Three biographies of Finch appeared around the same time; this one had the advantage of a close personal connection, being written by Finch’s second wife. Yolande was a South African actor who met Finch in Durban when he was on his way
Very personal – Yolande doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to her husband’s drinking, possessiveness, or sexual kinks (he tried to get her into a threesome – we hear about one time she was kind of willing to go along with it with two hookers but he couldn’t get it up). She also gets stuck into his supposed feeling for black people, claiming it was racist at core. Bad natured but an invaluable additional insight into the man.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Radio review – Suspense – “Dime a Dance” (1944) **1/2
Enjoyable stuff with Lucille Ball as “Ginger” investigating a serial killing spree. Suspense made a few stories with plucky heroines investigating crime during the war – the influence of Rosie the Riveter, no doubt.
TV review – “The Adventures of Long John Silver” (1955) **1/2
"Dragon Slayer" – Establishes the concept of the series with narration: Australian-accented Jim Hawkins lives in the pirate port of Porto Bello, where his guardian is Long John Silver. There’s lots of outrageous pirate acting and brawls. Ron Whelan stars as Redbeard who cons Silver into abducting Purity.
"Eviction" – A better episode (Martin Rackin did the script) with a pompous fat Lord of influence (Kevin Brennan) being a major pain in Porto Bello. He causes Purity’s tavern to be shut down, meaning Purity has to live on Silver’s ship (so they’re having sex, huh?). There’s a neat twist with the lord being an impostor and a Spanish spy – although this does let Silver and the governor off the hook.
"Execution Dock" – Long John Silver is ill despite insisting he’s got plenty of good years left, and its poignant to watch as Newtown died not long after filming wound up on the series. Silver has hallucinations enabling William Constable to show off his stuff. But it gets wearying after a while – there’s no real story.
"The Pink Pearl" – Silver is visited by a handsome lunk who practically announces “I’m a young male romantic lead” (John Bonney). He asks the pirate to help him find his brother. They visit an island where the natives are played by a combination of browned-up white actors and Maoris. It turns out they’re being exploited by Spaniards – because you know the English would never do that. However the young Brit agrees to stay with his native lover (Jeannette Craig)– isn’t that miscegenation in mid 50s television? Bit racy.
“Devil’s Stew” – Long John gambles away his money. A flat effort.
"Miss Purity’s Birthday” – one for Miss Purity – it has some low comedy and a funny scene where Jim attends a party at the Governor’s house.
"Ship o the Dead" – strong concept – Hawkins discovers a ship with its crew murdered but no one believes him. This one has a feel for Stevenson, an undercurrent of violence lacking in the series. There's a real threat. It is admittedly a little bit unconvincing how Hawkins saves the day.
“Sword of Vengeance” – this feels like the gang stumble into another person’s story: Owen Weingott is found floating in a boat on his own; he asks Silver’s help in attacking the evil Spaniard who stole his woman. There is actually a fair bit of swordplay in this one, all involving Weingott - Silver and company mostly just look on at the action.
“Dead Reckoning” – Jim Hawkins’ guardian calls him back to England, resulting in a lot of syrup from Long John and Jim at the thought of being parted. So Jim goes to school in Bermuda where he’s flat mates with a bratty kid. Jim refuses to inform; lots of scenes of Aussie kids acting in Aussie. Dreadful performance from the bratty kid.
“Pieces of Eight” – in order to pay taxes, Silver gets involved by a dodgy Greek on an expedition to find gold in Panama – Hawkins comes along which is downright irresponsible. There is a lot of trudging around the Australian bush, substituting for Panama. Not very good.
“The Tale of the Tooth” – a funny episode centering around a bad tooth of Silver’s. There’s another decent character in the tight-fisted Scottish dentist (Lou Vernon) who gets kidnapped by Spaniards. Good fun.
“Turnabout” – a more pirate-y story: Silver and his crew are captured by the French and Silver has to con his way out of it. An engaging story flatly handled. David Nettheim plays a Frenchman.
"Eviction" – A better episode (Martin Rackin did the script) with a pompous fat Lord of influence (Kevin Brennan) being a major pain in Porto Bello. He causes Purity’s tavern to be shut down, meaning Purity has to live on Silver’s ship (so they’re having sex, huh?). There’s a neat twist with the lord being an impostor and a Spanish spy – although this does let Silver and the governor off the hook.
"Execution Dock" – Long John Silver is ill despite insisting he’s got plenty of good years left, and its poignant to watch as Newtown died not long after filming wound up on the series. Silver has hallucinations enabling William Constable to show off his stuff. But it gets wearying after a while – there’s no real story.
"The Pink Pearl" – Silver is visited by a handsome lunk who practically announces “I’m a young male romantic lead” (John Bonney). He asks the pirate to help him find his brother. They visit an island where the natives are played by a combination of browned-up white actors and Maoris. It turns out they’re being exploited by Spaniards – because you know the English would never do that. However the young Brit agrees to stay with his native lover (Jeannette Craig)– isn’t that miscegenation in mid 50s television? Bit racy.
“Devil’s Stew” – Long John gambles away his money. A flat effort.
"Miss Purity’s Birthday” – one for Miss Purity – it has some low comedy and a funny scene where Jim attends a party at the Governor’s house.
"Ship o the Dead" – strong concept – Hawkins discovers a ship with its crew murdered but no one believes him. This one has a feel for Stevenson, an undercurrent of violence lacking in the series. There's a real threat. It is admittedly a little bit unconvincing how Hawkins saves the day.
“Sword of Vengeance” – this feels like the gang stumble into another person’s story: Owen Weingott is found floating in a boat on his own; he asks Silver’s help in attacking the evil Spaniard who stole his woman. There is actually a fair bit of swordplay in this one, all involving Weingott - Silver and company mostly just look on at the action.
“Dead Reckoning” – Jim Hawkins’ guardian calls him back to England, resulting in a lot of syrup from Long John and Jim at the thought of being parted. So Jim goes to school in Bermuda where he’s flat mates with a bratty kid. Jim refuses to inform; lots of scenes of Aussie kids acting in Aussie. Dreadful performance from the bratty kid.
“Pieces of Eight” – in order to pay taxes, Silver gets involved by a dodgy Greek on an expedition to find gold in Panama – Hawkins comes along which is downright irresponsible. There is a lot of trudging around the Australian bush, substituting for Panama. Not very good.
“The Tale of the Tooth” – a funny episode centering around a bad tooth of Silver’s. There’s another decent character in the tight-fisted Scottish dentist (Lou Vernon) who gets kidnapped by Spaniards. Good fun.
“Turnabout” – a more pirate-y story: Silver and his crew are captured by the French and Silver has to con his way out of it. An engaging story flatly handled. David Nettheim plays a Frenchman.
TV series – “24” – Season 2 ****1/2
24 avoids the sophomore slump with consistently clever plotting and good writing. Oddly, it takes a while to get going – after the hijackings and explosions of season one you’d think they would be able to come up with a decent way to introduce the atomic bomb threat, but it’s relatively low key here. But once it gets into its stride it is very entertaining – even if it is an endorsement of torture. (“We haven’t got any time!” I wonder if in military history there has ever been a race against time in which torture has been useful.) Also it’s maddening that they don’t evacuate LA.
Keifer Sutherland is effective as Jack Bauer, his voice being a particularly powerful instrument. Elisa Cuthbert once again acts as if she’s strolled off the set of Party of Five, which is entertaining in its own way. It’s also great fun to see Johnny Drama aka Kevin Dillon pop up.
The series stretches the “real time” factor a fair bit and sometimes the writers can’t think of really good ways to get out of the corners they paint themselves into, but sometimes they do and who cares when they’re such good corners.
Keifer Sutherland is effective as Jack Bauer, his voice being a particularly powerful instrument. Elisa Cuthbert once again acts as if she’s strolled off the set of Party of Five, which is entertaining in its own way. It’s also great fun to see Johnny Drama aka Kevin Dillon pop up.
The series stretches the “real time” factor a fair bit and sometimes the writers can’t think of really good ways to get out of the corners they paint themselves into, but sometimes they do and who cares when they’re such good corners.
Movie review – Marple#3 – “Murder Most Foul” (1963) **1/2
A Hercule Poirot mystery adapted for Miss Marple – our hero is on the jury and refuses to believe a person is guilty, so goes undercover yet again. This time she visits an acting troupe, headed by Ron Moody who is the pompous love rival for Stringer Davis; the support cast includes Dennis Price, Bud Tingwell and Francesca Annis. The theatre setting offers the opportunity for easy gags, which are taken.
Movie review – Shayne #5 – “Just off Broadway” (1943) **1/2
Shayne is a juror who tries solving the case in which he is involved. The tone is very light (Shayne goes undercover as a Swedish janitor, and once again pretends to be a girl’s fiancee) so it’s a surprise that he slaps a dame – that doesn’t feel like Lloyd Nolan’s Mike. Phil Silvers, as a publicist, gives some class to the support cast and Marjorie Weaver is fun as a girl reporter, another old friend of Shayne’s. There is a midget, too, an old friend of Shayne's - it was that sort of series. Good fun, apart from the scene where he hits the girl.
Movie review – “Infamous” (2006) **1/2
The poor bastard of the year award would have to go to Douglas McGrath and the makers of this movie, which was pipped at the post by “the other Capote film”, Capote. Not only did it deal with the famous writer, it too concentrated on the one specific incident of his career – the writing of In Cold Blood. This one has a cult for being better but it isn’t really – it has extra glimpses of New York high life, but does that really matter since we don’t get to see much of it? (If it had been a film about the Black and White Ball, that might have been different.) The other Capote also feels more authentic – this one has clunky scenes like Capote turning up to the police station where there’s a press conference and making sweeping statements; and it’s not particularly well directed either (eg all those Woody Allen-type long shots and talking to camera). Toby Young’s Capote is fine; Sandra Bullock is excellent as Harper Lee but the actor who plays Paley is dreadful and actor-ish.
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