Saturday, June 27, 2020

Movie review - "The Calendar" (1948) **

Edgar Wallace's original play was a hit in 1929 - it may have virtues which escape this sluggish film adaptation.

John McCallum is handsome and tall with an impressive voice but is a limited actor who was exposed here - his drunk actiong especially. I think he would have been fine in war films and dramas supporting a female star but here he's carrying the action.

Greta Gynt is very beautiful and can act. So too Sonia Holm. But I wondered why this was made. It's not exciting. There's not a lot of laughs for a comedy. No thrills for a drama. It's a story.

I so didn't care about this story. I had trouble following it but got the basic gist. I didn't care about any characters.

There's some location footage of Ascot, so if you like horses you could dig it. Diana Dors is in it briefly as a maid - I wish she'd had a bigger part. Like it she'd played the lead and McCallum the object of desire - that would be good,

Sydney Box wasn't a very good studio executive.

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