Book review - "We did okay, kid" by Anthony Hopkins

 Is Hopkins a great actor? He's been great - Silence of the Lambs, Howard's End - but  a lot of dreck. Hollywood thinks he's great - Hollywood is like that. It was Hollywood who kept his career going when he walked out of the National in the 1970s.

Hopkins always seemed like he had his head in the clouds. This confirms it. Internal. Quiet. A loud alcoholic.

The book livens up in some spots - being sledged by Paul Sorvino making Nixon, discussing his process in Silence of the Lambs. I wish there had been more of that. But I think he lives in Hopkins land. This is low on anecdotes and actors insights. 

Movie review - "Murphy's War" (1971) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 Looks fantastic - shot in Venezuela (a nightmare location apparently, out in the jungle, living on a ferry that got stuck in mud), beautiful cinematography, splendid scenes involving planes, submarines and jungle, and quality acting. 

It's sluggishly paced - or maybe that's also the lack of stakes: Peter O'Toole survives his ship being sunk by a U boat crew, who then machine gun other survivors, so he decides to get payback... even after the war is over... he succeeds but then he dies too.

In other words Peter Yates wanted to make something about the Futility of War... only World War Two wasn't futile, it was important. Okay yes this bit is futile but then what's the point of watching people doing futile things? Michael Deeley the producer wanted O'Toole to live at the end and that would've helped a little but the war was still over. We really had to hate those Germans. It's good the scene where the Germans kill the U boat survivor... but that survivor doesn't mean much or do the other random villagers. I think they needed to kill Sian Phillips (Quaker doctor) or Philippe Noiret (friendly local Frenchman, excellent) to give it real stakes.

Maybe that wouldn't have worked. Still, the public didn't go for it. A movie from Paramount under Bob Evans.

Book review - "Peter O'Toole" by Robert Sellers

 Not a bad book on a great actor. Seems to rely a  lot on other biographies. Nonetheless, interesting.

Movie review - "Country Dance" (1970) **

 Some excellent acting from Peter O'Toole and Susannah York especially in the last third when the movie gets more serious. That's when the film seems to find its rhythm. Until then its a hard slog to be honest with the leads running around being flamboyant. It was hard to care about the antics of impoverished upper class. I knew O'Toole was hot for York so it wasn't a shock. I think more needed to actually happen.

Michael Craig is very good as York's estranged husband. There's also decent turns from Harry Andrews as another lord and Brian Blessed, without a beard, as a young buck who York sleeps with. The girl who plays the pregnant maid is a little dull.

Shot in Ireland. The film feels bog-gy which is appropriate. An attempt by J. Lee Thompson to make something with more street cred but I don't feel he does a good job. Compare his direction with that in say his Ted Willis adaptations where he got the camera right in there.

Movie review - "Casino Royale" (1967) **

 It's not fun but it's like a colourful museum and every Bond fan should see it. And because there is so much happening with so many actors I like I got something out of it.

Where to start:

- Woody Allen has genuinely funny gags with the firing squad

- I liked Peter Sellars as a Bond type

- Orson Welles is a terrific Bond villain

- quite a few women have agency: Ursula Andress as Vesper, Barbara Bouchet as Miss Moneypenny, Joanna Pettet is the hero of her own segment

- Terence Cooper gets a big intro then disappears

- Deborah Kerr really really overacts

- I don't think David Niven was anything like Bond, in the books or movies

- Bouchet and Jackie Bisset should have been real Bond girls they are gorgeous

- there is a lot of genuine cleverness

- there is a lot more laziness

- it piles it on but then many 60s comedies did (The Great Race, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World)

- the music score is great - the theme and "The Look of Love"

- there's genuine emotional moments which could have (don't laugh) been more mined: Andress falling for Sellers, Pettet and dad Niven

Movie review - "The Day they Robbed the Bank of England" (1960) ***

Decent heist film. Lacks a little zing and is maybe hampered by Aldo Ray in the lead. I like Ray normally but he seems out of place in England of 1900 or whenever this is set. Maybe he was particularly drunk.

It's a shame because the lead role is ideal for an American - an Irish American helping the IRA rob the bank of England. Its hooked up with politics - they're ordeed to stop at times because Home Rule might happen which is a great complication.

Keiron Moore booms as a fellow thief and Elizabeth Sellers is alright as the Girl but the film is mostly memorable for two support characters - Peter O'Toole, full of youth and life as the idiotic upper class twit who gives Ray all this inside information then begins to twig (easily the best role - I think O'Toole was offered Moore's part and figured out accurately that the other one was the one to nab) and Albert Sharpe was a drunken tunnel digger. This maybe needed less Ray and more of the support cast but the period detail gives it difference.

Audrey Hepburn age gaps with her co star (it's approximate)

Roman Holiday - 24 to Greg Peck's 37
Sabrina - 25 to Bogart's 55 and Holden's 36
War and Peace - 26 to Fonda's 50 and Mel Ferrer's 38
Love in the Afternoon - 28 to Gary Cooper's 56
Funny Face - 28 to Fred Astaire's 56
Green Mansions - 30 to Tony Perkins' 27
Unforgiven - 31 to Lancaster's 47
Breakfast at Tiffany's - 32 to Peppard's 33
The Children's Hour - 32 to James Garner's 33
Charade - 33 to Cary Grant's 59
Paris When it Sizzles - 35 to Holden's 46
My Fair Lady - 35 to Rex Harrison's 56
How to Steal a Million - 37 to Peter O'Toole's 34
Two for the Road - 38 to Albert Finney's 31
Wait Until Dark - 38 to Effrem Zimbalist's 49
Robin and Marian - 47 to Sean Connery's 46
Bloodline - 50 to Ben Gazzara's 49
They All Laughed - 52 to Gazzara's 51

(Again I stress these are approximate ages - I don't know exact shooting dates - but it will give you some idea of the gap.)
 

Movie review - "The Stuntman" (1980) *** (warning: spoilers)

Cult favourite which I might have liked more had I discovered it instead of having it hyped for me. Steve Railsback is the man on the run who winds up working as a stuntman for Peter O'Toole, a film director, who seems to be nuts... but we find out Railsback the ex Vietnam vet is also nuts. Barbara Hershey is, yet again for her career, The Girl, but she is very good - actually the whole cast is.

Decent handling. I think I would have liked it more had O'Toole killed Railsback.   O'Toole is great fun but he's matched by nutty Railsback. Maybe I'll have to watch this again.

Movie review - "Kidnapped" (1960) **1/2

Disney was still on his classic adaptation kick when he decided to blow the dust off Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel. I've had a fondness for this book but it never quite breaks through to the top rank for me... the characters are great, David, his slimy uncle and especially Alan the soldier of fortune who does a little dance after a violent action. The story line is more problematic - after a terrific beginning it goes off into episodes with stuff about the murder of some officer that ambles. It feels like part one of something and indeed there was a sequel.

The film needed to be a bromance to work - that's what's in the book, the relationship between David and Alan. That doesn't really come across here.

Peter Finch is a decent enough Alan - maybe not entirely believable as a man of action, but fairly enigmatic. I did feel that Peter O'Toole, who has a small role towards the end as a highlander, would have been better value.

James MacArthur is okay as David. Very American yes but that's alright - it brings a contemporary feel. And his performance isn't bad - there's just not much chemistry between him and Finch.

There's pleasing location work in Scotland and a decent support cast. The treatment is respectful rather than full blooded. I always felt this story should have made David into a woman you could have played proper romance then.

Paula Prentiss

Tip of the hat to Paula Prentiss, the tall, gawky, brilliantly talented actor who lept to fame in her first movie Where the Boys Are but who never became a star despite being the best thing about pretty much every film she made in the early 60s...

There were a few reasons for this, including the fact that the films were often not that good (The Horizontal Lieutenant, Follow the Boys), or considered disappointments (Man's Favourite Sport - though Howard Hawks loved her). 

She had brilliant bits in The World of Henry Orient and What's Up Pussycat? but during the making of the latter had a nervous breakdown that saw her retire from acting for a while. 

She went back to it but never regained her former career momentum (the late 60s and 70s weren't a great time for female stars in Hollywood) but always could be counted on to turn in great work, whether in The Parallax View or The Stepford Wives. She also had a family and is still married to Richard Benjamin after 50 years. If you like screwball comedies and aren't familiar with her work she is worth checking out.

A top five
1) Where the Boys Are (1960) - great debut
2) The Honeymoon Machine (1961) - a rare Steve McQueen comedy, quite fun, and Prentiss steals the show
3) The World of Henry Orient (1964) - Prentiss hilarious as a nutter
4) What's New Pussycat? (1965) - see above
5) The Parallax View (1974) - only a small role but very effective

Movie review - "What's New Pussycat?" (1965) ***

The sixties at its most swinging - Peter O'Toole in the lead, Charles Feldman producing, Woody Allen writing but being rewritten, Clive Donner directing (there was a time when Donner was one of the leading British directors in the world), Tom Jones singing the title song, Peter Sellers in a wig, European leading ladies, Richard Williams animated credit sequence.

It's a mess but it's fun, bright and colourful. Not all the jokes work, in fact most of them don't, but there are so many of them you can count on some hitting their mark, and I've got a soft spot for movies which end in a slapstick chase on small cars (it has an almost Beach Party vibe about it).

There's a massive race as to who can ham it up the most - Sellers of course through sheer Sellers-ness but O'Toole tries to match him and Woody does his schtick; Romy Schneider plays things relatively straight, which is probably for the best (the plot has O'Toole try to give up womanising to settle down with her), but Paula Prentiss is brilliantly hilarious as a stripper who likes to commit suicide after bad dates (she's sexy too), Edra Gale goes OTT as Sellers' wife (wearing a viking outfit lot of the time), Ursula Andress lots of fun as a woman who parachutes from the sky (though she only appears in the last half hour) and Capucine again impresses with her comedy chops.

The women are very good looking and it's all full throttle.

Movie review - "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) ****1/2 (re-watching)

It's one of the most visually stunning movies of all time, especially on the big screen - every shot is like a painting, with its beautiful compositions, scenes of endless desert and sunsets, Bedouin warriors charging over dunes, match cuts, horizons, trains being blown up, the waves of the Red Sea lapping at the shores, the large expanse of the British head quarters, the chaos of the Arab Council.

Peter O'Toole is beautiful too with his pink face and blonde hair, as is Omar Sharif (who has one of the great star entrances of all time, trotting across the desert from a distance, shooting someone, then unveiling his face), with their flowing robes and angst.

It's a smart epic, with its cynically pragmatist politicians (Claude Rains, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins), and tormented hero full of contradictions (masochistic, Christ-like, tormented, egoist, self-loathing, brave, a nervous wreck), and nervous breakdowns and machinations. There is some first rate smart dialogue and plenty of points of view. 

Everyone who has a speaking role as a definite role to play: the most showy part of course is Lawrence, but there's also the dry, smart political Claude Rains, the practical let's-do-what-I-can Arab king Guiness, lusty adventurer with his own code of honour Anthony Quinn, devoted follower and closet liberal Omar Sharif, smart soldier Hawkins, stressed out Anthony Quayle, cynical journalist Arthur Kennedy.

The performances match the characterisation - others considered for the lead included Marlon Brando and Albert Finney, but neither would have been as good as O'Toole, who has the flamboyance, intelligence and glint of madness (you could imagine him playing Wingate, for instance). (Alec Guiness would have made a good Lawrence too - possibly less crazy but more ethereal; I would have been interested to see what Dirk Bogarde could have done with it as well).

Sharif is a limited actor - as we would soon find out - but extremely effective. Guiness has this fascinating odd combination of seeming weakness but actual inner strength, and Rains, Hawkins and Quayle offer solid support.

And yet. And yet... 

It's a very long film - and for all the gorgeous images and epic scope it doesn't have to be as long as it is. Much of it feels repetitive - Lawrence bonds with an assistant who is killed three times, feeling guilty each time; Lawrence bonds with an Arab at least six separate times (three assistants, Guiness, Sharif, Quinn); Lawrence looks offended by the British referring to the Arabs as wogs at least twice; Lawrence cracks up several times; Kennedy makes a crack about Lawrence being egotistical several times; Lawrence feels on the outer of his British people several times. It's like there isn't much progression - Lawrence is half mad and wary of British interests from the beginning, and winds up that way at the end, only he's a bit more mad.

A lot of people in Hollywood regard this as the perfect movie, with its combination of action, scope, psychology and history - Spielberg, Peter Guber, etc - but the fact is it isn't. Not really. But I guess if you saw it at a certain age it would have knocked your socks off. And there is certainly much to admire.

Movie review - "Becket" (1964) ***

Two great roisterers of British acting from the 50s and 60s and 70s, Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton, give this potent star power - both have incredible voices but differing styles which mean they team well: glowering, watchful soulful Burton vs the more flamboyant, heightened campness of O'Toole.

This story is a bromance which goes sour - Henry II (O'Toole) and Becket (Burton) are in love with each other, so much so that Henry appoints Becket to be Archbishop of Canterbury. However Becket then actually finds God (Burton handles this difficult transformation well and I went with it - the soulful thing) and causes trouble: Henry reacts like a wounded lover, and indeed complains that Becket never loved Henry the way Henry loved him. To establish everyone's hetero credentials there are a few scenes of Henry bonking women (although they always seem to be women that Becket wants to bonk) but when you've got a film where the women are either sex objects or shrews (eg Henry's mother and wife) and there's a beautiful young man who adores Becket, then it's hard not to read gay subtext into the action.

A lot of scenes feel repetitive and O'Toole and Burton revert to their stock tricks (yelling and barking). But at heart it has a strong story with a solid emotional dilemma and there's good support from John Gielgud.

Script review - "Lion in Winter" by James Goldman

Not many writers conquer the Middle Ages but Goldman did with this bright, clever look at Christmas time at the house of Henry II with his wife (out of prison temporarily), mistress (who's going to marry one of his sons), King of France (who wants him out of the country), and three sons (all of whom want to knock his block off - gay, war-loving Richard; weaselly, smart John; and was-there-another-son Geoffrey). There's twist upon twist, everyone is pulling a fast one, which makes it unpredictable - the emotion never seems genuine. Or is it.

After a while it does get a bit too bewildering though and you wish it calmed down a little so we could feel. Maybe that's just me being soft. The character of Alais is a bit of a ninny - you saw it a bit in late 60s pop culture, a beautiful flower child who just wants to adore her middle aged man. But gripping, fascinating stuff. As Goldman himself once commented, everyone can relate to a family squabble where business is involved.

Movie review – “Rogue Male” (1976) ****

Excellent adaptation of the famous book with Peter O’Toole in superb form as the sporting noble who tries to take a crack at Hitler. There’s no hooker with the heart of gold in this one – like the book there are flashbacks to O’Toole’s old love, killed by the Germans. It’s also more violent – we see how badly O’Toole is tortured, and there’s no denying he kills the German in cold blood at the end (cf in Man Hunt Walter Pidgeon’s killing of George Sanders had to be softened by showing that Sanders was going to shoot Pidgeon.)

Alistair Sim, in one of his final performances, plays O’Toole’s well-connected uncle. He’s very good as indeed are most of the support cast: the kindly fat German who helps him, the taciturn first mate (Mark McManus), the Jewish lawyer (great speaking voice – Harold Pinter!), the chubby lawyer assistant (Hugh Manning), and most of all the jovial assassin (John Standing).

But the star through and through is O’Toole – he was at his best playing cracked aristocrats, brave and smart but a bit mad. The ending is very exciting, with Standing trying to charm O’Toole into signing a confession, making like they are great friends and brothers – then getting conked out in cold blood. (My memories of watching this were vivid: the fingernails, hiding on a boat, that finale.)

Occasionally it’s let down by the fact it’s made for television – there are these crappy telemovie music stings and cuts, and it lacks that extra gloss which comes with a feature. It’s a shame – this is better than a lot of movies O’Toole made. Another minor gripe – I wish it was a bit lighter in that cave so we could have a better look at the weapon he makes.

Book review – “The Eternal Male” by Omar Sharif

Sharif is an interesting movie star, still the only Arab to make it big in Hollywood. He only really had three hits but since they were three of the biggest films in the 60s (and remain classics today) he made a lot of money out of it. These are his memoirs and even though I admit I rarely give much thought to Omar Sharif, this reads exactly like you’d imagine – suave, prone to waffling when justifying his womanising, egotistical but self aware, a nice line in humour and charm, old fashioned values (not a big fan of democracy in the Arab world, a woman’s place is in the home, etc) but aware they’re old fashioned.

You need movie stars like Omar Sharif, who are citizens of the world, represent Egypt in bridge at the Olympics, appear in silly projects for the money, devote their spare time to money-wasting hobbies like horse breeding and gambling, who sleep with heaps of women.

Sharif says he doesn’t want a kiss and tell memoir but then goes to write at length about his flings with Barbra Streisand and Anouk Aimee, as well as the Egyptian star who became his wife. Sharif had a blessed run in many ways – son of a rich timber merchant he developed an enthusiasm for acting, became a star in his first film due to his looks and marrying his co-star (a big name at the time), spotted by an agent for David Lean, having Lawrence of Arabia as his first Hollywood film. (How bad do you feel for poor Maurice Ronet, cast in the role but substituted, partly because his eyes were the same colour as Peter O’Toole's?).

The book is light on anecdotes. It starts with a great one, which has him, Peter O’Toole and Lenny Bruce in gaol the night he arrived in Hollywood for the Lawrence premiere (they went to see Bruce in concert then later on Bruce shot up). It’s a shame there aren’t more like this – he talks of roistering with O’Toole on “leave” in Beirut during filming, but the details are sketchy.

I would also have liked to hear a bit more about the films, because we get tantalising glimpses: Zanuck and Fleischer pursued him ferociously to play Che Guevera, he loved being in The Horsemen, his casting in Funny Girl partly came about because of a joke (they’d ask “Why not Omar Sharif” as a joke until eventually deciding to give it a go). 

It’s also interesting to read about a man who was Christian in Egypt, then converted to Islam, and got in trouble for kissing known Israel supporter Streisand in Funny Girl. It goes up to 1977 but he skims over his 70s movies.

Still, I enjoyed the book; it is light brisk reading and Sharif is entertaining company on the page.

Movie review - "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) ****

This has the reputation in some sections as being one of the greatest movies ever made - mostly from baby boomers who would have been knocked out by it when it came out. After all, who didn't when they were little dream of dressing up as an Arab and running around the desert on camels blowing this up?

Then there's all the political stuff which would have become more apparent on repeated viewings, a dazzling cast, and David Lean's stunning direction: the man sure knew how to fill a frame (horses coming off the train, a train collapsing, the boy sliding into quicksand, etc).

Peter O'Toole is great as the slightly mad Lawrence - though you know, I think Dirk Bogarde would have done just as well, in Rank's aborted 50s version.

In a neat twist for a Western movie, the more human characters are the supporting Arabs - Anthony Quinn's unscrupulous chieftain provides the humour, Alec Guinness' king brings the statesmanship, Omar Sharif's devoted Arab the freedom fighting. Arthur Kennedy's cynical journalist observer is a bit boring (a sop to the American audience, a device that was later used in Gandhi).

The film goes on too long, with much repetition (scenes staged for their visual effectiveness rather than dramatic weight) - eg. two scenes of trains blowing up, two of Lawrence's young men dying.

Movie review - "Troy" (2003) **

This is one that got away - there was plenty of money flying around, the film believably deals with the issue of Greek Gods by having characters act because of their faith rather than the fact that the Gods exist, and Brad Pitt's Achilles and the Greeks are often unsympathetic. But it blows it by changing the basics of the story - killing Agamemnon at Troy, Achilles surviving to the Wooden Horse having Paris kill Achilles... that's just cheating and does the story no service. Paris and Helen lack passion, though Peter O'Toole is ideal. Eric Bana is wooden, though all he's required to do is be decent; Brian Cox and Brendan Glesson add some spark and Sean Bean is a perfect Odysseus. This was one of those films I didn't mind at the time when watching it but as time has passed it has become more and more irritating in the mind.