Book review - "Noel Coward Diaries" by Noel Coward

Brilliantly entertaining diary entries from the original King of Style covering WW2 through to the late 60s - they end just as Coward had been told he was being knighted. In the meantime he undertook something of a roller coaster life - he never enjoyed the eminence of his pre-war days (his war stuff like In Which We Serve and Blithe Spirit stands tall but his post war stuff never seemed to capture long term public affection the way say Private Lives did), suffered constant battles with British authorities, especially tax ones - which denied him a knighthood for so long. On the other hand he did enjoy some success, particularly as a cabaret performer - certainly moving overseas for tax purposes secured his future financially.

Coward's life seems to have been a constant whirl of travel, lunches, dinners, parties, and mourning friends who died. He only got down in the dumps towards the end of the 60s, but always managed to find something to be cheery about. He was hurt by critical attacks, which must have been unduly harsh, but had many friends, including the royal family. He must have been marvellous company.

I could never figure out the him and Lester Cole thing - were they a couple or not? If so it seems they were not exclusive. I particularly enjoyed his reviews of various plays movies and books, not to mention his views of famous people he knew and political events (he picked that the alliance with Russia would not last the war - he was a solid Conservative though it was the Labor govt who gave him his knighthood). Wonderful.

Play review - "On the Whipping Side" (1993) by Errol O'Neil

One of Errol O'Neil's entertaining looks at Qld history, in this case the 1895 shearer's strike. Occasionally falls into the historical play trap with "we're living through a moment" dialogue but generally well written about an engrossing period of time and an ace in the hole character in William Lane, the nutty socialist who tried to establish utopia in South America. Also gets points for having the feisty teacher character not wind up with one of her handsome suitors at the end.

Play review - "Hitchcock Blonde" by Terry Johnson

Enormously entertaining look at Hitchcock and obssession and sex and blondes. Interwines several plots into a most satisfactory meal; plenty of erotic appeal and it even managed to squeeze some life out of a middle aged academic chasing a young student. Best stuff involves hitch himself, though.

Movie review - "48 Shades" (2006) **

Flat version of Nick Earls novel which makes the mistake of not adding any plot but removing voice over or Earls' voice. So you have a not-much story about a kid who spends a year with his aunt and attends BBC (the whimpiest school uniform ever).
Richard Wilson is OK with his old-young face and semi-English accent, but isn't really a star; Emma Lung is irriating in a cypher role. The girl who played the aunt was alright as was the landlord and Wilson's nerdy friend. Victoria Thaine was too old to play a young girl.
Great design - all the smoking on the back deck of a bi Queenslander made me feel nostalgic for the 90s (esp the goon on the clothes line) and the music is pleasant and the visuals fine - but not enough to make up for the slow handling.

Errol Flynn Box Office

In the Wake of the Bounty (1933) - cost £6,500 to make and earned £7,000. (Source "Counting the Cash in Australian Films"', Everyones 12 December 1934 p 19)

Captain Blood (1935) made a profit of $1.462 million.

The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), The Prince and the Pauper (1937), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), The Private Lives Of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) and The Sea Hawk (1940) established Flynn as the top star at Warner Bros. Each of the six films had high domestic earnings and earned very high foreign grosses.

The Adventures of Robin Hood was by far the most expensive and successful. It had the highest production cost ($2,033,000) of any Warner Bros film at this time, and earnings of $3,981,000 were the highest of the decade - a profit of almost $2 million.

Elizabeth and Essex cost $1.075 million, making a profit of $550,000.

Flynn also starred in three highly successful westerns [Dodge City (1939), Virginia City (1940), Santa Fe Trail (1941)]), which all had costs above $1,000,000 and earned solid profits. Santa Fe Trail made a profit of $1.48 million.

He also starred in films costing half that amount, including Green Light (1936), Another Dawn (1937), and The Dawn Patrol (1938).

In 1942 Errol Flynn’s contract specified that on every fourth picture at Warner’s he would receive a percentage of the ‘‘net gross.’’ This term was defined to be the gross revenues less all negative, advertising, and distribution costs and a 20 percent distribution fee.

They Died with Their Boots On (1942) made a profit of $1.5 million.

His highest earning film of the mid 40s was San Antonio (1945), which cost more than $2,000,000 and and earned $3.553 million (it was Warners biggest hit of the year).

His biggest hit of the late 40s was The Adventures of Don Juan (1948) which had earnings of just under $5,000,000 and costs of approximately $3,500,000.

It is highly unlikely that the western Silver River (1947), made any profit at all. Costs of $3,204,000 were barely met by earnings of $3,484,000.

Films such as Cry Wolf (1947) and Never Say Goodbye (1946) placed well outside the ten top earning films of their season, and Escape Me Never (1947) had earnings below its production cost. Never Say Goodbye earned cinema receipts of £116,821 in England (a solid amount).

Over at MGM he made two films.  
* That Forsyth Woman (1949) grossed $3,697,000 (domestic $1,855,000 and foreign $1,842,000) at a cost of $2,612,000 - making a loss of $574,000.

* Kim made $5,348,000 (domestic $2,896,000 - the tenth biggest film of the year - and foreign $2,452,000), at a cost of $2,049,000 - made a profit of $1,064,000. It wasn't as big a hit as King Solomon's Mines, which had also been offered to Errol, but that was still pretty good. He picked the wrong film but it wasn't that massive a mistake.

* Montana (1950) cost between $1-$1.5 million and earned over $3 million, including cinema receipts of £131,969 in the UK.

* Rocky Mountain (1951) earned

£125,231 worth of receipts in the UK.

* King's Rhapsody (1954) earned

 £90,884 in receipts in the UK - this was poor compared to earlier musicals from Anna Neagle.

He had two supporting roles in films for 20th Century Fox in the late 50s.  
* The Sun Also Rises (1958) made $3.5 million and cost $3.815. 
*  The Roots of Heaven (1958) made $3 million, cost $3.3 million.

TV review - "Murder One" (1995) season one

Perfect show for DVD watching since it has one long story strand over the first season. Daniel Benzali is a knock out as the super defending lawyer - bald head and ferocious looking, nonetheless often like a big cuddly teddy bear, a combination of Santa and Clarence Darrow. There is also excellent support from Stanley Tucci as a David Geffen like millionaire, Dylan Baker as a detective (there's a scene where he chats with a young girl and it makes you quiver after having seen Baker in Happiness), John Fleck as Benzali's devoted gay secretary (their warm relationship is a real delight), Barbara Blossom as the "mum" type of prosecutor, and the guy who plays the creepy shrink. Decent acting from others except maybe two of Benzali's team who seem a bit graduate-of-QUT, the girl with bug eyes and her boyfriend (the other two ingenues were a bit better, Mary McCormick and the kind of funny looking guy). 

You do kind of wish the law firm would lose at least one case. Some later favourites pop up in support roles, such as Brittany Murphy and Richard Schiff. 

I couldn't pick the killer and there were twists all up to the end. Also many enjoyable shafts at the legal system post OJ.

Movie review - "United 93" (2006) *****

The best movie I've seen at a cinema in years - I had such an emotional response to it that by the end I was totally gutted, I couldn't move out of my chair. Incredibly powerful, I felt as though I was a passenger on the plane. You see the passengers: old ladies, young women, family men. Its heartbreaking. My heart was pounding from the beginning because I knew what was going to happen - the most exciting sequences are when the terrorists take over and the final assault. Only real debit: some of the acting is a little iffy. But the ones who play the terrorists are terrific and generally the standard of acting is fine. A masterpiece.