Movie review - "Black Sunday" (1977) ****

 The suits thought this was going to be bigger than Jaws and the public didn't come, at least not in the numbers they expected. Maybe audiences were awkward with an Israeli hero - driven Robert Shaw, given a scene of backstory where he explains his wife and sons are dead, after terrorist Marthe Keller, who also has a scene of backstory (raised in camps, etc).

It moves at a decent pace, there's plenty of story. Bruce Dern has a high old time as Keller's associate, Keller is very effective. They have a fascinating relationship - manipulative, doomed, twisted.

The bomb - steel projectiles - is genuinely terrifying.

Some great terrorism movie heads like Steven Keats (Shaw's offsider), Fritz Weaver (FBI man), Bekhim Femui (Keller's boss). Movie maybe lacks someone with a little warmth who is a goodie - a Roy Scheider in Jaws type. The warmest characters are Dern and Keller.

Maybe too much football stuff. But fun, rollicking movie. 

Movie review - "Paint Your Wagon" (1969) **1/2

 Big and silly and cost way too much but the locations are gorgeous, there's some nice tunes, and it's sweet to see Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood and Jean Seberg in a musical. Everyone is trying. Seberg is more animated than in some of her efforts. Clint is getting into it too, and it's so novel to hear him sing, ditto Marvin. Decent tunes.

The movie never quite fixes on its story. The central conceit is Seberg winds up with two men but  it never really goes into that. We all know Seberg will be with Eastwood it's not a threat. There's no threat. The action dragged when a young man was introduced and this whol plot started in the third act.

The town collapsing is fun, the running time long, some nice tunes. This killed Josh Logan's movie career. 

Diller versus Evans

Am reading Barry Diller’s excellent memoirs which discuss his time running Paramount in the 1970s which made me decide to compare his regime with the fabled Robert Evans regime that proceeded it. (These lists below attribute films to various regimes as well as I can... it's entirely possible some started development under other regimes)

So films from the Evans regime which film bros (deservedly) always bang on about...  

Love Story, The Godfather Part 1 and 2, Harold and Maude, A New Leaf, Willy Wonka, Play It Again Sam, Lady Sings the Blues, Paper Moon, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Serpico, The Conversation, Daisy Miller, The Parallax View, Chinatown, Death Wish, The Longest Yard, Three Days of the Condor, Hustle, Italian Job, Medium Cool, True Grit, Goodbye Columbus, Rosemary’s Baby, The Odd Couple, Romeo and Juliet, Barbrella, if..., Oh what a Lovely War, Downhill Racer. 

Great stuff. 

But films from Evans regime which film bros forget he made (or blame on Charlie Bludhorn)...

 The Molly Maguires, The Adventurers, Darling Lili, Friends, Little Fauss and Big Haley, Norwood, a weirdly large number of flop Neil Simon adaptations (Plaza Suite, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Star Spangled Bannered Girl), Murphy’s Law, TR Baskin, Such Good Friends, Bad Company, The N***** Charley Films, Save the Children, Sterile Cuckoo, Hello Down There, My Side of the Mountain, Where’s Jack, Blue, No Way to Treat a Lady, 5 Card Stud, Skidoo, The Brotherhood, A Talent for Loving, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Scalawag, The White Dawn, Paint Your Wagon.

Not so great stuff. You just don't hear Peter Bart go one about these as much. 

Films from the Diller regime which film bros go on about:  

Saturday Night Fever, Bad News Bears, Marthon Man, King Kong, Mikey and Nicky (in its own way), Looking for Mr Goodbar, Saturday Night Fever, Pretty Baby, Grease 1 and 2, Heaven Can Wait, Foul Play, Days of Heaven, Up in Smoke, The Warriors, Escape from Alcatraz, Meatballs, North Dallas Forty, Star Trek 1 and 2, American Gigolo, Friday the 13th series, Urban Cowboy, Flying High 1 and 2, Ordinary People, Popeye, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom, Mommie Dearest, An Officer and.a Gentleman, 48 Hours, White Dog, Flashdance, Trading Places, Terms of Endearment, Uncommon Valor, The Keep, Footloose,  Top Secret, Beverly Hills Cop, Witness.

Again, a great line up of films. 

But there are films from the Diller regime which seem to be forgotten: 

Won Ton Ton the Dog That Saved Hollywood, Lifeguard, Handle with Care, First Love, The One and Only, Going South, Oliver's Story, An Almost Perfect Affair, Prophecy, Bloodline, Sunburn, French Postcards, Nijinsky, Rough Cut, The Hunter, Coast to Coast, Going Ape, Dragonslayer, First Monday in October, Paternity, Ragtime, I’m Dancing as Far as I Can, Some Kind of Hero, Partners, Jekyll and Hyde Together Again, It Came from Hollywood, Ladies and Gentlemen the Fabulous Stains, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Racing with the Moon, Best Defence, River Rat, Thief of Hearts, Falling in Love, King David, Rustlers Rhapsody, Compromising Positions. 

Don't forget the flops, that's all I'm saying. 

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.

Movie review - "Targets" (1968) **** (re-watching)

 It's so audacious that the essentially silly idea does work - combining a sniper with an old Karloff movie. Karloff is a joy. Peter Bogdanovich is a very awkward actor, like surprisingly so, but he adds to the film's charm. Tim O'Kelly really impresses. MVP though goes to Nancy Hsueh, who is warm, smart and lovely - a Polly Platt surrogate. Sam Fuller's storylining keeps the pace fast. 

I wish Bogdanovich had done more thrillers he could handle violence well. I mean, kids get shot. And watch their parents get shot. This film packs a bang, aside from sixties skivvies and deejays.

Book review - "The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story" by Sam Wasson

 Wasson comes up with a fresh take on Coppola, focusing on the American Zoetrope story, with two main areas - the early 70s period before The Godfather and the early 80s which saw One from the Heart . Most emphasis is on the latter, which its dazzling ambition, waste of money, idealism, randomness - Gene Kelly mixing it with Michael Powell, Paul Schrader, Michael Lehman and so on.

Doesn't spend a lot of time on Godfather, thank goodness, but a bit on Apocalypse Now. Puts Megalopolis in more context - I get it more now and am even looking forward to it (with some apprehension).

Coppola's record at supporting talent and trying new things is quite remarkable even if he did go a little insane I think. Fascinating book.

Movie review - "Love Story" (1970) ****

 Why did it work when so many other sobby movies don't? This is all hindsight of course. It had a memorable music score, came along when death was on the mind I guess (Vietnam, all that), used two very pretty stars, Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw, Ali had a new look (haircut, glasses), it was visually different (Harvard, snow), had some different things (frolicing in snow, ice skating), was about the generation gap, has some pre marital sex and glimpses of nudity (bare shoulders) and a few four letter words... these help it age.

It's extremely well done. The dialogue has genuine zip. 

We don't find out Ali is terminally ill until something like 70 minutes in. That's very late in the day. But it packs a wallop because by then we care about them. Up until then they have believable clashes - he's rich, she's poor, she loves her dad, he fights with his, his dad cuts him off because of her, they struggle for money, she gives up her dreams to support him.

The final scene between them in bed is terrific. Ryan O'Neal is a great reactor, as Bob Evans said. MacGraw is very beautiful and effective. The lush music works. Arthur Hiller's direction was spot on - he kept the pace up, but knew when to slow down.

This movies are not easy to do. Nastily criticised by critics embarassed by emotion.

Book review - "Picturing Peter Bogdanovich: My Conversations with the New Hollywood Director" by Peter Tonguette (2020)

 Entertaining book. I know a lot about PB, more than healthy but this had stuff I didn't know - mpostly unmade films in the 70s that actually sounded great esp Bugsy and some Howard Sackler scripts. There's probably too much on Robert Graves but it doesn't overdose on old Hollywood directors and discusses more post Golden era projects eg TV stuff. What a career he had. I wish he'd had another late period hit though.

Movie review - "Murphy's War" (1971) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 Looks fantastic - shot in Venezuela (a nightmare location apparently, out in the jungle, living on a ferry that got stuck in mud), beautiful cinematography, splendid scenes involving planes, submarines and jungle, and quality acting. 

It's sluggishly paced - or maybe that's also the lack of stakes: Peter O'Toole survives his ship being sunk by a U boat crew, who then machine gun other survivors, so he decides to get payback... even after the war is over... he succeeds but then he dies too.

In other words Peter Yates wanted to make something about the Futility of War... only World War Two wasn't futile, it was important. Okay yes this bit is futile but then what's the point of watching people doing futile things? Michael Deeley the producer wanted O'Toole to live at the end and that would've helped a little but the war was still over. We really had to hate those Germans. It's good the scene where the Germans kill the U boat survivor... but that survivor doesn't mean much or do the other random villagers. I think they needed to kill Sian Phillips (Quaker doctor) or Philippe Noiret (friendly local Frenchman, excellent) to give it real stakes.

Maybe that wouldn't have worked. Still, the public didn't go for it. A movie from Paramount under Bob Evans.

Book review - "Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli: The Epic Story of the Making of The Godfather " by Mark Seal

 I knew all the stories but it was fun to read anyway because the making of this film is a classic story, full of colorful characters (Bob Evans, Coppola, Charlie Bludhorn, Puzo, Brando, Caan, various mafiosos - Al Ruddy is among the least colourful) and genuine conflict (mafia opposition, Evans vs Coppola). The sections on dealing with cinematographers and designers are particularly strong.

Script review - "Sliver" by Joe Eszterhas (warning: spoilers)

 Have never seen the film. It had a bit of a splash at the time, with Sharon Stone and that terrible UB40 cover of an Elvis track and the then hot Phil Noyce and Joe Eszterhas - but no one particularly liked it.

The script is very good. Simple, with three juicy star parts (Eszterhas often did that) plus sex, mystery and violence. Again it's about someone falling in love with someone who could be a killer, and is... but apparently in the film they changed it which ruined the point.

I actually think the key problem was the casting of Sharon Stone. Reading this, for the story to fly it really needed the lead to be played by someone who comes across as sexual inexperienced, shy... so when she calls for Zeke (the Billy Baldwin character) it's like wham, and she doesn't know how to deal with it. Like the Geena Davis-Brad Pitt relationship in Thelma and Louise. Sharon Stone always looks like she's been around the block.

The script totally makes logical sense. I'm surprised they had to reshoot it.

Book review - "Hollywood Animal" by Joe Eszterhas (re-reading)

 Still one of the best ever Hollywood memoirs, even if a lot of the material is over familiar now because Eszterhas keeps rehashing it in interviews and repurposing it for his other books. Epic sweep - Hungarian background, being a refugee, some (thought surprisingly not a lot) tales of journalism, breaking into movies, becoming a scripting superstar, then crashing, fleeing to Cleveland, fighting cancer and finding God... and then getting no more credits.

Eszterhas comes across as completely appalling a person - as does his second wife. Their behaviour on that Hawaiian holiday is particularly obnoxious. But to give him his due he is warts and all - and he has some self awareness here, which is lacking in his later books. Best segments are the ones on FIST, Flashdance, Jagged Edge, the fight with Ovitz, Basic Instinct and the cancer struggle. He can write a good tale for a rampaging narcissist. Colourful cameos by people like Bob Evans, Don Simpson, Sharon Stone, Richard Marquand, etc

Book review - "The Beauty of Living Twice" by Sharon Stone (2021)

 Excellent introduction - the tale of her brain bleed. It's well written. Actor-y - lots of talk about spirituality and supporting HIV research and friends. I was hoping for more stuff on the movies, TBH. There's a little on Basic Instinct and Casino and some on the rough shooting conditions on King Solomon's Mines. An entertaining bit about her start in Stardust Memories. She has nice things to say about Arnie, Paul Verhoeven, Michael Douglas. She talks a lot about her friends and family. She doesn't mention Joe Eszterhas (which must have driven him wild). There's a fun anecdote about a producer who I assume was Robert Evans encouraging her to have an affair with who I assume was Billy Baldwin. She takes pride in The Quick and the Dead. Talks fondly about Bruce Wagner, mentions a first husband and that newspaper guy is alluded to as a lousy husband after her stroke (but she thanks him in the "thanks" section). She had dodgy health. Says nice things about Bruce Beresford.

I was hoping for more goss, to be honest, and more of the films. Nothing about Irreconcilable Differences or Catwoman or Police Academy 4 or the action films or The Mighty and The Muse or The Specialist.

She was so good looking and great on screen. I remember when Basic Instinct came out she was the flavour of the month but me and my mates had liked her since King Solomon's Mines. She was good then. I am genuinely surprised she didn't last longer as a star. Bad luck. Made a lot of films that would've sounded great on paper: Sphere, Diabolique, Sliver, The Mighty,The Muse. To be fair, not sure what she turned down.

Not a bad read just not what I was hoping. I'm glad she's doing better. Poor Joe Eszterhas!

Movie review - "Targets" (1968) **** (rewatching)

 Maybe it's more naturally three and a half stars but considering the restrictions this is four star. Excellent debut from Bogdanovich, presented with, as Quentin Tarantino says, a puzzle... some footage from The Terror, a few days of Karloff.

Bogdanovich's luck was strong at this stage: he picked a great idea (to do something based on a spree killer), had Sam Fuller and Polly Platt in his corner to help him write the script (which I think gave him a false idea of his skill in that area).

Bogdanovich's acting is awkward - he had a lot on his plate - and the character should have been killed for shock value but his presence has film buff appeal. There's an Asian lead which might be more progressive if people didn't comment on the girl's Asian-ness all the time.

The director's style is apparent from the get go - long takes, languid takes, momentum that builds. People were idiots to say he was Ford/Hawks when he was his own man (or rather couple).

Movie review - "Paper Moon" (1973) ****1/2

 A stunningly good movie. Looks fantastic - brilliantly shot. Superb locations. Ryan O'Neal gives a career high performance. The show is stolen by Tatum of course but Madeleine Kahn is also superb, as is John Hillerman in a duel role... actually everyone is excellent. Tough, funny, sentimental in the best way. A classic.

Book review - "The Big Goodbye" by Sam Wasson (2020)

 Was the making of Chinatown that interesting? It was tricky to write the script, sure. There were some troubles. But everyone had enjoyed a hit recently - it wasn't that hard to finance. A big star wanted to do it. People "got" it was a Chandler throwback. (Come to think of it there's not enough in this book about 30s nostalgia that dominated Hollywood).

Of course the personalities are fascinating- Evans, Polanski, Nicholson, Towne, Dunaway.

Wasson is an excellent writer. He's superb on the different drafts of the script. I was shocked Town used a ghost writer for most of his career - Eric Taylor. That was a true revelation for me. That's amazing. One of the greatest screenwriters of all time. It does explain the quality of his work. But Taylor should be better known.

The book is less good elsewhere. I feel Wasson was overly influenced by who would talk to him - he goes in soft on Polanski and Evans, and hard on Dunaway and Towne. I'm sure he would argue that's not the case, but it's the impression I got. And like far too many writers he accepts the comments of Peter Bart uncritically.

Worth reading. But I feel it would've been a better book had he not done interviews of the famous people.

Movie review - "The Cotton Club" (1984 - original cut) ***

I watched this after seeing Encore. They cut stuff out which they should have kept - the opening credits, some gangster stuff, Gloria Swanson telling Gere he should be a star, a scene among black gangsters. This stuff should have been kept. In many ways the original is tighter. But more dance numbers and Hines is good.

Movie review - "Cotton Club: Encore" (1984/2018) ***1/2

I have an unfashionable theory that years-after-the-event director's cuts don’t really improve a movie - eg Star Wars A New Hope, Heaven's Gate, yes even Blade Runner - and that was the case with Cotton Club Encore.

Sure it was lovely to see more dance numbers and more Gregory Hines but the central problem remained - too many scenes outside the club which should be inside the club (eg the opening attempted assassination of Dutch Schultz, reunion of the Hines brothers, Greg Hines wooing Lonette McKee via song and dancing). 

Watching it I kept muttering to myself "just set these scenes inside the club". That opening bit where Gere meets James Remar - that could be at the Club, towards closing time. The Hines brothers getting back together - Maurice can come to see Greg perform instead of the other way around. You could establish off screen McKee is performing as white.

The other problem was the film could never simplify the connection between Dutch Schultz (James Remar) and Dixie (Richard Gere) - "I want you to be my trumpet player/driver/fashion adviser/mistress escort"... just make up your mind, Coppola. Gere playing trumpet is a mistake - it forces the film to go to another club because whites didn't play. They should have just had him as a dancer like George Raft - play up the male prostitute angle. When the film starts he's basically a hooker, like Lane - so they bond. Make him a good dancer - Gere could dance - he could dance at the Club, just not in the show. Lane shouldn't want to run a club - give her a fashion line or something so she can bring fashions into the club. Or be a radio performer.

It's a shame because all the storylines are dramatically solid (fall in love with gangster's mistress, black singer who passes for white, dancing brothers duo who fall out, gang war in Harlem, brother becomes gangster) and the support cast is sensational - Bob Hoskins, Fred Gwynne, Laurence Fisburn, Nicolas Cage, Jennifer Grey, Maurice Hines, John Ryan, Joe Dellesandro, Ed O'Ross, Julian Beck, Gwen Vernon etc...

Nice to see on the big screen, though - where it's clear Diane Lane totally kept putting in the tongue kissing Richard Gere.

My favourite bits:
 - Remar stabbing John Ryan and Fred Gwynne pulling a gun
- Julian Beck's Saul explaining his backstory
- how Cage and Grey really look like 1930s people
- the reunion between the Hines brothers
- the finale where it looks like Coppola did a line of coke and went "f*ck it" and did a big musical number where the stage show is intercut with numbers in real life
- Lane's expression at the end when Gere sees her at the train
- the gold watch scene

I feel it was a mistake to change the opening credits - no longer do they cut away to a musical number. Why? That was a great way to intro the film.

Book review - "John Frankenheimer: A Conversation with Charles Champlin"

Frankenheimer had one of the all time hot streaks - both during the Golden Years of television where he was one of the stars, but also his early films. Young Savages, All Fall Down, The Manchurian Candidate, The Train, Seven Days in May, Seconds... Critics cooled on him from Grand Prix onwards after which his career seemed to wobble: The Extraordinary Seaman, The Fixer, The Gypsy Moths, I Walk the Line, The Horseman, Impossible Object, The Iceman Cometh, 99 and 44/100% Dead,. There were some "commercial" films - French Connection II, Black Sunday, The Prophecy - and a drinking problem. His career dipped in the 80s but he came back in the 90s with TV work. This book is before Ronin.

Obviously a smart guy - lucky in how he got into tv, but you make your own luck, developing material, taking chances, taking risks. Strong work ethic - he managed to kick the booze. He whinges a bit about studios and like all people in their memoirs blames other people for his films that flopped but in fairness takes some brickbats too.

The film is full of interesting bits like his sometimes prickly relationship with Burt Lancaster, saying James Garner was only effective when playing "a shit", his hopes for The Horseman (the Afghan government offered him free land), Gordon Stulberg of Fox agreed to finance 99 and 44/100% Dead if Richard Harris was cast, Don Johnson was a pain on Dead Bang.

An entertaining book, I just wish it included some of his later career.

Book review "Infamous players : a tale of movies, the mob (and sex)"- by Peter Bart (2011)

I've enjoyed Bart's writings in the past - his history of MGM, his collection of essays about the late 90s, his pieces for Variety and Deadline. I noticed the quality would drop whenever he talked about himself - he would always paint himself in the best possible light, claiming to have made key decisions that contributed to successes, claiming to have warned about choices that led to disaster - but he had good access and was a skilled writer. He is always easy to read.

This is a memoir of Bart's time at Paramount in the late 60s and early 70s, a period he often (as in, all the time) refers to in his essays. 

It's perhaps the most self-centered Hollywood memoir I've ever read - and I've read a lot of them - and around half-way through I started hating Bart and couldn't stop.

You see, according to Bart, it's Bart who has concerns about Darling Lili, it's Bart who suggests to Robert Evans that he get Francis Coppola to write The Godfather, it's Bart who champions Love Story and suggests Arthur Hiller direct, it's Bart who helps Warren Beatty cut the sex scene in Don't Look Now, it's Bart who thinks Where's Jack? is a bad idea but helps make The Italian Job behind Charles Bludhorn's back, it's Bart who's not sure Paddy Chayefsky is the right writer for Paint Your Wagon, it's Bart who champions Harold and Maude, it's Bart who liked The President's Analyst, it's Bart who suggests True Grit to Hal Wallis, it's Bart who cautions Paramount on Day of the Locust, it's Bart who swaps Emperor of the North for Play It Again Sam, it's Bart who has doubts about Redford's suitability for The Great Gatsby. 

Bart, according to Bart, is just so darn wise.

Look, any book about this time and that has up close looks at characters like Robert Evans and Sidney Korshak is going to be interesting, but most of it has been done before and better in other books. Bart wastes pages on recaps about Korshak and Gulf and Western when we want personal insights. 

Some of it is interesting - accounts of the making of Blue for instance and Downhill Racer, WUSA, The Parallax View and Sheila Levine is Dead. Stories of The Godfather, Rosemary's Baby and Love Story are more familiar. I would have loved more on the less familiar Paramount movies from his period - say, TR Baskin, Will Penny - or the movie Bart wrote, Making It.

Bart has exasperated affection for Bob Evans, as he should since Evans gave him his job - in part because Bart wrote a flattering article about Evans under the Old Mates Act. Charles Budhorn comes across as Bludhorn always does - a colorful cartoon. Bart is vicious on Frank Yablans - really vicious. There are digs at Robert Redford and Warren Beatty.

The book is laced with homophobia - he brings up Rock Hudson's sexuality all the time, ditto for William Inge and John Schlesinger, and not in a complimentary way. 

He also tends to slag off women - Elaine May is duplicitous, Ali MacGraw is a flake, Julie Andrews is sexless, Julia Phillips is a drug addled fool (he criticises plenty of men too but he also admires lots of them, whereas there's little admiration for women).

There is the odd surprise opinion - he would have preferred Bogdanovich's version of The Getaway with Cybil Shepherd as the girl, and wanted Marlon Brando and Coppola on Gatsby (which actually would have been awesome)

Robert Evans' memoirs are a lot more fun and actually feel more accurate. This feels like a book written in a hurry for cash and was really disappointing.