Movie review - "Don't Make Waves" (1967) ***

 A bit of a mess - I wasn't sure what the point was but it is colourful and has some of my favourite sixties actors: Tony Curtis, Claudia Cardinale and Sharon Tate. There's always something happening it is bright and silly. You can see why it didn't make money. You can also see why it's always on TV.

Nice theme song. It took a pointlessly long time for Curtis' character to be established - he was too passive. Guy should have been a mover and shaker.

Robert Webber's tycoon should have been more of a threat. I did like Joanna Barnes has his wife. David Draper is very sweet as Tate's body building love. I wish more time had been spent showing a bond between Cardinal and Curtis but he spends all his time chasing Tate which is understandable but also makes for the ending seem rushed.

There's mudslides and parachting. It focuses a lot on middle aged people. I liked Jim Backus playing himself.

Movie review - "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" (2019) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Random thoughts
- Nicholas Hammond of all people knocks it out of the park
- Bruce Dern was fine but that would have been the perfect last role for Burt Reynolds
- like a lot of film buffs I was sitting there going "I love a lot of this but I get the Fabian and Michael Rennie references, I'm weird, what about normal people?"
- the film was about fetishness - movie posters, TV guide, cigarette packets, logos
- the money is well spent - it's a film about movie stars, production design and Tarantino - without those things it would be a hard slog (for some people it will be)
- I get the ending and I liked it
- the final assault ramming head repeatedly thing... that wasn't cool... wasn't cathartic in the way that say killing Nazis in Inglorious Basterds was or slave owners in Django Unchained was or rapist men in Kill Bill was... the women were killers but marginalised members of society... also we just meet them in the film.
- all the acting is excellent
- I wonder if the 8 year old girl on the set of Lancer is some allusion to James Stacy's pedophilia, not accessed in the film
- there is no female role with shade and dimension - Tate dances and is ethereal, the Charlie girls are sex objects/psychos/"other", Ric's Italian wife jabbers and gesticulates even though she takes part in a crucial scene, Brad Pitt's wife is a nagging bitch... in contrast the male roles are given lots of depth... Brad and Leo of course but also Emile Hirsch's pining Jay Sebring, Bruce Dern's George Spahn
- the visit to the Spahn Ranch was v creepy
- Mike Moh is a great Bruce Lee

Five Rod Taylor Connections to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (there are no spoilers in this)

1) The relationship between actor Rick Dalton (Leo di Caprio) and his stuntman Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) has parallels to Rod’s super close relationship with stuntman Fred Hakim. Rod met Hakim when the latter was a grip on the set of Do Not Disturb. The two hit it off and Hakim spent the next decade as Rod’s general assistant/stuntman/stand in/driver/whatever… like Cliff was for Rick. Rod was single at the time and Fred and his wife Dolores moved in with the actor for a period. Hakim was credited as an assistant on three productions where Rod was producer: Chuka, Bearcats and Partisan. Hakim died in a car crash in Yugoslavia during the making of Partisan. Taylor subsequently employed stuntman Terry Wilson as an assistant - Terry accompanied Rod to Australia to make The Picture Show Man - but, like Rick, needed him less once he got married, in Rod’s case to Carol Kikumura in 1980.
2) A clip from Partisan aka Hell River is briefly in OUATIH, as part of talking about Rick Dalton’s films. The film was made after 1969 but is passed off as a pre 1969 movie. I recognise how nerdy it is of me to recognise that.
3) The 14 Fists of McCluskey is a fictional World War II/action-adventure film in the OUATIH universe starring Van Johnson, Rod Taylor, Sal Mineo and Rick Dalton
4) Rod Taylor was actually a bigger star than Rick Dalton through the sixties, even though Rod’s TV series (Hong Kong) only lasted one season while Rick’s (Bounty Law) lasted four. This was mainly due to two reasons: Rod was cast in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, and had a strong relationship with major studios, notably MGM and Fox, who cast him in A-grade films through the sixties. However by the early seventies, Rod was making films in Europe, like Rick.
5) A story told me by the late Bill Kerr… He was discussing the Sharon Tate murders with Dudley Moore who mentioned his then wife Suzy Kendall was in town that night. Kendall was making Darker Than Amber with Rod Taylor. Kerr asked Moore was ever worried if his wife was in danger that night. Moore said no as “she was f*cking Rod Taylor”. I have no proof whatsoever this was true.

Movie review - "Eye of the Devil" (1966) ***

It's disconcerting to see Sharon Tate in a film about a bloodthirsty pagan cult as someone working for that cult. I didn't know much about this film and it probably should be better known especially as the much adored Wicker Man seems to have ripped off its premise - an old rural area run by an aristocrat pays homage to pagan Gods and when the crops start to fail the locals want blood. Mind you, this story seems to have ripped off a few stories itself - notably Rebecca, which ripped off Jane Eyre (gothic castle, woman not sure what mysterious man of the manor is up to, a secret, someone trying to drive lady of the house mad), plus a bit of The Innocents thrown in (creepy kids).

The movie is set in France and is about French people but feels more English with the aristocrats being played by David Niven, Deborah Kerr, and Flora Robson, with locals including Tate, David Hemmings and Edward Mulhare. But you know what? I went with it.

It's a fantastic cast - Niven and Kerr play their parts with complete conviction (Vincent Price normally got these sort of roles, its interesting to mentally compare them), Pleasance is scary as always, and Hemmings and Tate are genuinely unsettling. This might be Tate's most effective performance - she isn't required to do a lot of acting, just look beautiful and mysterious and she really pulls it off; she has a haunting quality about her. Hemmings is also ideal as her creepy bow wielding brother.

I felt it could have done with a few more shock scenes - as in bad stuff to actually happen. Pleasance felt wasted and I kept expecting Mulhare to do something. Also I do feel the story would've worked better with a younger female lead - Kerr seems too sensible.

Movie review - Matt Helm#4 - "The Wrecking Crew" (1969) *1/2

The fourth and last (to date) Matt Helm film is tired, creaking along at a slow pace, unsure of where to pitch its jokes. Say what you will about the first one or two movies, they knew what they were - over the top Bond spoofs which played up Dean Martin's image as a drunken, lecherous crooner. This one they seem reluctant to go there, but don't know where else to aim either.

It has the benefit of Nigel Green as the villain plus some stunning girls - Sharon Tate as a klutzy assistant, Elke Sommer as the femme fetale, Nancy Kwan as another femme fetale.

But it's slow and dull and Tate, for all her beauty doesn't have the  spark of Stevens or Ann Margret. By the time it stumbled to an end I was falling asleep and when the end credits promised Helm's return in The Ravagers (never made) I was depressed.

Movie review - "Wanted and Desired" (2008) ****

Roman Polanski's life offers material for several movies - this one focuses on his statutory rape trial, particularly the "judicial" process that resulted. Some great talking heads, such as the prosecutor, defence attorney, judge's clerk, investigating cops, and the victim himself. No Polanski, though there's several of his friends, and old footage (including stuff with him and an achingly beautiful Sharon Tate).

It is sympathetic to Polanski though several of the people involved loathe him for what he did. This is the sort of movie that is liable to start a discussion/argument afterwards as to morality - maybe not a good first date film.

Movie review – “Dance of the Vampires” (1967) ***

I’ve never seen the US version of this film – apparently it butchered it with cuts. To be honest, this uncut version could do with cutting. It drags on and on and is frequently frustrating – especially when Roman Polanski gets the chance to kill the vampires but doesn’t. And the character of the professor is exceedingly annoying. But it has a wonderful fairytale atmosphere – gorgeous snowy locations, old wooden huts and castles, fire places, iron baths, sleds and wolves… it’s quite captivating. There’s also plenty of funny gags too, mostly slapstick – Polanski seems to shy away from verbal stuff. Sharon Tate is beautiful and a good sport – Polanski gets her taking several baths. You just wish the script was worked out a bit more logically. Is this the screen’s first openly gay male vampire?