Book review - "Campbell's Kingdom" by Hammond Innes

 Read this because of the film. Can see its appeal to film producers - sexy rugged setting (Canadian rockies), hooky set up (terminally ill man investigates dead grandfather's obsession with oil), some romance, baddies, a dam burst.

I had trouble telling the characters apart, the chapters were too long, needed more dialogue, Innes shows off his research. But it's not a natural ripping yarn. 

Movie review - "Blind Date" (1959) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 I gather this was Joseph Losey's first hit in Britain. It ushered in a strong period for him. It's not that a great film, although there's good things in it. Hardy Kruger (as a Dutchman) is arrested for the murder of a woman (Michele Presle) he was seeing - Stanley Baker is the cops.

Losey and his two screenwriters were blacklisted so there is a pleasing lefty American dig at the class system - Baker has a posh boss who puts pressure on Baker to arrest Kruger, because the deceased is connected with a Lord (who we never spend much time with - a mistake I feel).

In flashbacks to Kruger's relationship with Presley he's possessive and moody and controlling so could easily be a killer. This is in the film's favour to a degree although you sense at heart it's misogynist and you'd be right. 

The ending feels like it was inspired by Vertigo - I could be wrong though the dates kind of work out... she's not really dead, she's alive, she killed the mistress as a plot with the husband.

It's not an expensive film - mostly Baker interrogating Kruger, and flashbacks are Kruger and Presle in a studio. (These are quite racy scenes and I think helped the film do well at the box office.) Kruger's outsider status helps. I think the film would've been better though with an English actress instead of Presle - more clearly establishment.

Movie review - "The Good Die Young" (1954) ***

 A half success. An excellent cast - characters rarely cross which would have meant that clever scheduling would have kept the budget down.

It's about four men who decide to pull a heist. Everyone has an interesting story, though the impact is lessened by the fact that for all four of them it's a woman's fault... Stanley Baker is a boxer who gets injured but his drag of a wife gives their savings to her useless brother. Richard Basehart wants to move to America with wife Joan Collins but her bitch of a mother Freda Jackson does a fake suicide. John Ireland is a soldier whose bitch of a wife Gloria Grahame is cheating on him with her co star (she's an actor). Laurence Harvey is a ne'er do well rich kid whose wife (Margaret Leighton) won't bail him out.

The only one of these who is "bad" is Harvey - who is completely utterly bad. It's a very showy role. Harvey gets a great introduction, and looks fun with his bouffant hair. Sometimes he's effective - other times he seems amateurish. It's a bit all over the shop. I did love seeing him and Robert Morley as his dad and cuddly Morley telling Harvey how much he hates him. And it's fascinating to see Harvey married on screen to real life wife Margaret Leighton, skiving off her - which is what he did in real life.

Stanley Baker is excellent as an anti-hero. I get the feeling that Romulus (who made this) were more American minded saw him play a more sympathetic role.

 I liked John Ireland too though Gloria Grahame felt wasted - her one good moment was seeming to be turned on when he announced he had a plan, but then Ireland throws her in a bath. 

Basehart is dull. I had trouble remembering who he was when I saw him on screen. Collins does well in a not much role but Jackson is great campy fun.

The big fault of the movie - the heist isn't suggested until 1 hour 10 minutes in. And there's only 20 minutes to go. They should have known each other from the outset, been old army pals (they're all veterans - the movie is pleasingly cynical on the troubles of veterans). Harvey could have suggested the heist early - they all go "no no no" and then change their minds. They decide to do it too quickly and too late.

The other problem is that more needed to be done with the women.

The ending - criminal walking to a plane on the tarmac - feels influenced by The Asphalt Jungle.

Movie review - "Sea Fury" (1958) ***

An old story - elderly captain, young hot wife who wants to bang the younger first mate. But Cy Endfield, writer-director, puts in effort - its got location work in Spain, some excellent storm footage, a strong finale with the ship coming across a creepy trawler and weird captain... I actually wish it had been more of this, maybe one journey with the woman on board.

Luciana Paluzzi is sexy and can act as the woman, even if ultimately there's not a lot of depth to her character. Victor McLaglen and Stanley Baker are excellently cast, as is Robert Shaw as a scowly crew member who wants Baker's job.

This is good, tough adventure stuff - not as strong as Hell Drivers, and it needs more of a villain, like German U Boats or something. But it was made with care - flamenco music and so on. Not a typical bland 50s Rank movie.

Vale Stuart Whitman

I remember once reading a list of the richest actors in Hollywood - it included names you'd expect like Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra... and Stuart Whitman. I thought "what? Stuart Whitman?" But it was true... he did engineering in the army and when he got out and went into acting, he needed a day job like a lot of actors. His day job was he bought a little bulldozer (he learned how to drive one in the army) and would hire it and himself out for the day/week to clear land It was the 1950s and there was a property boom on in LA... Whitman soon figured out where it would be good to pick up some land himself for developing/re-selling. Over time he was worth $80 million. But he kept acting because he loved it. Indeed, he was a compulsive actor and took everything going when maybe a little more choosy-ness might have been ideal (or at least using some of that $80 million to maybe option a decent book or screenwriter).

Anyway here's a top ten:

 

1) Ten North Frederick (1958) - Whitman has a small but shiny role as an abusive musician in this Gary-Cooper-has-a-midlife-crisis melodrama... it helped get Whitman a contract at Fox who tried for a few years to turn him into a star

2) Hound Dog Man (1959) - ostensibly a Fabian movie this film really more belongs to Whitman, who plays a ne'r-do-well... the part really needed the star power of Elvis or even just Tommy Sands but Whitman is effective

3) The Story of Ruth (1960) - part of a sub-genre, Biblical spectacles that no one remembers - interesting to watch. Whitman plays Boaz.

4) The Mark (1961) - Whitman was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for this movie where he plays a child molesterer... only he doesn't actually molest children he only thinks about it (he does abduct a girl but doesn't go through with it) and then gets "better"... but the film does get points for tackling a big issue in 1960

5) The Comancheros (1961) - a really fun John Wayne western with Whitman as his rival and Ina Balin giving perhaps her best performance

6) Shock Treatment (1964) - mental illness-sploitation with Whitman faking illness to go undercover (not the Sam Fuller movie which used the same idea)

7) Sands of the Kalahari (1965) - Cy Endfield and Stanley Baker's fascinating follow up to Zulu has Whitman stepping in to a role that George Peppard walked out on as one of a group of passengers who crash in the desert and deal with horniness and killer baboons

8) Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) - really fun, lovely movie, a deserved hit... it's a little odd to see Whitman in it (original choice Dick Van Dyke would have been more at home) but he's fine

9) Night of the Lepus (1972) - a killer bunny rabbit movie, no kidding - the sort of movie where David Del Valle would do a killer commentary - kicked off the horror cycle of Whitman's career, which included films about cannibals (Welcome to Arrow Beach), killer alligators (Eaten Alive), cult leaders (Guyana)

10) Crazy Mama (1975) - part of New World Pictures cycle of films about outlaw women and their trashy daughters (eg Big Bad Mama) this one has Whitman hook up with Cloris Leachman and Linda Purl... directed by Jonathan Demme

Movie review - "The Guns of Navarone" (1961) ***

I love guys on a mission film but this one is not among my  favourites. It's too long and too flabby lacks a twist or two.

The things I liked:
* the fact it features three genuine stars, Peck, Niven and Quinn, and the support cast is super strong Irene Pappas, Stanley Baker, James Darren, Gia Scala)
* the location filming in Greece
*the photography
* the storm scenes
* the bits with the team climbing up the cliff
* the basic set up
*Papas killing Gia Scala
*the relationship between Peck and Quinn
*the music.

The things I remembered that jarred:
* Niven's miscasting as someone who refuses to be an officer
*Niven's weird attachment to Anthony Quayle
* the editing of the ending - what should be exciting was dragged out.

The things I forgot which jarred:
* James Darren singing a song in Greek
* the nobility of German Walter Gotel

Needed a lot of fat stripped off. Still fun though.

Stanley Baker Top Ten

1) Zulu (1963) - of course, though Baker is out-acted off the screen by Michael Caine and Nigel Greene
2) Robbery (1967) - great British heist movie and Baker is always good as a crim
3) Hell Drivers (1957) - a Brit film industry take on the sort of tough B movies Warners used to make
4) The Criminal (1960) - an excellent Losey-Baker collaboration
5) The Guns of Navarone (1961) - Baker is one of many names in this guys on a mission film but it is a very showy part
6) The Cruel Sea (1953) - Baker is only in a small part but makes a great impression in a fantastic movie
7) Accident (1967) - perhaps Baker's best "I'm playing against type" role in a film which I half like and others love but does have good things going for it so I put on this list for variety
8) Hell is a City (1960) - good tough Val Guest crime stuff
9) Yesterday's Enemy (1959) - another Baker-Guest collaboration, hard core look at British troops in Burma in the war
10) Hell Below Zero (1953) - one of Baker's best villainous performances (with a nod to Knights of the Round Table but this is a much better movie)

Movie review - "Perfect Friday" (1970) ** (warning: spoilers)

In the late 60s and early 70s famed theatre director Peter Hall took a brief stab at being a film director; none of the films are that remembered today but this piece has its pleasures, particularly a lively trio of star performances.

Stanley Baker is kind of cast against type as a mousy deputy bank manager - I say "kind of" because said bank manager plans a bank robbery and is a big time stud with Ursula Andress so he's not that mousy. The film might have worked better with a more obviously whimpy actor in this role, someone who stinks of being a little coward (eg Alec Guiness, Tom Courtney) - it may be have given this more tension instead of Baker standing there in his hairpiece practically going "hey I'm cast against type". (I will say though that this is among his better 70s movies.)

Andress is a spendthrift girl about town married to decadent aristocrat David Warner. She  is surprisingly good as the girl who sleeps with both men, whose loyalties we are never sure about. She rolls around in sheets, shows of boob and breasts (Peter Hall said this was a "send up of sex films" but I kind of don't think so) and displays a lot more energy than we're used to seeing from her.

Warner is a lot of fun as an impoverished, self entitled lord who takes to robbing banks like a duck to water.  There is an element of ham in Warmer and he pitches his performance just right; I don't always like him as an actor but he was good here.

There are a few twists - we presume that everyone is going to try and rip off everyone else, but because no one is an obvious star there is good tension. The theme music was overly jaunty and there are stretches where I got bored.

The last third was good (the robbery) when narrative took over. I really liked the idea of Dave Warner and Stanley Baker deciding to try robbing a bank again at the end of the film and wouldn't have minded a sequel.

Book review - "The Many Lives of Cy Endfield Film Noir, the Blacklist, and Zulu" by Brian Neve (2015)

How good a filmmaker was Cy Endfield? He made one movie that has passionate devotees - Zulu - but the others are far, far less well known. After the triumph of Zulu his career bewilderingly failed to gain momentum. I was familiar with glimpses - the mysterious Sands of the Kalahari, being booted off De Sade, the beyond-weird Universal Soldier - but this superb biography answers all those questions and more.

Endfield was from Scranton Pennsylvania; like so many directors of his era, he was the son of immigrants, and was whip smart, getting into Yale. He earned contacts in the progressive theatre scene of the 1930s, knowing Orson Welles and Paul Gallico, and joining the Communist Party. He eventually found his way to Hollywood and whinged/nagged/networked his way into filmmaking jobs, doing a stint for Mercury at RKO, then making a short for MGM, Inflation. This was extremely highly regarded - but also so powerful it was considered anti-capitalist and found it hard to get distribution. It was to be the first in a series of career blows that would frustrate Endfield.

He was a hard worker and wrote as well as directed so managed to find work - radio dramas (including "The Argyle Secrets" for Suspense which I review elsewhere on this blog), then making comedies at Monogram, and working his way up to some highly regarded film noirs, notably The Sound and Fury. It seemed Endfield's career was back on track then he was hit with another blow - being blacklisted.

Endfield fled to England. He eventually found work again in TV and then movies, writing and directing, forming a notable collaboration with actor-producer Stanley Baker: A Child in the House, Hell Drivers, Jet Storm, then of course Zulu. This was a big hit and really should have put Endfield back in the A league again. But his follow up, Sands of the Kalahari, flopped and Endfield could never get his groove back - by this stage he was too cranky, too old, probably too tired after so many knock backs. He was booted off De Sade, Universal Soldier was a mess, was unable to get financing for other projects; he worked increasingly in other areas - computers, tried writing a play (the man was ferociously intelligent); he had a life long interest in magic and was very serious about it. Critics rediscovered him but it was probably too little too late for his sense of self-respect.

For all his many admirable qualities Endfield wasn't always an easy person to like - he was prickly, temperamental, sulky; he bailed on a first marriage and child (the blacklist was a big part of this, in his defense); seemed reluctant to help out with the war effort. But he had talent, intelligence and made some entertaining films. Its a shame his early 50s film noirs aren't better known, for instance. He was a fascinating character who deserved a good biography, and he got one.

Movie review - "The Angry Hills" (1959) **

Robert Aldrich once said he felt this film was disappointing not because it wasn't good but because it could have been good. He's dead right too - this has a simple basic idea that should have worked like a snap, but it's completely muffed: American journalist Robert Mitchum arrives in Athens before the German attack in 1941, gets a list of local resistance leaders to pass on to British intelligence, and spends the rest of the film trying to get it to safety.

That's a solid idea - a strong Macguffin, with a clear goal (get the list to safety), various people helping/hindering (local resistance, Gestapo agents, traitors, mistresses). Robert Mitchum's character is stock but effective - a selfish man who learns humanity. And there's some seemingly sure fire human interest such as the Germans executing Greek villagers who won't give up Mitchum, Mitchum falling in love with a Greek girl (Gia Scala) who dies, a double agent who's doing it all for her kids, a German with a conscience, some lively dodgy types who may or may not be on Mitchum's side (Sebastian Cabot, Theodore Bikel), plus location filming in Greece.

What went wrong? Well we never get much progression in Mitchum's character - he turns up in uniform so it's not clear he's a journalist, he doesn't seem that uncommitted at any phase. The macguffin keeps getting forgotten - Mitchum goes off on tangents like helping the Greek resistance in a raid on the Germans instead of getting the information to safety. It's never clear when the Germans come and occupy Greece (i.e. when the actual invasion has taken place and is completed). He spends this time on a romance with Gia Scala, which we invest in, then she's taken away and the second half of the film he has this relationship with Elisabeth Mueller, which we're meant to invest in as well. We hear Scala has been tortured and killed off screen; Mueller has these kids she loves but only see at the end.

Mueller and Stanley Baker have this potentially interesting relationship but in the final scene at the end when Baker lets her live, both are wearing stripy pajamas which are very distracting. The business of the list of Greek leaders is missed and indeed downplayed at times. And it's in black and white so the location photography isn't that effective. It's all a bit of a mess and it shouldn't have been.

Movie review - "Jet Storm" (1959) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

The least well known of the collaborations between Stanley Baker and Cy Endfield, who also gave us Hell Drivers and Zulu. This is a quite enjoyable British disaster movie, with a fast pace, great cast and silly plot - Baker is the pilot on a flight across the Atlantic, when he discovers passenger Richard Attenborough wants to blow up the plane in revenge for his kid being run over.

How this is revealed is, to be honest, quite dumb - Attenborough threatens the person he thinks killed his kid, then his wife figures out he's got a bomb, and Baker tries to get it out of him, he won't tell, so Baker tells the passengers and they get worried, but sit in their chairs and worry.

It's really bizarre and British with everyone obeying the captain (some are reluctant) and acting in their subplots. There's mad Attenborough, his bewildered wife, a Jewish holocaust survivor, a politely sexy air hostesses romancing the co-pilot, a separated couple who rediscover their love playing cards, a fat Welsh comic (Harry Secombe!), a drunken loud widow (Hermione Baddeley), a pop singer who gets stressed out (Marty Wilde, who sings the title tune), a socialite, a sexy flirt (Diane Cilento), a little kid, and a lynching. Something for everyone really - notably a climax where the captain sends an eight year old kid to sweet talk the psychotic bomber!

A great cast - in addition to the well known leads (who turn in good performances), Secombe and Wilde,  there's Mai Zetterling, George Rose, Virginia Maskell, Elizabeth Sellars, Patrick Allen, Sybil Thorndyke, Neil McCallum, Megs Jenkins, Paul Eddington, David Kossoff, Cec Linder, Jocelyn Lane, Bernard Braden, Barbara Kelly, Lana Morris and Jeremy Judge. It's a movie that is often stupid but never dull and I liked it a lot.

Movie review - "Checkpoint" (1956) **

Not a very well known movie but full of familiar elements of British films of the 50s made by Rank - directed by Ralph Thomas, produced by Betty Box, Anthony Steel as star and Stanley Baker as villain, James Robertson Justice as a tycoon, colour photography, some location shooting in an exotic locale (here Italy).

It's a car racing movie only not really - more car industrial espionage, with Baker working for Justice, trying to obtain plans for a car... which results in him killing some people, which gets this off to a very serious start. 

The tone for the film never seems to work - Steel is a car designer/racer envied by Justice, Baker is holed up in an apartment but then escapes, there is lots of driving, some comic relief by support actors. Steel has a romance with Odile Versois, only they used to go out back in the day so we miss out on any wooing, just cut into them kissing, so this feels shallow. And its a convoluted set up to get Baker in the car with Steel.

There are some terrific cars, pleasing scenery and professional work from old hands such as Baker and Justice. Steel does his handsome leading man thing, in a part that could have easily been essayed by Dirk Bogarde - at least playing a racing car driver was different. Pleasing enough entertainment.

Movie review - "Violent Playground" (1958) **

I became used to seeing David McCallum as a sensitive young man in his early films but he's very effective here as a glowering juvenile delinquent - moody, handsome, just wanting a cuddle. This probably would have been better regarded amongst teenagers had he been more of a protagonist - but unlike James Dean, Elvis or Tony Curtis movies, the real hero is a middle aged man: cop Stanley Baker.

Baker is a terribly decent copper who cares about the kids, you see - in this case the Irish living in Liverpool. He pretends not to be but of course he is - with the benefit of falling for McCallum's hot sister, Anne Haywood.

Unfortunately the movie becomes more conventional as it goes on, with McCallum turning into just another gangster, holding a schoolroom full of kids hostage, but being unable to beat the power of wise middle aged men (Baker, Peter Cushing as a priest, a teacher).  It all feels superficial and a bit patronising - it's a shame because McCallum is so charismatic. If they'd made his character the leading one I think this would be a minor teenage classic, much loved by baby boomers, but the filmmakers can't resist shoving their wisdom and platitudes in. The location filming does help and there are some exciting moments.

Movie review - "A Prize of Arms" (1962) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Although Stanley Baker was best known for his role in Zulu it wasn't a typical Stanley Baker film - there was such a thing, it flourished 1957-63 when Baker was a genuine draw at the British box office. He would typically play a tough anti-hero, a crook or a cop, who was involved in a heist, either committing it or tracking down the culprits. The films would be medium budget, in black and white, heavily male focused, gritty and generally downbeat.

He's a crook in this one - an ex-army officer who decides to rob the army payroll during the Suez Crisis when the army was cashed up, which is a pretty good idea. (And makes this one of the few English movies to touch on Suez - The Entertainer was another.) The plan is quite clever, too - pretend to be maintenance men, start some fires, use a fake casualty, then pretend to leave but actually stay (years before Silence of the Lambs and The Inside Man). Baker and his men rely on the public service aspect of the army - being used to poor paperwork, bluffing their way past little penny pinchers, etc.

Indeed, they're so switched on it's frustrating at the end when the crooks start acting like idiots - it feels too convenient. And the movie feels as though it lacks something - I think it's a subplot, or some variety, or maybe stronger characters or more humour, or something. Probably the subplot - it's very linear. And bleak. But it's unpretentious (apart from the take-whatever-you-want cynicism which seems de rigeur for this period) and the final escape scene is mostly very exciting.

Movie review - "The Cruel Sea" (1953) ****

One of the best British war films ever - surely no other country could have made it, with its emphasis on realism, stiff upper lips, tragedy, stoicism. It's a tough, quite grim movie, rather down beat (the war really takes a toil on the characters - they lose loved ones, take solace in booze and bills). Yet it was the most popular movie of the year. Audiences don't mind a tough story if its done well and this is done extremely well. (And of course if it's based on a best seller).

Many memorable moments: sailors finding out one their sisters has been killed in a bombing raid, a sailor going crazy on a life raft, Jack Hawkins steaming through some British survivors to get a U boat, Denholm Elliot's wife not caring that he's going to sea, Donald Sinden's sweet romance with Virgina McKenna in the blackout, tears going down Hawkins' face, tense battle scenes.

The film made Jack Hawkins' the biggest star in British cinema and was a boon to the career of Virginia McKenna, Donald Sinden, Denholm Elliott, and Stanley Baker (who makes an instant impression even though he's only in the film for about ten minutes - they get rid of his character pretty quick). Extremely well done - the sort of movie that threatens to give 50s British cinema a good name.

Movie review - "The Italian Job" (1969) ***1/2

If you ever want to know what the "New Lad" movement was about, show them this - cockney Michael Caine gets out of prison and has it off with a series of hot birds, then plans a heist in Italy. There's a Matt Munro credits tune, gorgeous Italian scenery, sideburns, women in knee high boots and mini skirts, wacky crooks, the mafia, training sequences, colourful clothes. The chant the prisoners give Noel Coward at the end is just like one at a football ground - so too is the song "The Self Preservation Society".

There are plenty of endearing references to England's declining position as a world power - getting revenge on those Europeans, the poor balance of payments, the power of the Americans, Noel Coward's worship of the queen, digs at obnoxious Pommy tourists abroad.

The first half of this I found a little bit of a strain, to be honest, despite Caine's charm. But once they get to Italy it improves and the heist itself is sublime. Cute minis driving up and down stairs and down sewerage pipes and on to the back of the bus accompanied by Quincy Jones' theme song - what's not to like about that? And "you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off" is a funny line in the context of the movie.

Movie review - "The Criminal" (1960) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

A fusion of the American and British gangster film - expat director Joe Losey has a high old time with this tale of hardened crim Stanley Baker who gets out of prison, where he is top dog, and sets about promptly going back to his old ways, organising a stick up of a race trek (shades of The Killing!), and winds up back there.

Baker is in his element here as a hard man, who thinks he's on top of it all, but winds up being outwitted by women, prison guards and his fellow crims. There's an interesting jazz soundtrack (Cleo Laine sings the title song), Aussies will love seeing a huge bald Aussie prisoner in gaol, an unflinching look at prison life, some effective riot sequences, funky cinematography.

Like a lot of Losey movies the female characters aren't that great - Baker is tormented by his over acting, drunken ex and sleeps with a gangster groupie. Also the plot feels repetitive - get out of gaol, rob something, wind up back in gaol, escape from gaol. But it's good, tough entertainment with fine work from Baker and the male support cast (including Patrick Magee as a sadistic warden).

Movie review - "Accident" (1967) **1/2

Harold Pinter and Joseph Losey were made for each other - Losey's stylish visuals perfectly combed with Pinter's nuances and pauses, creating memorably creepy entertainment. This isn't as well known as The Servant - and I'm not surprised because after an intriguing start it becomes dull.

The film starts with an accident in which young Michael York is killed and beautiful Jacqueline Sassard lives. Dirk Bogarde rescues her and we flash back to their relationship. Basically Bogarde is York's tutor and he lusts after his girlfriend - who is also chased by Stanley Baker.

There are plenty of creepy bits like the chair at the tennis match which is suddenly empty, and Bogarde stalking in to a room at night. But after a while I did get a bit sick of it. The Servant had a steadily rising narrative line as James Fox sunk further into depravity. This is just bits and pieces - you long for someone to want to kill someone else.

Bogarde is excellent as the mid life crisis Don - all the outward signs of success (nice house, good job, wife and kids) but still pining for a hot bit of French totty, jealous of his student's youth and looks and his friend Baker's fame. Baker is effective as an academic - not an all time great performance (it smacked a little of gimmick e.g. "hey it's Stanley Baker playing an academic how non typecasting is that?") Sassard and Vivienne Mercant have the thankless girl roles - this is really all about the guys.

Movie review - "Campbell's Kingdom" (1957) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

In the late 50s the British film industry, in particular the Rank organisation, went on a Commonwealth countries kick - you had films shot in Australia (Robbery Under Arms), South Africa (Nor the Moon by Night), India (The Wind Cannot Read, North West Frontier) etc. This was Canada's turn, so you've got lots of British actors wearing flannos talking in vaguely American accents.

This has been called Rank's attempt at a Western which it isn't really, although it's set outside in North America, has a couple of scenes set in a saloon and is about a mystery man who comes into town to beat the baddies, avenge a problem and save the day. For one thing it's set in the present day, it's about digging for oil rather than gold or the railways, Dirk Bogarde isn't a gunslinger (there are no guns) but rather a doomed Byronic man who has six months to live, and he doesn't do all the heroic work himself but rather gathers a group of friends around him: an engineer (Michael Craig), driller (James Robertson Justice), pretty girl (Barbara Murray), friendly driver (Sid James). This ensemble, everyone-pitch-in-to-help teamwork ethos marks the movie as very different from Hollywood, with its lone-man-against-the-elements ethos.

It isn't a great movie - Ralph Thomas never made a great movie, he was too much of a hack - but it's not bad. It's from a Hammond Innes novel so there's always plenty of action, there's some spectacular location work (mountains, dams, rivers), the setting is novel, a couple of good action sequences (blowing things up, a dam collapse at the end). Bogarde is effective with a terminal illness (it does kind of cheat that at the end he's miraculously better), Michael Craig lends handsome support, Stanley Baker could play this sort of villain role in his sleep. No one seems vaguely Canadian but at least it's in Canada.

Book review - "Flashman" by George MacDonald Fraser

The first entry in this series remains a lively, energetic piece of work full of hilarious lines and acid satire - it's hard to believe the author who turned into such a Blimp in the last decade of his life could be so vicious and satirical about the British Empire, the incompetence of the way it was run and fought for, the imperial types that abounded. Pretty much everyone is sent up mercilessly (and no doubt accurately): Elphinstone (the head of the army in Afghanistan), General Cotton, Lady Sale, General Sale, Lord Cardigan, Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, the Scots, army officers, Sekundar Burnes, McNaughten, etc. The only people who don't get a hiding really are the Duke of Wellington and Colin McKenzie.

It's brilliantly lively and inventive - Flashman's escapes from Gul Shah are thrilling, the disintegration and collapse of the British army is scary and harrowing, it's clever how he gets out of the duel (there is a lot of genuine wit). There are some nasty bits - Flashman hits one woman and rapes another, which is a bit full on, even if she does try to lop his bit off later (rape was very popular in racy fiction, esp films, in the late 60s). It has a bittersweet finale with Flashman earning fame and thanks but realising his wife is probably unfaithful. There were better entries in the series but this was a great start.