Movie review - "Troubled Waters" (1964) **

 British B - "C" really - is a drama that probably would be more at home as a TV play. It gives Tab Hunter a decent chance as a criminal out of prison reconnecting with his wife and daughter. Wife has a new guy who is some British drip. It's not a conventional sort of gangster film - there's no one more job, which may have added to the film's appeal. Hunter is good as a person who is a bit of a psycho and there's solid tension in the scenes when he kidnaps his kid. Zena Walker is the wife.

It probably could've done with another subplot.

TV review - "Combat! Ep 1 Season 8 - The Celebrity" (1962) **1/2

 I don't think I've ever seen an episode of Combat! though I've heard of it. This wasn't directed by Robert Altman, but Burt Kennedy, and written by Art Wallace.

The series was famous for its relative realism at the time. It seemed to be to be a stock war story but I'm probably being unfair.

Look this was fine. Tab Hinter plays a baseball star who discovers bravey. I'm sure this was groundbreaking but it seemed like a regular show on the backlot.

Movie review - "Summer of '42" (1971) ***

 I think this would've had more impact at the time. Nostalgia, first love, talk about sex. Jennifer O'Neil is perfect as a fantasy figure, a young war bride on an island understandably loved by Gary Grimes.

The boys' talk is pervt and lechy. It's awkward to watch but it's true. 

Director Robert Mulligan is a dab hand at these sensitive tales. He didn't punk out with the casting - the kids all look like kids. I loved Grimes' geeky casanova mate, Jerry Houser.

The film has the soul of a television play (small cast, simple but it works as a film because of the island setting, and it's about sex (at its heart... I guess and love).

It was a script then adapted into a novel but the novel came out before the film.

Movie review - "Enchanted Island" (1958) **

One of the last films of Alan Dwan. It's not a bad south seas story from Herman Melville - man jumps ship on island with mate, finds locals, falls for native girl (Jane Powell!), mate leaves and Andrews worries if he was eaten. This bit is solid drama.

It's a patch film. It's fun to see how drunk Andrews is (he was good at hiding it but he slurs here), Jane Powell in a black wig playing an islander, Mexico standing in for the south seas. 

It's not really a good movie but I enjoyed it.

Movie review - "The Loved One" (1965) **

 The success of Tom Jones made MGM open its chequebook for Tony Richardson who decided to film Evelyn Waugh's late 1940s novel. It's zany satire, kind of peak gay Hollywood at the time - along with Richardson there's Roddy McDowall, Charles Isherwood, Tab Hunter, John Gielgud. Liberace...  Look there's plenty of straights too. Heaps of people are in it and behind the camera - Hal Ashby was a director, Haskell Wexler shot it and co produced, John Calley co produced.

The plot has Robert Morse, going for stardom after How to Succeed in Business, arrive from England (James Coburn as immigation officer) to Los Angeles to visit his Uncle John Gielgud. Gielgud words for a Hollywood studio along with Jonathan Winters, Rod Steiger and Roddy McDowall.

Members of the British expat community include Robert Morley and Alan Napier. Funderl workers include Anajette Comer (big part), Liberace, Tab Hunter (one scene as  a funeral guide), Milton Berle and Margaret Leighton (customers).

Then the last act switches to become a film about military and launching rockets with people like Dana Andrews (officer), Winters (dual role) and a young Paul Williams.

The gears switch, the film has its head up its ass and it got more annoying as it went on. Too much screen time is devoted to people who aren't up to it, like Comer and Jonathan Winters (who plays multiple roles Peter Sellars style as Quentin Tarantino pointed out).

It's beautifully shot and I can see why it's a cult but I can also see why no one wanted to see it. Some people are spot on like Morse, Hunter, Gielgud.

Movie review - "War Gods of the Deep" (1965) **1/2 (re-watching)

 I'm watching most of Tab Hunter's oeuvre and sometimes that's a slog so I put this on again, one of his most fun films for me. I know it's not that good with silly Gill Man make up and too-long scenes of swimmimg under water, but it's entertaining. Charles Bennett movies generally have a decent structure and this one does. Its more Jules Verne than Poe. I liked the art design, the underwater world, Vincent Price hamming it up, Tab Hunter and Susan Hart as juveniles. I could've done without David Tomlinson and the duck but there's even something endearing that Louis Heyward added that.

Michael Caine Top Ten

 I can't believe I haven't done this before

1) Zulu (1963) - of course

2) Water (1985) - no one likes this film but I do

3) Educating Rita (1983) - the less flashy role but he's supberb

4) The Italian Job (1969) - I hope this doesn't make me a film bro

5) Too Late the Hero (1970) - putting this up because it's fun

6) The Man Who Would Be King (1975) - David Shipman says his performance is bad in this sorry I cant see it

7) Dressed to Kill (1981) - understated, anchors the film, should work with De Palma more

8) Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) - does good Woody

9) California Suite (1978) - goes where American stars fear to tread

10) Alfie (1966) - oh I guess so...

My favourite musical soundtracks for this century

 (haven't seen most of them)

1) Hamilton

2)Shane Warne

3) Waitress

4) The Producers

5) Hairspray

6) Matilda

7)The Last Five Years

8) The Light Stop in the Piazza

9) Avenue Q

10) Book of Mormon

Movie review - "Players" (2024) **

 This starts brightly, Gina Rodriguez is a charming rom com hero and there's potential I guess in the concept of a team of friends who work at a paper using sports plays to get mates. This idea isn't really used and the film doesn't really have anywhere to go.

More problematic is that the actors don't have chemistry - Damon Wayans Jnr seems bored, he and Rodriguez don't seem to be friends, neither do the other members of the gang. There's three guys and a girl plus another girl who joins the group... that is very New Girl, Wayans' presence emphasises this, and I think the basic idea wouuld've made a decent New Girl ep only that would've had better characters and gags.

It's amiable, and nicely shot - I like the work the director did. The third act as a screenwriter type crisis ("you didn't read my piece" "you rewrote my piece").

Book review - "Comanche Moon" by Larry McMurtry

 Much better than Dad Man's Walk because it devotes more time to character as opposed to being a collection of action sequences - though there's still plenty of action, massacres and torture (was McMurtry having a deal downer of a time in the 90s?) It devotes more time to women too - Clara, Maggie, a captured white woman - and the Indians - Buffale Hump is still terrifying but more nuanced and now is up against an even more sadistic Mexican.

McMurtry features a couple of his supermen in this - the mighty Mexican warrior who loves torture, plus Inez Scull, the tough, academically brilliant adventurer. 

Part three, after the rescue of Scull, is very much like Lonesome Dove, more elegaic, less hard core violent.

Movie review - "The Marvels" (2023) **

 Feels like an episode of a TV series. Tired. Loud, Scenes in outer space. Sam Jackson. Two of the three leads don't seem to want to be there.  Iman Vellani does. Her parents were fun.

It's just dull. They throw in Tessa Thompson too.

Movie review - "Pleasure of His Company" (1961) **

 This should go down easy - widescreen, colour, nice settings and stars. But something about it is off.

Fred Astaire is fine, I guess, as the playboy who comes home to attend his daughter's wedding. And he becomes convinced that his daughte is wasting her life.

The dad is a deadbeat who hasn't been part of his daughter's life at all. This could have been easily covered - he sent her lots of presents, they were close, he'd been away for a year or so... As it is he's got no right to say a comment about his daughter. The film kind of acknowledges that. But still...

They've got Astaire's character talking in pidgin English to Palmer's Chinese servat which is awful.   Astaire clearly did some looping and his voice is all articulate and that got on my nerves.

Debbue Reynolds is too old for her part. She smiles and all that but she just seems like she's lived life.

Tab Hunter is fine. I like that he wasn't controlling just a bit of a hick.

There's no chemistry between Astaire and Reynolds, or Astair and Lili Palmer (his ex)... they never seem like Reynolds' parents. Imagine if Ginger Rogers had played the role!

One laugh. When Astair goes "sex isn't eveyrthing" and the old guy goes "so they keep telling me".

No one seems to work, not really. 

Maybe I was grumpy. But this was... oh whatever.

William Wellman on War and Peace

 That biography of William Wellman I read contained an interesting nugget - he pitched a version of War and Peace, without Pierre, that focused on the love triangle between Natasha, Andre andAnatole. Something to think about!

Robert Wagner Top Ten

 1) The Towering Inferno - effective death scene

2) Harper - good work

3) Pink Panther - lechy but funny

4) Titanic - sweet with Stanwyck

5) Heart to Heart - his best TV role

6) It Takes a Thief - his second best TV role

7) Kiss Before Dying - pretty boys make good psychos

8) In Love and War - good in war melo

9)With a Song In My Heart - good "being sung to" face

10) Austin Powers The Spy Who Shagged Me

Movie review - "Eat Your Heart Out" (1997) **

 Cheap rom com mainly of interest to Better Things fans because it stars a young Pamela Adlon and was directed by her husband - a co produced by his dad. So it fits into that universe, as a movie he made through his dad.

It gave Adlon (billed as Pamela Segall then) a lead role, and she's a cutie, totally perfect for the best friend who the male lead doesn't know is prettyt il it's to late. She goes topless in one scene briefly - what was this for? 

Christian Oliver is a debit as the male lead - handsome but awkward with English and he can't act (he died in a plane crash this year so I feel mean writing that but it's true).The guy who is their housemate is also annoying - I'm not qute sure I got his arc with Shawnee Smith (she seems scared of him at the end).

There's a knockout support cast - Linda Hunt, Shawnee Smith, Laura San Giacomo. It's also itneresting to see some Better Things themes - like, the importance of food, attending art galleries, having gay friends. So I assume she had a fair bit of creative input on it.

Some very contrived scripting i.e. Hunt and Giacomo won't tell Oliver his father is sick because... evil? 

I will give it points for the scene were Giacomo proposes to Oliver - she becomes vulnerable and scared and it opens up this whole side to the character. One that isn't really explored through the rest of the movie but she's a good actor and does that scene well.

Dana Andrews Top Ten

 Really solid A2 star whose career was hampered by his alcoholism. Some great films

1) The Ox Bow Incident (1943) - the heart and soul of the film

2) Laura (1944) - falls in love with a dead girl

3) The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) - that graveyard!

4) Night of the Demon (1957)

5) Fallen Angel (1945) - more noir

6) State Fair (1945) - aww... a musical...

7)  Beyond Reasonable Doubt (1956) - decent late period Fritz Lang

8) Duel in the Jungle (1954) - lower tier adventure that I liked

9) Ball of Fire (1941) -small role, good movie

10) The Frozen Dead (1967) - silly film and he's absurd but I'm putting this in for sheer silliness

Donald O'Connor Top Ten

 Let's see if I can do it...

1) Singing in the Rain (1952) - easy choice

2) The Milkman (1950) - fun comedy with O'Connor teaming well with Jimmy Durante

3) Feudin, Fussin and Fighting (1949) - O'Connor meets up with Percy Kilbrdige/Marjorie Main before they went off to their franchises - a joyous time

4) The Buster Keaton Story (1957) - look this isn't a good movie and it killed O'Connor's movie star career but he's very good and it's interesting

5) Call Me Madam (1953).- first rate musical

6) Anything Goes (1956) - not highly regarded and undercast female leads but a lot of talent and joy

7) Curtain Call at Cactus Creek (1950) - shenanigans out west sort of a musical Westerner and entertaining

8) There's No Business Like Show Business (1954) - ah, I know its flaws but it has Marilyn singing 'Heatwave'

9) Francis Covers the Big Town (1953) - I'll limit myself to one Francis and this 'll be it

10) Bowery to Broadway (1944) an all star Universal musical so the talent is B level but it's entertaining

Movie review - "Leo" (2023) ***1/2

 An unexpetedly lovely funny musical comedy about a tuatara who lives as a class pet and examines the lives of the kids and has to live with them. It's jam packed full of jokes many of them very funny and has a warm heart.

TV review - "Playhouse 90 - Portrait of a Murderer" (1958) ***

 Tab Hunter was doing excellent work on TV in the 50s while his films were mostly bland. He's very emphathetic and engaging as real killed Donald Bashor. This uses clips of the real guy including a taped interview which is creepy but effective. (Tab played another real dude who apeared in a show in Fear Strikes Out). 

Arthur Penn directs very well. Geraldine Page is excellent as Hunter's fiance.

Movie review - "Malificent" (2014) ***

 Enjoyable, handsome, with Angelina Jolie having the time of her life. A decent reimagining of the story. The male lead/villain feels a little undercast. Looks terrific. Some uncanny valley with the "little people" sequences. Liked it more than I thought.

TV review - "Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates" (1958) ***

 Really sweet ice skating musical based on a Dutch story that I'm unfamiliar with. Tab Hunter could sing and was a champion ice skater so he's a natural - well, a little too old, but it does work.

Basil Rathbone is in it and Sidney Lumet directs. There's some skaters and it's fun.

Warners should've made an ice skating film for Hunter. Disney did a version of this tale and it feels Disney like in a good way. Sweet.

Book review - "Dead Man's Walk" by Larry McMurtry (1995) (warning: spoilers)

 Prequel to Lonesome Dove. Okay so it's a cash grap but who would begrudge him one? It's got young Gus and Call as Texas Rangers, we meet on their first mission which explodes in violence.

Some of the writing is cinematic - Gus chased along a plain as lightning flashes. A lot of it is surface, as though McMurtry wrote is without a real plan apart from "we'll follow the Santa Fe mission of 1841 and see how I go".

So he's got Call and Gus going along and every ten pages or so there's a violent encounter - torture happy Comanches (Blue Duck's dad) then Apaches, then Mexicans.

There's not a lot of character work. The main ones apart from the two leads are Matilda, a tubby hooker, the scout Bigfoot (based on a real person and killed off ealier than IRL just as Judge Roy Bean was in Streets of Laredo),and Caleb Cobb leader of the mission who I would've liked to hvae spent more time with. 

I actually quite like this book but it did feel a little... lazy. And grumpy - there's so much death and torture (so it's got plenty of action) that I wondered if this was McMurtry's backlash against watching all those PC Westerns of the early 90s.

The final act felt anti climatic. Go on an expedition with a leprous lady, the Indians are about to attack... they don't.

TV movie review - "Meet Me in St Louis" (1959) ***

 CBS version of the famous musical has a cast of old MGM hands who you might've sworn were in the original - Walter Pidgeon as dad, Myrna Loy as mum, Jane Powell as daughter, Ed Wynn as grandad. There's also Tab Hunter and Jeanne Crain. And a young Patty Duke playing Margaret O'Brien.

Truth be told Hunter, Crain and Powell are a little old for their roles. But they are well cast - everyone is. There's song and dances and it's done quite well albeit on a TV scale.

The movie is better - and in colour - but it's interesting to watch other people have a go

Script review - "Bros" by Billy Eichner & Nicholas Stoller

 A brilliant script. Bawdy, heartfelt, touching. Two really interesting characters - consservative bro and more flamboyant angry type - who have a genuine reason to be attracted yet also a genuine reason to stay apart (so hard to do). Brilliant satire of gay "community" - generation gap, inter-community divides. Funny support cast.

Movie review - "That Kind of Woman" (1959) ***

 Fascinating. Because on one hand it's a good movie - Sidney Lumet directs with sensitivity, Tab Hunter has never been better (seriously), Sophia Loren is charismatic and terrific, Jack Warden offers a strong support part, George Sanders is accomplished as Loren's lover. The black and white photography works as does the location filming.

But the movie doesn't work. I didn't buy it. Didn't buy Loren falling for Hunter, and being reluctant to leave because of her lover. I buy his infatuation. But she's too mature, too gorgeous, she has too many options.

Maybe this would've worked in Italy, war torn Italy and she's a mistress to provide and she's never felt love before. I think that's it... Loren has clearly felt love before. Hunter isn't it for him. 

Maybe it would've worked Deep Blue Sea style with the lead girl being bland and dull with a dull boyfriend and this charismatic type whisks her away.

Thoughts on "Hamilton"

 Been listening to it for a bit lately. Some random thoughts

- it really packs in a lot of history - I mean compare it to, I don't know, Les Mis or something, there is a lot

- very much a two halves story - think if you adapted it into a film it would work as two films because American Revolution is such a self contained story, ditto the sex scandal...

- jeez all the chicks love Hamilton, his wife, mistress, sister in law, he's called a tomcat -wife role is basically "you're never home" and "I got cheated on" but nice songs

- battle of Yorktown song so rousing - a beat to allow cheers for "Immigrants we get the job done" - love the big callback for Felix Mulligan or whoever who I think most people would've forgotten but what a great moment - but it's a fantastic climax which is why it could sustain a film climax

- Jefferson so briliant - George Washington more dull- Lafayette and Burr vivid - the Election of 1800 number is also superb, character driven... it would make a fabulous scene in a film

Movie review - "Return to Treasure Island" (1954) **

 A modern day updating of Treasure Island from the team of Pollexfen and Wisberg who wrote and produced many low budget films for Edward Small.

Dawn Addams is Jim Hawkins, Tab Hunter is Ben Gunn, Porter Hall is Long John Silver, I think... that's the film's big problem it doesn't have a strong Long John figure.

The film smells cheap. It's badly directed. Hunter narrates (was this added after he was casst in Battle Cry?). THere's too much of his weak high pitched voice. No chemistry between Addams and Hunter. No atmosphere.

Really Hunter should have played Hawkins with Addams as a sexy stowaway. Or maybe just done better.

The story on paper sounds exciting but it's plodding and amateurish like bad AIP.

Movie review - "The Student Nurses" (1970) ***1/2 (re-watching)

 Random comments:

- so much fun with its feisty attitude and late 60s references (love ins, police brutality, drugs, Vietnam)

- lots of hot guys and gals - people are attractive

- strong male roles - blonde doctor who helps with abortion, revolutionary, dying guy - women films have storng male roles

- bad make up on dying guy and silly running around scene

- hot sex scenes on beach

- acting ability varies but people are attractive

- genuine friendship and camraderie (helping one get an abortion)

- terrific abortion sequence

- the girls make their decisions at the end: Karen Carlson likes the blonde doctor but stucks to her guns and dumps him, Elaine Giftos heads off to Vietnam, Brioni Farrell goes on the lam

Movie review - "Saturday Island" (1952) **

 The film that launched Tab Hunter as a leading man.  Its kind of a sexy story - a Blue Lagoon tale of a hunky young marine and older woman doctor who are in a ship that's sunk and wind up on a deserted island.

Hunter and Darnell should'e been ideal - a young good looking naive guy and a Woman of the World. But the film doesn't lean into this. He should've been in love with her from the start, she resists him... or vice versa... it just needed more sex.

Actually this film throws away drama chances wholesale. No threat no the island, no Japanese, no natives, no natural spookiness. It threatens to get interesting when Tab Hunter becomes pathologically jealous but then just as he goes nuts they all get rescued.

Lots of whining from Hunter. Oh, he's so poor... he looks terrific, he is the role but that high pitched voice. You can't help laughing at him.

Linda Darnell can be great but she needs to be energised. She's bored here, disconnected.  Donald Gray is better. He tries.

What a missed opportunity. Nice colour and location filming in Jamaica.

Novel review - "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" by B Traven

 Never read this before. Very enjoyable. Can see its appeal to Huston. Film follows it mostly but all the changes are good. We don't find out what happened to the Bruce Bennett character - he stays digging. Lots of emphasis on the hard work the people do. Dobbs only goes nuts at the end. His head it cut off! Lovely interwining of fate. Vicious criticism of the effect of the Catholic Church.

There's a sequence where we meet the bandits... they wipe out a whole train carriage, men, women, children, babies. Full on. The soldiers are ruthless. It's quite sympathetic to Mexico - it seems the writer lived there.

I enjoyed this a lot.

Movie review - "The Burning Hills" (1956) **

 Warners tried to jazz up their Westerns with their teen idols, Tab Hunter and Natalie Wood, which actually wasn't a bad idea but they didn't put them in teen roles ie misunderstood kids. It's just a stock Western played by younger than usual actors.

It was based on a novel by Louis L'Amour whose novels don't have the best track record of adapting to the big screen. I haven't seen that many I admit but they're not that well known. Hondo is the big exception - it had a major star, a strong co star, and character work and mood.

The Burning Hills could have had that maybe - L'Amour wnated John Wayne and Katy Juarando and that would've worked. Hunter and Wood don't work here - they are too light, the story doesn't give that much to do.

You could change it - they should've changed the material for them. Given Hunter a dad, Wood a dad, had them struggle against their parents. It would've been a nice parallel to the lead baddy, Skip Hoimer, who is working for his dad. 

Wood plays a Mexican. She's lovely and gorgeous and tries but it's silly. Hunter tries too.

It's nicely shot in colour - didn't expect that. Essentially lower budgeted though. Simple story, too simple I feel - Hunter gets revenge on person who killed his brother, and is chased. That level of simplicity you need character work. That's not here.

A few visual flourishes and scenes in caves. Stuart Heisler directed. He did The Glass Key and put Hunter in an early lead.

Dean Martin Top Ten

1. Kiss Me Stupid

2. Cannonball Run

3. Young Lions

4. Sons of Katie Elder

5. Rio Bravo

6. Airport

7. Four for Texas

8. Artists and Models

9. You're Never Too Young

10. Hollywood or Bust

Anthony Steel Top Ten

 Is it possible? Let's try

1. The Wooden Horse

2. Where No Vultures Fly

3. The Malta Story

4. Storm Over the Nile

5. Checkpoint

6. Emergency Call

7. The Planter's Wife

8. The Master of Ballantrae

9 The Mirror Crack'd

10. Albert RN (not a good film but he tries to act)

This is a weakest list... really he'd got a decent top five maybe: Vultures, Malta, Storm, Planters, Emergency Call...

Robert Aldrich Top Ten

 1. The Dirty Dozen

2. Vera Cruz

3. Apache

4. The Longest Yard

5. Flight of the Phoenix

6. Kiss Me Deadly

7. Attack

8. Ulzana's Raid

9. Baby Jane

10. Twilight's Last Gleaming

George Peppard Top Ten

 1. Home from the Hill (1960) - splashy career making turn

2. Breakfast at Tiffanys (1961) - outshone by Audrey Hepburn and Buddy Ebsen and Patricia Neal... but he's a good solid co lead, thankfully her age or thereabouts, I bought hiim as a writer

3. The Victors (1963) - ideal for a cynical WW2 story

4. Operation Crossbow (1965) - always loved this guys on a mission film

5. How the West Was Won (1963) - big epic, Peppard anchors it, not easy to do

6. The Blue Max (1966) - very believable Aryan!

7. Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) - lots of fun, a wonderful melancholic performance

8. The Carpetbaggers (1965) - ideal as a heel... he was in so many big hits

9. The A Team (1982-1986) - outshone by Mr T and Dwight Schultz but he gave it gravtias... the only one who looked like he may have been in the army

10. The Sam Shepperd Case (1975) - a good use of his talent

George Hamilton Top Ten

 1. Light in the Piazza

2. Love at First Bite

3. Godfather Part 3

4. Doc Hollywood

4. Your Cheatin Heart

5. Evil Knival

6. Death Car on the Freeway

7. Rough Riders

8. Where the Boys Are

9 Home from the Hill

10.The Victors

Charlton Heston Top Ten

 1. Ben Hur

2. Greatest Show on Earth

3. Ten Commandments

4. El Cid

5. Omega Man

6. Soylent Green

7. Naked Jungle

8. Three Musketeers

9. Planet of the Apes

10l War Lord

This was a really easy list to compile. Unlike many stars of his generation, Heston had a strong 70s.

Kirk Douglas Top Ten

 1. The Man from Snowy River

2. Champion

3. The Vikings

4. Spartacus (even if his performance isn't that good)

5. Gunfight at OK Corrall

6. Ace in the Hole

7. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

8. Out of the Past

9. Seven Days in May

10. Paths of Glory

Tony Curtis Top Ten

 1. The Boston Strangler

2. The Prince Who Was a Thief - hey, this was fun

3. Sweet Smell of Success

4. The Vikings

5. Spartacus

6. Some Like It Hot

7. Operation Petticoat

8. Trapeze

9. Boeing Boeng

10. The Great Race

Natalie Wood Top Ten

 1) Miracle on 34th Street

2) Rebel Without a Cause

3) Splendor in the Grass

4) West Side Story

5) Love with a Proper Stranger

6) Bob and Ted and Carol and Alice

7) The Searchers

8) Gypsy

9) The Great Race

10) Sex and the Single Girl

I haven't seen all her films. I think there would only be debate about the bottom three.

Warner Bros films that would've been better for Tab Hunter

 * The Searchers

*Helen of Troy (as Paris or someone)

*Giant (in Dennis Hopper role)

*Spirit of St Louis

*The Pajama Game

*Sayonara

*Marjorie Morningstar

*The LeftHanded Gun

*The Young Philadelphians

*A Summer Place

 

He avoided Bombers B52, Darby's Rangers, Up Periscope

Movie review - "Damn Yankees" (1958) ***1/2

 This and The Pajama Game were musicals basically transferrred to the screen lock stock and barrell. Nothing really wrong with that - better than dumb changes. I did feel this could've been cinema-ised a little more. And also that it had more stars/familiar faces.

I quite liked Tab Hunter as the reincarnated middle aged guy - but would've preferred a star to play the older version (like, I don't know, Edward G Robinson or something).and ditto his wife (some older 40s Warner star... like Joan Blondell). No diss on the actors. Ray Walston is fun as the devil... but imagine say Rex Harrison. And Gwen Verdon, I get she's a Broadway legend, but imagine Marilyn Monroe... (Mitzi Gaynor not so much. Maybe that's why they gave it to Vernon.)

Anyway it's sniping. This is fun. Decent tunes. Numbers. It also has a universal appeal: what if you could live you dream, be young and great at a spart?

Movie review - "The Girl He Left Behind" (1956) **

 Tab Hunter became a star (ish) supporting crusty older actors in Battle Cry, Sea Chase and Track of the Cat - Warners prompted him to main star with this service comedy, from the author of the books See Here Private Hargrove so it was a decent piece of IT and they team him with Natalie Wood.

The two stars are actually very well cast. The basic story idea isn't bad - rich kid grows up via army service. But it's done with remarkable ineptness.

It's not in colour. There's no jokes. No songs. It's played straight, as drama. But there's no war.

There's no real supporting characters.The only meaty part is Murray Hamilton as the sergeant, but even he's just a sergeant.

Hunter is a likable actor but his character is remarkably unlikeable. I kept waiting for him to show nice signs, turn a corner... but he sulks for most of the flm. Like, 80 minutes in, he's at some exercise and these kids run on to the field and I though oh he's going to be heroic... but no. He does nothing. Gets in trouble. David Janssen his officer suggests he be discharged. Hunter agrees. This is 85 minutes in! The one heroic thing he did is throw away a grenade. 

His other soldiers don't like him. Natalie Wood dumps him - that's why he drops out of college - and they meet each other and he tries to root her. But she says no.

Hamilton fights Hunter and beats him up. Hunter is a little bit heroic at the end but that's it.

Gosh this was odd. Why did they make it? I know why...  they thought Hunter plus Wood plus army was enough. But it's not.

They needed to tell the story of one or two other soldiers. Or add a war so it had a point and real stakes.

I had similar problems with Lafayette Escradille also with Hunter. That did have a war - but it felt like a film about what should've been one of three plots. Battle Cry showed how it should be done.  There's not even a final kiss between Hunter and Wood.

TV review - "Climax: Fear Strikes Out" (1955) ***

 Tab Hunter is very good in a meaty role, as baseball player Jimmy Piersal, who was apparently a decent player (major leaguer) if not a legend, but struggled with mental issues, being bipolar.

The film version of this in 1957 is a little famous as it helped launch Tony Perkins and was the feature debut of Robert Mulligan - it's become famous in a way too since Tab and Tony went out and Tony pinched Tab's role.

I was surprised how smal the role of the father was - he's barely in it, even if it's played by Robert Armstrong. Mona Freeman has a bigger part as Hunter's girlfriend and then wife.

The TV version was presumably closer to the truth. At the end we meet Piersall who has just played a game who is admirably upfront about his mental struggles and understanding for empathy.

Mona Freeman isn't very good and Armstrong doesn't have a character to play but Hunter is strong and the actors who play shrinks work well.

Movie review - "Gun Belt" (1953) **1/2

 Decent central situation - two brothers who were outlaws, George Montgomery and John Dehner, squabble over Dehner's son Tab Hunter - Dehner is still bad but Montgomery has gone straight.

The film makes a mistake killing Dehner 20 minutes in. William Bishop comes in as the new villain but it would've been stronger with Dehner who was Hunter's dad.

This is a pretty good little Western. Solid story, in colour, decent action, a support role from Wyaatt Earp, good actors. Helen Westacott doesn't have much to do as the girl (why no love triangle). Montgomery has that great voice - he should wear a moustache though. The cast is good. Hunter gets decent chances in this, whining about Dehner being killed and yelling at Montgomery but being a callow kid too. He's not bad.