Book review - "Roddy McDowall" by Samuel Bernstein

 Bernstein does another very good biography of an underrated queer actor Roddy McDowall, on top of the one he did for Caesar Romero. The two actors had many things in common - foreigners who flourised in Hollywood, seem like genuinely nice people, hugely long careers, Batman villains. McDowall had more long term romances and possibly better luck with movies - every decade he managed to appear in a classic. How Green Was My Valley, Compulsion, Camelot, Cleopatra, Planet of the Apes, The Poseidon Adventure. It's incredible. 

Worthy book for a person who deserved it. 

Book review - "Cesar Romero: The Joker Is Wild" by Sam Bernstein

 Loving look at a man who sounds like a genuinely terrific person - underrated actor, handsome, polite, hard working. Never seems to have been linked to a romantic relationship, although something may have happened with Tyrone Power. Well researched, fun - half the book is the filmography!

Movie review - "A Private's Affair" (1959) **

 I didn't realise Mardi Gras went so well that 20th Century Fox decided to do another three-boys film about chaps in the army. This is set up to be a musical - the three men are enlisted to appear in a show - and would've seemed a natural for Pat Boone, Elvis, Fabian, Tommy Sands. But instead they've got Sal Mineo, Gary Crosby and Barry Coe. The women are Christine Carere, Barbara Eden and Terry Moore. Raoul Walsh directed.

The plot has politician Jessie Royce Landis marry Coe under anasthetic so she can adopt a Dutch girl for surgery. WTF.  This is the core issue. That's not a bad story if Landis is a genuine romantic threat - but they don't play that. Terry Moore could've played this. Or Barbara Eden. Play out a lovel triangle.

Do proper songs. Cast singers.

Not rocket science.

Fun to see Mineo in this. Coe isn't bad. 

Why did they make it? 

Movie review - "The Amusement Park" (1975) **

 "Lost" Romero movie - an industrial film about elder abuse. A lot of imaginative flair. Interesting. But it's an industrial film. Only 50 mins. For completionists.

Movie review - "Play It As It Lays" (1972) **

 One of those movies that you watch and go "the novel on which is based is probably quite good". I haven't read the book but since Joan Didion co wrote the script with her husband whose brother producer it's probably faithful. Tuesday Weld is outstanding in the role as is Tony Perkins. Confusing. Smart. I didn't get into it at all.

Movie review - "A Safe Place" (1971) **

 Henry Jaglom's best known movie because it features Tuesday Weld, Orson Welles and Jack Nicholson. All bring their considerable charisma - Weld has rarely been more gorgeous or captivating. But there's no story here not even a short film's worth. There's a lot of hanging around Weld and Orson Welles hangs around Central Park and the Zoo, Weld and Philip Proctor hanging around, all the while songs play on the soundtrack. The best bits are Weld and Nicholson.

This was once a play. A play! JFC.  There's no story.

Weld is beautiful. Nicholson has charisma. So does Orson Welles. I would have preferred 90 minutes of them just talkign.

The photography is nice. 

Movie review - "Money Shines" (1988) **1/2

 Interesting rather than gripping. Paralysed man has a pet monkey who becomes homicidal. The cast don't feel quite up to it - Jason Beghe as the guy, Kate McNeil as the sexy nurse, Jon Pankiw as a mad scientist (Stanley Tucci  should have played this role).

Monkey acting strong.  But the core relationship between the monkey and Beghe isn't there.

I wonder if maybe it should've been told through the POV of McNeil as Jane Eyre instead of chronoligcally.  Romero's directing not quite up to it here.

A lot of future famous people like Tucci, Stephen Root, Janine Turner (going nude).