byt the film is really a film about teens including Ray Brooks (familiar face) and David Hemmings who are sort of teddy boys in Bristol who wind up at a club. They play some instruments, sing songs only it's not really a musical. More is the local... choirmaster I think, who helps the kids. A little. His daughter Angela Douglas falls for Hemmings. More and Douglas started an affair during filming.

More looks old in this film, wearing a cardigan and sipping tea and playing the dad of a grown daughter. He was old. Clive Donner directed. The colour photography is lovely and it was all shot on location in Bristol. Everyone donated their fees because it was for the Duke of Edinburgh scheme which I associate with camping and orienteering but there's none of that here.

It's not bad. Like a social realist version of a Cliff Richard movie.

Movie review - "Next to No Time" (1958) **

 The last film from Henry Cornelius who had a big hit with Kenneth More in Genevieve but can't do it here. The basic idea isn't very good - a shy engineer discovers that after a certain time of day he's capable of being bold - but it has potential. A worm turns story, okay that can work - I mean what is Superman I guess, if not that. Cinderella.

But they don't really exploit that angle. And it's sunk bu casting. Kenneth More is naturally warm, and amicable - you never believe him to be socially awkward so when he "loosens up" there's no real change, It's just like he's had a few drinks. 

This really needed someone more obviously shy like Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers or Norman Wisdom. Or you could do it with a girl.

He befriends an American star on the liner and in that role they miscast Betsy Drake, who is nice and pretty but just seems to be nice and pretty. Someone more obviously "starry" would've been better. I think they should've reteamed More with Jayne Mansfield, that worked well in Sheriff of Fractured Jaw but surely there were other girls available. Diana Dors would've been great, even if they wanted an American. Mamie Van Doren.

And why not romance? They give him a girlfriend at home - boring. Why not make him single and have him romance a girl?

Nicely shot by Freddie Francis and fun turns from people like Sid James. I enjoyed it being set on an ocean liner.

But it's not funny. Miscast.

Movie review - "The Greenage Summer" (1961) ***

 Interesting Lewis Gilbert directed drama with pretty French locations. Part of the 1950s and 1960s British genre of young person falls in love with/comes under the influence of a criminal that started I guess with The Fallen Idol and Oliver Twist. This and Tiger Bay and Whistle Down the Wind were female versions. Here the girl is Susannah York in an eye catching early role. Her mum is sick on holiday so she's in charge of her two siblings, one played by Jane Asher. She becomes infatuated with the dashing boyfriend (Kenneth More) of the woman running the hotel.

Gilbert felt More's role needed someone more handsome like Dirk Bogarde. I think he's right - Bogarde or someone like Michael Craig or a French actor like Alan Delon. Still, it's interesting to see More in this sort of role. He can handle the change from cheery chap to someone with a darker side. He's not quite well cast but he is an amiable star. And he doesn't have a lechery sex vibe - even when he kisses York at the end, because he's kind of sexless it's not as dodgy as if say Michael Craig had done it.

The story is simple but logically thought out - his bond with the kids, the reveal that the guy has a past.

British box office 1969

 

Daily Tele 30 Dec 1969

British box office 1961

 

Guardian 21 June 1962

Movie review - "The Deep Blue Sea" (1955) **

 I can see why Alex Korda thought Vivien Leigh would be ideal in the lead. She'd just won an Oscar playing a woman who goes crazy in part due to her lust for a younger man, in real life she had a breakdown over her love for Peter Finch despite being married to Laurence Olivier. She was a big star.

And yet... She doesn't work here. Kenneth More felt she was too pretty. Or at least was once pretty. I don't think that's the issue so much as she simply didn't nail the role. I didn't believe her. She has no chemistry with More.  She didn't really act needy. Anatole Litvak didn't nail it. I kept trying to imagine it with Laurence Olivier and Peter Finch - that could've worked as a film. But it's not the story. The Deep Blue Sea is basically about a woman who falls in love for the first time only thing is she's married and the object of her affection is not her husband.

Would Olivia de Havilland have done better? It's all very well to say "get Peggy Ashcroft" but I understand they needed a star. I think Korda only kept on Kenneth More because he had More under contract.

CinemaScope doesn't help but I'm not sure that's the fault as much as opening it up - setting scenes at air shows, and bars and ski resorts. Black and white Cinema Scope using the cramped world of the apartments would've been fine.

Emlyn William doesn't quite work as the husband, nor does Eric Portman as the man in the building.  It's all a bit... off.

Movie review - "Raising a Riot" (1955) **

 A big hit in Britain. This was attributed to Kenneth More at his popular peak but I think the central concept played a part - man raising three kids without his partner - hahahah. Men raising kids was a surefire formula for many years eg Three Men and a Baby, Kindergarten Cop, Three Godfathers.

It is amiable. There is colour, cute kids, American neighbours, a cute house (a windmill), a girl flirts with More (might've been a better film to make him widowed and have a romance),  a little bit of feminism with More's speech at the end about the job women do. It was directed  by a woman, Wendy Toye.

British box office 1962

 Kinematograph Weekly

British box office 1963

 ——The Box-Office Winners of 1964———Top Ten General Releases- For Kine Weekly see here

*GOLDFINGER—United Artists 
*A HARD DAY’S NIGHT—United Artists 
*ZULU—Paramount 
*A STITCH IN TIME—Rank 
*WONDERFUL LIFE—Warner- Pathe 
*THE PINK PANTHER—United Artists 
*THE LONG SHIPS—BLC-Columbia 
*MARNIE—Rank-UIl 
*THE SWORD IN THE STONE— Disney 
*633 SQUADRON —United Artists 

Book review - "Notes on a Life" by Eleanor Coppola (2008)

 Can't help but be interesting and there's some great stuff in here. Eleanor's feelings about being so overshone in her own family (by Francis and then Sofia), the death of Gino and her on going grief. Life can be pretty good when you're married to a superstar director - holidays with George Lucas in the West Indies, being invited to Brazil to help their country with their film industry, dinner with Gary Oldman and Tony Hopkins while making Dracula where they mimicked other actors, the tale of Godfather Three. Francis is always whining about being an artist versus commerce.

There are glimpses of sections where I was dying to know more - her jealousy when Francis flirted with another woman, references to their old financial troubles. So while the book has fantastic stuff I was always wanting more - it's like a meal that's not satisfactory.

Book review - "Steven Spielberg and Duel" by Steven Awalt

 Duel helped launch Steven Spielberg and obviously it's a classic. I'm not sure there's quite enough material in here for a book. It covers the incident that led to Matheson's story, the scripting, hiring Spielberg, the making of the film. Problem is, because it was a Universal telemovie everything was very well run, it was all quite smooth. There was no drama like say Jaws.

Maybe this book should've expanded to explore all of Spielberg's telemovie work. It's a solid book, mind, the writer has done a good job, I'm just not sure the subject matter sustains.

Movie review - "Pepe" (1960) **

Cantiflas was a huge star in Mexico who had a choice support part in Around the World in 80 Days so George Sidney and Columbia gave him his own vehicle and they filled it full of stars.

Cantiflas is in Mexico with his beloved horse. The horse is sold to filmmaker Dan Dailey while Edward G. Robinson and Greer Garson as themselves look on. Ernie Kovacs is an immigration official. William Demarest is a studio guard. Zsa Zsa Gabor enters the studio. So does Bing Crosby who sings 'South of the Border' with the star.

He befriends Shirley Jones. Jay North as Dennis the Menace attacks him. There's Charles Coburn getting struck in the head with a slingshot pulled by Billie Burke. Jack Lemmon appears in his Some Like It Hot drag outfit. Cantiflas goes to a nightclug and sees Bobby Darin sing and Michael Callan dance - its' a good number, Callan, some other guy and Shirley Jones, ending with the two guys having a West Side Story knife fight.

Then there's this agonisingly dull subplot begins about Jones wanting to be a movie star but also being bitter and not wanting Dailey to shag her, and Dailey being a drunk over the hill producer trying to get up a film involving Pepe's horse or something. It's all simple yet confusing which is an achievement.

Cantiflas follows Dailey to Las Vegas, where he meets the Rat Pack (Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford and Richard Conte in one scene, then Sammy Davis Jnr, then Sinatra). The whole movie set in Vegas would've been a better idea. Cesar Romero is at a slot machine looking like he's trying to pick up. He banters with Jimmy Durante.

There's a way out number where Dailey hallucinates a dance number with a tiny Cantiflas and Debbie Reynolds clambering around giant pencils and a telephone and another prop to the music 'Tequila'. Then the film starts and Dailey, Jones and Cantiflas go see Maurice Chevalier in concert. There's a comic bit where Cantiflas visits Janet Leigh at home she thinks she's someone else, husband Tony Curtis becomes involved.

Then Cantiflas is in love with Jones but she falls for Dailey. She's almost twenty years younger than Dailey and looks it.  There's a weird scene where Robinson declares Dailey's love for Jones while Dailey looks on. So we don't get a confrontation between the three.

There's a lot, as in a lot, of jokes about Cantiflas calling the horse his "son". A lot of scenes of Cantiflas being lucky - he wins at the casino, Novak pays for his engagement ring.

The film is fascinating for its oddness - an all star vaudeville act style film built around a Mexican star. Why not put some effort into the story?

An odd duck. Has a fascination.

Book review - "The Delinquents" by Criena Rohan (1962)

 Lovely book. A romance between two young kids - Brownie, whose muscular young body is frequently described by Rohan, a Lola, a Eurasian. They get together in Bunaberg, she gets knocked up, trouble ensues. His dad is not around her mother shags her boarders who punch Brownie. Lola's mum is a drunk. It is romantic but the world is harsh - I loved the little cameos of people like cops, abortion nurses (side descriptions like the nurse not telling Lola that it was a three month old baby put in an incinerator, a cop who felt sad for her, a welfare mother who loved her power). The mum is well described, as is the picture of Brisbane (its not a loving portrayl - bleak, hot and bitchy, full of police raids, and tsk-tsking over bodgies).

I was surprised to find myself agreeing with some changes from the film adaptation. Adopting Mavis' kid was a more upbeat finale to tie in with the wedding. Although I did like the heartbreak of saying goobye to the kid.

They should film this properly.

Book review - "William Walker's Wars. How One Man's Private American Army Tried to Conquer Mexico, Nicaragua, and Honduras" By Scott Martelle

 Walker is a fascinating character. One of those Americans who went out and tried to set up their own empire. It was a big thing in the nineteenth century. This is a very thorough look at his career - childhood, being a writer in San Francisco, attempt to set up a Republic in Sonora, then in Nicaragua, then Honduras. John Milius would've been the perfect person to write a film about him - at least in the 70s before Milius started treating himself too seriously.

Play review - "Hay Fever" by Noel Coward (1925)

 Early Coward work based on Laurette Taylor's family. A bunch of witty types yelp at each other. Good fun if well cast and you're in the mood. As Coward himself pointed out no real plot or funny lines it's all attitude.

Movie review - "Little Mermaid Live!" (2019) **1/2

 Scenes from the film intercut with live performances. Vanessa Hudgens is ideal in the title role and Queen Latifah fun as Ursula. It's fun to see kids having a good time in the audience.

Movie review - "The Little Mermaid" (1989) ***

 The film that brought back Disney, along with The Great Mouse Detective. Fun songs and humour, lots of camp (Ursula is like a drag queen - she was based on Divine), pleasing animation, dodgy story telling (Ariel is sixteen and a moron)

Play review - "Fallen Angels" by Noel Coward (1925)

 Not one of Coward's better known early plays, at least I don't think so. Again, light on plot but great star roles. Two married women note that a hunky Frenchie they both shagged back in the day is back in town and are worried they'll want to shag him again. Even if it is a case of a man writing women as gay men the expression of female desire is different. If the girls don't go through with it, it is implied at the end that they might which is fun.

I listened to a radio version of this starring Annette Bening who was typically excellent.

Movie review - "Xanadu" (1980) **

 I've read this was meant to be a remake of Down to Earth - that would've been fine. The script here is hopelessly and needlessly confusing. Just needed to be simple.She's a Goddess on Earth, brightens Michael Beck's life... But they even stuff that up. (He's painting album covers - sorry but that's not a cool job). Too many random ideas - 1940s! Roller skates! Painting! Night club! Keep it simple.

I once joked this is a great "yes and..." movie. Like they kept coming up with ideas and going "yes and..." It's bonkers-ness has led to a cult. That and the music. Olivia Newton John is charming with that million dollar smile. It's a shame she didn't do other musicals at her peak. I guess there was nothing much else on except Can't Stop the Music. She wouldn't have suited Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.  Maybe Annie. 

Made by guys who specialised in action films - Lawrence Gordon, Joel Silver. What a mess. Great music. And you can have fun.

Movie review - "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2" (2011) **** (warning spoilers)

 Finally it's over. An exciting two hour movie ruthlessly dragged out over two installments, there are some great sequences, like breaking int the Ministry of Magic, the final battle, the death of Snape, and fake death of Harry. It all comes together satisfactorily.

Movie review - "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part One" (2010) *** (warning: spoilers)

 This gets off to a flying start with Harry on the run, and Voldemort murdering a captured teacher in front of his cronies. Then it slows down and becomes a trudge - 149 minutes! For a part one!

Cheaper than the previous one because a lot of it is our trio strolling through the Scottish countryside. There's more Hermoine and Ron in this and a bit of  a love triangle which sparks things up even if it's a fake love triangle because Ron is drugged. The plot has them chasing a Thing then they find out there's other Things they need to stop a Thing happening.

Some lively moments: the opening, every time Helena Bonham Carter is on screen, the death of  Dobbie (usually annoying but goes out in a blaze of glory), some action sequences.

Movie review - "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" (2009) *** (warning: spoilers)

 Cripes. This was a hard slog at two and a half hours. It's Dumbledore heavy and it really hit me how much more fun Richard Harris would've been than Michael Gambon. There's maybe half an hour of decent material here - Helena Bonham Carter leading an attack at the Weasley house and then at the climax. The rest is a bit of a trudge.

Ron and Hermoine are sidelined, especially Hermoine who just hangs around and moons about Ron. Harry is with Ginny who is so dull. I get the feeling Rowling by now was just coasting towards her Harry maingame and didn't care. For instance there's a terrific moral dilemma for Draco, the son of a baddie, promised to baddies who doesn't necessarily want to be bad, but it's basically skimmed over. I did like Alan Rickman, the goodie who seemed to be a baddie becoming a baddie.

David Yates' direction is competent, and I know dealing with these machines is like piloting a beast, but he doesn't seem able to extract emotion out of stuff even the death of Dumbledore. Maybe he can if you've read the books, because then you've got the memory of the books.

Ways to improve Grease 2 (more thoughts on this)

Opening number great. Introduing characters great. Think it was fine to have a cool girl and goody two shoes guy. That combination is fine. 'Cool Rider' fine. Pretending to be a cool rider a little unrealistic, but sure, fine.

Main issues:

- Michael is too separate. While Sandy is part of the girls (and thus the world) straight away Michael isn't. They should have bought Michael into the T-birds orbit early. He should be in the bowling number. He could've arrived at the bowling arcade in time to join in, or been friends with the nerds. 'Reproduction' should have been Michael's song. Tab Hunter great but Michael should have taught the class.

- They emasculate the T Birds. Danny and Knickie were genuinely tough. When Balmudo turns up the T birds here are all clearly scared, made into a joke - wearing jackets over gym gear. When he appears at the bowling they run away. If they're no threat why would Michael want to join the T Birds? Why would the Pink Ladies back them? Why would Michael fear them? They destroyed character for a gag. Bad mistake. Johnny and Goose/Louis should've been genuinely tough.

- They bring Johnny and Paulette together too soon. Johnny should be more into Stephanie and so is more of a threat to Michael. As it is he hooks up with Paulette straight away but still moons over Stephanie which is like real life  but unsatisfactory drama. Still have Paulette and johnny get together but hold it off. 

- Too many songs have nothing to do with story. 'Let's Do It for Our Country' is fun but there's no story point. Ditto 'Prowlin' and 'Reproduction'. Compare Grease, songs went to story ('Beauty School Drop Out', 'Grease Lightning') or at least emotion ('Worse Things I can Do', 'Sandy', 'Hopelessly Devoted').

So. How to fix.

- Put Michael with some nerds. This gets him in bowling number and 'Reproduction'. These can be songs in the Michael-Stephanie arc.

- Make Johnny tougher. And another T bird - Louis.

- Pull back on Johnny-Paulette, don't put them together yet.

Movie review - "The Eddy Duchin Story" (1956) ****

 My grandmother loved this movie, with its combination of music, Tyrone Power, big screen gloss and melodrama. Power looks good - it's weird to think he was only three years away from dying of a heart attack. Duchin's life is dramatically strong - plucky upstart, musician who climbs to top, rich wife who died tragically, he recovers and finds love again, then dies tragically himself.

This is done with taste, and skill. Power has worked his tail off to learn piano. He brings the charisma - sensitivity, handsomeness, etc. Novak looks great but isn't very good - she struggled when playing a nice person who wasn't needy and chronically insecure. James Whitmore has the thankless William Demarest role of exposition friend.

Aussies will get a kick out of Victoria Shaw as Duchin's second wife. She's meant to be British but the old Aussie accent sneaks in. She's quite good. Never had a big career, but had a decent one.

Beautiful wide screen shots of New York. Lovely tunes. Some effective scenes such as Novak on her death bed, Power playing on a piano in a bombed out area to a little kid who gives him a hug (hokey but there were such kids, whose family was probably wiped out, looking for happiness), Novak and Power in the rain in Central Park.

The finale where Power has to tell his son he's dying and they play the piano together is very powerful even if the kid isn't the best actor.

One of director George Sidney's best movies.

Movie review - "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (2007) ***

 Harry in trouble - joins a secret society Bulldog Drummond style. JK Rowling attacks tabloids who were presumably giving her a hard time. Imelda Staunton is great fun. Hermoine and Ron don't have much to do. Helena Bonham Carter steals the show in what is admittedly the flashiest role. Harry kisses some girl then she sort of vanishes.

Movie review - "Pal Joey" (1957) ***

 I haven't seen the original,am prepared to believe it's a classic, this version seems like a solid star vehicle for three talents - anti hero womaniser who is really a hero (he's nice to a cat), sings at a club, has to deal with a sort of flat mate (Kim Novak) and an old flame (Rita Hayworth).

Both Hayworth and Novak are ideally cast - Hayworth as the Woman from the Past (eg Gilda) and Novak as a gorgeous not too bright thing whose looks mask her insecurity and has terrible taste in men (eg Picnic, Vertigo). Sinatra is perfectly cast too as the heel. He has some great tunes to sing like 'The Lady is a Tramp'. Novak works well. Hayworth had lost her zing by now. She seems flat. Still looks good.

Watching this it hit me. I don't really like Frank Sinatra. I respect his talent - he can act and sing. But I don't like to be around him. I'm sure he'll live.