John Derek Top Ten

 I'll stick to his work as an actor. Here we go:

1. The Flesh is Weak - Derek effectively cast against type as a pimp in a decent British thriller

2. The Adventures of Haji Baba - fun Eastern with bright colour and action

3. The Outcast - tough William Whitney Western with Derek as a more rugged hero than usual, full of action

4. The Last Posse - surprisingly downbeat, gripping Western with Derek and Brod Crawford

5. Saturday's Hero - Derek quite effective as a champion colleage athlete in a film that takes risks and is consistently interesting

6. The Ten Commandments - big glossy blockbuster but smart, Derek as Joshua

7. All the King's Men - Derek is effective in a small role as Crawford's weak son

8. Knock on any Door - decent film though a better actor than Derek (like say Tony Curtis) would've made this sing

9 Once Before I Die - Derek starred and directed with Ursula Andress, an interesting movie

10. Prince of Pirates - another fun swashbuckler

Play review - "Lazy in the Sun" by Max Afford

 More serious Afford work (he was better known for mysteries) - an English woman arrives in post war Australia and has Thoughts on how spoilt and rich we were (to be fair she was tortured by the Gestaspo - she really should have been Italian, I don't think it happened that much to the Brits). She is shown otherwise by an Aussie who is blinded. Polemical but interesting in its discussion of where Australia sits in the world.

Movie review - "The Fury" (1978) *** (warning: spoilers)

 I didn't know much about this De Pala film apart from the fact that someone exploded at the end. It's quite a fun thriller giving Kirk Douglas a good late-career virile man performance as a CIA agent looking for his son Andrew Stevens. Stevens has telekenesis and has wound up at school for the gifted - I think this was after Xavier's school in X Men. It's run by Charles Durning but people behind the scenes are creepy John Cassavetes and Fiona Lewis, both excellent.

It's a very well acted movie - there's also Dennis Franz and M Emmett Walsh with hair, Carrie Snogress as Douglas' girlfriend, and Amy Irving heading the other key plot, a girl who has psychic powers.

Beautiful John Williams score, and unexpected finale with Stevens plunging to his death and a distraught Douglas then killing himself. There are riffs to Carrie - Irving, a teen who has psychic powers - and some unexpected comedy when Arabs are killed via Stevens at a fun fair.

Robert Shaw Top Ten

 1) From Russia with Love - still an all time great Bond equal, love the lower class resentment

2) Jaws - still an all time great crusty sea captain who is an expert that gets eaten

3) The Sting - required to be an idiot but very imposing and scary

4) The Caretaker - high class shabbiness doing Pinter

5) Robin and Marian - splendid performance in a very well acted film

6) Sea Fury - makes a mark as a scowly sailor - up against the scowly king Stanley Baker

7) The Birthday Party - more Pinter, also excellent

8) Black Sunday - a kick ass Israeli secret service agent - a mysteriously non popular movie

9) Man for All Seasons - just for something different

10) Young Winston - the best part, yes, but he's also very good

Actors Who Gave Career High Performances in Hitchcock Films

 1. Barry Foster in Frenzy

2. Tippi Hedren in Marnie

3. Janet Leigh and Tony Perkins in Psycho

4. Cary Grant in North by Northwest (proviso: Grant's best performance as "Cary Grant")

5. James Stewart and Kim Novak in Vertigo

6. Grace Kelly in all her Hitchcock films (better than The Country Girl)

7. Robert Walker in Strangers on a Train

8. Farley Granger in Rope

9. Ingrid Bergman in Notorious

10. Joseph Cotten in Shadow of a Doubt

11. Joan Fontaine and Judith Anderson in Rebecca

12. Dame May Whitty in The Lady Vanishes

13. Robert Donat in The 39 Steps (his best "film star" performance)

14. Ivor Novello in The Lodger

15. Tallulah Bankhead in Lifeboat

Book review - "George Brent - Ireland's Gift to Hollywood and Its Leading Ladies" by Scott O'Brien

 A book about George Brent? Well, why not? Brent is famous for not being famous, not really, but he had an amazing career. At least twenty years as a leading man, which is not bad for someone who was never a top star, though he had his chances. He was good looking, could act, was a man,.. all those things helped. His ace in the hole was though he was an ideal leading man for the ladies - and that was needed in the 30s and 40s.  Brent would've struggled in the 60s and 70s.

It's harder to be a good leading man than it looks - you have to support, not over shadow, but also hold your own (Robert Cummings could do it - like Brent he struggled as a solo star).

O'Brien does a worthy job on Brent, who to be honest isn't that interesting. He did some interesting things - worked as a messenger boy for the IRA during the Civil War (he's Irish), slept with a lot of famous women (Ann Sheridan, Ruth Chatterton, Bette Davis, Greta Garbo, Kay Francis), flew planes - but wasnt that interesting a person. A loner, moody, a whinger. He was lucky. It wasn't easy to break in as ana actor but easier than for most - he got a long run relatively early in Abbey's Irish Rose on stage, and then when sound films came in after some more door knocking got long term contracts. His big break was Ruth Chatterton catching a glimpse and wanting to grab some of that... so he was cast as her leading man, and carved out that niche.

Brent was a better actor than I recall and had the knack of appearing in a decent film every few years - Dark Victory, The Keyhole, Rains Came, Spiral Staircase. Even his Hammer flick with Diana Dors, The Last Page is worth a look.

Brent had amibitions to do other things - ran his owns stock company, bred horses (did well at this), invested in Hawaii. Aussie readers will find particularly interesting his marriage to Constance Worth aka Jocelyn Howarth star of Squatter's Daughter. That didn't end well nor did most of his marriages but he got it right towards the end. Fascinating weird relationship with Jane Powell (she had a crush on him, later he proposed to her). I love that Brent had a nose job.

I'll admit I didn't really like Brent that much as an actor and not as a person but it was great O'Brien wrote this book.

Movie review - "Weekend at the Waldorf" (1945) **

 MGM remake Grand Hotel just for the hell of it using a lesser number of stars - Ginger Rogers, Walter Pigeon, Lana Turner, Van Johnson, Edward Arnold.

Pidgeon isn't convincing as a tired war corresponent, the Clark Gable-ish part. Edward Arnold is more at home as a dodgy businessman. Ginger Rogers isn't convincing as a movie star though Van Johnson suits the aw gee dying GI.

Thinking about it the film casts its stars wrong. Turner should've been the movie star - she was younger than Rogers but she would've suited playing a lonely movie star; Rogers was a star of course but her persona is too perky. She would've been fine playing a poor girl who works as a secretary and is lured into becoming Arnold's mistress. (This story line would've been better incidentally if Ames had played Arnold's part, someone slimmer and more attractive). Johnson would've better better as the journo and Walter Pidgeon better as the ill soldier. THey would've had to adjust for the character's ages.

As it is it's annoying. I didn't enjoy the fake romance of Pidgeon and Rogers, it was a drag, or the romance between Johnson and Turner. Like many MGM films there's a subplot about someone giving up wealth for Americana - Turner faced with being a Park Avenue mistress versus Johnson's outdoor cookin' hometown. Actually the Rogers-Pidgeon romance is about that too - give up your freedom for marriage.

I'll admit - if you are a massive Pidgeon and Rogers fan you'll enjoy this more than I did. I found Pidgeon charmless, and Rogers trying too hard. Turner was trying her best but she's no fun.

People pop up in support like Leon Ames, Xavier Cugat and Robert Benchley. This was MGM at its peak I guess... in a few years it would lose money, panic, appoint Dore Schary, and it would unravel. I didn't really like this movie that much though. Songs and colour would have helped.

There is some fun reflecting on the rumours about Johnson and Pidgeon and wondering if they went cruising, while Turner shagged whoever and Rogers espoused anti Communism. Keenan Wynn, who gave up his wife to Johnson to avoid scandal, is in it.

Radio review - "The Consulting Room" by Max Afford (warning: spoilers)

 Afford was famed for this thrillers but this is something different - the tale of a young married couple who check into a doctor's surgery and realise they are dead after having killed themselves. A variation on Outward Bound and all those afterlife plays but very effective. Afford was a good writer. He was very stong on married couples. And it has a point - about the importance of living. (Though is she able to have a kid with a terminal illness.)

Movie review - "Obsession" (1976) ***

 Lots of great stuff here - Bernard Herrmann doing a final score, lush camera moves, John Lithgow hamming it up with a Southern accent, knowing this was how Cliff Robertson formed a relationship with Columbia/Begelman, the riff on Vertigo. There was never a more perfect Hithcock heroine - well, brown hair aside - than Genevieve Bujold.

I didn't like it as much. Not much story. I got it. They toned down the incest but it's still there. I'm not opposed to it. Cliff Robertson maybe not quite right. I like him normally but am inclined to agree with De Palma - it needed someone else more Byronic. Who was a 70s James Mason? Mason presumably too old. 

AlsoRobertson killing Lithgow feels perfunctory. Bujold remains a cypher. I got it, I understand the film. Just didn't click. I'll give it three stars any way.

 

Movie review - "Sisters" (1972) ***1/2

 I was in the mood for a good movie and this was it. Brian de Palma's initial exercise into Hitchcockery is really good. Bernard Hermman score, decent script - which De Palma ripped off himself a bunch of times - some very good actors, plucky lead from Jennifer Salt and showy work from Margot Kidder. Charles Durning (private investigator), Dolph Sweet (cop) pop up as cops.

I enjoyed the opening Candid Camera segment, Kidder's beauty, Salt's feminist heroine (who wrote a police bagging article so the cops don't like her), Durning's turn as an investigator, Salt's mum, the style, the feel. 

Top Ten Man from Snowy River Knock Offs

 Man from Snowy River was a hit in 1982 leading to...

1. Cool Change (1985)

2. Minnamurra (1988)

3. The Winds of Jarrah (1987)

4. Bullseye (1986)

5. Man from Snowy River 2 (1988)

6. Phar Lap (1983)

7. Robbery Under Arms (1985)

8. Five Mile Creek (1984)

9. Burke and Wills (1985)

10. The Coolangatta Gold (1984) - in a way!

Movie review - "Blood Orgy of the She Devils" (1973) **

 Peak Ted V Mikels. Erratic acting, from the competent to bad Really dull blocking and framing. Some decent atmosphere. Attractive women with big hair. Fun moments.

There's a coven of witches who sacrifice people. A couple investigates. 

Fairly tame despite the screaming, and witches. Lots of chat. Some go go dancing. A few spooky bits. Bad acting. Fun in a way. Mikels couldn't direct. He could based on his first film. Wonder what happened.

Movie review - "Homecoming" (1948) **1/2

 Dore Schary hits MGM with a  very worthy, painfully liberal look at a Man at War, who is Greedy for Money and Ambitious and Won't Help the Nice Doctor Who Looks After the Poor but when in Europe falls for a nurse Whose Husband Died in China and Whose Child Died and who is a Good Person and he becomes a Good Person even though before the war he was a doctor and...

Oh, look, it's handsomely done. Made with care.  It's got stars. Clark Gable, looking old and tired. Lana Turner, who is excellent, even if they keep saying her character's name again. and again and again (we get it "snapshot" is a cute name, we get it).

Anne Baxter is the wife - I assume they wanted Turner for that part but the switch works. John Hodiak is the noble doctor.

Some scenes threaten to be good old trashy fun. -Turner and Gable so for a swim (he's probably too old for this to be fun even if she isn't), Gladys Cooper was Baxter's mother warning her daughter that hubby will root the wife. It doesn't go there though the essential dramatic situation is "will Gable hook up with Turner".

At the end it's kind of touching that Gable confesses all although you laugh when you see Baxter's face of relief that Turner is dead (died off screen... a waste of a good scene).

Hodiak's part feels very underwritten. I kept waiting for him to sleep with Baxter, or die, or turn up in the war, or be played by an elder actor (like why didn't he swap parts with Ray Collins).

Look not a bad movie. Just overly decent.

Book review - "John Gilbert The Last of the Silent Film Stars" by Eve Golden

 Engaging bio of Gilbert, who is well known among buffs for the career implosion that followed the coming of sound. By all accounts he was a charming, nice person - though not the most stable romantic partner. Golden suggests he was manic depressive, which seems to fit. He would fall in love with all his co stars which I'm sure is fine if they were into it but he would've been a sex pest had they not been.

Gilbert's rise was relatively rapid though no doubt it didn't feel that way at the time. He was a show biz baby, travelling circuit... wound up in Hollywood, plugged away for a few years. Then was championed by Irvin Thalberg at MGM who put him in a series of movies, some very well remembered (especially the Garbo vehicles), all successful.

Then came sound... and the best bit of this book (the rest is good, incidentally, just drama wise this is where the meat is). While some stars easily segued, Gilbert struggled. His voice was fine but his films were bad - flowery dialogue, clunk direction. These things happen, and Gilbert was better positioned than most to bounce back - he wasn't a foreigner, had some stage training, also could have gone into action movies. But his salary was huge so MGM couldn't afford to co star him with anyone, he didn't get along with Louis B Mayer so it's unlikely Mayer would've wanted to do him any favours.

To say "it was a conspiracy" is to let Gilbert off the hook. He was a grown man. He should've known he needed co stars, better properties, better directors. People attack Mayer because Mayer thrived while Gilbert went under.

He still could've come back - he did with Queen Christina but couldn't exploit that (re-signed with MGM when he shouldn't), then got another chance a role in Desire with his (and everyone's) girlfriend Marlene Dietric but had a heart attack (a follow up one would kill him)... because he was a big boozer. It's still moving but it was his own fault. A lousy husband and dad, seems like a lot of fun, a good actor, a great story well told in this book.

Movie review - 'The Doll Squad" (1973) **

 A better known Ted V Mikels film, with its great title, some semi names-  Tura Satana, Michael Ansara, Francine York, Anthony Eisley - funky credit squence and ahead of the curve concept: all girl fighting team.

There's some splendid legs and hair on display. Mikels actually isn't much of a director - the blocking and staging is poor. I get he didn't have a lot of money.

Fantastic music. Ansara good, York is fine. Never as much fun as it could be. Not well put together. Too much time on York not enough on the squad. I forgot about them at times. Some good moments.

Movie review - "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" (1971) ***

 Disney's attempt at Mary Poppins 2 worked out pretty well - another fantasy nanny looking after kids in England with a Broadway star, the Sherman brothers and Robert Stevenson. The film looks so cheap and ugly. I'm sure it had more effect if you saw it as a child. It's fine. Angela Lansbury is very good. David Tomlinson miscast - why not get Tommy Steele for this? Disney always liked him. Maybe he was busy or considered too young. And I guess The Happiest Millionaire had happened.

Songs aren't bad. Cheerful.

Book review - "A Military Life of Constantine the Great" by Ian Hughes

 Typically thorough and accessible book by Hughes. Not as much fun for me as his others because it's so military focused but also because Constantine was such a wanker, determined to take over the Empire just because and giving it to three sons who kept fighting. I guess bits were peaceful and also he was a good general?

Movie review - "Annie" (1999) **1/2

 More faithful version of the musical than the notorious (ish) John Huston version, this has excellent villains in the form of Kathy Bates, Alan Cummings and Kristen Chenoweth, but a dull Annie, Warbucks and Miss Grace. Nice tunes and dance numbers. Competent. Kids should like it.

Movie review - "The Astro Zombies" (1968) **

 TV Mikels film is great fun if watched in right spirit and small screen. Bonkers plot which is part slasher part sci fi is actually ahead of the curve. Robots go on a killing spree. Wendell Corey slurs through exposition as a sort of CIA man. John Carradine is a mad scientist. Wayne Rogers from MASH worked on it. Tura Santana gets an actual lead role (no karate, alas, but she kills some people).

Movie review - "Honky Tonk" (1941) **1/2

 This starts off as a comic Western with Clark Gable as a conman out West. It offers him up shirtless in the opening scene (and a shirtless Chill Wills too if you're in ot that sort of thing. He romances good girl Lana Turner, daughter of shonky Frank Morgan who is a fake judge, despute the gum chewing appeal of his ex Claire Trevor, with Albert Dekker (he of auto erotic asphyixiation fame) as a baddie.

This is all bright and fun. Gable is terrific in a tailor made part and Turner is lovely and natural (I think she had a natural ability but later in life she got worse when she tried to act). But as the story goes on it becomes all MGM-y i.e. it's about crushing people's spirit and turning them into dull sober mother lovers. Turner traps Gable into marriage which is fun, then he becomes rich and it gets all serious and soapy about Gable becoming rich through underhanded means, and Morgan getting all moral and shot, and Turner losing a baby and plot plot plot.

It lives up at the end when Gable kicks Dekker's arse. Gable and Turner have great chemistry both so attractive. Chill Wills is an amiable sidekick.

I just MGM didn't suck all the fun out of their films.

Jack Conway - most underrated studio director?

 It's hard to call directors underrated because the minute someone pays them attention they're kind of rated.

But Jack Conway surely has some claim for being one of the most unfamous directors of famous films. I think because he worked so long at MGM, whose directors were often dismissed (Clarence Brown, Victor Fleming). They were also dismissed because they died young too and thus missed boomer critic mythologising.

But how's this for a top ten

1) Libeled Lady (1936)

2) Red Dust Woman (1932)

3) Boom Town (1940)

4) A Tale of Two Cities (1935)

5) Tarzan and His Mate(1934)

6) The Hucksters (1947)

7) Viva Villa! (1934)

8) Too Hot to Handle (1938)

9) A Yank at Oxford (1938)

10) The Unholy Three (1930)

That's a pretty good list and they're just films I'm famililar with. The best Jean Harlow movies, the best Tarzan, some excellent Clark Gable flicks.

Movie review - Carry On#21 - "Carry On Henry" (1971) ***

 Henry VIII fits the world of Carry On so well, with all his wives, that one wonders why it took so long for the team to tackle him - presumably cost. Sid James has a great time, as do all the gang. Horny kings, little ladies having fun. Good fun.

Movie review - "Prom Night" (1980) ** (warning: spoilers)

 Iconic film because of its title and Jamie Leigh Curtis and the fact it was out of the gate so fast. It hits all the tropes - horny teens, teen event, virgin, mysterious killer, nudity. Leslie Neilsen adds some... something as Curtis' dad. Decent emotion in the finale actually as it's a brother avenging dead sister. Hilarious camp with dancing at the prom - Curtis gives her all.

Movie review - "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" (1941) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 MGM slums it with some horror, though it gives Spencer Tracy the chance to do his stuff and its set in their backlot Britain which it loved. Two macho types were behind it - John Lee Mahin and Victor Fleming.

This film is mostly for fans of the stars (and director) and the story... and also students of acting. It's interesting how Tracy challenges the role. Underplays as Jekyll. Kind of as Hyde but he still has silly make up on which is disconcerting. I didn't think it worked.

Great intensity in the scenes where Hyde torments Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner.  Like they are full on sadistic scenes I think Fleming got off on them. Also both actresses are clearly into Tracy as Jekyll - again Fleming seems into this. Bergman and Turner both look stunning. Bergman really gets into flirting with good Tracy and being scared of bad Tracy, it's a very good performance. Turner is also strong.

Beautifully shot. Ian Hunter is the dull guy who is there to shoot Jekyll dead.  Donald Crisp and C Aubrey Smith are stock British types.

Quite confronting. Bergman is raped and then strangled. Turne is attacked. (Though doesn't die.)

The film didn't quite work for me but it is interesting.

Movie review - "Johnny Eager" (1941) ***1/2

 Robert Taylor was a better actor playing more ruthless characters. He's ideal here as a gambling boss who pretends to be a taxi dirver. He falls for Lana Turner.

MGM weren't natural makers of gangster films but they could do them well especially when as here John Lee Mahin worked on the cscript.

Taylor and Turner are very good value, have tremendous chemistry. Turner is impressive - sexy, a rich girl, daughter of prosecutor Edward Arnold (quite a cynical portrait of him, he admits to being corrupt if it'll get rid of Taylor). She's clearly hot for Taylor and he's got for her. She's gorgeous. My opinion of Turner is really going up lately. Mind you I think Marvyn le Roy lets her down in that crucial scene where she kills someone for Taylor - that could've been better.

Van Heflin is Taylor's boozy, literate best friend. These characters are writers conceits - so many are boozy and they like to think they are wise. Heflinf's good in the role though. Like a lot of gangster films the story is as much a love affair between two men as a man and a woman.

Patricia Dane, who didn't have a huge career, has a decent turn as Taylor's flooze, while Glenda Farrell is showy as an ex of Taylor's who begs for help. Robert Sterling is dull as the nice guy who loves Turner.

Neat black and white photography. It wobbles a little in the last third as they try to redeem Taylor.

Movie review - "The People We Hate at the Wedding" (2022) **1/2

 Once I knew the writers wrote for Bob's Burgers I couldn't unsee it from this film - that's a very clever, funny show but the humour that works with animation doesn't quite carry. Maybe it's a directorial issue or maybe just taste. The film's a little smart arsey and annoying - I don't know how else to describe it. It relies on inappropriate rooting to get laughs, people are constantly selfish and then apologising. Even the cameos were a bit annoying (Lizzy Caplan, Tony Goldwyn). I mean, good on them, I guess. There's some funny bits like the threesome and decent heart towards the end.

Movie review - "Ziegield Girl" (1941) ****

 Fantastic example of MGM at its peak. A three girl movies where the girls are played by iconic stars each in a specifically defined role - Lana Turner as a shabby poor girl (elevator operator) who can't resist the money, Judy Garland as a super talented girl who isn't as hot as the others but is the one made for showbiz, Hedy Lamarr as the refugee.

Turner and Lamarr have controlling partners - James Stewart (adding affability and star power) as a truck driving boyfriend,  and Lamarr with her sooky violinst husband Philip Dorn. Garland isn't given a girlfriend but an actor dad whose career she helps.

Lamar's subplot looks promising when sleazty singer Tony Martin goes after her but then his wife somes along and asks for her to back off and she does and gets back with violinist Dorn. This plot needed a little more kick and for Lamar to interact with the girls. There's not enough girl interacting.

But Turner's is a lot of fun as she embraces booze, rich men (Ian Hunter, then they get sleazier - one of them is Dan Dailey), and Stewart becoomes a bootlegger. It's basically implied Turner becomes a hooker, she has a lovely final scene with Stewart then goes to see a show, and basically dies which is grand OTT wonderful MGM crap as are the production numbers.

Female writers so the women are depicted sympathetically, even the cuckolded wife, and gold digger Eve Arden, and the men are unreliable (even Stewart winds up going to prison before bouncing back). Jackei Cooper is cutely bumbling as Turner's brother - kept waiting for her to hook up with Garland but didn't happen. Paul Kelly is nicely ruthless as a stage manager and Edward Everett Horton is part of the Ziegfield organisation - two recogniseable types.

Lots of fun. Turner's film more than Garland's too which is part of its charm.

Movie review - "Roadgames" (1981) ***1/2 (re-watching)

 Put this on again just for fun. My opinion doesn't change. Terrific. Clever, Stylish. Nullabor filming worth it. Boat smash not worth it. Well acted. Needed some line to cover the fact that two Americans meet in the desert.

Dodgy last act. Problem easily fixable. They should have had the police arrest Keach, That's when everyone turns up - Shirley Cameron, etc - saying he's bad. Police are going to haul him away. He insists they go after Jamie Lee Curtis. Don't listen. He escapes and goes after them.

Grant Taylor theatre performances

 Grant Taylor is probably best remembered today (if at all) for his film appearances - Forty Thousand Horsemen, Rats of Tobruk, Captain Thunderbolt, Long John Silver.

But in the 40s through to the 60s he would've been better known in Australia for his theatre work. He did a lot of touring for JC Williamsons in things like Two of the Seasaw, Teahouse of the August Moon, Woman in a Dressing Gown and Dial M for Murder. His physical presence would have helped.

He also appeared in a few Australian plays. This was not common at the time.

These plays:

*Dark Enchantment by Max Afford

*Pirates at the Barn by Eleanor Witcombe

*Curly on the Rack by Ru Pullan

* Slaughter of St Teresa's Day by Peter Kenna

*The Bastard Country by Anthony Coburn

*Shipwreck by Douglas Stewart

*The Break by Philip Albright

Most of these were with the Trust. Still, that's not bad. Apparently he was particularly great in Bastard Country.

Movie review - "Halloween III: Season of the Witch" (1983) *** (re-watching)

 Tommy Lee Wallace does good imitation direction of John Carpenter, helped by most scenes shot at night, the isolated north California setting, the wonderful music, and the Carpenter stock company (well, Tom Atkins). 

A spooky, unsettling story, with the catchy jingle, injokes for the fans (including watching Halloween), Woody Allen's ahem muse Stacey Nelkin (as a young woman unable to resist hopping in bed with an elder man). The baddies kill a little kid in front of his parents then the parents, a nice nurse is drilled in the head - so it's bleak.

The public didn't like it, which was a shame.

Movie review - "48 Hours" (1982) ***

 Ah, look, fine. An action movie with some comedy rather than a comedy, which is why I didn't like it as a kid. Full of tropes that became very very familiar - mismatched partners, huffy police captain, psycho villains. I don't think this film invented them but did help popularise them.

Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy are electric, particularly Murphy. They seem like a cop and a crook, have gravtias. Murphy's debut is amazing. Nolte matches him well.

Annette O'Toole is lovely, warm, can act and is completely wasted. Why have her in the film? Would've been more fun to have a Murphy romance. Why doesn't she get kidnapped? Why doesn't Murphy meet her? Why doesn't she perform at the bar where they go to?

I didn't find a lot of it funny - Murphy in the redneck bar. Jokes about watermelon and use of the n word from Nolte, I know the arguments behind this. Still didn't feel fun.

Movie felt made up as it went along. That's not a compliment.

Two fantastic villains - Sonny Landham and James Remar - who both feel genuinely dangerous.

Lana Turner Top Ten

 I haven't seen that many of her films TBH but here goes

1. Postman Always Rings Twice - Turner clearly gets this gal, driven by libido, low trash - ut's terrific work

2. Peyton Place - I remember her being dreadful in this part... I'll have to rewatch it... but she provides a solid centre

3.Green Dolphin Street - Turner steps into a part that Katherine Hepburn was going to play and does well in this surprisingly enjoyable historical melodrama

4. Love Finds Andy Hardy - a very flashy part, beautiful and sexually aggressive... poor Polly!

5. The Bad and the Beautiful - Turner channels Diana Barrymore and does a very good job

6. Imitation of Life - I've got notes she was dreadful and maybe she was but it so perfectlt cast

7. The Three Musketeers - Milday's not a hard part but Turner has the beauty and charisma to make it sing

8. Johnny Eager - great value as a good girl with a taste for being bad

9. Honky Tonk - teams well with Gable in a film that turns a little too soapy but is fun

10. Ziegfield Girl -Judy Garland has the talent but Turner's got the best role, becoming famous and hitting the bottle and being all tragic

Movie review - "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946) ****

 Louis B Mayer didn't like noir but MGM did it proud. It has some gloss, sure, but there was the element of the trailer park about Lana Turner and that's well used here. She's beautiful, needy and trady - some great moments where she's honest, wanting more. John Garfield is solid, feels working class and dumb. Cecil Kellaway is tubby, bemused and dumb - surely he must expect people to kill him for his wife.

This is more faithful to the book than I'd be led to believe. It's got the other woman (Audrey Trotter), the DA, the dodgy lawyer (Hume Cronyn steals the show) the dodgy investigator, the attempt at murder that doesn't work, the one that does.

A marvel how it gets around the censor and still alludes to pre marital sex and suicide attempts. It runs almost two hours so has an epic sweep of emotion - you really go on a journey with Garfield and Turner: lust, greed, love, regret, fear, melachony, depression, acceptance.

Leon Ames' DA is annoying.

Movie review - "Christine" (1983) *** (warning: rewatching)

Carpenter took this as a job for hire but he's Carpenter at his peak and he does a good job. Mostly. I remember watching it as a young 'un and realising he didn't get the nuances of the novel. The film lacks emotional heart.

It doesn't get Keith Gordon falling in love with the car and convey about the car. Alexandra Paul is wooden. John Stockwell gives heart to his relationshp with Gordon. But the emotional pull of the piece is not as clear as the book. It's like it's going through the motions.

Stylish motions, though. Loved the bullies - the main one, his tubby sidekick who deserves death, ditto his gawky sidekick. Christine Belford is strong as mum. Robert Prosky feels a little under utlilised.

A solid King adaptation. Not top tier. I sense Carpenter missed the influence of Debra Hill on this one.

Movie review - "Hard Times" (1975) ***

 Looks beautiful. New Orleans, period detail, photography. The script is simple but effective. It's very easy for Charles Bronson, maybe. He beats everyone he fights, does get dumped by Jill Ireland but he's not that in to her. A greater threat may have helped.

Lovely acting. A family feel oddly - Bronson, James Coburn, Strother Martin, even Ireland. 

Maybe the baddies needed to kill Ireland. Or Martin. That might've given it more kick.

But a good movie.

Book review - " Mean...Moody...Magnificent! Jane Russell and the Marketing of a Hollywood Legend" by Christina Rice

 I'm glad someone did a biography of Russell, she deserved it - someone who as Rice points out is an icon despite appearing in not that many films. This isn't as much fun as Russells batshit memoirs with its Christian sacrifices but is thorough. There was lots I didn't know particularly in the later years.

Movie review - "The Fog" (1980) *** (re-watching)

 Felt like watching again just for the mood - the photography, location, John Houseman, Adrienne Barbeau. music, acting. These keep you watching. Killing the old baby sitter adds to the dread. Janet Leigh loses a husband - so the stakes are hevay. I read my old review of this my opinons haven't changed on the film.

Movie review - "Terror Train" (1981) ** (warning: spoilers)

 Slasher film set on a train without a lot of gore - it's more a thriller - with a decent budget and cast: Jamie Leigh Curtis, Ben Johnson, Hart Bochner, the magician David Copperfield (!). It was Roger Spotiswoode's first movie.

The concept of a slasher on a train can work - it did in Horror Express - but I'm not sure it does here. Maybe because part of the joy of a train movie is the cross section of people and here it's just teens. I didn't get the sense that the train was moving or that it was dangerous outside but maybe I dozed off.

It looks slick, is well acted and Copperfield's role is well integrated - he's a magician who is the main suspect. The magic stuff is different. There's a trans twist at the end which got old fast.

Movie review - "She Said" (2022) ***

 Solid account of the Weinstein case which maybe suffers from lack of star power and could have had twenty minutes or so cut out (did we need the baby scenes? husband scenes?). There's a lot of chatting on the phone, inevitable for a realistic film about journalism, and the movie doesn't have Gordon Willis, but as a story of journos painstakingly putting together a story, checking it with legal, it is effective.

(What's the equivalent at News Corp? "Oh that'll do - great!")

Builds to an appearance by Gwyneth Paltrow but doesn't show it - why not? Ashley Judd plays herself. Best moment is when Carey Mulligan tells that guy in the bar to f*ck off. Maybe a few too many moments of the leads and their kids/husbands (do we care?) and walking along with keep cups.

Book review - "Jean Gabin: The Man Who Was France" by Joseph Harriss

 Gabin's a very good actor, extremely effective in some films. Made some legendary movies especially in the late 30s, no so much after the War. He was a nepo baby in a way, in that his father was in the biz, but he worked his way up.

A decent book. Relies a lot on the work of others but some fresh stuff, like a quote from Brigitte Bardot. And it's put together in an easy to read style.

My main thing: Gabin was a wanker. A bore. Got some good movies but that maybe was more luck. Most redeeming thing was his war service - only he and Jean Pierre Aumont had good reacords on that, apparently. But he beat Marlene Dietrich and I'm sure there would've been others. He whinged. Sooked about the state of France, new directors, women. Wouldn't attend his daughter's wedding. Just an old whiny wanker.

I totally respect what he did as an actor and star and a French icon. I just got a bit sick of him.

Movie review - "Wakanda Forever: Black Panther" (2022) *** (warning: spoilers)

 Looks great. Plenty of genreic action and quips. Has novelty being more female driven. Kind of disappointed they didn't kill the main atagonist. Long. Tiring. Some fresh faces.

Book review - "Burn it to the Ground: Power, Complicity and a Call for Change" by Maureen Ryan

 Intense. Important. Author talks about herself a lot, I mean a lot (alright, they were nice to you on Friday Night Lights, we get it, and do you have to give us all your thoughts on Season X of Y show), but people do that when they're doing God's work. Some first rate investigative stuff on Sleepy Hollow and especially Lost.  The depiction of white mega senstive show runners is so consistent and true.

Movie review - "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981) ***** (rewatching)

 Not much to say extra about this just some thoughts:

* Belloq a great antagonist - smart, brave, the other side of Indi - Marvel films learned from them to have this sort of villain

* The set up, pay off is so good - so is the exposition

* Smart, smart, smart

* Skilful use of sidekicks for story, exposition, eetc - Denholm Elliot's kindly museum man, John Rhys Davies' Sullah (who gets Indy out of a few tight spots)

Play review - "I Have Been Here Before" by JP Priestley (1937) (warning spoilers)

 A time play. People go to an inn where they have been before. Married woman meets her future lover. She's allowed to go off with him which is novel. Not quite enough for a full play, needed a subplot. Better if shorter.

Movie review - "The Flying Doctor" (1936) **

 I think the original doctor was about a flying doctor. This isn't. I wonder why they did it that way. Maybe they pitched it to Charles Farrell. He's not bad. He's not the film's problem. Errol Flynn wouldn't have fixed this. it's the story. A real this happened then that happened. Farrell travels through Australia. Befriends Joe Valli. Romances Mary Maguire. Abandons her. Has more adventures - works on Sydney Harbour Bridge, watches Don Bradman bat, becomes a wrestler (!). Befriends James Raglan doctor who has this girl. Then he goes mining makes a fortune and becomes blind. Maguire turns up. 

Gosh it's weird. Like a magazine serial making it up as it went along. At heart it wants to be a women's picture but they don't know how to make it. Farrell needed a girl to accompany him on his adventures.

Fascinating though.

Book review - "They're a Weird Mob" by Nino Culotta

 Lovely. Funny. Warm. Can see why Aussies adored it - pokes fun at them but affectionate. Shows Australia to be embracing. Liked gags about unemployed radio actors hanging around. The romance is quick. Film version close to this except for romance - encounter at pub, meeting racists, meeting Italians, working for builders, builders wedding. Romance better in film except for dreadful hair scene. But the confrontation with her dad is here.

Connections between Bob Mitchum and Australia

Let's see if we can make ten...

 1. The Sundowners. Easy. Shot in Oz. Mitchum made a great Aussie.

2. Matilda. Boxing kangaroo flick.

3. Ryan's Daughter. Co starred with Australia's own Leo McKern. I'ms starting to strain now.

4. His Kind of Woman. Directed by Australia's own John Farrow. They also made Where Danger Lives. I don't want to cheat with Farrow.

Look, not a lot of connections... :)

Movie review - "The Rats of Tobruk" (1944) (re-viewing) **1/2

The good stuff is good. The photography is beautiful - gorgeous in the way so many Aussie films are. The sets are terrific - the production design, costume, etc. Looks a treat.

I liked the acting. Grant Taylor, Peter Finch and Chips Rafferty are a fine trio - Finch much better than Pat Twohill.  Full of culturally interesting touches.

A lot of the film's flaws were understandable. Such as:

* Opening scene at the homestead. You've got visuals, sheep, horses, etc. Set up Taylor and Pauline Garrick's history. Quite adult. Taylor a walking red flag. But... you could cut it out.  Doesn't impact story. Betty Bryant was integral. Not Garrick. I'm sure Chauvel discussed maybe having an Italian woman character in the siege. That would've possibly been too melodramatic for how he wanted to do it. They should've just focused on the nurse romance. I would've kept Garrick stuff but had her die. Have Taylor coming home or going to visit and she carks it. So he's got a death wish. Would've given it some point.

* No progressive story. A scene of vignettes. You need a relationship to tie it together. Love story would've been fine. Kill Garrick and have the love story between the nurse... Taylor doesn't want to love again. Finch loves the nurse. Triangle.  Problem though: they evacuated the nurses.

*Could have a rival within the camp. A Pole or Brit. They learn to respect each other. Maybe too late.

*I get desire to have comedy. But it clunks. Joe Valli alright. George Wallace not he looks so old.

*Make it clearer why the siege was important. Maybe this wasn't an issue in 1944. But surely it could have been dramatised? People preparing to evacuate Cairo or something? They could've dramatised a scene or two with the Germans, surely?

*The ending PNG sequence feels very tacked on, as it was. But apart from the photography it is memorable for one thing - when Taylor kills the Japanes soldier. They fight, he shoves the guy's head under water. Holds it there til the guy drowns. Brutal. Tough, Depicted uncompromisingly.