Movie review - "Panic in Year Zero!" (1962) ***

One of the most fascinating movies that came out of AIP in the early 60s - genuinely thought provoking, especially if you don't assume the movie endorses the actions of it's lead character, Ray Milland.

He's a typical middle class American suburban dad (albeit with his British accent) who goes on a fishing trip with wife and two kids, when they get news that World War Three has started. Milland instantly goes into survival mode - the refuses to return home to LA to pick up his mother in law (for safety reasons he says, although it's possible he had another agenda!), stocks up on supplies, won't tell the guy who runs the corner store that there's a war on, steals some guns at gun point, becomes very closed and doesn't help people. He constantly gets son Frankie Avalon to cover him with a gun as he runs people, ignores his wife's wishes and concerns, and won't let his daughter go out on raids with him and Avalon.

Eventually his daughter is raped by some juvenile delinquents (in many ways this is a JD film more than a post-apocalyptic one, complete with angry middle aged men, black and white photography, jive talking villains and jazzy score) - Milland doesn't seem so much interested in whether she's alright but in getting revenge. He shoots the two rapists, rescues their kidnapped sex slave (this, years before Casualties of War), and deals with the third.

A lot of this is corny and I get the feeling if I saw it in a cinema it would be full of laughter (e.g. Avalon drawing a painting on a wall, Milland's wife reassuring him about killing two men that she tried to kill them too). But it's also fascinating and doesn't whimp out - and within reason it's fairly realistic. A lot of men would react like Milland.

Movie review - "Hannibal" (1959) ** (warning: spoilers)

Hannibal remains probably the most famous general to take on Ancient Rome, even more so that the ones who actually knocked Rome off their perch (e.g. Goths, Vandals). He wasn't necessarily black but it's unlikely he looked too much like Victor Mature, who is the star here. Having said that Mature isn't bad as a hardened, tough general - he looks as though he's seen a lot of fighting and could lead men, and does particularly well in the later stages of the movie when his heart is broken.

History buffs will find some things to enjoy - there's a crossing of the Alps, which lots of soldiers being frostbitten and falling down hillsides to their death, and the Battle of Cannae, and Fabius Maximus. But most of the time is taken up with Hannibal falling for a Roman noblewoman, captured niece of Fabius (who winds up killing herself). The movie is also anti-climactic after the Battle of Cannae - it just has this sort of postscript which says that Hannibal hung around in Italy and fought for a long time (which is true but doesn't make for very good drama).

It's a choppy sort of movie - occasionally there are scenes with lots of extras then ones with hardly any, then stuff on location intercut with shots very obviously on a set. It goes in fits and starts, the acting/dubbing is erratic and often laughable. Interesting enough but could have been much more so.

Movie review - "The Sea Chase" (1955) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

If you thought John Wayne was miscast in The Conqueror wait til you see him as a German sea captain in 1939. He's one of those Good Germans - a brave soldier from World War I (because, you know, they believed in freedom so much) who has called afoul of the Nazis so is only captaining a crummy freighter, is best friends with a British naval captain (David Farrar) and breaks up his engagement to a girl with a trashy past (Lana Turner), is admired by his men except the Nazi first mate.

He's in Sydney Harbor (cue some location shots) when the Germans invade Poland. Realising things are going to get hot he slips out and is pursued by Farrar. Matters get especially hot when the Nazi shoots some innocent fishermen on Auckland Island, which makes Wayne and his gang a war criminal.

I ended up enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would. Wayne is never for a second convincing as a German but he's believable as a sea captain of integrity. Lana Turner emotes all over the shop as a Nazi spy but her relationship with Wayne does work (they have sex several times). What gives it real emotional kick is they both die at the end - this cleanses a lot of sins. 

 

It's also an engrossing story with plenty of incident - fleeing Sydney, Auckland Island, running out of fuel, a South Pacific island interlude, going into Valpariso. Occasionally I didn't buy it lie Dave Farrar arranging for a transfer to the North Sea to chase Wayne - I know why they did it that way but I didn't buy it.

This must have been one of John Farrow's most personal projects: starting off in his home town of Sydney, about boats during World War 2, the navy, going across the Pacific and staying on a Pacific Island. Tab Hunter isn't on screen very much as an officer; there are other people with far bigger roles, such as the ancient sailor, the burly sailor who comes to respect Wayne, the Nazi, the shark victim who kills himself, etc.

NB In the 1950s there was a whole sub genre of "sympathetic German" films: The One Who Got Away, The Desert Fox, The Young Lions, The Enemy Below, this. All popular. People didn't mind a sympathetic German hero so long as he was anti-Nazi and died at the end.

Movie review - "The Sleeping Tiger" (1954) ** (warning: spoilers)

The first collaboration of Dirk Bogarde and Joseph Losey has interesting parallels to their later classic The Servant - again he's a mysterious, dangerous man who is invited into a household by a man of a higher social class and wrecks havoc with the man's wife. In this case the household is psychiatrist Alexander Knox and wife Alexis Smith, whose marriage is soon seen to have plenty of flaws. Bogarde and Smith have an affair and Smith goes batty.

This starts very well, with Bogarde in superb touch as a seductive crook and Smith also excellent as the housewife whose passion Bogarde unleashes by smacking around the maid and taking her to wild jazz-playing Soho nightclubs. But then it sort of runs out of ideas - there are too many investigative scenes with cops asking questions that feel repetitive.

Knox is a bit bland (he doesn't even seem to care when he catches his wife and Bogarde in a dodgy embrace); although is smugness is good, he really needs something more for us to get into this character - what sort of man allows himself to be cuckolded, then makes up fake alibis, etc. Bogarde's "I'm like this because they took my fire engine away when I was little" scene is not very convincing.

And it was annoying how at the end Knox and Bogarde gang up on Smith e.g. Bogarde dumping her, Knox pretending to shoot Bogarde (what a mind f*ck), and it's Smith who dies not Bogarde - there was an anti-female slant to Losey's work with would constantly re-emerge. It gets a bit silly and dull.

Movie review - "The Siege of Pinchgut" (1959) ** (warning: spoilers)

How to take a terrific idea and suck all the excitement on it. The concept of this is similar to the later block buster The Rock - a group of escaped criminals take over a fort on Sydney harbour and threaten to blow up a munitions boat. Sounds great, right? But it goes wrong. Why?

Well, it starts pretty good, with an ambulance driving through Sydney, containing the four desperate men (the title of the US release) including Aldo Ray. There's a few narrow escapes, they go through hospital, steal a boat and head into the harbour, break down and stumble upon Fort Pinchgut. There's a caretaker and his family there, and a hostage situation develops.

So far so good, but then when all the filmmakers have to do is follow The Petrified Forest template, the wheels fall off. Aldo Ray tells his men (and the hostages!) that he doesn't want to kill them, or anyone really. And he's only trying to whip up public opinion in his favour to get a retrial (as if anyone would care. We never find out if he's genuinely guilty by the way). So he and his men are no threat - the Italian is a little more ruthless but not much, Ray's brother is a whimp, the British ex-naval gunner is quite amiable.

There is a very unexciting sequence where a group of tourists visit the island, some unengaging squabbles amongst the kidnappers (in front of the hostages) and an undeveloped love plot.

Heather Sears calls out to police, but no one takes action at her - she's not even punched out or threatened with rape. Grant Taylor shoots and wounds Neil McCallum, but he doesn't die and even that doesn't set Aldo Ray off. Half-way through Ray gets the idea to blow up a munitions ship but even that takes a long time - the authorities have plenty of opportunity to evacuate suburbs and take munitions out of the ship. Ray's men are picked off one by one but he doesn't seem to care. It's the most lethargic action film I've ever seen. It only perks up at the end when Ray goes bonkers, the cops storm the island, and Ray is given a White Heat like death on top of a tower.

Ray's performance is okay - he's effective when he goes bonkers, he should have done it from the beginning - but it feels clunky that he and his brothers are Americans living in Sydney. It just doesn't feel right.

Neil McCallum isn't very good, though the others are okay. Alan Tilvern is impressive as a hardened cop (he's got a good Aussie accent) and there some nice Aussie jokes presumably provided by Jon Cleary, who worked on the script (people complaining about the siege interfering with the races, a two up game, people squabbling over the politicians). But it's a real shame and the movie would be good to remake.

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 - "A Dangerous Method" (2011) ***

Literate, smart and thoughtful entertainment almost entirely derailed by an appalling performance form Keira Knightley, full of ticks and gestures and erratic accent, like some bad acting grad fresh out of QUT who mainly got the role because she was really hot and willing to show a little nipple. David Cronenberg really should have pulled her under control - she's not remotely believable as someone capable of being a doctor herself. She's a film star trying to be an actor, and good for her, but she needed a month's more rehearsal and probably a director who is better with women.

There's excellent work from Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen (once you get used to his false nose) and Vincent Cassell (as a rock and roll lifestyle shrink - give into temptation, take drugs, sleep with your patients). Sarah Gadon is a completely blank canvass as Fassbender's wife. The most interesting character is Freud - smart, arrogant, not wanting to be questioned, more political than he seems.

Lots of ideas fly around, the main one being the difference in approach between Jung and Freud. It's treatment is a little stolid - at times I wished Peter Weir or someone more cinematic directed this, Cronenberg's approach feels stiff, as if he was intimidated by the pre-World War I-ness of it all and the literary quality of Christopher Hampton's script. It's very bright and clean and HD, something which didn't work for me (although I know others liked it). For all it's spanking scenes it is curiously unerotoic.