Ralph Thomas, Betty Box and Hywel Bennett had a big hit with Percy but this re-teaming was a flop - and deservedly so, because it's dreadful. It needn't have been - there's no reason you couldn't make a comedy about birth control, and the source material was a popular play. But the result it witless, dumb and miscast.
The plot has Nanette Newman refuse to sleep with husband Bennett because he won't let her go on the pill. I'm sure that was/is a genuine issue for Catholics but the pressure never seems real - not in a swinging 70s sex comedy. Maybe if this had been set in a Catholic country like Ireland where a priest played by Milo O'Shea would have real pull. Or maybe if the lead duo had been played by actors who seemed middle aged. But Bennett seems too young for his part, he doesn't come across as a morally strict middle aged man, he's like a young actor playing a middle aged man with the help of glasses and a moustache but he's never convincing. Newman is sensible and girl-next-door pretty but not a lot of fun. You never get the sense why she and Bennett would marry.
There is an interesting support cast including an early performance from John Cleese as a birth control expert. (Interestingly, Thomas cast another Python alumni, Graham Chapman, in Doctor in Trouble.) His scene is towards the beginning of the film so die hard Python fans might want to check it out then switch off; all others are best off avoiding.
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Movie review - "Women He's Undressed" (2013) ****
Gloriously enjoyable doco about costume designer Orry Kelly, one of the most successful Australians in Hollywood. He grew up in Kiama, moved to Sydney to work in a bank but became interested in theatre, and eventually went to New York to try and make it as an actor. He never did but he did develop contacts in the theatre world, including sharing an apartment with a young Cary Grant; he began painting murals which led to a job as a costume designer on stage, then Hollywood.
It was an amazing career - his credits include Jezebel, Casablanca, An American in Paris, Les Girls and Some Like It Hot. Three of these films won him Oscars - interestingly all three came after major slumps in Kelly's career. He liked to drink and could be difficult to work with - Jack Warner gave him the boot in the mid 40s and in the early 1950s he couldn't get a gog to save his life. But he had enough people willing to give him a job.
Some great talking heads including Jane Fonda and Angela Lansbury plus lots of costume designers who give us a technical insight into Kelly's particular gifts. There's also plenty on Kelly's sexuality and friendship with Cary Grant.
I think the device of using Darren Gishenan worked well. I wasn't as wild about the decision to not have any photos of Kelly until the very end - I can get why they did it, but it just seems odd in a film that attempted to increase his renown.
It was an amazing career - his credits include Jezebel, Casablanca, An American in Paris, Les Girls and Some Like It Hot. Three of these films won him Oscars - interestingly all three came after major slumps in Kelly's career. He liked to drink and could be difficult to work with - Jack Warner gave him the boot in the mid 40s and in the early 1950s he couldn't get a gog to save his life. But he had enough people willing to give him a job.
Some great talking heads including Jane Fonda and Angela Lansbury plus lots of costume designers who give us a technical insight into Kelly's particular gifts. There's also plenty on Kelly's sexuality and friendship with Cary Grant.
I think the device of using Darren Gishenan worked well. I wasn't as wild about the decision to not have any photos of Kelly until the very end - I can get why they did it, but it just seems odd in a film that attempted to increase his renown.
Movie review - "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" (2015) **
Long in development, underwhelming public response, and a disappointment. Some bits are quite good - it looks stylish, nice costumes and make up, etc - but it never works.
Part of this are the cast which is surprisingly uniformly bland - full of pretty young things that look like they've stepped out of drama school. England is full of great actors steeped in Austen lore but Burr Steers (or whoever is responsible) has peopled his film with bland nothings - the Bennett girls, for instance, are all pretty and that's it. They lack personality and spark. The young men are pretty and bland too. Sam Riley and Lily James are poor leads.
Part of it is the zombie stuff. We are so familiar with zombies now that the filmmakers really needed to come up with something fresh and/or interesting - they've failed to do so. There should have - the concept is strong enough - but all the zombie attacks are filmed in lazy perfunctory style that we've seen heaps of times before. It feels like the same old zombie attacks - munching brains, our heroes performing superhuman efforts of zombie fighting. Sure they spout the words but you never get a sense that anyone has a genuine feel for the period or Austen or even zombies. It occasionally comes to life - it's not awful - just dull.
Part of this are the cast which is surprisingly uniformly bland - full of pretty young things that look like they've stepped out of drama school. England is full of great actors steeped in Austen lore but Burr Steers (or whoever is responsible) has peopled his film with bland nothings - the Bennett girls, for instance, are all pretty and that's it. They lack personality and spark. The young men are pretty and bland too. Sam Riley and Lily James are poor leads.
Part of it is the zombie stuff. We are so familiar with zombies now that the filmmakers really needed to come up with something fresh and/or interesting - they've failed to do so. There should have - the concept is strong enough - but all the zombie attacks are filmed in lazy perfunctory style that we've seen heaps of times before. It feels like the same old zombie attacks - munching brains, our heroes performing superhuman efforts of zombie fighting. Sure they spout the words but you never get a sense that anyone has a genuine feel for the period or Austen or even zombies. It occasionally comes to life - it's not awful - just dull.
Movie review - "Zoolander 2" (2015) **
This very late in the day sequel didn't seem to please too many people but I found it had its moments. Sure, everyone is getting old but there's still a lot of talent on display: Stiller, Wilson, Ferrell, Wiig, etc plus Cyrus Arnold as the newcomer.
I wish Wiig had been given more to do - she's excellent - and feel maybe they made a mistake having outlandish Penelope Cruz as the love interest instead of a straight "normal" woman like Christine Taylor in the original. Kyle Mooney's character is irritating, as is the sheer number of cameos.
But lots of funny stuff, like Wiig, and Justin Bieberm and Cruz. I couldn't understand the hate. Maybe because I saw it at home on TV and not in a theatre or something.
I wish Wiig had been given more to do - she's excellent - and feel maybe they made a mistake having outlandish Penelope Cruz as the love interest instead of a straight "normal" woman like Christine Taylor in the original. Kyle Mooney's character is irritating, as is the sheer number of cameos.
But lots of funny stuff, like Wiig, and Justin Bieberm and Cruz. I couldn't understand the hate. Maybe because I saw it at home on TV and not in a theatre or something.
Monday, June 06, 2016
Movie review - "Quest for Love" (1971) **
An odd one in the career trajectory for star Joan Collins and director Ralph Thomas, this is an adaptation of a John Wyndham story about a physicist (Tom Bell) who is transported to a parallel universe where he is not a single, hardworking scientist, but a dissolute, boozy, womanising best selling novelist who is married to Joan Collins. At which point you might go "lucky me!" especially when Bell falls for Collins. But then Collins dies of a terminal illness. Bell finds himself back in his original work trying to track down the "other" Collins.
This was an odd sort of movie. The budget is low-ish, and it's very early 70s British cinema - garish clothes, ugly photography, a hero with angular features and long hair, a cast including Joan Collins and Denholm Elliot. I kept thinking "this is TV this is TV". The Twilight Zone did this sort of thing all the time. The possibilities inherent in the concept aren't deal with - Bell has no fun as his alter ego, there are no real subplots, no exploration of character, it just focuses on a love story.
But you know as a love story it's not bad. Collins falls for Bell and he for her, and it's sad when she dies. The last act consists of a lot of running around with Bell trying to track down Collins, which is dull. Collins is sweet in an atypical role from her early 70s British film industry period (Revenge, Fear in the Night, Dark Places).
This was an odd sort of movie. The budget is low-ish, and it's very early 70s British cinema - garish clothes, ugly photography, a hero with angular features and long hair, a cast including Joan Collins and Denholm Elliot. I kept thinking "this is TV this is TV". The Twilight Zone did this sort of thing all the time. The possibilities inherent in the concept aren't deal with - Bell has no fun as his alter ego, there are no real subplots, no exploration of character, it just focuses on a love story.
But you know as a love story it's not bad. Collins falls for Bell and he for her, and it's sad when she dies. The last act consists of a lot of running around with Bell trying to track down Collins, which is dull. Collins is sweet in an atypical role from her early 70s British film industry period (Revenge, Fear in the Night, Dark Places).
Sunday, June 05, 2016
Movie review - "Conspiracy of Hearts" (1960) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)
A labour of love for Betty Box and Ralph Thomas and it's absolutely one of their best movies, a charming, moving, unashamedly sentimental look at some nuns in 1943 Italy protecting Jewish kids who have escaped from a concentration camp.
Lili Palmer is perfect as the head nun, with fine support by Sylvia Syms as the novice in love with Ronald Lewis (not a bad performance but not very believable as an Italian officer), Yvonne Mitchell is touching as a nun who doesn't want to get involved.
There's some amazing sequences - a nun is shot dead, a Jewish kid says her name is "Jew pig", the execution of George Colouris. These go right to the gut. The Yom Kippur sequence did feel long and the ending was a cheat. It builds up to the three main nuns being executed which feels dramatically right - as long as it had been arranged for the kids to escape. But they're saved by a convenient Italian changing of sides, which feels like a cop out. I know why they did it - it still feels like a cheat.
But it's handled with sensitivity and the Holocaust is actually referred to which wasn't super common around this time. I'm not surprised Box and Thomas liked the film so much.
Lili Palmer is perfect as the head nun, with fine support by Sylvia Syms as the novice in love with Ronald Lewis (not a bad performance but not very believable as an Italian officer), Yvonne Mitchell is touching as a nun who doesn't want to get involved.
There's some amazing sequences - a nun is shot dead, a Jewish kid says her name is "Jew pig", the execution of George Colouris. These go right to the gut. The Yom Kippur sequence did feel long and the ending was a cheat. It builds up to the three main nuns being executed which feels dramatically right - as long as it had been arranged for the kids to escape. But they're saved by a convenient Italian changing of sides, which feels like a cop out. I know why they did it - it still feels like a cheat.
But it's handled with sensitivity and the Holocaust is actually referred to which wasn't super common around this time. I'm not surprised Box and Thomas liked the film so much.
Movie review - "The Iron Petticoat" (1956) **
This must have seemed promising at the time - Ralph Thomas coming off Doctor in the House, Ben Hecht writing the script specifically for Katherine Hepburn, a plot well used in Ninotchka and Comrade X, Hepburn as a Russian during the Cold War. Then Bob Hope was cast. Thomas, producer Betty Box and Hepburn have all gone on the record about Hope promising to play the role as written, then having it rewritten for himself, and generally being a pain.
Sometimes stars you don't think of as teams end up working really well together eg James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again. Sometimes they don't - Hope and Hepburn are a case in point. Hope wasn't wrong to want to change the film to suit him, but the changes are only piece-meal - there's still enough of the original in there, with his character as a Cary Grant smooth talking officer type. They would've been better off having Hope play his usual coward type.
Hepburn's performance is awful. Maybe Hope threw her off but I found it over the top and hammy and not at all funny. She's far worse than Hope. There's also a general feeling of lameness about the whole enterprise - no one seems sure of what they're going - and there's no chemistry between Hope and Hepburn. Noelle Middleton feels like a wasted opportunity as Hope's love interest.
There are one or two bright moments. I liked Hope trying to convince the Russians that Hepburn is not a traitor, Hope conning some Russian guards, and James Robertson Justice and Robert Helpmann are effective Russians.
Sometimes stars you don't think of as teams end up working really well together eg James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again. Sometimes they don't - Hope and Hepburn are a case in point. Hope wasn't wrong to want to change the film to suit him, but the changes are only piece-meal - there's still enough of the original in there, with his character as a Cary Grant smooth talking officer type. They would've been better off having Hope play his usual coward type.
Hepburn's performance is awful. Maybe Hope threw her off but I found it over the top and hammy and not at all funny. She's far worse than Hope. There's also a general feeling of lameness about the whole enterprise - no one seems sure of what they're going - and there's no chemistry between Hope and Hepburn. Noelle Middleton feels like a wasted opportunity as Hope's love interest.
There are one or two bright moments. I liked Hope trying to convince the Russians that Hepburn is not a traitor, Hope conning some Russian guards, and James Robertson Justice and Robert Helpmann are effective Russians.
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