Movie review – ‘The Wedding March” (1928) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Fay Wray is absolutely lovely, even more so than in King Kong, as the poor woman who eyes dashing lieutenant Eric Von Stroheim (well he’s meant to be dashing – he’s got bug eyes and a monocle, but apparently that made hearts a flutter in 1914 Vienna, or his cinematic recreations of them, anyway). However Von Stroheim is a lazy spend thrift seriously sort on cash so his parents arrange a marriage with a crippled daughter (Zasu Pitts) of a filthy rich manufacturer.

 

It's a simple story most notable for its images – Von Stroheim’s messy bedroom after a big night – the maid discovers a bra, then goes to pash him as he wakes up in bed; the sumptuousness of the imperial parade during Corpus Christie; the decadence of a party thrown by Von Stroheim’s parents (he gets drunk with a dude in a brothel); the faces of the old people (Von Stroheim’s walrus like dad, the big tub of guts who knows Fay Wray, the organ grinder moustache of Fay Wray’s aspiring lover); the impressive sets. It looks amazing.

 

It's also very cynical and matter of fact about lust and money – no wonder Billy Wilder loved Von Stroheim. The most poignant character is Pitts who knows she’s not that good looking and Von Stroheim doesn’t like her – but goes along with it (I liked it how she seems to genuinely lover her dad). 

 

There’s no happy ending – Wray marries a brute to stop him killing Von Stroheim at the wedding, Von Strohei goes off with his new wife. It’s 1914 so half the cast will presumably be killed/injured, the rest will become poor.

Radio review - Ford Theatre - "The Man Who Played God" (1947) **1/2

A 1930s George Arliss movie this story would be remembered today - if at all - for providing the story for the Movie Going Hall of Shame Contender, Sincerely Yours (1954), which unsuccessfully attempted to launch Liberace as a movie star. I guess they liked the fact it's about a concert pianist - act one establishes him as rich, middle aged and successful. His secretary has a yen for him but he's keen on a hot young socialite who he teaches - until he becomes deaf in a bomb explosion while playing for a European king. (Said king is the target of assassination attempts). He becomes bitter until he uses his skill at lip reading to perve on people in Central Park and help them out. Eventually he perves on his hot socialite who is in love with someone else. It's junky and silly but you find yourself listening - such is the power of cheesy melodrama.

Movie review - "Adam and Evelyne" (1949) *1/2

Stewart Granger was better at comedy than he was given credit for, Jean Simmons rarely gave a bad performance, and they work well together there. There's also a solid support cast and brisk handling. But none of it really matters because the story is just plain yuck.

Granger is a dashing gambler with a butler and a mistress (she's waiting for her divorce to come through), when an old army buddy - they were in a Japanese POW camp together - dies in a horse racing accident. He's got a daughter he's never seen (Jean Simmons), who thinks Granger is her father. It takes him a while to admit the truth, so she thinks he's her father - then Granger's mistress spills the beans. In an attempt to get more story, Granger keeps looking after Simmons, but lies to her about what he does (she hates gambling because of her father's death) then his sleazy brother tries to seduce her. 

People make snide comments about Granger and Simmons and to be frank they're entitled to - you don't want to see these two together. Well, maybe I shouldn't speak on behalf of everyone - if you don't mind a child woman and her guardian falling in love, then this could be the movie for you.

Granger helped produce it so he's only got himself to blame. He is handsome and there is a nice bit when Simmons realises she's in love... but then you remember the daddy factor and it gets icky.

Movie review - "Captain Boycott" (1947) ***1/2

Frank Launder specialisied in intelligent, brisk entertainment and he came up trumps here, expertly navigating his way through the treacherous waters of Irish history. It's set in the nineteenth century Ireland, where nasty Captain Boycott (played by Cecil Parker as a bit of a buffoon) tries to extract much cash as he can out of his tenants, and is willing to use force to do so. But the villagers practice non violent retribution, shunning rather than shooting, leading to the creation of the term "boycott" (a fact which actually provides the last line of dialogue in the movie). (I wonder if Launder was motivated to make the movie by the success of Gandhi.)

Stewart Granger is the star, and he gets to ride around on a horse dashingly, look interesting, and romance Kathleen Ryan. But it's not really a Stewart Granger film - he's just the best looking guy in an ensemble story.

There are plenty of subplots - Ryan's brother died in a fight; her father is willing to move in on land on which someone has been kicked off; Granger tells Ryan and his family they're either with the community or against it; the school teacher preaches anti-English history; the priest preaches non-violence and the powers of Charles Parnell; Boycott brings in help of mass of volunteers. It's all climaxed with a horse race, which seems a bit odd (there was a similar random horse race finale in Swordsman of Siena.)

It's very well done across the board - kind of like an Irish Robin Hood, with the whole community as Robin Hood. Religious conflict is toned down, and it focuses on being a story of injustice. Strong acting - Granger steps up, the support cast is excellent (Ryan makes the girl part more than just "the girl" - she's full of pain and regret) and there's a superb cameo from Robert Donat as Parnell, all fire and brimstone.

Book review - "Justin Bayard" (1955) by Jon Cleary

This starts with a bang - the title character, a mounted copper in the Kimberley, is attacked by a tribe of aboriginals while transporting another aboriginal back home for murder.
A lot of terrific action follows - then Bayard takes refuge in a homestead full of domestic problems and it's like he stumbles into a sort of northwest Australian version of God's Little Acre - weak willed owner of property, his sluttish, shrewish wife who is hates the country and is screwing the neighbour, hostile stockman with a half-caste daughter. They lock the aboriginal prisoner in a boab tree and the attackers are still out there.

It's not exactly PC - the aboriginal characters are all ciphers - but it's not Frank Clune, either - Bayard has a very lovely and sexy romance with the head stockman's quarter-caste daughter. The description of the locale is excellent as is the action scenes - this should have made a much better movie than the screen version which resulted.

I can see why they didn't cast Chips Rafferty in the lead after reading it though - Bayard is a bit of a stud muffin. (Why not have him play a support part instead, like the stockman?)

Movie review - "Children of Men" (2006) *****

A brilliant, gripping, all-too-believable look at the future - I didn't quite buy a world in which every single person was infertile, but I did the depiction of that world: the shared devastation when the youngest person in the world dies, the ceaseless, self-satisfied propaganda videos on buses and trains, the wild creates living along the train tracks, the segmentation of society, the survival of bureacracy, the way the most effective opponents to the fascists are just as ruthless and bad themselves however noble their ideals, the grim streets, the flustered and angry police and soldiers who are sick of their jobs, the anger towards refugees (who are not depicted as saints but as pests desperate for a new life), the effectiveness of a rural ambush, hippies fleeing into the countryside and taking refuge with dope.

For a movie set in the future it feels more like early 70s England - unions running riot, IRA setting off bombs, the country plagued by strikes, a general air of pessimism and gloom. It's got that cynical loathing vibe you saw in science fiction films of the time as well such as the Apes movies.

It's incredibly well made. Few films have such tension - you're in agony the whole way through, because the violence feels so real in it's suddenness and randomness (bullets to the neck, sudden explosions). The long takes work brilliantly, the pace slows down at key times (eg pushing the car to get started) in building suspense. Not a bad performance across the board. A modern day classic.

Book review - "Ransom" (1973) by Jon Cleary

The third Scobie Malone novel has the benefit of a great idea - Malone's wife is kidnapped on their honeymoon in New York. It's done by anarchists led by a little rich girl turned wrong - this was the time of Patty Hearst and gives Cleary the chance to do some tsk tsk moralising about rich kids who go off the rails (Malone meets her bewildered parents) and write some really unconvincing flower power gone bad dialogue ("get lost pig") - which isn't to say it's inauthentic. But Cleary's sympathies are always with middle aged married people - not just Malone and his wife, but also the mayor and his wife and the parents of the kid. Malone is a bit more passive here, really really keen for the locals to release prisoners to save his wife and there's another "good black" sidekick (as there was in The High Commissioner) out it's very well crafted, a strong story, and has some thrilling sequences, notably the original kidnap and the final rescue sequence.