Movie review - "The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond" (1960) ***

 Decent A minus gangster biopic, done with pace by Budd Boetticher. I'm not a huge Ray Danton fan but he's fine. Karen Steele is bad as his dim true love. Elaine Stewart is fun as a minx. Dyan Cannon is really fun as a moll, Warren Oates strong as Danton's brother, Richard Gardner excellent as Mad Dog Coll ditto Robert Lowery as Rothstein.  It's got some "Psychology" (he pushed everyone away!) but it holds dramatically.

Movie review - "Deal of the Century" (1983) *

 Having shown he couldn't do comedy in The Night They Raided Minsky's and The Brinks Job William Friedkin showed it again with this flat satire of the arms industry. People who work in that arena are inherently unlikeable but they can be made compelling - but Friedkin directs sluggishly, Chevy Chase is miscast, Sigourney Weaver flounders.

When Wallace Shawn shoots himself it perks up briefly. That's what the movie should have been - real stakes. 

It's bad. Flat. Unfunny. You don't care. Greg Hines could be cut out of the film. Not drama. Just odd. 

Movie review - "The Exorcist" (1973) *****

 It all clicked for William Friedkin - he got the perfect material for his documentary style of filmmaking, and also casting. Ellen Burstyn is a consistently strong actor. The X factor comes from Linda Blair (likeable, relatable, heartbreaking) and Jason Miller (often overlooked but tormented, tough, smart, soulful, excellent, I appreciate they didn't play a love story with him and Burstyn).

The film works so well for many reasons but mostly this - an outlandish story is treated totally seriously. A child is ill, the mother does everything she can, the doctors try everything they can but it doesn't work. And this is primeval because when a child is injured you feel so helpless. 

The movie Burstyn is starring in looks terrible - a campus protest film! 

Book review - "Chasing the Panther: Adventures and Misadventures of a Cinematic Life" by Carolyn Pfeiffer

 I read this because I was keen to read about Pfeiffer's adventures as a producer in the 80s with Alan Rudolph, Chris Blackwell, Shep Gordon etc but there is very little of that. This memoir is mostly about her time in Europe in the 60s - as a student, then working in Italy as Claudie Cardinale's assistant, meeting people like Burt Lancaster, Visconti, Delon and Fellini, then working for Delon (being raped by one of Delon's dodgy bodyguards), then Omar Sharif as an assistant (shagging Robert Bolt), being friends with Nathalie Delon and Geraldine Chaplin, becoming a publicisit then eventually working for Shep Gordon, hanging with Robert Altman, dope with Blake Edwards. 

It's pretty interesting stuff - having Sean Connery put his hand on her leg while Diane Cilento was there, a fling with photographer Terence Donovan etc. There is heart break - a daughter (son of an affair with a married man) dies as a child, she finds true love with a journalist who dies of a heart attack. I wish there had been more on her work as producer. But I enjoyed the book.

 

Movie review - "The Brinks Job" (1978) **

 William Friedkin recovered from Sorcerer with a light take on the Brinks robbery which based on this wasn't that interesting. They robbed a bank and stole a lot of money and... That was it. The people aren't that interesting either - just a bunch of old character actors doing schtick. Peter Falk, Paul Sorvino, Warren Oates, etc.

The movie lacks life and energy. It throws in gags with big props but Friedkin doesn't have a feel for comedy. It comes alive once or twice - J Edgar Hoover blaming it on commies, the cops interrogating a gang member by beating him up. Apparently heavy scenes of the mob beating them up were cut. That was a mistake. The movie works better when it's heavier.

I think Friedkin was too spooked to make this well. 

Movie review - "The French Connection" (1971) ****

 William Friedkin's background was in documentary but his first four movies comprised of two musicals and two play adaptations before he was given a documentary style story: the tale of busting a heroin ring. Luck fell his way - the perfect star Gene Hackman, an ideal producer in Philip d'Atonini, a story that suited him (violent, grime), Ernest Tidyman knocked the story into shape (though Friedkin downplayed the result but Friedkin wrecked too many scripts to take him overly seriously).

Superb support from Tony Lo Bianco, Roy Scheider, Frenando Rey, Marcel Bozzuffi. Random scene where a TV star from France is interviewed. Popeye Doyle is very destructive and a not particularly competent cop. Visceral chase scene - Popeye really could call the next station (and you could cut the scene from the film story wise).

Simple story - padded out with chase scenes, and tailing scenes - is given life via energy, fresh treatment, actors. 

Movie review - "The Boys in the Band" (1970) ****

 Like The Birthday Party this is again a filmed play but simply has more energy, structure, and life to it. Mart Crowley's work is as significant but it is more compelling than Pinter, to me at any rate. The cast repeat their stage performances. There's a lot of standing around and watching someone else act but there is variance in the character types - the married couple, the camp one, the dumb hustler, etc. Much of it became cliche/tropes, and this had to struggle under the burden of being "the gay play" for a long time, but it was written from a place of truth and has aged well.