Really fun women in prison film whose success helped kicked off the cycle. Harry Alan Towers was the perfect producer and writer for this genre with his love of sleaze. This has all the tropes - lesbian guard, prisoners making out, cruely, whipping, escapes, dodgy men.
There's a lot of name value with Herbert Lom, Mercedes McCambridge, Maria Schell, Luciana Paluzzi. It's quite well done by Jess Franco.
I watched this out of the corner of my eye on a computer, and that's the best way to see it - distracted, so you can asborb the atmosphere, it's not hard to follow the story, there are explosions and sex.
The film is actually very emotionally satisfying with the prisoners rising up - Olivia Hussey's character has a journey from coward to revolutionary (she seems innocent and adds to tension), Steve Railsback brings intensity, Michael Craig and Carmen Duncan are terrific, Lynda Stoner is sweet. It's a very well cast film.
The rape and murder of Stoner is still yuck but watching it distracted works. It looks great. Impressive production value at the end.
One of those sort-of Carry On films made around this time with their ensemble casts and Carry On personnel. This has Sid James, Kenneth Connor and Shirley Eaton.
Connor and James spend a night in an old dark house with black cats, eyes through paintings, creepy buter, etc. There's some good old spooky actors like Denis Price, Michael Gwynne, and Donald Pleasnace. It loses a bit of steam and why not have Connor get with Eaton. I mean funny Adam Faith gag but better to go emotion, Eaton would have been better as a femme fetale.
Amiable rip off of Rome Express is brightly directed, shot and acted but doesn't have much of a story. It's about Matheson Lang who is a rich embezzler. He's good as is Constance Cummings has his secretary but the guy who plays her fiance is awful and I was delighted when he was thrown overboard and saddened when he lived. Nigel Bruce and Max Miller pop up. I wish this had been about spies or something more interesting. I didn't mind it.
Can we get there? Let's see...
1) And When the Sky Was Opened (1959) - Twilight Zone so maybe cheating but I'll do it
2) Ellery Queen (1975)
3) Where the Boys Are (1960)
4) Who's Minding the Mint? (1967)
5) The Horizontal Lieutenant (1961)
6) Time to Love and a Time to die (1958)
7) Period of Adjustment (1962)
8) The Hallelujah Trail (1965)
9) The Green Berets (1968) - don't yell at me! His performance is fine
10) Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973)
There I go - did it! I haven't seen a lot of his TV work.
Look, not very good, but it has historical appeal. Big hit, of course. Right star, right amount of nudity treated the correct way. A 20 minute idea stretched out to a feature. Some fantastic actors and a deadly dull chase sequence.
Of its time. Early 80s teen sex comedy influenced - nudity, fat best friends, little actual sex. Gerry Sont too good looking and inexperienced. Female co star also too inexperienced.
David Argue in this. Imagine him as Melvin! Different film. Nice colours. Tries to entertain. Quite respectful of the original.
Thriller about a publisher who receives body parts in the mail. I'm not that familiar with director Vincenet Amada but he does a stylish job. It's slow moving, more atmosphere in a Val Lewton way.
Film has resonance for Capucine. About a girl who commits suicide (Judy Matheson) as Capucine did, and Capucine is queer, as she apparently was (well, bi) IRL.
I liked this. A whole work. Makes sense. Attractive women. Done with style.
Bright lively thriller which was I think the first time Launder and Gilliat worked together as a writing team. It's very well directed by Albert de Courville, a person about whom I know little. I loved the opening with a maquerade ball and a death. It's very slickly done.
The star duo of Edmund and Constance Cummings are a lot of fun. He boozes in the first bit, a rip off of The Thin Man, but settles into his own rhythm. Last third maybe a bit static. Shame they couldn't have done it all on a train.
Three train crashes!
She's middle aged and white he's young a black. Hornby is always easy to read but I didn't get into this. I didn't really engage with the couple, care how they did. The support cast were more interesting - her addict ex, his livelt workmate, a racist dad. The book took me a while to get through. It came alive when the age and race differences kicked in.
A look at a German transgender activist and spy. One person plays a lot of roles. Some history. The author is a character. Interesting, The right performer I can see it going down a treat.
Very funny, cute, great role, I loved the name checks, the love of Streisand and Ali McGraw and Gene Hackman.
I'm enjoying these Logan plays. Small casts. Famous people. Word play. Not heavy on story. Theatrical - this has the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan meet and chat and deal with their fictional counterparts. Good old World War One pops up to kill loved ones for both. Both have creepy authors fascinating with them. Juicy roles.
Lively thriller, considered the best British film ever made when it came out. It's lively, tight, and full of pace. Sidney Gilliat worked on the script. Walter Forde directed - not well known but this is considered his best. Of the cast I only recognise Conrad Veidt and Cedric Harwick. Light touch. That card player with the rdoning voice was annoying. Plenty going on. Good fun. Looks like a dream.
I hadn't heard of the painter. It's not story heavy but full of wonderful words and imagery - painting, art, all that stuff, Bravaura role for whoever plays the painted. I enjoyed it.
With The World of Suzie Wong (1960) he was at his peak. Then
- Satan Never Sleeps (1962) Leo McCarey dud that killed off Clifton Webb and McCarey
- The Counterfeit Traitor (1962) - spy story did poorly
- The Lion (1962) - dull drama
- Paris When it Sizzles (1964) a flop rom com with Audrey Hepburn
- The Seventh Dawn (1964) flop Malayan Emergency drama
- Alvarez Kelly (1966) flop Wesern
- The Devil's Brigade (1968) disappointing war film
Then The Wild Bunch (1969) brought him back.
Big budget Malayan Emergency film didn't have to have a big budget. It actually felt like it could be a TV play - suspenseful account of Erusian woman (Capucine) framed by commie (Testuro Tamba) so she'll be shot by Brits, so British woman (Susannah York) hands herself to commie so American (William Holden) who loves Eurasian woman goes to rescue British woman.
You could play that out simply. There's two big battles - at the camp and later on - which aren't needed as are the big protests. Acting is fine. York is a bit of a middle aged man fantasy - horny, nubile, brave, who just wants to shag Holden. Capucine carries history and gives one of her best performances. Holden is fine in these self loathing roles. The guy who plays York's dad is undercast, I got him mixed up with a military guy. A british soldier should've loved York.
As a drama this isn't bad. Hurt by French Capucine as Eurasian and a Japanese as a Chinese communist and an American as a planter in Malaya. Some memorable moments. Malays are mostly background.
Ben Hecht worked on script. But it's a depressing story. Malays have their village burned down. Capucine is excuted. Tamba is killed. Holden gives up his plantations and goes off travelling and doesn't even root York. York is left alone. Just depressing.
Probably better dramatically if York had died. The true Malays - Capucine , Tamba - die.
Apparently the novel was a girl and her lion story, which makes sense and would've made a decent movie. But then they wanted stars so the action shifts to the parents - William Holden and Capucine, who broke up when she fell for Trevor Howard, a big game hunter... which sounds more interesting than what's on display here.
The story is Holden worried about daughter Pamela Franklin growing up in dangerous Africa (wildlife dangerous, not the locals).
The sympathy is with Trevor Howard, trying to stop Holden interfering with the locals - and Howard is running a game park. Holden hasn't had anything to do with his kid.
Capucine is fine. She wasn't a bad dramatic actress just dull. Nice scenery. Black people treated as scenery. Are we meant to believe Holden isn't a game hunter? That Capucine would pick Trevor Howard over Holden? That we should be happy a kid leaves Africa to go back to America?
Interesting. A famously tricky production - Larry harvey was annoyed, Edwardy Dmytryk really didn't have control, producer Charles Feldman putting his oar in, script changing a lot, Capucine trying a drama role, Jane Fonda super inexperienced, Barbara Stanwyck playing a pioneering screen lesbian.
Script feels endlessly rewritten. Scenes upon scenes. Basically Harvey wants Capucine back. Capucine is an artist working at a brothel. Dmyrtyk complained about the sleeze Feldman wanted to put in - I think it needed more! Not sure Dmytryk was the right director - needed someone who could do sexually charged material, like Elia Kazan or Joe Mankiewicz.
Capucine is fine, as is Harvey - I thought both would be worse than they are. Fonda is gorgeous but has a little just-out-of-drama-school vibes about her (I'm acting! Look at me act!).
Great music, photography, Saul Bass title credits.
Hugely fun. Bitchy. Two PR people bitching about the movie and Fox. Actually they speak up well about the big stars and Mankiewicz. Mock Spyrous. This book really illustrates how Fox were suffering flop after flop - this was really damanging. There was no cushion for Cleopatra.
Heard about these. Never seen one. Gray was a very good supporting actor that's all I know him from. Actors playing suppport characters in movies aren't that interesting but filming in Thailand and recapping the Cambodia conflict is interesting. David Puttnam and Roland Joffe come out of this very well. A bit too much about his sex life in Thailand.
Jonathan Demme filmed this.
Not very well known and I'm not a huge fan of Frederick Marsh (old, slightly hammy) or Betty Field (all nervous ticks) but Conrad's novel is well adapted by John Balderstone and excellently directed by John Cromwell helped by a terrifying performance from Cedric Hardwicke. He and his three rogues are genuinely scary.
Confronting. Well made. Thought provoking. Romero firing all cylinders. Makes you identify with a killer the way Peeping Tom does (not Psycho becauseyou don't know he's the killer until the end). Acting totally fine.
I'll admit to being a phililstine and to drifting off occasionally, wishing there were more close ups and struggling to tell people apart (a few more close ups would've worked wonders). The beautiful images sometimes distance me - musical scores over battles. This was deliberate to avoid feeling of pain.
But it's certainy rich and I'm still thinking about it. Even if the main lord is a dill - a man who murdered and massacred his way to the top dividing his land into three; the elder two sons start fighting almost immediately, the "good" son is smart at war but dumb enough to be attached to his dumb dad.
Nice characters - third son, the jester (I guess), the second son's ethical general, the second son's nice wife, her blind brother. They all end up dead except the brother. (Well we don't see the second son or ethical general die we just assume).
Nasty characters - the lord, the elder two sons, the wife of the eldest who shags the second one (easily the best character with the most brilliant scenes and death). They all die too.
I was confused who was the army at the end against the second son - the people who won I guess. I assume neighbouring lord.
Wonderful collection of essays mostly about book reviews. Bright, smart, funny, insightful. This is Hornby at he's best because he's talking in his - d'uh - own voice.
This film was so annoying. Why did it exist? What was it's point? I didn't get it as a kid. I don't get it now. Greta Scacchi is spectacularly beautiful and looks splendid naked. So much of it is unfunny - a waiter who thinks Eric Roberts is a secret agent, Eric Roberts, the confusing battle.
Bill Kerr does everything he's asked for . Pretty pictures. Nicely shot. Interesting people turn up in the cast like David Argue and Tim Finn.
Can Dusan Makavejev direct? Maybe this would've worked in the 70s.
This movie is dumb. An offensive waste of money.
Big Otto Preminger movie which has mini series vibes but star power to carry it - John Wayne and Kirk Douglas up top, Burgess Meredith and Patricia Neal to the side. Brandon de Wilde isn't up to playing Wayne's son but I like that Neal is age-ish approprate for Wayne.
The movie is enjoyably adult and that women are given prominent roles. Gorgeous black and white photography and production values.
Franchot Tone looks as though he's about to drop dead. The whole subplot of Tom Tryon and Paula Prentiss could be cut out. The scene where Douglas decides to rape Jill Haworth is very powerful. Douglas is given a heroic death. Stuff him. Haworth is likeable, Neal very good.
Feels like a movie that could've been trimmed down - it didn't have to run this long. Annoying Stanley Holloway plays an Aussie coastwatcher. I guess he was coming off My Fair Lady.
I enjoyed this. Tells a story, looks great, war, sex, movie stars.
Brilliant one person show, about a man trying to stop his mother killing herself by listing things. There is audience interaction very cleverly done with humour, and warmth and plenty of emotion. It's a marvellous piece of work even on the page. Illuminationg footnotes. Really terrific.
Thoughts
- It’s a good movie. Not a great one. But much to admire. Sets. Costumes. Dialogue. Acting. Stars. Key support.
- Main problem - the film has a repetitive structure. Roman leader goes to Egypt. Falls for Cleopatra despite being married. Romans hate him. Dies.
- Second half takes forever. So many repetitve beats.
- Film needed a story editor. Someone to keep an eye on the scenes. Mankiewicz writes great dialogue. But not good on story. So many scenes are repeated - Harrison enters Rome, then Taylor enters Rome... just do the one, her. Burton is always going to Rome and then to Egypt and back. We didn't need to see all the Battle of Actium. And once that's over the tension is over - theu've lost the war.
- Still a lot of fun.
I’ve been listening to the TCM podcast on the making of Cleopatra (1963) where there’s the claim Richard Burton, up to the making of that film, slept with all of his leading ladies except Julie Andrews. As I’m currently watching Cleopatra and it’s four hours long (it has some great stuff in it) I thought I would fact check this.
Unless specified it’s a movie
Last Days of Dolwyn - mostly male cast
Waterfront (1950) - with Susan Shaw... yes they would’ve done it, she was wild
The Woman with No Name (1950) - can’t imagine anything happened with no nonsense Phyllis Calvert but second female lead Helen Cherry was married to boozer Trevor Howard and might have liked a crack at Burton
The Lady’s Not for Bruning (1950) - Broadway play with Pamela Brown... yeah I reckon that happened
Legend of Lovers (1951) - Broadway play with Dorothy McGuire... I doubt this one but you never know
Green Grow the Rushes (1951) with Honor Blackman - honestly couldn’t say
My Cousin Rachel (1952) with Olivia de Havilland... maybe, she could be a little minxy (had a hot fling with John Huston).. maybe something happened with Audrey Dalton who was also in it
The Robe (1953) - Jean Simmons was in this and she was prone to flings with co stars so yeah I reckon that happened
The Desert Rats (1953) - all male cast but both Burton and Robert Newton were notorious drinkers so anything is possible
Prince of Players (1955) with Maggie McNamara - a possibility
Rains of Ranchipur (1955) with Lana Turner - this would’ve happened
Alexander the Great (1956) with Claire Bloom, who he did have an affair with
Sea Wife (1957) with Joan Collins... what do you reckon? Of course they did
Bitter Victory (1957) with Ruth Roman... maybe
Time Remembered (1957) - Broadway show - he did have affair with Susan Strasberg
Look Back in Anger (1959) - he definitely had an affair with Claire Bloom
Ice Palace (1960) - with Carolyn Jones, Martha Hyer, Shirley Knight... he would’ve had one of those
The Bramble Bush - with Angie Dickinson... yeah I reckon that happened
Camelot with Julie Andrews - didn’t happen
Love this film. Don't get why it isn't more critically acclaimed. Seems to have fans. John Dall should've been a bigger star. Farley Granger is excellent. James Stewart is miscast yes and his dialogue doesn't work in the first bit for his persona but he's good in the last third as he figures out what's going on. Good support cast too with Cedrick Hardwick being touchy. With that young man revealed to have dump the girl... is every male character in this film gay? I love the sun going down in the background, the ending.
For the most part really enjoyed this - tale of young woman during that odd British period of 1962 before things went wild, falling for older man, parents controlling but also manipulated, pop culture was French, education was well funded. I like that the guy wasn't a complete villain - he did love her in his dodgy way.
At the end she turns into whiny boomer, blaming her parents for it all, blaming the school, going off to Oxford and having a high old time.
1) The Wild Bunch (1969)
2) Ride the High Country (1962)
3) Noon Wine (1969)
4) Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
5) Cross of Iron (1977)
6) Straw Dogs (1971)
7) Major Dundee (1965) (in spite of flaws)
8) The Westerner (1960)
9) Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)
10) One Eyed Jacks (1961) (even if involvement minimal in the end)
Very good book. Emphathetic. Not a hagiography. Has the occasional smart arse aside. Tries to give all sides. He punched his wife and was a terrible dad and had major mental health issues. Could also be wonderful. He made so many good movies. Managed to keep amazingly relevant - I mean, compare with everyone else around him. He was always at some sort of cutting edge - the Goons, Boultings, Kubrick, peak Edwards, Paul Mazursky, Hal Ashby. Survived a very long cold streak thanks to Clouseau. Fascinating life and career and Sikov does it justice.
This book has traditionally been dismissed but it's terrific - self serving but so what? It's in diary form so there is tremendous urgency and fascination as Wanger gets a movie greenlit by being high concept - Liz Taylor as Cleopatra - without ever being really sure of the story (you can spin it in all directions).
The producer gushes about Liz and Burton and Mankiewicz, is more exasperated on Spyrous Skouros.
Looking back it's kind of scary how many mistakes were bad luck and understandable - makes sense they'd hold out for Liz, and to film in England where they had a deal with Rank, and to cast Peter Finch and Stephen Boyd, and even to use Robert Mamoulian, and to try to rewrite the script, and not their fault she got sick, but that meant she won an Oscar which made her invaluable. And a lot of things they did were to make the movie better, like hire Mankiewicz. Other things more avoidable - the movie is basically people talking they could have cut a lot of spectacle (yet they had to add some).
Some things I didn't know like Taylor recommended Peter Finch, and they went after Laurence Olivier first for Caesar.
Fun to read little asides like Wagner commenting that he hadn't dealt well with being cheated on.
Really funny bright one man show which takes a fun concept - Streisand's shopping centre under her house - and runs with it. One actor plays different roles. Lots of show biz in jokes and we meet James Brolin as well as Babs. There's Arthur Laurents jokes and Elliot Gould mentions. That sort. Campy but there are people like this. Fun digs at screenwriters.
Beautiful. Inspired to read after listening to podcast interview on It Happened In Hollywood. Sensitive, simple, complex, funny, sad. Some sex. Love the appalling, petty boss who the mother sleeps with. The drop kid brother is a stand out. Wonderful.
Pretty good. I am still annoyed by that ad with all those Hollywood actors on the West End with the same dumb expression. I get it, don't blame them or the producers, it was annoying.
Decent play. Three roles. Seduction scene. Monologue. Yelling. There's cocaine and drugs and intelligence. Probably better on stage as you'd get the energy of the actors.
YA novel about a teen into Tony Hawk who gets his girlfriend pregnant. Well written as always it was just hard to care. Comes alive with the boy's racist drop kick dad - I wish the book had been about him.
Gorgeous Canadian scenery. Oliver Reed looks like a trapper. But they dub him. Why? Rita Tushingham lovely. Simple taming of the beast story. Some strong action sequences. Sidney Hayers was a skilled director.
Every still is like a painting. Arkie Whiteley so lovely. Bill Kerr tremendous. Chris Haywood and David Argue heaps of fun, if awful people. Script feels odd in places. Kerr gets a depressinh death. Why kill the dog.
Started slow for me - because I know what's happening I guess. Lacked star power. But second half gets better when more things happen. Looks like a dream.
