Movie review - "House of Strangers" (1949) **

 Full of potential - a story about a dodgy Italian American banker and his four sons, a riff on King Lear and Joseph and His Brethren ... based on a script by Phil Yordan who often adapted classics. (Though the script was rewritten by Joseph L. Mankiewicz).

But it's boring. There's yelling and Italian accent acting and the movie badly lacks star power. Edward G Robinson has charisma as dad but isn't in the movie enough - ditto Susan Hayward who is sexy. There's too much Richard Conte and his brothers, who all feel undercast (Luther Adler, Efrem Zimbalist Jnr, Paul Valentine) and not different enough. 

It needed stars like Victor Mature or at least really different characters.  It needed more sex and violence - they needed to be gangsters.

I didn't care about any characters. Especially not Richard Conte's. Not dramatised - Hayward should be in a love triangle with two brothers or something.

Nicely shot. The piece has tremendous potential. But it's weirdly undramatic. 

Movie review - "Pepe" (1960) **

Cantiflas was a huge star in Mexico who had a choice support part in Around the World in 80 Days so George Sidney and Columbia gave him his own vehicle and they filled it full of stars.

Cantiflas is in Mexico with his beloved horse. The horse is sold to filmmaker Dan Dailey while Edward G. Robinson and Greer Garson as themselves look on. Ernie Kovacs is an immigration official. William Demarest is a studio guard. Zsa Zsa Gabor enters the studio. So does Bing Crosby who sings 'South of the Border' with the star.

He befriends Shirley Jones. Jay North as Dennis the Menace attacks him. There's Charles Coburn getting struck in the head with a slingshot pulled by Billie Burke. Jack Lemmon appears in his Some Like It Hot drag outfit. Cantiflas goes to a nightclug and sees Bobby Darin sing and Michael Callan dance - its' a good number, Callan, some other guy and Shirley Jones, ending with the two guys having a West Side Story-style knife fight.

Then there's this agonisingly dull subplot begins about Jones wanting to be a movie star but also being bitter and not wanting Dailey to shag her, and Dailey being a drunk over the hill producer trying to get up a film involving Pepe's horse or something. It's all simple yet confusing which is an achievement.

Cantiflas follows Dailey to Las Vegas, where he meets the Rat Pack (Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford and Richard Conte in one scene, then Sammy Davis Jnr, then Sinatra). The whole movie set in Vegas would've been a better idea. Cesar Romero is at a slot machine looking like he's trying to pick up. He banters with Jimmy Durante.

There's a way out number where Dailey hallucinates a dance number with a tiny Cantiflas and Debbie Reynolds clambering around giant pencils and a telephone and another prop to the music 'Tequila'. Then the film starts and Dailey, Jones and Cantiflas go see Maurice Chevalier in concert. There's a comic bit where Cantiflas visits Janet Leigh at home she thinks she's someone else, husband Tony Curtis becomes involved.

Then Cantiflas is in love with Jones but she falls for Dailey. She's almost twenty years younger than Dailey and looks it.  There's a weird scene where Robinson declares Dailey's love for Jones while Dailey looks on. So we don't get a confrontation between the three.

There's a lot, as in a lot, of jokes about Cantiflas calling the horse his "son". A lot of scenes of Cantiflas being lucky - he wins at the casino, Novak pays for his engagement ring.

The film is fascinating for its oddness - an all star vaudeville act style film built around a Mexican star. Why not put some effort into the story?

An odd duck. Has a fascination.

Movie review - "MacKenna's Gold" (1969) **1/2

An odd movie - considered a flop at the time, though apparently a big hit in India, this is fascinating to watch today, in part because of its flaws but also because of its oddness.

The basic story is a simple Western - a bunch of people go after a map containing gold, facing the environment, Apaches, cavalry, each other. And it's core this is inherently medium budget at best - the main characters are a marshall, an outlaw who kind of loves him, a girl who comes along to prove the lead isn't gay, an Indian girl who wants to bang the marshall, a scary Indian, and a pursuing cavalryman.

Faced with this is then as if writer-producer Carl Foreman and director J. Lee Thompson thought "we can't just give them that, this is the blockbuster era" - and they jazzed it up: Cinerama photography, POV shots of people on horseback, a spectacular earthquake, location filming in the Grand Canyon, sweeping vistas.

It cost $7 million and it didn't need to. There is stunning photography but this is incorporated into some really obvious studio work.

The script is very patchy. Far too many scenes of Peck escaping and being recaptured. Around 45 minutes in Foreman introduces all these new characters - Raymond Massey, Edward G Robinson, Burgess Meredith, Lee J Cobb, Eli Wallach, Anthony Quayle, etc - and within twenty minutes they're all killed. Why even have them? (Maybe Foreman wanted to invoke High Noon which actually isn't a bad idea for a script - the town from High Noon looking for gold - but they set up all these people and then just kill them.) Would the cavalry really kill them all?

Some exciting action sequences. Raymond Massey and Burgess Meredith being killed by Apaches - Meredith pleading with glasses and money and being killed. A fight between Sharif and Peck at the end is very well done bar the studio work.

Plenty of nutty bits. The opening song abut a buzzard. The narration that feels shoved in after a tricky post production process. The effects at the end aren't entirely convincing. Julie Newmar and Omar Shariff show their arse swimming. A naked Newmar tries to hump Peck in the water (he's clothed) then when he rejects her she tries to kill Sparv. George Lucas made a short film during the shoot. Dimitri Tiomkin co produced.

The acting is pretty good - Savalas is reliably excellent. It's one of Sharif's best performances, the film should've have focused more on him and Gregory Peck. Peck is solid. Camilla Sparv has a big chance as the girl, and she's gorgeous but not really up to it.

Movie review - "The Cincinatti Kid" (1965) ***

Lots of talent on display. Pleasant colour. Good tough handling. I wasn't wild about it - maybe too smart arsey. Maybe I'm in a non 60s mood at the moment.

Steve McQueen is good value in the role. I like that he's matched with Edward G. Robinson who is allowed to win - this was a big surprise. Karl Malden and Rip Torn are fine in their roles.  I liked Joan Blondell being given a meaty part.

Tuesday Weld is very good in a not-much part as "the nice girl" - she's really sweet. Ann Margret plays the subtext a bit too much as Malden's man eating woman who hooks up with McQueen. She's easy on the eye though.  I wondered if maybe she should have swapped roles with Weld. I think Weld would've been better as the sexy part, less obvious, and Ann Margret always made a fine "good girl" (it's just she looked like a bad girl so was cast in those roles).

Poker players presumably have a lot to say about this movie.

Movie review - "Two Men in Town" (1973) *** (warning: spoilers)

Jean Gabin prolonged his career by teaming with younger stars - this one reunites him with Alain Delon, who also produced. It's a pretty good crime melodrama - it seems to have been influenced by the Warner Bros gangster flicks of the 30s and 40s. You could imagine, say, John Garfield and Edward G Robinson doing it.

Delon gets out of prison and comes under the watch of parole officer Gabin. Delon is tempted by his old gang, who include Victor Lanoux... and young punk Gerard Depardieu. I wish these two had more screen time because they're great.

This has some silly moments - montages of Delon frolicking - not enough action, and occasionally drags. But a lot of it is good too - the ending, with Delon going to the guillotine, is great. It has a down beat fatalistic mood that is effective, even it at times it seems shot like a TV movie.

Delon is a bit pretty at times but very effective. Gabin has a great sad eyed look. Mimsy Farmer pops up as Delon's second girlfriend (he has one who waits for him when he's in prison but is killed off quite quick)..

Movie review - "Big Leaguer" (1953) **

Notable mostly as the directorial debut of Robert Aldrich - and an example of how MGM forgot how to make fun movies under Dore Schary. This really should have been an easy, fun film - about a bunch of baseball players trying out in the major leagues. You can see what it should have been - something light and breezy with a bit of seriousness and romance; showcasing some young talent, with a veteran actor to headline.

But they stuff it. I don't blame Aldrich - the direction is competent enough. But it's not a good movie. There's no laughs, no charm, no songs. No drama, no excitement.

The script is so clunky. There's endless narration, describing characters and backstories and situations that needed to be dramatised. It's all so serious and self important. Everyone is reflective and philosophical. Okay so they didn't want to make it light, fine - but they don't make it really dramatic either. You don't feel the exhilaration of the sport, or the stakes. It's dull and serious.

Occasionally it threatens to get interesting - it's moving when a player get cut. But don't worry he's back at the end! Or there's some potential drama when a father turns up not wanting his kid to play ball - but don't worry there's no confrontation or any real conflict, he just watches the game and that's that.

Vera Ellen is hideously awkward as Edward G Robinson's niece who loves Jeff Richards. Don't worry - there's no conflict there! Why have conflict when you can have narration?

Richards is tall and good looking and a real baseball player but is very awkward. He's like a young Clint Eastwood.

Other young up and comers include Richard Jaeckel and William Campbell. (Dore Schary wasn't a great spotter of talent... though these guys are better than Vera Ellen who is dreadful.)

Robinson is always a pleasure though not entirely convincing as a former top player - they really shouldn't have included that scene where he goes up to the plate and has a swing.

Just a stiff, dull pointless film with no life in it. I guess the baseball scenes feel real.

Movie review - "Nightmare" (1956) **1/2

One of the last Pine-Thomas films - they were called Pine-Thomas-Shane by this stage to reflect the contribution of Maxwell Shane, who wrote many of their films. Shane was a very good writer - the Pine-Thomas scripts were generally strong - and this benefits from a good Cornell Woolrich source.

It's about a musician who dreams he's killed someone and is convinced the dream is real. Kevin McCarthy plays the lead and Edward G Robinson his brother in law. I wish Robinson had played the lead - he was a better actor, more of a star. But this was McCarthy's Invasion of the Body Snatchers heyday.

It feels 50s - jazz on the soundtrack, a groovy opening with McCarthy freaking out, some of the female actors have pointy breast outfits, there's more scenes outside (a picnic). I wonder if it would have been more effective set indoors.

Lots of good things about the movie but it feels as though it should have been made cheaper and all film noir. Also the story feels stretched - it needed another subplot or 20 minutes cut out or something. Maybe it would've been better as a one hour episode of an anthology. Or it needed more stars.

I mean, it's okay - Woolrich fans will enjoy it - just a bit underwhelming.

Script review - "Trumbo" by John McNamara

Entertaining look at the legendary screenwriter, probably the best known of the Hollywood Ten (along with Ring Lardner Jnr), because he had the furthest fall from grace, being among the highest paid screenwriters in Hollywood. He was the one who bounced back best too, getting Oscar nominated and winning Oscars under pseudonyms, and eventually being part of breaking the blacklist with Exodus and Spartacus.

This covers the most turbulent years of Trumbo's career - 1948 to 1960. It has plenty of support characters to illustrate different aspects of the blacklist - Edward G Robinson who names names, John Wayne who is anti commie but a bit soft, Hedda Hopper who is anti commie through and through, the King brothers who are thugs but have honour, Roy Brewer who is a thug, Louis B Mayer wanting to avoid trouble, Kirk Douglas and Otto Preminger competing over who is going to break the blacklist first.

From what I know of the blacklist this seems a reasonably accurate account of events. It's fairly soft on communism - I thought there might be a scene of John Howard Lawson bullying them or Trumbo reflecting on Stalin or something.

I liked the depiction of the family scenes. These are normally not well done in biopics - they tend to be along the lines of "why are you never home" and so on - but these ones have real warmth and feeling. Trumbo is a likeable, engaging person though with plenty of flaws. It does feel as though in its heart that this is a telemovie but this was well done.

Movie review - "A Bullet for Joey" (1955) ** (warning: spoilers)

I always thought this was an Edward G Robinson movie and he's in it, but really the star is George Raft. He's the central character - an exiled gangster who gets a chance to return to the USA if he helps kidnap a scientist in Canada for the commies.

The Canada angle gives this some freshness, and I liked seeing Raft in a late lead. He was grey now and had smoked a lot clearly, but has presence and history and it was wonderful to see him cross swords on screen with Robinson.

Dramatically though I didn't feel this worked. I never like it when gangster films cross with anti-commie movies - the genres seem to belong to different worlds (or maybe it's just anti communist stuff ruins the fun). I had a similar problem with Johnny Allegro.

Raft's transformation from not-caring tough guy to hero felt underdone. There was no real logical evident reason for it. I thought Audrey Totter, as the dame, would be part of this, but she just kind of hangs around and talks to the scientist. Maybe they could have given more history to Raft and Robinson - but that doesn't work either.

The most emotionally involving subplot had this geeky librarian girl romanced by a suave gangster which results in her dying. This was effective - the film never manages to top it.

Peter Van Eyck is fine as the main commie and Lewis Allen is a fine no-nonsense director. There's some good tough slangy dialogue as well. I just wish it was better.

George Raft Top Ten

1) Scarface (1932) - clearly a limited performer but with a fantastic "look" and he was given a fabulous bit of "business" in flicking the coin.
2) Souls at Sea (1937) - Raft outshines Gary Cooper, what do you know - a very good part and perhaps Raft was right to have it rewritten. Spawn of the North was a kind of follow up.
3) Bolero (1934) - enjoyable melodrama with Raft as a dancer who falls for his partner Carole Lombard; Pre-Code sexy, with Ravel's "Bolero", and an unexpectedly moving ending.
4) Each Dawn I Die (1939) - perhaps Raft's best performance, electrically charismatic and he steals a film from Jimmy Cagney.
5) Manpower (1941) - rollicking melodrama with Raft rising in the company of Edward G Robinson and Marlene Dietrich.
6) They Drive By Night (1941) - great tough truck driving saga with Raft good opposite Bogart and Ida Lupino.
7) Night After Night (1932) - best remembered for Mae West's debut and she's great but Raft is good too in his star debut, in .a fun movie.
8) The Bowery (1933) - Raft on the Bowery with Wallace Beery - an irritatingly racist movie but entertaining.
9) Mr Ace (1946) - surprisingly feminist melodrama with Raft romancing congresswoman Sylvia Sidney.
10) Some Like It Hot (1959) - Raft only has a small role but is a fine villain and makes you wish he'd done more support parts in decent movies.

Movie review - "Cheyenne Autumn" (1964) **

A terrible movie - long, dull, lacking insight or interesting/empathetic characters, full of actors doing "bits". I think even the hardest core John Ford fans struggle to enjoy this.

There are one or two good things. An impressive cast. The colour, A few stylistic compositions of Indians and cavalry standing in line. There's a bad ass moment where James Stewart shoots a cowboy in the foot through his pocket with a hidden gun. And it's John Ford, and you always get something out of a John Ford movie.

But by god was it heavy going. 154 minutes long! You feel every day of that Indian trek.

You get the feeling at the beginning it's going to be a hard slog, with Richard Widmark's narration not really explaining anything we can't figure out, and endless shots of Indians standing around in the hot sun, and badly written and staged love scenes between Widmark and Carroll Baker (I did like him writing his proposal on the blackboard, but there's no heat, no affection, no chemistry between them).

Eventually the Indians make a bolt for it but it's a dull slog. Widmark doesn't have a character so much as a bunch of lines about how much the Indians have suffered and what good fighters they are. Baker just gets lines about how much they have suffered; she accompanies them, basically a saint in training. Gilbert Roland and Ricardo Montalban give interchangeable performances as stoic, noble Indians. Montalban is more of a fighter than Roland I think and there's a plot about Montalban's second wife having the hots for Sal Mineo, which threatens to be vaguely interesting... but Ford trims that to the bone and instead gives us endless - and I mean endless - scenes of men on horses travelling through Monument Valley, or standing on crests of hills.

We also get characters doing "turns". Widmark has a bit of a go at the beginning, then along comes Mike Mazurski (playing the Victor McLaglen role) and he's given a drunken Polish sergeant bit, and some other random actor is given a drunken Irish surgeon bit, then Jimmy Stewart and Arthur Kennedy get an extended bit as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday. Edward G Robinson comes along and does a bit. Ford completists will enjoy seeing people like John Carradine, Ben Johnson and George O'Brien.

There's some action, none of it too memorable - the Indians are said to be good fighters but are never given the opportunity to kick some arse. Their only real victory comes because gung ho Patrick Wayne (in a wooden performance) stuffs up (he doesn't even die). They march and starve, and are saved at the end by white men.

I thought at the least they'd get the chance to get some revenge at the viciously racist Texan cowboys who shoot two starving Cheyenne just for fun (an affecting scene even if the cowboys over act). But it never happens. One of them later gets shot by Earp but not because of what they did to the Indians - only because they pick a fight with Earp.

It's an inherently depressing story - the Indians are treated badly, escape north, starve, most of them are massacred at Fort Robinson, and give up. But surely it could have been more interesting/entertaining? It feels like Ford was bending over backwards to show how liberal he had become about the Indians - the main issue is he'd become more dull about them.

Script review - "Key Largo" by John Huston and Richard Brooks (warning: spoilers)

The Petrified Forest done after the war with a heavy dose of UN smarmy-ness. McLeod is a drifter who turns up at a hotel at Key Largo during the off season - he wants to meet the father and widow of his dead war friend.

The father Temple is an old bore, crapping on about his dead son, being this "wonderful" paterfamilias to the simpleton Indians (there was a lot of casual racism in Huston films), and abusing the gangsters when they point guns at him, telling Rocco he's a vermit who should be killed (as if).

The widow Norah slaps the gangster and makes eyes at McLeod pretty quickly. McLeod (in the script the spelling is "M'Leod") has some awful speeches where he quotes someone on the war, and whines about how things were hard when it got back. You could seriously cut Norah out of the film - her main thing is to help McLeod be honourable, but Temple could do that, whiny old fart that he is. I suppose you could have kept Norah and lost Temple. You wouldn't have had Temple being wise about the Indians but who cares.

The script is better on its villains - Rocco, the once great gangster on hard times, his trio of gunmen (Toots, who just wants to tell jokes; Curly who wants people to join him for a drink), and most of all Gayle, his alcoholic moll who Rocco forces to sing. The last act, where McLeod overcomes the baddies on the boat is quite exciting. The subplot where two Indians are on the lam and are shot by local cop Ben is depressing - I kept expecting the baddies to do it, and sure they help give Ben the wrong impression, but it's still Ben.

Script review - "Double Indemnity" by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler

I think I resented this movie when I first saw it because all these critics insisted it was a masterpiece, but it actually really is very good. It divides into four sequences: set up, the murder, fall out of murder, and the pressure coming in.

It's clear Neff isn't so attracted by Phyllis - though he does find her attractive - but by the desire to pull off the caper, and outsmart his boss, Keyes. The Neff-Keyes relationship is the heart of it. It's not too shocking that Phyllis is dodgy - she suggests killing her husband early on, and doesn't really do that much bad stuff to Neff (she insists they still make the insurance claim, she sees the Italian guy on the side... so what? Neff sees Louisa). But Neff genuinely betrays Keyes, who believes in him - offering him a job, but also defending him to his bosses. And the last scene is between Neff and Keyes.

Keyes has the best dialogue too - flowery, but rich and imaginative. The story is well structured, with good suspense moments (eg Keyes visiting Neff when Phyllis is there, the drunk man appearing at the train carriage). I will say though that it was a very convoluted murder plan - killing someone in a car (in a way to make it look like an accident too... was it choking? A head injury? Wouldn't those things show up?)

Movie review - "The Biggest Bundle of Them All" (1968) **

Robert Wagner made a few wacky heist films in the 60s - Sail a Crooked Ship, The Pink Panther, this. It has the benefit of some pretty Italian location filming, a strong cast, Raquel Welch in a series of sexy outfits and bikinis, and an unoriginal plot.

Wagner isn't very well cast as a small time crook who kidnaps a former big time crook, Vittorio de Sica - only to find out that no one wants to ransom him. So de Sica offers to mastermind a $5 million heist for Wagner and his crew.

Raquel looks spectacular but it's a lousy role - she hangs around a lot at the side of scenes. Godfrey Cambridge is one of the men. Edward G Robinson steals the film as a mastermind and it's a shame his part isn't bigger. The main fault of this film is it isn't very funny, or clever or entertaining. Even the Italian locations aren't that pretty.

Movie review - "Five Star Final" (1931) ** (warning: spoilers)

A bit disappointing. It sounded great - Edward G Robinson, a newspaper story in the vein of The Front Page, pre-code, David Shipman gave it a good wrap... but it's too creaky for me, as 1931 talkies tended to be. Also Robinson's character was passive most of the time - it's his publisher who wants to boost circulation, it's his publisher who gets the idea of re-activating an old scandal, it's his dodgy reporter (Boris Karloff!) who pretends to be a clergyman who get the inside scoop, it's the reporter's off sider who photographs the corpses. All Robinson does really is feel guilty and resign.

It's a shame because he makes an ideal newspaper editor and Aline MacMahon is a perfect yen-for-the-boss secretary. Karloff isn't quite believable as a journo but his presence adds to the fun. There's some hammy acting from the support cast - the woman who is the subject of the scandal and her husband and daughter. They do carry on and it's like "alright already calm down". But the scenes where the wife and then husband kill themselves pack a wallop - got to love pre code Cinema!

Movie review - "Soylent Green" (1973) *** (warning: spoilers)

Some good old fashioned late 60s early 70s Chuck Heston sci fi dystopia, set in a world all too relevant today - overpopulated, riddled with crime and global warming, in hock to corporate interests. There are some quaint very 70s touches, such as the clothes, furniture, TV programs - and depiction of women (in the future, women still don't have decent roles in sci fi films, apparently). Still, this is a consistently interesting film, which is unremittingly bleak.

Heston's character is a genuine anti-hero - a good enough cop, that doesn't stop him from looting the apartment of a rich man whose death he's investigating for food and other stuffs; he also seems to coerce the man's mistress (charmingly described as "furniture" and played by a very pretty Leigh Taylor Young) into bed, punches out a black mistress, investigates the case to protect his job as much as a desire for justice. He is a bad ass, too, disposing of several henchmen at the Soylent Green factory and in a shoot out later on. He takes his shirt off a lot, has a steamy shower with Taylor Young, and flashes those teeth and indignation. It's quite a complex role, a heavily flawed man, and Heston does it well.

He is out acted, however, by little Edward G Robinson in his last film - easy authority and dignity. To be fair, Robinson gets the best sequence - signing himself up to the ethenasia program to go out with some nice music and visuals; we see Eddie G's little body draped in a sheet looking so small and I don't mind admitting I choked up a bit.

This was clearly not a big budget film but the budget is used wisely (a few showy riot set pieces). The ending is annoyingly vague - I mean, I know it was the 70s but why not show us whether Heston lived or died, or was believed or not... or whether Brock Peters ended up reporting his discovery, and whether anyone cared, or what happened to the Governor (Whit Bissell). It felt so abrupt.

The final twist is very well known these days - from memory it's in the trailer. It might have been a better movie had Heston found out earlier and then we played out the ramifications of that. Anyway that's Monday morning quarterbacking.

Movie review - "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" (1948) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Part of the late 40s fortune teller phase which also included Nightmare Alley, this features Edward G Robinson as a fortune teller who starts as a shonk then realises he has a genuine gift. He has a strong control over heiress Gail Russell, whose death Robinson predicts.

I'm not a big fan of true psychic movies because it always feels like it's cheating; that's how it is here as well - Robinson predicts the future, it comes true but in a slightly different way. There are some effective moments but I couldn't helping thinking "lazy scriptwriting" a lot.

Robinson is in good form as the psychic - he plays it in his customary no-nonsense manner, which helps make the part less airy-fairy. Gail Russell adds some solid "tragic ethereal victim" aura (in part because of her own real life fate) as the heiress who seems to be doomed. John Lund is wet and useless as always as Russell's love. William Demarest provides some tough talking sass as a DA and there's a surprise ending (if overloaded by exposition) where the cops shoot Robinson dead while trying to save Russell's life and the cops don't get punished for it.

John Farrow and his editors have jazzed it up by going non linear - we start with Russell about to kill herself then flashback - and it has the pleasures of films from this time (crisp black and white photography, expert character actors) but I found this disappointing.

Movie review - "The Ten Commandments" (1956) ***

I'm starting to have an increasing appreciation for the films of Cecil B de Mille - he was a showman who liked to give customers their money's worth. This has got everything: religion, babies being killed, lots of handsome men walking around barechested and beautiful women with plunging necklines (I had no idea Ann Baxter was so well endowed), a cast that includes a combination of established stars (Charlton Heston, Baxter), recently blacklisted veterans (Edward G Robinson, Vincent Price), exciting new comers (Yul Brynner), teen idols (John Derek), stage knights (Cedric Hardwicke), sexpots (Yvonne de Carlo), starlets (Debra Paget) and lots and lots of extras.

The first part of this was the most enjoyable as drama - it's pulpy Biblical family drama with Moses being sent down river in reeds and raised among Egyptians. The story of Moses resonates so much because it's such a great yarn - an orphan raised with wealth, becoming aware of his origin and the plight of his people, deciding to take their side no matter what the cost and winding up a slave, then eventually leading them to freedom. (Ben Hur surely borrowed from it - as did much Disney).

Once Moses hears the call, the film becomes a lot less fun, with all these firebrand statements and Charlton Heston looking ridiculous in his beard and robe. God is such a hard arse in this story - killing Egyptian children, bringing on locusts and plagues... But once the Hebrews are allowed home, de Mille unleashes some tremendous spectacle: masses of extras, bright colours, a still-impressive Red Sea parting, a terrific orgy around the fattest calf (de Mille was always a lot more comfortable with sexy, decadent entertainment than serious religion)

Moses isn't an easy role to play and one could mock Heston's stiff performance but he does have the right gravitas; de Carlo and Baxter impressed me in roles that you would have expected them to have swapped; Derek is mainly handsome and that's it; Paget has quite a big role (a woman who becomes a mistress then becomes redeemed); Robinson and Brynner are really excellent - Robinson has intelligence, humour and shrewdness despite being a villain and adds some much needed cynicism, while Brynner is very charismatic.

It's big and goes on forever and is a bit creaky but still impresses.

Movie review - "Barbary Coast" (1935) **

Early work from Hawks has some pep and great production design plus a strong turn from Edward G Robinson but it got on my nerves. Mostly I guess because I don't like Miriam Hopkins, who I never thought was a very good actress - with those funny lips and exaggerated acting. She plays a woman who turns up in Gold Rush San Francisco to find her fiancee has been killed so she goes to work at a saloon run by Robinson.

The movie is almost half over before she runs into poet slash gold miner Joel McCrea who speaks in flourishing rambling monologues more typical of writer Ben Hecht than someone McCrea should be playing. He's later so shocked to find Hopkins works in a (gasp) saloon (that hussey!) they he gets drunk and gambles away all his money. He's meant to be the hero and Hopkins can't help falling for him. What happened to Hawks' admiration for spirited, independent women?

Robinson runs San Fran with an iron fist so some locals get together and start stringing up his henchmen (well played by Brian Donlevy)... these are also meant to be the heroes too because they are not punished. Hopkins sobs some more, Robinson gets jealous then has an unconvincing change of heart... 

This simply isn't that good.

David Niven has a very small role but I blinked and missed him.

Radio review - Lux - "The Whole Town's Talking" (1941) ***

The guy who starred in Fibber and McGee or whatever it is plays the role made famous by Edward G Robinson - a nebbish clerk who is also a dead ringer for a gangster. Not as much fun on radio where you can't see the resemblance but it's still a solid farce. His love interest is a woman he's been engaged to for 12 years which is different from the film, from memory.