Movie review - "Excalibur" (1981) ****

 Silly but fun. Great integrity. Tremendous cast of future stars but it's Helen Mirren who steals the show. Great spookiness. They could've made Arthur and Percy look more different.

Movie review - "Rooney" (1958) **1/2

 Interesting film. Slice of life warm stuff about John Gregson a dustman and hurley player whose landladies want to root him. He moves to a house and falls for Muriel Pavlow.

Quiet, senstivie a little wonky. The novel was set in Newcastle but they set it in Ireland. 

John Gregson is very affable. I liked Pavlow in this. Barry Fitzergerald is in it.

This isn't bad. Better than Jacqueline. 

Movie review - "Dementia 13" (1963) **1/2 (rewatching)

 I wanted to see this on the big screen. Thoughts:

- wanted to like it more than I do but as a quickie it's impressive

- Luanda Anders is wonderful and the film never recovers from her death, the best bit

- Bobby Campbell a little odd, the other female lead a little erratic, Patrick Magee terrific

- needs a Vincent Price

- spooky atmosphere

- lots of chat, I got confused. 

Book review - "The Violent Enemy" by Jack Higgins (1966) (warning: spoilers)

 Read this because of the movie. One of Higgins' IRA supermen (brave, smart, World War Two hero, worried about violence) busts out of prison to help with the cause. Young woman finds him hot. Dodgy collaborators. Javert like cop. Plenty of action and pace, though Higgins as he admitted hadn't learned the art of characterisation yet. The happy ending felt a little odd.

Movie review - "Star Portal".(1997) *

 One of the cheapies made in Ireland by Roger Corman, this has a strong source material, Not of This Earth but is just ineptly done. I like Athena Massey and it's cute to see her blending in to the world learning about sex and taking her clothes off, and Steven Bauer was sweet as a doctor with glasses who pursues her rather like Ryan O'Neal in What's Up Doc? but there's no suspense or horror and the film gets dumber and more incompetent as it goes on.

Movie review - "Dementia 13" (1962) **1/2

 Coppola's Psycho knock off has a great murder sequence with an axe to show how tremendous he is with genre. There's a memorable opening, with another guy dying, a superb Luana Anders performance. Once Anders dies half way the film never quite gets its groove back though Patrick Magee does all he can.

I got confused in the second half to be honest. Mary Mitchell is a rather bland blonde - Coppola loved his blondes. Bill Campbell is alright.

Clearly made by someone with talent. Some great moments. I do find it patchy.

Movie review - "Irish Wish" (2024) **1/2

 The director and her team tried to make a good film. It's got pep and looks great. Interesting costuming. Nice Irish scenery. Not many laughs but it's sweet.

Movie review - "The Banshees of Inisherin" (2022) ***

 This felt like a one act play - maybe two. I kept wanting an extra element - like the IRA arriving to hide out/take action against the cop who helped the execution/an ex-wife or child. This took a while to get going - it did eventually kick in, but it could've had half an hour cut out of it no worries.

Colin Farrell is brilliant, with his sad longing eyes, though everyone else is very good too. Ending a little dissatisfying at first though it has stayed with me. Lovely locations. Ideal low budget film - two handers with ocean in the background. Still cost $20 million though apparently - I guess everyone's salaries, location filming, period setting.

Movie review - "Jacqueline" (1956) **

 I've never read a Catherine Cookson novel. I've no doubt they are very good. This was based on one, Rooney another.

British movies of the 1950s were normally good with kids. Not this one. She's a charmless kid who likes to brag about her deadbeat father. I think we're meant to warm to him even though he works at the dock yards with vertigo, endangering others.

Dad is John Gregson, who is an affable presence. Gregson felt it needed someone like Victor McLaglen and he was right. This should be a "hulking ape humanised by his daughter" story so work. They should have motivated his drinking more and killed off his wife (bland Kathleen Ryan) and other child (Richard O'Sullivan) so that it was just him and his kid against the world. That would've given us some sympathy for him.

As it is, he drinks despite having a wife and two kids, he endangers people at his work by hiding his vertigo, he gets possessively jealous over a guy who likes his wife... I'm all with his mother in law. If you had mother in law trying to take the kid off him when the wife is dead - it would've been more primeval.

The kid sings at the church at the end, and it hit me this is the same plot as a Shirley Temple film, with Jacqueline melting the heart of a crusty old manager. But as depicted here, the dad is a drunk - he's just going to keep drinking.

There's also a subplot which could've been cut out - a romance between Maureen Swanson and Tony Wright. I'm not sure what the parents' concern is - is one Protestant and the other Catholic? That would've made more sense.

Rank really didn't know how to make commercial films in the Hollywood mode.

Nicely shot. And some good Irish actors like Cyril Cusack.

Movie review - "The Quare Fellow" (1962) **

  Not that well known Irish-British film despite being based on a Brendan Behan play and with two stars, Patrick McGoohan and Sylvia Syms. McGoodhan is a prison guard on death row.

It was made by Bryanston the short lived company that made a lot of worthy movies. They kept the budget low. A good idea but ultimately didn't work.

I understand this was changed from the stage play. I wasn't quite sure of the point of this was. I think the play was focused on the prisoners - the prisoners barely register here.

McGoohan is a warden on death row. He sort of flirts with Sylvia Syms who is the wife of a condemned prisoner. That's a bit contrived. Syms is quite good. So is McGoohan. Actually all the acting is good. Location work helps a lot. (It was shot in Dublin.)

Book review - "Conclusions" by John Boorman (2020)

 Second volume of Boorman's memoirs isn't as entertaining as Adventures of a Suburban Boy. Money Into Light or his Projections diaries but is still worth a read. Boorman is a good writer and if this period involves his less renowned films - Tailor of Panama, The General, Tiger in the Tail - it's still of interest. I enjoyed the profiles of people like Bob Chartoff and his kids. Others such as his Irish mates was less compelling.

Movie review - "The Commitments" (1991) ****1/2

 Wonderful film. Better with age. So authentic. I assume. Captures a time and place and even people that has gone, I guess. Some stuff is universal. The banter, the struggle, the romance of being in a band.

Love the different types. Everyone has their moment in the sun. The two buskers. The three girls, all foul mouthed - I love how one just wants to sing country and western. The guy who wants to play jazz. The shy doctor. The psycho dummer. The awful singer. The hottest girl in class who'll just get married. The old guy who roots the women but who gets the poetry of failure.

The swearing, the violence, the banter, the grime. It's wonderfully done. Some of the acting is raw but everyone is well cast. One of Alan Parker's best films.

Movie review - "The Violent Enemy" (1967) **

An under the radar movie - one of a few action/thrillers made by Trio Film, a short lived company. I watched this mainly because it was directed by Don Sharp the Aussie, who also dealt with IRA stuff in Hennessy.

This has a great start and finale. IRA expert Sean Rogan (Tom Bell who I wasn't that familiar with but good) is busted out of prison for a mission. It's blowing up an electrical factory. He doesn't want to do it but sort of mopes around and then does it.

The middle act is a little dull despite a strong cast - people talking about the Troubles, and everyone being sympathetic to the IRA but not the methods. I read an item in the book which called Rogan an "IRA Hamlet" - which is true. But we never get inside his head - why he joined up, why he softened. This needed to be dramatised somehow - to have him fall in love, or to meet his estranged son or something. He has a sort of relationship with Susan Hamphire who is a character of great potential - the daughter of a rich man caught up with the romance of the struggle... but she feels undeveloped. She just sort of hangs around.

Quickest fix - give him an ex girlfriend who he reconnects with... she carried his kid. He reconnects with the kid. Maybe the girfriend is killed off. Have Hampshire's character as more of a fanatic.

The acting is strong - Philip O'Flynn especially as a grinning cop but also Ed Begley as an IRA fanatic determined to use violence (in a few years that character would achieve his dream), Noel Purcell as an enormous beard.

The Irish settings help. The direction is fine.

Movie review - "Never Put It In Writing" (1964) **

Andrew L Stone is best known for his thrillers shot in location, but he also made a fair few musicals and comedies. This is a comedy, and it's not very good. The idea is alright - Pat Boone writes a letter to his boss having a whinge, then finds out he's gotten promoted and has to retrieve the letter.

That sort of film works if there are interesting adventures along the way. He's got Milo O'Shea with him and has a romance but it's not much of a romance. This is in black and white and needs color. It also needs songs - Pat sings on the title credits and that's it. There's a long unfunny plane sequence - indeed most of it is unfunny. Stone was lazy when it came to farce - you wait for Boone's bitch fiancee, other people chasing the letter, cops, etc... but it doesn't happen. The hand is heavy.

Pat is okay, he tries, but it's weird to see him in Ireland. The Irish locations aren't even used that well. (It was also shot in London.)

Movie review - "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" (1959) ****

Delightful Disney fantasy which remains one of the best films about leprachauns ever made - not that that's particularly high praise.

It's great fun to see Sean Connery in an old fashioned "juvenile lead" role - his eye brows do a LOT of acting (I don't think they stay still for more than a few seconds) and he has what seems to be a terrific amount of hair. He flashes his dimples in 50s brylcreamed heartthrob style and to be honest struggles with his lines at times. He "sings" too!

Janet Muno is lovely as Darby's daughter. She was an  original manic pixie dream girl, staring off into the distance a lot of the time (though capable of fire). Her performance has a touch of magic and wistfulness - she's utterly perfect.

Albert Sharpe and Jimmy O'Dea are perfect as Darby and the Leprechaun king. At its heart this film is a battle of wills between these two, continually trying to double cross and one up each other, but enjoying the contests. They don't fall into cuteness so it keeps it fresh - as does the fact the townfolk assume Darby is a lying drunk mourning the death of his wife.

The sets and costumers add a lot - I thought this was shot in Ireland but it was on the Disney backlot. There's a strong support cast including Keiron Moore as a bully.

The script is very clever - things are set up and paid off nicely, it has logic. The ending is satisying.

Movie review - "The Haunting of Hell House" (1999) **

Not even Roger Corman could recapture the success of his 1960s Poe films, as proved by this late 90s attempt, shot in his short-lived Irish studio near Galway. It actually wasn't a bad idea to have a go though because the beautiful albeit gloomy Irish countryside was ideal for a Poe film - I should say Poe-esque, because this is based on a Henry James short story.

Corman produced, but he doesn't have the collaborators - Michael York adds some class but is no Vincent Price, the authors are no Richard Matheson/Robert Towne/Charles Beaumont, the set design is no Daniel Haller, the female lead is no Hazel Court/Barbara Steele, the cinematographer no Floyd Crosby, the music no Les Baxter and the director is no Corman. The male lead is weak but I admit that is in keeping with many of those films (eg John Kerr).

It's an okay film - the basic story is good, there are spooky moments. It looks alright. I didnt mind it - it just lacks the magic and atmosphere of those 60s Poe movies.

Movie review - "Kocking on Death's Door" (1999) **

Absolutely fine haunted house film from Roger Corman's Irish operation. Not a classic but its competent. A young couple move into a house that's apparently haunted and weird stuff happens. That's about it.

There's only a few support roles - David Carradine in a doctor (shooting most of his scenes in the one spot), a local redneck, a slimy professor. There's some "sexy" moments that slightly clang - Kimberly Rowe and Brian Bloom have soft core-ish make out sessions (no nudity in the version I saw it just was filmed like a soft core), she masturbates. They should've gone further with this or pulled back altogether - because the amount that's there is off putting.

No classic, not even a good film, but solid and professionally done and it is set in Ireland.

Movie review - "It Came from Connemara" (2014) ****

Roger Corman's 80s and onwards career isn't as well documented as his 50s to early 80s glory years so it's great to see this look at one of the most interesting chapters from his later years... when he set up a studio in Ireland. The Irish government wanted to build filmmaking in that region because... oh I'm guessing because it's cool... and figured that Corman would be a good person to learn from.

And you know something? That's not a bad idea - because Corman is famous for giving people chances out of cheapness, promoting from within. I would have loved an opportunity like that myself - a little bit of money was better than nothing.

The studio became controversial when critics got a look at some of the output - then it became an issue of whether tax payers dollars should do into supporting exploitation. (My view - its fine as long as the stories touched on Irish culture and the key creatives were Irish). It's not very well known today because none of the films are well known - I mean none, despite occasionally featuring people like David Carradine, and James Brolin - and no really well filmmakers graduated from that particular "class".

Corman says the studio closed because of the end of an EU loophole, rising wages in Ireland, and decline in the film market. I have read that the company had some tax troubles - these aren't really addressed in this documentary which is mostly sympathetic to Corman (maybe that's how they got him to agree to be interviewed).

It's not a white wash - the film is upfront about the erratic quality of the films, the difficulty sourcing good actors and talent, the troubles with unions, the snobbish atittude of Dublin (where Corman really should have based the studio - simply more talent eg all those Abbey Theatre actors).

Other talking heads include James Brolin (who directed a film), Corbin Bernsen, Alexandra Paul, plus some locals - several of who speak in Gaelic which was cool!

The films look all terrible - I had no enthusiasm to seek them out. This is probably the best movie to come out of it - its extremely entertaining.

Movie review - "The Fighting O'Flynn" (1949) **1/2

Douglas Fairbanks never quite regained his pre war popularity (such as it was) after the war though he gave it a go. This is an enjoyable swashbuckler which he also produced and co wrote so its a Fairbanks movie. It really needed to be in colour and could have done with a stronger cast and maybe more action.

Patricia Medina is okay but her role is a gift - a lively courtesan - that a really good actress would have made sing. Richard Greene is competent but he's one of those actors you forget are in the movie even while watching him - that's mean, I'm sorry, but it's kind of true. Helena Carter is lively as the lady who falls for Fairbanks - I liked her.

A bit of action. The best bit was Doug sword fighting while really drunk. It has novelty with an Irish hero - the Irish hero is fighting for the British against Napoleon though.The film was a bright spirit.

Random thought - Fairbanks only made a few swashbucklers. He started with two classics though:
1) The Prisoner of Zenda
2) The Corsican Brothers
3) Son of Sinbad
4) The Exile
5) The Fighting O'Flynn

Movie review - "The Siege of Jadotville" (2016) *** (warning: spoilers)

Not a great movie but I love siege films and this gets points for sheer novelty, focusing on the adventures of Irish UN peacekeepers during the Congo Crisis of 1961. The film does an okay job of setting up the conflict - the Congo is torn by civil war, the democratically elected Lumumba is killed, Tshombe leads a pro mining company secession, the UN are called in to keep the peace in the form of Irish soldiers- who find themselves under attack.

There are two main problems with the story, both from history. First, no Irish died, so the film lacks emotional kick. There's no death bed scenes so vital for stakes in war films. There's wounded and people almost died and absolutely the commander gets credit for bringing his men back alive - but lack of a death makes things follow.

Secondly, the Irish surrendered, so the whole battle really was kind of pointless - sure they were brave and proved themselves men, but they didn't help anyone escape, or win the battle, or do anything that important. (I had the same problem with the Siege of Jerusalem film, Kingdom of Heaven.)

In dramatic terms, the film suffers from a lack of interesting characters and interpersonal conflict. Compare to say something like Zulu where you had so many clearly drawn people - driven Stanley Baker, toffy Michael Caine, anti-hero James Booth, bluff Nigel Greene. Here you've got decent, a little insecure Jamie Dorman, a French mercenary, Mark Strong as Connor Cruise O'Brien (not very flatteringly depicted), Emmanuelle Seigner as a white Congolese (who looks as though she's about to do something interesting but is really just there for a some exposition espousing a pro mining company line). I found it hard to tell apart the soldiers who weren't Dorman - there was a coward, a sergeant (I think), some guy with glasses.

It also hurts that the battle sequences - excellently filmed and directed, with impressive production value - tend to be repetitive: the enemy attack, are repelled, lots of gunfire... and repeat. It's a shame because the sequences are well done. And the political background is interesting. I did enjoy the film - it was just flawed.