Decent B based on a radio series about counter espionage. The title Counterspy guy is played by middle aged Howard St John with Ron Randell as the Scotland Yard agent to do the legwork including putting on a disguise.
Quite dense with dialogue, betraying the radio origins, but smart. The baddies are smart - it's Cold War stuff - the acting sincenre, the playing fast. This was decent. Randell is lively.
Ron Randell's second go at Drummond and it's absolutely fine and competent with a storng mystery but by 1947 television was digging in to the B market and all the series were being wound up - Kildare, Andy Hardy, etc.
This is a very British tale - it's set in Britain, all the actors play British. The John Howard Drummonds felt more American.
The sort of movie Bob Ellis loves with its low key recration of 50s small town Australia - pubs, ockers, boxers, yokels, religious trouble, good time girls, and its embracing of a healthy sex life and tolerance with tolerance mocked.
It's unexpected, subtle and well done. Howarrd Rubie was a very good director. There is tremendous feel for nuance and atmosphere, the costumes and sets and haircuts and stuff are splended.
I think at it's soul this was a television play, really. The s
One of the best films from the Queensland Film Corporation.
I can see the appeal of the concept - women decide to team up and rob the rich fror charity - and while Peter Yeldham was a decent writer Peter Maxwell was an ordinary director and the budget too low when it needed glossy treatment.
Easy to spot the flaws - couldn't tell the lead characters apart, too many leads, no progression or dynamics in the relationsips, minimal conflict, no baddy. There's three main girls - Wendy Hughes, Chantal Contouri, Carmen Duncan - but then they throw in Barbara Stephens as a teacher, and Jeannie Drynan and Liddy Clarke and Christine Amor. Why?
Why not have one turn traitor or die or something?
Queensland doesn't even look pretty. It's crap.
Saw it on a nice print. So hokey but there's a story thanks to EV Timms. There's a spirited female lead due to Else Chauvel. There's lots of Tarzan riffs (and to be fair the white man growing up among locals was a thing). Margot Rhys is pretty and game and does a racy swim. Though it is funny how her character sfalls in love because Dennis Hoey won't bang her.
Hoey is hilariously bad. He can sing and is in shape he just has no business playing this role.
Some music is quite catchy the aborigina dancing impresses as does the location shooting.
Comedy of remarriage, which like many such tales these days comes across as a bit creepy and rapey for all the charm of Melvyn Douglas and Ann Southern. He's a journo back from Europe to reclaim wife Southern who works in an orchestra. He's been away for two years so she's had the arse - he keeps taking off on trips, and wants to move on with Lee Bowman, rich guy, and Richard Ainley, critic. This is very sympathetic. But Douglas wants her back. And because it's 1940s MGM we'll know he'll succeed.
He tries charm and then inevitably "charmingly" kidnaps her. The issues of their marriage aren't resolved, it's her giving in.
The most interesting thing is Southern plays in an all female orchestra. The conductor is a refugee from the Gestapo and briefly struggles with the notion of an all female band but that's presented cutely. The all female orchestra would've been enoug for a film - make it a three girl movie say.
Southern is sweet. Douglas has charm. Shirley Ann Richards is in it briefly as one of the gals in the orchestra.
Richard Thorpe directed. I'm sure it came in on time and under budget.
The Australian film industry had some false dawns before but never quite like 1946. After years of war, and no films, it seemed that movies would be done, and done properly. Ken G Hall made Smithy, Ealing made The Overlanders, Eric Porter A Son is Born and Chavel developed The Sons of Matthew. The first three came out in 46 and were hits - well, Son is Born made a profit.
What happened?
Smithy had been financed by Columbia, who released the film in the US and it didn’t do well so they cooled on Australia. It was a shame. Ken Hall tried to get up Robbery Under Arms via Rank but had no luck. He blamed cost overruns on Sons of Matthew. Possibly. Cost overruns on Ealing’s next film, Eureka Stockade would have not helped.
The original radio play is a pretty much perfect 30 minutes - how do you expand it to a feature? You could have kept it with the main lady (Barbara Stanwyck) on the phone, added more twists and turns, or you go more into the motive... which is what this film does. It fleshes out the characters of her husband (Burt Lancaster), who grows to resent his wife’s money, controlling nature and ill health. There’s also her rich dad who is a great character, and her old friend (Ann Richards) who saw Something Suspicious.
It’s not a bad mystery, with William Conrad on hand to provide menace. Richards has another thankless best friend role but get some decent screen time and a suspenseful scene where she follows her husband out to a beach.
Not as good as the play but pretty good - probably Richards' best American film.
Norman Lear shows never quite had the impact in Oz they did in Australia. Mostly because they weren't as prominent in syndication. I mean Diffrent Strokes was the exception, we all loved that; I recall Good Times and One Day at a Time playing during the say. But Maude was shunted at 3am and I don't recall The Jeffersons, All in the Family, Sanford and Son. Maybe their British originals were too better known. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong (this was the 80s-90s). Maybe the tone of Lear comedies was too aggressive and loud.
I'm so mixed on Lear. I respect and admire him - who could not? The battles he fought, the way he dominated'the culture in the 70s, investing in interesting films like Spinal Tab and Princess Bride, genuine war service in a bomber crew. All those fights with censors. He seemed to lose his TV touch from the 80s onwards but that happens. Tenacious. Taking on those terrible evangelists.
I enjoyed hearing about the actor conflics on Good Times and All the Family. And Jerry Lewis being a pain.
As a person... ah, I dunno. He whines about his shonky dad, and complaining mother. (Would he have been as good a salesman without his dad). Hard worker. Clearly very good writer and producer. Worked for Martin and Lewis on TV in the 50s and people like Martha Raye, Indifferent movie record - films no one gets too excited about like Come Blow Your Horn and Cold Turkey. Earned lots of money but always seemed to be about to lose it (even in the late 80s) then bounced back. two bad marriages. Third to a younger woman - he became a father later in life and had a surrogate. Lot of chat about how people love him, how he saved someone's life.
I stress, I have a lot of admiration and respect for Lear I just didn't dig this book. Maybe I just wanted more about his shows.
There's some discussion of McMurtry's writing - his first few novels, his depression - but mostly this is about his adventures as a book shop owner and rare book collector. Sometimes interesting but not that interesting and probably better as an article. He makes fun of Peter Bogdanovich her and there which is entertaining. The books did help McMurtry keep his head screwed on - doing a job with physical labour, having a day job.
Really good book. Colourful, action packed. Depressing. Piracy was a real issue. So many slaves taken - this is mocked in romantic fiction but it happened all the time, so much so that a guy set up business in the barbary as an envoy to reunite people.
Grouping thoughts under the one entry. Very good. Consistently surprising. They key relationships that pop are Sam and white people (her mum, the douche ex of her friend, the gay bestie, her daughters) which I think prompted Pamela A to put in new besties who were diverse. Occasionally it was a drag that scenes were in there where Sam is nice to POC. It's like, alright, I get it, you're not racist. I missed her dating in later eps bc those were so funny but it made sense from a character arc. Love the development of the kids. Very good show.
I've never seen a Dr Kildare movie - this was made after Lew Ayres had been given the boot for conscientiously objecting. So you had Lionel Barrymore interviewing three assistants - you kind of know that it's going to be Van Johnson, who got an early break in these movies, because he's the most regular guy, and he has charm. The other two are foreigners - Richard Quine as an Aussie (the movie's chief point of novelty, IMHO) and Keye Luke as an Asian (though born in Brooklyn).
Barrymore does his Barrymore thing in a wheelchair - kind of progressive to have a handicapped lead actor in a way, along with a prominent Asian actor. To make sure things don't get too commie Luke makes a joke about men being able to hit their wives and the doctors routinely betray female patient confidentiality.
There's a few subplots, a crusty old nurse, an admin guy, some orderly (nat Pendleton) up to no good. It's like a Student Nurses movie only without nudity.
The main plot involves patient Susan Peters - who is lovely - having memory loss, interfering with her marriage to some dude who I thought was going to be gaslighting her but it's benign and the docs figure it out via cobbled psychology.
Quine plays a doctor from Woolloomooloo and murders the Australian accent. I mean, he literally wrestles it to the ground. It's appalling and fascinating. He's studying tropical diseases. Cripes what a shocker of a performance. But you can't stop watching.
As an added bonus Shirley Ann Richards (billed without the "Shirley") pop up as an Aussie nurse. They meet, talk in slang, bond over how Americans can't understand them, which is funny actually, and fall in love straight away. I wish her part had been bigger or she'd played Quine's part. She's gorgeous and fun.
Luke is energetic. The handling of the film is clunky but it's done with MGM polish. Some attractive starlets in the background.
Gaslighting melodramas always work - the husband trying to kill the wife, driving her man, with malevolent intentions. It's all solid stuff.
But it's odd why Eagle Lion wanted to film this especially as it had been done in Britain in 1937. Maybe they wanted a vehicle for a British star - they didn't get one. Unless you count Aussie Ann Richards, who is nice, as Sylvia Sidney's friend, but barely in the film. Indeed, she could be cut out. John Howard, as Sidney's whiny ex, does all the worrying about Sidney stuff.
John Hodiak is the charming psycho husband.
The story lacks a twist. Naive Sidney marries dashing Hodiak. Everyyone thinks he's bad, eventually she does too, he is bad. Richards and/or Howard needed to be in cahoots with him.
Eagle Lion provided a decent budget, it's a period tale with costumes and houses by the coast. But it was money wasted. Why not set it in present day America? Differentiate it from the original? You could still make it so no one had a photo of the guy.
Sometimes films like this can be saved by A list actors but the collection here is B list - everyone can act, mind, but they don't have charisma.
Lilllian Hellman was a great writer and her stage play was a hit in 1944 but no one talks about it much and she didn't like it that much either. I can see its appeal on stage during war time - chat about diplomatics who charmingly went along wiht the rise of fascism. It's not really dramatised in the way that say Watch the Rhine was - in that film a fascist was on the run and he had to shoot someone. This doesn't have that.
Robert Young is the posh diplomat and Ann Richards (quite good) is his wealthy wife. Sylvia Sidney is
There's glimpses of where the drama is, which is this: Young is basically decent, or can be, but is too attracted to peace, and getting along, and his wife, who is rich and likes to hang with facsists. With Sidney has his conscience.
This story can work - look at The Way We Were. But this doesn't bring it alive. There's no heat/attraction between Young and Sidney. Robert Young's blandness suits the role I guess but isn't very compelling.I've never liked Sidney and while she's got a great character - feisty journalist, telling the truth, drawn to a married man - Sidney never gets there, at least not for me. If these two had had some real heat it would've been so much better. Like , I don't know, Robert Cummings for someone charming and Barbara Stanwyck for someone to be tough. Joseph Cotten was offered the lead - he would've been better.
Dramatically someone needed to die - like Sidney really. To die for her conscience. It's weird that Shirley and Richards go "you're staying with Shirley" then Dick gives the speech.
Douglas Dick plays the son of Richards and Shirley who lost a leg in the war - Montgomery Clift played the part on Broadway. He has a big speech at the end. Dick is best known for being killed in Rope.
The director and her team tried to make a good film. It's got pep and looks great. Interesting costuming. Nice Irish scenery. Not many laughs but it's sweet.
I'm not super familiar with the mid-period Randolph Scott cycle - the ones after his first Westerns, where he normally co starred with bigger names, and before the Renown cycle. This was a solid hit for RKO, who had a decent record making Westerns. The copy I saw had a gloomy feel to it but it may have been the print.
Scott is a marshall chasing outlaws into a lawless territory. The feisty local newspaper editor is a woman - Australia's own Ann Richards, who was under contract to RKO. I think this is the only movie she made for that studio. There is definite novelty seeing her introduced on a horse with a gun, She's not entirely comfortable but is at home in a newspaper office. I like how she had a character to play - brave, crusading editor; jealous of Belle Starr.
The gimick of the story involves Scott trgint to find his brother who has been taken by real life outlaws - the Jameses, the Daltons, Belle Starr. There's also some Indians.
Plenty of plot and action and spectacle. Shiny support cast including Lawrence Tierney, very good as Jesse James, and Tom Tryon as frank.
Gloomily shot but I enjoyed it more as it went on.
I read this was a knock off of Cyrano de Bergerac and there's elements of that but really it's a reverse of. Random Harvest with Jennifer Jones as the amnesiac who doesn't realise that she once loved Joseph Cotten. Cotten knows it and hangs around being her friend, with Ann Richards (who was in Random Harvest) providing the exposition and pining at Cotten.
There's other Random Harvest elements - Cotten has shellshock, though so does Jones; Cotten and Jones get married even though she doesn't realise she's his true love, Cotten doesn't tell Jones the truth, the ending results in Jones getting her memry back.
There are diffrenecs - Jones and Cotten fall off screen via letters, the Cyrano influence. It's not as good a movie.
I think it was a mistake not to see Cotten and Jones fall in love via letters and to build up the part of the loathsome guy who passed on the letters and was an abusive husband. He's seen at the beginning and the end... but a little more would've been ideal (or even just more evocative build up).
Richards is very good, as a decent, pretty loyal person. It's one of her better parts. She was up for the lead then was gazumped by Jones who was a bigger name. Jones is better because Jones had a whiff of insanity about her - the crazy eyes.
There's a lot of character names in the script. Anita Louise's character (Cotten's ex) is kind of pointless. The script is choppy.It's done classily though - decent budget looks nice. Cotten suits this material. Cecil kellaway, Richards' old Aussie co star, pops up as a colourful local..
This is brightly handled with some skilled playing - Franchot Tone was adept at light comedy and Tom Conway livens things up; Ann Richards actually gets a deceent role and Frances Rafferty is beautiful and a lot of fun as the other woman.
But the story is so dumb and contrived. Richards was BFF of a woman who was married to Tone during the war in England (this was made by Eagle Lion and I think they were looking at co pros with England) then went back to the US. The woman has died leaving two kids. So Richards takes the kids to the US pretending to be the wife... because... ah... and Tone had amnesia during the war...
It doesn't make sense. Why doesn't Richard just tell the truth? If they'd come up with a better reason for her deception this would've been so much better.
The opening scene is clunky and feels as though maybe it was shot at a later date. More could've been made of Conway finding Richards attractive and Tone and his kds.
In a few scenes Richards flirts and sparkles and it's just like she's back at Cinesound. Rafferty, like Richards, should've had a bigger Hollywood career.
Leigh Jason directs with a nice light touch. I hadn't heard of him before. Just so dumb a story though.
Shirley Ann Richards' last movie was produced and directed by her husband Edmond Angelo - after which both quit the biz and he went into engineering. It's a sort of Warner Bros style movie set in the world of boxing, with no real one star and heaps of subplot.
William Bishop is a boxer out of prison for a crime he didn't commit. He wants to find out who framed him and falls in love with good girl Ann Richards. But leading man duties are shared with Wally Cassell, as the pathetic guy who gets him out of prison and is attached to Bishop and get jealous of Richards. And Cassell's brother Sheldon Leonard.
And Leonard has a girlfriend Anne Gwynne who hates Cassell because he promoted Gwynne's earlier boyfriend Richard Benedict who is now brain injured and eventually dies.
It's written by a former boxer and benefits from that inside feel. It just kind of is all over the place with a melodramatic ending of Bishop almost getting kiled in the ring and last minute confessions and Cassell having a stroke.
The acting is quite good. Leonard's voice reminded me of a cartoon character, I'm not sure which. Richards has essentially a support part but not a bad one - a good girl attracted to Bishop, she gets to be lively and pretty. Bishop is a little dull. Cassell is excellent as is Gwynne.
He's been in some good movies even though he was usually outshone by his co star.
1) Beau Geste (1939)
2) The Glass Key (1942)
3) The Great McGinty (1940)
4) The Quatermass Experiment (1955)
5) Kiss of Death (1947)
6) Two Years Before the Mast (1946)
7) Kansas Raiders (1950)
8) Jesse James (1939)
9)The Crawling Unknown (1957)
10) Destry Rides Again (1939)
King Vidor must have had a lot of prestige to get this through MGM - it cost millions. I'm sure he pitched it well "it's about industry! Immigrants! America!" It's so dull.
Metro stumped up for colour - pointless, it may as well have been black and white. What's the story... immigrant arrives. Works in mine. Works in steel. Builds cars. Along way marries nice woman. Has children. Becomes rich car manufacturer. One son dies in World War One. Another gets married. Another works for his dad, becomes involved in the union.
The union conflict at the end is the most interesting thing about the film because this was made by MGM but Vidor was a little more progressive and it's wartime. Also the son gets involved in the union so there's drama.
There's no drama in the marriage - no conflict. Or with the immigrant's best friend. Why not a love triangle? Why not have the guy driven? Why not have some drama, King? Because the way was on.
Vidor blamed the leads - and it's true that if his original choices, Spencer Tracy, Joseph Cotten and Ingrid Bergman had been in it, it would at least have had some star power. But instead he's got - how's this for B list - Brian Donlevy, Ann Richards and Walter Abel. Richards was really pretty but is devoid of sex or spark here she's just nice. It's not very good work. Abel is fine, just lacking charisma - why not cast some young spunk? Donlevy's performance is dreadul with his immigrant accent and dumb acting. He was a second lead, not a lead. It's painful to watch.
The film needed a big injection of soap. Richards was with his best friend who died of an accident. He raised other people's kids. He has daughters who root around.
This is like a Dore Schary movie made by MGM before Schary went to MGM.
Vidor whinged about the half hour taken out of it. He's lucky it wasn't more. But the cuts don't really help, just shorten it. It was two and a half hours and they made it two!
A few people on this who went on to become big names - Burt Reynolds, Haskel Wexler- and a lead role for George Hamilton at his peak.
I love how this film tried to do something smart, European. It's not dumb. Nicely shot. Good atmosphere. The world is interesting. Strong acting. Hamilton is very good but also Reynolds is terrific. Mercedes McCambridge and Joan Blondell are good as always. Salome Jens quite effective - she must've thought this was going to launch her in a big way. Paul Wendkos is an interesting director (Tarantino loves him).
The problem is structural. It starts well but when it should build it dissipates, separates Hamilton and Jens when they should be together. Or at least so I felt.
Still, an interesting movie, a bold try and a reminder of how good Reynolds was from the get go.
I've seen this so many times but did it again in light of rewatching the Corman Poes. It's a jagged mess, full of charm, and familiar faces - even support like Jonathan Haze. It's better than Comedy of Terrors because it's serious and Corman goes for mood. The plot is erratic but at least stuff does happen. Sandra Knight is genuinely evocative and otherwordly. Jack Nicholson is charming. Poor Karloff in that flooding water!
(I just rewatched them all)
1. Vincent Price’s performances are consistently varied and wonderful - he does enigmatic and strong (Usher), weak (Pendulum), comic (Raven), truly evil (Masque), Byronesque (Ligeia) - it’s wonderful
2. Usher is sometimes taken for granted but it really se the scene and holds up well
3. The juvenile male leads were generally terrible and wet eg Richard Ney, John Kerr - Jack Nicholson was the best in the Raven - I think Corman was uncomfortable around macho younger actors
4. The abilities of the women varied but at their best they were marvellous and gave career highlight performances eg Barbara Steele, Elizabeth Shepherd, Hazel Court
5. Yes Cormsan had a strong crew but he also brought a hell of a lot himself - just watch Comedy of Terrors which despite Matheson, Crosby, Haller, Price, Karloff, Rathbone and Lorre is a mess
6. Ray Milland is no Vincent Price but it’s actually nice to see a film in the cycle without Price and Milland does a good job
7. Lovely to see Lon Chaney in Haunted Palace
8. Script work consistently great from Matheson, Towne, Beaumont etc... shame Griffith wasn’t given a go
9. The final two British films reinvigorated the franchise
I only watched this because Roger Corman was fired as director shortly into filming. I wonder why he wanted to make it - to do a bigger budgeted Western I suppose. It's unremarkable, realy - Phil Karlson took over - although it has some good actors. George Hamilton is good as a Confederate officer who leads an escape from a POW camp right at the end of the war and tries to escape with his troops into Mexico. Hamilton is a bit of a fantatic. He's pursued by Glenn Ford, looking constipated as he was want to do. Inger Stevens is a girl of Ford's who is taken by Hamilton, who then rapes her to keep Ford angry at him and his men to keep the war going.
The cast is interesting. People pop up like Timothy Crey, Kenneth Tobey, a young Harrison Ford, Dick Miller, Max Baer, Harry Deean Stanton (billed as "Dean Stanton").
Ford can be good but phones this in. Stevens is competent. Hamilton presses. Nicely shot although the occasional obivous studio-for-location work jars. It's a downer of a movie. Everyone dies so pointlessly.
Apparently Robert Towne worked on the script.
A film generally unloved despite its pedigree - AIP, Richard Matheson, Floyd Crosby, Dan Haller, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Jacques Tourneur. No Corman but still...
What went wrong?
Well The Raven worked bc it was still creepy. This is all played for laughs. It begings wonkly with silly sped up camera and music and that tone is pleasant all the way through.
The pain and terrors in Raven were real. This is too much of a joke. Vincent Price seems miscast.
It lacks a supernatural element too. It's all explained away. Rathboone comes back from the dead but because it's rigid. The material needed to be played straighter.
I'm glad Rathbone got to play Shakespeare and Lorre got the girl. The Corman Poe films worked this doesn't. Needed genuine scares.
Bug role for Joyce Jameson.
Thoughts on MCU after reading book (was a good book)...
- What Feige did was amazing, very few producers have come close, maybe David O. Selnick from 30s to 40s before Benzedrine addiction and dumping his smart first wife wrecked his career.
- Other parallel is James Bond series which has been going since 1962 - this has interesting similarities... cultural phenomenon, many imitators but no one has surpassed it, has ability to reinvent, makes lots of mistakes but not fatal ones, isn’t afraid to go “small” (Bond films went from the big Moonraker to the small For Your Eyes Only, from the big Die another Day to the small Casino Royale), always be true to character (eg they always have a British or at least British Empire Bond)
- Main issues with MCU not actually their fault (a) no one else can make blockbusters as consistently successful (b) Disney keep wanting them to expand bc they make so much money
- If Marvel keep small, they will endure but if they keep expanding they are rooted
- I forgot how many dud Marvels there have been eg Thor 2 and 4, Ant Man 2 and 3... but historically there’s always been a classic around the corner eg Tom Holland Spiderman... it feels it’s been a while since a classic Marvel though - I actually feel Feige’s (a) run out of gas and/or (b) simply doesn’t have the same emotional connection to these new heroes as he did the original ones - but could be wrong
- I actually love though how Feige embraces all the history - even duds like Thorn 2 and the Garfield Spidermans, which have bad reps, get call backs - this has weird parallels to soap where previous “era” get overlooked - embracing dud eras I feel is something not nearly done enough in franchises or long serials
- Also amazing how bad and voluminous the corporate notes were even AFTER the films became successful - and the head of Marvel wanted to FIRE Feige... this was astonishing... and explains why so many Hollywood films are bad... that a great producer can produce great successful films and as a result the head of the company wants to fire him (not bc of a crime, but because of his success) - this is surprisingly common
- character is obviously king - (and casting so crucial to character) - problem with Captain Marvel (warning: mansplaining) us that Captain Marvel isn't much of character... but bc it made so much money that kind of got lost - Wonder Woman and Black Widow are great characters - problem Black Panther 2 IMHO was not fixing on a character - think there is so so much scope for female super heroes just make sure they have a good character and are well cast
- my predictions about what’s coming up
- Thunderbolts - will tank bc it feels like leftovers
- Captain America Brave New World - will tank bc no one will care and that director isn’t v good
- Deadpool vs Wolverine, Blade, Fantastic Four - will go through roof bc Feige understands these characters
-
Anyway lets see how I go
Random thoughts
- really liked this on reviewing - it had a serious, romantic tone that was very effective
- felt padded at times with dream sequences etc but generally well written
- Mark Damon didn't annoy me this much - he's fine
- I really liked the lesser known woman Elizbaeth Fahey and the old butler - didn't know him, they were effective
- extremely well put together for its budget
- Price is so wonderful, campy yet honest
A series of reminisces by McMurtry about his adventures in the screen trade. He's had a very long career as a screenwriter - Horseman Pass By not only sold to the movies, it became a hit, so even though McMurtry had little to do with it, he benefited and was given screenwriting jobs. Since then he managed to have a big hit every decade or so - Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment, Lonesome Dove, Brokeback Mountain.
Buffs won't necessarily learn much new about Picture Show but I enjoyed glimpses of his random but long career: working for Lew Grade (including a stint on Raise the Titanic), various unmade films (including one on Wyoming lawman Ed Cantrell which sounded interesting).
He writes with great affection of good friend Diane Keaton, and collaborator Diana Ossana (who he started working with after his quadruple bypass and found he could still write novels but not the more disciplined sccripts). Moving account of Swifty Lazar who McMurtry liked but claims cost him $15 million with sloppy legal work post success of Lonesome Dove. He discusses his Dove sequel/prequel mini series, not in a huge amount of detail. There's talk of being on the Brokeback Mountain award trail. I wanted more - for instance more detail about his feud with Bogdanovich which he refers to, or if he had any thoughts why none of his lost Lonesome Dove books did that well as mini series - but this was very enjoyable.
Aside: he says George MacDonald Fraser wrote a script for the Lone Range film which I know he did but I thought that was a later one for John Landis, not for Lew Grade.
1) Scarface (1932) - terrific gangster flick even today
2) Red River (1948) - terrific Western even today (I'll stop saying that)
3) His Girl Friday (1940) - terrific etc
4) El Dorado (1967) - I like it better than Rio Bravo
5) Only Angels Have Wings (1939) - guys and gal bein' tough and Hawksian
6) To Have and Have Not (1944) - watch a couple fall in love
7) The Big Sleep (1946) - entertainingly confusing
8) Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) - make more musicals Howard
9) The Thing (1951) - of course it's his film
10) Ball of Fire (1941) - good Stanwyck
No I didn't forget Rio Bravo or Bringing Up Baby I'm not really a fan of either.
1) He made a bunch of films with John Farrow - Big Clock, Nick Beal, Copper Canyon
2) He played an Aussie in Three Smart Girls
3) He worked with Aussie director Peter Sykes in The House of Nightmare Park
4) The Pyjama Girl Case (1977) - he starred in this Italian gialo based on an Oz murder case
5) Hostile Witness - he toured here in the play in 1967
6) Starflight the Plane that Would Not Land - the plane is travelling to Australia
Watching this you do constantly feel "this would be more fun with Vincent Price" but Milland is a good actor, suits the period. It's a very good story, with fear of premature burial, and actual premature burial. I like Hazel Court more this time. Richard Ney is hilariously wet but I was prepared for him. Bit too much exposition at the end from the sister - better if this had been dramatised throughout. (Richard Matheson didn't do the script for this one, Charles Beaumont and Ray Russell did).
Sort of a second rank star - great career, many classic films, not a great deal of individuality, buta very good actor. Was very at home at Paramount. Got chunky in the 50s and missed leading man parts.
Anyway top ten
1) Battlestar Galactica (1978) - the pilot, he's great as a smarmy fifth columnist
2) The Lost Weekend (1945) - basic choice but it's a very good film and he's excellent
3) The Major and the Minor (1942) - kinky comedy which would be banned now but he's very good
4) The Girl on the Red Velvet Swing (1956) - flawed film but he's very well cast
5) Arise My Love (1940) - more Brackett and Wilder, Milland is great
6) X the Man with X Ray Eyes (1963) - AIP gave Milland some excellent roles of which this was the best
7) The Big Clock (1948) - superb noir. Honorable mention for Alias Nick Beal.
8) Beau Geste (1939) - he's better cast than Gary Cooper
9) Reap the Wild Wind (1941) - glorious epic
10) Bolero (1934) - his part is small but I just really like this film.
I admired this. But didn't like it. Beautifully written with tremendous sense of time and place - Thalia 1954, with its cattle, small bars, pool rooms, back verandahs. But Hud here is so loathsome - he rapes the housekeeper who is now black, and kills the grandad. The film softened him a lot. The black housekeeper is given phoentic dialogue which dehumanises her - McMurtry was never great with POC characters.
I was interested to read about character Hermy, bragging about the big smoke of Oklahoma City - John Ashley played that role in the film and was cut out. You can see Ashley in the part esp as Ashley was an Okie.
This is more from the POV of the young guy, Hud comes in and out. Hud is so loathsome the book is unpleasant to read at times though short. For me, anyway.
Look, I guess this is fine. It's the sort of book I was always going to like. I just wish it was better. There's synopses and essays of the films, plus an interview with Corman on each of the films - but only of the main eight, not of the spin offs like The Terror or of the second wave of Poe adaptations with Price. And only talks with Corman, no one else. The definitive (or even a more comprehensive) book on this topic awaits.
Anthology series of Poe stories, which benefits from the virtues of this series - Vincent Price, gorgeous photography and sets, Richard Matheson's script.
"Morella" is competent but very familiar - grieving widower, "she's not really dead", ingenue, wife back from the dead, house burns down. Price acts his butt off but needed stronger support from Maggie Pearce or Leona Gage.
"The Black Cat" is much better. Peter Lorre is on hand as a drunk whose wife hooks up with Vincent Price. It's over the top but Lorre vs Price is a great battle of hams and it's a grim story - I mean, Lorre drugs the couple and bricks them up alive... and they die. That's full on.
"The Case of M Valdemar" is classy, helped with the ageing star power of Basil Rathbone to take on Price and a plot that doesn't whimp out.
This has its own little niche in the Corman Poe cycle - most of the others I group as duos (Usher and Pendulum, Raven and Tale of Terror, Premature Burial and X Ray Eyes, Ligeia and Masque).
It’s different but also it’s not, which is a weird thing to say but I’ll try to explain - it’s based on a Lovecraft novel, and there’s some things which are unique to this (a mob of villagers, transporting to another world) but other aspects are typical of the series (Price, Dan Haller, Price playing a good man haunted by his ancestor).
Maybe it was a mistake to have the early section happen so long ago - surely it would’ve been better for it to have been within the memory of the townsfolk. They could have played up the relationship between the doctor and Price’s wife, Debra Paget. Paget doesn’t have anything to play apart from being scared. She should’ve been possessed too. Or they could’ve made more of bringing back to life dead Price’s girl... made her a character.
It looks terrific, the music is lovely. I enjoyed it. I was aware of its second-tier status but as second tiers it's fun. This was one where you go "you know, Price is fabulous, but this could've handled a different star").
I'd be curious to see how this played on stage. A one man piece, with Ben Chifley talking into a dictaphone, and taking phone calls. It read well, like an essay - Ellis' essays are full of pieces on Chifley. He also loves to write about "oh poor me" and "if only". Mind you there's some interesting if onlys here... if only Labor hadn't lost Francis Forde or Nelson Lemmon (who I didn't know)... maybe. Most effective moment is him going to bed and the radio announces from four days later that he'd died.
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| Evening Standard 21 Dec 1981 |
1. Superman 2
2. For Your Eyes Only
3. Flash Gordon
4. Snow White
5 Any Which Way You can
6 Clash of the Titans
7 Private Benjamin
8 Raiders of the Lost Ark
9 The Elephant Man
10. Tess
11. The Jazz Singer
12. Chariots of Fire
Take out... a lot of films made in Britain. But British subject matter... well only Chariots, really.
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| Daily Tele 29 Dec 1979 |
3. Every Which Way but loose
4. Alien
5. Watership Down
6. Deer Hunter
8/ Quadrophenia
12. Death on the Nile
13 Porridge
16 The 39 Steps and the Bitch & Lord of the Rings
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| Daily Tele 27 Dec 1972 |
2. The Godfather
3. Fiddler on the Roof and Bedknobs and Broomsticks
4. The Devils
5. Steptoe and Son
6. The French Connection
7. Nicholas and Alexandra
8. Ryan's Daughtet
9. Dirty Harry
10. mary Queen of Scots
11. A Clockwork Orange
12. Wht's Up Doc?
13. Straw Dogs
14. Shaft
15. Klute
 |
| Daily Mirror 27 Dec 1972 |
Odd film. Too lumpy to be a genuinely great movie - not enough story, the troubled script development does come across on screen. It lacks the logic of a Richard Matheson on the keys. Padding. Plots seem to come and go eg Asher's boyfriend and father.
But the elements are wonderful. The red death. Vincent Price as a truly evil man. The beauty and bravery of Jane Asher. The gorgeous photography. The cotsumes. Price revealing himself. The decaying skin at the end. Patrick Magee's creepiness. Hazel' Court being a groupie for Satan.
Some bits made you laugh, like a gorilla suit man on fire. Others are unsettling, like a little person and the young girl with a dubbed voice.
A unique piece.
1) Action in Arabia (1944) - George Sanders as a conventional hero
2) Rebecca (1940) - almost steals the film as Rebecca's "cousin"
3) The Black Swan (1942) - in a red beard as a pirate!
4) Samson and Delilah (1949) - excellent villain toasting the temple as it falls on him
5) Ivanhoe (1952) - another excellent baddy role, complex, in love with Rebecca
6) The Saint Strikes Back (1939) - enormous fun
7) Call Me Madam (1953) - he sings, and well
8) Psychomania (1971) - sad bc it was his last film but what nutty gloriousness to go out on
9) Son of Monte Cristo (1940) - terrific villain and death
10) All About Eve (1950) - oh I guess so...
Entertaining book. Some good goss - Matthew Broderick being a pain on Glory (his mother whinged about the script), developing Legends of the Fall, Julia Roberts being a pain in Shakespeare in Love, advising Sydney Pollack against Julia Ormond on Sabrina.
Skips past his 21st century career very quickly - I would've liked more on say Pawn Sacrifice. His relationship with Pollack is particularly interesting. Like a lot of genuine liberals he can't seem to spot his own blind spots (eg unable to understand why Muslims might be upset with The Siege - it's because there are no heroic Muslims, Ed). Also while he like many in Hollywood is keen to push his own log cabin narrative, shortly after arriving he was besties with major players and at 27 was story editor on Family.
Look, I'm being mean, he's obviously talented and has had a terrific career and made lots of interesting films and TV.
I'm not a big Streisand head but have no particularly strong feelings about her. This book is very good though. Well written, enjoyable. Feels "her". Strong willed, eccentric, passionate. She's copped a lot of bad press over the years but from men trying to punish her. Arthur Laurents and Garson Kanin struggled to direct her with their "set and forget" methods. She had better luck with people like Jerome Robbins, William Wyler, and Peter Bogdanovich, people who challenged her. Did badly with weaker directors like Gene Kelly, Frank Pierson.
She writes affectionately of Elliot Gould which I liked - they had issues (he was partial to marijuana, jealousy and had a gambling habit) but was basically supportive. Also she has a lot of time for most of her exes: Ryan O'Neal, Geoge Lazenby (! - it was just a flirtation during On a Clear Day You Can See Forever), Kris Kristofferson, Warren Beatty (who she's not sure if she slept with), Pierre Trudeau, Omar Sharif, Anthony Newley (I didn't know that). Isn't nice about Sydney Chaplin who she had an affair with then called off and he behaved badly (Walter Matthau was a mate of his, hence his bad attitude on Hello Dolly). Likes most of her co stars even if she didn't fall in love with them (she was a method actress that way) - eg James Caan. She adored Brando and they had a friendship but not an affair (I don't think0).
Full of "gee I wish you'd done that" moments- she should've turned director on A Star is Born, should've made Merry Widow with Ingmar Bergman
She's ambivalent about Sue Menges (says Menges begged her to be in All Night Long), Jon Peters.
Particularly fascinating accounts of her musicals and movies especially The Way We Were (admits to not remembering much about For Petes' Sake). Also deep dives her albums and TV specials.
Lots of good juice like Arthur Laurents sending her a mean letter after her first album - but she also liked him because of The Way We Were; Mandy Patinkin demanding to have an affair; Complex descriptions of Ray Stark, Sydney Pollack
There's a bit too much about clothes and blocking of scenes. And the last few chapters are really grim - the Clintons, politicis, philanthropy, her 21st century career. But def read the first bit.
Very thorough account of the battle. Sometimes I got lost. I appreciated the detail and genuine attempts to get it right. Useful summary. The Japanese truly almost won - the Yanks had three minutes of good luck that was crucial. But the luck added up. Little odd to read the attack on Sydney dismissed as a sideshow.
Random thoughts:
- filming so much outside acts as a tonic - gives a different feel, ditto filming in UK
- Elizabeth Shepherd has a big part, bigger than Price - she does very well - complex, juicy role
- Price is a massive red flag but I guess life is dull
- good script from Bob Towne
- gosh the young male lead is a drip
