Movie review - "Crack Up" (1946) **1/2

 Good tough Pat O'Brien noir directed with enthusiasm from Irving Reis and a confusing plot with an art element - I'Brien is an art critic. Decent cast including Herbert Marshall and Claire Trevor.

Movie review - "Journey into Fear" (1943) (rewatching) ***1/2

 I read an interview with the author of a book on the production of this movie, so decided to re-watch it. Norman Foster directed as opposed to Orson Welles but it is full of Welles touches like the magic show and it is a Mercury Production.

Laurence Olivier did this on radio in 1946.  It was also filmed for TV in 1956. Ben Hecht did the original script.

It's a lot of fun. Everyone's trying to kill Joseph Cotten. Cotten is a whimp. Welles hams it up. Dolores del Rio is enjoyable. Jack Moss is great. It's not a masterpiece but has some nice style.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Movie review - "China Passage" (1937) **

 I only watched this because it starred Jocelyn Howarth, here retitled Constance Worth. 

It's a not bad B from RKO about shenanigans on a boat from China, searching for a missing jewel. It's a great part for Worth - she seems to be a shady lady but is revealed to be an agent, and has to bust the mystery with the lead guy Vinton Haworth. She gets to round up the suspects at the end and be active.

He's a little dull. Worth isn't that amazing it must be admitted. She's fine. You can see why she couldn't get out of B pictures. 

There's a drunk character who keeps thinking the boat is going to Sydney. That has novelty. 

Movie review - "Syncopation" (1942) **1/2

 Kind of the history of jazz - it acknowledges the role of slavery and the importance of black musicians, some of whom appear and even get lines of dialogue (not nothing in 1942 Hollywood) but the bulk of the running time concerns Bonita Granville, who plays boogie woogie and is loved by various musicians including Ted North and mostly Jackie Cooper. Adolphe Menjou is her dad but doesn't have much to do.

Plenty of music and guest stars. Major studio polish. First screen credit for Phil Yordan - some of it is set in Chicago. Granbille is a sweetheart. Never became a big star but always nice to meet her.

Best scene - a shoot out in a speak easy and Granville and Cooper kiss in silhouette. Could have done with more gangsters. 

Movie review - "Stage Struck" (1958) **1/2

 I get the rationale - RKO remaking its back catalogue, get exciting new stars (Susan Strasberg, Chris Plummer) and director (Sidney Lumet), add colour. But Morning Glory didn't just launch Katherine Hepburn the film was all about how great Hepburn was - magnetic, talented, etc. So you'd better cast a Hepburn. From this period maybe Kim Stanley could have pulled it off. Or Anne Bancroft. Someone really great. Strasberg is pretty and sweet but not up to it - when she does soliloquies watched by everyone at a party you feel bad for her. To rub it in Plummer moons over her so does Fonda so does Herbert Marshall and then the critics.

Also Strasberg is meant, I think, to be this likeable stage struck kid but comes across more of a manipulative socipath like Eve in All About Eve - she sleeps with producer Fonda (more than 30 years older), gets writer Plummer to fall for her, enchants actor Marshall, manages to get cast in the lead after diva star Joan Greenwood leaves. We're supposed to find the final farewell between Strasberg and Fonda moving I think - Christ, she's 30 years older.

I think this film killed Strasberg's movie career before it began. 

Sunny side - looks good, Lumet loves the theatre, Plummer is relaxed and believable as a slightly stiff writer, Fonda is strong. 

Movie review - "Criminal Court'" (1946) **1/2

 Unpretentious B from RKO with Tom Conway as an ace lawyer whose singer finance Martha O'Driscoll is accused of murder of dodgy Robert Armstrong. Conway accidentally kind of caused the death fighting over a gun - but he's a goodie here.

Decent direction and production values. Story from Earl Felton.

Plot has similarities to Conway's A Night of Adventure. 

Movie review - "King Kong" (1933) *****

 Charming. Has aged. But King has tremendous personality. Richard Armstrong should've been killed.  Bruce Cabot lacks charm but is a believable sailor. Fay Wray lovely. Great action and adventure.

Movie review - "Fifth Avenue Girl" (1939) **

 Ginger Rogers' popularity drove this unremarkable comedy to a decent box office gross. She's another of her ordinary girls who falls in with a millionaire, Walter Connolly and pretends to be his mistress, and that gives Connolly respect.

Connolly was a B list older actor - I wish there'd been a Charles Laughton or someone - but he's fine. He died not long after this - they didn't live long back in the day.

The family are boring - this was a versuon of My Man Godfrey. Son is a pompous twist as played by Tim Holt (whose non Westerns tended to be classics... not this one). Daughter dates a commie which has novelty. Wife flirts around. Family aren't interesting. Rogers seems bored.

 There's a reason why no one remembers this much.

Movie review - "Badman's Territory" (1946) **1/2

 I'm not super familiar with the mid-period Randolph Scott cycle - the ones after his first Westerns, where he normally co starred with bigger names, and before the Renown cycle. This was a solid hit for RKO, who had a decent record making Westerns. The copy I saw had a gloomy feel to it but it may have been the print. 

Scott is a marshall chasing outlaws into a lawless territory. The feisty local newspaper editor is a woman - Australia's own Ann Richards, who was under contract to RKO. I think this is the only movie she made for that studio. There is definite novelty seeing her introduced on a horse with a gun. She's not entirely comfortable but is at home in a newspaper office. I like how she had a character to play - brave, crusading editor; jealous of Belle Starr.

The gimick of the story involves Scott trgint to find his brother who has been taken by real life outlaws - the Jameses, the Daltons,  Belle Starr. There's also some Indians.

Plenty of plot and action and spectacle. Shiny support cast including Lawrence Tierney, very good as Jesse James, and Tom Tryon as Frank.

Gloomily shot but I enjoyed it more as it went on.

George Sanders Top Ten

 1) Action in Arabia (1944) - George Sanders as a conventional hero

2) Rebecca (1940) - almost steals the film as Rebecca's "cousin"

3) The Black Swan (1942) - in a red beard as a pirate!

4) Samson and Delilah (1949) - excellent villain toasting the temple as it falls on him

5) Ivanhoe (1952) - another excellent baddy role, complex, in love with Rebecca 

6) The Saint Strikes Back (1939) - enormous fun

7) Call Me Madam (1953) - he sings, and well

8) Psychomania (1971) - sad bc it was his last film but what nutty gloriousness to go out on

9) Son of Monte Cristo (1940) - terrific villain and death

10) All About Eve (1950) - oh I guess so...

Movie review - "Saturday Island" (1952) **

 The film that launched Tab Hunter as a leading man.  Its kind of a sexy story - a Blue Lagoon tale of a hunky young marine and older woman doctor who are in a ship that's sunk and wind up on a deserted island.

Hunter and Darnell should'e been ideal - a young good looking naive guy and a Woman of the World. But the film doesn't lean into this. He should've been in love with her from the start, she resists him... or vice versa... it just needed more sex.

Actually this film throws away drama chances wholesale. No threat no the island, no Japanese, no natives, no natural spookiness. It threatens to get interesting when Tab Hunter becomes pathologically jealous but then just as he goes nuts they all get rescued.

Lots of whining from Hunter. Oh, he's so poor... he looks terrific, he is the role but that high pitched voice. You can't help laughing at him.

Linda Darnell can be great but she needs to be energised. She's bored here, disconnected.  Donald Gray is better. He tries.

What a missed opportunity. Nice colour and location filming in Jamaica.

Book review - " Strictly Dynamite The Sensational Life of Lupe Velez" by Eve Golden

 I'm mostly familiar with Velez as a punchline in various Hollywood stories - rooting Gary Cooper, marrying Johnny Weismuller, Mexican Spitfire movies being on a double bill with Magnificent Ambersons, suicide in Kenneth Anger's book. So I'm glad Golden gave her a bio.

She did a good job. There's probably a few too many reviews and recaps but a strong picture does emerge. Velez was lively, fun, nice, with a sex drive... she became a star quite quickly (stage appearance, then picked in The Gaucho) and Golden argues she had potential to do more than she did. I haven't seen enough of her work to comment but she definitely kept employed for her life as a name, which is not be be sneezed at.

Golden admits that Velez maybe wasn't her own best ally - she kept leaping from bad relationship to relationship, was involved in domestic violence situatiosn - but the author makes a good case as to Velez films to check out, which I will. She made a lot of them and not many are well known.

The ending is moving. The suicide seems to have  caused by a number of things - pregnant, getting old, career going downhill.

Movie review - Spitfire#2 - "Mexican Spitfire" (1940) **

 Sequel to The Girl from Mexico with Donald Woods and Lupe Velez back from their honeymoon. An aunt and his ex tries to break them up. Woods isn't in this much instead Leon Errol is back as his uncle... and this time plays a double role as a duffer English lord.

The film has three Aussies in it - Errol, Cecil Kellaway (in a small part he's only at the end) and Charles Coleman (who plays a butler). There's a lot of Errl and if you find him funny and I think people did you'll like it. He leaves me a little cold.

There's a food fight at the end and Velez burts into Spanish every now and then - it gives the piece energy.

Movie review - Spitfire#1 - "The Girl from Mexico" (1939) **

 A sleeper hit for RKO which kicked off the Mexican Spitfire series. RKO B's were always nicely unpretentious and technically well done. A lot of musicals had a plot about trying to be a radio star - ad man Donald Woods finds Lupe Velez to sing.

Woods was a handsome lunk who played handsome men in flms like Anthony Adverse but who lacked charisma. Velez had it, so did Leon Errol who is Woods' uncle.

It's quite bright. Yes Velez has a cliche part but she drives the action, gets famous, gets the guy (away from the stock fake love interest). Good natured.

Movie review - "Seven Miles from Alcatraz" (1942) **

 Movie has an exciting set up - two crooks escape from Alcatraz and take over a household - loses some energy when they take over the house.

James Craig, who became MGM's back up Clark Gable, has a kind of muffled speaking voice, isn't quite right... I guess he's okay. I liked Bonita Granville.

The film needed people within the group to turn traitor -Craig's mate, say, or someone at the house. There's too many characters. 

This was fine. Not an undiscovered jewel but servicable.

William Dozier’s Slate at RKO

Re-read Richard Jewell’s excellent history(s) of RKO which includes an account of William Dozier’s short reign - the last time RKO really had bite.

Fascinating to look back at the slate... because of many of the choices were understandable.

There were colour remakes of earlier RKO hits:
- Back from Eternity (1956)
- The Brave One (1956)
- Bundle of Joy (1956)
- Stage Struck (1957)
- The Girl Most Likely (1958)

Star vehicles with old RKO names
- The First Travelling Sales Lady (1956) - with Ginger Rogers
- Death of a Scoundrel with George Sanders (1956)
- Public Pigeon No 1 with Red Skelton

Attempts to Launch New Stars
- The Unholy Wife (1957) with Diana Dors
- I Married this woman (1957) - with Dors and George Gobel

Two Fritz Lang noirs
- While the City Sleeps (1956)
- Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)

War movies
- The Naked and the Dead (1958)

Westerns
- Tension at Table Rock (1956)
- Run of the Arrow (1956)

Adaptatios of TV plays
- The Young Stranger 
 
Arthur Lubin films

-Travelling Saleslady
- Escapeade in Japan 

But the films didn't work. I don't think any of them did.

Val Lewton Top Seven

 

Just finished watching Val Lewton’ ouevre - he made too few films to do a top ten so I’ll put forward a top seven.

1. Cat People (1942) - a film that created its own genre in a way, suggested horror on a low budget, with lashings of literature, a remarkable combination of talent (not just Newton but his whole team) at just the right studio, some dodgy actors mixed in with some that are perfect (eg Tom Conway), beautifully shot. These sort of movies are hard to do (eg the remake). A lot of people like Curse of the Cat People, which is an interesting film, though not for me.

2. I Walked with a Zombie (1942) - Jane Eyre in the West Indies, extremely effective, wonderful use of mood. When people talk Val Lawton horror they really mean this and Cat People.

3. The Seventh Victim (1944) - Satanists in New York City, handled brilliantly, with a career defining performance from Jean Brooks, and Tom Conway also terrific. May have done better commercially with a junkier title? I know The Leopard Man and The Ghost Ship have their fans, but I don’t count them as good as the others.

4. Isle of the Dead (1945) - my favourite Lewton movie title and setting (the Balkan War of 1912!), it shows Lewton learned from his mistakes making Mademoiselle Fifi (1944) (differentiate your characters more, if making a heavily European film have an American character to help American audiences)... great atmosphere, a brilliant Karloff showcase (as all his Lewton films were).

5. The Body Snatcher (1945) - more conventional in some ways than other Lewton horrors but splendidly done, a real actors showcase for Karloff and Henry Daniels, a lovely part for Bela Lugosi (it’s a shame Lewton didn’t use Lugosi on Isle of the Dead and Bedlam as well... may have helped him commercially)

6. Bedlam (1946) - it lost money, in part because it cost a lot, and doesn’t seem as beloved as the others but I think it’s fabulous - smart, literate, twisty, thrilling, Lewton’s most progressive work (thank you writer Ardel Wray), visually sumptuous, Karloff was never better. Goldfinger (1963) rips this off. I cannot believe RKO would not finance Lewton’s Blackbeard project starring Karloff, it would’ve been amazing.

7. Apache Drums (1951) - I’ve seen all the non horror films Lewton produced: Youth Runs Wild, Mademoiselle Fifi, My Own True Love, Please Believe Me and this. I know Lewton fans get defensive, and yes, the were cut, but most of them are not very good. I think the cuts may have made them worse but all had inherent problems: Youth Runs Wild didn’t have enough youth running wild, Fifi (though very interesting) had a wonky story and really needed a bigger budget, and My Own True Love and Please Believe Me demonstrate a spectacular inability to understand their genres, melodrama and rom com respectively (Common problem in the bad Lewton films - too many characters you can’t tell apart). Apache Drums is a solid B western, a siege story with an excellent climax that includes people singing ‘Me n of Harlech’ which the Apaches attach - Zulu ripped off this film.

Movie review - "Bedlam" (1946) ****1/2 (re-watching)

 A terrific film. Clever, handsome, beautifully shot, well researched. A career highlight performance from Boris Karloff as a Uriah Heep type figure. Shocking finale where he's bricked up - the hero and heroine let it go through. I'm not a massive Anna Lee fan but it's a gift part - beautiful, brave, spirited, driving the action. The hero kind of saves her but she does most of the work. He's interesting too - a Quaker.

Maybe would've done better with a murder or two extra. Bela Lugosi as a patient would have worked wonders. They could've told the exact same story just with extra violence/threat. 

Literate. Goldfinger ripped off the scene. I think the best Val Lewton maybe?

Podcast review - "The Secret history of Hollywood: Shadows"

 Entertaining look at the life and times of Val Lewton. Excellent narration. A lot of made up dialogue. Some of it doesn't seem real and Lewton comes across as a bit of a whiner and a victim but I really enjoyed it.