For some reason this film is called a flop when it did very nicely particularly internationally - maybe MGM were expecting Ben Hur Mark Two which it wasn't but it made a strong profit.
Handsomely made. Smart. Hunter does well in a difficult role. The support cast steal the show but they always do in Jesus movies.
A Boney novel adapted. Some dodgy race stuff but at least he's the hero. The mystery isn't bad. Everyone talks posh but they were like that back then. The version I heard wasn't credited but I think it was from 1939 with Ron Randell.
*Big Timber - from novel by William Hatfield - announced 1935 - instead Cinesound filmed Tall Timber
*Call me when the Cross Turns Over - from novel by D'arcy Niland to be filmed in 60s with Diane Cilento and Sean Connery but not filmed
*Careful He Might Here You - optioned in 1963 by Josh Logan who wanted to make it with Elizabeth Taylor (who would've been great)
*Collits Inn - Frank Thring was going to film this musical but died
*Come Away Pearler - Colin Simpson novel optioned in 1954 by Joe Kaufman see here
*Come In Spinner - novel optioned in 1954 by Joe Kaufman
*Conn of the South Seas - Cinesound said in 1932 might remake The Adorable Outcast see here
*Desert Legion - Raymond Longford WW1 story
*The Delinquents - from novel adapted by Alan Seymour for producer Joseph Janni and director Jack Lee - announced 1963
*Dig - story of Burke and Wills from Ralph Peterson script for Anthony Quayle - announced 1957
*Don Bradman biopic - proposed by Ron Randell in 1952 see here
*Eureka Stockade - Ken Hall version
*The Fatal Wedding - Cinesound said might remake this in 1933 see here - this may have just been a random announcement though Cinesound did make Silence of Dean Maitland
*Fisher's Ghost - sound remake by Raymond Longford of his 1925 hit - Tony Buckley says towards the end of
*For the Term of His Natural Life - Cinesound said in 1932 might remake it see here
*The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney - adaptaion of novel to be done by MGM in the late 40s with Greer Garson and Gregory Peck
*Ginger Murdoch - optioned by Frank Thring
*Gold Dust and Ashes - from novel by Ion Idriess announced 1935 by Cinesound see here
*The Green Opal - Chips Rafferty film about immigration
*The Haunted House - announced by Cinesound in 1938 see here
*James Don't Be a Fool - EV Timms novel
*The Kelly Gang - Cinesound said in 1933 might remake it see here
*Les Darcy film - announced by Chauvel in 1947 to star Tommy Burns see here
*Life of Nellie Melba - proposed 1940 Cinesound film with Marjorie Lawrence
*The Long Shadow - 1947 Jon Cleary novel optioned in late 60s but not made
*Mr Burke and Mr Wills - Burke and Wills story written by Terence Rattigan
*My Love Must Wait - novel about Matthew Flinders optioned by Charles Chauvel
*Naked Under Capricorn - published 1958 owned by Chips Rafferty
*Ned Kelly - directed by Karel Reisz starring Albert Finney announced 1963
*The One Day of the Year - Alan Seymour's play, filmed a few times for TV, optioned in 1970
*Overland Telegraph - 1939 announcement Frank Clune sold to Cinesound, he'd write it up in 1955
* Pearl of Great Price - late 30s Cinesound announced 1936 see here
*Pepper Trees - Ealing film late 40s with Chips Rafferty and Tommy Trinder - scheduled for 1948 see here
*The Pioneers - Cinesound said in 1932 might remake it see here
*Redheap - novel by Norman Lindsay to be filmed by Thring
*Return Journey - film about Burke and Wills which collapsed in the 1960s but resulted in a short
* Robbery Under Arms - Ken G Hall version, mentioned from the 1930s until the 1940s but killed off by Rank's interest and dud 1957 film
*Rudd's New Selection - announced in 1933 see here - became Grandad Rudd
*Sara Dane - from the novel, starring Sylvia Syms, proposed late 1950s
*Saturday to Monday - original of The Siege of Pinchgut - announced in 1950
*Sheepmates - started filming but abandoned
*Storm Hill - Eric Porter film announced in 1946
*Wake in Fright - directed by Joe Losey starring Dirk Bogarde - announced 1963 - there was also a proposed Morris West version
*Wards of the Outer March - novel adapted by Charles Chauvel - announced in 1944
*When Cobb and Co Was King - novel optioned by Charles Chauvel
*Yellow Sands - Cinesound in late 30s - announced 1936 see here
Three stars maybe high for something low budget (the sets are very basic) but it's very comptent, well realised. Unpretentious. Plot follows logically. Muriel Steinbeck marries dead beat Peter Finch - her mum believably unsympathetic. He drinks. Travels. Their son prefers him. She walks out, son stays with dad, dad dies, son grows up to be bitter, wants vengeance by seducing daughter of Mum's new bloke (John McCallum).
Finch is very good as is Steinbeck - she's a little soap actory but it suits story. Randell is brilliant - handsome, evil, charismatic. He marries Jane holland intending to root her and dump her. That's full on. They don't have sex here - McCallum and Steinbeck get to the church. Boo!
It ends in New Guinea. Randell becomes a Good Person rather quickly via war service. There's some terrific Damien Parer photography and action. The ending does work.
Kitty Bluett, the maid, had an affair with Randell IRL.
Holland is likeable. McCallum looks the part but is a little stiff playing "old".
But just a really good solid film. Location filming helps immeasuably.
MGM tried to repeat the success of Where the Boys Are but never quite did - I think because they went too light, while Boys had an aspect of reality about it with the Yvette Mimieux plot.
This has an interesting idea - the story of women who follow their naval men from base to base around the Riviera. Yes they chase the men but also... it is the Riviera. It wouldn't be a bad life if you were into it.
The women are: Janis Paige, getting sick of chasing hubby Ron Randell; Paula Prentiss, determined to nab lothatio Richard Long, Dany Robins, who is French and with Russ Tamblyn, and Connie Francis, desperate to be rooted by her new husband.
There's pleasing views of the south of France and Italy. Richard Long is made for this sort of thing and Randell acquits himself well.
The film is geared heavily towards Francis, who gets several songs - she's fine but her character is depressing and the storyline is sad. Because she wants to have sex and it's difficult. I think she should've just had a good old fashioned stalking storyline eg "you said you loved me I want you" - something fun.
Depressing endings - Randell gives up his dream of a command for Paige, Francis decides to stick it out with her guy but he's still carted off arrested i.e. they still haven't had sex, Prentiss is with Tamblyn but they haven't resolved the fact she doesn't want to marry a naval guy and he wants to go career, Long is with Dany Robin but she's a debt collector and he's got no money... Literally no one's relationship looks like it has a future!
No sense of camraderie or even funny set pieces.
Recognised as a sub-classic, I think it's fair to say, from MGM - perhaps because its stars were Kathryn Grayson and Howard Keel, not the top tier, though they're lots of fun, though not so much fun as Anne Miller. Starts off great with Ron Randell as Cole Porter, a squabbling star couple, and Ann Miller dancing in tights in a fancy apartment. Then cuts to a Broadway show - we go back and forth between a musicalised Taming of the Shrew and backstage shenanigans.
I found Keenan Wynn and Dore Shcary fave James Whitmore a little annoying, though it was fun to see Bob Fossee and two mates do dancing.
A lot of talent. Didn't quite click. Maybe too domestic violence comedy and I didn't really go for the stars. Nice tunes though.
Universal liked to use this title for different films - they had a hit with this one which enticed over Tyrone Power after a long stint at Fox. Unviersal put on colour, nice budget, Rudolph Mate as director, Seton I Miller wrote the story.
Power is a man who wants to get into gambling. So be befriends John MacIntire, who I kept thinking was Jack Elam, but it's really the Walter Brennan role. He manages to outsmart weak John Baer who is the brother of hot sister Piper Laurie. This annoys Bae and Laurie, even though the latter is hot for Power. Their dad Paul Cavanagh kind of falls in love with Power because the latter is good at fencing.
That's a strong domestic situation. Miller loses points by introducing another weak brother outsmarted by Power who has a hot sister, Julie Adams - but I liked Adams as a threat to Laurie, and all through the movie I wasn't sure who Power was going to end up with. Because Laurie marries her false love interest (Ron Randell, not a big part, but quite good)... but then fortunately he turns out to be an embezzler to clear the way.
Everyone is trying to act, sometimes they can, Power was made for this, the girls are pretty, it looks good. I enjoyed it. Some action - a duel, a robbery. Racial issues are completely ignored.
Odd Sam Katzman movie. His films often fleeced through history and this was apparently once a tale of Captain Bligh then was fictionalised. It's about a tyrant in the British navy in 1803 - a captain, played by Rhys Williams, who I was vaguely familiar with, given a showy part. Williams isn't bad at all. The capain is basically turfed into retirement because he's brutal then brought back by Admiral Nelson (neat!) because he's brutal to go oon a special mission to wreck ships of the French. Ron Randell, in an awkward accent, is a lieutenant who falls for Williams' daughter.
The film is odd because Williams is a tyrant, an unfair tyrant - who abuses his crew, plays mind games... but the film never makes him a villain. He's victorious at the end, but wants to court martial Randell. Randell gets away with it because he's done his job. Then there's some cutesy stuff with Williams' wife who teases that they're going to have Randell as a son in law. This is played comically. But Wiliams has been shown to be a vicious commander, needlessly cruel. It feels as though the film might've been greatly rewritten. I could be wrong.
Not that much action except the battle at the end which is well done. It's in black and white not colour.
It's of interest mostly because of its ambiguous hero.
I know it's clunky and was shot hurriedly by Allan Dwan, and it's more a crime movie than sci fi in execution, but the story is strong - crim gets zapped and becomes indestructible - and Ron Randell is excellent as the guy, torment and energy. He really steps up to the plate. Nice turns from Debra Paget and various crusty old actors.
An attempt to make a decent film, thank you director Lance Comfort. It benefits from location filming at Brighton Pier, and a mixture of different characters - a policeman on holiday with his wife, daughter and son, a former robber and hs trashy wife who is sleeping with a local compere, a journalist.
The actor who plays the journo is weird, Brian Ropert. Veronica Hurst (briefly a bit of a name) is the blonde girl, Ron Randell her sleazy lover (his American accent is weird it must be him I keep making the same note), Eileem Moore who plays the daughter married George Cole. All the casting is accomplished.
There's a little boy who witnesses crimes, as often the case in 50s British films. There's also a spooky clown at a fun fair.
I liked the movie.
The story has been so overshadwed by Cabaret but before then it was a hit straight play by John Van Druten. This was adapted by Romulus, a British outfit who aimed to do good work with an international focus.
Julie Harris is Sally. The film feels like a stage play with Harris hanging around Laurence Harvey's apartment with Anton Diffring and Shelley Winters. I missed the cabaret - there was more things happening there. Ron Randell adds a dash of energy as Harris' rich man but the running time is mostly Harris and Harvey.
Look, I mean, it's good this exists, I guess. They tried to make a good movie. Or at least capture some of the play - as much as they could. They had to straighten it up. I guess it's handy for posterity that Julie Harris' performance is perserved. It left me a little cold but maybe she was better live. I liked Laurence Harvey's work - he's a believable writer.
I didn't really care about any of the people or their relationships. The basic story is so clear - a gay writer and his crazy ditzy female bestie. This version was wonky. Why were they friends, what was the appeal, etc. The Breakfast at Tiffany's movie probably had the right idea just making it a flat out straight romance, with him being in love with her. At least there was a strong emotional connection. Here they try to hang on to the play and it's just unsatisfying.
Maybe it could have worked with more chemistry between Harvey and Harris. Actually that's the key - to show these two are friends. Doesn't work. It's weird - both aren't bad, quite good, they just don't mesh.
Dull British kidnap thriller directed by Arthur Crabtree who once enjoyed some hits for Gainsborough but like many of his colleagues struggled away from that studio.
Greta Gynt is blonde and not much more as the wife of a kidnapped doctor. Ron Randell is an American private eye who combines with a British doctor.
It's sluggish and not very interesting. Ron Randell's American accent was so awkward I thought maybe it had been dubbed but I've said that a few times about him maybe he just had a bad American accent.
Serviceable story - outsider scout called in to do one last job, fighting Indians but also anti Indian masscare - from the team of Koch and Schenck.
Singer Tony Martin, in a rare non musical role, is hilariously bad as the tough guy scout. They make things worse by putting him in black a la Dirk Bogarde in The Singer Not the Song. Ron Randell is a bad cavalry captain.
Many scenes shot at night presumably to hide the low budget. A Sam Katzman style film not made by katzman. The rest of the cast all feel familiar.
It's not a bad story and the handling is fine and I liked the colour (the brown face to play Indians for the whites, not so much). But Martin sinks it.
The biggest flop of the six MGM-Ealing films, which tried to turn Harry Secombe into a star. He's cute, cuddly, can act and sing and be funny... the film doesn't quite work. It's about a man torn between performing in opera and doing a family act which isn't much of an idea. Especially as the "family act" don't seem like a real family. I mean, that's a basic flaw. I'm surprised they stuffed it - you could've easily just had a bunch of Welsh actors, mum and dad and nephew and nice. But instead they've got Ron Randell with an American accent and his wife and some old clown.
This needed to be about a man breaking away from his family. They've been together forever so it's a real wrench. As it is the family are basically four middle aged people who should be able to survive. They don't deserve him. If it had been his parents it might've worked. But no family feel = the movie is dead. When Secombe doesn't do opera at the end it's just sad.
Shot in CinemaScope and colour by Geoffrey Unsworth. Probably not worth it.
Most pathos comes from that little Bill Owens in love with Randell's wife.
Needed more songs. More family. More point.
Ealing could really miss the boat with their films.
Was interesting to see Randell as a compere and doing skits like he often did on radio. Susan Shaw has a late in life appearance - she'd drink herself to death soon.
A slasher film before you could see much - a killer has cut up a goodtime girl in a small town and sheriff John Dehner tries to find out who did it.
The main perk of this is the cast - suspects include Lex Baxter, Ron Randell (in a wheelchair), Mamie Van Doren, Marie Windsor, Anne Bancroft, Hoss from Bonanza. Bancroft is very good; I also liked Randell playing a bitter man (was his voice dubbed?) and it's fun to see Van Doren randomly pop up.
The original story was set in South Africa. That would've been fun. Quite a high body count.
I didn't mind this film - nicely directed, a little sleazy. I think it needed to be sleazier, that's all.
Jeffrey Hunter and Ron Randell from King of Kings star in this peplum allegedly directed by Andre de Toth but apparently more by the second unit director. There's a gorgeous French girl and the setting and story aren't bad, a little like The Land of the Pharoahs - Hunter is a slave architect helping build a gold mine for his Roman overlords, Randell is a centurion but he's not the main villain the proconsul is (Randell should've played that role). Randell has a fight with Hunter's BFF while Hunter takes on the proconsul. Decent action and production values. Set just before Trajan came to power, and in Spain. They fight the Celts.
Decent B based on a radio series about counter espionage. The title Counterspy guy is played by middle aged Howard St John with Ron Randell as the Scotland Yard agent to do the legwork including putting on a disguise.
Quite dense with dialogue, betraying the radio origins, but smart. The baddies are smart - it's Cold War stuff - the acting sincenre, the playing fast. This was decent. Randell is lively.
Ron Randell's second go at Drummond and it's absolutely fine and competent with a storng mystery but by 1947 television was digging in to the B market and all the series were being wound up - Kildare, Andy Hardy, etc.
This is a very British tale - it's set in Britain, all the actors play British. The John Howard Drummonds felt more American.
Have reviewed it a few times so only random thoughts.
- Ron Randell is good. Never this good in Hollywood movies. He lacked something to act maybe? Moodiness suits him? Anger? Better than Peter Finch, I think, would have been.
- Hollywood very much influenced this. The meet cutes. Scenes in a train carriage. Maids at home. Plush sets.
- They invent Joy to be a woman. Fine. Why give her a big secret "does he know"... then it's revealed she's married off screen. Why not kill her in a plane crash then? Or with a disease?
- A bit of racism. Alec Kellaway talking about Japanese as apes. Smithy meets a black porter (player by ???) and makes a joke about Australians being cannibals.
- Assumes a lot of audience knowledge. A lot of key incidents are referred to without being seen - Smithy crashing in desert, death of Ulm, etc. Also jokes need knowledge eg Bluey Truscott, that explorer.
- Surprisingly down beat. Smithy feels like he's waiting to die. But it's effective. Moving.
- Muriel Steinbeck isn't in it til half way.
