Movie review - "Hell is a City" (1960) **1/2

Stanley Baker's glowering intensity which made him so suitable paying villainous roles also meant he could segue into playing intense anti-heroes, which he did roughly from Hell Drivers onwards. This was one of several films he played around the turn of the decade where he played (you guessed it) intense police officers. Here he's a driven copper in Manchester, worrying about a man he put away years ago having escaped and investigating a robbery which resulted in murder - turns out said murder was commitment by the escapee in question.

There are some dreadful "acting" scenes involving Baker and his wife who constantly complains "why are you never home" (she's got a point, if he's not at work he goes to the pub), he won't let get a job, suggests she go have a child if she wants to feel useful, flirts with a barmaid - it's hideous. At the end the barmaid says she wants kids and Baker looks all interested - so does he want to have kids and his wife doesn't, is that it? Columbia requested the wife scenes were cut out for running time and they were right.

The police stuff is much better - it feels authentic, as the best Val Guest films do, and location shooting in and around Manchester helps a lot. The robbery sequence is well done, as is the subsequent murder and escape, and I enjoyed the investigation and interrogation. Aussie viewers will be especially interested by the illegal game of English two-up on the Manchester moors. Check out the finale for the difference between British and Hollywood films - Baker is fighting with the baddie (John Crawford) on the roof top, Crawford is about to fall off, Baker pulls him to safety, Crawford knocks him out then two other cops come in (and not the star) to save the star.

Tough and interesting gritty crime drama - has since been superseded by television but still enjoyable.

Radio review - Ford Theatre -"The Horn Blows at Midnight" (1948) **

Jack Benny famously made fun of this movie all the time - it's not that bad, but it is whimsy, which is hard to defend when the knives are out. The premise is apocalyptic - God (Claude Rains!) decides after WW2 that the world has had enough chances and decides to destroy it! So he sends down an incompetent angel (Jack Benny) to blow the trumpet of judgement day or whatever it is. He runs into a few people, doesn't really form any emotional connection with any of them, until the end when a little concentration camp survivor talks him into talking God into it. I thought there were supposed to be other angels down on earth but they're not in this production. (NB I just looked it up - apparently the script was heavily reworked for this production.) Mercedes McCambridge and Hans Conreid lend support. Fletcher Markle, series producer, makes a crack to Benny at the end about how he didn't want to go see the film "because he doesn't like being in empty spaces" - which is a bit mean. Why did he decide to adapt it then? Benny is good as always.

Movie review – “The Yangtse Incident" (1957) ***

Michael Anderson and Richard Todd attempted to repeat the success of The Dam Busters with another real-life war story, only this time the war wasn't really a war, more a skirmish: China 1949 when a British ship was fired on by the commies then attempted to break out. It's a marvellous tale, a real old-fashioned British Empire naval story. Too old fashioned for the public as it turned out - they didn't really go for the movie. Maybe they were turned off by the oddness of the situation (e.g. what were the British doing there anyway?), British audiences prefer their villains to be Germans rather than oriental commies (esp with such a variety of nationalities playing them - including Akim Tamiroff in make up). Also the final break for freedom isn't as exciting as the dam busters raid - I'm sure it was terrifying in real life but here it's basically just a boat going along a river, with a few people taking pot shots. It only takes up the last bit of the film too.

Most of the action consists of the initial attack and the political manoeuvring leading up to the break out. This feels realistic and is engrossing (Eric Ambler wrote the script): Todd's character wasn't the first captain, he was flown out after the captain was killed; sailors flee for the bank or toil underneath; local officers make demands on the British, who try to get negotiations without losing face. And the novelty of the setting gave it points for me. It's all done in a very no-nonsense British style. Knowing how much the Poms love cats I was surprised Simon the cat, who famously was on board the ship killing rats and getting wounded, didn't get a bigger role. Maybe it was too hard.

Produced by Herbert Wilcox and Anna Neagle! (Presumably Wilcox didn't want to direct because there's no role for Anna.)

Movie review – “Voodoo Man” (1944) **

It sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun: Bela Lugosi, Gorge Zucco and John Carradine in the cast, with Zucco and Carradine playing gas attendants who capture women for Lugosi to perform voodoo experiments on in order to give energy to dead wife. And the voodoo setting at the end brings back happy memories of The Black Cat. But the handling by William Beaudine is very slack and too much of this is dumb: the hero is a screenwriter investigating the story to help him write a movie (you know, like real life), the missing woman should have been the screenwriter's fiancee not her girlfriend, the playing of the non famous support cast bad. A real shame. Worth watching if you like the three leads though.

Movie review – “One Million BC” (1940) **1/2

Legendary prehistoric epic, much teased even when released but very influential, and footage from the movie turned up in numerous science fiction/fantasy epics over the next few decades. It also helped launch the careers of Victor Mature, Lon Chaney Jnr and Carole Landis, and ended that of DW Griffith.

The film begins in the modern day, with some hikers (all wearing leaderhousen!) taking refuge in a cave. Some old boffin is working there, and he gives them a lecture (no kidding they sit down as he talks and everything) about what happened here in ancient times. We flash back to the old world where Victor Mature and Lon Chaney Jnr are members of the same tribe. The rest of the movie is basically a silent film as Chaney kicks out Mature and he forms a relationship with Carole Landis. A lot of running around and women in fur bikinis and cavemen learning how to share and dinosaurs attacking whenever the action gets slow - kids would have loved it. It's done with tremendous gusto and conviction.

Script review – “Dreamcatcher” by William Goldman and Lawrence Kasdan

Part of Steven King's success lies in the fact he is willing to confront our deepest fears - and also his work is so emotional and the characters reach such catharsis. In this film best friends die trying to save each other, people are on the verge of killing themselves, the stakes are large. This film version was written by two of the best in the world, and I admit I haven't seen the film yet, but on paper it just doesn't work - it's solidly structured, easy to follow and all that, but too much of it is silly: the shit weasel, the memory warehouse comes across as weird, and the telepathic conversation is strange. These would work in novels but not a book.

Radio review – Suspense – “Backseat Driver” (1949) ***

Fibber McGee and Molly were apparently a pair of American comics - I've never seen them in anything but they work well in this suspensor about a couple driving home who hear on the radio about a murderer being on the loose and realise he's sitting in their backseat. Some decent twists and it's well pulled off.