Diller versus Evans

Am reading Barry Diller’s excellent memoirs which discuss his time running Paramount in the 1970s which made me decide to compare his regime with the fabled Robert Evans regime that proceeded it. (These lists below attribute films to various regimes as well as I can... it's entirely possible some started development under other regimes)

So films from the Evans regime which film bros (deservedly) always bang on about...  

Love Story, The Godfather Part 1 and 2, Harold and Maude, A New Leaf, Willy Wonka, Play It Again Sam, Lady Sings the Blues, Paper Moon, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Serpico, The Conversation, Daisy Miller, The Parallax View, Chinatown, Death Wish, The Longest Yard, Three Days of the Condor, Hustle, Italian Job, Medium Cool, True Grit, Goodbye Columbus, Rosemary’s Baby, The Odd Couple, Romeo and Juliet, Barbrella, if..., Oh what a Lovely War, Downhill Racer. 

Great stuff. 

But films from Evans regime which film bros forget he made (or blame on Charlie Bludhorn)...

 The Molly Maguires, The Adventurers, Darling Lili, Friends, Little Fauss and Big Haley, Norwood, a weirdly large number of flop Neil Simon adaptations (Plaza Suite, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Star Spangled Bannered Girl), Murphy’s Law, TR Baskin, Such Good Friends, Bad Company, The N***** Charley Films, Save the Children, Sterile Cuckoo, Hello Down There, My Side of the Mountain, Where’s Jack, Blue, No Way to Treat a Lady, 5 Card Stud, Skidoo, The Brotherhood, A Talent for Loving, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Scalawag, The White Dawn, Paint Your Wagon.

Not so great stuff. You just don't hear Peter Bart go one about these as much. 

Films from the Diller regime which film bros go on about:  

Saturday Night Fever, Bad News Bears, Marthon Man, King Kong, Mikey and Nicky (in its own way), Looking for Mr Goodbar, Saturday Night Fever, Pretty Baby, Grease 1 and 2, Heaven Can Wait, Foul Play, Days of Heaven, Up in Smoke, The Warriors, Escape from Alcatraz, Meatballs, North Dallas Forty, Star Trek 1 and 2, American Gigolo, Friday the 13th series, Urban Cowboy, Flying High 1 and 2, Ordinary People, Popeye, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom, Mommie Dearest, An Officer and.a Gentleman, 48 Hours, White Dog, Flashdance, Trading Places, Terms of Endearment, Uncommon Valor, The Keep, Footloose,  Top Secret, Beverly Hills Cop, Witness.

Again, a great line up of films. 

But there are films from the Diller regime which seem to be forgotten: 

Won Ton Ton the Dog That Saved Hollywood, Lifeguard, Handle with Care, First Love, The One and Only, Going South, Oliver's Story, An Almost Perfect Affair, Prophecy, Bloodline, Sunburn, French Postcards, Nijinsky, Rough Cut, The Hunter, Coast to Coast, Going Ape, Dragonslayer, First Monday in October, Paternity, Ragtime, I’m Dancing as Far as I Can, Some Kind of Hero, Partners, Jekyll and Hyde Together Again, It Came from Hollywood, Ladies and Gentlemen the Fabulous Stains, The Man Who Wasn’t There, Racing with the Moon, Best Defence, River Rat, Thief of Hearts, Falling in Love, King David, Rustlers Rhapsody, Compromising Positions. 

Don't forget the flops, that's all I'm saying. 

Joan Colins Top Ten

 Watched The Stud the other day so thought I’d do a Joan Collins top ten - films only! No TV

1) Revenge (1971)- Really good vigilante film about a family who’ve lost a daughter to murder. The person accused of it is let off and they kidnap him but... did he do it? Collins is good as always.

2) The Girl on the Red Velvet Swing (1956) -20th  Century Fox had Collins under contract as their version of Elizabeth Taylor. This was devised as a vehicle for Marilyn Monroe who wouldn’t do it so they put in Collins - a very good real life murder story and Collins is excellent. Probably her best movie at Fox (though Island in the Sun is entertaining I picked this over that one because she gets a lead.)

3) The Square Ring (1953) - Based on an all-male play about one night in a boxing stadium by Aussie Ralph Peterson - this added some female characters including Joan Collins. Her part isn’t good but she suited low rent criminal tales and the film is entertaining. (She had a similar small role in The Good Die Young)

4) Cosh Boy (1953) - Entertaining Lewis Gilbert melodrama about a juvenile delinquent with Collins lovely as his naive girlfriend.

5) Turn the Key Softly (1954) - A British crime film with female protagonists! This is a three-girl movie about women getting out of prison, an excellent idea, and Collins is very good as an ex call girl

6) Tales from the Crypt (1972) - Gloriously fun anthology horror movie from Amicus - I wish they’d still make them - with Collins having a high old time.

7) Up in the Cellar (1971) - Kind of a sequel to Three in the Attic (1968) directed by Ted Flicker who made The President’s Analyst. Collins and Larry Hagman are very funny, easily stealing the movie from the random lead.

8) The Stud (1978) - Terrific exploitation. Trashy melodrama story which says something about the class system giving it some depth, terrific disco soundtrack (10CC, Hot Chocolate), great casting, lots of sex. Reminded me of 70s Oz films like Petersen - director Quentin Masters was Australian. Joan Collins shows off her body a lot and has lots of sex. Oliver Tobias is handsome and can act- why didn’t he become a bigger name?  Lots of fun.

9) Empire of the Ants (1977) - You can’t call this a good movie but it’s impossible to dislike - Joan Collins as an evil property developer fighting Giant ants and their human allies (no kidding). Where’s the TV series based on this, come on, I’m not kidding.

10) The Big Sleep (1978) - Why did Joan Collins become a star in the 1980s? Because during the 1970s she was consistently the best thing about her not very good movies. Alfie Darling was one. This is another.

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 - "The Mechanic" (1972) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Made with such taste and skill it's remarkable to realise that Michael Winner directed, but then he hadn't began his artistic descent yet. I think Irwin Winkler and Bob Chartoff might've kept him in check too.

He also had a script from Lewis John Carlino, a bright idea well developed, and two excellent stars... well, excellently cast stars: Charles Bronson as the driven assassin who is actually lonely, and Jan Michael Vincent as the cocky protege. Bronson is very effective - the first ten minutes are silent. I love his tousled hair and his death scene.

Looks beautiful, lovely score. Classic double twist ending. It has an interesting theme about loneliness and existentialism - very Michael Mann and character study-y. It's effectiveness is limited I think by the fact it has been so often imitated.

Movie review - "The Cool Mikado" (1963) *

 A disaster. But fascinating. And in colour.

It updates The Mikado. It's set in Japan but never feels like it - it's clearly all shot in studio, there's hardly any Asians in it let alone Japanese. The songs are updated.

There's lots of people who are a little bit familiar but I think are more famous in England, like Tommy Cooper and Mike and Bernie Winter. Frankie Howerd has a role as Ko Ko, Stubby Kaye sings a few songs and rabbits on. There's some painful, painful comedy by soldiers. There's a romance. Lionel Blair does a dance. John Barry appears in his band. Dennis Price is in it, and Tsai Chin and Burt Kwouk.

I'm not familiar with the musical, but this was terrible.  There is movement and colour but it's the comedy that kills this.

Movie review - "Play It Cool" (1962) **1/2

Early Michael Winner film which he never liked much but it's fun - absolutely does what it sets out to do which is provide a vehicle for  Billy Fury, whose acting is fine and has strong presence; the plot is silly, the romantic complications are contrived, but that is as it should be. There's some cheery moments, sex pest comments from the support characters (including Michael Anderson Jnr), lots of musical numbers from Fury and others (including Bobby Vee), atractive women.

Maybe anyone could have directed this but Winner handles it all with energy and verve. It's a shame it couldn't be in colour but Dennis Price gives the support cast some flair. One of Winner's best natured movies.

Movie review - "Firepower" (1979) **

 Lew Grade's idea of a commercial movie - old stars, exotic locations, explosions. James Coburn is actually quite good as a macho hitman type asked by the FBI to go after a crook. It's great to see him in a part with "balls" again.

Sophia Loren's role feels shoe-horned in. She's a woman avenging the death of her husband. It didn't need to be shoe-horned in... they have Vincent Gardenia hire Eli Wallach hire James Coburn who hires OJ Simpson... just have Loren hire Coburn and Simpson.

The plot should be simple but is needlessly complicated. It's about getting a Bad Guy. There's a few twists. Coburn has a twin - why not use that more? Why not give Loren more to do?

She and Coburn hop on and off boats a lot. Simpson is quite a good action hero. The locations are nice but not that nice. Too many of the actors are old - there aren't even young henchmen.

I liked seeing Victor Mature at the end in a scene that could have been cut out - why not have him as the big baddie though?

Michael Winner didn't do a very good job as a director. He was a better producer than director and by now he was assembling ingredients more than producing a film.

Movie review - "The Wicked Lady" (1983) **

 Michael Winner's remake of the classic is very faithful - he follows the structure - and packs the movie full of great actors and production value. But it doesn't work - at least not as well. It might have been better going off on his own path making it truly trashy. There are some boobs but they seem added - if he went soft core the whole way the film would seem to have more point.

Everything feels off. In the original it was clear Lockwood was motivated by her mother's death... Dunaway says those lines here but Winner shoots her reaction in long shot, so it doesn't have impact.

The ages of the cast is all off. Dunaway seems to old - she was 42, but Lockwood at 31 or whatever made sense. Denholm Elliot is too old at 60 to play someone truly loved by Glynis Barber who was in her late twenties. Alan Bates doesn't feel dashing enough at 50.

On one hand I liked the Barber and Oliver Tobias were f*ck buddies but then it didn't make sense for the character - if Barber was like that how did she lose Elliot to Dunaway... because in the original Lockwood seduced him. But if Barber is sexually active...? Barber and Dunaway need to be different. And why would Barber want Elliot instead of Tobias? And why would Tobias want Dunaway instead of Barber? You never feel that Barber genuinely likes Elliot or that Dunaway likes Tobias.

It's frustrating. The whip duel at least livens things up. The Barber-Tobias sex scene is not very sexy - we all have different ideas of what that is, but I don't know too many people who see it that way. It is hilarious the way they cut in her body double.

A very useful exercise to show how a remake that's very close can still fail. It should have just gone full AIP/New World/Big Bad Mama style.

The best bit is John Gielgud and Dunaway - they match well.

Movie review - "West 11" (1963) **

 Michael Winner's first "proper" movie I guess - it's an odd combination of angry young man slice of life drama and Strangers on a Train. Alfred Lynch is the disaffected man, who constantly changes jobs, has an off-on relationship with Kathleen Breck. Winner wanted Sean Connery for this part, and Oliver Reed, either who would've been better than Lynch who isn't bad so much as just far too laid back - it's like he's falling asleep in some scenes.

Winner also wanted Julie Christie over Breck - I've got to say I like Breck she's lively. Eric Portman is in it as the man who proposes murder. Diana Dors is a girl who knows Portman and Lynch.

Others in the cast include names like Kathleen Harrison, Finlay Currie and Australia's Gerry Duggan, Marie Ney and Peter Reynolds. David Hemmings, who would be in Winner's The System, had a small role. Francisca Annis pops up.

It's interesting to contrast this with The System. It doesn't have that film's energy. I don't mind the melodrama of the murder plot but it's too little - it feels awkwardly shoehorned in. It's like Lynch and Breck are in one movie than Portman strolls in from another movie, a 1940s Gainsborough thriller or something. Oliver Reed would have been much much better than Lynch - he would have had the dynamism and murderous intent to make the role sing.

Still it's interesting. There's glimpses of Notting Hill at the time - Lynch walks past a nationalist rally, he goes to coffee bars, ec.

Movie review - "The Big Sleep" (1978) **1/2

Michael Winner was always going to cop it coming up against Howard Hawks and Raymond Chandler - he did have Robert Mitchum in his corner, plus a more faithful rendering of the novel, but did not help his case by setting it in England yet keeping so many Americans. They just could have made them English. One expat American!

Winner was very good at pace, at getting films done under budget, and shoving his films full of good actors. His respect for Chandler helps keep this surprisingly watchable - the pace of it spanked along. I never quite got used to Mitchum in England - Mitchum felt too old anyway for someone who is meant to be irresistible to Candy Clark and Sarah Miles.

Both did kind of look kinky. Winner throws in gay kissing which was in the book, and some nudity and porn which was in the book too.

Joan Collins is great fun in her role as is Edward Fox. I loved Oliver Reed and Richard Boone. John Mills is a bit of a nothing as the cop. Sara Miles was... I guess weird. Candy Clark tries in a difficult role. It was sad to see James Stewart. Joan Collins could have played Miles' role and she would've been terrific- but Miles does bring an eccentricity to the part.

Movie review - "Won Ton Ton the Dog That Saved Hollywood" (1976) *

Michael Winner wasn't known for being the king of comedy, though he did make The Jokers. Winner blamed Bruce Dern for a lot of the film's failure - he's not Mr Laughs either. He's definitely not up to Madeleine Kahn who is lots of fun - also spot on is Teri Garr who I wish had a bigger part.

On one hand I enjoyed the old person cameos but it did make the film feel old. Cameos are fun but everyone was elderly. It made the whole movie smell old time-y.

Winner keeps everything at a fast pace but there's an air of desperation about it. The movie has no heart. The Jokers had heart because it was about brothers and a world that Winner knew about. He's removed from 1920s Los Angeles. There's no warmth.

The film should have focused on the dog and its relationship with Kahn, but everything feels surface. Kahn is fun but looking at it, she's too broad. She plays it like a support part. Teri Garr would have been better in her role with Kahn in support. Or have Kahn play Dern's role. There were some female directors. But that was probably too much for the filmmakers. Maybe Michael Crawford would have worked in Dern's role.

I laughed at some bits like the dog trying to hang himself. But this felt too much like a movie where they went for laughs without thinking of the point - and the laughs aren't of sufficient quality. They're not Mel Brooks.

There's a good movie to be made in the story of Rin Tin Tin. But the satire is too broad. The filmmakers get bored with the dog and keep changing focus - Rob Liebman takes over the movie at one stage playing a Valentino type. Mad cap in the worst way.

Still, I've seen it now, at least.

Movie review - "Appointment with Death" (1988) ***

There's not a lot of kind words for this late period Peter Ustinov Poirot... in part because I guess Michael Winner directed it but also because it was Cannon Films and the cast lacks real star power. There's nothing wrong with Carrie Fisher, Laren Bacall, Hayley Mills, Jenny Seagrove, David Soul... but really every part needed to be played by someone at that level, there's too many unknown.

It's got to be said though the acting is pretty good - it's fun to see Ustinov doing his thing, and Gielgud, and Piper Laurie being a bitch, and Bacall being a bitch, skinny Carrie Fisher. I enjoyed the Israeli locations and period touches like the discussion of Palestine and Mrs Simpson. It moves fast and Christie narratives kick in during the second half as they tend to do. Like most Winner movies it's very fast. It does lack star power but this was unfairly picked on.

Movie review - "The Stone Killer" (1973) **

It doesn't get much more seventies and pointless than this action cop story with Charles Bronson as a cop reassigned to another city where he gets involved in a Mafia war. That's actually a decent enough topic for a film - the Bronson cop stuff feels awkwardly layered on top of it. 

They would have been better off making Bronson one of the stone killers hired i.e. random assassins used to take on the mafia like Stuart Margolin - or had him be a former one. That would be interesting.

There's scenes like a woman at a hippy retreat hitting on Brosnan because she's never balled a cop which feel more like scenes from a Clint Eastwood movie.

The main interest of this is the support cast which includes actors like Norman Fell, John Ritter, Martin Balsam - though I could have done without Balsam's fugged-about-it Italian accent.

At the end there's a bunch of deliriously over the top shoot outs which are super silly but entertaining in their ridiculousness and that's what the movie should have been instead of the cop stuff.

Movie review - "The Nightcomers" (1971) **1/2

Interesting idea - a prequel to the events in Turn of the Screw - which is logically developed. It's a simple story with complexity and the casting of the adults can't be faulted - Marlon Brando, Stephanie Beacham, Thora Hird.

Michael Winner wasn't up to the demands of directing it. His great strengths as a director were energy, pace and location shooting - this is a character driven piece, which needed atmosphere. Someone like Seth Holt or Freddie Francis, who did those excellent psycho thrillers for Hammer and Amicus would have been ideal. Winner is not up to it. That isn't a Winner bash, it's an honest opinion.

He lets Marlon Brando clearly do what he wants including a silly accent and endless scenes of him telling dumb stories which the kids are meant to find entertaining. There's a sado masochistic sex scene with Beacham which is unsettling because Becham clearly isn't into it. This is clearly an abusive relationship with all the complexities that involves but Winner can't pull it off.

The kid actors aren't good - I don't think Winner was strong with them either. Still, it is interesting, it tries, it's different. Beacham is gorgeous. Even when Brando is bad he's still compelling.

Movie review - "Lawman" (1971) **

There's an interesting idea at the core of this movie - lawman Burt Lancaster is so determined to see justice done he runs around blasting away everyone while ostensible baddy Lee J Cobb is actually more reasonable and businesslike.

That isn't really developed - subplots should accentuate this theme fail to do so.There are some strong actors around like Richard Johnson, John Beck, Robert Ryan, Robert Duvall - but generally they play tropes (whimpy sheriff etc) without going into too much detail.

The handling is vigorous at first but then the film seemed to run out of puff half way. Technical stuff is adequate. Burt Lancaster is fine - Charles Bronson would have been more interesting. Or actually come to think of it Kirk Douglas. Lancaster doesn't seem that interested in what's going on. 

Sheree North is the smurfette character, an ex of Lancaster's.

Movie review - "Chato's Land" (1972) **1/2

Decent enough Western with Charles Bronson well cast as an avenging Indian. Well, he doesn't start out that way - he kills a sheriff who is going to kill him and a posse go to get him. His wife is raped around the half way mark to give him extra motivation - this would have been better up the front.

Bronson doesn't do that much in the movie - most of the action focuses on the posse, led by Confederate uniform wearing Jack Palance, and some black hat rapists (including Richard Jordan and the dad from The Waltons) and a liberal. Strong cast, including Victor French and James Whitmore and Richard Basehart. The female "character" basically smiles and gets raped. There would be a lot more rape from Winner.

Aside - for some reason a lot of early 70s Westerns were made by Poms: Euan Lloyd, Winner, Gerald Wilson, Alan Sharp...

Movie review - "Hannibal Brooks" (1969) ***

Entertaining POW movie with a difference: Oliver Reed busts out with an elephant. Reed is a dynamic imposing actor but he does feel miscast as an elephant lover. As has been pointed out he probably should have swapped roles with Michael J Pollard who plays an American working with the partisans.

The locations are lovely - it was shot n Austria - with those snow capped mountains and green fields. It's got that great late 60s war movie color photography. A pretty girl, some Germans are killed. It moves fast.

If I'm being brutally honest the elephant doesn't  have that much personality and her relationship with Reed doesn't really come across. I wanted it to but it doesn't. Maybe if Michael Crawford had starred. But I'm not sure Winner was the one to put in those character style scenes.

Movie review - "I'll Never Forget What's 'Is Name" (1967) **** (warning: spoilers)

Excellent swinging sixties drama with Oliver Reed as an ad man who hacks up his desk with an axe but boss Orson Welles is convinced he'll come back. With good reason - Reed is juggling a wife (Wendy Craig), a kid, a mistress (Marianne Faithful) and a lover... adding to that he starts work at a magazine and falls for the secretary (Carol White) who is a dream girl, albeit not manic and pixie, but who is lovely with a great smile.

This sort of movie is self indulgent - "I'm making so much money doing ads and I hate it", "all these women want to have sex with me" - but it's very well done. Peter Draper did a good script and Michael Winner was at his directing peak. Orson Welles' presence helps.

Movie review - "You Must Be Joking" (1965) **

Critics make claims for much of Michael Winner's sixties British output but this one tends to be overlooked. With reason. It's got energy and spunk and a great cast but feels slightly off. I think 1965 was too late to make this sort of movie, which feels like a 1957 Dirk Bogarde film. It's not in colour and Michael Callan's  American soldier really sticks out, he doesn't fit. Also there was something harsh about Callan's persona - this film needed someone more befuddled. In one scene he dances a few steps and is electric - it's such a shame he didn't do more musicals.

Gabrille Lucidi is a lot of fun as one of Callan's women and you've got people like Leslie Phillips, Terry Thomas and Lionel Jeffries hamming it up. The point of the heist feels minimal. But these problems were fixed in The Jokers - this movie feels like a trial run for that and I don't think The Jokers would have been as good if Winner hadn't made this first.

Movie review - "The System" (1964) ***

Michael Winner became something of a joke so it's a shock to see this energetic, bright, entertaining kitchen sink drama about young men in an English coastal town who try to seduce female visitors... but still can't beat the class system. Oliver Reed is electric -that initial appearance he leaps off the screen. Jane Merrow is good too - actually all the acting is strong with small roles played by solid types like Guy Doleman and Harry Andrews. Andrew Ray, one of Reed's mates, was in The Mudlark. David Hemmings is in this.

A frank depiction of sex, some good writing (not by Winner). The scene on the train reminded me of A Hard Day's Night.