Movie review - "El Condor" (1970) ***

 Larry Cohen was called in to rewrite this - he whinged about what was done to his script, as he often did, but although his script may have been better it's an enjoyable movie with Jim Brown and Lee Van Cleef as a left-field double act trying to get gold in Mexico with the help of Apaches.

Rousing music, impressive set, a surprising amount of nudity (there's a raid at night to kill soldiers in bed with prostitutes - most of them are naked), Marianna Hill is beautiful, Patrick O'Neal a worthy adversary, the Apache roles are underdone.

The rushed rewriting of the script is notable, and I got confused here and there.

But generally a decent late period Western.

Movie review - "Shaft in Africa" (1973) ***1/2

 Great fun. I haven't seen the other Shaft films so I can't judge compared to that - I gather this changed the tone, sending a New York boy to Africa.

But the fact that he's black gives it wonderful freshness. It's still not that common to see black American movie leads set in Africa. This was shot in Ethiopia so the visuals are fantastic. Richard Rountree is lively and the film has resonance because it's about the modern day slave trade and the baddies seem to be South Africa and when two whites torture a black man at the end with wires you know that sort of thing was going on in South Africa.

Striling Silliphant seems to have at least done some basic research on African culture - of course clitorechtomy gets an airing. It did think it took a little long to get going - Shaft gets kidnapped and undergoes these tests before going on a mission when they could've just asked him to go on the mission.

Vonetta McGee is great value as the female lead and even more fun is Neda Arneric as a nymphomaniac who gives Frank Finlay head in the back of a limo, gets turned on by watching husky blacks on the side of the road, and is turned to good after a session in bed with Shaft.

Three's scenes in France and New York on top of Africa which gives everything a globe trotting feel - almost like James Bond. A good time at the movies if approached in the right spirit.

Overview of Ken Hughes

Ken Hughes was one of those directors I used to dismiss on the basis of a traumatic childhood experience. One day in high school, a history teacher locked us inside the assembly hall and forced us to watch the 1970 epic Cromwell, a sluggardly dull trudge through the English Civil War. Hughes’ name was plastered all over it, as writer and director, and it scarred me from visiting his filmography for many years.

It was unfair, I know, but these things happen. Later on I heard he made one masterpiece, The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), which I did see - and was brilliant. So I had a second look at Cromwell, was bored again, and ran away once more.

What prompted a more serious dive into the Hughes oeuvre was my interest in Diana Dors. (https://www.filmink.com.au/a-tale-of-two-blondes-diana-dors-and-belinda-lee/) Hughes directed Ms Dors in The Long Haul (1957), a great little unpretentious B-movie about truckers co-starring Victor Mature. I was surprised to see the name of the auteur of Cromwell on it, and decided to revisit his filmography, only properly this time.  I was surprised to find a filmmaker whose output was consistently interesting and entertaining, and deserved more critical attention than it has received.

Hughes was born in Liverpool in 1922. He began working at the BBC as a technician when he was only sixteen, then during the war moved into making documentaries, short features, and training films for the Ministry of Defence. After the war he directed documentaries for the BBC.

The British film industry had a thriving “B” picture scene in the 1950s, helped by quota protections which incentified thrifty producers to make short features that played the lower half of double bills. A new organisation that specialised in this field was Anglo-Amalgamated, run by the team of Stuart Levy and Nat Cohen. Cohen is one of those moguls who should be better known - a shrewd gambler who would later control EMI Films and help finance debut features from directors as varied as John Schlesinger, Ken Loach, John Boorman and Alan Parker... and Ken Hughes. Anglo-Amalgamated wanted to make a crime drama called Wide Boy (1952), based on a radio and TV play by Australian Rex Rienits about a low-class chiseller who gets in over his head when he attempts blackmail. Hughes was given the job of directing and did it excellently - it’s stripped back, atmospheric entertainment, without an ounce of fat on it. Check out this opening sequence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k8ESUCgmjE

Anglo-Amalgamated put Hughes to work writing and directing 30 minute films for release in cinema, such as The Missing Man (1953), The Candlelight Murder (1953), The Drayton Case (1953), The Dark Stairway (1954), The Blazing Caravan (1954), The Murder Anonymous (1955), Passenger to Tokyo (1954), The Strange Case of Blondie (1954), Night Plane to Amsterdam (1955). These essentially feel like self-contained episodes of an anthology TV series; I’ve only seen a few but they hold up well - Australia’s own Vincent Ball pops up in some, like The Drayton Case here
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2goxdb

Hughes’ second feature was Black 13 (1954) which he wrote and directed for low budget producer Roger Proudlock. The star was Peter Reynolds, a highly entertaining actor who specialised in cads, and who later emigrated to Australia where he died in a fire.

Hughes then wrote and directed The House Across the Lake (1954) based on Hughes’ own novel. This was made for Hammer Films, before that studio specialised in horror, and featured many aspects of British B movies from the 1950s: a short running time, film noir-ish plot, and imported B-list American stars, in this case Alex Nicol and Hilary Brook. It’s quite a fun movie, reminiscent of The Postman Always Rings Twice; one is inclined to wonder if Nicol’s character, a writer under the pump and distracted by lust, was a Hughes self-portrait.

Here’s a trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmhJJn0LIPA

Anglo-Amalgamated hired Hughes to make The Brain Machine (1955) with Elizabeth Allen and Maxwell Reed, a decent little thriller that feels like it wants to be sci fi but isn’t. Like most of his early features, it’s an easy watch if you’re in the right mood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o2kJ8Vdmdc

Hughes wrote and directed two more features for Anglo, both with B-list stars from Hollywood, both worth watching: The Little Red Monkey (1955) with Richard Conte, based on a TV serial, and Confession (1955) with Sydney son-of-Charlie Chaplin. He also helped write The Flying Eye (1955) for the Children’s Film Foundation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb9BBVS4hOw

Hughes’ thrift and versatility impressed Tony Owen, aka Mr Donna Reed, who had set up a filmmaking operation in England, Todon. Todon had a lot of success making genre pieces aimed at the international market; indeed, Owen’s impact on the British scene is under-rated because he rarely took screen credit - it was easier to get British subsidies with a local producer’s name on it. Owen hired Hughes to write Portrait of Alison (1955), a lively Laura (1944)-style murder mystery starring Howard Hughes favourite Terry Moore and Canadian-living-in Britain Robert Beatty; Guy Green did the actual directing.  Also for Owen, Hughes wrote and directed Timeslip (1955), a slightly sci-fi tale based on a TV serial, starring two Americans, Gene Nelson and another Howard Hughes fave, Faith Domergue. Both were distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUKLDiI_zak

The first really stand-out movie of Hughes’ career was Joe MacBeth (1955) a modernised re-telling of Macbeth set among American gangsters of the 1930s, shot in England. It was produced by American Mike Frankovich from a script by another American, Philip Yordan (with a little help from Shakespeare). “It was one of the few scripts I picked up in my life that didn't require a great deal of work,” said Hughes. The movie is gloriously fun. Everyone is in strong form: Paul Douglas, Ruth Roman, Sid James, Bonar Colleano (an American who worked extensively in British films prior to his death in a car crash). It was distributed by Columbia; Frankovich became head of that company’s British operations, and they would finance Hughes’ next few films.

First of these was Wicked as They Come (1956), which Hughes wrote and directed for producers Frankovich and Setton. It starred Arlene Dahl as a woman who claws her way from poverty to the top; it’s revealed at the end she was motivated by having been sexually assault when younger (there was a feminist-ish strand through some of Hughes’ work: for instance in The Brain Machine a person refers to Elizabeth Allen’s character as “ma’am” and she asks to be called “doctor”.) Dahl later sued Columbia over the movie claiming its poster art was misleadingly sexy.  The film would have been better off following the lead of the poster art rather than the script: at heart this should have been a campy Joan Crawford vehicle but it’s far too reticent and dull. I watched this after Joe MacBeth put me on a high over Hughes’ abilities - Wicked as They Come sent me back down to earth. I’m sure the film has its fans. Dahl lost her case, incidentally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7E9WNUWJLU

Hughes worked on two more Max Setton films for Columbia. He wrote the excellent script for Town on Trial (1957), directed by John Guillermin, where detective John Mills investigates the murder of a sexy piece of tail in a small town (men driven by lust was a recurring theme of Hughes movies). He also wrote and directed The Long Haul (1957) which I mentioned at the top of this piece, a movie that has been overshadowed in the cinema of British truck driving stories by Hell Drivers (1957) but which is enormously entertaining, with Diana Dors and Victor Mature giving excellent performances.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1-1SZN3yVg

Maxwell Setton left Columbia to help establish Bryanston Films with Michael Balcon, leaving Hughes needing a new patron. For British TV he wrote episodes of Solo for Canary (1958) and had a huge personal success with a one-man TV play he wrote and directed, Sammy (1958); this was a 40-minute story about a low-level Soho operator (played Anthony Newley) who can’t pay his gambling debts. Reviews were excellent and Hughes’ script was adapted countless times in other countries for TV, notably in the US as Eddie (1959) starring Mickey Rooney.

Hughes’ work had impressed producers Irwin Allen and Albert Broccoli, owners of Warwick Films,  which, like Todon, was an operation aimed at making international-orientated genre pieces in England “for a price”. Hughes worked on the script for Warwick’s High Flight (1957) a Top Gun-esque tale, complete with cocky pilots and homoeroticism starring Ray Milland, that was directed by John Gilling.

Warwick liked it enough to hire Hughes to direct two films for the company. Oddly, these were different to the bulk of their usual output, being non-action films, and not featuring a Hollywood star. Instead, both featured Anthony Newley: Jazz Boat (1960) (based on another story by Rex Rienits) and In the Nick (1960).  Jazz Boat starts out as a crime drama then weirdly turns into a musical (complete with dance numbers) then back into a crime drama again. In the Nick is a comedy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV0basjmZns

Neither film is particularly remembered today but Warwick also financed Hughes’ one undeniable classic. This was The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960) with Australia’s own Peter Finch in the title role. It’s a stunningly good account of the legendary playwright, with beautiful art direction from Ken Adams and a superb line-up of actors doing sterling work. Finch was rarely better; the entire subject is treated with taste and discretion.

The film was highly acclaimed by critics but not popular at the box office, in part because of the appearance at the same time as a rival project on the same topic, Oscar Wilde (1960) starring Robert Morley. The movie’s financial failure contributed to the dissolution of Warwick; Broccoli and Allen split up, Broccoli went on to make the James Bond films, while Allen spent the rest of his career trying to catch up to his former partner (and came close, incidentally, with a series of hit movies based on the Matt Helm stories).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQWf3VyLu9Y&list=PL0gml3Zg1wRlNV2NvOUtIq2sS01wBoh9y&index=39&t=0s

Hughes had wanted to follow Oscar Wilde with a biopic about Oliver Cromwell but was unable to raise the finance. Instead he wrote and directed The Small World of Sammy Lee (1963),  a feature-length adaptation of his TV play Sammy, with Anthony Newley reprising his small screen performance. The film was a co-production between Bryanston Films and Seven Arts, an American company headed by Ray Stark which had set up operations in England. The film contains much to admire, including superb photography and acting (Aussies Ken Wayne and Kenneth Warren have support roles), and a glimpse of Soho of the time. It is repetitive (Sammy tries to get money, almost gets it, doesn’t) and how much you like it will very much depend on your opinion of Anthony Newley. The movie has become something of a cult item in recent years but was a commercial failure on release and contributed to the collapse of Bryanston Films.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmJ7LrgcKpk

Hughes moved back to television, directing episodes of the TV series Espionage (1964) and writing episodes of An Enemy of the State (1965). He returned to features when Henry Hathaway walked off the set of Of Human Bondage (1964) which the latter was directing in Ireland with Laurence Harvey and Kim Novak. The film was made by Seven Arts and Ray Stark offered Hughes the job of taking over; Hughes also rewrote Bryan Forbes’ script, based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham. The resulting film is interesting, and contains one of Harvey’s best performances, but isn’t that good. Novak’s performance doesn’t help and, more seriously, Hughes doesn’t get - or didn’t have time to capture - the essential DNA of the story. It is interesting to compare it with other versions of the novel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmthl1hAdFA

Seven Arts still liked Hughes and helped finance a comedy he wanted to write and direct, Drop Dead Darling (1965), starring Tony Curtis as a Bluebeard type who kills women he marries. It’s a frantic farce that does cartwheels for a laugh with beautiful locations and contains some excellent support performances, including Zsa Zsa Gabor. Curtis claimed in his memoirs he did the film because he liked Hughes’ “excellent script” but felt the final movie did not add up to the sum of his parts.  He was spot on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um5J9x-R89c

The movie was presumably why producer Charles Feldman hired Hughes to direct a section of the James Bond spoof Casino Royale (1967) - reportedly the Berlin stuff with Joanna Pettet. Other directors credited included John Huston, Val Guest, Robert Parrish and Joseph McGrath. I’m not sure comedy was Hughes’ strength.

I think this is Hughes’ stuff here, but don’t quote me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_8o4BbDqkg

Hughes’ next movie also had a Bond connection, or rather, several: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), was based on a novel by Ian Fleming, produced by Albert Broccoli, written by Roald Dahl (who had scripted You Only Live Twice), designed by Ken Adam, and featured a number of Bond actors (Desmond Llewellyn, Gert Frobe). Hughes directed and rewrote Roald Dahl’s script. It’s a gorgeous looking movie with divine sets, a fabulous cast and cheerful songs; it’s also, like so many late 60s musicals, far too long and would have been better at a tight 90 minutes.

Chitty Chitty cost so much it actually lost a lot of money on first release - it helped convince Broccoli not to make anything other than Bond movies - but it was popular and has become a family viewing perennial.

“The film made a lot of money, but that doesn’t really make me feel any better about it,” said Hughes later. “On the other hand, I’ve made pictures that got awards at Berlin and places, and didn’t make any money, and that doesn’t make me feel any better either”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTTzcXSLjhI

The film was well regarded enough to enable Hughes to raise finance for his dream project, an epic biopic of Oliver Cromwell called Cromwell (1970). It was produced by Albert Broccoli’s old partner, Irwin Allen.

I’ve been mean about this film and will be again, but it does have some good things about it: Alec Guinness is superb as Charles I, and the production design is amazing. But it’s dull. So dull. Every time Richard Harris walks on screen he looks as though he’s about to give a speech and he does. Admittedly I don’t enjoy English Civil War tales unless they involve witch burnings or focus around Charles II in exile. But if you are a history teacher who couldn’t be bothered talking to class for two hours, Cromwell could solve your issues that day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7QHFm2AeMo

Up until making this film, Hughes was riding high. He earned £44,177 in 1968 and £47,960 in 1969, the year he sold his company, Ken Hughes Productions, to Constellation Investments for  £300,000. It was one of those tricky financial arrangements filmmakers sometimes enter into to help with their tax situation; Hughes was to regret it.

Cromwell was popular at the British box office failed to recoup its huge cost. Around this time the American majors pulled out of filmmaking in Britain, and Hughes, after steady work for almost two decades, found himself floundering a little, earning no money in 1970.

In hindsight, he probably should have fled to Hollywood, like so many of his contemporaries (John Gilling, Michael Winner) or gone into horror, sex comedies or big screen adaptations of TV shows (the most profitable genres in 70s British cinema). Instead he stayed in London where he wrote for television (Menace, Colditz, Fall of Eagles, Dial M for Murder, Oil Strike North). He eventually got two feature gigs as writer-director: The Internecine Project (1974), a thriller for British Lion starring James Coburn and Lee Grant, and Alfie Darling (1975), a sequel to the comedy-drama Alfie (1966), financed by his old patron Nat Cohen (now head of EMI). Internecine has a decent central idea - James Coburn is up for a job so decides to kill off four people who know about his shady past - but feels in badly need of some extra twists/complications. And Alfie Darling suffers very, very, very badly in comparison to the original, which turned Michael Caine into a star (you may feel differently if you like Alan Price, who steps into Caine’s shoes).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vhl7orjm20

Both films flopped. In 1975 Hughes declared bankruptcy, claiming his personal inability to curb expenses, two divorces, taxes and the collapse of the film industry.

Hughes decided to move to the US. He got the gig making one of the most bizarre movies of all time, something even weirder than Casino Royale: Sextette (1978), starring Mae West. Irving Rapper had originally meant to direct before Hughes stepped in just before shooting began. The resulting film is absurd but almost compulsive in its randomness, whether it’s Timothy Dalton singing “Love will Keep Us Together” to Mae West, or George Hamilton playing a gangster, or Ringo Starr putting on a weird European accent to play a director, or Tony Curtis as a Russian, or Dom De Luise as a manager flunky, or West talking to George Raft in an elevator, or Keith Moon and Van McCoy and Alice Cooper AND Walter Pidgeon or... Oh, anyway, see it if you want.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as6Iv5R1G0M

Hughes’ last film as director was a slasher flick, Night School (1981), the movie debut of Rachel Ward. It’s quite a stylish piece of entertainment, made with professionalism and skill rather than ludicrous excess, which means it isn’t as fun as others in this genre. Ward has X factor from the get-go and takes part in a Psycho (1960) shower scene homage; it has a feminist moments and there’s also not one but two sexually predatory academics.  For me, it was Hughes’ most enjoyable film since Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fuMpdXBVZA

And then the credits stopped. I don’t know what happened. Night School was well done. The producer of that film speaks well of Hughes in interviews. He was heading towards sixty years of age so there was ageism, but he could write as well as direct and was used to low budgets... Maybe there were other issues (if anyone knows, please feel free to tell me). He died of complications from Alzheimer’s Disease in 2001.

So how good a filmmaker was Ken Hughes? For me - and this is purely, utterly subjective - he was very “ups and downs” kind of guy with a solid over-all average: the maker of a genuine classic (Trials of Oscar Wilde), a handful of terrific movies (Long Haul, Joe MacBeth, Wide Boy) and some films that have splendid things in them (Small World of Sammy Lee, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and yes Casino Royale). He also made movies that were dull (Cromwell), dire (Alfie Darling), disappointing (Timeslip) and in one case beyond belief (Sextette). He clearly worked best when attached to a feisty little production company with strong Hollywood links (Anglo Amalgamated, Tony Owen, Warwick, Seven Arts).

I also wonder if maybe Ken Hughes rated his own writing too highly. He clearly had abilities as a writer - some of his scripts were fabulous. But it is hard to keep a high level of quality if you write and direct all the time and Hughes was also prone to rewrite, even on screenplays by skilled colleagues (Roald Dahl on Chitty Chitty, Bryan Forbes on Of Human Bondage). In hindsight maybe Hughes would have been better off working more with a trusted collaborator than being a one man band. I completely admit It’s hard to make these sort of judgements without reading/comparing original drafts and the rewrites, but it’s just a sense I get.

Still he should be better known. I wonder why he isn’t. Check out Joe MacBeth if you haven’t.

Movie review - "Four Days" (1951) *** (warning: spoilers)

 Excellent, tight programmer with Kathleen Byron cheating on her husband with cad Peter Reynolds. Husband finds out about it and goes to kill himself then loses his memory and Byron decides she loves him again but Reynolds has a crime agenda as well.

John Guillermin directs with pace and flair. It's a tight story.Byron is excellent as is Reynolds; Hugh McDermott is a bit of a debit.

But it's tough, tight, spanks along.  I love how Byron wasn't punished for having an affair.

Movie review - "Tarzan Goes to India" (1962) *** (re-watching)

 This has two interesting concepts neither really developed - Tarzan a stranger in a strange land, in this case India, and Tazan is played by someone over 40, in this case Jock Mahoney.

He's helping delay a dam which is a slightly lumpy story. In Africa Tarzan always had a personal stake. That's not the case here.

It looks beautiful, was shot on location, John Guillermin directs well. There's a cute Sabu-esque Indian kid, and some sympathetic Indian grown ups but the main villains are white as well as Tarzan and most of the Indians are extras. There's no love interest which is a shame.

The action is well done and Mahoney looks like a Tarzan.

Movie review - "Sheena" (1984) ***1/2

 This isn't a fashionable opinion but at least I share it with Pauline Kael: I like this movie. It looks gorgeous, was beautifully shot on location, has a wonderful score. The script flies along -Lorenzo Semple was skilled at this even though David Newman was the one who did the heavy lifting - and John Guillermin was still on it at this stage.

Tanya Roberts' method like intensity takes some getting used to but once you tune in she's great fun and has the body of an athlete. I think it was a mistake to show her breasts and bare backside - I think bare back and implied nudity would have been fine, breasts is too pervy.

Ted Wass is an engaging hero, handsome and a bit klutzy, but an ideal partner. They shouldn't have put him in that red towel at the end.

I'm aware it's problematic with its white saviours and all that. I will argue in the film's defence at least it's in present day Africa and there are a lot of positive black characters (the Obi Wan, the president, the tribal leader) it's just most of them are killed. The Donovan Scott character could have been black. There are several white villains.

Enjoyable action - I loved the jeep charge at the end, Sheena wielding her arrow and bow, the flamingo attack. This is fun. There doesn't seem to be a cult about it though.

Movie review - "King Kong Lives" (1986) **

 Nothing wrong with the idea of a sequel, especially bringing in another ape. Really Kong should have fought the ape, but they decided to go romance... Maybe even that could have worked. I didn't mind the artificial heart - that's fine.

But this doesn't work.

For one there's no sense of adventure. Brian Kerwin discovers Lady Kong in Borneo and captures her - that's dealt with in about five minutes. The rest of the time the Kongs are stuck somewhere in the USA (I assume North Carolina, where this film was shot). They escape, then Lady is recaptured, then they escape again. The rampage is limited. Much of it is played for laughs: stepping on a sports car to the angst of a teen who doesn't know how he'll tell his parents, going past a golf course and being wacked on the head, another teen drives a motorbike between the ape's legs. The army shoot at it. 

More damaging, there's no sense of character. The leads, Linda Hamilton and Brian Kerwin could be cut out of the movie entirely. They have no relationship with the Kongs - none. It's a shocking misjdugement. Hamilton helps put in the artificial heart, it's true, but other scientists do that too. Kerwin discovers Lady Kong in Borneo but that's dealt with in five minutes, as a I said. The first half they have this bantering relationship then she offers up her sleeping bag and bam they're a couple. No more conflict. No difference of opinion. Compare Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange - he was an ecologist, she wanted to be famous, they came at different angles. And he really liked Kong and Kong loved Lange - it was moving. Now Kong doesn't seem to care.

The villain, John Ashton, is just bad because he's military. That's it - he goes to kill the ape because he doesn't like him, which I get. In the 1976 version Charles Grodin wanted to exploit Kong for money.

Wouldn't it have been easy to give the villain a better motivation? To have the apes have a relationship with Hamilton and Kerwin? Like Kong shouldn't have been unconscious for ten years - if he'd been alive and Hamilton was his keeper and they had this strong bond. And if Lady Kong loved Kerwin. That would have made sense.

There are occasionally effective bits. When rednecks come against Kong and he tears into them is very satisfactory. Linda Hamilton and Brian Kerwin are pretty. You get a glimpse of Hamilton's boob - okay, I get it, I'm stretching for good things to say. The effects are fine. John Ashton hams it up. I like the score.

But it has a dumb story and is full of silly decisions.

Movie review - "Mr Patman" (1980) *1/2

 John Guillermin directed three massive hits in a row then wound up doing this odd psychological thriller/character study in Canada, part of that country's film boom which consisted of aging stars in movies that couldn't find finance in Hollywood. What happened? Did he yell at one star too many? (I'm guessing yes - he was a notoriously cranky director.)

This is an ambitious piece made by people unable to execute it. James Coburn is oddly cast as a nurse who works the night shift in a psych ward. Coburn is too strong an actor for this to work - there's no sense of insanity, going mad. Donald Sutherland would have been much better. Coburn is a stud muffin - several women throw themselves at him, including landlady Fionala Flannagan, doctor Kate Nelligan, some crazy ladies who are nude. The latter is at least lively and this movie might have been better going in a more trashy direction - with a murder or something. 

I've called this a psycho thriller but it isn't really - it's more of a character study, and not that interesting. 

It's low on atmosphere and movement and is just a dull movie. I've attached a copy of a prospectus advertisement.

Movie review - "The Tracker" (1988) **

 The last film from John Guillermin is a polite late 80s Western with Kris Kristofferson absolutely fine in the lead. Maybe he's too clean cut and groomed for a role that required someone more grizzly - Kristofferson in ten more years, say, or Tommy Lee Jones.

It's kind of like The Searchers with some baddies kidnapping some women and Kristofferson leading a posse. Scott Wilson is a head baddie, the female characters are paper thin, most conflict is between KK and his sophisticated big city son played by Duck Philips of Mad Men.

Duck's character arc is to learn the benefits of killing people. He struggles to kill, is reluctant to kill, he inspires KK to not shoot Wilson but then KK is punished for this by being shot by Wilson, and Duck is forced to kill Wilson. Because when all is said and done killing is the only way, right?

It's politely directed in that late 80s TV style. The dust feels clean. Look it's fine.

Movie review - "Miss Robin Hood" (1952) **

 Are there any decent Group 3 movies? I'm sure there's some. Maybe. This was hard going. It's the classic sort of film with decent ideas but it doesn't have enough faith in the ideas to hold a movie so they add all this stuff.

Margaret Rutherford running an orphanage engaged in crime is strong enough on its own and Richard Hearne writing a comic strip on his own might be worthwhile but mixing them doesn't work. We barely see the comic book don't get a sense of the character or what the adventures are or what happens at the orphanage. Rutherford is fine but I found Hearne charmless.

This was annoying. Talented actors like James Robertson Justice and Sidney James are wasted. Ian Carmichael pops up. I found it annoying,  stuffed with bits.

A cult comic strip loved by kids could be gold. So too could a criminal orphanage manner. They ignire the gold and add bits. It's frantic and unshaped.

I think John Guillermin wasn't very good at comedy, too.

Movie review - "Tarzan's Greatest Adventure" (1959) **** (re-viewing) (warning: spoilers)

 I'm really enjoying re-watching John Guillermin's movies. This was great. When I watched it again I wasn't impressed as I was when I first saw it - because that was off the back of seeing the Tarzan movies in chronological order, and I noted how the quality kept falling and this was such a leap back to form. So I didn't have that context. But as the film went along it just kept being great.

The photography helps - that wonderful Ted Scaife grainy colour. Location filming in Kenya is a plug (though there's a fair bit of studio work). Simple story but full of novelty - Tarzan speaks English, helps out the local district officer, he is injured with blood. 

The villains are outstanding - Anthony Quayle, Sean Connery, Nial MacGuinness, Al Mulcock, sexy Scilla Gabel. I liked Sara Shane as Tarzan's busty, feisty love interest  - they have sex. Scott isn't an awesome Tarzan - he seems like a bodybuilder rather than someone living in the jungle - but he's fine.

Tough action. Love the ending where Tarzan kills Quayle and does his yell.

Movie review - "Waltz of the Toreadors" (1962) **

 Maybe you had to be there. This was a hit on the stage. Did people care about adulterous army officers? Maybe Ralph Richardson and Margaret Leighton made them care.

Peter Sellers mugs. He made this a hit in England - he had a hot streak at the time. I like Sellers. At least I think I do. This was a hard slog. Leighton's in it, she can act. Dany Robin is fine, I suppose. I wanted a bigger star. John Fraser isn't up to it. Maybe neither was director John Guillermin. He whinged that the producers ruined it. But did they?

It looks handsome. Cyril Cusack is in it. And Prunella Scales. I didn't find it funny. Or that it had any point.

Movie review - "I was Monty's Double" (1958) ***

 The gimmick is they got the real guy to play himself and Monty. I gather the real Clifton James - Aussie born - was more of a character; we don't see that, and it goes in soft on Monty. This film could be remade now both are dead.

But those restraints happen. The script was by Bryan Forbes who has a role at the end (quite heroic, helping John Mills wipe out some crack German troops). I think it helps this was written by an actor because there's lovely acting stuff - James thinking he's being hired for a film and bringing along a scrapbook of his reviews, James having last minute nerves, getting up on stage and worrying about blowing it.

John Mills and Cecil Parker have fun as intelligence men. I think they could have added a female glamour  - Parker has a secretary, and the gag is she's plain... why not have her engage in a romance with Mills or James? It can be chaste. There could have been more humor.

But then again, maybe that would have made the fictitious last third, where James is kidnapped, less exciting. This is well done - Germans knife English sentres in the back and are ruthless.

Support cast full of familiar faces like Marius Goring, Leslie Phillips, Michael Hordern. An entertaining, skilled movie.

Movie review - "The Towering Inferno" (1974) **** (warning: spoilers)

 Pure entertainment. Disaster films were mocked at the time but this has so much going for it: genuinely exciting storyline, skilled script by Sterling Silliphant that juggles a lot of balls in the air, confident handling from John Guillermin, decent stunts and effects, and a genuinely starry cast: some B listers sure (Robert Vaughan, Richard Chamberlain, Susan Blakely, Robert Wagner), and camp casting (OJ Simpson) but two genuine former A listers (Fred Astaire, Jennifer Jones) one on the slide (Bill Holden) and three at the top of their game (Newman, McQueen, Dunaway).

Dunaway has the least to do though she looks gorgeous and is good. Wagner has a moving trapped and death scene with his girlfriend. Chamberlain is great fun - I'm surprised Dunaway didn't ask for his part. Newman and McQueen are entertainingly heroic. I did expect Holden to die. Jones' death is a real jolt.

There's a death mother and a cat, but some of it is genuinely moving. The fire starts quite quickly into the action and it's scary in that Newman is on to the problem straight away.

Excellent fun.

Movie review - "Rapture" (1965) ** (warning: spoilers)

 Odd film. It's head scratching why Fox made it. I know Zanuck was on a French kick but still... Maybe he liked the idea of Patricia Gozzi having a crush on runaway crook Dean Stockwell. Rozzi is barely legal - actually I don't think she is legal. I think she was 14 when she made this and she gets into bed with Stockwell for the third act.

I wasn't sure if she was meant to be insane but I think it was reality. I mean here is a girl who makes a scarecrow and thinks Stockwell is the scarecrow. Was he into her or not? I wasn't sure.

Melvyn Douglas isn't that French as her dad but he's fine - just old to have a 14 year old daughter.  Gunnel Lindblom is Gozzi's hot nanny.

John Guillermin directed this. He throws in atmosphere, moves the camera, does a good job. He doesn't get the DNA of the film - presuming that was possible.

It might have been better had they made this a more conventional thriller - girl in love with man on the run. But it's unclear abuot the other character's motivations.

I didn't mind this for a while but eventually got sick of it.

Movie review - "King Kong" (1976) ****

 I was totally in the mood for this. It's tongue in cheek but the core relationship is serious i.e. Kong's love for Jessica Lange. Lange's character is self centred and dumb but at least is consistent; Lange is gorgeous. Jeff Bridges is very 70s hunky with his pro ecology status and long hair - the film gives him plenty of things to do.

The most pointlessly dopey aspect of the film comes at the end when Lange and Bridges are hiding out in NYC and Kong finds Lange. There was no need for that - it's dumb, and Kong could have just kidnapped Lange at the beginning of his rampage.

The sense of adventure is high; Charles Grodin is fun as the oil exec (very cleanly motivated); John Barry's score is lush; the animal suit antics are fine; Ed Lauter popped up. It's moving at the end with Kong's heartbeat stopping. I missed dinosaur island but at least there is a killer boa.

I think people will remember this fondly a lot longer than Peter Jackson's version which seems to have vanished in collective memory (even though I enjoyed that when watching it).

Movie review - "Never Let Go" (1960) ***

 I get why this wasn't a hit but time has been kind in part because we know now that Peter Sellers would not make many more dramatic performances, and Richard Todd became less of a star, and it was a very early appearance from Carol White.

It's a gripping crime tale, modest ambitions but made with terrific pace by John Guillermin. Sellers gets the most attention by Todd is excellent as a weakened, battered down man, a cosmestics salesman who is facing the sack, whose car is stolen by car thieves led by Sellers.

It turns out Todd has a tradition of quitting but in this one he's determined to guts it out. It's a brave performance by Todd, who plays a weak and hopeless person, although by the end end he grows a big dick and becomes a man by beating up Sellers.

Sellers is a terrifying, shouty villain, smacking around teen Adam Faith and Sellers' mistress Carol White, desperate for acceptance. I get audiences wanted to interpret it comically - but it's richer than that.

Jazzy score plus 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home' over the credits. Fresh photography. Strong acting. I liked Todd's slimy work rival. The part of his wife is thankless - Elizabeth Sellers steps in.

Movie review - "Town on Trial" (1957) *** (warning: spoilers)

Good, tough British crime film - one of a bunch financed by Columbia, who totally got how to make international appealing British movies: no cosiness, a lot of pace. 

This was co written by Ken Hughes, normally a director, a man who I'm coming to increasingly appreciate. It was produced by Maxwell Setton, another man whose films I seem to always enjoy. The director was John Guillermin - it's less of a surprise for me to like his work.

Guillermin does a strong job - flourishes, and energy. John Mills gives a strong performance as a detective investigating the murder of a sexy hotpants girl in a small town. 

I love the class criticism - the townsfolk are irritated by Mills and dislike the girl because she was flashy. I'm surprised the Yanks didn't remake this.

I'm also surprised that the girl Mills is interested in wasn't threatened at the end. And that there's a second killing (of a girl who does an exotic dance beforehand) and she dies... we meet the parents (dad is Geoffrey Keene) so the death has weight.

Charles Coburn is in this as a nasty seeming doctor - it's as if he's channelling his Kings Row performance and this film is a little like that movie which is praise.

There doesn't seem to be stakes at the end - like who cares if the killer falls off the Church steeple, Mills is silly to go up.

But a strong movie. Fast paced. You can see Guillermin growing in confidence.

Movie review - "Adventure in the Hopfields" (1954) **1/2

 Decent, brisk, efficient movie for the CCF directed by John Guillermin who does a fine job. It stars Mandy Miller who had been in Mandy and is very good as a girl who smashes her mother's china then goes picking to pay for it. No one seems to bat an eye as she gets on a train and then goes to work. What was the labor market like in 1954 England.

Strong fire finale. Plenty of story.

Movie review - "Operation Diplomat" (1953) **1/2

 Low budget British B which is a little like  Crisis  - Guy Rolfe is a chain smoking doctor brought in to operate on a man of mystery. Sidney Telfer is in it. The suspense doesn't really built - Rolfe is let off the hook - but it's crisply done and has plenty of story or 70s minutes. It's got much more pep than many British As around this time. Some attractive female co stars. Anton Diffring pops up.