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

 The press got hysterical about this movie - Sean Connery in a Western. Connery appearing opposite Brigitte Bardot. 

It's a strong story, and looks great (vistas etc). But it's an ensemble piece - sort of like Stagecoach, about Europeans on a hunting trip encountering Apaches. There's various subplots like Jack Hawkins' wife Honor Blackman having it off with Stephen Boyd. Connery is a former cavalry officer who advises them to get out and they odn't.

There's too many characters to service so the strong cast don't have anything to do. Connery and Bardot don't have anything to play. They should have written him as taciturn and explosive but unused to women - or something. He's just a guy. She's just Bardot, and not attractively costumer. Honor Blackman is better because she's got something to play. Connery isn't even that tough - he doesn't do much through the film.

There's also Peter Van Eyck, Eric Sykes, Alexander Knox, Woody Strode. 

Also never makes sense why posh types are hunting in New Mexico which is really rocky and desert-y. The plains would have made more sense. 

Movie review - "The Legend of Frenchie King" (1971) **

 Teaming of two legends - Claudia Cardinale and Brigitte Bardot - set in the old west. The two have different personas that don't actually really mesh, at least not here - Cardinale is cheery, Bardot seems distracted.

Something like Vera Cruz you get the conflict and the personals - it's not clear here. Michael J Pollard doesn't bring much to the party. There's a fight between Cardinale and Bardot but it doesn't feel that motivated.

I wanted to enjoy it. I didn't. The women look great. Cardinale is far more into it that Bardot. 

Book review - "Jean Gabin: The Man Who Was France" by Joseph Harriss

 Gabin's a very good actor, extremely effective in some films. Made some legendary movies especially in the late 30s, no so much after the War. He was a nepo baby in a way, in that his father was in the biz, but he worked his way up.

A decent book. Relies a lot on the work of others but some fresh stuff, like a quote from Brigitte Bardot. And it's put together in an easy to read style.

My main thing: Gabin was a wanker. A bore. Got some good movies but that maybe was more luck. Most redeeming thing was his war service - only he and Jean Pierre Aumont had good reacords on that, apparently. But he beat Marlene Dietrich and I'm sure there would've been others. He whinged. Sooked about the state of France, new directors, women. Wouldn't attend his daughter's wedding. Just an old whiny wanker.

I totally respect what he did as an actor and star and a French icon. I just got a bit sick of him.

Movie review - "Babette Goes to War" (1959) ***

Brigitte Bardot became famous as a sex bomb but some of her most popular movies used her simply as a cutie. This one such flick - a big hit in France at the time, it casts her as a girl who feels France in 1940 and joins the Free French Forces - no Vichy for her.

They get her cleaning floors and working on the phones but Bardot is keen to help out behind enemy lines.She dated a German officer so she's parachuted back into France to help to try and stop the German invasion of England.

That's a fantastic idea and Bardot is immensely appealing with her pout and cuteness as she wears tin helmets, does pratfalls, tries on wigs. The second half of the movie makes the mistake of veering away from her and spending too much time on a chubby German comic. Apparently Roger Vadim was meant to direct this and was put on another project and I think he would've used Bardot better.

It's cheerful enough - Jacques Charrier the male lead later married Bardot. Leslie Howard's son Ronald is a British officer - I assume he was cast in part because of his ability to speak French.

Gorgeous colour, and the budget is decent. I just wish the second half was tighter. It needed another female in there, a bigger role for the French officer, or something. There was too much poking around.

The Cinema of Fabian

In a recent interview for the Pure Cinema Podcast (https://purecinemapodcast.libsyn.com/new-beverly-calendar-july-2019-with-quentin-tarantino), Quentin Tarantino talked at length about his influences for the Rick Dalton character in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). Among such names as Ty Hardin, George Maharis, and Edd Byrnes was the pop star turned actor Fabian, whose talent was admired by the director ("he was very personable"), leading to Tarantino scheduling three Fabian movies at his New Beverly Cinema in July 2019.

Fabian is still probably best known for his (relatively) brief heyday as a pop star - specifically the year 1959 when he had three top ten hits - "Turn Me Loose", "Tiger" and "Hound Dog Man". Yet he also had a career as a motion leading man that spanned over a decade. It's one that is worth revisiting.

Early Career

Fabiano Anthony Forte was born in Philadelphia in 1943. His launch into showbusiness was  something out of a Ruby Keeler musical: in 1957 his policeman father had a heart attack at home; Fabian was waiting by the ambulance when spotted by record producer Bob Marcucci. Marcucci was on the hunt for a good looking teen who could be the next Elvis Presley and asked the fourteen year old if he was interested in a singing career. Fabian, wanting to help his family financially, agreed to give it a shot.

Fabian wasn't a natural singer, but he worked hard, looked good and could at least put over a song. Marcucci gave him singing lessons and new clothes, made him lose the crew cut and get an Elvis-style pompadour, and shorted his name to "Fabian". After a few false starts the teenager started appearing at Dick Clark record hops, lip syncing to songs. Girls went wild, Clark put him on American Bandstand and a star was born.

Right from the start Fabian was something of a joke within the industry - his name, inexperience and limited singing ability were all much mocked (for example on the comedy album 2000 Years With Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks there's a interview with the teen idol "Fabiola"). But the baby boomer teens who formed the bulk of his audience didn't care - Elvis was in the army and they needed a new idol. By 1959 Fabian was earning $250,000 a year and Hollywood came calling.

20th Century Fox

Fabian (or, rather, his managers) elected to go with 20th Century Fox, who had a decent teen idol track record: they made the highly successful debut features of Elvia Presley (Love Me Tender) and Pat Boone (Bernandine), albeit also the flop first film of Tommy Sands (Sing Boy Sing).

It was a smart decision - Fox gave Fabian a top producer (Jerry Wald), skilled director (Don Siegel), colour and CinemaScope, plus a decent budget  and source material - Hound Dog Man (1959), based on the novel by Fred Gipson who had written Old Yeller. His co stars included two Fox contract players: Carol Lynley coming off Blue Denim (1959) and Stuart Whitman, an emerging name. There was also Arthur O'Connell who played paterfamilias to pretty much all the teen idols on screen around this time, and an excellent line up of character actors including Royal Dano, Claude Akins and Edgar Buchanan. While Fabian was top billed he really had a supporting role - the protagonist was Blackie Scantling, the "Hound Dog Man", played by Whitman.  This was in line with Love Me Tender where Elvis made his debut supporting a more experienced actor, Richard Egan. 

 The film is set in 1912 Texas and revolves around shiftless Blackie going on a hunting trip over the weekend with young friend Clint (Fabian). It doesn't have the heavy plot of Love Me Tender  - that was a serious Western with brothers betraying brothers, shoot outs, Civil War and so on. Hound Dog Man is a more slice-of-life, coming-of-age piece - a little hunting, some singing, Claude Akins pops around periodically to snarl at Whitman, Lynley pants over Whitman as does Akins' wife. There's a comic doctor, a dog, a barn dance. It's actually a sweet film - well made, with great production values, and a very strong cast.   

Fabian seems to consciously ape Elvis a lot in his debut, playing a yes ma'm type complete with Southern drawl. It's an ideal role for him - a bored young teen on a farm, - occasionally sulky, but a decent kid underneath it all - and he is extremely well protected. Every time he sings, however,  Don Siegel arranges it so the song is interrupted - a dog barks, or Fabian walks off in anger, or something, I'm not joking - this happens four times. Actually some of the tunes are good, notably the title track and 'This Friendly World'.

The film was not a box office success. Maybe it was too "plot lite". Maybe it needed more star power than Whitman - Robert Mitchum was attached to play Blackie in the early 50s and he would have been ideal; an elder singer, like say Pat Boone or Ricky Nelson, could also have worked. Fox didn't lose faith in Fabian, however, and decided instead to shift him to support roles, where he would be teamed with an older star of a different generation.  This was a common device at the time (eg John Wayne and Ricky Nelson in Rio Bravo (1959)), the logic being the film would then appeal to two demographics.

Fabian's second film was High Time (1960), directed by Blake Edwards, starring Bing Crosby as a restaurant magnate who decides to go back to college, where his fellow students include Fabian, Richard Beymer and Tuesday Weld. The film is set over four years giving it a surprisingly wistful time-moves-on quality; there are bright colours and some funny jokes though it is badly hurt by the performance of Nicole Maurey as Crosby's love interest. Fabian has a decent role as a jock who struggles at college and winds up with Weld at the end.

Far more enjoyable was North to Alaska (1960), a comedy "northern" set during the Klondike Gold Rush with John Wayne.  It's the sort of movie that could have gone disastrously wrong - battle of the sex comedies with Wayne often had an abusive vibe about them (eg McLintock (1963)); female star Capucine was the producer's mistress, a model who had only made one film before; and filming started without a completed script. But it completely works - it's charming and sweet, director Henry Hathaway keeps the pace fast, and Capucine turned out to be one of the best co-stars Wayne ever had. Fabian has a great little role as the younger brother of Wayne's partner (Stewart Granger!) who tries to seduce Capucine; he sings a song and joins in on a few comic brawls. His performance won him the "Uncrossed Heart" award for least Promising Actor of 1960 in Harvard Lampoon's Annual Movie awards - a completely unfair accolade but typical of the snarkiness with which Fabian was treated at the time. High Time was reasonably popular but North to Alaska turned into a big hit and affirmed Fox's commitment to Fabian; in November 1960 they signed a new contract with the singer, to last for seven years, with an option to make two films a year.

Fox had a lively TV division and assigned Fabian to star in an episode of the anthology series Bus Stop (based on the 1956 Marilyn Monroe film) - "A Lion Walks Among Us", directed by Robert Altman. Fabian plays a drifter who rocks into a small town and soon makes waves: hitting on the middle aged drunken lady who gives him a lift, robbing and killing a grocer, singing without permission at a tavern, starting a brawl and pulling out a switchblade. He's hauled into prison and is arrested but remains cocky, keeps singing to himself a lot and actually gets freed at the trial... whereupon he propositions a blonde groupie, kills his lawyer, then is killed in a murder-suicide by the drunken lady. It's excellent television, superbly directed by Altman, with Fabian giving his best performance.

Unfortunately the episode screened at a time when America was undergoing one of its periodical moral panics about the influence of television violence on children. Part of the problem apparently was Fabian's presence - he's handsome, young, sings a few songs, is shown to be attractive, speaks a lot of groovy early 60s slang, and gets away with it (for the most part). This perceived glamourisation of violence was very confronting for some: Jack Gould of the New York Time wrote not one, not two but three separate columns decrying the episode; several sponsors withdrew their support from the series and and a number of stations would not run it. The episode was criticised in congress, leading to Bus Stop being axed and and the president of ABC being fired.

To be fair, the show was intense, not really suitable for young kids, but it is worthy adult drama. Apparently Fox wanted to turn it into a feature but Fabian refused to shoot the necessary extra scenes - it's a shame, because then this would be better known, and his fine work more widely seen.

The blow back didn't seem to hurt Fabian personally - indeed, he decided to quit singing, buy himself out of his contract with Marcucci, and focus entirely on acting. When Fox's management underwent major restructuring in the wake of the Cleopatra (1963) debacle, numerous people lost their jobs but Fabian held on to his contract.  One possible fall out - Fabian veered away from villainous roles for the next decade. He played anti-heroes, yes, but not out-and-out villains, which I feel in hindsight was a mistake.

Fox loaned him to the producers of Breakfast at Tiffany's who put him in a teen comedy at Paramount: Love in a Goldfish Bowl (1962). Fabian played a coast guard who comes between two platonic friends - newcomer Toby Michaels and fellow pop star Tommy Sands, whose black hair was dyed blonde so he would look different from Fabian. The film has problems of movies of its time - for instance, Fabian basically tries to sexually assault Michaels - but also its pleasures (the cinematography and tunes - Burt Bacharach and Hal David did the title track). It's very possible to do a gay reading of this film, with Sands displaying zero sexual interest in Michaels or any woman throughout the film. Or maybe that's too limiting: because when Fabian puts the hard word on Michaels she is very coy and not keen at all, despite flirting heavily with him until then. So maybe it's more accurate to describe this movie as being about two people with low sex drives who find each other. Sands has the showier role but lacked the chops to pull it off (he's not a believable intellectual). Fabian is far more comfortable in a more straightforward part.

Fabian was one of many Fox contract players who appeared in The Longest Day (1962). He played a US Ranger who stormed Normandy alongside other teen idols like Tommy Sands, Paul Anka, Robert Wagner and George Segal. Okay maybe Segal wasn't a teen idol but the others were - it's like a late 50s pop supergroup put into a war movie. The film was a blockbuster - the most commercially successful movie Fabian appeared in, although his role was brief.

He was one of several names in  Irwin Allen's Jules Verne adaptation Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962). The studio had previously made a terrific film based on Verne, Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1959) with Pat Boone, but Five Weeks is not in that class. It has bright colours and solid actors (Cedric Hardwicke, Barbara Eden) but too many of them seem miscast, such as Red Buttons trying to channel Clark Gable. Fabian has relatively little to do though he sings a song - the title track, which did not become a hit. The film was a box office disappointment that helped kill off the Jules Verne cycle.

Fox teamed Fabian with another old star, James Stewart in Mr Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962), a sweet comedy about Mr Hobbs (Stewart) and his family, well, taking a vacation. Fabian's role is not big but he has a lovely scene - Hobbs pays Fabian to dance with his lonely awkward daughter but Fabian has so much fun he refuses the cash. The film, written by Nunnally Johnson and directed by Henry Koster, and was popular, leading to two more comedies from the same team - Take Her She's Mine (1963) and Dear Brigitte (1965).

Fabian was meant to be in Take Her She's Mine alongside Stewart and Sandra Dee but doesn't appear in the final film - presumably because he was meant to play Dee's boyfriend and Fox head Daryl F. Zanuck eventually decided to make that character French. He is in Dear Brigitte (1965) playing the boyfriend of Stewart's daughter (Cindy Carol); it's not a very good movie and flopped at the box office, though Fabian has some decent moments trying to exploit a child genius at the race track -the film would have been better had they done more with this storyline.

In between these films Fabian was borrowed by Columbia Pictures for a surf movie, Ride the Wild Surf (1964). Production on this was difficult - original director Art Napoleon was fired and replaced by Don Taylor; Fabian's original co-stars Jan and Dean (fellow pop artists) got the sack when a good friend of theirs kidnapped Frank Sinatra Jnr and were replaced by Tab Hunter and Pete Brown. The resulting film is, however, one of the best beach movies of the 60s - it actually makes an attempt to understand surf culture, has decent female roles, and features some spectacular surf footage. Fabian has a solid part, accessing his pseudo-Elvis schtick playing a surfer with a chip on his shoulder. He is charming with Shelley Fabares, although yet again there's a scene where he uses rough handling on her - this was very common in 60s cinema.

Fox announced Fabian for several projects which did not happen - adaptations of the novels Beardless Warriors and A Summer World as well as a Western, Custer's Last Stand. He made no more films for the studio after Dear Brigitte but it had been a good  run.

In 1965 he appeared in an adaptation of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians for producer Harry Alan Towers, playing a singer who is the first guest killed. He was also appearing regularly as a guest star on episodes of TV shows such as Wagon Train and The Virginian, always doing professional work - though never under a director as good as Robert Altman and they never came up to the standard of A Lion Walks Amongst Us.

AIP

Samuel Z Arkoff, one of the vice presidents in American International Pictures, wrote in his memoirs that he wanted Fabian to co star alongside Annette Funicello in Beach Party (1963) but was prevented by Fabian's contract with Fox. Even if the story is accurate - Arkoff was notorious for bending the truth  - it was probably lucky for AIP they got Frankie Avalon instead: the amiable actor-singer had a broader, more cartoon-style persona that fitted those movies better.

AIP were still keen on Fabian however and signed him to a seven picture contract in November 1965. By then the studio had made six beach party films and the formula was waning so they took key members of the team - notably Avalon, Funicello, and director William Asher - and put them in a stock car racing movie, Fireball 500 (1966)... co starring Fabian. The film awkwardly straddles the broad surrealistic musical comedy of the Beach Party movies with AIP's more serious works of the late 60s - it has a claymation title sequence, Avalon does a double take at the camera and characters break out into song, but it has more adult themes (characters have sex, people die, 50% of Julie Parrish’s dialogue is sexual innuendo). Fabian brings his pseudo-Elvis snarling to this one and it works well - he was a believable race car driver, angry but good underneath. Funicello winds up with Fabian at the end rather than Frankie, which after all those beach party movies she made with Avalon feels like cheating.

The film was produced by Burt Topper who  put Fabian in another stock car racing film for AIP, Thunder Alley (1967).  It co-stars Funicello and Diane McBain under the direction of later cult favourite Richard Rush (Getting Straight, The Stuntman). Thunder Alley is far more cohesive and successful film than Fireball 500 - a solid drama with a thumping soundtrack (some of which Tarantino appropriated for Deathproof) and Annette Funicello is really good - but then it's a strong role, perhaps her best ever for AIP. Fabian is also strong - cocky, arrogant, but haunted and basically decent; it's one of his best parts.

In between these two movies AIP sent Fabian to Italy to replace Frankie Avalon in Dr Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966), a sequel to Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965) starring Vincent Price. Girl Bombs, directed by Mario Bava of all people, is a nutty comedy that was mashed up between two different styles of films - a Goldfoot sequel (Price reprised his role) and vehicle for the Italian comedy duo Franco and Ciccio. There are two main versions of the film - one for America (with more Vincent Price) one for Italy (with more Franco and Ciccio). Fabian is an amiable straight man but it's a terrible movie, considered among Price's and Bava's worst.

Fabian's third racing film for AIP was very different from the others. The Wild Racers (1968) was shot on location in six different countries throughout Europe. Producer Roger Corman supervised a tight crew who would go from race to race shooting footage (a method he had used earlier on The Young Racers (1963)). It's a very arty avant garde film, directed by Dan Haller - shots rarely go longer than ten seconds, most dialogue is voice over. Fabian is very good as the cocky race driver who is meant to help his more senior partner win but can't help winning himself. That's the gist of the plot - plus a romance with a stunningly beautiful Mimsy Farmer. There are plenty of scenes of cars zipping around, groovy music and credits, great production values and consistently interesting techniques - Nestor Almendros did the cinematography. There's not a lot of drama going on and only Fabian gets a full fleshed character - the way the movie is made causes you to feel distance from it. Still, it's worth seeking out if you're interested in a race car movie that is very "late 60s funky". It's Tarantino's favourite race car movie.

Fabian's fifth film for AIP was a surprisingly conventional drug drama, Maryjane (1968) where he  plays a teacher who uncovers a marijuana racket at his high school. It's bewildering to think that AIP made this the year after The Trip (1967)... but then Sam Arkoff and Jim Nicholson were concerned about the former movie being too pro drug so maybe they churned this out to cover their bases. Maury Dexter's handling is generally quite lively and there is some decent enough acting but this is just silly, with gangs of kids puffing weed and driving off cliffs, like in Reefer Madness (1936). It's a little odd seeing Fabian play a teacher; he's alright, but it's a shame this wasn't made a few years earlier when he could have played the charismatic bad student.

The Devil's Eight (1968), produced and directed by Topper, was an AIP rip off of The Dirty Dozen where agent Chris George recruits a bunch of convicts to take on moonshiner Ralph Meeker. Fabian's role is surprisingly small for someone second billed - he plays a convict with a drinking problem, and he's fine, but his part is not as good as Ross Hagen, who plays a former moonshine driver whose ex is Meeker's mistress. Maybe Fabian didn't seem Southern enough, or they only used him in the movie under suffrance. The film was the first credit script credit for John Milius and Willard Hyuck and was based on a story by Larry Gordon - all would become major players in Hollywood in the 70s but none of them used Fabian again. Neither did other collaborators who went on to bigger things, such as Mario Bava and Richard Rush.

Fabian took time out from AIP to play a Depression era gangster, John Ashley, in a film for Crown International - Little Laura and Big John - a low budget knock off of Bonnie and Clyde (1967). Fabian gives a decent performance as does co star Karen Black but the film, shot in 1968 was not seen until 1973. 

Fabian's seventh and final  movie for AIP was Bullet for a Pretty Boy (1970) another Depression-era biopic of a gangster, in this case Pretty Boy Floyd. It was mostly directed by legendary schlockmeister Larry Buchanan, given his biggest budget ever, with Maury Dexter coming in to shoot some additional scenes. Fabian gives another accomplished performance as a gee-it-isn't-his-fault-kid-forced-to-crime. His physical attractiveness is exploited heavily in the movie - surprisingly few films did this considering Fabian became a pop star mostly by being good looking. Here he's got Jocelyn Lane and Astrid Warner throwing themselves at him, as well as a brothel madam. The film itself is competent rather than inspired - it could have done with more passion - but isn't bad.

Later Career

Without a contract to a studio, Fabian found himself in considerably less demand for feature film work in the 1970s. He made a few career missteps this decade - he posed nude for Playgirl and regretted it, was involved in a car accident.  He had the lead in some low budget features that few people saw - Soul Hustler (1973), directed by Burt Topper, where Fabian plays a drifted who becomes a Christian rock star; and Disco Fever (1978), disco-splotatoin effort with Casey Kasem.

Fabian returned to singing and hit the nostalgia circuit, notably in places like Las Vegas; he was well received and still remains in demand for this in 2019, sometimes teaming up with fellow idols like Avalon and Bobby Rydell. On a personal front, he had two unsuccessful marriages but struck gold with the third, marrying magazine editor Andrea Patrick in 1998. A son from his first marriage, Christian, wrote the film Albino Alligator (1996).

Fabian continued to act through the 70s, 80s and 90s, mostly guest shots on TV shows - Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, and so on. Perhaps his best performance from this period was the George Peppard TV movie Crisis in Mid Air (1979) where Fabian plays an airport worker who kills taxi drivers. He was a cop in the zombie film Kiss Daddy Goodbye (1981), Joe Dante gave him a small role in Runaway Daughters (1994) and he had a cameo as himself in Up Close and Personal (1996).

He wasn't forgotten as a cultural touchstone. The leads in Laverne and Shirley were obsessed with Fabian, as was the Nicolas Cage character in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986). "Turn Me Loose" was used in Ralph Bakshi's American Pop (1981) and Fabian provided the inspiration for the character of Cesare (Peter Gallagher) in The Idolmaker (1980) a thinly disguised account of the rise of Bob Marcucci directed by Taylor Hackford (Fabian sued the filmmakers and won an out of court settlement.)

Conclusion

What to make of the cinematic career of Fabian Forte? He was no Elvis Presley, or even Pat Boone, but he certainly did better as an actor than, say, Tommy Sands or Bobby Rydell. His career was more analogous with his fellow Philadelphian Frankie Avalon. He was mainly called upon to play basically nice young men, sometimes with a chip on his shoulder. When offered a meaty role he usually rose to the occasion - Hound Dog Man, A Lion Walks Among Us, Thunder Alley - when he had to support he did it effectively s - North to Alaska, Mr Hobbs Takes a Vacation. He wasn't a great actor but he was good one, and should be better remembered.

Movie review - "Contempt" (1963) ** (aka Le Mepris)

Jean Luc Godard is given CinemaScope, colour and big stars - Jack Palance wasn't on the A list at this stage but he was a name and Brigitte Bardot was one of the biggest stars in the world. Not so big was Michel Piccoli, who pops up in all sorts of French movies. He's a writer hired by producer Palance to work on an adaptation of The Odyssey.

He's married to Bardot and the film tells the story of strains in their marriage. Not hard to see why - she's one of the hottest women of the planet and Piccoli is seriously out of her league. Instead of being grateful and taking what he can get, he whinges and worries. She runs off with Palance and both die in a car crash - because the bitch deserved it presumably, proving once again the Godard isn't that radical.

The music score is spectacular - one of the greatest I've ever heard, lush and moving. That carries the film for a long way.

There's an opening shot of Bardot lounging naked in the dark as Piccoli talks to her arse and she collapses out of a few towels. The colour is gorgeous as are the island locations. And Godard is always worth watching for directors because he jazzes things up. But it got on my nerves and dragged.

Movie review - "Spirits of the Dead" (1968) ***1/2

Anthology films were all the rage in Europe in the 1960s - they were reasonably popular in Hollywood too. Roger Corman had done an Edgar Allan Poe anthology, Tales of Terror - some enterprising producers had the idea of getting art house darlings to do one. This has Fellini, Vadim and Malle, not a bad line up (Orson Welles, Chabrol, Visconti and Bergman were also approached).

Vadim's segment is the campiest fun - Jane Fonda is a vixen who runs around her estate killing people, having orgies and seducing unwilling women as part of threesomes.  She falls in love with the boy next door... played by Peter Fonda! Which is a bit perverse, even for Vadim... but they don't kiss or anything he's not keen until so she accidentally kills him and then lives to regret it. Its all garish and not particularly well made but the Fondas make it fun (Jane really, that is - Peter is only in it briefly).

Malle's segment is much better directed, more serious. Alain Delon is very effective as a nasty piece of work (it's a shame Delon didn't play more villains, he suits them) who tackles his own conscience - manifested as an actual person. Brigitte Bardot is not convincing in a black wig and feels wasted but I enjoyed this bit - it's not as highly regarded, I'm not sure why.

Fellini's segment is superb. It's a sort of companion piece to La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2  with Terence Stamp, at the height of his sixties groovy-ness, playing a Shakesperean actor who is in Rome to make a Christian Western. He's hassled by various parties - the paps, director, interpreter, press, random women etc. Its done with flair and vivacity. The "horror" is more muted but Stamp hooning along the highway is genuinely scary - I wish Fellini had made a horror film or two.

A strong, entertaining film with gorgeous colour.

Movie review - "Masculin Feminin" (1966) *** (warning: spoilers)

I mainly watched this because I felt I had to, it being from the classic Godard period and everything, and was prepared to be hostile but wound up enjoying it more than I thought. It's very arty but the art has integrity and there is energy and talent - you can feel it's influence on 90s art house cinema.

The star is Jean-Pierre Leaud, best known for being Francois Truffaut's alter ego in many different movies. He plays a guy just out of the army who fancies himself as a bit of a Marxis; his best mate (Michel Debord) is a union activist; he tries to get on to a pretty girl (Chantal Goya) he meets at a cafe, who has two friends, one of whom (Marlene Jobert) seems to fall for Leaud.

This isn't very story heavy, to put it mildly. It's more notable for the stylistic devices: chapter headings, long scenes consisting of only a few takes where a guy asks a girl questions (I really loved these scenes they reminded me of talks I used to do when younger, firing off questions to women), Leaud talking to himself in a laundromat, spotting Brigitte Bardot in a cafe (she has this random cameo), the film in jokes (references in dialogue to Pierre Le Fot), going to see a porn film where there is artistic stuff, the depiction of Leaud's death via reportage, the combination of culture references (a doll is guillotined listening to a radio report of De Gaulle going Mitterand, talk of Satre, anti-Vietnam protests), the sound track.

I'm not super across what life was like for teens in 1965 Paris but a lot of it was recognisable: they talk pretentiously about politics, and also about sex; the guys want to get the girls into bed, the girls are curious. One of them (Goya) becomes a pop star, which is different (she becomes big in Japan which made me laugh).

The women are shown to be not that involved or interested in politics - dim pretty things. But the guys are pretentious idiots. Mind you they are more active and get more of the attention - this sort of misogyny is not un-familiar to French cinema from this period.

Jobert is very pretty - so too is Goya but Jobert has more life. I'm not sure what she sees in little Leaud, but I guess he is the director's surrogate. Jobert is Eva Green's mother in real life, which is pretty cool.

An energetic, lively movie. In an odd way I felt you could remake this for different generations and cultures.

Movie review - "Plucking the Daisy" (1956) **

Brigitte Bardot became known as a sexpot but she was also a vivacious comedienne - bright, lively, full of spirit. As a star she's served reasonably well by this screwball comedy (co written by Roger Vadim), which seems to borrow from a whole bunch of Hollywood movies, many of them written by Norman Krasna: she writes a novel under a pseudonym (a concept strong enough for a film but they throw it away), her brother pretends to be a success in the city but is actually just a tour guide,  she's a sripper but hides her face, she hides her stripping from her boyfriend, a journalist (Daniel Gelin).

Bardot is the best thing about this movie - she's cute, fun, endearing, and (don't laugh) seems a bit innocent. Gelin isn't much but then his character is awful - a lecherous womaniser we are meant to like; his best mate photographer also grates, they are so into women it's like they are covering something up.

Later Bond girl Luciana Paluzzi pops up in a small role. The script is full of bright ideas but doesn't seem to know how to use them - the character of the father, the concept of the convent, etc. There is some nudity too - bare boobs and butts - which surprised me; not from Bardot, but the other contestants. It is lively enough.

Movie review - "School for Love" (1955) ** (aka ‘Futures vedettes')

Early Brigitte Bardot film where she's a student at a conservatoire, singing dubbed opera. Jean Marais the the head of the school, a singer. Bardot has the hots for Marais who is married - and also flirts with another student, Isabelle Pia.

The set up for this isn't bad - lives and loves of people at a music school; you've got sex, and betrayal and musical interludes, etc etc. But there isn't much drama. I kept expecting a suicide or murder or big confrontation but it never comes.

Marais is ideally cast as an aging teacher who is still handsome. Bardot is very cute and appealing. The film was directed by Marc Allegret, who also wrote the script with Mr Bardot, Roger Vadim. They didn't do a very good job. I get the feeling they were unsure which way to go - not funny or charming enough to be a comedy, not enough happens for it to be drama.

Movie review - "Love is My Profession" (1958) ** (aka " En Cas de Malheur")

A combination of two of the biggest stars in French cinema - Mr Establishment Jean Gabin and the hot new thing Brigitte Bardot (Gabin was never afraid to team up with the young bucks and does... he made films with Delon and Belmondo early in their careers). The story is perfect for both - he's a lawyer defending her for robbery and he becomes infatuated.

It's based on a Georges Simenon novel which means it's got a solid story - or would seem to. Adding to the complications are Gabin's wife (Edwige Feuillere) and Bardot's ex (Franci Iterlenghi). But, as pointed out by the New York Times review of this, while it's got all the elements, the elements don't gel.

Bardot is a crook, Gabin is her lawyer, Gabin falls for Bardot, Bardot has a boyfriend, Gabin has a wife... there should be a solid feature in that. But the development is disappointing - it's really the boyfriend gets jealous and kills Bardot, but that happens at the very end. It feels nasty, typical misogynistic codswallop - the girl being punished. The film lacks another act or two - a reveal that Feuillere did the crime, or Iterlenghi coming after Gabin say, or Feuilliere and Iterlenghi being in cahoots. Other characters keep popping and threatening to do something interesting - Gabin's maid, Bardot's friend, Bardot's accomplice - but they don't.

The film was famous for a scene where Bardot seduces Gabin by lying against a desk, hiking up her skirt to him... showing the audience her backside and Gabin presumably what was on the other side. This was cut in the version I saw. It would've spiced things up.

Still, Bardot is very sexy and quite effective - perfectly cast. Gabin also works in his French Spencer Tracy routine, looking French and tormented and solid. Feuillier is wasted. The photography and production values are first rate.

Movie review - "Don Juan, or if Don Juan Were a Woman" (1973) **

Historically significant in a way because it was the last film (to date) for Brigitte Bardot, who never seems that interested in what's going on, despite the movie being a vehicle for her, and the director being her old paramour, Roger Vadim.

She plays a female Don Juan, very apt casting, who has a series of adventures. She confesses a murder to a priest (Matthieu Carriere) (there's a long scene with the two of them washing each others hands in close up which starts off interestingly but becomes comic), who she then tells stories to about her conquests - two main ones, rather: sleeping with a married man who likes archery (Maurice Rounet) whose life she then ruins by getting him to go to an orgy; then sleeping with the wife (Jane Birkin) of another married man (Robert Hossein); then a 70s guitar type (Robert Walker Jnr). Then she has a crack at the priest.

Bardot still looks pretty good and the scenes of her and Birkin in bed together are quite hot. It is always interesting to see her as a sexually voracious woman. There's a lot of drivel dialogue about the nature of men and women - Vadiim would have been better off getting Bardot to do a few more sexual encounters. The ending, where Bardot burns to death, feels like the inevitable triumph of misogyny.

Movie review - "And God Created Woman" (1956) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

There are few better star entrances in cinematic history than Brigitte Bardot's here - sunbaking naked next to a sheet (we see her side) as she chats to Curt Jurgens. No wonder she made an impression. It's a brilliantly constructed star vehicle, with writer-director Roger Vadim beautifully exploiting Bardot's person. She pouts, wiggles, lolls about topless on a yacht, sunbakes, listens to romantic songs, dances evocatively to jazz, and generally runs riot.

The plot isn't sensational but has plenty of meat in it: Curt Jurgens wants to build a casino but it stopped by brothers Christian Marquand and Jean Louis Trintignant who own a boat yard; Brigitte loves Marquand who isn't keen on her until she marries his doting brother Jean Louis Trintignant. She winds up in a storm with Marquand and has sex on the beach with him, then when she gets back struggles to readjust.

It gets very French towards the end (i.e. melodramatic and sexist): Trintignant goes to shoot Bardot but is stopped by Jurgens who takes a bullet in the hand but shrugs it off as the price of love. Trintignant smacks Bardot a few times in the face but she seems to respect him for it, and they go off into the sunset (rather the beach) together. Marquand and Jurgens bail town, with Jurgens commenting that woman was born to cause trouble, and that maybe Trintignant will get over Bardot in time.

I loved the colour photography and St Tropez setting gives it plenty of atmosphere. If you watch this in the right spirit it's great fun - Bardot is a star, and Vadim adores her. There is strong support from the three guys - Trintignant, Marquand and Jurgens are all good, masculine rivals.

Movie review - "The Bear and the Doll" (1970) *

For a country with such a strong cultural tradition, France spent a lot of time aping Hollywood movies. Here is there attempt to do a wacky 30s screwball rom-coms in the vein of Carole Lombard, but it was beyond the capability of the filmmakers. The plot is particularly dim: a socialite crashes into a bespectacled musician (nod to Cary Grant in What's Up Doc? no doubt) who doesn't find her hot unlike most men apparently so she sets about trying to seduce him.

Brigitte Bardot is ideally cast in the lead because her persona is such that you could believe she would find a man who found her  resistible irresistible. She is a little old for the part - I don't mean to be ageist here, it's just that these sort of movies are more fun when the girl is younger because you cal tell yourself "well she just has to grow up a little and she will once she finds the right person" and so when she meets her antagonist in the film you can convince yourself they will be together forever. But Bardot's character here is clearly late 30s and you feel her character is well and truly formed so when she hooks up with the guy at the end, you feel it'll last for five minutes.

It doesn't help that she has minimal chemistry with Jean-Pierre Cassel, who isn't particularly charismatic. The scenes of her chasing and basically sexually harassing him are uncomfortable rather than fun. In What's Up Doc? and Bringing Up Baby the attraction between the characters was clear - the wacky girl would help loosen up the stuff guy and he would give her stability. There's no reason for them to be together. I can't even remember the moment where he started to fall for her.

Even more unforgivably the movie has no support characters to speak of. They set up Cassel's family but don't do anything interesting with them. Where is Bardot's lover, wacky friends, etc? Where is Cassel's rich bitch fiancee? This is what happens when you try to rip off old movies but don't pay close enough attention.

Movie review - "Love on a Pillow" (1962) **

Roger Vadim married Brigitte Bardot and helped make her a star; they divorced but remained friends and colleagues, collaborating on this minor effort. She plays a young woman who saves a handsome mystery man (Robert Hossein) from a suicide attempt and, although engaged to someone else, becomes obsessed with him.

Because it's a Bardot movie there's scenes were she rolls around in a sheet naked, and one where she stands in front of the fire with no clothes on. It's based on a novel but interestingly some elements of this - a woman so obsessed with a man she puts up with anything he does, even seeing a hooker - are reminiscent of the way Jane Fonda later said she behaved in her marriage to Vadim.

The film isn't that good though - it drags despite a not particularly long running time, and always felt as though it needed more story or something... such as the former fiancee seeking vengeance, or something getting a terminal illness. As it is, it's mostly Hossein acting badly, Bardot complaining but being drawn back.... then eventually he comes to his senses.

James Robertson Justice pops up in the second biggest role - a friend of Hossein.  (He would later appear in Two Weeks in September with Bardot.) Vadim shows off his love for jazz again in an extended party sequence which reminded me of Les Liasions Dangereuse.

Hossein gives a pretty good performance and so does Bardot - she has a scene where she loses it, presumably an obligation after her success in The Truth.

Movie review - "Naughty Girl" (1956) ***

Really fun, silly French musical comedy starring Brigitte Bardot which was actually more popular at the box office than And God Created Woman. It's not hard to see why - the other film is more for adults and this is more a family picture, the sort of thing you could easily imagine Debbie Reynolds starring in at MGM or Sonja Henie in one of her films.

The plot involves a lot of set up but basically Brigitte's dad runs a nightclub and he asks singer Jean Bretonniere to look after his little girl while he tries to find out who is running at forgery operation out of his nightclub. Cue lots of cute antics with Brigitte running havoc - setting fire, clashing with Bretonniere's butler, winding up in jail and then on stage doing a number, fighting off gangsters, and it winds up with a big brawl at the nightclub.

It's formulaic and silly, but is a lot of fun. It's in colour and CinemaScope and the production values are high. Bretonniere isn't much of a lead and his romance with Bardot is underdeveloped but the support cast includes people like Francoise Fabian (the financee) and Mischa Auer. Brigitte is in terrific form, running around and pouting, getting into mischief; there's a scene where she wears a bikini which feels shoe horned in, but the dream sequence feels like a more organic way (if that makes sense) to justify a whole bunch of costume changes.

Movie review - "The Truth'" (1960) ***

An excellent star vehicle for Brigitte Bardot - it was meant to show the world that she could act, as if that matters, but it's brilliantly constructed around her. She plays a Bardot type - a free spirit who loves a good time and hates working, who managed to get permission from her parents to move to Paris via a suicide attempt (apparently the real life Bardot threatened to kill herself when she wanted to marry Roger Vadim). She has a good girl sister whose dull but handsome musician boyfriend (Sami Frey, good), she seduces in part my rolling around naked underneath a sheet pouting. When he caves - I mean, why wouldn't you - their relationship suffers because she refuses to be tied down. They break up, she becomes a prostitute while he becomes famous, and she realises she made a mistake of letting him go.

This is a well directed film - beautifully shot, with some excellent actors and photography. I enjoyed the French trial scenes, in part because of the depth of field and all the extras (it's a super packed room) but also because their legal system is different (the judge gets in the ring more and asks questions).

The script is less good  - the story, rather. There are plenty of good scenes but it hits the same note over and over again - to wit, the movie is always having male character go "Bardot is a whore/tramp not capable of love" and we see that it's not true, i.e. she is a party girl, but she does love Frey. After a while you start to go "alright, already" (especially as the film clocks in at two hours).

Another problem is the whole movie is in flashback from the trial and there is not much development or mystery - either Bardot killed Frey in cold blood or it was a crime of passion, and we never see any reason why she'd kill him in cold blood so there's no mystery. In The Letter there was present day progression because of the blackmail aspect - Bette Davis told one story, it was complicated by the existence of a letter, her lawyer basically fell in love with her, her husband found out this new information... there were things playing out before our eyes. Here, everything has already happened. (I wish they'd used Bardot's lawyer more - maybe he could have fallen in love with her or something.)

But I did enjoy it. Bardot was tremendous - sexy, charismatic, believable as a spoilt sexpot and enraged woman. Her final suicide scene was very moving.

(The story of the making of this movie is fascinating - Clouzot bullied his stars, Bardot had an affair with Frey which resulted in her husband having a nervous breakdown, Frey and her husband having a brawl, and then later Bardot herself trying to kill herself... I wonder how much everyone's behaviour was influenced by the movie? No wonder Bardot was such a massive star - every movie she made there was an excellent chance of drama off screen.)

Movie review - "Two Weeks in September" (1967) **

The considerable star power of Brigitte Bardot is the only real thing going for this romantic drama which is about a model (guess who) in a relationship with a dull, uncharismatic elder man (I don't think he's meant to be that way, that's just how Jean Rochefort came across) who goes to England for a photo shoot for two weeks and has a fling with a younger dude (Laurent Terzieff).

This was the period in Bardot's career when she seemed to be aiming at the international market - she made Viva Maria, had her cameo in the Hollywood flick Dear Brigitte, was about to appear in Shalako. Most of the action is set in England and Scotland, although the dialogue is still French.

The support cast is interesting. The part of a lecherous fashion photographer is played by Michael Sarne, who later directed Joanna and then, notoriously, Myra Breckenridge. His assistant is Murray Head, later famed for Jesus Christ Superstar and One Night in Bangkok. And the owner of a castle in Scotland where Bardot and Terzieff run away to is played by none other than James Robertson Justice - who, like everyone else, speaks (or is dubbed - I couldn't tell) mostly French.

But it's not much of a movie. Dramatically it's severely hurt by the fact that Bardot is torn between two men, but we only ever see her spend much time with the younger one - Rochefort disappears from the movie after the first ten minutes, and is only a presence/voice on the phone. He really needed to appear. Also no one really has much of a character - Bardot is attracted to this young guy, who wants him all to himself, but she can't leave... and that's about it.

The plot is reminiscent of the later Goodbye Emmanuel; at least that had some eroticism to it, more than this. There is one or two good moments where Bardot and Terzieff are lounging about on some straw, and the star is always watchable, but this simply isn't a very good movie.

Movie review - "Viva Maria" (1965) ***1/2

Neither Jeanne Moreau or Louis Malle were known as Captain Comedy, but this buddy western pastiche is a lot of fun, helped considerably by the casting of Brigitte Bardot in the lead. She plays the daughter of an Irish revolutionary who dies throwing bombs at the British somewhere in South America in the early 20th century; at a loss what to do next Bardot then joins a theatre troupe featuring Moreau and the two of them form a stage act which involves accidentally inventing the strip tease.

The two of them do this for a while, singing cute songs (this movie is kind of a musical), and Bardot discovers the joy of sex (though this is mentioned really more than seen) and it's all very Gentlemen Prefer Blondes when they are captured by dictatorial forces. Moreau falls instantly in love with captured revolutionary George Hamilton (looking handsome and speaking decent enough French in what is a surprisingly small role) and gets politicised - she and Bardot help lead a revolution.

There are some treacherous priests, pompous generals, a fun group of strolling players, plenty of gags. It goes for too long and is misshapen - my attention would waver from time and time. I think it would have helped if say Moreau or Bardot had had some sort of rough goal from the beginning, even if only something like "I must get home" or "I want to be rich"; as it is they sort of just able along until they are thrown in gaol. I felt it could have done with at least one of the support characters fleshed out a bit more, even if just a baddie (there's two good ones, a nasty priest and the dictator, but neither really get much screen time). Maybe Malle's inexperience with comedy let him down here.

However it is full of irreverence and good spirits, not to mention liberated attitude to sex (the lead girls have passions and aren't punished for following them) which help the film age well. Bardot is particularly bright and winning - I preferred her to Moreau who, okay yes was/is a great actor, could seem a little glum. The two stars do have good rapport though and seem to genuinely like each other. It looks great - photography, costumes and production values are top notch.

NB Apparently the film was inspired by the buddy Western Vera Cruz which also inspired the boy buddy gangster flick Borsalino - but the girls got in first.

Movie review - "Manina the Girl in the Bikini" (1952) **

Brigitte Bardot simply had It - charisma, presence, incredible sex appeal. This was one of her first movies and made before she was an official star but you can't take your eyes off her. It's a shame she doesn't appear until the film is half way over - the actual leading man is someone called Jean-Francois Calve, whose physique is actually exploited as much as Bardot's. (He wears some hilarious lap lap pants as swimming trunks - he looks like a male stripper).

The plot has Calve as a uni student who goes diving for ancient Roman treasure off the coast; Bardot is the lighthouse keeper's daughter who spends most of her time running around in a bikini and diving off cliffs. It's not in colour, unfortunately, but Bardot is very beautiful. She sings a dubbed son.

The conflict somes from Calve's partner, a smuggler who has designs on Bardot and who we expect will try to rip off Calve. The film really needed more plot than that - a twist, another baddy, some gangsters, or something. Or else decently defined characters. As it is, the movie's running time feels padded with underwater footage, and songs.