Movie review - "The Notorious Landlady" (1962) **

Odd fish. Jack Lemmon is an American diplomat in London who moves into a rental owned by landlady Kim Novak who is American. Fred Astaire is Lemmon's boss and Lionel Jeffries steals the film as a British cop. Turns out the rumour is that Novak killed her husband.

Some talented people - the script is credited to Larry Gelbart and Blake Edwards, Richard Quine directed. Lemmon acts his tail off. Novak tries as she always seemed to and is erratic in her way - charismatic, beautiful, poor then effective in the one scene and back again.  That English accent in her opening scene is pretty whiffy.

It doesn't work. I like these actors. It's a little all over the shop. Why is it in London? As a farce it's spread out. Is it funny? You could cut Astaire out of the film. Lemmon never believably falls for Novak, even if she does look good and goes topless in a bath (flashes a bare back - the times were a changin').

I mean it's got stars. It's not in colour. I don't know what to think or say. It annoyed me. Wasn't for me.

Movie review - "The Towering Inferno" (1974) **** (warning: spoilers)

 Pure entertainment. Disaster films were mocked at the time but this has so much going for it: genuinely exciting storyline, skilled script by Sterling Silliphant that juggles a lot of balls in the air, confident handling from John Guillermin, decent stunts and effects, and a genuinely starry cast: some B listers sure (Robert Vaughan, Richard Chamberlain, Susan Blakely, Robert Wagner), and camp casting (OJ Simpson) but two genuine former A listers (Fred Astaire, Jennifer Jones) one on the slide (Bill Holden) and three at the top of their game (Newman, McQueen, Dunaway).

Dunaway has the least to do though she looks gorgeous and is good. Wagner has a moving trapped and death scene with his girlfriend. Chamberlain is great fun - I'm surprised Dunaway didn't ask for his part. Newman and McQueen are entertainingly heroic. I did expect Holden to die. Jones' death is a real jolt.

There's a death mother and a cat, but some of it is genuinely moving. The fire starts quite quickly into the action and it's scary in that Newman is on to the problem straight away.

Excellent fun.

Book review - "Charles Walters: The Director Who Made Hollywood Dance" by Brett Phillips

Charles Walters really should be better known - his CV includes several classic musicals (Easter Parade, High Society, Lil, Unsinkable Molly Brown) and a bunch of skilled comedies (Ask Any Girl, The Tender Trap). He probably doesn't get the credit he deserves.

I wonder why? A relatively skinny filmography? An unexciting name? A lack of films that touch on queer themes despite the director being queer? Being associated with MGM?

Walters was a dancer and actor who became a name on Broadway, eventually moving into choreography. He was a good looking guy who might've had a chance at being a movie star himself but stayed behind the camera, got a job at MGM as choreographer and dance director. He established himself as one of their best in part because he would look at dances in the context of the whole story and eventually became a director.

His directing career started with a bang: Good News, Easter Parade, The Barkleys of Broadway. He was one of the big directors at MGM, though interestingly lost some key assignments to George Sidney (another not very well known director). He found the going a little harder in the late 50s as musicals became less popular but segued neatly into comedies. He occasionally tried drama (eg Torch Song) but his heart didn't seem to be in it - he walked out on I'll Cry Tomorrow, for instance, and disliked Dore Schary. He hated Vera Ellen.

He had the chance to do a dream project with Billy Rose's Jumbo which lost a pile of money but bounced back with The Unsinkeable Molly Brown.

His career ended rather abruptly - he left MGM in the mid 60s and made the popular Walk Don't Run but that was about it, apart for some TV work for Lucille Ball. I think he was too much of a company man to make the adjustment to freelance life.

Walters lived a long life and hung on to a lot of his money. He had a long term relationship with one guy, an agent - and then later with a younger guy who he adopted (so he would inherit Walters' money). He lived as a gay man - discretely but he actually lived with someone. He worked with Garland on Easter Parade and Summer Stock but even he found her hard going and asked not to do it again. However he did direct her on Broadway.

This is an excellent book, well researched and written. Sometimes I did wish I could click on a switch to watch bits from the film that the writer describes. But a very good book.

A top ten for Walters:
1) High Society (1956) - his favourite film, a jaunty fun musical
2) Ask Any Girl (1959) - a film very much of it's time, with rape treated comically, but some excellent comic performances including Rod Taylor
3) Easter Parade (1948) - top line talent and then some
4) Billy Rose's Jumbo (1962) - I actually haven't seen it - but it's a passion project so I put it in
5) The Unsinkeable Molly Brown (1964) - Walters says his greatest achievement was directing Debbie Reynolds to an Oscar nom
6) Easy to Love (1953) - Esther Williams bagged a lot of directors in her memoirs but not Walters
7) Summer Stock (1951) - decent musical with the classic Garland "nervous breakdown" number "Get Happy"
8) The Tender Trap (1955) - classic swinging bachelor comedy
9) Lili (1953) - random fairytale film which became a big hit - Walters couldn't make lightning strike twice with The Glass Slipper
10) Don't Go Near the Water (1957) -amiable service comedy with Glenn Ford.

Movie review - "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle" (1939) ***1/2

The last film Astaire and Rogers made for RKO doesn't have much of a rep - it lost money, killed the series, has an unhappy ending, is based on a true story... but I actually really liked it. It's sweet, down to earth with Ginger and Fred being really nice playing real people, and some very cute scenes as Fred and Irene meet and fall in love. The dancing is of a very good quality and the movie has real emotional impact because we know Vernon will die at war (in a training accident but still....)

It's odd to see Walter Brennan play a manservant, Edna May Oliver is a mannish agent, there's not much comic relief but the leads handle the bulk of the smiley stuff themselves.

It's very straighlaced. There are no comic misunderstandings or mad cap arguments. It's not a typical Astaire Rogers film but it's sweet and has a much nicer heart than Carefree.

Movie review - "Carefree" (1938) **

The first Astaire-Rogers film to lose money. To give the filmmakers credit they tried to move on some the frothy misunderstandings and mix ups with characterised their earlier works to tackle something more serious - to wit, psychiatry.

Ralph Bellamy - better known as "poor old Ralph Bellamy" - is in love with Ginger Rogers but he won't marry him so he sends her to see shrink Fred Astaire to cure her. It's a bit yuck that Bellamy does this and that Astaire falls for Rogers (watching a shrink fall for a patient was never going to be a great frothy musical comedy idea).

It only goes for 80 minutes but feels longer. There are only four musical numbers which are extremely well done. But the main thing about this is the story. It's horrible that Astaire brainwashes Rogers into not being in love with him, then the climax involves her getting punched in the face, and the last shot has her going down the aisle with a black eye. It's awful.

Movie review - "Shall We Dance?" (1937) ***

In hindsight, this can be seen as a turning point for Astaire & Rogers - while still very profitable, it was less so than Swing Time and the next two would record losses. I'm trying not to be unduly influenced by hindsight (probably inevitable, but I try) but it did seem to be weaker - despite containing some of the most famous songs in the series, 'Let's Call the Whole Thing Off', 'They All Laughed' and 'They Can't Take That Away From Me'.

The movies generally had silly stories but this one seemed especially silly - something about Astaire and Rogers pretending to be married. I think they got away with it earlier on but it was starting to grate by now - all the contrived misunderstandings and so on. The supporting players felt overly familiar - Eric Blore, Edward Everett Horton, etc. Also it lacks some of the energy of the earlier works.

There's still plenty of incredible dancing and professionalism on display: tap solos, an African American soul number (common at the time eg Day at the Races), some waltzes, a masked dance at the end. It's good, just not as good as what had come before.

Movie review - "Follow the Fleet" (1936) ****

Astaire and Rogers were at their peak here, creatively and financially - yet RKO didn't feel confident giving them the whole movie - so a great slab of this is taken up with a romance between Randolph Scott and Harriet Hilliard. To be fair, the filmmakers probably had the tremendous success of Roberta in mind - that spent a lot of time on a Randolph Scott romance as well.

Not that it makes it any more interesting: this has a whole bunch of plot about Hilliard (who is a bit of a charisma free zone - she became Harriet Nelson) being an ugly duckling who blossoms into a swan and Scott not noticing and blah  blah blah. Fred and Ginger's own romance is, once again, relatively stress free although there is a bunch of misunderstandings about a Broadway show.

They do have some squabbles and superb dancing, which achieve genuine art status. You get a real range of them - "Let Yourself Go", which starts in a comic fashion but builds in intensity (I love it how Ginger matches him leap for leap - Fred is clearly a genius but she's in there, going for it, never letting him beat her); the dramatic intensity of the climactic "Let's Face the Music and Dance", Ginger's solo (her only one in these films), Fred's solo, Fred playing the piano.

The film could have done with a genuine comic actor or two in there - the equivalent of Edward Everett Horton.

Movie review - "The Gay Divorcee" (1934) ****

Bright, peppy Astaire and Rogers musical with a light silly plot that excellent serves as an excuse to introduce various songs and dances and keep the lovers separated until the finale. Some spectacular dances - it's been said they were a substitute for sex and after one in particular Ginger even asks Fred if she'd like a cigarette.

Alice Brady and Edward Everett Horton offer support, doing their thing. There's some outrageously tacky 1930s decor - though not as outrageous as in Top Hat. Like that movie the whole story could have been resolved by a few lines of honest conversation, so credulity is strained at times.

Movie review - "Roberta" (1935) ***1/2

A silly story about a football player running a dress shop in Paris is given a lift by some incredible Astaire-Rogers dance numbers. Fred and Ginger don't actually drive most of the action in this one - that job is taken up by jock Randolph Scott, who inherits the dress shop, and Irene Dunne who runs it. Another big role is taken up by Claire Dodd, as Scott's snooty ex. Fred basically plays Scott's sidekick, with Ginger as his ex - neither actually necessary for the plot.

There's lots (and lots) of fashion on display, and Irene Dunne sings opera which may get on your nerves (or not - I'm not a fan of her singing), and plenty of talk about being a snob. Dunne and Randolph Scott aren't a great team. There's an unexpectedly moving moment when Helen Westley dies. (Watching this I got the feeling this heavily influenced Dad and Dave Come to Town - a hick inheriting a fashion store, a climax involving a beauty show).

But all is forgiven when Fred and Ginger dance - there's "sex dancing", with the dancing standing in for sex, both of them flirting around each other, getting into it and building to a climax. I laughed how little thought was put into their romance - they were once a couple and don't really have any obstacles to getting back together again - they don't even really do anything with the fact that Ginger is impersonating a Polish countess; far more time and complication is given to Scott-Dunne. (I'm assuming the reason Fred and Ginger play essentially support roles is that no one would believe Fred as a footballer).

Songs include "When Smoke Gets in Your Eyes".

Movie review - "Swing Time" (1936) ***1/2

Some believe this is the best of the Astaire-Rogers musical - I saw it on a double bill with Top Hat and actually preferred that, because it had a stronger story and support cast. Yes, okay, laugh at me enjoying it because of the story, but that's the truth. The plot is convoluted and involves Astaire having to raise $25,000 so his fiancee will agree to marry him; the shenanigans where Fred meets Ginger involving trying to retrieve Fred's lucky penny was confusing and weak. I also found Victor Moore, as Fred's friend irritating - he took forever to spit out his lines.

However Fred and Ginger are in magnificent form; the director was George Stevens, and his influence can be felt on the scenes which seem as though they've had all this work done on them and are full of naturalistic touches and bits of warmth.

There are three classic songs: "The Way You Look Tonight", "Pick Yourself Up" and "A Fine Romance" and some typically brilliant dance numbers.

Movie review - "Top Hat" (1935) ****

The most profitable of the Astaire-Rogers RKO musicals is terrific fun, with a plot that, while admittedly contrived as hell, is very bright and full of good lines. The whole conceit is that Ginger Rogers thinks Fred Astaire is a married noble (Edward Everett Horton) - adding to the complications are Horton's nonsense wife (Helen Broderick, who steals the show) and butler (Eric Blore, who is in fine form too).

Fred looks awkward, sings some classic songs in that weird-but-curiously-engaging voice he has (this one includes the title song and "Cheek to Cheek") and dances sublimely. He works so well with Ginger, who was a warmer personality, better actor, and could match him on the dance floor; though she didn't have his genius, she did have sex appeal - dancing in this movie is the equivalent sex, and makes the emotional stakes clear.

As a piece of drama, the action does drag once Rogers knows Astaire's true identity - at this point I wanted the action to wrap up. Plenty of scintillating dances - but the material and players are strong enough (especially the support cast) that I think this could have worked without it. Not as well, of corse.

Book review - "Bring on the Empty Horses" (1975) by David Niven

John Mortimer once wrote that David Niven never quite acted as well on screen as he did after dinner telling anecdotes - but this collection of stories, his second volume of memoirs, gives some idea. It's a different shape to The Moon's a Balloon, consisting of a series of stories rather than an overall narrative - but this allows Niven to go into greater depth and detail for said stories. 

There are illuminating, entertaining sketches of other famous people he knew - Clark Gable, Bogart, Errol Flynn (one of the best pieces of writing on Flynn ever done), Ronald Colman, Cary Grant, Greta Garbo, Vivien Leigh (disguised), Mike Romanoff, Fred Astaire, Hedda and Louella, Marion Davies. There are some less famous people too, such as a prostitute Niven knew. He can go into more detail on the dead rather than the living (so Cary Grant and Garbo are more sketchy than say Errol or Bogie).

Niven appears too, as a happy go lucky soul who got along with everyone, was polite and sensible, but also knew great tragedy (he and Gable bond over dead wives). However the focus really is on other people and the result is one of the best memoirs on Hollywood's golden age ever written.

Movie review - "RKO Radio Pictures: A Titan is Born" (2012) by Richard Jewel

Jewell co-authored the excellent RKO Story years ago but thankfully came back with this entertaining history, which goes from the beginning of the studio until the end of the George Schaefer regime in the 1940s - admittedly frustrating, since I was hoping to go through until the end (which only would have been another decade) but presumably volume two is on its way.

RKO was always an odd kind of studio - one of the eight majors, with big backing (RCA, Joseph Kennedy), impressive resources... but it always seemed in a permanent state of crisis, and its eventual death mustn't have been that surprising in the late 1950s. Many reasons for this are raised here, chief of which seems to be management instability - the people in charge kept changing; they had David O. Selznick for a time and could have kept him (and then gotten him back) but foolishly didn't; ditto Pando Berman. (Later they had Charles Koerner who died.)

George Schaefer has a high reputation because he backed Citizen Kane but here comes across as a bit of a stubborn idiot who didn't suit his job and cost the studio millions. They also displayed a bewildering inability to produce stars, letting talents like Joan Fontaine, Lucille Ball and Joel McCrea through their fingers, and being unable to hold onto Astaire and Rogers or Kate Hepburn, and even Orson Welles (who surely could have been used as an actor more).

Still whenever RKO looked weak they manged to pull a rabbit out of the hat: King Kong, Astaire-Rogers, Little Women, Ginger Rogers vehicles, Garson Kanin, Val Lewton, Gunga Din, The Saint. Jewel covers most of this, with particular looks at Astaire-Rogers, Hepburn, Gunga Din, Kong, Welles' films and some other key movies such as Bachelor Mother.

Well written, superbly researched, although it did take me a while to wrap my head around all the non famous crucial executives who appear in it because there are so many. Studios really do work better when they are benign dictatorships and RKO's problem is that it wasn't - or had crap dictators.