Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Movie review - "Small Hotel" (1957) **

 A cultural time capsule in its way - an adaptation of a play that was quite popular in the mid 50s with Gordon Harker an old character actor.  I guess he's fine but someone more lively and scurrilous like Sid James would've been more fun as the film's about an experienced waiter who knows how to grift and survive. The plot has him about to be fired, which is a universal fear, and give stakes.

Harker has a nice relationship with Janet Munro as a waitress who he tells how to chisel and gets in trouble. There are entrances and exits and characters come on to do "bits". It feels as though it lacks extras (as in, people) - it wouldn't matter on stage but does on screen. 

Wet Hollywood leading man John Loder is the efficient expert. Amiable enough.

Movie review - "Nosfertau" (2024) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 Gorgeous production design. Good actors. Lily Rose Depp brings star power, Nicholas Hoult is always reliable. Memorable scenes.

The film is a classic script written by a director - full of scenes and moments but badly needs interrogation. I got lost in the second half. Got confused by the time line how long it took to go from one thing to the other and why people tried to kill vampires at night instead of the day and why Depp didn't tell her plan to Hoult? Did you even need Aaron Taylor-Johnson's character? Or his family? I mean good scene killing the kids, good gore but... just more time taken up in a 130 minute movie.

Movie review - "Bitter Harvest" (1963) ** (re-viewing)

 I went easier on this the second time. But still... Janet Munro is a woman who dares to hope for something more. She's raped while unconscious, gets pregnant, moves out, hooks up with John Strider, who is kind of shown to be the perfect man, who loves her. But he's also controlling, doesn't want her to go out, throttles her when she makes fun of him, is dull... at the end he goes off happily with his new girl while she's killed herself with tablets.

Her great crime is not wanting to me a mediocre idiot settling for nothing. The film punishes her. But it also states her case. It's hard to forget the image of John Strider being happy while her ambulance rushes past.

Alan Badel is terrifically engimatic as a producer who lures her. 

Fascinating film in many ways in that it's sympathetic to its heroine but also hates her. It seems to endorse its dull male lead but enough sneaks through that he's a horrible person.

A flop. Peter Cotes was sacked during filming.

Movie review - "Jolly Bad Fellow" (1964) **

 Michael Balcon tries to repeat the success of Kind Hearts and Coronets with another film about a loveable murderer. Robert Hamer even wrote the script. Leo McKern has a lead role but isn't right. Janet Munro is bright and sexy writhing under bed sheets (again) although it's a stretch to have her into McKern.

McKern is an academic who starts bumping off rivals. Black comedy is hard. This doesn't work. Black and white. Not very funny. Don Chaffey not a great comedy director.  Dennis Price is in it.

Sunday, December 29, 2024

Movie review - "Uninhabited" (2010) **

 Credit to Bill Bennett he manages to reinvent himself. Here he goes for the low budget horror route - an attractive young couple are on an island where Strange Things Happen. He touches on the colonial past and it's about a woman of colour being raped and getting revenge which is fair enough, just feels a little off soming from a white filmmaker. Geraldine Hakewill and Henry James are fine - James didn't do much else, I'm surprised that he didn't at least get a soap and/or some guesties. 

Bennett goes on location which is pretty. It doesn't quite build appropriate menace - people keep getting knocked out and waking up when letting scenes play out might have been more effective. Ditto giving the young couple to play something more than "young hot couple" might've been ideal. And the Greek fisherman just being, well, bad Greek fisherman.

Basically it needed more menace and jump scares. Says I, anyway. It was fine. Hakewill has a strong screen presence.

Movie review - "One More Train to Rob" (1971) **

 This actually has a decent story - train robber George Peppard seeks revenge on the man who betrayed him (John Vernon) and married his girl, and in doing so winds up helping some Chinese. It's done in with a combination of Andrew McLaglen's flabby direction and that bland Universal treatment - bright colours, backlot sets, sting music.

Peppard loved the character he played - a rascally train robber. I get why but he's a little too low energy. peppard was at his best playing straight men surrounded by rascals.

Peppard doesn't bounce off anyone. John Vernon has an Irish accent that comes and goes. The Chinese angle is sort of French but no real characters - noble prostitute (Frances Nuyen, who is at least allowed to live instead of die tragically), noble son, noble old man.

This needed to be more fun. Peppard thought it was fun and it was fun for him, I'm sure, more than his usual characters. But it isn't fun. I'd dump the boring Chinese couple. Have all the Chinese women and they all want to sleep with Peppard. Have one Chinese turn traitor. Have more colourful other characters.

Larry Cohen once said Andrew Mclaglen and Burt Kennedy killed the Western in the 1970s with their dud movies and this is definitely an argument in favour of Cohen.

I think this was the last of his five picture Universal contract - Tobruk being outside that.

Movie review - "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" (2024) *** (warning: spoilers)

 Another solid entry, surprisingly emotional, with a big death toll - I kept expecting that young girl to be alive. Lots of subtext about dealing with loss. Plenty of production value and spectacle. Suffers from some bloat and overlength but generally a good time.

Movie review - "Cool Change" (1985) *1/2 * (warning: spoilers)

 There's a terrific moment in this - single mum Lisa Armytage is struggling to get cattle off her land and about to give up when all of a sudden Jon Blake and all these cattlemen who've been feuding uniting to help her out. That's an image strong enough to build a movie around even if yes it would be nice to have a few female riders in that group. But...

It's confusing as to why she needs help - she's overgrazing is that right? And the people chasing after her are... park rangers with machine guns is that right? Because they work for the state government who want a national park? 

And the conflict among the cattlemen is weak and/or confusing. 

They really, really needed to do more work on the story. The story, rather than the script. It's just... bad. The greenies want to kick the cattlemen off because of overgrazing. I think I get that. But the conflicts within the cattlemen are confusing - Jon Blake's dad looks like Lisa Armytage's uncle. The older women look the same. They act the same (sensible! No nonsense! No plot function!) Having Blake be the father of Armytage's kid muddies things - doesn't give us anything. I don't like her for not telling him. Why not have it as a baddy's kid? Why not have a proper baddy? Deborah lee Furness is meant to  be bad but she's just a politician. Why have Furness go topless in a family flim? Why have Armytage be do dumb she assumes Blake slept with Furness? Why build to an exciting climax then have cattlemen play dumb jokes. Start climax and go backwards.

People use property developers and criminals as villains because they work. They are personal, their goals are clear. This is too messy.

Needs to be simple. Government want to kick cattlemen off land. Pick on Armytage. She's overgrazed. Use her as an example. Give her a good reason why it's happened. Cattlemen are divided viciously over what to do. Armytage too proud. Blake tries to help. She has to move stock from A to B in 24 hours to raise money. Ticking clock. Etc.

There was a market for this sort of film, even this sort of propaganda. They stuff it.

Saturday, December 28, 2024

Movie review - "Brothers" (1982) *

 Okay wow so yeah, uh.... Terry Bourke's output is... variable. This is a melodrama best known for its opening sequence which dramatises the killing of the Balibo Five. Only here it's the Balibo Seven - two brothers, Chard Hayward and Ivar Kants, actually survive and have PTSD. Kants settles down in a New Zealand town with Alyson Best and Haywood wants him to go back to journalism.

That's not a bad set up. But the result is a mess, growing increasingly campy as it goes along, with Hayward having a fling with a local girl and getting beaten up and they break up and he's with Jennifer Cluff and the local girl has a break town and turns into a hooker and tries to kill herself and has a break down and the town hate Hayward and there's a gang who want to beat up Hayward and Kants does it and then there's a bus crash and... 

Anyway a lot happens. Not much to do with the Balibo Five.

In fairness the plot is not worse than the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink efforts of say MGM in the 30s which were pushed over by having Clark Gable and Jen Harlow in it (the non classics, of which there were plenty, people just forget them). This doesn't have quite the same star power - no knock on Hayward he just, uh, isn't Clark Gable. (Having him do karate was perhaps particularly unfortunate). It's his film - and Margaret Laurence's - more than Kants. I think maybe they should've leant into Hayward and Kants more.

Is the bus crash based on a famous bus crash? The woman being impaled by a log is pretty funny.

Movie review - "Ride the High Country" (1962) ****1/2 (warning spoilers)

 Terrific film. It just works from its opening credits, beautifully shot and haunting melacholic theme tune. Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott are perfectly cast in the leads (did this inspire Larry McMutry's Lonesome Dove), Mariette Hartley is a different female heroine (still pretty but smart, unconventional), the brothers are a terrific rogues gallery: handsome but sketchy James Drury, LQ Jones, Warren Oates, etc. Ron Starr is a little more stock as the kid but that's fine.

The location work looks gorgeous (mines, snow, towns with cars). It's got these old 1950s trappings with Peckinpah's freshness (brothel scene, end of West). The story is simple but effective - great jolt when Hartley's father is killed - and the ending is guy cry nirvana.

Movie review - "The Siege of Pinchgut" (1959) **1/2 (re-viewing)

 Such a great idea and amazing start,  with all the excitement sucked out of it via treatment.

- unrealistic casting

- wishy washy goal of convicts

- confused motivation other convicts (why does Victor Maddern go along with everything)

- wet performance from Neil McCallum

- doing absolutely nothing with Heather Menzies

- making the convicts too unscary

- not raising stakes

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Movie review - "The Stud" (1978) ***

 Terrific exploitation. Trashy melodrama story which says something about the class system giving it some depth, terrific disco soundtrack (10CC, Hot Chocolate), great casting, lots of sex. Reminded me of 70s Oz films like Petersen - director Quentin Masters was Australian. Joan Collins shows off her body a lot and has lots of sex. Oliver Tobias is handsome and can act- why didn't he become a bigger name? 

Lots of fun.

Movie review - "Cannon for Cordoba" (1970) **

 Quentin Tarantino likes this film but his taste is a little suss on this period, he can't resist TV movie style entertainment and B listers. I should love it -  a guys on a mission story to get some cannons, George Peppard, Pancho Villa era.

But it takes forever to get going. I thought they'd start with the mission but then there's an attack then they go, like more than 30 mins in. The characters are all the same. There's a girl. There's some guy. Another guy. Peppard. Peppard detours with hookers. Big moments have no impact like the girl betraying someone and a member of the team who wants revenge on Peppard for letting his brother die and the deaths of the others.

Movie review - "Damnation Alley" (1977) **

 How did this cost so much money? At its heart it's about just a few people running for safety in a post apocalyptic wasteland. I guess there's the giant insects but they aren't very convincing. There's the landcruiser but that's just a landcruiser. B level names like George Peppard (then), Jan Michael Vincent, Dominque Sanda. I like Jackie Earl Haleyas the kid, There's a scene where the van goes through water. They could've cut the opening sequence as war is declared though that has emotional impact.

Peppard has a bad moustache. Little effective character work. Stock rednecks raping. This should've been done cheaper and trashier.

Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Movie review - "Hot Frosty" (2024) **

 Kind of like Splash with a snowman and set at Christmas. Lacey Chabert seems bored, Craig Robinson and Joe T prove they need writers, it all feels a little sluggish.

Movie review - "The Third Day" (1965) **

 Amnesiac mystery starts off well benefiting from George Peppard at his handsome peak but bogs down - doesn't have enough action and movement, too much hanging around a house. Elizabeth Ashley isn't quite right as the female lead - I'm sure she was great on stage, but that magic doesn't transfer. Roddy McDowall is fun as her slimy brother and Herbert Marshall offers some low key star power as his father in law but other roles feel undercast: Mona Washborne, Arthur O'Connell.

It's fun to see Sally Kellerman as a floozy and Arte Johnson is a creepy dude. This is the sort of film I expected Robert Webber to turn up in and he did.

The main problem is the lack of star power and pace. If they couldn't afford other names in the case it needed Peppard to be on the run more, uncovering things more slowly.

Movie review - "The Take" (1974) **

 Starts well with a terrific robbery sequence. Billy Dee Williams has star charisma and there's colourful support including Vic Morrow, A Martinez and especially Frankie Avalon as a dodgy guy. Apart from the sequence at the beginning and another bit at the end though it's plodding and not very gripping. Dee Williams' corrupt hero is a little too much of an anti hero - the baddies should've been meaner to him. Location filming in New Mexico is interesting made it feel like a prequel to Breaking Bad at times.

Monday, December 23, 2024

Movie review - "Jamboree" (1957) **

 One of those late 50s rock musicals where they shove a bunch of acts together and have a loose story to keep you watching. The story here is about a male and female singer who are put together by their squabbling managers - that isn't a bad story though not much is done with it.

This was made by "Vanguard" a company of Subotsky and Rosenberg who later formed Amicus.

Musical acts include Jerry Lee Lewis (singing 'Great Balls of Fire') and a very young Frankie Avalon. Paul Carr, the male juvenile, looks about 50.

The film includes as many DJs as artists. Historically invaluable.

Sunday, December 22, 2024

Book review - "David Bowie: The Oral History" by Dylan Jones

 Exhaustive. Fun. Illuminating. He was a well endowed, skilled lover. Had a fling with Lionel Bart. Made Let's Dance to make money. Very professional in studio. Got off drugs quickly. Smart. An artist.

The stuff of his later career isn't as interesting. The Tin Machine gets bagged.

Radio serial review - "Wings above the Diamantina" by Arthur Upfield (1939)

 A Boney novel adapted. Some dodgy race stuff but at least he's the hero. The mystery isn't bad. Everyone talks posh but they were like that back then. The version I heard wasn't credited but I think it was from 1939 with Ron Randell.

Book review - "The Beginning or the End" by Greg Mitchell (2020)

 Account of the making of no one's favourite MGM movie - about the making of the bomb and it being used. Goes through the original idea - a scientist contacted Donna Reed! - the battle to do a screenplay, all the censorship, rival project from Hal Wallis written by Ayn Rand. It's weird MGM made this before Dore Schary joined the studio!

A few nit picking errors - Above and Beyond made money. And the book feels as though it needs a new edition now that Oppenheimer has some out. But fascinating. Great way to explore this subject with its hype, prima donna scientists, lunatic army men, vain presidents. I had sympathy most for Hollywood producers, just trying to make the damn thing happen.

Book review - "Sailor and Fiddler" by Herman Wouk

 I once read a lot of Wouk - well the war novels, Marjorie Morningstar, Youngblood Hawk. I sensed even then what was autobiographical.

Easy to read semi memoir. Well written (no surprise). Useful summary of his career. Enjoyed the account of workin in radio and getting into the navy via the fact he worked for Fred Allen. Mentions the drowning death of his young son. His wife is all wise all knowing - she'd just died. Not a lot of in depth analysis of his self. But useful and short.

Book review - "I'll be in My Trailer" by John Badham and Craid Modderno (2006)

 I don't think of Badham as an actors' director but his films tend to be well acted. Full of good advice, some of it common sense but even that it's ideal to hear again. A lot of testimonies from people who are now cancelled or cancelled ish eg Frank Langella, James Woods, Stephen Collins, Mel Gibson. I liked the stuff about bad behaviour the most.

Book review - "Fletch" by Gregory MacDonald (warning spoilers)

 Never read this. Lots of dialogue. Funny. But not Chevy Chase funny - not as funny as that. Chase did his own version. But the Underhill account is in here. Solid mystery. Everyone wants to have sex with Fletch - like, everyone. He's a Vietnam War vet, a hero. Alan is a lot more sympathetic here - like not a villain.  Story broadly the same. I didn't get the joke he was playing on his two ex wives. To get them to move in and he lied? Sorry is that funny? Easy to read. There's a fourteen year old hooker Fletch befriends who dies who I think he might be sleeping with.

Movie review - "Skidoo" (1968) *

 Basic plot simple - retired hitman goes into prison to kill gangster. Jazzed up with wackiness. Otto Preminger not a naturally funny director. The late sixties doesn't help.

Carol Channing bizarre. Groucho Marx tired. Frankie Avalon good - so too Frank Gorshin and Austin Pendleton. John Phillip Law tries. Alexandra Hay is pretty.

A mess. Interesting.

Book review - "Desperately Seeking Something" by Susan Seidelman

 Entertaining book about a director who was a big deal in 1985 but then had a few under performing films then went to movie prison and never quite got out of it although she had a strong career including the pilot for Sex in the City. Written brightly. Maybe could've done with a few trims (there were a lot of bits where she says she couldn't remember the name of something). Seidelman was middle class, so isn't as traumatised - her parents subsidised her lifestyle, which every director needs, and she married well, had a kid etc. I don't meant to be dismissive, just pointing out it adds to a life.

Madonna stories are the best, offering to go down on Barbara Boyle, munching faces as she auditions love interests. Rosanne Barr offered to go down on Seideman too.

Random observation - Seidelman doesn't seem to repeat key collaborations. What happened to the writer of Susan? Why didn't she work with the same stars again? Really wish she and Rosanna Arquette worked together again (although Seidelman admits they butted heads).

Also I think the good luck that greeted Smithereens and Susan vanished later on. She didn't have the stars to make her films non-ignorable, except arguably Meryl on She Devil. Making Mr Right and Cookie needed bigger stars I feel.

Loved the story about Gary Oldman flaming out on Dylan. Had no idea about Seidelman's later movie work.

Monday, December 16, 2024

Movie review - "The Castilian" (1963) **

 Sidney Pink is best known for his sci fi efforts but this is a medieveal (well, tenth century) epic about a Spanish hero - a kind of El Cid knock off. There's plenty of production value. I didn't recognise the Latin actors but there's cameos from Alida Valli and Broderick Crawford, Cesar Romero is the hero's BFF and Frankie Avalon is a strolling troubador.

Sunday, December 15, 2024

Movie review - "Drums of Africa" (1963) **

 Producer Al Zimbalist re-used Kong Solomons Mines footage for Watusi and does it again here, to even less effective results. To give him his due, the script does try  - Robin Estridge did it and there's lots of chat between Lloyd Bochner and Mariette Hartley about love and stuff, which implies ambition. But it lacks decent exploitation - pace, sex, twists. Foreigners are dodgy, whites know best, the black Africans try. The action is unexciting. A comic evidence is underutilised. Hartley's nude swum is lively.

Michael Pate is in it as a dodgy Portugese and Ron Whlenis in it as a ship's captain. Frankie Avalon is professional, charming and can sing but sorry he just looks weird in Africa. His part could've been cut out. Bochner has a deep voice but that's it, really.

Torin Thatcher plays a version of Allan Quatermain who is given a different name for some reason. Hartley does her best.

Script review - "Juno" by Diablo Cody

 Read this just for fun - warm, simple, unplotty. Great dialogue of course but also consistent - Juno and Leah talk different to Juno and Bleeker and Juno and her parents. Complication provided by the two yuppies. Cody doesn't demonise either not even Mark - it's clear Vanessa doesn't get him either.

Saturday, December 14, 2024

Movie review - "One Way Wahine" (1965) *1/2

 More obscure beach party movie despite starring Joy Harmon, Anthony Eisley and Edgar Bergen. Harmon has this weird red tan and seems to be mentally off. Combieds some bech stuff with a robbery plot. Filmed on location but it stil looks cheap and studio bound. I am a soft marker on beach films but the indeptness of this got me down. Bergen's role is very small.

Script review - "Fletch" by Andrew Bergman

 Not the final transcript bc there are some key admissions (narration, some famous lines, the legendary "I billed it to the Underhills" line). But the core of it is all there and many famous lines were scripted. First rate mystery. Great villain - the scary cop. Charming relationship with Gail. Colourful characters. Escape sequences. It's a series of encounters but it's well plotted out.

Movie review - "Winter a Go Go" (1965) ** (warning: spoilers)

 The stars of Swinging Summer go to work for Columbia - photography looks great, neat ski action, sluggish story (they start a ski lodge). It as a TV vibe - goons try to wreck business - interspersed with musical numbers. Racist comic cook. The leads get married. Had trouble telling people apart.

Movie review - "A Swingin' Summer" (1965) ** (re-watching)

 A "lake paty" movie - the beach party set at Lake Arrowhead, Surprisingly heavy and serious - lots of talk about needing money, pressure, and a big brawl that is very seriously done involving James Stacy. More fun is William Wellman being pursued by Raquel Welch, a nerd determined to have a boyfriend for the summer.

Jerry Lewis' son performs in this. Michael Blodgett dances. The lake is pretty. Quinn O'Hara has to be too serious.

Thursday, December 12, 2024

Movie review - "Thunder Alley" (1967) **1/2 (re-watching)

 Solid car film. Maybe benefits from having Fabian rather than Frankie Avalon - he's more serious, gritty, chip on his shoulder. He's sleeping with Diane McBain but falls for Annette Funicello who has one of her better roles. She's still the girl but she drives, sings, fights of Warren Berlinger, has a lot of swagger, and there's a nice father-daughter relationship. The film could've done with a little more star power - John Ashley at least. But strong score, pretty good film.

Movie review - "Alien: Romulus" (2024) ***1/2

 The first decent Alien film in a long time - made by a director who clearly knows what he's doing. Sets up a strong world, and flows it through logically. The Easter eggs for fans are a little annoying. Some excellent acting.

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Random list - pop stars whose parents were movie stars


- Gary Lewis from Gary Lewis and the Playboys - son of Jerry Lewis
- Peter Lewis from Moby Grape - son of Loretta Young
- Crispian Mills from Kula Shaker - son of Hayley Mills
- Dino, Desi & Billy - sons of Dean Martin and Desi Arnaz
- David Crosby son of Floyd Crosby the DOP

Movie review - "It's a Bikini World" (1967) ** (rewatching)

 Deborah Walley is a cutie. Warm, gorgeous, plucky. Tommy Kirk is fine - better as the nerd. There's not enough story. Needs at least two more plots. Great photography and music.

Movie review - "Empire of the Ants" (1977) **

 Giant ant movie from the 1970s. Joan Collins shows some potential land buyers around, they're attacked by giant ants, they run to safety, but find the townsfolk are under thrall of the ants. I really liked this twist.

Interesting cast - Collins, Robert Lansing, Robert Pine (Chris' dad, the sarge from Chips).

It's not a very good movie but it's impossible to dislike.

Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Movie review - "Trap" (2024) ** (warning spoilers)

 Gets off to a strong start, playing with audience sympathies. Josh Hartnett has his best role in ages and rises to the occasion. M Night Shamalan clearly loves his daughter. The film does run out of ideas. Shifts POV twice - to his daughter and Alison Pill. I think we could've done with one. Shame they had to lead the stadium. Hayley Mills is a profiler and she's quite good!

Book review - "I am Pilgrim" by Terry Hayes

 Admired this more than liked it. Hayes has done a lot of work, done his research, come up with sequences of imaginaiton. But it's got a black heart. I didn't care about the hero or his protagonist or anyone really and the cracks about how easy it was for immigrants to move around got annoying. A book that demands respect though.

Movie review - "A Christmas Frequency" (2023) **

 Ansley Gordon is a solid lead. Novelty in seeing Denis Richards. The male lead has a literal mop of hair.  Awkward blocking.

Movie review - "Acquaman and the Lost Kingdom" (2023) **

 Big, loud, dumb. Who cares about Jason Mamoa and Patrick Wilson being brothers? Who cares about the random villain being bad. Some interest in seeing Amber Heard's role being minimised - I guess she'd be too heroic? They may as well have killed her. Or kidnapped her. And Nicole and Dolph.

Dull.

Book review - "Helen Morgan: The Original Torch Singer and Ziegfeld's Last Star" by Chris Connelly

 Definitive book on Morgan, a singer I was mostly familiar with because of Showboat and that film about her. Hollywood was kind of obsessed with that twenties Broadway period with Texas Guinan, Morgan, Ziegfield etc. It sounds like fun with everyone drunk and getting raided and making huge amounts of money. Of course there was a dark side and Connelly is strong on that - he's strong on everything, even Morgan's legal troubles, her complicated upbringing (lots of step dads).

Impossible to imagine a better book about Morgan.

Movie review - "Ski Fever" (1966) **

 European version of beach party/ski movies. Shot in Europe with Curt Siodmak as director! Martin Milner is a dull hero. Claudia Martin is pretty as an American at a ski lodge. There's some lecherous Europeans. The girl who had dream sequences were funny. Nice ski shots. Some songs. A pool scene.

Movie review - "Stop Making Sense" (1984) ****

 I finally saw it! Understated direction. The band are very talented. David Byrne is a clear star. Changes visual look.

Movie review - "Sergeant Deadhead" (1965) ** (rewatching)

 Some bright moments but the film never seems to make up its mind what the story is. There's a bumbling soldier who gets shot into space - fine - but then he has a big head and so they get in a look alike, which is a whole new movie, then the lookalike tries to avoid having sex with Deadhead's fiance. Then the lookalike disappear and they go to meet the president.

It's unsatifactory. Some songs are alright. The players try. Frankie Avalon gives his all. Deborah Walley is sweet. Why is John Ashley in this? Harvey Lembck. Donna Loren gets some lines. Bobbi Shaw is wasted. Buster Keaton gets  a joke. Eve Arden gets a song.

Friday, December 06, 2024

Movie review - "Fireball 500" (1966) ** (warning: spoilers) (re-watching)

 A transitionary film from beach party to stock cars - I've seen this a few times and now I'm used to it and it's more enjoyable. The acting is very good, Fabian helps make it more serious, the conflict between he and Avalon feels real, I like the moonshine stuff, Harvey Lembeck is excellent in a serious role.

I think it was a mistake to resolve "who caused the fatal accident" before the big final race. There should have been some sabotage - Fabian found out but the audience didn't and the baddies tried to kill him or something.  

An odd mishmash but endearing.

Movie review - "Puppy Love" (2022) ***1/2

 Sweet rom com which actually has a point of difference in that it's more about the guy - the lead, a screenwriter surrogate most likely (Grant Gustin) has bad social anxiety, is very used to being alone. He mets hot mess Lucy Hale and they dislike each other but in a cute twist their dogs hook up so they're stuck together.

Hale is always good in these roles, and she and Gustin have genuine chemistry. There's a range of "turns" from wacky people the lead run into each other. Some of these go over the top, others work.

But you genuinely sense the leads fall in love and it's all very sweet.

Wednesday, December 04, 2024

Movie review - "The Last Lion" (1972) **

 I know little about South African cinema - mostly Jamie Uys and various films shot there in the 70s. This one has a script by Wilbur Smith though not based on one of his novels. He did use part of it for A Time to Kill because like that this is about a dying man determined to kill a lion. He's accompanied by a woman only not his daughter bu doctor Karen Spies. Jack Hawkins is the guy, only a short time from death, with his voice dubbed. He's playing a dying man so that's moving.

Most of it is chats with Hawkins and Spies. Spies is pretty but her role is "you shouldn't be doing this". There's another guy who is a guide who I expected to have a romance or die but he doesn't. There's no development. No twists.

It's novel. Just a little dull.


Movie review - "The Spoilers" (1942) **** (rewatching - warning: spoilers)

 Much better than the 1930. Much clearer. Better dialogue. Acting. The lot. Okay the blackface scene isn't great - Wayne putting on boot polish to rob a bank.

But the other stuff is good. The set. John Wayne young and sexy playing off against Marlene Dietrich. Harry Carey, who I expected to die. Richard Barthemless shines as Dietrich's offsider. Randolph Scott, firm and tough, a surprise villain. Margaret Linsday lots of fun.

Everyone wants to have sex in this. Dietrich and Linsday want to have sex with Wayne. Wayne wants to have sex with Dietrich and Lindsay. Barthemless and Scott want to have sex with Dietrich. Dietrich wouldn't mind having sex with Scott.

Movie review - "The Spoilers" (1930) ** (warning: spoilers)

 First sound version of the famous tale. Not very widely seen. Not bad. Confusing. Gary Cooper has youthful charisma. He still plays a sook when he thinks a woman has betrayed him.

Cooper aside lacks stay power - Kay Johnson is a bland heroine, Betty Compson a dull saloon gal, William Boyd a bland baddie. The death of Cooper's friend had an impact. The brawl at the end is fine.

Director Edwin Carewe doesn't do much of a job. The tension going to sound is an issue but the movie didn't have to be as confusing as it was.

Tuesday, December 03, 2024

Movie review - "Beach Blanket Bingo" (1965) *** (re-watching)

 The last really strong AIP Beach Party movie - energetic, confident. Weird moments like that moody ballad Frankie Avalon sings and the Deborah Walley fake rape plot. Odd that John Ashley is Frankie's rival.

The romance between mermaid Sylvia Kristel and Jody McCrea (who is the lead as much as anyone) is charming because both. are dumb - but then he gets with Linda Evans? Confusing that both are blondes. Unsatisfactory.

Linda Evans gorgeous and sweet. The double act of Bobbi Shaw and Buster Keaton is funny. Fun silent era chase and climax. This was peak Mac Sennett period at AIP.

Don Rickles' night club act isn't funny. Paul Lynde is funny.

Monday, December 02, 2024

Movie review - "The Secret of Nimh" (1982) ***

 I'm not that familiar with Don Bluth films. The animation is very fine, and there are memorable sequences such as visiting the owl and going underground - all the spooky stuff. There's some full on scenes of animal testing, people getting crushed and stabbed, and adult flirting. 

The story lacks momentum - it's about staying still, inside because a kid has pnuemonia. 

Really interesting voice cast including Wil Wheaton, Shanneon Doherty, Elizabeth Hartman and Aldo Ray! Hartman took her own life only a few yers later.

Sunday, December 01, 2024

Movie review - "Tudor Rose" (1936) ***

 British view on Lady Jane Grey. It doesn't have much time to settle into anything other than Jane and her husband were sweet and naive, and Edward VI was manipulated and the adults were prats... but that's basically true, so why not? There is no central core relationship - at the very least it could've dug into the love story more.

 Nova Pilbeam briefly became a star playing the lead. John Mills didn't playing her husband - he just is too young looking. Cedric Harwicke is a terrific villain. I liked Desmond Tester, from Sabotage, as Edward VI.

Very stylishly shot and directed by Robert Stevenson.


Movie review - "Out of Sight" (1966) *

 There's no reason why a mash up of Beach Party movies and spy films couldn't have worked. AIP could've pulled it off - they mixed it with haunted house films and sci fi. This is just a bad movie. Jonathan Daly is hard work as a spy's butler who becomes a spy.  He' s a drag. Maybe he was famous at the time. But Frankie Avalon in this role would've been so much better.

There's some terrific music - versions of "Baby Please Don't Go" and "It's Not Unusual". I did really like the three female assassins

But on the whole this is a dull movie.