Book review - "Irving Thalberg" by Mark Viera

 Thalberg is such an engimatic figure in Hollywood history but Viera does a good job of digging into the primary sources and making him into a real person. It's hard to ascertain the contribution of a producer but Viera rises to the occasion.

Book review - "Operating Biting" by Max Hastings

 Hastings' smaller books aren't as good as his epics - he gets bogged down in detail, lacks the big sweep, characters and gift of zooming in on the telling anecdote. As a book on it's own merits it's fine, just not as good as his bigger pieces. No mention of the Alan Ladd film The Red Beret.

Book review - "Scripts from the Crypt: The Brute Man" by Tom Weaver and Scott Gallinghouse

 Definitive biography of Rondo Hatton and The Brute Man. Exhaustive, moving, affectionate, not too long. I enjoyed it.

Book review - "Touch the Devil" by Jack Higgins (1982) (warning: spoilers)

 Brisk and easy to read though it feels like reheated left overs - not just one IRA dream hit man who is artistic and has a conscience but two, an enigmatic French woman who actually doesn't do that much in the story, an escape from prison, a woman turned traitor because of a big dick, a chase after a psycho,getting out of troubl with a hidden gun,   a confrontation at the end between a Prime Minister and an assassin. Really Brosnan (one of the dreamy IRA men, Liam Devlin is another one) should have died at the end but Higgins couldn't bring himself to do it.

Book review - "The Future was now" by Chris Nashawaty

 Not bad look at key films from 1982 - ET, Poltergeist, The Thing, Blade Runner, etc. I didn't learn anything new and some of the prose was a little purple but it passed the time.

Book review - "Universal Terrors 1951-55" by Tom Weaver, David Schecter and Robert Kiss

 Exhaustive. Thorough. Definitive. Probably best read in small chunks when watching the films.

Book review - "Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time" by Barry Sonnenfeld

 Hugely entertaining second volume of memoirs, more fun than the first because it's just about movie stars and he doesn't go on as much about his wife (sorry to be blunt, it just gets wearying). 

Great stories about self hating Gene Hackman, fun but mercurial Will Smith, lazy John Travolta, difficult Walter Parkes. No punches pulled, it seems.

Book review - "Fan Mail" by Nick Hornby

 Entertaining collection of non Fever Pitch soccer writings by Hornby. As with that book sometimes I didn't follow what was going on but always worth reading.

Book review - "Hell Hath No Fury Like Her - Story of Christine" by Lee Gambin

 Solid book, slightly odd structure, excellent interviews (John Carpenter, Bill Phillips, Keith Gordon, Alex Paul though weirdly no John Stockwell or Steven King). No big behind the scenes dramas, just professionals doing a good job.

Movie review - "The Seekers" (1954) ***

 Few seem to have kind words for this melodrama but I liked it. Robust Ken Annakin direction, colour, location shooting in New Zealand, silly storyline but full of action, Jack Hawkins not entirely well cast as a tormented man but still authorotative, ditto Glynis Johns as his wife. Noel Purcell solid as Hawkins sidekick Kenneth Williams as another Britisher - I think Anthony Steel should have played this role, maybe even Hawkins' role... who wants to see Hawkins commit adultery? Laya Raki is the Tondeleyo part.

Not great, but always something going on. I had fun.

Movie review - "A Day to Remember" (1953) **

 Harmless Betty Box-Ralph Thomas comedy made just before Doctor in the House which has some location filming in France but isn't in colour and doesn't quite have the stars. Rank was giving Donald Sinden a big push here he's the romantic lead of a team of men from a London pub who go to paris.

Sinden is a war vet visiting a grave and falling in love with once young now nubile Odile Versois, both of whom who are fine and can act but neither are as captivating as say Dirk and Brigitte in Doctor at Sea. Sinden has a girlfriend Joan Rice but fortunately she goes on a date and falls in love with a visiting Yank on the same day. Phew. No stakes though.

I liked Bill Owen wanting to join to foreign legion because he's embarrassed his girlfriend is too tall. There's a not bad one about a guy trying to smuggle watches.

The cast and charm isn't quite right. It's not bad, mind. Just not quite there. Sinden loved it but that's not surprising - he gets the girl, gets to be charming and moody and all that.

Movie review - "The Million Pound Note" (1954) **

 Mark Twain's story had enough potential to be a decent film but it's not a good adaptation - no sense of character for the lead, no wish fulfilment, lack of subplots (needed a femme fetale, needed a villain, needed hero to do more cool stuff). Feels written for Alec Guinness. Gregory Peck isn't very good. No one is good, really, Sidekick valet doesn't even talk.

Colour is wasted. As are character actors. Dull female lead who seems greedy. Were there no others available?

Misfire.

Movie review - "The Kidnappers" (1953) ****

 Charming account of two little brothers whose father has died going to live in Canada (shot in Scotland) with their grumpy grandad (Duncan Macrae) his nicer wife (Jean Anderson in make up) and single daughter (Adrienne Corri, beloved for her 70s efforts).

The stars are the kids, Jon Whitely and Vincent Winter, who are sensational. I loved the atmosphere. It's a little hairy they're looking after a baby - the baby is cute too.

I loved the Boer War stuff - Macrae is annoyed at all this Boers who've moved to Canada, which I assume is based on a real thing.

It feels like Nova Scotia to me even though I've never been there and it was shot in Scotland. Worked for me though! 

J Arthur Rank loved this movie. I think the great northern nepo baby related to all those tactiurn gruff characters (grumpy grandad who wants the kids to go to work at age eight, the Afrikaaner farmer) melting just slightly because of the kids. (Though the farmer makes a point of blaming his daughter.) This is the northern methodist equivalent of a guy cry movie.

Sidebar: Vincent Winter made a bunch of other films then moved into behind the scenes, production managing and assistant directing. Like Kevin Corcoran. Had a good career, but died of a heart attack aged only 50. Smoker, I assume.

Movie review - "Top of the Form" (1953) **

 Ronald Shiner was once a huge comedy star - he had been plugging away for years then had some monster hits on stage and screen. This was at his peak. If you like him, great. I found it dull and unfunny despute a funny set up - bookie winds up as headmaster, chaotic school.

Fun to see Ronnie Corbett and Anthony Newley as school kids.

Audiences at the time liked it.

Movie review - "Desperate Moment" (1953) **

 Dirk Bogarde and Mai Zetterling prop this up by virtue of sheer star power. Location filming in Berlin helps. But it's not much of a story. Bogarde confesses to a crime he didn't commit because he thinks Zetterling is dead, then discovers she's alive and escapes to clear his name.

Again one senses Rank was hoping for some Third Man style grosses.  Bogarde is full of charisma but his character is an idiot and I couldn't care about his adventures. This film just felt dull and sluggish. Location filming in Europe is interesting but that's about it. Philip Friend, who loves Zetterling, is dull, Albert Levien twirls his moustache. I just didn't care. 

This is a negative review. Sorry. But it was dull.

Play review - "Hail to the Thief" (May 2025)

 Well directed. Nicely stylish. A little overpraised. If you don't know the play it's hard to follow. A friend said of this show it's a red flag when you watch a show and can think of its parody. I like the Ophelia-Hamlet dance - she was great.

Paul Wendkos

 Films and Filming Aug 1968

 

Don Sharp Films and Filming 1963

 

Nat Cohen articles

 

Rod Taylor at debut of The Man Who had Power over Women

 

Peter Finch on acting

 Films and Filming

 Also Films and Filming

 

Piece on Alan White

Films and Filming (I think 1957)

 

Nigel Patrick on Uncle George

 Films and Filming

 

Earl St John interview

 1957 interview Films and Filming

 

Anthony steel interview

 Films and Filming

 

Ralph Thomas Interview

 Thomas, Ralph, 'My Way with Screen Humour', Films and Filming, Feb. 1956, p. 5

 

Book review - "The Secret Life of Ealing Studios" by Robert Sellers

 A book to be enjoyed as a collection of anecdotes from lesser known figures at Ealings - assistants and what not. It does provide an interesting take. Not sufficient depth to be regarded as a stand alone book more something to be read in association with other histories on the studio.

Book review - "John McTiernan" by Larry Taylor

 I enjoyed this I just wish it was better, had more research done. Felt like an extended magazine article. Needed less skim analysis of the films, more of a deep dive.

Book review - "The Eagle Has Landed" by Jack Higgins

 Splendid book. Really terrific storytelling. Bold idea well worked out, plenty of twists and obstacles. Benefits from slightly unusual angles eg IRA working with Germans, British Free Corps soldiers, Channel Islands in wartime. There's a superhero honorable German, a superhero honorable German - these were more novel then. A nubile seventeen year old girl who just wants It. This is less good. Still, a great yarn.

Movie review - "The Long Memory" (1953) ***

 Robert Hamer effort is very well directed, with plenty of style and snazzy use of locations. John Mills is a little bland as the man wrong sent to prison for 12 years - the sort of part that would've really suited say Stanley Baker, who wasn't established at the time yet. Dirk Bogarde could've done it (even if perhaps too young). Jack Hawkins. Richard Todd.

Elizabeth Sellars is the woman who helped betray him and is now married to cop John McCallum. This is really intriguing only not much is done with it story wise except McCallum worries, feels guilty and get Sellars to confess. McCallum really needed to try to kill Mills - or to be killed by the baddy, to give it a kick. Or Mills needed to die or still be in love with Sellars. It's too easy for him to forgive and have the nice horny foreign girl come along.

Still, a pretty good film.

Movie review - "The Farrows of Hollywood: Their Dark Side Of Paradise” by Marilyn Ann Moss

 John Farrow is a fascinating, under appreciated director and character in Hollywood history. He deserves a really strong book. This isn't quite there though it's got some good stuff. It also has a lot of waffle and psychology. I was hoping for more research, such as analysis of Farrow's writings (of which there were a lot eg his book on the popes and Damien the Leper). Being fair, there's some research, I wanted more of it and less psychology. Maureen O'Sullivan and Mia Farrow get decent airings as well.

Movie review - "The Venetian Bird" (1952) ** (warning: spoilers)

 I think the filmmakers and Rank were hoping for a new Thin Man in this tale of Richard Todd investigating a mystery in Venice. There is some location work in Venice but the movie is rather gloomy. The photography feels overcast and Todd is grim, as is Eva Bartok. 

Director Ralph Thomas and Betty Box became known for breezy entertainments and a lighter touch might have helped this - imagine say David Niven in the lead instead.

The story is both confusing and simple. Todd's looking for a guy, everyone says he's dead, we know he's not because John Gregson is billed third. Gregson is with Bartok and Todd doesn't know Gregson so Todd doesn't have a strong personal connection to the cast.

Location shooting helps and Gregson has a decent fall to his depth. Reality is undercut by all the non Italians playing Italians eg Sid James, Gregson, Geogre Colouris.

Movie review - "Something Money Can't Buy" (1952) **

 This starts off as a lovely surprise - a look at a young married couple, Anthony Steel and Pat Roc, starting out on marriage after the war with kids, Director Pat Jackson has clearly done work with his leads who are much better than in other films - both gorgeous, especially she who is very sweet.

 Then things go wonky as the couple go off separately - not as in separate separate but spend tome apart - working for an agency. He's a chef with a food truck and she has an agency and all the relatable stuff goes. The film loses its way.

Still one of Steel's best performances, ditto Roc.

Theatre review - "Back to the Future The Musical" (May 2025)

 A surprise - my expectations were low, I'd heard some songs that weren't much but this is a really colourful, fun show, a reminder of what a terrific film its source material was, bright 80s and 50s fashion and fun, energetic numbers. I liked some changes - swapping terrorists for plutonium, and having the car only respond to Doc's voice not Marty's. The heart of this is George but the by play between Marty and Doc is joyout and the horny mother gives it an edge.

Nat Cohen article 1986

 

Book review - "George Cukor's People" by Joseph McBride

 Interesting take on Cukor's career, focusing on performances and acting. McBride isn't an actor or director but is a good writer and it's a fresh take. He doesn't seem to want to write in depth biographies any more but it's worth a read.

Book review - "The Girl on the Balcony" by Olivia Hussey (2018)

 The sort of book I expected Hussey to write - sweet, a bit scatty, full of love and emotion. She was Argentinian but went to England as a girl, didn't have a lot of money but was blessed with beauty. Had a long stage run in The Prime of Miss Jean Bodie then got Romeo and Juliet. Admits she didn't take her chances -blew True Grit and Anne of a Thousand Days and did All the Right Noises, was prone to taking off long slabs of time but developed a niche for being in ensemble pieces such as Death on the Nile and was especially good at played scared girls. She seems like a lovely person.

Movie review - "Made in Heaven" (1952) **

 Dimwitted British comedy from the Rank Organisation which wastes color photography. How's this for high concept - a couple (David Tomlinson, Petula Clark) hire a maid from Hungary who is hot so all the men want to root her. Tomlinson and Clark are in some competition where they have to be happy for a year - this is based on a real thing and that's a basis of a good movie. I think they needed several couples in competition.

Clark is too young (19) and too pretty for Tomlinson. Everyone tries.

Maybe the film would've been better had they cast Yvonne de Carlo, who'd been in a comedy from the same producer (George Brown) Hotel Sahara - her being a man-trap maid would've been fun. But Sonja Ziemann is just amiable.

Movie review - "It Started in Paradise" (1952) **

This film sucked. Basic idea is good - All About Eve in world of woman's fashion. Plenty of clothes and Jack Cardiff colour photography. Crap script which fails to dramatise and create differentiated charaters. The stars aren't up to it - Jane Hylton dull, and Muriel Pavlow. The men aren't better - Ian Hunter, Terence Morgan.

Thing is they had Kay Kendall in the film! In a minor role! Ditto Dana Wynter!

Director Compton Bennett does a bad job. This is the sort of movie Ted Black would've knocked out of the park.

Problems - bad pacing, inadequate stars, confusing story. No sex, no decent romance, no delienated stars.

 

Movie review - "Meet Me Tonight" (1952) **

 Anthology films were briefly the rage in Britain, which explains this not very good adaptation for three Noel Coward plays.

I disliked the first two. Red Peppers, about the feuding couple (Ted Ray, Kay Walsh), felt like a star vehicle that would work if you liked the stars but I didn't know Ray or Walsh (yes I know they're famous back then but not to me). It was a drag. 

Fumed Oak was dreadful - a whingeing Stanley Holloway.

Ways and Means, about a dodgy couple, was more fun, with Nigel Patrick and Valerie Hobson animated.

The color photography felt wasted.

Movie review - "The Importance of Being Earnest" (1952) ***1/2

 The play is actor proof, and this has a fine cast, even if Michael Redgrave was a little old. Michael Denison is a lot of fun and one wonders why he didn't have more of a film career. Joan Greenwood is sexy, Dorothy Tutin bright and sparky, Edith Evans as excellent as you'd think, ditto Margaret Rutherford.

Rank's films under the British Film Makers scene via the NFFC and Earl St John were of solid quality, on the whole.  This, The Card, Hunted... it's not a bad effort.

Movie review - "The Card" (1952) ***

 I know Alec Guinness has a lot of fans. For me he's a little too twee, too smug, too ethereal. This isn't a bad film. It helps his character has some get up and go. Ronald Neame directs with aplomb and Glynis Johns is sexy and greedy. Petula Clark is the dim ever loving young thing Guinness goes off with at the end. More could've been done with Valerie Hobson's aristocrat.

Not an Ealing Film, made by Rank. 

Book review - "The Violent Enemy" by Jack Higgins (1966) (warning: spoilers)

 Read this because of the movie. One of Higgins' IRA supermen (brave, smart, World War Two hero, worried about violence) busts out of prison to help with the cause. Young woman finds him hot. Dodgy collaborators. Javert like cop. Plenty of action and pace, though Higgins as he admitted hadn't learned the art of characterisation yet. The happy ending felt a little odd.

Movie review - "Tangerine" (2015) ***

 Watched this after Anora and it's striking how much the works have in comment (observation not criticism) - story of sex worker, narrative is tracking someone down, lots of driving around town at night searching for someone, person throws up in cab, Armenians (same actor), ending cut to black, story light. Absolutely worth watching.

Book review - "Woody Allen - A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham" by Patrick McGilligan (2024)

Big tome. Like all McGilligan books it's very thorough, goes into detail on it's subjects ancestors, possibly wastes too much time going on about critics and critical reputation. Goes through the allegations with admirable thoroughness which also makes the book really depressing to read. Not McGilligan's fault. He tries to be objective but his sympathies are with Allen, invoking the blacklist, Allen's donations to progressive causes, invoking The Bad Seed and The Children's Hour as well as the Scottsboro Boys and the McMartin case (like, seriously?) without seemingly having done too much research into reports of sexual abuse or empathy as to why women especially got so upset. We are all prisoners of our age, race, gender and class I guess. Also is there no better source for box office than Buzzfeed? Wikipedia was cited there too.

I'm nit picking. It's very thorough and will, like all McGilligan biographies, stand the test of time.

Movie review - "Millers in Marriage" (2024) **1/2

 Ed Burns in more contemplative mode - less jokes, actually no jokes, a lot of philosophising as former 90s heartthrobs flirt. Juliana Margulies,  Burns and Gretchen Mol are siblings, all having relationship dramas - Margulies is a best selling author with whiny Campbell Scott as husband, Mol has alcoholic Patrick Wilson and flirts with Benjamin Bratt, Burns is with Minnie Driver and deals with eccentric ex Morena Baccarin. A plot involving Brian d'Arcy James and Margulies is teased but not developed. The intensity of Baccarin gives the film some needed energy. It's very laid back. Kind of Burns' Interiors I guess.

Movie review - "High Treason" (1951) **

 Semi sequel to Seven Days at Noon isn't as good. No ticking clock, no compelling lead just a smug copper and a dull stressed agent, no humour, no interesting characters.

Red scare movies are fine if there are scares but this doesn't have any.

Stylishly shot and professionally put together. Just annoying, somehow. The posh commie villains lack the pizzaz of Hitchcock's foreign agents.

Movie review - "Pillow Talk" (1959) **** (rewatching)

 Really good script. Witty. Well structured. Maybe Thelma Ritter could've been used more (her suggestion to Rock is something Rock could've thought up). Risque - bathtub scene, jokes about Rock being gay and Rock having a baby. Rock is handsome and winnings. Doris terrific. But Tony Randall also superb. Everyone is terrific.

Saw this on the big screen. Stylish. Fun.

Movie review - "Return of Swamp Thing" (1989) **1/2

 Fun Jim Wynorski where it's great to see Heather Locklear out of soap stuff having a fine old time. Sarah Douglas is lots of fun and Louis Jourdan. The Jaws spoof of people showing scars was not originated in Clerks  - Wynorski does one here with Monique Gabrielle.

Movie review - "Top Secret!" (1984) **** (re-watching)

 Bewildering this wasn't a hit as the jokes are great. Maybe it doesn't have the same heart.  Maybe it lacked cameos. Maybe the central romance isn't as strong. Who knows?

A lot of big props gags.

Movie review - "Anora" (2024) ****

 Confident, very well done. Maybe could've had a half hour cut out - all those searching scenes. Excellent acted. Ideal for Mikey Madison - cheerful, not too bright, likeable girl with spine. Yura Borisov is a standout too.

Movie review - "Juror No. 2" (2024) ***

 If this is Clint's last film it's a classy one to go out on - confidently made, interesting, no clear hero (maybe the lack of a star hurt it at the box office - Clint could've played the Nick Hoult role even, just adjust the kid plot for a grandkid or something), amibiguous ending. The spirit of the 70s goes on. Shame it didn't get a proper push.

Movie review - "The Deep" (1977) **1/2 (re-watching)

 My memories of seeing it as a kid remain. Jacqueline Bisset in the shirt. The voodoo torture. The cricket match. The brutal murder of a friend. Spooky underwater stuff.

Lacks interesting characters. The actors are there but couldn't they have more to play. Couldn't they have given Jacqueline Bisset something to do? All she does is get attacked, look great when damp, and make a suggestion about a woman in ancient times.

Really Robert Shaw's character should have been killed before act three like he was in Jaws.

Lovely music. Great locations.

Movie review - "Gladiator 2" (2024) **

 Dumb. Badly written. Stuffs up a potentially great story. Paul Mescal is not a star. Denzel is. Why not start with the kid being whisked away with his mother. Great twin Emperors but they are wasted. Full of stuff that exists to be "cool" - baboons fighting etc. Makes no sense. Lazy.

Movie review - "King of Kings" (1961) ****

 For some reason this film is called a flop when it did very nicely particularly internationally - maybe MGM were expecting Ben Hur Mark Two which it wasn't but it made a strong profit.

Handsomely made. Smart. Hunter does well in a difficult role. The support cast steal the show but they always do in Jesus movies.

Movie review - "Hell to Eternity" (1961) ***

 Some theatre owners looked at the money coined by To Hell and Back and hopped on the bandwagon with another true life WW2 story. It has the edge in that it's about a man raised by a Japanese family so it tackles the treatment of Japanese. Jeffrey Hunter plays that role. David Janssen is a sergeant.

The film takes it's time, over two hours. This makes for an effective first act where Hunter grows up we get to know the family. Act two is terrible - Hunter and his mates on leave, dancing with some women. This is slightly bizarre. Act three is the Battle of Saipan - epic and well done.  Karlson has a gift for violent scenes it's full of memorable moments.

Movie review - "Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff" (1979) **

 Remarkable movie. Written by Polly Platt from a William Inge novel. Directed by Marvin Chomsky, and it has a 70s telemovie feel. Stars Anne Heywood and produced by Raymond Stross the husband and wife team.

Heywood tries her best as usual, and isn't quite up to it, as usual. She goes for it though - naked, raped, consensual, coervice, forced oral sex... all on a black man whose body is festishesed. 

There's a PhD in this movie.  It doesn't quite work. Needs better handling. But certainly lots of chew on.

Movie review - "Wrong Bet" (1990) ***

 Strong early Van Damme vehicle with the star in excellent sensitive-head-kicker form as the foreign legionnaire who avenges his brother's death - and gets the brother's widow and kid in the bargain.

I didn't realise the main subplot was a riff on Walter Hill's Hard Times and that's great. Works well. Harrison Page is the James Coburn part as the hustling mananger. 

Ticks the boxes well. Solid fights. Good character drama. Constrasting characters. Van Damme gets to be tough, sensitive, naked, adoring, loving, sexy. Well constructed vehicle.

Movie review - "Malpas Mystery" (1960) **

 Not bad mystery from Sidney Hayers and Anglo Amalgamated with Maureen Swanson out of prison and drawn into a series of weird episodes. Malpas is a creepy figure with a mask. Geoffrey Keen is Swanson's long lost father. Ronald Howard is a weedy detective not hot enough for Swanson. Sandra Dorne pretends to be Swanson.

I wish there had been more Malpas type weird stuf but this is tight and fun.

Movie review - "The Ring" (2002) ***1/2

 Spooky, clever, atmospheric, nicely handled, great shock moments, strong lore. Very strong work from Naomi Watts. All the cast is effective though.

Scary little girls - so many famous killers are kids, people respond to it I think. Film school aesthetic.

Movie review - "Five Branded Women" (1960) **

 This has a tremendous high concept - five women accused of colluding with a German officer (Steve Forrest) have their heads shaved by partisans and are kicked out of town and have adventures.

There's a classy cast - Silvia Mangano, Jeanne Moreau, Vera Miles, Barbara Bel Geddes and Carla Gravina - as well as Van Heflin and Harry Guardino as partisans. So it's a Europudding. Weird accents.

Starts off interesting but then becomes about the men. The women don't get enough time. There's a big battle.

Martin Ritt slagged off this film.

The basic idea is still strong.

Movie review - "The Ring Two" (2005) **

 The photography is normal, the mood has gone, it feels more generic. Naomi Watts is excellent the little kid is fine. But it's not much of a movie.

Movie review - "Inferno" (1999) **

 Tail end of peak Van Damme - he was big enough to produce and hire John Avildsen to direct and do his own cut.

It starts off interestingly with Van Damme in the desert being beaten up, Jamie Pressley driving past, Van Damme having visions of Danny Trejo.

But as the film goes on it gets increasingly confusing - Trejo is a vision then he's real, Pat Morita seems as though he's doing something big but he's hardly in it, I struggled to follow what was going on.

Over time I leaned in to the madness of the movie. Van Damme having a threesome with two blondes he's rescued. The randomness of Trejo's and Morita's appearances. A script that rips off Yojimbo then has a character at the end suggest they watch Yojimbo. The town using UFOs at the end to explain everyone disappearing. Coyote metaphors.

Van Damme produced and the film feels like it was produced by someone on cocaine, though I might be doing the man a disservice.

Action sequences are fine by the way. 

Female lead Gabrille Fitzpatrick is an Aussie.

Movie review - "Moulin Rouge" (1952) ***

 Bright, colourful, interesting. Gets points for Jose Ferrer's casting. Not a conventional lead - I think this honesty sold it, along with the dancing, music, prositutes, drinking and sex. Being set in France gave it the right amount of distance for English speaking audiences - they could enjoy it at arms' length.

Zsa Zsa Gabor is great fun. A dollop of lightness. Excellent stunt casting.

I really liked the first half. The second half was more of a slog - the second girl was dull and the script became repetitive.

Love how Jose Ferrer was made insecure by the handsomeness of Peter Cushing!

Movie review - "The Black Orchid" (1959) **

 Why did they greenlight this? Maybe it was post Rose Tattoo fever - another tale of a horny Italian widow, only even hotter, played by Sophia Loren. She falls for widower Anthony Quinn. Most conflict comes from Quinn's protective daughter Ina Balin.

All the acting is very good. Quinn is restrained and excellent. Loren has charisma. Balin very good.

It's just a bit dull. Sorry.

Movie review - "No Down Payment" (1957) **

 Sex in the suburbs - at least that's what I'm assuming Phil Yordan wrote and attracted producer Jerry Wald, but director Martin Ritt was more interested in the economics. 

Lots of acting. Mixes older Fox contract players (Jeffrey Hunter, Sheree North) with newer ones (Joanne Woodward) and method types (Pat Hingle). Fun to see Tony Randall in a serious role. 

The male roles are better than the female - Randall is a drunken salesman, Cameron Mitchell a war veteran, Pat Hingle worries whether to help an Asian workmate. Woodward has some fun as Mitchell's boozy wife. Patricia Owens has a full on breakdown scene after she's raped by Mitchell.

Too diffuse to be effective -too many characters to follow. Still, of interest, especially the characters of Mitchell and Randall.

When Owens is raped Hunter listens for about five secods then goes to attack Mitchell - but Mitchell easily overpowers him. That's interesting. 

The ending has all the characters go to Church. Life in the suburbs seems very depressing.

Movie review - "Edge of the City" (1957) *** (warning: spoilers)

 Made with skill. Beautifully shot. Excellent acting. I acknowledge the historical importance of it in depictions of blacks.

But at heart this is still a TV play.   Like many TV play adaptations there's not enough story. John Cassavetes gets a job on the docks, works with Sidney Poitier, nasty Jack Warden wants Cassavetes to work with him. And... Oh there's a romance with a dull woman nicely played. All the acting is fine.

When Poitier is killed it's depressing. He has a wife and kids and he died because of Cassavetes and because he's black. Cassavetes is a deserter and... yeah. So. Whatever. 

It is well made. I couldn't get into it. Cassavetes and Poitier are full of star factor, Ruby Dee is fantastic.

Movie review - "The Long Hot Summer" (1958) **

 Disappointing. Tennessee Williams lite. CinemaScope, Fox stars, Method actors, Paul Newman looking sexy, Orson Welles mugging it up, Joanne Woodward isn't hot for Newman until the end so it's not fun to see Welles try to set them up. If she was hot for him but fighting it that would've been fun.

Richard Anderson is dull though I guess that works. Tony Franciosca carries on. Lee Remick looks as though she's going to be more interesting than she is. Angela Lansbury provides solid support as always. 

I wanted to like this more than I did.

Movie review - "Friday the 13th" (2009) ***1/2

 They tried to make a good movie. They succeeded. Thought has been put into it. They care. People can't escape Jason for proper reasons. Jason is scary. The campy moment is when he discovers his mask but that was fine. There are decent kills and sex and nudity. 

I can't believe they didn't do a sequel.

Movie review - "The 39 Steps" (1935) ****1/2 (reviewing)

 Abducting a woman at gunpoint maybe isn't so romantic these days. The spooky nature of much of the film though has aged well. Paranoia. Scary. Great POV. Superb vignettes. Wonderful sense of humour.

Movie review - "Child's Play" (1988) ***1/2

 Fun horror film. Terrific villain in Chucky, who is scary, fast, cute and deadly. Catherine Hicks maybe overacts, Brad Dourif overacts just the right amount, the kid is fine, Chris Sarandon allows himself to be knocked out. Some bravaura set pieces like Chucky trying to kill Sarandon in a car and the final battle.

Movie review - "Goldeneye" (1995) **** (re-watching)

 Splendid theme song and romancing tune. Lousy action score. Pierce is very handsome and plays it well - he fits right in. Strong script. Memorable pieces. Why no Felix Leiter?

Movie review - "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers" (1988) ***

 Odd movie. Half really good - strong story, expanding lore, terrific ending, Donald Pleasance hamming it up, Kathleen Kinmont having fun as a teen minx, a young protagonist ups the stakes, there's memorable set pieces in a school and on a roof. You can feel someone on the movie trying to make it good.

Against this is a bunch of illogical movements and silly scenes. A little more care and this could've been special. Much better than I'd heard. 

Movie review - "For Your Eyes Only" (1981) ***1/2 (re-watching)

 Excellent script but probably needed Sean Connery rather than Roger Moore. Can't think of the point of the Lyn Holly Johnson character. Loved Topol, Julian Glover, Cassandra Harris, Carole Boquet is dreadful. Suspenseful end. Wonderful locations.

Book review - "A Prayer for the Dying" by Jack Higgins (1973)

 Ripping page turner which feels incluenced by Odd Man Out though I may be unfair - Fallon is a superheroic doomed IRA man hired to do a private job. A terrific priest character - a violent man, veteran of World War Two, Korea and fights in Mozambique. Fallon is a worthy character too. The gay sadistic gangster hero is unfortunate - thriller writers loved their homophobia around this time.

Very exciting twists and turns and it all builds even if did think Fallon would kill the main guy earlier. They should've bought in the IRA too. I would love to have adapted this.

Movie review - "Hotel New Hampshire" (1984) **

 The novel is probably good. This seems to lack focus. Hard for a movie to do justice to more than one to three characters as this proves. Rob Lowe tries but is too pretty. Jodie Foster is stunningly good. Natassa Kinski suits the movie as well.

The serious stuff - death of the mother, rape of Foster, death of a child - is handled well.  But the film got irritating. I think it was a mistake to follow the characters of Vienna and then Hollywood. Sure, it was in the novel, but so what?

This is the sort of movie that no doubt has its fans. I am not among them. But good on Tony Richardson for having a go.

 

Movie review - "You Only Live Twice" (1967) **** (re-viewing)

 Connery seems bored at times but he's still Connery. Great settings and lines and moments. Tanaka is tremendous. Blofeld fun. Piranha lakes and Ninja armies and secret trains and Ken Adams being a genius. They kill off Aki too late and Bond gets over her too soon - that's the main flaw.

Movie review - "After the Ball" (1957) **

 Biopic about Vesta Tilley who I've never heard of and starring Pat Kirkwood who I've never heard of but both were big deals in England. It's very stock biopic, with bald exposition and musical numbers.  Tilley's life lacked drama -a lot of shows, a bit of World War One drama. She retires.

Romulus wanted to made it because it was a vehicle for Kirkwood and also Laurence Harvey who seems hamstrung in a hamstrung part as the husband/manager. No death, no reversal, no illness (they pump up an allergic reaction).

Some colour and. songs. Peter Rogers produced and it feels thrifty.  I mean it's period, and in colour but there's a lot of tight shots.

Movie review - "Fresh Air" (1999) ***

 Not much of a story, but interesting visuals, a bright cast, likeable characters. I enjoyed the scenes with the guy and his sick dad (Tony Barry) and it was authenticity. The director likes women.

Opportunities for drama thrown away like  Bridie Carter seemingly interested in the guy - why not have her flirt with him? Or Nadine Garner?

Still, hard to dislike.

Movie review - "The Custodian" (1993) **1/2

 John Dingwall may have written a great script for Sunday Too Far Away but he wasn't flawness and he's not the best argument for writer-directors. This is an intense, florid, corruption tale with Anthony La Paglia as a cop who decides to dob in mates including Hugo Weaving to journo Kelly Dingwall.

Famel characters consistently bland - Essie Davis' perfect coffee girl who just wants to be there for La Paglia and invites him home and is basically nothing, Naomi Watts also nothing to play as Dingwall's girlfriend, and there's also La Paglia's trashy wife Joy Smithers, and Barry Otto's nothing wife who is murdered (the only kick of this piece), Weaving's got a wife who's just there too. Nothing wrong with actors, just nothing to play.

La Paglia is meant to be a top cop but we don't see him do anything except dob. It's actually not that much of a role. Weaving goes full scenery chewing. Barry Otto is the best in the cast.

I don't think there's been a film with so many female characters that are nothing - you could cut all out of the movie except Otto's wife and she only makes it because she gets murdered.

Just put a dead body in it and have an investigation.

Movie review - "Flesh and Blood" (1985) **1/2

 The original idea was meant to be about two old comrades, Rutger Hauer and Jack Thompson, clashing. Orion pushed for more of a lovestory. Because it's Paul Verhoeven that means rape. 

Hauer is ideally cast although he and Verhoeven clashed on the film. Jennifer Jason Leigh has a perm, a sexual curiosity, gets gang raped, then is into Hauer.

The other casting is a real grab bag. Hauer's team include Bruno Kirby (!), Susan Tyrell (terrific), Brion James. Tom Burlinson is fresh faced as the prince betrothed to Leigh. Jack Thompson is a mercenary. 

The baddies are diverse - include several women, a kid, a gay couple.

Solid story. But no emotional links between characters. We forget Thompson and Hauer fought together. Burlinson is a stranger basically to Leigh and Hauer. Leigh and Hauer knew her.

Better if Leigh was Thompson's daughter and knew Hauer/Burlinson a long time.

Leigh goes naked a lot.  To a point where it's like "is this really necessary for the script?"

Movie review - "Mad Dog Morgan" (1976) *** (re-watching)

 I want to like it more than I do. I love the photography, sets, period detail, cast, Dennis Hopper, violence, madness, boldness.

Not a great script - a series of encounters. No core relationships other than Hopper and Gulpilil which seems like two odd bods. Frank Thring is evil. Jack Thompson is a pursuing cop but his role is small - he's undermined in a way too by Michael Pate's pursuing cop.

Great visuals. Consistently interesting. Phillipe Mora can't quite hook in the viewer via narrative. But he had a go.

Movie review - "The Journalist" (1979) *

 This got made because Michael Thornhill was on the board of the NSWFC and so had an "in", Roadshow made money on Petersen and so loved Jack Thompson, I think funding bodies thought "it's time we made a light comedy and here's one" and it sounded fun - "Jack Thompson as a rapscallion".

It's terrible.

This feels like a first draft, a vomit draft. The sort of thing entered in the Monte Millers.

Why didn't they get David Williamson to give it a pass?

You sense it'll be bad from the opening credits -played over scenes of Sydney Harbour, but the water isn't blue and the credits go on and on. They can't even get the credits right. I mean, just have pretty pictures of Sydney and keep it short. But all these people get their own card eg Stewart Wagstaff.

The story is dumb and confusing. 

Thompson is bad.  

Okay what I liked

- Elizabeth Alexander is beautiful and tries

- I like Candy Raymond who pops in at the end

- Don McAlpine is a good cinematographer

- Sam Neill does well

- there is camp in seeing Jack Thompson at the disco

- it shows the sexual desires of elder women eg Carol Raye, Margot Lee

What doesn't work

- the film keeps changing what it's about - he goes to Hong Kong,  then he's a journalist, then he's doing a government job then he's a journalist

- he's a bad journalist writes lousy copy can't type and doesn't investigate

- it's unclear what his relationship is like with Liz Alexander - they're together, she's pregnant, but she never seems that intohim

- the references to other movies and films eg Shampoo, Annie Hall - just make me angry at Thornhill's ineptness

- no sense of theme, of character

- no sexy, no nudity, no jokes, Thompson can't even get it up for two women (why include this)

- it was a scandal this was made

Movie review -"Spank!" (1999) *1/2

 Shot in Adelaide which is a point of difference - there are lots of scenes of Rundle Mall and some nice houses. Robert Mammone nicely underplays the lead who got out of a monastery which is interesting.

The story is about some Italian Australians who want to open a cafe. There's a lot of broad playing - a lot. Some guy who I kept thinking was Sal Coco mugs ruthlessly, gyrating and talking about woman. Vince from Heartbreak High mugs relentlessly, There's lots of mugging. It's exhausting. Maybe this would've worked on stage. I wondered why Mammone kept hanging out with them.

Many of the characters wear black and and have black hair and I had trouble telling them apart.  Especially has everyone acted like a maniac.

There was potential here - the story of young people opening up a cafe, colourful characters, a man out of a monastery having his first romantic relationship. That last subplot could have propped up the whole film if just played relatively straight with a bit of colour. (Even if there's some very unconvincing kissing - there's a great final shot of a conga line and everyone partying but 

 Rolf de Heer was executive producer.

Movie review - "Sex is a Four Letter Word" (1995) **1/2

 Some people sit around and talk about sex. A film of its time - this sort of raunchiness could not be seen on television.

It's surprising Joy Smithers organised a truth telling session when she's had an abortion and isn't sleeping with her partner (Rhett Walton). Did she not thing that was going to come out?

There's some twists - Walton is sleeping with uptight friend Tessa Humphries. Tony Waltton is bi and on with Miranda Otto and Mark Lee.  This part of the story is still fresh because we don't see many bi guys on screen even now.

It might've used being a movie more - ducking off to corner rooms works well.

Structurally the movie has flaws - characters will make revelations and then act as if the revelations haven't been made. Also the "my parents are bad" as get out of gaol is oversued, and Miranda Otto's character (while performed with plenty of energy) is a little Williamson/Bob Ellis (young, dim, horny, has great memories of rooting her music teacher at school).

Still there is a lot of energy, it's well acted, and it's impossible not to have admiratino for Fahey's spirit.

Movie review - "Star Portal".(1997) *

 One of the cheapies made in Ireland by Roger Corman, this has a strong source material, Not of This Earth but is just ineptly done. I like Athena Massey and it's cute to see her blending in to the world learning about sex and taking her clothes off, and Steven Bauer was sweet as a doctor with glasses who pursues her rather like Ryan O'Neal in What's Up Doc? but there's no suspense or horror and the film gets dumber and more incompetent as it goes on.

Movie review - "Undercover Heat" (1995) **1/2

 An utterly competent, perfectly designed late night cable erotic thriller, not with a huge budget, but a skilled, likeable, attractive cast. Athena Massey is very engaging as the cop investigating the murder of a hooker so she goes undercove as a high class call girl in a brothel run by Meg Foster with her offsider Jeffrey Dean Morgan. So there's some star power here.

It's cute (yes also and exploitative) how Massey discovers she quite enjoys doing increasingly sexual acts and tells her superiors to get lost.

The mystery isn't bad. Some promising subplots not developed like Massey and Morgan, and the romance between Meg Foster and Massey's boss. Nice friendship between Massey and the girl from Showgirls.

A movie that absolutely knows what it is.

Top unmade Margaret Lockwood films

 1) Rob Roy - announced before WW2, cancelled because of it... a great shame, would've been great, Gainsborough, Ted Black, Will Fyffe, Lockwood..

2) The Blue Lagoon - another Gainsborough project cancelled by WW2 it was good this was made in colour but young Lockwood would've been perfect 

3) Vanity Fair - announced in the late 1940s, presumably cancelled due to the financial crisis. Could have been fun. Maybe. I have limited confidence of Rank.

4) Ann Veronica - adaptation of the novel by HG Wells. Hmm... maybe director dependent. She did do it for TV and no one cared.

5) The Wicked Lady's Daughter - this should have been made. Arliss and company were still around. 

6) Mary Magdalene - Rank wanted to do this. She refused. Hmm.... I like the idea but Rank couldn't have pulled it off. The Americans could have.

Book review - "Helga's Web" by Jon Cleary

 The second Scobie Malone, revolves around the Opera House. We meet Scobie's miserable whiny working class parents - dad works on the Opera House and helps give them access which is good - and they clash with Scobie's girlfriend, Lisa, who moved here following The High Commissioner. 

Cleary had sex on the brain with this one. Interesting structure, it cuts back and forth between Scobie's investigation into Helga's murder and Helga's last few days. The identiy of the killer isn't that shocking.

The characters are types really - aspiring politician, his ambitious wife - although I liked the commercials producer, I wonder if that was inspired by Brian Chirlian. Cleary is strong on a sense of place and narrative, not so great on characters.

Movie review - "The Woman for Joe" (1955) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 Obscure Rank feature from the 1950s despite being in colour and Vista Vision - it got a decent release but wasn't a TV perennial. Perhaps due to the story. George Baker runs a circus and becomes best friends with little person Jimmy Karoubi. Then Karoubi falls for Hungarian barmaid Diane Cilento.

Having a little person as protagonist is so unsual the film has a fascination.  Karoubi isn't really up for the part - he's got a charisma, I just wish he was a better actor. George Baker isn't that good either - he wrote in his memoirs that Peter Finch should've played the role and he was right.

The film is too nice. Baker and Karoubi like each other. Cilento is a decent person. They still are selfish. Karoubi loves Cilento. She's hot for Baker. Baker goes for her even though he would (arguably) have other options and she would have other options. She's got to go for Karoubi's best friend and he's got to go for her. Sorry, they're selfish. They don't even struggle against their attraction. Then Karoubi dies in an accident (I think it's a hinted suicide because she set him up with a dwaf he rejected earlier in the film after Baker tried to set him up with her?) They go off together feeling a little bad. Sorry for bad language, but fuck them. In playing everyone as "nice" they still come across as insensitive pricks because at the end of the day Karoubi is a dwarf and he isn't.

It might've been more fun using the plot of Freaks. Cilento is  tramp out for Karoubi's mother and hot for Baker. Or if they wanted to make Baker nice have some sexy dude she humps. Throw in a murder.

The writer has done for a more sensitive portrayal. Which is fine. But those need really skilled handling. Everyone tries. No one is outstanding.  It needed a better director. Cilento comes off best despite a Hungarian accent - which again is fine just another layer of artificiality.

I read a review which said the film seems to go on forever. I get that and think I know why. It lacks pace, it puts everything out in a linear manner. We meet Baker. Establish his problems. We meet Karoubi. Things get better. We don't meet Cilento until 30 minutes in. The film could've stared five minutes before hand.

The glimpses of circus life are fun. This is a negative review but there are many good things about the movie. The fact it's about a dwarf is inherently interesting. It totally gets points for that.

Book review - " Cimino:The Deer Hunter, Heaven’s Gate, and the Price of a Vision" (2022) by Charles Elton

 I'm surprised it took someone so long to do a book on Cimino, I thought he'd be a natural, but I guess he was uncommunicative and lived a long time (thus better able to sue). Elton tackled the job with admirable enthusiasm, with his best "get" being he contacted Joan Corelli but also a close friend when Cimino was transitioning and Steven Bach's exec partner at UA (who slags off Bach a lot, not unexpectedly - but it doesn't discount Bach's version).

Elton makes a lot of minor errors, mostly about the history of Hollywood - he's prone to saying things were "unprecedented" when they weren't, and stuff like Something's Got to Give was completely shut down when Fox filmed it as Move Over Darling. I think he's also a little too forgiving of going over budget - the "well David Lean did it" argument.  

It's not definitive but it's really good and Cimino is such a fascinating character.

Movie review - "The Undead" (1957) **** (re-watch)

 Oh the rating is too high but I love this film. It's ambitious, its spookiness, the quality of its script, the dialogue - Griffith said Corman cut out the iambic pentameter but there's a bit in there. Acting quality varies - Richard Garland slightly OTT, Pamela Duncan is okay but Alison Hayes is wonderful and Val Dufour a great slimy shrink plus Mel Welles has the time of his life as a gravedigger.

It throws in dancing girls, Satan, a little person (Billy Barty), witches.  The ending has emotional power with Duncan giving up her life.

Movie review - "The Flying Fontaines" (1959) **

 Michael Callan given a lead role in this trapeze drama which references the Burt Lancaster Trapeze  a few times. There's a love triangle, talk of a triple. Callan is the only one of the young Columbia contract players to have much individuality. Bright colour. George Sherman directed. Bigger budget than a "B" it feels - "A minus" maybe. Not much of a story. Lacks a murder or something. Nice production values. Callan dances at a night club.

Gene Hackman top ten

 

Okay enough time has passed (arguably) to do a Gene Hackman top ten. Everyone knows the actual good movies so I thought I'd do my top ten weird Gene Hackman movies.

1) Lucky Lady (1975) - Gene has a threesome with Burt Reynolds and Liza Minelli. That is not made up. Burt gives Gene's arm a fondle the morning after. You gentleman, Burt!

2) Two of a Kind (1982) - reteaming of Olivia Newton John and john Travolta that no one remembers except uber fans - Gene Hackman provides the voice of God and does very well

3) March or Die (1977) - Hackman made a few films for Lew Grade's company ITC in the late 70s- I enjoyed this french foreign legion tale where he is, as always, good

4) Bat21 (1988) for some reason this movie was on like every few months on Channel Ten on Friday/Saturday nights in the nineties - there was probably a bigger market for pudgy men in war movies than people realised - this film isn't that weird actually it was more weird how it was always on Channel ten

5) Zandy's Bride (1974) - when people talk about how great cinema was in the 70s it's always good to say "what like Zandy's Bride?" in the conversation to be annoying - Hackman is good as always

6) Superman 4: The Quest for Peace - everyone took the money on this one - read Daniel Kremer's Sidney Furie bio for the inside scoop on what went down

7) First to Fight/ Covenant with Death (mid 60s) - when Hackman was working his way up through the ranks he had to support actors like Chad Everett and George Maharis in films like these because they were what people thought film stars looked like and Hackman wasn't - he graduated to "supporting peopole who looked like film stars and actually were" like Warren Beatty, Robert Redford, Jim Brown and Gregory Peck - but i guess you've got to get through Chad Everett first to get to Redford

8 ) Lilith (1964) forgotten film in which Jean Seaberg, who often sleepwalked through her roles, is terrific - so too is peter Fonda

9) Doctor's Wives (1971) - sleazy material with a director who had a class rep on TV and. a first rate cast - they manage to still make it sleazy material

10) Misunderstood (1984) - a male weepie with Hackman and Henry Thomas, coming off ET - i remember it made my cry as an eleven year old but I sense it may be terrible so am afraid to see it again

Movie review - "Return of the Secaucus Seven" (1980) ****

 Rough, of course, with some erratic acting and staging. But I love the film for its ambition. Being an ensemble piece, trying to break up chat with basketbell games, ordering drinks, nude swimming. You do get to know the characters - I think maybe a few different haircuts would've helped.

The tensions, humour and acting are well staged. There's "future star" spotting with Gordon Clapp and David Strathairn.

It's more sexual than other Sayles films except maybe Lianna. The scene where two characters, Adam leFevre and Karent Trott, whisper about wanting to do it and do it is very hot - Sayles didn't often write that, but he could do it well (eg Battle Beyond the Stars).

I loved the scene where they were arrested and these flakes, or people who seemed flakey (Mark Arnott as the druggie), started reeling off their arrests for political events. 

I would've liked to have seen Lacey, the actress again.

But I love the feeling of friendship, the indie vibe. I's an important movie.

Documentary review - "The Self-Preservation Society" (2009) ***

 Solid doco about making The Italian Job  with some great talking heads: Michael Deeley, Michael Caine, Robert Evans, Peter Bart (who never passes up a chance to self  promote), Peter Collinson's widow and kids. The Collinson story is inevitably moving.  Lots of details about cars. Fun clips. Good natured.

Ronald Lewis Top Ten

 I always called him "Roland Lewis". Anyway

1) The Square Ring - effective character work - I think he was a character actor in a leading man's body

2) Robbery Under Arms - the fault of the films are not his

3) The Wind Cannot Read - like many pushed as a leading man, made a better villain

4) Scream of Fear - excellent work

5) The Full Treatment - ditto

6) Conspiracy of Hearts - decent work in a good Ralph Thomas film 

7) Mr Sardonic - some William Castle fun

8) The Secret Place - solid noir

9) Storm Over the Nile - he doesn't have much to do but I like the movie

10) Siege of Saxons - cheerful kids film, Lewis has a bad blonde wig but is fine

Movie review - "Shiva Baby" (2020) ***1/2

 Bright comedy-drama with a star making turn from Rachel Sennott and well written and directed by Emma Seligman. Kind of like a play in that it basically is set in one place over a restricted period of time but the handling is cinematic as Sennott kind of loses it with a particularly strong music score.

Diana Argon plays a blonde shiska.

Movie review - "Stanley: Every Home Should Have One" (1984) *

 Oz attempt at Arthur has Peter Bensley as the titular man child who goes to live with an ordinary family - Graeme Kennedy (who would've been idea for the lead when younger), Susan Walker, Joy Smithers and David Argue (who would've been better if more aggro). He reomances Nell Campbell and the two don't have chemistry.

The film cost $4 million - there are some pretty shots of Sydney Harbour but I'm not sure where it all went. 

The plot might've been okay for a half hour kids thing. There is adult stuff with Kennedy being busted at a gay bar with Harold Hopkins, Walker having an affair, Smithers being pregnant to an Aboriginal and Argue being a drug dealer... actually isn't this the plot of Bliss?

Over time the film's lack of comedy, endless cut aways of Max Cullen stalking Bensley and lack of chemistry between Bensley and Campbell got on my nerves and I started to hate the movie.

Movie review - "My Old Ass" (2022) ****

 Swee fantasy comedy where Maisy Stella meets her older self, Audrey Plaza, who gives some advice on her last summer. Stella is outstanding - everyone is good too.

I wasn't sure it was okay to have a woman who sleeps with women then realising she prefers dudes, nbut maybe that's how it swings in Canada. The film is very Canadian - there's comments about climate change, open attitudes to sexuality, it's all set by a lake, there's a Justin Bieber sequence.

Movie review - "The Sunchaser" (1996) ** (warning: spoilers)

 Michael Cimino's last feature film as director is one no one remembers, not really. It escaped with a whimper, not a bang, doesn't even have a decent controversy associated with it. Woody Harelsen, who shows a likable tendency to work with all sorts of directors, plays the lead - a cancer doctor. He's kidnapped by teen gangster Jon Seda who wants Native American meidcal treatment which is interesting. Seda's performance gets on the nerves after a while - lots of yelling.

Alexandra Tydings is a generic leggy type as Harrelson's wife, perhaps put in the film as Harrelson's beard since the film has Harrelson essentially fall in love with Seda. This is raised in the film and feriously refuted.

This movie is reminiscent of Thunderbolt and Lightfoot - two men on the lam - although it's different in that Harrelson is kidnapped so could escape, there's no stakes if the cops get him.

I like taking Navajos seriously and we meet some hot Navajos (one played by Talisa Soto!) and the ending is satisfying. But there is something missing in the movie. An extra twist. Or someone dying at the end. Really Harrelson should die at the end - I think that would've worked if they'd gotten rid of his family. His family being in the film doesn't work, there's no point to it.

But, you know, interesting.

John Milius in Film Comment 1976

 

Movie review - "Michael Cimino: God Bless America" (2022) ***1/2

 Doco about the director with taped interviews though not recent pictures. Great talking heads of others though like Quentin Tarantino and Oliver Stone. Visits scenes where various movies shot notably The Deer Hunter. I like that it book ends The Sunchaser with Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.

Movie review - "Desperate Hours" (1990) **

 I think the theory was good - take a well worn story, which almost always works (siege/home invasion), and add a hot star like Mickey Rourke, some great actors like Mimi Rogers and Anthony Hopkins, and give it to Michael Cimino.

It's got 90s bloat which we saw in a lot of remakes around this time (eg The Getaway). I think Cimino struggles with cramped, indoor stories. His famous films - all of them until here - were basically oudoor stories. Even the indoor sequences felt spectacular eg Russian Roulette in Deer Hunter, the restaurant in Year of the Dragon.  The scenes set outdoors here - Kelly Lynch on the opening, for instance, or when David Morse escapes - has a life the indoor stuff doesn't.

Cimino struggles with character interactions. Desperate Hours should be full of them - we keep waiting to see humanity in Rourke towards Hopkins/Rogers/Smith... but don't. Sexual attraction/repulsion, an understanding, people realising stuff about themselves, interesting gang dynamics... none of that is really there. I kept waiting for a psycho convict to do something... no. There's a nice moment where a convict recognises a video game played by Hopkins' son and waited to see that relationship developed... No. Smith is a bratty teen and I waited to see a convict fall for her (or Rogers) - or threaten them. No. Yes, cliches, or tropes, but at least drama. Hopkins acts all tough, which is foolish when people have your family. He has a younger lover he left Rogers for who would be a great person to turn up... instead there's a real estate agent who is killed. Also Smith's boyfriend appears but they don't move there.

It's one of those films where maybe they were too afraid of cliches.  So they didn't do the cliches but they didn't replace them with anything.

The movie needed to be directed by, I don't know, John Badham or someone. That's no diss on Badham - I think that director was better with characterisation and more conventional material.

Movie review - "The Sicilian" (1987) **1/2

 Heaven's Gate hurt Cimino's career but it didn't kill it - he made Year of the Dragon which underperformed in North American but did well enough for finance to be raised for this movia, a biopic of Sicilian bandit/politician Salvatore Giuliano.

There's very little American interest in the story but it was based on a novel by Mario Puzo. Christopher Lambert is not ideally cast in the lead. John Turturro is his best friend,  Giulia Boschi is his girlfriend and  Barbara Sukowa a horny countess. Joss Ackland is a mafia don and Terence Stamp is a prince.

The novel was part of The Godfather series and included the Corleones. They are removed here - presumably due to legal issues. It's a shame - I get the reasons, but maybe some American characters added could have helped the movie connect with American audiences. Or any non-Sicilian audiences. There's a lot of chat about Sicilian politics, elections and communists, that I felt a little behind the eight ball with.

Lambert looks good but is terrible. There's an awful "If you don't rape me I'll rape you" scene between Lambert and a countess and they listen to music and have sex  (Many Cimino's film have rape in them.) I think once they cast Lambert they just needed to reduce all his dialogue and give it to Turturro and Ackland and Stamp. Or just cast Terence Stamp. Or someone who can act. Sorry, I don't mean to be rude. The women in the cast aren't great either.

The tremendous period  detail of his earlier films is present in the outdoor scenes but indoor scenes with big bands feels fake.

The spectacle, sweep and subject matter could've made this really good. There was a cut version and Cimino version - I saw the latter. It has stature but has a lead who can't act and some dreadful scenes as well as some amazing ones.

 Gore Vidal did a pass of the script. Most of the key actors are English but Aldo Ray has a small role.

Movie review - "Year of the Dragon" (1985) ***1/2 (re-watching)

 Mickey Rourke was born in 1952 so he could've served in Vietnam - I like his performance but his silly hair makes him seem old. And Ariane, I have affection for, but the fact is a really good actress in that part would've make it sing. John Lone is superb.

It looks gorgeous. Sweeping vistas. Extras.Burmese jungle. Hong Kong. Restaurants.  The action sequences are incredible - assassinations, shootouts in restaurants, people being shot on the road, beatings in nightclubs. So many great touches like the nuns translating bugged criminals and the mafia guy with a throat box.

They didn't have to make Rourke's character such an arsehole. When Ariane says she's been raped he grabs her and throws her in the chair and yells at her. When his wife is angry he took off at dinner he goes and sleeps with Ariane. He constantly makes racist slurs. This didn't have to be in the film. Neither did the rape scene - I wonder if that was Stone or Cimino both were partial to rape.

I like the bloke who played Rourke's old mate. The wife character is the standard Oliver Stone nag, but the actress does the best she can. Dennis Dun is moving as the undercover cop - at least he gets some time in the sun as does Ariane.

Really, Rourke's character should have died at the end - it feels wrong that Dun and his wife were killed and Ariane was raped and he got to live. 

Still, a really thought provoking movie. Not cookie cutter.

Movie review - "Heaven's Gate" (1980) *** (warning: spoilers)

 Looks gorgeous. Cimino spent a lot of money but it's up there on screeen. Every shot is like a painting.

Opening scene with John Hurt making speeches at Harvard doesn't really make sense.  There's pretty dances and bands and it looks tremendous - it doesn't have the universality of people getting married.

A key problem of the movie is Cimino is so in love with set pieces and sets. A train arriving. A horse drawn carriage. Rollerskating. Landscapes. It lacks the personal touch. It is pretty funny in that one scene where there's a juggler in the background. Some over the top action sequences like little battles. The immigrants have no personality.

And yet... 

There is greatness. In bits. Isabelle Huppert is captivating. The love triangle between Chris Walken, her and Kris Kristofferson works a treat. Walken's part is terrific. Kristofferson less strong - he looks wonderful and I think Cimino was in love with filming him in poses. 

The acting is fine. Sam Waterson as baddy.  Jeff Bridges as Kristofferson's mate. Walken - who steals the show.

No one enjoys sex here. I'm noticing that in Cimino films. Kristofferson and Huppert frolic nude but don't often do it. The other hookers look poorly. Huppert is raped.

The plot is actually simple. The bankers/land barons do up a death list. Execute. The people push back. Chaos. 

Easy to see the bits that needed to be fixed - give John Hurt some point, some genuine tie with Kristofferson. Cut all the stuff that has no story point. Trim it down. Really the story should've been properly told from the POV of immigrants - rather, the lead. I think Cimino had a man crush on Kristofferson.  His stakes don't compare. I mean, make Kristofferson an immigrant... the story comes alive a lot more.

The ending is moving with Kristofferson old, rich and sad. But wow what a downer - the government helps the richies, most of the immigrants die, then Bridges and Huppert are killed just to make us feel especially bad. 

Reviews were hysterically negative. I understand why but they shouldn't have been. It's not a masterpiece - Cimino needed a co writer - but it's a work that deserves appreciation.

Book review - "The Director Should've Shot You" by Alan Dean Foster

 Memoir of a novelist - but someone better known for novelisations. Most film buffs had a Foster on their shelves back in the day - I'm glad he's still at it. Lively account of his life and times. A lot of hours spent in front of the typewriter so not a huge amount for a personal life, at least according to this. 

Some interesting experiences - the challenges of John Carpenter's Dark Star, the generosity of George Lucas giving a percentage on Star Wars, disliking Alien 3 and changing the story (letting Newt live) and being scolded by Walter Hill, getting involved in a actor-director fight on Chronicles of Riddick, working for JJ Abrams (no goss he sounds decent). Too much whining over lack of science in sci fi. But the talk of craft is interesting. Made money from Star Trek log books in the seventies.