Movie review - "Year of the Gun" (1992) ** (warning: spoilers)

 Andrew McCarthy is an amiable leading man who could've had a longer stint as a semi-star. He's not a real star - Sharon Stone is. It's bizarre this film was made - an account of an American in 1970s Italy dealing with the Red Brigade. John Frankenheimer wanted it shot in black and white which would have made it more interesting. He also wanted a different leading man

Valerie Golino is very good and often nude as McCarthy's girlfriend.  They should have cast an Italian rather than John Pankow as an Italian lecturer.

It never answers the question why do we care. McCarthy sleeps with Golino, writes a novel, the Red Brigade think he's got inside information, kidnap him, but let him go. He's very passive. At least Stone has a proper job, taking photos etc

Sex scenes between McCarthy and Golino quite hot though him and Stone feels awkward. 

Maybe this would've worked if from Stone's point of view. 

Movie review - "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) **** (warning: spoilers)

 Wacky, imaginative, scary, funny. Frank Sinatra looks conspitated, Janet Leigh slightly camp, Laurence Harvey effective, Angela Lansbury sublime. Kicks up when Harvey kills his very nice bride and her father.

Sinatra's character is a bit of a dill, letting Harvey go, failing to stop assassinations. Sinatra's torment strong at the tend. Woman very sexually aggressive here - Leigh and Harvey's girl and Lansbury. Lansbury so good. 

Movie review - "52 Pick Up" (1986) ***

 One of the better films from Cannon Picture it's pretty grim. Roy Scheider is a businessman blackmailed by three genuinely interesting villains over an affair he's having with Kelly Preston. Scheider refuses to go to the police and as a result Preston dies, wife Ann Margret is raped, and both almost die. He doesn't get much come uppance to be frank.

Nice to see Ann Margret in a decent film but her part isn't much. Scheider is fine, John Glover and Clarence Williams are superb, Robert Trebor good too. I love how Glover is into the financial books.

Movie reviwe - "The Gypsy Moths" (1969) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 John Frankenheimer really loved making this movie, good for him, but it doesn't quite work. Burt Lancaster is in a role that neesd a Steve McQueen - once they cast Lancaster they should've rewritten it to make it more lively. Scott Wilson is a good actor but that part needed a star.

It's a movie of interest. Gene Hackman is excellent. Nice midwest atmosphere. It's pervy - the three skydivers go to a strip club and watch a long topless dancing scene. Deborah Kerr goes topless in her love scene with Lancaster (while wearing a perm and pearls) and shows her backside. She was 47! Go Deb! Sheree North works at the club. Bonnie Bedelia is very young and pretty but it's not much of a role.

The film falls down in two areas. It didn't convey why Lancasster woud kill himself, there's no build. Also the relationship between Wilson and Lancaster didn't work. It was... I'm not sure.  

Movie review - "The Extraordinary Seaman" (1969) *

 MGM took some big swings in the late 1960s - sometimes it hit, other occasions missed, this being a case in point, a film that brought John Frankenheimer's hot streak to an end - he never really got it back.

Four lost American seamen (including a young Alan Alda) come across a disgraced British naval officer (David Niven) trying to redeem the family honour.

It's set in the Philippines but was shot in Mexico. Faye Dunaway is a local woman who owned a garage and fires a gun which I think is supposed to be Frankenheimer being progressive.

These sort of anti war comedies are hard to do. Frankenheimer can't do it. The film was shot in 1967 and not released for two years.

May as well have been a TV play. It's only 80 minutes and feels padded. Intercutting with documentary footage is annoying. The whole movie is annoying. The music score. David Niven always drinking. The antics. 

This movie sucked. 

Movie review - "The Fixer" (1968) **

 This was given a lot of money because John Frankenheimer was "hot" and the novel was a big deal in its day. Its day has passed.

This starts off lively with a good old progrom in 1910s Russia  then becomes bogged down as handyman Alan Bates goes to work for Hugh Griffith whose daughter Elizabeth Hartman is horny for him - this is a basic stock situation but takes around 40 minutes to get us there. 

At heart this is a television play - a man is falsely accused of a crime he didn't commit, because he's Jewish. There's some fancy production values at the beginning but the guts of this takes place in prisoin cells and interrogation room.

Fine acting from Bates, Dirk Bogarde (tortured official),  Ian Holm (prick), David Warner (aristocrat), Carol White (ex wife). It has views of sixties in that women are bitches - Hartman fakes a rape claim, White is a harlot. The characters say the word "Jew" in dialogue a lot.

It's not dumb, it tries to be decent, it has some moments but it's a slog. Kind of like Birdman of Alcatraz. 

I think it needed a plot witith someone on the outside. 

Movie review - "The Young Stranger" (1957) ***

 A nepo baby movie in a way - based on a TV play Deal a Blow by Robert Dozier, son of William Dozier, and starring James MacArthur, son of Ben Hecht and Helen Hayes. When William Dozier became head of RKO he greenlit a film version and got the director of the TV version, John Frankenheimer, to do the job again. Frankenheimer later the experience - he was younger than the crew, who grumbled and fought with him,

It's still basically a TV play. A solid one. MacArthur is a middle class kid, his dad thinks he's done a decent job providing which he has but he hasn't spent any tme.

David Shipman the critic loved this. I'm not sure why - maybe it was personal. MacArthur has a close friendship with a fellow male teen. 

I liked that the mum and dad had a relationship that was wobbly but feel this could've done with more scenes outside, in high school, with a girlfriend. 

Interesting autobiographical touch in that the kid's dad is a film producer - I was reminded of the Rob Reiner film about his sin. 

Movie review - "The Train" (1964) ***1/2

 Burt Lancaster called in John Frankenheimer to replace Charles Crichton on Birdman of Alcatraz and did something similar after he booted Arthur Penn from this movie. It's has a fabulous concept - the Germans are trying to take French art works from Paris as the Allies approach and the French resistance is trying to stop them. Burt Lancaster is the leader of the French.

It's smart. Looks great in black and white. Long. As French as it can be. Lancaster strong star, Paul Scofield ideal. I would've liked more of a character relationship with Lancaster and someone. I know that was tricky. 

Movie review - "Grand Prix" (1966) *** 1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 MGM's big roadshow made some money but I don't think recouped its cost. Director John Frankenheimer had a great time as he should with Bob O'Brien (very talent friendly) as the studio head, a large budget and European locations.

The movie was meant to star Steve McQueen, who turned it down, as did Paul Newman and Robert Redford, despite the latter not being famous yet. They got James Garner who was trying to be a movie star then. He doesn't quite work - the head is too big or something.

Two other big movie stars are in it - Toshiro Mifune and Yves Montand, who are comfortably cast (not always the case in their English language pictures).  Mifune's role is not that large and he is atrociously dubbed - I wish he'd been a race car driver. Montand is one of the four main stars. The other two are Brian Bedford and some Italian guy, Antonio Sabato.

The racing sequences are superb - justly famous. The land stuff is bland. It didn't have to be - it's not that interesting, that's all. The romance between married Montand and Eva Marie Saint is just... whatever. Saint is a great actress but wasted in the part. Who cares? Why have him married? At least Saint gets a chance to emote with Montand dies. 

Garner's plot is alright - seeking redemption after an accident. Ditto Bedford's.   I just wish more attention had been paid for it.

I'd love to see this on the big screen. 

Movie review - "The Challenge" (1982) ***

 John Frankenheimer action flick which had to be rewritten at short notice by John Sayles to change it from a Chinese setting to a Japanese one. Scott Glenn was being trialled in a few leads around this time (eg The Keep) and he's quite good as a boxer. The Macuffin is a sword.

This is a decent movie - it tries to be good. There maybe could be more action. A fair bit of character stuff - Glenn complained more was cut out, but actually I'd rather more action. Not enough Glenn-Mifune.

The villainous henchman who's playing video games was effective. Pretty production values. 

Movie review - "Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962) ***

 Famous Burt Lancaster movie with a troubled history - original director Charles Crichton was fired during filming and replaced by John Frankenheimer.

Frankenheimer wanted to make it for TV. The story does suit it but the director is glad he didn't because of the issue with birds. 

A good movie - serious, intelligent, well made and all that. Lancaster brilliant. But a hard slog. Such a hard slog.

It doesn't deify Stroud at all, it's fairly clear he's a brute. It shows how dehumanising prision is and I think people felt guilty so lashed out at the film "glamourising" Stroud. 

TV review - "Playhouse 90 - For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1958) ***

 Hemingway's novel adapts quite well to the small screen because you can focus on relationships and use close ups - Jason Robards and Maria Schell (the earth moves! quite frank!), Maureen Stapleton and Eli Wallach, Stapleton and Roberts, Wallach and Robarts.

Very serious in that style. Intense.  

Movie review - "Ronin" (1997) ***1/2

 Not a huge hit but much admired - slick script, John Frankenheimer in fine form, a genuine "look", European action movie, with some stars in excellent form: Robert de Niro before these parts became caricatures, Nathsha McEllrone so beautiful and perfect for the world, Jean Reno, Sean Bean. Jonathan Pryce maybe not a scary villain.

I enjoy these cramped European action movies. 

TV review - "Playhouse 90 The Last Tycoon" (1957) ***1/2

 F Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished novel at one stage meant for Humphrey Bogart and Bacall but he died so they wound up with Jack Palance and Lee Remick. Palance's performance is fascinating - intense, empathetic, strong.

Support cast is amazing - Peter Lorre as a burnt out director, Keenan Wynn is an exec, achingly pretty Lee Remick is a nubile thing hot for Palance (shock).

Story ambles and kind of ends - I think he dies at the end. But then the novel was unfinished. Has that late 50s TV seriousness. 

TV review - "Days of Wine and Roses" (1958) ****

 Legendary television script from JP Miller, turned into a film by Blake Edwards, here directed by John Frankenheimer. This was a landmark in the careers of Frankenheimer, Piper Laurie and Cliff Robertson. Laurie and Frankenheimer had an affair before and during filming which she writes about in her memoir - a lot of high brow melodrama. Resulted in some great acting.

Laurie is terrific - Robertson matches her. Charles Bickford also strong as Laurie's dad. 

Movie review - "The Young Savages" (1961) **

 Feels like it should be a TV play - some hoods in New York kill another hood. They're teens so it's West Side Story without songs, as someone commented. The story isn't involving. The hoods kill someone in the opening scene, so we know who did it so there's no mystery. Lancaster is a prosecutor, so he's just putting people in prison.

It's kind of interesting he's downtown and his wife Dina Merill is uptown. But nothing much is done with that - he should have slept with ex Shelley Winters, mother of one of the accused. That would've been drama. Or the mother of the dead kid. I kept waiting for Lancaster's daughter to be threatened. Didn't happen. 

John Frankenheimer directs his backside off though. It's gloriously shot, well acted - Telly Savalas is in it, Shelley Winters. He didn't want Dina Merill but accepted her as a trade off to not have Paul Anka! Sydney Pollack was dialogue director and impressed Burt Lancaster so much the actor helped Pollack's career.

Frankenheimer wanted to make the best film he could. But it's just not interesting.

The gang members are irritating. Well acted but still stock types - cocky or secretly disabled. 

Movie review - "I Walk the Line" (1970) **

 One of that trilogy of Tuesday Weld films she made when she turned down Bonnie and Clyde etc.

This should be good. Greg Peck as a sheriff in the south tempted by hot little Tuesday Weld, whose family are moonshiners. That's easy to grasp - it needs to be about his temptation, corruption, fall.

But it doesn't quite work. There's no sex. Weld's got plenty but not Peck - he's too solid. It needs to be about the temptation and corruption of a man. Needs more sleaze and crime.

Ralph Meeker brings it, as her dad. Ditto Charles Durning. They know what movie they're in. But Estelle Parsons is too white trash as the wife - the only contrast is she's old and less attractive, when it really needed to be she was lady like. Peck is never believable as someone new to town. They should have rewritten the movie for him - played it as an out of town liberal snob who gets seduced, wrecks his life.

The film really needed to be made in the late 1950s when it would've been properly sleazy.  Also Peck needed to have his life destroyed more at the end - to die, or go to prison or something. The movie pulls its punches.

Weld is good but she'd been playing these roles for too long and was getting older. The film could've been more rejigged for their ages and personas. 

Movie review - "The Iceman Cometh" (1973) ***

 Feels like a throwback to live TV - a super faithful adaptation of the classic play with some old gnarly actors only in colour. The boozeheads include Frederick March and Robert Ryan. Lee Marvin is the born again drinker.

It's meaty stuff, a strong play, but it goes for so, so long. Almost three hours. 

Movie review - "The French Connection II" (1975) **

 The first film set it up for a sequel - capturing Fernando Rey - and this had the decent idea of turning Popeye (Gene Hackman) into a junkie. So he's blundering around France when he's kidnapped and injected. 

The film thus doesn't have the legenday New York touch of the first movie but it has scuzzy France and a director who'd lived in that country, John Frankenheimer. 

Look, I appreciate they tried to do something different with it being in France. By having Popeye be a fish out of water meant there was no fleshing out of his character not really - he's mostly befuddled. He has a French cop he clashes with (Bernard Fresson) though that feels like squabbling.

There's some action - chases (one on foot at the end - not as exciting as a car), gun fight, a flood. I just didn't much like it. Felt padded with chases, scenes of Hackman being given drugs and going into detox.

Fun to see Cathleen Nesbitt as a druggie old lady. Nice location filming.

Not sure what else they could've done. More interaction with French people definitely. More Hackman and Fresson. Maybe another American in there, to give Popeye someone to talk to. 

Movie review - "Black Sunday" (1977) ****

 The suits thought this was going to be bigger than Jaws and the public didn't come, at least not in the numbers they expected. Maybe audiences were awkward with an Israeli hero - driven Robert Shaw, given a scene of backstory where he explains his wife and sons are dead, after terrorist Marthe Keller, who also has a scene of backstory (raised in camps, etc).

It moves at a decent pace, there's plenty of story. Bruce Dern has a high old time as Keller's associate, Keller is very effective. They have a fascinating relationship - manipulative, doomed, twisted.

The bomb - steel projectiles - is genuinely terrifying.

Some great terrorism movie heads like Steven Keats (Shaw's offsider), Fritz Weaver (FBI man), Bekhim Femui (Keller's boss). Movie maybe lacks someone with a little warmth who is a goodie - a Roy Scheider in Jaws type. The warmest characters are Dern and Keller.

Maybe too much football stuff. But fun, rollicking movie.