Angie Dickinson Top Ten

 An under-rated actress.

1) China Gate (1957) - gets a terrific opportunity as a Eurasian hooked, super sympathetic.

2) Dressed to Kill (1980) - a splendid role, beautifully acted, gives it tragic dimension.

3) Big Bad Mama (1974) - glorious fun.

4) Rome Adventure (1962) -  steals the movie.

5) Point Blank (1967) - very sympathetic, seems like a gangster girl. I prefer this to The Killers.

6) Pretty Babies All in a Row (1970) - wild movie, she fits in.

7) Sam Whiskey (1969) - fun Burt Reynolds film and she teams well with him.

8) The Chase (1966) - hectic, sprawling, entertaining.

9) Rio Bravo (1959) - too young for the Duke but fun, I wish Hawks had used her agaim. 

10) Captain Newman MD (1964) - sure, why not. 

Brian de Palma elements

 1) Perviness - lots and lots of vouyerism

2) Old Hollywood - famously Hitchcock but also gangster movies, broad comedies, musicals

3) Leftist politics - Greetings, Redcated, Casualties of War - soldiers are bad, it's a conspiracy, etc etc

4) Satire - of American politics but also business, gangsters

5) Wacky comedy - related to above - most notorious in Wise Guys but also in other films like Home Movies, Greetings

6) Genuine artist - when De Palma gets chits he blows them in interesting ways: anti-war movies, student films, video

Book review - "Ready When You Are, Mr. Coppola, Mr. Spielberg, Mr. Crowe" by Jerry Ziesmer

 Memoir of an assistant director has some decent moments but needed an edit. Too much Apocalypse Now and schedules not enough personalities. Fun sketches of Sly Stallone (nutty but endearing), Cameron Crowe (all positive), Tom Cruise (hyper), Robert Redford (charming but a c*nt), Babs (into everything), Peter Bogdanovich (didn't expect Illegally Yours to be made), Otto Preminger (a bully who was a pussycat).

Most memorable bit is fact Ziesmer's son killed himself. I did like him schmoozing extras on The Way We Were. I guess it's interesting how they did Superbowl in Black Sunday.  

Movie review - "Mission Impossible" (1996) **1/2 (re watching)

 This feels like it was made so long ago. The template is actually more influenced by Brian De Palma movies than I recalled - the opening fake out, the twists, the paranoia, split screens.

It doesn't feel as smoothly directed as his best films though. It feels choppy.  Cut about. Too often like a TV episode on the big screen. 

Emmanuel Beart is beautiful and enigmatic but had she already had work done? Some poor special effects. The script is better than the final movie.

Brian De Palma films summary

The Wedding Party (1964) - comedy on an island, not very funny, interesting to see young de Niro and Jill Clayburgh, very French/British new wave influenced.
Murder a la Mod (1968) - interesting student feature only for completists but shows all his themes (voyeurism, Hitchcock references, satire, unfunny wacky comedy, women being murdered, stalking, fake outs, characters who make dodgy films for a living).
Greetings (1968) - would’ve meant more at the time, this is actually Cassavetes like rather than De Palma like, period piece, early showy de Niro performance.
Hi, Mom! (1970) - more polished than Greetings, maybe less effective, remarkable middle sequence (immersive theatre bit, you'll know it if you saw it) that I’m still processing .
Get to Know Your Rabbit (1972) - wacky comedy which proved Tommy Smothers wasn’t a leading man, very much of its time.
Sisters (1972) - terrific riff on Psycho, beautifully made, with great acting from Margot Kidder and Jennifer Salt, wonderful score.
Phantom of the Paradise (1974) - nutty, subversive, consistently interesting, some unfortunate humour gaps, can see why it's a cult.
Obsession (1976) - never quite gets in gear for me, Genevieve Bujold a perfect Hitchcock heroine but Cliff Robertson not as good... interesting and it made money but I prefer his other Vertigo riffs.
Carrie (1976) - the most emotional De Palma? Perfect marriage of director, author and star, Sissy Spacek and King giving this agonising heart missing in the director’s other movies - why didn’t he direct another King book?
The Fury (1978) - fun action-thriller which I had low expectations for and enjoyed a lot, couldn’t pick the twists
Home Movies (1979) - De Palma scratches his 60s-induced itch for wacky comedy and satire with his student film with stars - goes for too long but Keith Gordon centres it quite well
Dressed to Kill (1980) - De Palma nails it, perfect script, score, cast, direction - has tremendous heart too with the Gordon-Allen relationship - I think he knew he got a hole in one here and kept going back to the well
Blow Out (1981) - I get it. I get all of it. Beautifully made. Just mean. Didn't like it.
Scarface (1983) - like Blow Out, I get its appeal, it just doesn’t mean as much to me as others. I love the opening hour and the last fifteen minutes. The rest is a slog. It’s a film that doesn’t die wondering, I’ll say that, and Stone and De Palma match well.
Body Double (1984) - part Vertigo riff part screwball comedy, with one of De Palma’s best stars (Melanie Griffith) and worst (Caig Wasson) - he had gotten divorced just before this and TBH you can tell it feels like he made it in a bad mood
Wise Guys (1986) - sigh. Clearly a CAA pitch movie - would’ve sounded fun in short hand, hard going, a throwback to De Palma’s unfunny comedy in the 60s. He still hadn't learned how to do it.
The Untouchables (1987) - love it, my favourite film of his, every image and line of dialogue etched in my brain from when I saw it (except the John Ford sequence which I always forget it in there) - I wish Mamet had worked with De Palma again
Casualties of War (1989) - I like this more now than when I saw it in part bc I realise how depressingly accurate it is - and I appreciate the risks Michael J Fox took with his stardom
The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) - overrated book which needed someone like Robert Altman though it’s the script rather than De Palma - probably his most racist film though that’s more Wolfe, than him I think
Raising Cain (1992) - De Palma forced back into making thrillers, uses his bag of tricks, some good moments though feels a little “I just need to make a successful film”
Carlito’s Way (1993) - terrific, I like it more than Scarface, wonderfully realised, maybe relies too much on Sean Penn’s character to propel the plot.
Mission: Impossible (1996) - I don’t think this series hit its stride until the 4th instalment (what a thing to write) but fun to watch.
Snake Eyes (1998) - I love this film, not many people do, but it feels very cohesive, Cage is a perfect De Palma hero
Mission to Mars (2000) - some good moments but not good, feels like a movie that would’ve been better on a third of the budget, you can smell the notes on it.
Femme Fatale (2002) - De Palma goes back to the thriller well, some excellent scenes and it’s a fun if silly movie.- his luck with female stars (so strong in the 70s and early 80s - Spacek, Allen, Griffith) had deserted him by now
The Black Dahlia (2006) - should’ve worked, doesn’t work, this was disappointing.
Redacted (2007) - good on him for making a gutsy movie even if he did just remake Casualties of War - some very silly scenes and very powerful ones.
Passion (2012) - casting not quite right, the bag of tricks is by now really overworked but I had more fun than I thought
Domino (2019) - some really interesting material in here, the leads should be the characters played by Eriq Ebouaney and Mohammed Azaay but they aren’t. Too much McBain type material.

Movie review - "Domino" (2019) **

 Brian De Palma's last feature film to date starts off as a McBain movie set in Copenhagen. Nikloaj Coster-Waldau is McBain, basically, whose partner is killed so he goes looking for payback. Carice Van Houten is from internal affairs. Oh and her real life partner Guy Pearce pops up.

Film buffs will enjoy the occasional De Palma bursts of flair and nods to other movies like the rooftops in Vertigo. There's some interesting ideas like the killer of the partner being an ex terrorist who is blackmailed into helping it from Guy Pearce, so he's got this sympathetic dimension. and Van Houten being pregnant with the partner's kid. These aren't developed.  

The leads should be the characters played by Eriq Ebouaney and Mohammed Azaay.

Movie review - "Casualties of War" (1989) ***1/2

 Props for Michael J Fox trying to expand his range the moment he became a star - he went into Light of Day, Bright Lights Big City and this. The public liked none of them.

Props also to Brian de Palma for blowing his Untouchables chits on this.  Just think maybe he should've made it for less money - pulled back on the battle sequences.

Gosh this is full on. American soldiers lose a man, so kidnap a Vietnamese girl for their sex slave, repeatedly rape her, then go to execute her... it seems several times she might escape but she doesn't get there... and she dies. 

Sean Penn is excellent as an all too believable hill billy thug as is Don Harvey as his sidekick and John C Reilly and John Leguizmo as the easily influenced. Fox is very fine as well. All the acting is good. Thu Thuy Le is mostly required to scream and look scared but she's very effective. The rest of the Vietnamese are the standard Hollywood Vietnam War extras, either screaming or wailing.

I remember not liking this movie at all when I first saw it. My opinion is higher now - I guess I know more people like the characters, I certainly met enough at school. Ditto the officers whose instant reaction is to cover things up. This was all too believable.

The speech Fox gives after Cherry is killed is whiffy. The scene where Fox smacks Harvey in the face with a shovel is very satisfactory.

Movie review - "The Untouchables" (1987) ***** (warning: spoilers)

 The perfect director, the perfect writer, the perfect piece of IP, the perfect composer, the perfect new star (Costner), the perfect old star (Sean Connery) the perfect showy star (Robert de Niro).

It all works brilliantly. It helps the structure is solid - like The Fugitive it's a TV series that can be told in a film, and it was, The Scarface Mob.

Actually I will admit the scenes with the wife are treacly - but how else to do it? The scene at the border on horseback... that's a little unmemorable (Mamet didn't write it).

But the good stuff is so terrific - the Mamet arias, the murder of Charles Martin Smith (so shocking and intense), the death of Sean Connery, the finale in court.

Movie review - "Snake Eyes" (19998) ****

 Really fun De Palma crime film that never got its due. Full of show-y off-y direction and it's marvelous. On watching it a second time the plot doesn't really hold up - I mean, it's fine (an assassination is a conspiracy), it's just once it's done, there's not a lot of character interaction to keep involved. Maybe if we'd seen Nicolas Cage's wife.

But I loved its energy and Cage suits De Palma world.

Movie review - "Dressed to Kill" (1980) *****

 De Palma does Psycho very well with Angie Dickinson as Janet Leigh, Michael Caine as Tony Perkins, Keith Gordon as Vera Miles/John Gavin and Nancy Allen as... well, a new charactder so there you go.

This has more warmth than other De Palma films - Keith Gordon's character is a De Palma doppleganger so he totally gets him, and Nancy Allen was his wife and I think the marriage was going well then. The camraderie between Gordon and Allen is wonderful - talk about wish fulfilment for teenage boys. Allen's character is very winning - a prostitute with a heart of gold but also interested in the stock market.

It's an extremelt well acted film - Angie Dickinson gets a terrific opportunity for a change and she's wonderful. Gordon and Allen are splendid and Michael Caine is always good. 

\De Palma's direction is on top of his game. I think he cracked the code with this one - he conquered it. So his other films he had to test himself: sad ending (Blow Out), mega sex and violence (Body Double).

Some unfortunate decisions: the trans killer and the black guys who hassle Allen on a subway just because. Both fit in very well with the film in terms of story, it's still unfortunate.

Movie review - "Carrie" (1976) ****

 Steven King's debut novel is a cracker, in part because it deals with universal themes and dreams - who hasn't felt neglected, bullied at high school, who doesn't know the cruelty of school and kids, and religious nutter parents, and who hasn't wanted telekenesis to help out. When Carrie knocks over that bratty kid on a bike it's hard not to feel joy - we've all wanted to do that to little turds. Everyone gets too Nancy Allen's desire for revenge, Amy Irving's desire to be kind. Betty Buckley's desire to be kind, Spacek'sfeelings of being isolated, longing for acceptance, delight... and desire for revenge. 

The pig's blood is so primal. So its Carrie wiping out her class.

Brian de Palma was fortunate to have Sissy Spacek to play the lead - so achingly vulnerable, so believably plain but also capable of blossoming. The idiotic remake put a hot girl in this part.

PJ Soles and Nancy Allen are great bitches, ditto the tubby girl. John Travolta and William Katt impress too.  I love Soles wearing a cap at the prom. Piper Laurie is fine too in the broadest role. There's no warmth from her towards Carrie, she's just mean... but it works at the end when Carrie comes to her for a hug because Spacek is so good (no knock on Laurie, she doesn't have a chance to do anything).

Brian de Palma is so ideal for this material I wonder why he's never done another King adaptation. Like a lot of De Palma it's very pervy (the opening shower seequence with full frontal nudity), plays tricks (the nudity goes to blood), wacky comedy (girls getting tired at gym, Katt and his mates buying tuxes). slow mo, split screen, movie references (Psycho like scene), slow motion, suspense sequences.

The scene where Betty Buckley slaps Nancy Allen is quite shocking. And John Travolta slaps Allen too. There's a lot of Allen slapping.

This has heart unlike a lot of De Palma filmes due to King, and the actors. The ending where Spacek is betrayed by his mother after reaching out is unbearably sad.

Movie review - "Blow Out" (1981) ***

 Disliked at the time but a cult movie since - was it ever going to be a hit though with that genre defying ending.

It's got split screens, a fake out opening scene which deconstructs voyeurism but is also very pervy, Nancy Allen as a good time girl, John Lithgow as a killer, Dennis Franz as a scuz, cinematic references up the wa-zoo, lefty boomer politics (it's a conspiracy).

Travolta and Allen are very sweet. Travolta is excellent. Maybe a harsher actor wouldn't have made the ending such a downer. Ditto Allen. They are both so young and naive. Mind you it does work for the story which requires Travolta's character to be incompetent at key times.

I've got to say - I don't like this movie. It's got a black heart. De Palma's dad was a surgeon and I think at times his son developed a matter of fact treatment about humans - cut this out, press this button, push that button.

It's beautifully directed. But John Lithgow runs around strangling women to cover up his tracks and then also kills Allen after we've been sitting through a big chase. And also she's in terriro the last ten minutes or so of her life. Look, I get it. I get all of it. I just didn't like it.

I think also pace wise it felt odd to have Lithgow go off with Allen, then Travolta chase, crash car, get knocked out, recover, race... and Lithgow and Allen are still alive. Why do this? To have the finale at night I ugess but you could have the opening bit at night too yes? Maybe he wouldn't have the car chase but you could've lost the car chase.

De Palma did have more balls that his fellow gang members like Lucas and Spielberg (though maybe not Schrader). I think he also didn't like the human race as much.

Movie review -"Get to Know Your Rabbit" (1972) **

 I get the logic. Warners go for the protest market. Tom Smothers gets a rep as an anti establishment comic (he is little known in Oz but had a variety show with his brother in the USA). Get a hot director who did a lotw budget hit with Greetings, Brian de Palma.

De Palma and Smothers didn't mesh. It's an anti establishment comedy with Smothers as a businessman who flips out. He still bangs a hot blonde... and another hot girl... and Katherine Ross as a non manic dream girl but still a dream girl.

The plot has him learn how to be a magician by Orson Welles (not a big role). He makes a success and turns into his old sold out success. I mean, yeah, I get it. I guess. I just didn't care.

There's some frantic comedy. Smothers is a bit of a charisma vacuum. John Astin hams it up as Smothers' old boss. You see people like M Emmet Walsh, Allan Garfield.

Movie review - "Hi Mom!" (1970) **1/2

 Sequel to Greetings is more focused, with Robert de Niro as the only protagonist, but also has less life though it's similiarly wacky with political sants.

De Niro goes to work in the porn industry, then for a black revue.The black revue segment is startling - it's immersive theatre, the whites have black polish put on them, get harassed by cops (one of them de Niro, doing an acting gig), one is raped, the girl screams, it's all filmed. This is powerful. Then the rape victim praises the immersive theatre experience.

It's bold I'll give it that. Lots of ideas. Interesting. I'm not sure how I think about it.

The cast includes people like Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning, Allen Garfield.

Movie review - "Femme Fatale" (2002) *** (warning: spoilers)

 When in doubt, go a lower budgeted thriller - that worked for De Palma in the 70s, 80s and 90s but not so much this one although it has its fans. It's a fun film with De Palma dipping into his old bag of tricks - identical twins, kidnapping, heists with someone betraying, tracking shot.

Rebecca Romjin Stamos gets the part of a lifetime. She's gorgeous, more so in some outfits than others. Not quite a star but in her defence a lot of it she's not talking - when she gets to chat a bit like with Antonio Banderas, she comes alive, has more of a character to play.

 Banderas has fun as a paparazzo. Peter Coyote adds some American flavour as the American ambassador (maybe the film would've done better in the US with more American characters). The opening robbery is great. There's long scenes with no dialogue, Twists. Shift of perception.

The film is based on the fact that Stamos' dreams come true, I think. Which is silly. A lot of it is silly but it goes there. The pace flagged here and there but it was entertaining. It felt fulfilled.

Movie review - "Scarface" (1983) ***1/2

 Beloved by rappers, gangster and film bros. It's a bold movie to be sure full of set pieces: Al Pacino's opening interrogration, the murder of the ex Castro officer in the camp, the chainsaw murder sequence, the climax.

It has a record for swearing and acutally doesn't need the swearing, or at least that uch. It needed the violence to be what it is. It's also the bright bold colours, the fashion, the music score, the sets. Brian De Palma excels at operatic style pices of which this is one.

Oliver Stone and De Palma match wonderfully - their politics were in synch I feel with its satire on capitalism and so on. Both liked to go "big" so they do.

The acting is terrific. Pacino at his full hammy best, Steven Bauer as the sleek and sexy George Raft type (what a lost star), Michelle Pfeiffer as the zoned out trophy, Mary Stuart Mastrantonio as the frizzy haired sister lusted after by Pacino, Harry Yulin as a slimy cop, F Murray Abraham fabulous as a crime guy, Robert Loggia maybe a little accent-y as a drug lord, Paul Shenar is electric as the Bolivian drug lord.  The girl who flirts with Bauer outside the apartment prior to the chainsaw scene mysteriously vanished after filming. Richard Belzer plays a comic. Lana Clarkson has a small part.

The middle section is a little dull. The female characters are about as well defined as you'd expect from Oliver Stone (rich girl turned whore, poor girl turned whore, whore, whining mother).  The scenes with Pfeiffer lack any sort of detph. She's not into him at all there's no connection - so when she leaves it means nothing. (Pfeiffer is very effective).

Also Pacino's character is such a psycho that after a while nothing he does has impact. He shoots everyone - drug dealers, his boss, another boss, his boss' helper. So when he shoots Bauer it feels nothing. I guess he doesn't kill the poitical guy when that guy is with his wife and kid. But it's such a fabulous performance.

Still the ending is fun with Pacino in front of a massive pile of cocaine as the drug lord's gunman storm the mansion and MSM tormenting him in underwear over his incestuous love while firing a gun.

Movie review - "The Wedding Party" (shot 1963, released 1969) **

 Brian De Palma's first feature although his third released. It's a wacky comedy years before Wise Guys which starts with a sped up dubbed chase that feels as though it belongs in a Beach Party movie.

It's one of those "interesting because it has people who went on to become famous" films with De Palma, Robert de Nero (as he's billed), Hill Clayburgh. There's a lot of actors in this.

There's novelties - seeing de Niro, who is a little chubby in the face, seeing Clayburgh. There's energy, some interesting dialogue (references to Fellini, Anna May Wong, Lionel Barrymore).

But they don't sustain. It gets annoying - the groom who doesn't want to get married (okay boomer), the wacky Indian character (Peter Sellers influence no doubt). What might've been an interesting short definitely doesn't have legs as a feature. By the time the groom tries to root the organist it's really uncomfortable. Haw haw haw, unwilling woman, haw haw haw.

It is less painful than Wise Guys.

Movie review - "Carlito's Way" (1993) **** (warning spoilers)

 Brian De Palma at his peak, an excellent cohesive gangster melodrama with Al Pacino as a Bogart/Cagney type, out of prison and just tryin' to go straight. There's a shifty lawyer (Sean Penn), a young punk (John Leguizmo) who he sets free and lives to regret it, colourful sidekicks (Luiz Guizman).

This doesn't get the love of Scarface but it's extremely well made. De Palma's directrion is confidence and secure - things like the final chase scene were Pacino is trying to go to the train station a la Cablanca with Guizman as Dooley Wilson and Penelope Ann Miller as Ingrid Bergman, you can feel the director having the time of his life.

Plot wise the film probably relies on Sean Penn's character being dodgy too much. I mean he pulls the big betrayal of Pacino, getting him in trouble, then also betraying him... Pacino really is a dill to no turn evidence and look after his woman. I wish a little more complexity was in his relationship with Penn.

Miller is likeable, with a memorable nude scene (it's true). Viggo Mortensen turns up. Pacino plays a super hero - tough, loyal, won't dog, sticks by his mates, is a hero in a gun fight, catnip to the ladies (the black waitress wants him), the biggest dick on the block... just overly loyal. But because we know from the opening scene he's going to die the whole film has a powerful undercurrent.

One of De Palma's best.

Movie review - "Greetings" (1968) **1/2

 Brian De Palma in groovy mode with its Brit cinema and French new wave cinema influences on its sleeve. It has bright colour, homophobia, racial slurs delivered "satirically" and a lot of energy.

It's a series of adventures with three films one of whom is a young Robert de Niro in glasses, another who is Gerrit Graham who was in a bunch of de Palma films.

This was a hit relative to its low budget. It's in colour, and is simple ish to follow - just three dudes hanging out bantering. The attitudes would have been fresh and cutting edge at the time.

There's lots of long takes with the actors just talking and interacting - Cassavetes like which is different from what De Palma would later specialise in.

I think this would have meant more to people going through this at the time but it's of interest.

Movie review - "Wise Guys" (1986) * (warning: spoilers)

 Brian de Palma has always had a soft spot for comedy, his early films were mostly comedies, so this big screen comedy isn't as much as an outlier 

He's not very good at comedy. This is too broad, too silly, ignores reality like all the hoods shoving lighters in mafia boss Dan Hedaya's face.

Danny de Vito and Joe Piscopo are ideally cast as two lower ranked mobsters - that's a fun idea, the mobsters who do the worst jobs. But it's terribly done. Gaggy. Silly. The sort of movie and jokes that sound better in pitch (eg "testing the bullet proof vest"). 

De Vitoa's got a wig. Piscopo is quite amiable. Do De Vito's family know at the end he's not really dead? That seems kind of mean.

Gosh this film was terrible.