Movie review - "For Those Who Think Young" (1964) **

 Half the film is stock beach party stuff - rich James Darren chases after poor (ish) Pamela Tiffin. Darren is a sleazy red flag which is stock for this sort of plot, but Tiffin is lively and pretty, and there's stuff on the beach. And I enjoyed Bob Denver as a beatnik and Nancy Sinatra as his girlfriend (Dean Martin's daughter Claudia is in this too). That's all fine.

But the other half of the film is, amazingly, a vehicle for some unfunny comic Woody Woodbury, who is loosely connected to the other story by being Tiffin's uncle but has his own plot about being a duo with Paul Lynde, then Woodbury does a nightclub act that is apparently hilarious - we get lots and lots of it on screen - and the Dean wants to shut down the nightclub.

Ellen Burstyn, then under a different name, is fun as a woman who tries to shut down the club and falls for Woodbury. George Raft cameos as a cop during a final raid.

But this movie is dumb. Annoying. Woodbury gets too much screen time. It's all resolved with an unconvincing deux ex machina - the Dean used to be a bootlegger. I mean, WTF.

Made by Frank Sinatra's producing company!

Movie review - "Bugsy" (1991) ***

 Warren Beatty was about ten years too old to really get the leading man aspects of his character. And someone like Jack Nicholson would have been better. But he's more energised than usual - he's trying something different.

This is a movie of scenes rather than a full cohesive narrative. They are energetic scenes though - James Toback could be a good writer. The dialogue cracks and sparkles, the blocking is interesting. Maybe they could have cut the Mussolini assassination subplot - or at least spent less time on it.

Joe Mantegna (and the script) doesn't quite get George Raft, but it is fun  to see Raft as a character. Annette Bening is excellent - she strikes sparks. She's a lot better here than in Love Affair.

This goes on a long time. I recall moments rather than a film. By the time Bugsy died I was kind of relieved. But I absolutely recognised it was a good film.

Movie review - "Sextette" (1978) **

 It's weird to watch. So weird. But how else to have done it? No one else could've played Mae West and Mae West was 85.

So they shove it full of songs and stars and shenanigans. It's silly but it has a compulsive fascinating. Tim Dalton completely commits, whether ogling Mae or singing "Love will Keep Us Together". George Hamilton also tries but isn't entirely convincing as a gangster. Neither is Ringo Starr as a European director, but it's fun to see him. Ditto Tony Curtis as a Russian, Dom De Luise as a manager flunky type. She has a chat with George Raft in an elevator.

It's odd. So odd. So camp. Jeez, Ken Hughes made some crap in the 70s.  Keith Moon is in it - he would be dead soon. Van McCoy pops up. And Alice Cooper. AND Walter Pidgeon.

It's got to be said some of the lines are funny. And the film does want to entertain. It's grotesque. 

There seems to be little cult for it - Myra Breckenridge is better known.

Movie review - "Casino Royale" (1967) **

 It's not fun but it's like a colourful museum and every Bond fan should see it. And because there is so much happening with so many actors I like I got something out of it.

Where to start:

- Woody Allen has genuinely funny gags with the firing squad

- I liked Peter Sellars as a Bond type

- Orson Welles is a terrific Bond villain

- quite a few women have agency: Ursula Andress as Vesper, Barbara Bouchet as Miss Moneypenny, Joanna Pettet is the hero of her own segment

- Terence Cooper gets a big intro then disappears

- Deborah Kerr really really overacts

- I don't think David Niven was anything like Bond, in the books or movies

- Bouchet and Jackie Bisset should have been real Bond girls they are gorgeous

- there is a lot of genuine cleverness

- there is a lot more laziness

- it piles it on but then many 60s comedies did (The Great Race, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World)

- the music score is great - the theme and "The Look of Love"

- there's genuine emotional moments which could have (don't laugh) been more mined: Andress falling for Sellers, Pettet and dad Niven

Movie review - "Nocturne" (1946) *** (re-viewing)

The film never recaptures the excellence of its opening sequence when a pianist is killed but this is a fine programmer - Joan Harrison produced a lot of above average stuff -which has the pleasures of its time and genre: tough dialogue, crisp black and white photography, slangy dialogue.

There's also George Raft, had his last peak, walking around being tough - shoving muscle men in swimming pools - but also having scenes with a little old lady (was this Raft's idea?) Lyn Bari is fun as always as the girl. Bright dialogue from Jonathan Latimer - slightly confusing plotting. Enjoyable.

Movie review - "Johnny Angel" (1945) *** (re-watching)

I'm rewatching a bit of George Raft especially his 40s thrillers. This was an unexpected hit for RKO - I think audiences were going to anything but they also simply liked Raft in this sort of movie. He's a sea captain, it starts on a boat, he's investigating his dad's murder, there's slinky Claire Trevor and various others. No classic just tight unpretentious stuff with some flourishing support cast performances. RKO made very good B movies.

Movie review - "Whistle Stop" (1946) **1/2

I wanted to enjoy this more than I did. Great things about it - small town atmosphere, some slangy Phil Yordan dialogue, atmospheric direction, and a top cast: George Raft, Ava Gardner, Tom Conway, Victor McLaglen. 

Raft is really too old to play a loser who is so irresistible to Gardner - either that or Gardner too young because she's beautiful and vivacious and way way too good for Raft's character. It would make sense if she hadn't left town but she'd been to Chicago and still wanted this guy back. A Raft ten years younger who still danced maybe....

But anyhow, it is good to see him. The plot felt patchy - McLaglen tries to persuade Raft to kill Conway, Gardner stops it, then Conway tries to frame McLaglen and Raft. Raft acts like an idiot for a long time. Really his character should have died.

The story was confusing - it probably should have been turned into a film noir, but they had this happy ending and all this set up. Or it could have been a melodrama built around Gardner but they had to give Raft a big part I guess. Still it's of interest in part because they don't make movies like this any more and the cast is full of so many icons.

Movie review - "The Glass Key" (1935) **1/2 (re-watching)

Inferior to the Alan Ladd version which has overshadowed this in film buff memory but a decent tale. I didn't like George Raft the first time I saw him in it but enjoyed him more the second time around - he's very well cast as the enforcer of political poss Ed Arnold. Raft doesn't seem that close to Arnold or terribly interested in Claire Dodds  but the film moves (it was directed by Frank Tuttle, who ironically turned Ladd into a star) and the atmosphere of corruption helps the movie age well, with its easily influenced press editors and covered up criminal cases.

Ray Milland pops up. Ann Sheridan has a small role as a nurse who tends Raft after he's smacked around by Big Boy Williams - that was a brilliantly effective scene in the Ladd version and works well here too. I got confused by the story in some places.

Movie review - "It Had to Happen" (1936) **

Odd melodrama from Fox which feels as thought it was rewritten a lot though I could be wrong. George Raft plays an Italian immigrant who arrives in America with a whatsa-matta-mamma accent and crosses with aristocrat Rosalind Russell and then four years later he's a political boss in the city, accent gone, and he sees her again only now she's married.

Raft does stretch himself in this one, with the accent, and having a few big monologues, notably at the end when he's fighting a charge of blackmail.. The movie kept surprising me - Raft acted like a gang boss but apparently he wasn't a gang boss, and he took four million dollars but it wasn't a bribe, and he falls for ice cool Russell who is married and... they get together at the end! I mean, she's married. And she's ice cold and doesn't seem to like him genuinely more his interest in her.

I kept expecting him to go back to Aline Judge as his secretary who is a lot of fun. The movie would have been more fun if Raft was a proper gangster and Russell was in to rough trade and it all ended tragically but I'm guessing Raft didn't want to play a crook so they softened it. I am thrown that married Russell was allowed to wind up with him at the end.

It's not dramatically satisfying but if you're a fan of Russell and/or Raft there's plenty of both.

Movie review - "Hammersmith is Out" (1972) *

The seventies must have been wild. A parable about the Faust legend with white trash Beau Bridges busting Richard Burton out of the lunatic asylum, and they travel across the country with white trash waitress Elizabeth Burton.

I always thought the Faust story was about selling your soul but Bridges plays a moronic good old boy who seems to have no ambition so what is the point. And Taylor's character doesn't seem to care.

Everyone seems miscast - Bridges in one of those young southern stud parts pioneered by Tennessee Williams, Taylor as a Southern waitress, Burton as a charismatic nutter (he just seems tired). Peter Ustinov does some funny accent acting as a shrink. I think Ustinov was miscast as a director - it's got a late 60s American smart arse feel.

It's not funny, lacks life or verve or point. The basic story has point but the characters and their interactions are underwhelming.

Maybe it would have worked as a play or a novel. I get the feeling during filming everyone sat around and laughed at how off beat it was. But it's horrible.  Bridges farts in Ustinov's face (I read an interview where he said this was Taylor, perhaps he mis-remembered), Taylor jaunts around by a pool in a bikini and has a very dark tan, Bridges winds up running a corporation and breaks his back water skiing, and there's a topless dancer at a bar and... ugh. Oh there's a good moment where Burton is going to kill Taylor - that's affecting.

George Raft pops up as a nightclub owner. It' nice to see him.

Movie review - "If I Had a Million" (1932) ***

These films work better I feel if you recognise all the stars - some I did, others not so much, but it did come out in 1932. Because there's something like eight chapters it's hard to dig in to any of them - but they were generally entertaining and full of variety.

There's quite a few with older protagonists, befitting a time when Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery were big draws - Charles Ruggles smashes up china, Charles Laughton blows a raspberry, May Robson leads a mutiny in an old folks home. Alice Skipworth and WC Fields amble about. George Raft is quite funny as a con man who can't cash his check; Gary Cooper, for all he irritates me, does radiate charisma as a soldier on leave with Jack Oakie and another mate. Gene Raymond is touching as a man on death row - I liked the seriousness of this. Because it's pre Code they are allowed to do one about a hooker who gets to go to bed alone.

Movie review - "Quick Millions" (1931) *** (warning: spoilers)

Early Spencer Tracy film when he was at Fox. He's good but he's not a particularly memorable gangster - those roles are always better when played with more ham eg Al Pacino, Cagney.

This was written and directed by Rowland Brown, who has a small cult around his relatively small output. He does a pretty good job especially considering it was an early sound film - imaginative compositions, brisk editing... such as an assassination shot from the POV of people's legs, and a montage of time.

The plot has trucker gangster Tracy go into crime, and get hung up on a society dame. Because its pre Code the dame can be a bit of a bitch, and when Tracy is knocked off by one of his own men, Warner Richmond, the man gets away with it.

George Raft has his first significant role. Scarface got all the credit for launching him but this one really set the Raft template of "seductive menace". As in Scarface he's a chief gunman for the lead actor who looks sinister and is a womaniser, who betrays his boss and is killed accordingly (only here it's not because he steals a woman that his boss is interested in... he just wants more money... the romantic connection is more dramatically satisfying which is why Scarface is better remembered... that and the coin toss and it being a better movie). Raft does a dance at a party too. He's awkward with dialogue but makes an impact.

Not a major league gangster flick - I think because Tracy underplays - but still worth seeing.

Movie review - "Pick Up" (1933) **

Early work from Sylvia Sidney and George Raft as a young couple in love-  shes out of prison and constantly having men proposition her, thinking she's a hooker, he's a cab owner who thinks she's a hooker but looks after when she needs a place to stay. They fall in love. I'm pretty sure they are sleeping together - they live together, and its implied he sleeps with her before he even knows her name. She helps him but the third act involves the return of her no good husband, and a society dame panting over Raft.

Sidney was ideal in these little waif sort of roles. Raft is wooden - at the end when he pleads for a lawyer to help Sidney it's awful - but he teams well with Sidney.

It's more adult, being pre-Code, which helps.

Movie review - "The Upper Hand" (1967) ** aka "Du rififi à Paname"

Jean Gabin being old, honourable and ruthless as a gangster - well, a smuggler. He does his Gabin thing - friendships with old timers (Gert Frobe), rivalry with newer gangsters who aint got no respect, mentoring a young thing who betrays him.

The "hero" is an American undercover agent played by a Mexican actor, Claudio Brook - but the film's heart is with Gabin, I dont think it likes sneaks. Some action, a funky opening credits, the influence of Bond films is felt (a bit of globe trotting including scenes in Tokyo, sexy dames, some topless women in a bar.

George Raft has a small role (though billed second) as a mafia guy - his scenes with Gabin are a lot of fun and I wish his part had been bigger. The best scene is Frobe's death scene - Frobe is excellent. Mireille Darc is attractive as the blonde. Enjoyable colour. Its not amazing but it's not bad.

Movie review - "Madame Racketeer" (1932) **

You might enjoy this more if you're a fan of Alice Skipworth, a character actor who did a bit with WC Fields. I think she got the lead off the back of the success Marie Dressler was having and it's neat to see an older woman in the lead but she isn't very good and neither is the movie. The set up isn't decent - Skipworth is out of prison and trying to con men and she hooks up with her two estranged daughters both of whom seem very anonymous.

I also saw this for the appearance of George Raft who has a decent support role - this was for Paramount and was made after Scarface but before that movie had been released. He livens up the film because he's got sexy appeal and seems like a genuine gangster - he does a dance with a girl in a swimming pool. Oh it's alright I guess.

Movie review - "Dancers in the Dark" (1932) **

There's some pre Code fun to be had in the reputation of Miriam Hopkins' character in this film - she was a girl who got around including a romance with Jack Oakie and George Raft, but now she's in love with this wet musician, William Collier Jr.

It's not much of a movie - its kind of a musical with the action stopping for numbers (it's set around a night club, Hopkins sings, the other girl sings, Oakie is a bandleader). You might like it if you're into Hopkins who does try and her fans will be interested in her singing. Raft is good value - he was growing in confidence by this stage. Oakie sexually molests Hopkins but he's not a bad guy apparently. Raft keeps things lively, Collier is wet.

Movie review - "All of Me" (1934) ** (warning: spoilers)

An odd film. The story of two romances - college lecturer Frederic March whose girlfriend Miriam Hopkins doesn't want to get married, and crim George Raft and his girl Helen Mack. The love of Mack and Raft makes Hopkins decide to marry Raft.

Why did Paramount make this? I read a contemporary review which wondered if the reels were out of order. And it feels like it. You didn't need the March/Hopkins stuff - really the meat is in the Raft/Mack romance, the love of a woman for a convict who loves her but can't help being bad.

It's actually one of Raft's best performances - he seems natural, intense - the director was James Flood, who I'd never heard of. Mack is effective too and Hopkins has some fine moments - she can't sustain her Miriam Hopkins erratic-ness but sometimes hits the nail on the head. I'm not a March fan - he does his ham intensity well enough. There are some interesting dimly lit scenes which feel emotionally strong.

But it's a silly story.

Movie review - "The George Raft Story" (1961) **

Allied Artists had a hit with Al Capone and ushered in a bunch of gangster flicks including this biopic of the gangster's pal, George Raft. Raft had one of the most fascinating careers of any actor but lawsuits are lawsuits hence this fictionalised version.

Ray Danton should have become a bigger star - handsome, deep voice, can act, can even dance a little. He moves like a dancer so he's not bad casting for Raft. Maybe he lacked a certain warmth. There's a lively collection of support players including Frank Gorshin, Julie London and none other than Jayne Mansfield who plays a Hollywood starlet. She's in a swimsuit in one scene and looks a little heavy as well as being top heavy but it's fun to see her.

Sometimes the film stumbles upon elements of the real Raft - his financial irresponsibility, his tendency to confuse the parts he played with himself, his desire to do more dancing films and less gangster parts, his friendship with Benny Siegel, his tendency to punch people out (including producers on set), his trouble with the IRS, his tendency to be alone. I thought it was cute when he goes to see Al Capone (Neville Brand) after making Scarface to find Capone likes the movie, and hangs out with Texas Guinan, and I didn't mind gangsters firing a machine gun at him.

Other items seem more random. Inserting a night club comedy act from these two comics plus a long song from Julie London (were Allied pushing these talents?). Domestic scenes with his loving mama and disapproving father (which seem like a sketch to send up this sort of biopic "how can I tell my friends what I'm doing).

There's a director on Scarface who I assume is meant to be Howard Hawks. I'm not sure who Mansfield was meant to play - maybe Betty Grable. There's no Carole Lombard or anyone like that - only the gangsters get named. Actually no that's not true - Billy Wilder is mentioned at the end but not seen.

It's not successful as a movie - you can't feel any point to it, there's no theme other than maybe Raft has trouble letting anyone in to love him and is a bit of a sook. I kept expecting that nice cigarette girl to re appear but it doesn't happen. Still as a Raft fan I got a lot out of it - I thought Danton did a decent version of Raft, and I was constantly going "oh that's true... that's not... that's really not... that's true..." so it passed the time entertainingly.

"I'll Get You For This" (1951) **

One of the last films George Raft made as a star and it's quite good - the star is ideally cast and its all crisply made, with a British crew and support cast and some Italian location shooting. The photography is lovely and director Joseph Newman does a solid job. The kid in it is the one from The Bicycle Thief.

The second half is less effective because it takes place out in the Italian countryside. Colleen Gray is alright as the girl - Gray was most effective as young quivering things, not so much here. There's a decent support cast of people like Walter Rilla and Peter Bull.

The scenery might have been more effective in colour, though I really wanted the whole thing set in a cigarette drenched nightclub. Raft dances the tango with Grey which is fun even is Raft was looking a little creaky.

This film is no classic or even a minor classic but its unpretentious black and white programmer fun.

Movie review - "Stolen Harmony" (1936) **

George Raft as an ex con who... plays the saxophone and can dance and joins a big band. Most of this is a musical... indeed more like a vaudeville show with lots of numbers performed by the band, led by Ben Bernie - not very well remembered now but a big name at the time. He's comfortable in front of the camera.

Raft has a romance and in the third act the gangsters come back into his life. The film awkwardly combines musical numbers and gangsters - act two is almost like a filmed concert, with lots of Ben Bernie and his band, and Raft doing a dance number on stage. Act three the gangsters come back - including Lloyd Nolan. The film is almost shot differently with different light focus and a very violent car chase and shoot out at the end. I wonder if this was added via reshoots. I could be wrong.

Someone called Grace Bradley is the female lead. Nolan is excellent. Raft is okay. It's not bad, not awful - lacks a little vim and vigour.