Movie review -"They Shoot Horses Don't They?" (1969) ****

 They were right to sack James Poe - this needed a proper director. The Hunger Games ripped this off down to the fake marriage. Jane Fonda is superb as the broken yet defiant competitor. Gig Young also magnificent- haunted, doomed, ruthless, not without sympathy.

Susannah York goes mad, Red Buttons dies of a heart attack, Bonnie Bedelia is pregnant, Bruce Dern is her husband. Michael Sarrazin looks on, worried - he's not in Fonda's league but he has a great look. 

It's a film about self destruction. The movie warns us up front. Amazing direction. Pefect production design. I love the sea side setting and use of waves in background. 

A triumph for ABC Pictures. 

Movie review - "Walk on the Wild Side" (1962) **1/2

 Interesting. A famously tricky production - Larry harvey was annoyed, Edwardy Dmytryk really didn't have control, producer Charles Feldman putting his oar in, script changing a lot, Capucine trying a drama role, Jane Fonda super inexperienced, Barbara Stanwyck playing a pioneering screen lesbian.

Script feels endlessly rewritten. Scenes upon scenes.  Basically Harvey wants Capucine back. Capucine is an artist working at a brothel. Dmyrtyk complained about the sleeze Feldman wanted to put in - I think it needed more! Not sure Dmytryk was the right director - needed someone who could do sexually charged material, like Elia Kazan or Joe Mankiewicz.

Capucine is fine, as is Harvey - I thought both would be worse than they are. Fonda is gorgeous but has a little just-out-of-drama-school vibes about her (I'm acting! Look at me act!).

Great music, photography, Saul Bass title credits. 

Movie review - "Period of Adjustment" (1962) **1/2

 Little remembered though it was a hit at the time - well, profitable for MGM at a time when everything from that studio was constantly flopping. Also it was from Tennessee Williams, an early role from Jane Fonda and the first feature from George Roy Hill.

It's a more comic take from Williams - no one's life is destroyed or goes mad, although as in many plays it has men reluctant to have sex with women. Jim Hutton and Jane Fonda get married  but squabble and she winds up at the house of Anthony Franciosa, Hutton's old army buddy who's just had a fight with his wife, Lois Nettleton.

Williams' film adaptations had a good chance it it was about a hot, beautiful female star who was horny - here they were lucky enough to get Jane Fonda. Hutton was a dab hand at comedy, which helps. She and Jim Hutton are sweet. Their plot is Huddon is scared to have sex - he didn't even do it with the gals during the Korean War.

I don't really like Franciosa, he gives off too much of a wife beating vibe (I'm not saying he did it, just that's the sense he gives) even if he's a good actor. I didn't care that much for Lois Nettleton or that plot - she's "homey", he married her for dad's money. It feels 50s TV. Maybe if Nettleton had been more heartbreaking or Franciosa more empathetic. Or more Southern. (John McGiver as her dad isn't very southern). I'm being mean, maybe I just didn't really care about either compared to the others. It's also long.

But it's fine.

Movie review - "Cat Ballou" (1965) ***1/2

 Sometimes films just click. I don't think hopes were that high for the Western but Jane Fonda proved to be a bright, engaging comedienne and the public loved Lee Marvin in a double role as a drunken gunfighter and his brother, an evil one - Marvin's role is actually smaller than I remembered. (Still... the Oscar?)

Tom Nardini is a likeable Indian, self deprecating, at a time when that was novel.  The female heroine was novel. The Greek chorus of singing bandits, Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole works a treat. Michael Callan and Dwayne Hickman are a likable team and Callan a fun match for Fonda - he should've played more leading man to the female star parts. Fun script. Light touch.

Thoughts on Michael Callan (1935-2022)

 I was thinking of doing a piece on Callan but I'm not sure there's one in me at the moment. Still, I felt I should jot down a few thoughts.

An interesting quasi-star, was Callan. He had looks and the backing of a Hollywood studio but the studio system was in decline. 

He was born "Martin Calinoff" in Philadelphia in 1935 - dad ran restaurants - and was something of a showbiz baby, taking singing and dancing lessons at an early age, and appearing on local radio shows. He was a very good dancer, later saying his idol was Gene Kelly. “I thought unlike Fred Astaire, Mr Kelly has that double whammy of sex appeal… Not that I even knew what sex appeal was, but I liked athletics and he moved like an all-star athlete.”

By the age of fifteen he was dancing professionally in local nightclubs. Two years later, when he graduated from high school, he moved to New York, got work in summer stock in St Louis, performing under the name "Mickey Calin".  Callan/Calin/Calinoff successfully auditioned for a small part on Broadway in The Boyfriend with Julie Andrew (you might've seen the Ken Russell film version), playing various parts over seven months; he was then in Catch a Star. He also danced on television and in nightclubs. 

Then came the big big break - Riff in West Side Story. "“There were a great many kids like me up for that part,” said Callan. “I was told I was too cute! Imagine! But I really wanted it, I was asked if I could backflip, so I did a backflip, and eventually, after a year of rounds, I got it. Riff set me on my way.”

Riff is one of the best parts, if not the best part, in one of the greatest musicals of all time and really established Callan, who was in it for seven months. During the show's run he was spotted by Joyce Selznick a famous casting director (her discoveries included James Darren) and she signed Callan to a seven year contract to Columbia off the back of his appearance. 

The studio system was dying off but there was a bit of a revival of signing young talent in the late 1950s, especially at studios that made a lot of television and continued to make B pictures, like Columbia. The studio also signed Evy Norlund, Glenn Corbett, Carol Douglas, Jo Morrow, Margie Regan, Joby Baker, Rian Garrick, Joe Gallison, and Steve Baylor... not a big list of future stars.

Callan was, however, given what those actors weren't - a nice support part in a big budget film, They Came to Cordura, playing one of several seemingly heroic soldiers escorted through the Mexican desert by Gary Cooper along with Rita Hayworth. The studio put him in a low budget circus picture for Sam Katsman, The Flying Fontanes. They also put him in a Dick Clark teen film, Because They're Young (as a delinquent trying to go good who romances Tuesday Weld) and he danced in Pepe. In Oct 1960 he left Columbia's record arm to sign with Paramount (see here) but he never enjoyed Darren's success as a singer.

Callan had looks, and could move, and act. But I think the main thing holding him back was he gave off a sort of intense swaggering self-love vibe. I'm not saying he was like that in person, not at all - but he lacked the sensitivity of say a Tony Curtis or Rock Hudson. He had charisma and was a potential star but needed careful handling.

Callan auditioned for the film version of West Side Story but didn't get it - possibly due to his Columbia contract, possibly they wanted a fresh slate. But he did dance in the film Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961), opposite Deborah Walley as Gidget. He was one of the troops in Mysterious Island .

He was well cast as a thug tormenting a puffy Alan Ladd in 13 West Street and romanced Deborah Walley again in Disney's Bon Voyage! The latter film demonstrates the issue with Callan - he lacked the affability of Tommy Kirk and when he rough houses Deborah Walley it's really scary. As I wrote in a piece on this film "he was a good looking guy, Callan, who could act, and dance, but his performances often had a strand of cruelty about them, he looked like a villain, and I really didn't want him and Walley to wind up together."

However he had a big hit with The Interns as a compromised doctor. Callan was in this alongside a lot of other Columbia contract talent like Cliff Robertson. It was a fun role with some meat in it - Callan plays a super ambitious intern, who dates a rich girl but also sees an older nurse on the side so she'll help his career; this gives him a packed schedule which leads him to take drugs... it's very well done and handled, leading to Callan breaking down at the end. The film was a hit and would have rejuvenated Columbia's faith in him. 

David Merrick offered Callan the lead in a Broadway musical, I Can Get it for You Wholesale, but they couldn't agree over money apparently so Elliot Gould took the part instead - and wound up marrying his co-star Barbra Streisand.    In November 1962 he talked about how he had his own publicist - see this here.

Callan had a showy small part as a pimp in Carl Foreman's cynical war picture The Victors - he's not in the film for very long and the leads went to other new faces (George Hamilton, George Peppard), and Callan presumably thought "hey why not me" but at least the film was a big hit.

The did The The New Interns, one of the few to return (along with Stefanie Powers and Telly Savalas with Dean Jones playing James MacArthur's role). He didn't have as much to do in this one, which hurt the film - in the original his character was comic and romantic but also serious, here he's just comic (in drag for one sequence) and romantic (Barbara Eden); the film hints it's going to deal with his character's past as a druggie, which would've been great, but throws it away. It's a NAGOATO sequel (not as good as the original).  Still it encouraged Columbia to sign him to a new six picture contract. Jack Lemmon had started his film career at Columbia and many pieces from this time would refer to Callan being a new Jack Lemmon.

Callan was announced for a film musical remake of Cover Girl which was never made and a Broadway musical Kelly. See here. But Callan was lucky to miss out on the Broadway Kelly which shut after one night

There was talk of Callan starring in King Rat from the novel by James  Cavell about a smooth operator in Changi during World War Two.He would've been perfect. But he lost out to George Segal who was also in The New Interns which must have really really hurt. Because that film, while considered something of a commercial and critical disappointment, kicked up Segal to a higher plane that he never really left. In fairness, Segal had more acting chops than Callan - he'd done heaps of Broadway and TV.

 It wasn't over yet - He did guest stints on television, Breaking Point and Twelve O'Clock High, then had his biggest hit to date as Jane Fonda's love interest in Cat Ballou but most of the attention for that movie went to Fonda and Lee Marvin. 

He was sent to England for You Must Be Joking, a farcical army comedy for Michael Winner - Callan was cast at Columbia's insistence but didn't do much for the film's box office. He doesn't fit in the movie, he sticks out - the whole film is like a trial run for Winner's better The Jokers.

In August 1965, Callan signed a four-picture deal with Columbia. Jackie Cooper, former actor turned exec at Columbia's TV arm, Screen Gems, offered Callan the lead in a pilot for a sitcom Occasional Wife. Callan asked Cooper what he needed TV for: Cooper replied, "This year we're asking you to do the series. In three years you may be asking us?" The deal was a good one -  $100,000 a year plus a percentage according to this. This didn't last long.  TV Guide did a profile on him here which refers to a partying lifestyle, "a reputation along the Sunset Strip-Vegas axis as one of the great new swingers. He had a Sinatra-like coterie of hangers on and regularly made the columns."

A1967 interview with him is here. Occasional Wife only lasted a season but marked a major shift in Callan's private life as he left his wife for his co star, Patricia Harty. 

After the sitcom was axed Callan might've been expected to return to movies or television but instead he appeared in a musical in Las Vegas, That Certain Girl. See here

In 1968 he was in a TV version of Kiss Me Kate with Robert Goulet.

By the late 60s Callan was out of fashion, Ric Dalton style - he no longer had the film offers or television lead offers. It was a very very quick fall, especially considering The Interns and Cat Ballou had been so popoular and not that long ago. I wonder if there were behaviourial/temperament issues. I have no proof of that - it's just conjecture.  But it does seem odd that a good looking, charismatic performer, who could act and move, didn't get any more leads. This was the time of spaghetti Westerns, war films in Yugoslavia, and telemovies. There were star parts going for former contract stars. But Callan didn't get any.

Not that he was unemployed. Callan kept busy on episodic TV like The Mary Tyler More Show,That Girl, The Name of the Game, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Ironside, Marcus Welby, M.D., Griff, McMillan & Wife, Barnaby Jones, 12 O’Clock High, Quincy, M.E., Charlie’s Angels, Simon & Simon, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, The Bionic Woman, four episodes of Murder, She Wrote, and eight episodes of Love, American Style. Callan also made the occasional feature like Frasier the Sensuous Lion, The Magnificent Seven Ride, Lepke and the Cat and the Canary. He did have the lead in 1974's The Photographer which was kind of remade as 1982's Double Exposure - in both Callan plays a psychotic photographer. See trailer here.  

He appeared in theatre around the country - a lot of musicals like Anything Goes, The Music Man (program here), George M, Bar Mitzvah Boy plus plays like Absurd Person Singular. He produced some musicals.

I don't think Callan was a great lost star. He was unlucky in that Hollywood made less musicals when he hit down  - at least less dancing musicals. He would've been fantastic as Riff in West Side Story  - too cruel to be Tony though.  The tide went out really quickly for him though. I mean, to go from a sitcom to being a permanent guest? I wonder if something else happened.

Callan appears as a character, in a way, in the novel version of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Agent Marv talks to Ric Dalton about Dalton's Western, Tanner, directed by Jerry Hopper, in which Dalton appeared alongside Ralph Meeker and Callan, and Dalton criticised Callan for "sounding like  a Malibu surfer".

TV Guide

Movie review - "Comes a Horseman" (1978) **

 Beware genre films made by people too cool for that genre. That's what this feels like. "Ooh let's set it in the 1940s and explore character and not have caricatures". The thing is the base situation is so stock - evil land baron (Jason Robards) wants to kick feisty woman (Jane Fonda) off land and she's helped by hunky man (James Caan). There's a grizzled sidekick (Richard Farnsworth) plus a partner of Caan's (Mark Harmon, young and charismatic) to get killed early on.

Nothing wrong with that plot, however old - having Robards in debt to oil company isn't that much of a new twist - the main problem is the film is drained of excitement. There's no sexual tension or romance between Fonda and Caan, they're just in scenes together then they get together (the only character to exude warmth is Farnsworth). There's no excitement - the baddies poke around then occasionally flare up. Every now and then they throw in a bit of violence - Harmon is killed, then Caan punches someone in a bar, some bank guy is randomly killed, at the end Robards gets all melodrama villain conking out Fonda and Caan and putting them in a  closet and setting the house on fire, then they come galloping back and... oh it's silly. Until then it's dull.

Beautifully shot. The acting is fine. Robarts is excellent. Just dull. Like an Australian film.

Movie review - "Nine to Five" (1980) ***

 The opening half hour is brilliant with its classic theme song, incendiary satire that is all too relevant today, terrific leads, star making debut by Dolly Parton, splendid work from Lily Tomlin, adequate work from Jane Fonda. It starts to wobble with some unfunny dream sequences (Tomlin's snow white bit excepted) then gets bogged down in plot with less satire.

It still works, just lacks some shine. Such as maybe a romance for Fonda's character (an end credit refers to her marrying the Xerox man, why not see him). It feels ramshackle and you can see the rewrites.

But the core is so strong it's not surprising that this piece has survived the years.

Play review - "Barefoot in the Park" by Neil Simon

 Listened to an audio recording - Laura Linney is perfect as the female lead, you'd think Eric Stoltz would be ideal as the male but he isn't... lacks a certain strength and definite-ness that Robert Redford brought to the part.

A lot of this has dated - jokes about hitting little old ladies, the woman staying home - but it has a genuine love for its female lead that is very endearing, and the jokes come along so consistently, and some of them are still very effective because they are character based. The conflict is obvious but effective (she's spontaneous, he's conservative), the sub plots work well (mother, crazy neighbour), its understanding of stage craft is solid.

Movie review - "Joy House" (1964) ***

Not highly acclaimed critically and probably could have been done in colour but I liked it. It was an MGM shot in French in France with French stars but also two American stars. 

Alain Delon is perfectly cast as the lover of a gangster's wife who just escapes said gangster's hoons and winds up seeking refuge in the house of wealthy Lola Albright and her niece Jane Fonda. Albright has a lover shoved in the attic years before Parasite.

Fonda is seriously hot in this movie - she's beautifully shot and is alive and full of energy. The role might have been more effective if played by someone more plain - who would want control over Delon. I mean seriously how hard is it for Fonda to trap Delon?

Delon was peak pretty at this stage too which suits the role and Lola Albright isn't too shabby either. They have some hot sex. Gangsters come after her.

They could have done more with the cuckolded gangster and the lover in the attic but it was sexy and atmospheric, beautifully shot, with a Lalo Schifrin score. It got hostile views I don't know why.

Book review - "Being Hal Ashby: The Life of a Hollywood Rebel" by Nick Dawson

Ashby was one of the stars of Peter Biskind's famous book, Easy Riders Raging Bulls, in part because his early death was so narratively neat. He was older than Coppola and Bogdanovich, working his way up the long way via editing - he became one of the top editors in the country, working for William Wyler and most importantly Norman Jewison, who mentored him and championed him.

Ashby turned director with The Landlord and had a hot streak few directors have equalled - Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo, Bound for Glory, Coming Home, Being There. Then he suffered a cold streak few directors endured - Second Hand Hearts (made before Being There but released after), Lookin' to Get Out, The Slugger's Wife, 8 Million Ways to Die.)

This happened for a variety of reasons - drug use certainly didn't help him, though was perhaps over exaggerated; more critically, he was supported in the 70s but had bad relationships with his studios and producers in the 80s, including people like Ray Stark. He missed out on some films which could have turned it around like Tootsie - he was going to do it but Lorimar wouldn't let him.

I think Ashby would have come back big time in the 90s, though - the way Robert Altman did, for a similar reason: stars loved working with him. This would have meant he would have kept working - indeed he was still in demand up til his early death.

So I don't buy that Hollywood killed Ashby. If you smoke a lot of dope it does carry an increased risk of cancer. He had bad luck with his collaborators but was still mates with Sean Penn, Dustin Hoffman and the like, who would have kept him employed - he wasn't say, a female director.

He seems to have had many fine qualities - inspirational, caring, humanistic - but also a prick - he walked out on his wife and kid as a teenager, which I do get, but also refused to acknowledge the kid later in life, which is awful. He was a compulsive romantic - always getting married and divorced.

It's a fantastic biography - very well researched, with excellent access to Ashby's papers. It's very well done in particular on Ashby's early years.

Random thoughts on Neil Simon

He died this week - a ripe old age. I don't know what his last years were like but I hope they were okay ish. He seemed to find happiness with his last marriage.

Simon was once a very big deal in my life - I would read and re-read his plays and try to ape his style. He had the basics so down - simple stories, strong emotion, solid structure, laughs and heart. He was a great gag man but knew his work needed more than that.

Simon was once a massive deal in the theatre world - from the 60s to the 90s, really, Neil Simon plays were events. He would stumble to be be sure but always bounce back.

Some random thoughts on his theatre works:

* Come Blow Your Horn (1961) - solid first play, decent laughs, based on the Simon family notably Neil and his brother but also his parents. Not a classic, but good.
* Little Me (1963) - musical which Simon would criticise but which seems to be revived a lot. I've read it - it's okay. Maybe needs tunes.
* Barefoot in the Park (1963) - funny, warm play which hasn't dated particularly well, in part because it was so imitated - it is about a manic pixie dream girl. But written with a lot of love and skill. The film adaptation is very well acted and awfully directed.
* The Odd Couple (1965) - a deserved classic, brilliantly funny, subtle structure, a great idea masterfully executed. Like Barefoot the film is divinely acted and not very well directed.
* Sweet Charity (1966) - Bob Fosse was the real star of this, but Simon's adaptation is solid.
* The Star Spangled Girl (1967) - not a bad idea, two liberals fight over a conservative manic pixie dream girl, but Simon doesn't get the girl - its his first play not really based on a world he knows, or a girl he knows, and you can tell.
* Plaza Suite (1968) - another Simon classic, the first and last eps especially. The middle bit is fine but the first and last are brilliant. A segmentthat was cut resulted in a film The Out of Towners that is stressful to watch.
* Promises Promises (1968) - first rate musicalisation of The Apartment and I can't believe it wasn't filmed.
* Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1969) - this was okay. A bit repetitive.
* The Gingerbread Man (1970) - interesting tough ish play. I saw it live - it has lost a lot of its freshness.
* The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1971) - angry white middle class rage, quite well done.
* The Sunshine Boys (1972) - lots of fun and one of Simon's best star vehicle
* The Good Doctor (1973) - Simon does Chekov. Not bad. Some people love this but I found it a bit cold.
* God's Favorite (1974) - I didn't like this one. Repetitive and not terribly interesting.
* California Suite (1976) - a marvellous return to form. The slapstick play isn't that great but the othe three are superb.
* Chapter Two (1977) - Simon's most autobiographical effort since Barefoot I guess, a very moving and funny account of widowhood.
 * They're Playing Our Song (1978) - skilful funny book which is probably Simon's most original musical. I wish it had been filmed.
* I Ought to Be in Pictures (1980) - not bad, but feels like ingredients he's used before.
* Fools (1981) - terrible play about Russians. Simon's worst.
* Brighton Beach Memoirs (1982) - Simon returns to autobiography and it works a treat, a very fine play which was badly filmed.
* Biloxi Blues (1984) - another fine memoir play that was turned into an even better film.
* Broadway Bound (1986)- a decent play, the least good of the trilogy in part because he'd already mined this material for Come Blow Your Horn but some good moments.
* Rumors (1988) - Simon attempt at a farce. Not bad.
* Lost in Yonkers (1990) - a return to material of his other plays (dodgy family, etc) but very well done.
* Jake's Women (1992) - Simon with some familiar themes (widowhood etc) but well done
* The Goodbye Girl (1993) - I remember being less impressed by the film when I rewatched it. Have never seen the musical.
* Laughter on the 23rd Floor (1993) - disappointing play which I wanted to be better because of its source material but lacks story and real insight into Simon's collaborators.
* London Suite (1996) - a dud, no really strong plays not even the sequel to the California Suite classic.
* Proposals (1997) - haven't read this and have no desire to it doesn't sound very good.
* The Dinner Party (1999) - another play I haven't read. I think I should though!
* 45 Seconds from Broadway (2001) - not a very good play, I have read this one, it is very creaky.
* Rose's Dilemma (2003) - I saw this on Broadway. It wasn't very good - dealt with widowhood etc. Had some funny lines but I think from the 1990s Simon ran out of gas.

Honourable mentions for his original film scripts:
* The Heartbreak Kid (1972) - genius writing
* Murder by Death (1976) - lots of fun
* The Goodbye Girl (1977) - feels like a play. Not bad. I remember finding it brilliant the first time and annoying the second.
* The Cheap Detective (1978) - haven't seen it
* Seems Like Old Times (1980) - quite fun
* Max Dugan Returns (1983) - not very good not enough story for a film
* The Lonely Guy (1984) - very sweet I remember this fondly
* The Slugger's Wife (1985) - never seen it and it sounds awful
* The Marrying Man (1991) - I should try to see this from all accounts its a train wreck but a fascinating one
* The Odd Couple 2 (1998) - no desire to see this.

So his great days were really the 60s and late 70s and 80s... for me and any rate.

Wonderful entertainer. Brilliant writer.

Book review - "Director's Cut: My Life in Film" by Ted Kotcheff

Ted Kotcheff has had a really, really strong career - lots of first-class television in Canada and the UK, plenty of stage productions in London (something of which I was unaware before reading this book), broke into directing features in Britain relatively young, moving over to a Hollywood career, turning out a fair few classics in all genres - Canadian coming of age (The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravtiz), Australian movies (Wake in Fright), gritty football dramas (North Dallas Forty), comedies (Fun with Dick and Jane, Weekend at Bernies), action (First Blood) - and nicely winding up his career with a long stint on Law and Order SUV as well as publishing some poems.

You wonder then why he's such a whinger. He whinges about how poor his family was when growing up, how his parents smacked him around, how the Canadian government were useless, how the Canadian funding authorities didn't give him more money, how the US government wouldn't let him into the country. Ted has a healthy sense of entitlement which presumably helped power him through a long career.

To be fair the book isn't all whining I was just surprised that there was so much in it... especially considering the opportunities Kotcheff got in Canada and the UK and Hollywood (good luck if you were a person of colour or a woman, Ted.. or maybe a bit older or younger at the time). Still, an interesting read.

Book review - "The World and Its Double: The Life and Work of Otto Preminger" by Chris Fujiawara

To say Preminger has a variable reputation is putting it mildly - before I'd seen any of his movies I was familiar with several stories: a harsh bully on set, a brave fighter of censorship, capable of making classics and an inability to direct comedy.

All the stories turned out to be true. There were many fine things about Preminger: the man had guts; he was a fighter; he had some admirable progressive politics (I stress the word "some" - Robert Mitchum called him a "Jewish Nazi"); he took on the censor board; he made some great movies; he had a surprisingly large amount of success on Broadway; he was a decent actor.

Other things were less admirable - he was a horrid bully - not for the benefit of the work, he clearly did it for his own sadistic enjoyment, especially to tyro actors (Jean Seberg, Tom Tyron, John Philip Law); he couldn't direct comedy; his last batch of movies were stinkers; he was possibly a better producer than director.

He's a flawed, fascinating figure and he gets a very good book from Chris Fujiwara. It focuses on Preminger's art as director - there's lots of discussion how scenes are framed and camera movement and so on which to be honest I wasn't that interested in; I was more into the biographical stuff.

I didn't realise how many financially unsuccessful films Preminger made at Fox - Zanuck seemed to like him though (he'd fired him earlier but rehired him and enjoyed success with Laura); he was the ing of the noirs for a while but his great days were from the early 50s to early 60s where he seemed to hit the zeitgeist: The Moon is Blue was just sexy enough, The Man with the Golden Arm was just gritty enough, Advise and Consent just political enough, Anatomy of a Murder was just legal enough etc etc. He tried to keep up with changing times but ultimately didn't get the new liberation - also he was old.

Interesting bloke, interesting book.

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

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

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

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

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

A strong, entertaining film with gorgeous colour.

Movie review - "Women He's Undressed" (2013) ****

Gloriously enjoyable doco about costume designer Orry Kelly, one of the most successful Australians in Hollywood. He grew up in Kiama, moved to Sydney to work in a bank but became interested in theatre, and eventually went to New York to try and make it as an actor. He never did but he did develop contacts in the theatre world, including sharing an apartment with a young Cary Grant; he began painting murals which led to a job as a costume designer on stage, then Hollywood.

It was an amazing career - his credits include Jezebel, Casablanca, An American in Paris, Les Girls and Some Like It Hot. Three of these films won him Oscars - interestingly all three came after major slumps in Kelly's career. He liked to drink and could be difficult to work with - Jack Warner gave him the boot in the mid 40s and in the early 1950s he couldn't get a gog to save his life. But he had enough people willing to give him a job.

Some great talking heads including Jane Fonda and Angela Lansbury plus lots of costume designers who give us a technical insight into Kelly's particular gifts. There's also plenty on Kelly's sexuality and friendship with Cary Grant.

I think the device of using Darren Gishenan worked well. I wasn't as wild about the decision to not have any photos of Kelly until the very end - I can get why they did it, but it just seems odd in a film that attempted to increase his renown.

Book review - "Can I Go Now? The Life of Sue Mengers, Hollywood's First Superagent," by Brian Kellow (2015)

A really excellent book about Mengers, one of Hollywood's most legendary agents: opinionated, loud, cunning, hilarious. She was at her peak in the early 70s when the cream of New Hollywood seemed to be represented by her: Hackman, Streisand, Bogdanovich, O'Neal, Ali McGraw. Things got harder as the decade went on and really went south after Streisand appeared in All Night Long directed by her husband. She retired, attempted a comeback, could never quite make it, then retired again. Her husband pre-deceased her, to the surprise of everyone especially him, but his investment advice meant she had plenty of money, and her entertainment value meant she was in demand as a hostess until her death.

There was a lot of sex, success and laughter in Mengers lift (photos show her to be quite pretty when young); there was also a lot of tragedy, including a father who killed himself when Sue was 11, a pushy mother who never got over the resentment of having to leave Germany, troubles with clients who Sue never felt were grateful enough (she was clearly a frustrated actress)/

It's very well put together by Kellow who has done a swag of interviews (famous names such as Billy Friedkin) and writes about his subject with skill and affection.

Book review - "Hollywood Animal" by Joe Eszterhas (2004)

Eszterhas hasn't really mattered as a screenwriter in the 21st century, but his memoirs are among the most entertaining of any Hollywood writer - I'd rank it up there with the works of William Goldman (whom Eszterhas admits to being jealous of and to be honest so he should be).

Eszterhas is appalling on many levels - his rampant ego, constant bragging about script sales and marching in civil rights demonstrations, the endless, endless talk about his sex life, the appalling way he treated his first wife, he and his not particularly nice sounding second wife (they quote her diary from the time she met and fell in love with Eszterhas despite him being married).

But it's got to be said he goes hard on himself, is self deprecating enough times about his ego, writes about his first wife with great sympathy (she comes out of this book very well) and it's extremely well written - it's a real page turner that completely gripped me.

He does have a fantastic story to tell- a refugee from Hungary; teen life in Cleveland; a journalist father who he idolised who turned out to be an anti-Semite propagandist during the war; a mother who went mad; working on Rolling Stone in the glory days; getting into Hollywood via writing FIST and learning how to navigate the Hollywood jungle; becoming a highly regarded writer with few actual credits, then breaking through with Flashdance and Jagged Edge and becoming a superstar with Basic Instinct; a highly publicised battle with Michael Ovitz; leaving his wife for his best friend's wife who had just been dumped by said best friend for Sharon Stone; writing screenplays for large fees that were either not filmed, ruined, or turned into crap (Showgirls); discovering he had throat cancer and becoming a militant anti smoker.

Eszterhas' talents as a screenwriter were limited - he was really only good at one type of film, the sexy thriller, and he would frequently reuse the same plot (person falls in love with someone who they think is a crazy killer, comes to believe they're innocent, then realises they're guilty). You look at his credits and there's nothing like say All the Presidents Men on it. But he wrote some great scripts, and he is a first rate memoirist and this is a lot of fun.

Movie review - "Klute" (1971) ****

Jane Fonda became something of a joke in later years with her mad statements, crazy eyes and appearing in a series of crap movies (was it the lack of offers or just laziness? You could ask the same of Robert de Niro). So it's good to watch her in this thriller to be reminded of what an incredibly performer she could be/is. Frightening, outwardly cocky, sexy, confused, erratic, desiring warmth but also fearing it - it's fantastic work in what is, in its own way, a brilliant star vehicle.

Donald Sutherland is really odd casting as a romantic hero - I know it was the 70s and all but it feels strange even now, with his jug ears and gawky haircut. He isn't given that much of a character to play either - we never really get a sense of what makes Klute tick, but it doesn't matter so much because Fonda carries it.

The other star is Gordon Willis. If ever there was a case to be made for cinematographers as auteurs he could make it; this is such a stunningly shot film with its creepy scary nights and moments of warmth and paranoia and so on.

Oh and it's also one of few Hollywood movies up until then to treat therapy seriously and not in a comic/exaggerated way.

Movie review - "Barbarella" (1968) ***

The sort of film you wish was better because the whole idea of it is so great - and it may seem better on re-viewings because you know what you're getting into and won't be disappointed. It's Roger Vadim's first English language film, though made in Italy, and was a big budget adaptation of a kind-of popular comic strip (there was a brief vogue of these in the late 60s which also saw Modesty Blaise and Danger Diabolik).

I get the feeling Vadim was found out a bit here - he'd come to fame via exploiting successive lovers on screen (doing it well) and pushing the boundaries of screen eroticism. He had a big budget here, and a supportive studio, and while the set design and costumes are consistently interesting, some of the script funny (Charles B. Griffith was an uncredited writer) and Jane Fonda fabulous in the title role, Vadim fails to get much drama or excitement out of it. I think he was distracted by the design; and after watching a bunch of his movies, I've come to the conclusion he didn't really have much of a grip on story or drama... he was really a photographer and designer rather than a director. None of the action scenes are that thrilling - there's no sense of urgency. It all feels distant.

Still, Jane is heaps of fun in a series of sexy outfits, from her disrobing in the title, to wearing boots and stumbling about, having sex with various men, doing a series of great double takes, and even defeating a sex machine by her ability to have pleasure.

The support cast is excellent - Marcelle Marceau talks as a professor, Milo O'Shea is a mad scientist, David Hemmings alright as a revolutionary, John Phillip Law is objectified as an angel, and Anita Pallenberg perfect as a tyrannical queen. Many visually interesting moments such as the killer dolls.

Movie review - "La Ronde" (1964) aka "Circle of Love" **

Roger Vadim had a bit hit with Les Liaisons Dangereuses which presumably inspired him to film another "sexy classic", Schnitzler's famous play, a daisy chain of love affairs - a work much performed by drama courses because it gives so many people a decent sized role.

It's a pretty faithful adaptation - Jean Anouilh did the screenplay - which actually might have been better had it been sexed up a bit. It's not particularly erotic - certainly not to compare to Vadim's other movies like And God Created Woman or Blood and Roses. It's as if Vadim was especially on his best behaviour to avoid censorship issues and the fun is muted.

The cast doesn't help - the actors certainly aren't as good as the 1950 version. Best value is Jane Fonda, speaking in French, as the wife who sleeps with a younger man and then her husband; she's younger than I always pictured this character, and no doubt I'm influenced by the fact she's the most familiar cast member to me, but she had beauty, sexiness and gives a good performance. The men are damp squibs for the most part (Jean Sorel is okay as the young officer) but the women include Anna Karina and Catherine Spaak.

Apart from Fonda's bits no vignettes really stood out for me, and that was mostly due to her - the characters weren't that interesting. While they each have a decent amount of screen time, enough to make an impression, they're not compelling. And there isn't sexual tension to compensate, or even nudity - just the odd flash of a bare back. It's disappointing. There is however impressive colour photography and art design.