Movie review - "Small Hotel" (1957) **

 A cultural time capsule in its way - an adaptation of a play that was quite popular in the mid 50s with Gordon Harker an old character actor.  I guess he's fine but someone more lively and scurrilous like Sid James would've been more fun as the film's about an experienced waiter who knows how to grift and survive. The plot has him about to be fired, which is a universal fear, and give stakes.

Harker has a nice relationship with Janet Munro as a waitress who he tells how to chisel and gets in trouble. There are entrances and exits and characters come on to do "bits". It feels as though it lacks extras (as in, people) - it wouldn't matter on stage but does on screen. 

Wet Hollywood leading man John Loder is the efficient expert. Amiable enough.

Movie review - "Bitter Harvest" (1963) ** (re-viewing)

 I went easier on this the second time. But still... Janet Munro is a woman who dares to hope for something more. She's raped while unconscious, gets pregnant, moves out, hooks up with John Strider, who is kind of shown to be the perfect man, who loves her. But he's also controlling, doesn't want her to go out, throttles her when she makes fun of him, is dull... at the end he goes off happily with his new girl while she's killed herself with tablets.

Her great crime is not wanting to be a mediocre idiot settling for nothing. The film punishes her. But it also states her case. It's hard to forget the image of John Strider being happy while her ambulance rushes past.

Alan Badel is terrifically engimatic as a producer who lures her. 

Fascinating film in many ways in that it's sympathetic to its heroine but also hates her. It seems to endorse its dull male lead but enough sneaks through that he's a horrible person.

A flop. Peter Cotes was sacked during filming.

Movie review - "Hide and Seek" (1964) ** (warning spoilers)

 Cold War thriller with Ian Carmichael in a Kenneth More style role - more accurately, Cary Grant, who Carmichael wanted to emulate. In his memoirs Carmichael says the original scrit was great but was rewritten. Maybe. I think he's miscast. I can see why he got the role - not bad looking, comic, etc... Kenneth More would've been more at home or Dirk Bogarde.

Janet Munro is lovely as the girl, a little mysterious, though she's too young for him. Actually it's not so much that (14 years difference) as the fact he's not hot enough for her. Incidentally erhe's a scene where she changes out of her wet clothes and flashes her bare back - racy!

But the basic problem of the film is it's not clear what Carmichael is doing... he's a scientist doing chess stuff, looking for a colleague, I think. But the whole thing is a trap from Curt Jurgens so it's a trick, which isn't that satisfactory.

Curt Jurgens adds some star power at the end and I liked Hugh Griffiths as a fisherman and scenes out in the countryside, which had the 39 Steps vibe this could have led into more.

Movie review - "Life for Ruth" (1962) *** (warning: spoilers)

Most TV medical dramas at one stage or another do the story about the family who won't let their child do a blood transfusion due to religious reasons. This gives it the feature film treatment, which makes you think "is there enough story there for a feature?" and you'd be right... for the most part. Because this was actually quite well done, and I liked it more than I would.

The opening 30 minutes has the accident, the transfusion refused, and the kid's dead and the parents worry. And you think "where's it going to go from here?" What happens is the doctor (Patrick McGoohan) is so annoyed that he arranges for a private prosecution of the dad (Michael Craig) for manslaughter and it goes to trial.

This was made by the team of Basil Dearden and Michael Relph, known for their socially conscious films like Victim. Victim was better drama because it was a mystery, you didn't know everything - and also there were stronger emotional stakes. I mean, there are big stakes here, the kid is dead, but after 30 minutes the kid is dead, there's nothing for the second two acts.

I think McGoohan needed to be in love with Janet Munro, who plays Craig's wife. He could've gone out with Munro, who left him for Craig and converted, so there is an emotional element. I also felt there needed to be a second kid, one who was alive (could be unborn if need be) so they are fighting over who raises the second child - to keep the stakes alive. I guess you have the stakes of Munro/Craig marriage but... they're just going to be sad all the time, you don't really care.

Excellent performances from Craig and McGoohan; Munro is good too though she doesn't have that much to play other than "sad" and "overruled by her husband". The film would've been better had she been given something more to do. Great work from the guy who plays Craig's defence barrister -a live wire. Good too is the bloke who plays the prosecuting lawyer.

I went in with low expectations of this and they were exceeded. But you can see why it wasn't popular and helped end Allied Film Makers.

Movie review - "Bitter Harvest" (1963) *1/2

Janet Munro has a bit of a cult because she died so young and played "the girl" memorably in a bunch of cult movies - notably The Day the Earth Caught Fire, Swiss Family Robinson and Darby O'Gill and the Little People.

This film gave her a rare lead role - as in, the film actually centers around her character, she isn't an ornament or a reward. It's a shame it isn't better.

I mean, the role gives her a lot of chances to Act. A lot. In the opening scene she comes home trashed, wrecks her apartment, scribbles lipstick all over the mirror, staggers around. Then it flashes back to her being bored in Wales - she goes out one night and gets drunk with some sleazy dudes, wakes up naked in bed in London after having has sex without remembering (being raped basically).

She staggers around miserable then meets the Perfect Man - John Stride, a kind, understanding bartender who thinks she's wonderful... mind you even though she's tired and under the weather he still has sex with her. She is willing in this case but the power dynamic isn't exactly equal (he's looked after her, paid her rent, organised the room, etc).

And then later on when she wants to go out and get a job he's jealous and later on he's possessive. She goes out anyway - he still loves her.  She goes to a party - she starts flirting with married Alan Badel. Strine begs for her to come back, she tells him "he's nothing"... which is kind of inconsistent with how her character and their relaitonship has been depicted.

She goes nuts and overdoses. John Stride goes and hooks up with the nice girl who pines after him.

This is horrible sexist claptrap. I think the filmmakers thought they were cutting edge with social realism - a bit of rape and sex.

But at heart it's about a woman with ambition who is punished. The filmmakers give us such empathy for Munro to start off with - she comes from a boring town, she's got nothing to look forward to, men ply her with alcohol and she is raped... but then they depict her as dumb and silly (she just wants to be famous).

It is not a fun movie. At first I felt for Munro then as the film went on it just got unpleasant and I started to hate the movie. The filmmakers do not like her character -they patronise and pity her. It's like it was made by old men going "tsk tsk". They don't give her any agency. It sucks.

Munro does what she can.

This was made by Independent Artists, a production company who made some interesting films in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This isn't one of them.

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 - "Third Man on the Mountain" (1959) ***

Delightful kids adventure film which benefits considerably from location work in Switzerland, some excellent mountaineering footage, and never playing down to its audience.s

James MacArthur is the determined young dishwasher who desires to climb the "Citadel" (Matterhorn) in part out of memory of his father who died doing it. Michael Rennie is a British mountaineer who encourages his dreams; James Donald is his uncle who wants him to stay at home. Best of all is Janet Munro who is bewitching in admittedly a thankless role, the innkeeper's daughter who supports and loves MacArthur. At least she gets to do a little bit of mountaineering in act two.

It's dealt with in no nonsense fashion and some of it is quite exciting, even with the painted mattes. I wasn't that wild about the ending with MacArthur being stuck helping stroppy whiny Herbert Lom while Rennie and Donald got to climb to the top. I also felt act three could have done with some mountaineers dying, as happened in the real life successful ascent of the Matterhorn.

Still, an example of Disney's good taste an inherent skill at boys own adventure. They should remake this and make it about a female mountaineer.

Movie review - "The Horsemasters" (1961) **1/2

Fine family film (well, telemovie in the US, released theatrically elsewhere) by Disney shot in England about the adventures of a riding school. There's two Americans there - Tommy Kirk and Annette Funicello, neither of whom look entirely comfortable on a horse, but who do bring early 60s Disney teen star power.

Janet Munro normally places nice girls, at least in the films I've seen, so it's a bit of a jolt to see her as the harsh teacher of the group. She's actually more of the star of the film than Funicello and Kirk - she and John Fraser, who plays an Australian, and does quite a decent job. The guts of the story involves their bickering romance - it's very chaste.

The movie actually would have been better had Funicello and Kirk been given something to do - they're just in it.

There's plenty of horse riding and dressage if you're in to that, which I'm not. The climax involves the students joining in on a fox hunt - that's not very politically correct! They're all off to kill foxes!

Movie review - "Tommy the Toreador" (1958) ***

For Tommy Steele's third movie, Nat Cohen and Stuart Levy stumped up for colour and some location filming in Spain. It's much better than The Duke Who Wore Jeans - a lot simpler and more grounded.

Tommy plays a merchant seaman (Steele's background in real life) who accidentally gets stranded in Spain and becomes mixed up with a matador. The colour is pleasing as is the Spanish location work; Steele is in excellent form, bright and silly and energetic, and is helped by his fellow players. Janet Munro is charming as the love interest, a British show girl he meets; Sid James and Bernard Cribbins play Spaniards who try to cash in on Tommy's "fame"; Kenneth Williams is a vice consul;  Virgilio Teixeira is a real matador.

John Paddy Carstairs directed - he knows his stuff.  Maybe three stars is overly generous but this was very endearing.

Movie review - "The Trollenberg Terror" (1958) **1/2

Not a Hammer movie although surely the producers were inspired by The Abominable Snowman - which I didn't think had been that big a hit, but anyway we've got Hammer writer Jimmy Sangster doing the script, a TV show origin (many of Hammers early films were based on TV shows) and Snowman's star Forrest Tucker again hanging around the Alps looking into mysterious goings ons.

I saw this right after Fiend Without a Face and the movies seemed to have a fair bit in common, including it's American star, undeveloped love interest, mad scientist support actor (here played by Warren Mitchell), indistinguishable minor parts, baddie creatures that practice mind control, a climax where the creatures (here aliens from outerspace) attack the goodies in an enclosed location (in this case a cable car) and fight them off.

It doesn't make sense and there are logic holes you could drive a truck through but it's a lot of fun, there's plenty of action (the opening scene has someone fall off a mountain), Janet Munro is effective as a psychic, there is lots of violence (decapitations, hackings) which they get around censor wise by describing them.

Movie review – “The Day the Earth Caught Fire” (1962) ****

Taunt, well made sci fi flick that really spanks alog – Val Guest could be an excellent director and this is one of his best films. It’s got this great newspaper atmosphere with it's sweaty faces, boozy journos, cramped offices – I wouldn’t be surprised to find the editor was a real editor (I googled him - he was). Edward Judd is an engaging hero (very modern - alcoholic single dad), even if he's mostly reactive - the one thing he does is get a scoop on what's going on. Oh, and he has a sexy relationship with hot Janet Munro - often wearing only a towel and nude under a sheet, which was racy for the time (and her a Disney starlet, too). The descent of the world to possible annihilation is well conveyed - the heat, looting (perhaps the partying by the young folk is a little OTT). Surely Alex Garland had this in mind when writing Sunshine? The dialogue is terrific - slangy, fast paced, like the best Hollywood newspaper films. Leo McKern is good value as a journo.

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

If you're in the mood for some whimsy about leprechauns, this will tick your boxes: plenty of Irish scenery, accents, some old tales of fairies, a banchee, decent special effects, some frights and a satisfying ending. Most of the plot consists of a battle of wits between old Darby and the king of the leprechauns; there's also a bit of romance via Janet Munro (initially a bit awkward, just a winsome smile instead of a performance but she loosens up as the film goes on) and Sean Connery (in an early role - very handsome and charismatic in a Ronald Lewis way - he even sings!). Occasionally the handling feels a bit TV - opening certainly has too much clunky exposition - and its a shame the 'villain' couldn't have been used a bit more, say something to do with leprechauns. But its full of life and charm and is a satisfying meal.

Movie review - "Swiss Family Robinson" (1960) ****

A high point of Disney's live action filmmaking, and they were rewarded with a magnificent success. The studio took the classic novel and reworked it along the lines of "let's put everything in the film that would be really cool to do if you were on an island".

 

So there's a mini-zoo of animals conveniently on the boat, a race on zebras, elephants and ostriches, a pair of hyperactive dogs, a tiger to capture, plenty of food, a treehouse with mod cons, waterfalls with slippery dips, vines to swing on, a beautiful shipwrecked girl to rescue, some pirates to fight off with lots of booby traps. There is location footage and excellent animal work.

 

It's enchanting... for the most part. The main draw back could have been easily fixed - the characters of the Robinsons are a little annoying - mother just wants to make curtains and doesn't like the island, Fritz (James MacArthur) shows dictatorial tendencies, little Francis (Kevin Corcoran) is a bit of a whiner who puts his family in danger several times and rather nastily turns from his studious middle brother Ernst, the girl (Janet Munro) when pretends to be a boy is a whimp who falls over running away from the pirates and pulls a gun on boys to avoid having to show her skin. It's a shame these rough qualities couldn't have been "sandpapered" over a little.

 

I found the most likeable the Tommy Kirk character - a smart guy who genuinely likes Munro but is dumped in favour of his hunky brother. (NB just realised when they leave her and MacArthur on the island together... they're not married. A bit saucy for Disney.) Corcoran is more irritating here than normal - but what an audience surrogate for little boys

 

NB See the cover of the 2002 video release features everyone of the family except for Kirk. Bit narky!