Movie review - "Drake of England" (1935) **

 George MacDonald Fraser gave this a dismissive review in his book on historical movies. It's got the costumes and sets but isn't very good - Matheson Lang is too old and laid back for Drake. The drama isn't personalised, not really. 

Nice photography. Impressive production values. But dull.

It's based on a historical pageant play and feels like it. There's scenes were people march though and music plays. It doesn't dramatise what's going on.

Lost money and no wonder. Dull. Goes through the greatest hits. 

Movie review - "I Was a Spy" (1933) **1/2

 Part of Michael Balcon's attempt to make international movies off the back of Rome Express. This has great production values. Madeleine Carroll is a Belgian nurse who spies for England. Howard Marshall, younger and hunkier, is the Brtish spy who loves her. Conrad Veidt is the German who loves her - and cajoles her into bed. Marshall gives up his life for her.

The film lacked something. A consistent narrative maybe. It feels like a movie of scenes and moments. A few hands worked on it.  Maybe I'm cool in Carroll - someone with more empathy would've worked better.

It's fine. I wasn't that moved or engaged, that's all.

Movie review - "King of the Damned" (1935) **

 From that mid 30s period at Gaumont British where they tried to take on America and actually had some success. This is a Devil's Island picture on not set on Devil's Island due to censorship instead there are British accented officers, German Conrad Veidt is a prisoner, there are Spanish names.

The script is credited to Charles Bennett and Sidney Gilliat, two of the best British screenwriters, and it does move at a fair clip. It builds up satisfyingly to a mutiny but then punches are pulled. The romance with Veidt and a woman isn't great. The finale is a little confusing with there being a counter attack and a flat resolution with Veidot going off to appear at a trial - he should've died or something.

Movie review - "Channel Crossing" (1933) **

 Amiable rip off of Rome Express is brightly directed, shot and acted but doesn't have much of a story. It's about Matheson Lang who is a rich embezzler. He's good as is Constance Cummings has his secretary but the guy who plays her fiance is awful and I was delighted when he was thrown overboard and saddened when he lived. Nigel Bruce and Max Miller pop up. I wish this had been about spies or something more interesting. I didn't mind it.

Moive review - "Seven Sinners" (1936) ***

 Bright lively thriller which was I think the first time Launder and Gilliat worked together as a writing team. It's very well directed by Albert de Courville, a person about whom I know little. I loved the opening with a maquerade ball and a death. It's very slickly done.

The star duo of Edmund and Constance Cummings are a lot of fun. He boozes in the first bit, a rip off of The Thin Man, but settles into his own rhythm. Last third maybe a bit static. Shame they couldn't have done it all on a train.

Three train crashes! 

Movie review - "Rome Express" (1932) ***1/2

 Lively thriller, considered the best British film ever made when it came out. It's lively, tight, and full of pace. Sidney Gilliat worked on the script. Walter Forde directed - not well known but this is considered his best. Of the cast I only recognise Conrad Veidt and Cedric Harwick. Light touch. That card player with the rdoning voice was annoying. Plenty going on. Good fun. Looks like a dream.

Movie review - "The 39 Steps" (1935) ****1/2 (reviewing)

 Abducting a woman at gunpoint maybe isn't so romantic these days. The spooky nature of much of the film though has aged well. Paranoia. Scary. Great POV. Superb vignettes. Wonderful sense of humour.

Movie review - "Tudor Rose" (1936) ***

 British view on Lady Jane Grey. It doesn't have much time to settle into anything other than Jane and her husband were sweet and naive, and Edward VI was manipulated and the adults were prats... but that's basically true, so why not? There is no central core relationship - at the very least it could've dug into the love story more.

 Nova Pilbeam briefly became a star playing the lead. John Mills didn't playing her husband - he just is too young looking. Cedric Harwicke is a terrific villain. I liked Desmond Tester, from Sabotage, as Edward VI.

Very stylishly shot and directed by Robert Stevenson.

Movie review - "The Flying Doctor" (1936) **

 I think the original doctor was about a flying doctor. This isn't. I wonder why they did it that way. Maybe they pitched it to Charles Farrell. He's not bad. He's not the film's problem. Errol Flynn wouldn't have fixed this. it's the story. A real this happened then that happened. Farrell travels through Australia. Befriends Joe Valli. Romances Mary Maguire. Abandons her. Has more adventures - works on Sydney Harbour Bridge, watches Don Bradman bat, becomes a wrestler (!). Befriends James Raglan doctor who has this girl. Then he goes mining makes a fortune and becomes blind. Maguire turns up. 

Gosh it's weird. Like a magazine serial making it up as it went along. At heart it wants to be a women's picture but they don't know how to make it. Farrell needed a girl to accompany him on his adventures.

Fascinating though.

Book review - "Australia's Sweetheart" by Michael Adams

 Very good book about Mary Maguire, who leapt to national fame when cast in Charles Chauvel's Heritage. This led to a role in The Flying Doctor which led to a brief overseas movie career in Hollywood and England.

Maguire was blessed with incredible luck for the first part of her life and career - loving, wealthy family, looks and personality, film stardom... she attracted the devotion of old, rich and powerful men who helped her career (Miles Mander, Joe Schenck) and married a super rich war hero in England. Then her luck turned... the husband was a fascist who was interned for two years, she had a child who died, the life went out of her movie career, she became an alcoholic.

To be frank a lot of her problems were her own fault - no one forced her to drink or marry a fascist, and if she really liked acting she would've kept doing it. Still, you feel for her.

Adams does the story justice. Particularly enthralling is the war time stuff, the tale of her husband's imprisonment and activities (seems he was harshly dealt with but such a sh*t head it's hard to care). Maguire's sisters were also fascinating. I wasn't sure there was going to be enough material for a book but this stuff ensures it is.

Movie review - "Forever England" (1935) **1/2

The first screen version of C.S. Forster's excellent novel is a little creaky. More faithful than Sailor to the King it nonetheless doesn't quite capture the book's magic. The opening sequence is there, slightly hampered by Betty Balfour's slightly manic performance as mother and Barry MacKay's wet work as the sailor (the character is a lightweight in the book but does he have to be wet?).

John Mills is fine as Brown - he's got an everyman quality that the role requires - and Jimmy Lyndon ideal as Ginger.

The film is less harsh than the book - MacKay not as motivated by ambition, Brown's heroism is recognised at the end instead of being destined to be not known.

Surprisingly the attack only takes up 25 minutes of screen time - it doesn't get going til 45 minutes in. I think Walter Forde wasn't a great visual director. Imagine if someone like Hitchcock or Michael Powell had done it. The film never really makes it clear what Brown is doing, or how he got to hang out, and misses some key action stuff like Brown shifting his position overnight, and the German strategy.

Instead the running time is padded out with shots of training for sailors and footage of British ships (this had official naval co operation), a boxing game with some Germans.

I did always remember one things about this movie - the fact the officers of each ship know and tell the enemy there was nothing they could have done in the battle because the ships were bigger, i.e the German tells Brown that there was nothing they could have done because the German had the bigger ship and at the end the Britisher tells the German there was nothing he could have done because he had the bigger ship. Such matter of fact honesty is rare in American war films.

Book review - "Star of India: The Life and Films of Sabu" by Philip Leibfried

Disappointing look at the career of an actor who deserved better. Sabu was one of those fairytale film stories - a young man from Myesore whose father and mother had died, was a ward of the Maharaja who worked with the elephants, and was discovered by the makers of  Elephant Boy. Sabu became a sensation - it's a great performance - and he was lucky in a sense to be under contract to Alex Korda, who then went and fashioned a series of vehicles for him: The Drum, Thief of Bagdad and Jungle Book.

The last two were made in the US, where Sabu stayed in the war. He signed with Universal and enjoyed continuing popularity with three films starring Jon Hall and Maria Montez; there would have been more (Hall and Montez made three more films, each featuring roles clearly ear marked for Sabu), but Sabu wanted to fight - he enlisted in the services and saw action in the Pacific as a gunner. He spent time in Australia and befriended Bob Dyer.

His post war career started wobbily with Montez in Tangier then he was in a classic, The Black Narcissus. However it was hard going after that - a bunch of minor adventure films.

It must've been depressing for Sabu but he worked hard, did well in real estate and also made extra money performing in circuses. He married and had two kids then died of a heart attack at 39.

This last fact is one of many described in a matter of fact way by the author without going into detail - I mean, surely that's worth some discussion, a person dying so young without notable cause? (Surely his impoverished upbringing?) Other things are mentioned and skipped over - a lawsuit against Sabu, a paternity suit, the murder of his brother. Instead there's a lot of listing of co stars and directors and some stories of the making of the films, which feel cobbled from various books.

The author has done some interviews and clearly has admiration for Sabu. It's not a terrible book you just wish it was more thorough in certain areas.

Script review - "The Lady Vanishes" by Launder and Gilliat

This would have to be one of my favourite scripts of all time. It's so lovely and clever and fresh and funny. And the structure is to die for. Things are brought in and paid off beautifully, the characters are clearly delineated and warmly sketched. Yes I like it in part it's about cricket but also because of its cleverness and wit and excitement.

Irish is a cheerful young girl but that's all she has to be; Gilbert is given some real background (folk dancing, impoverished father) - though I do wish Iris had been given more of the nun's heroic stuff at the end (there you go, flaws). Miss Froy is the greatest secret agent of all time; the villains (Dr Hartz, the Baronness) may be evil foreigners but they are smart and gentlemanly (at the end Hartz says "good luck to them"); the subplot about the cheating couple is very adult and believable; the nun in high heels (who does a lot of heroic stuff at the end) is brilliant, going back to her country in the hour of need; Charters and Caldicott are splendid.

Break it down into sequences
A - meet all the characters in a comic, fun way - bewildered Britishers and flustered foreigners. End with the singer being murdered
B - get on the train, someone tries to kiss Miss Froy and Iris gets conked on the head, set up the passengers in the compartment and the tea and the name on the window, then go to sleep - wake up and Miss Froy is gone
C - Iris looks for Miss Froy, everyone denies her including the British (to avoid getting in trouble), Gilbert and Dr Hartz try to help, Irish sees Miss Froy's name, a woman gets on the train, Hartz persuades Iris that she imagined it but then Gilbert sees the tea and believes her - reveal that Hartz is in on it with the nun and the woman
D - Gilbert and Iris keep looking and get in a fight with the man in the compartment. Hartz reveals his plan to drug Gilbert and Iris to the nun and he drugs them...
E - But they wake up. Turns out the nun helped them. They rescue Miss Froy and try to put someone else in her place. They almost get away with it but Hartz figures out what's going on. And orders the train to be diverted.
F - The train is diverted but it's the dining room and the British are left. They manage to fight them off, especially Gilbert and the nun. Miss Froy reveals who she is and makes a run for it.
G -Gilbert and Irish get together and discover Miss Froy's still alive.

Wonderful stuff.

Book review - "From Journey's End to the Dam Busters: The Life of R C Sheriff" by Roland Wales

I became familiar with Sheriff's career after reading his autobiography, No Leading Lady. I can't remember what compelled me to pick it up as I wasn't that familiar with his work, but I enjoyed the book a lot - the tale of a quiet, unassuming insurance clerk who wrote plays in his spare time to help raise funds for his rowing club, who then wrote a play which became a phenomenon, then he went on to become one of the leading writers in Britain.

Maybe "leading writer" is too much in such a literate country but Sheriff had an excellent career. He never repeated the success of Journey's End - who could? - but he compiled a formidable body of work, including plays, screenplays, radio plays and novels. The best known are The Long Sunset, Home at Seven, St Helena, The Four Feathers, The Dam Busters, Quintet.

It was a very accomplished career and Wales has done incredibly well by it with this superb biography. It's affectionate, well-written, extremely well researched; Wales had access to many letters and diary entries of Sheriff. He also goes through as much of the man's writing as possible, including unmade screenplays, giving decent weight to them (so often these things are overlooked).

Sheriff's memoirs were full of blanks - he skipped over his war service for instance, and was hazy about his private life (he was devoted to his mother... as in, really super devoted). This fills in the blanks, tackling Sheriff's family's background, childhood, school days (glorious for Sheriff who loved sport), the boring insurance job, war service (Sheriff saw hard action but not a super large amount and indeed his superiors seemed keen to find ways to avoid having him at the front line; he received a lucky wound in a way which knocked him out of the war but didn't give him long term damage), going back to work, starting writing, developing his craft through the 1920s, writing Journey's End, the challenges of that production (where he met James Whale and Colin Clive), taking off to Oxford for a bit, expanding into screenwriting and novel writing, his experiences in the war (the bulk of which he spent in the USA), slight career wobbles, hitting new peaks in the 1950s, becoming unfashionable in the 1960s.

It was a steady career without giant dips and shows what you can do with a strong work ethic and good temperament. Also, no kids or romantic entanglements. Wales spends a bit of time on this but not too much - he sources a letter from a friend which could be deduced to referring to gay behaviour, discusses the relationship with the mother, acknowledges he preferred to be around men to women... but the proof is inconclusive. I have the feeling he was asexual.

Wales' book rises to the occasion for the big challenges - the background to Journey's End (including the inspirations for the main characters). Heaps of stuff I didn't know, like a proposed sequel to Journey's End, the many unfilmed scripts he did, his professional and personal relationships. I'm not sure that Sheriff was that compelling a person but is career was fascinating and got a fantastic tribe.

Book review - "A Letter of Introduction: The Life and Films of James Stephenson" by David a. Redfern (2013)

James Stephenson was a slim British gentleman best known for one performance - and it's a fantastic one, the lawyer in The Letter. But really that was it. He may have added to the tally but he died shortly after The Letter, of a heart attack, aged 53. Still, he inspired enough devotion from David Redfern to write a very thorough biography on him.

Stephenson was born into a reasonably prosperous middle class family in northern England. Fir the first part of his life he was a good boy and did the right thing - appropriate school, war service in World War One, working as a bank clerk and a merchant (including a stint in China). He got the acting bug relatively late in life and starting performing in amateur theatricals. He had looks, height, presence and a beautiful speaking voice and eventually decided to take the plunge and go professional. There was work to be had in rep and also British quota quickies. Stephenson didn't appear in the more memorable British films of the time but he did come under the eye of Irving Asher who ran Warner Bros' London operation and spotted Errol Flynn and Patric Knowles... he thought Stephenson had possibilities for Hollywood and so Warners paid him to come over.

Stephenson was screen tested by Warners who elected to keep him and put him in lots of small roles - there were plenty of parts for authoritative British actors during the late 30s at Warners. He pops up in movies like Boys Meets Girl and Nancy Drew. His parts grew better in the B movie division like King of the Underworld and Devil's Island and he had bits in As such as The Sea Hawk and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex. Warners eventually gave him a lead in Calling Philo Vance and he eventually was cast in The Letter.  This earned him an Oscar nomination; if it didn't propel Stephenson to stardom, Warners were impressed - he had good roles in Shining Victory and International Squadron.

How big a star would James Stephenson have become? This is all hypothetical of course but I think, not very - he lacked great individuality, he was too old by the time he "made it". However I think he would have had a long, impressive career - the sort of actor who would have benefited from the decline of the Hollywood studios and the rise of quality in Britain; I can see him hopping back and forth across the Atlantic, doing lots of Broadway and TV in between films, maybe getting a TV show, playing a lot of leading men to aging female stars and generals and dads, never being a great star but never being out of work. Alas, it was not to be.

Redfern's biography is exhaustive and would have to be definitive - he had access to family papers and really fleshes out Stephenson's history. It feels almost a shame to report that Stephenson didn't have that interesting a life - he was a decent guy, seemed to live well; the most outlandish thing he did was to go into acting. He was a gentleman - no outrageous sex life, or bad habits. Which leaves his work and the movies he made on the whole weren't that awesome.

Still I did enjoy the book. Stephenson was lucky to have a biographer as devoted as Redfern. 

Book review - "Hitchcock’s Partner in Suspense: The Life of Screenwriter Charles Bennett" (2014)

Poor old screenwriters - whenever people do a book about them, the publisher feels obliged to mention their more famous collaborator in the title - it happened to Charles Brackett (Billy Wilder), Robert Riskin (Frank Capra) and now Charles Bennett.

For a long time Bennett was surprisingly un-famous among film buff circles, especially considering he had genuine fame as a playwright in his 1920s heydey (including Blackmail) and had several classics on his resume as a screenwriter for Hitchcock, Cecil B De Mille and Irwin Allen, plus a stint as director (Madness of the Heart) and writing the cult classic Night of the Demon. However he toiled in obscurity for a number of years.

In hindsight there were a few reasons: his work as a director was mostly undistinguished; many of the famous directors and producers he worked for were renowned credit hogs; his plays weren't really produced after the 30s; he made an awful lot of forgotten TV; and it seems as though he sold out his talent for the money too often.

Bennett's reputation rose in recent years, in part because he lived until he was 95 and always seemed available for interviews. One was done by Patrick McGilligan in the first Backstory book - if you've read that you'll find a lot of things in here familiar. Actually, this book was disappointingly slight on information about Bennett - surprisingly little on Hitchcock for instance - but it was published posthumously, so I forgave it.

And there was plenty of interesting stuff - Bennett's family and background, his early days as an actor, war service in the trenches (real deal stuff, which saw him shoot Germans and get awarded a medal), acting after the war, turning to writing, becoming increasingly well known. Blackmail the play and film put him on the map as well as in contact with Alfred Hitchcock; the two men got along well and collaborated several times, key films in Hitch's creative development such as The Man Who Knew Too Much and The 39 Steps.

By the late 30s Bennett was one of the most highly paid screenwriters in England, highly regarded by Michael Balcon and others, but he took a big money offer to work in the USA. Bennett earned some decent credits over there, forming a notable relationship with Cecil B de Miller. Bennett admits his strength was in construction rather than dialogue, but he never seems to have lacked for work. During the war he did some espionage for the US government via de Mille, which seems to have mostly been useless reporting of communist activity. More usefully he went to England and did propaganda work for the British government.

After the war Bennett's luck was less strong. He tried to establish himself as a director, not particularly successfully. He made a lot of TV, little of which is remembered today, though he had good experiences filming for Edward Small and did work on the TV Casino Royale. Instead of concentrating on the quality of work and collaborators, he went for the money. He made a number of films with Irwin Allen, an experience which seems to have scarred him although the resulting work is kind of fun.

Bennett claims the industry blacklisted because of his right wing anti communist views - pointing the finger at Dore Schary in particular. He also says he was the victim of ageism. However he did get some attention in his later years being frequently interviewed. There are some dull sections (the Errol Flynn anecdote seemed pointless) but others are interesting, such as Bugsy Siegel being his tenant, C Aubrey Smith in the English community, and life in London during the war..

Bennett's son John offers an epilogue which provides a fascinating counter point to the book. It talks about Bennett's desperately unhappy second marriage which dragged out for years and caused him much pain and money; he had financial troubles, and health issues despite living to a late age; he suffered a very long late career slump, which seems surprisingly for someone so talented and versatile.

The book also includes extracts from Bennett screenplays, plays, propaganda pieces and novels, such as The Secret of the Loch. Interesting and entertaining.

Movie review - "Man of the Moment" (1935) *

Terrible British comedy with amateurish acting and handling. There are two interesting things about it - the cast and an unexpected dark undertone. Douglas Fairbanks Jnr pulls Laura La Plante out of the river after she's tried to kill herself following an unhappy love affair (this is treated comically); he looks after her which upsets his fiancee (Margaret Lockwood, very young). Lockwood dumps him so he heads to Monte Carlo to gamble - leading to some location filming.

I didn't know much about La Plante but she was fairly terrible. I like Fairbanks Jnr but the material defeated him. Lockwood was very green. This was heavy going although it did improve as it went on.

Movie review - "Doctor Syn" (1937) **

Doctor Syn was a popular figure in British literature - a parson by day, smuggler by night. He's played here by George Arliss, an ancient looking dude who was a film star in the 1930s. He's okay as Syn, though he lacks dash.

Director Roy William Neill made some good films in his time but this is pretty creaky. In part because I watched a crap print where you couldn't tell what was going on in the night scenes. But also dramatically - you're all too aware so much exciting stuff happens off screen (the death of Clegg/Syd's wife, his revenge against the pirate). I think the person who killed his wife needed to be alive.

The plot involves the authorities figuring out what Clegg/Syd is up to but it's never that exciting. There is some sweet stuff involving a young Margaret Lockwood who is Arliss' secret daughter; their scenes work - a lot more than Lockwood's love for drippy lunk John Loder.  There's some lively trap doors and creepy covers and I enjoyed the fat kid.

Movie review - "A Girl Must Live" (1939) ***

Really fun, bright British comedy about three showgirls on the make, full of energy and bright Frank Launder script. Launder wrote this without Gilliat; it was interesting to contrast this with Girl in the News, which was also directed by Carol Reed starring Margaret Lockwood but was written by Gilliat without Launder. This was a better movie, a lot more fun - and made me wonder if Launder was a better writer than Gilliat. Of course it simply maybe personal taste, the source novel, anything... But it seems Launder was better at comedy. You can definitely feel The Lady Vanishes here more than in Girl in the News.

Anyway Margaret Lockwood is bright and vivacious in Lady Vanishes mode as a bright young thing who flees finishing school and winds up on stage. Her cronies include Renee Houston and an achingly young Lili Palmer. Everyone is good as is the support cast including Naunton Wayne.

The film feels influenced by those Warner Bros musicals of the early 1930s with girl's minds on money and doddering old men interested in sex. This makes it refreshingly adult. There are a few musical numbers but it's not really a musical.

The girls run around in their underwear a lot, Houston and Palmer have a cat fight, Wayne is a drunken burglar, Hugh Sinclair is the noble who Lockwood falls in love with. This romance is a little abrupt - Sinclair comes into the piece too late and is too sketchy a figure. It was the biggest flaw of the film for me. But Reed and the writers have such affection for their characters this is a hard movie to dislike and I found it a delightful surprise.

Movie review - "Bank Holiday" (1938) ***

An early landmark in the career of Carol Reed and Margaret Lockwood, who were solid names of British cinema in the 30s and became legends in the 40s. It's a simple enough tale of various people going away for a weekend - rather like the later Holiday Camp, which surely ripped off this film.

The stories aren't that much - two girls go looking for boys, a working class family hang out and are working class, and the most screen time is given to a slightly creepy tale about a nurse who meets a guy waiting for his wife to give birth, the wife dies, the nurse goes off for a weekend away with her boyfriend (they're not married) but she can't stop thinking about the guy. The plots in Holiday Camp were much better - there was more of them and they were better structured.

It is redeemed by the acting and the handling, which is very confident. Small roles are played by people like Felix Alymer and Wilfrid Lawson; Walter Patch and Kathleen Harrison are strong as the working class couple. Margaret Lockwood is lovely as the nurse, reluctant to hop in the sack with boyfriend Hugh Williams and obviously keen on newly widowed John Lodge. Rene Ray is quite good as the girl prepared to accept Williams the moment Lockwood's dumped him. (The women in this jump on a guy the moment he's single).

The tone of the stories are pleasingly adult - there's no doubt Williams wants to have sex with Williams, the world weary acceptance about the world from the hotel staff and police, Lodge contemplates suicide. There are neat touches such as all the people sleeping on the beach, the dancing, the scenes at the train station. I preferred Holiday Camp but this has a lot to admire.