TV review - "Galactica 1980: Galactica Discovers Earth" (1980) **

 Galactica 1980 is little loved and it is flawed but this pilot has some good things. Stay with me: faced with the challenge of a smaller budget I don't think it was a bad idea to have them find earth and decide to bring our technology up to speed, discovering who they can trust... that's not a bad concept. It's a different show, it's not a space show, it's got a lighter tone.

There are flaws: Lorne Greene's fake beard (though that does imply the passing of time), the stilted Barry Van Dyke and especially Kent McCord aren't as good as Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict.  They didn't need the time travel element - they could've just had Xavier dealing with ruthless people on Earth. I mean, I guess you could've a whole show out of that concept... but here it's like a fish of water concept on top of a fish of water concept. And it feels vaguely insulting they're rescuing Jews from concentration camps in such a child like cartoony way and Tom Atkins is annoying as a secret service agent.

Then there's these act three shenanigans with Xavier running around in the present day and the kids being bullied and Troy and Dillon telling the kids not to talk to adults which hasn't aged well. It's like Larson was making it up as he went along.

It has a nice line of humour. Robyn Douglass is warm and lovely. Robert Reed's afro is entertaining. Richard Lynch is a strong, well motivated villain with an arguable case. When I was eight I related to the kid. And this was how I learned about D Day and the Holocaust.

But it's a first draft on film.

Book review - "Forever Young" by Hayley Mills (2021)

 Hayley Mills had one of the great child star careers - she came out of nowhere to play a scene stealing role in Tiger Bay and might have drifted back into anonymity (no British producers offered her roles) had not Disney wanted to sign her to a seven year contract. Disney promised to do well by her and he did - Pollyanna, The Parent Trap, In Search of the Castaways, The Moon Spinners, Summer Magic That Darn Cat.

She managed to alternate things with interesting films such as Whistle Down the Wind and The Chalk Garden.

Her parents/Disney turned down parts in Exodus, The Children's Hour and Lolita - the latter especially was galling to her. All three films did have notably sadistic, or at least retake-retake-retake directors so maybe they were being protective. But it bugged her - Lolita especially (though Sue Lyons' career wasn't that amazing.)

Her post Disney career started well enough with The Family Way and The Trouble with Angels. But then she had a string of rotten films - Pretty Polly, Sky West and Crooked, Take a Girl Like You, Mr Forbush. Many of these were made by/with her husband and/or father - you could argue they helped damage her career. But it's not as though there were other roles going. Mills grew up very pretty and charming but as an adult she lacked the X factor she had as a child performer.

This is a well written memoir full of interesting stories, like joining her father in Australia when he was making Summer of the Seventeenth Doll - they went to a party with the touring English side, everyone was boozy, Ann Baxter lost an earring in the pool and everyone jumped in to find it. Stewart Granger bullied her at a party, teasing her about the paper in her bra. I can see him doing that.

It goes up until her leaving Roy Boulting. Odd decision - surely there was at least a chapter on Leigh Lawson and making Parent Trap 2 and films like Appointment with Death?

Movie review - "I am Divine" (2013) ***

 Affectionate look at the actor and pop star helped by some very good interviews - John Waters of course but also his mother (very touching about adoring and rejecting her son) and people like Mink Stole and various critics and drag queens. Divine had a great life - found fame, money, success. Not serious critical respect... I'm sure that would've come in time.

Movie review - "Sweet Kill" (1972) **

 Most people who get their first feature via Roger Corman talk fondly about him, but not so much Curtis Hanson. The film was cut about and re-released and didn't do well.

Tab Hunter has one of his best parts and he's effective but the film is unpleasant. He's impotent except when he kills women so there's lots of women being killed. The women are attractive and really nice so it just feels yuck.

Some effective suspense moments but these sort of films aren't for me.

Roberta Collins plays a prostitute who Hunter gets to dress like his mother. The gals really throw themselves at Hunter in this.

Book review - "Memoirs" by Tennessee Williams

 The 1970s weren't an easy decade for Williams but this is a first rate memoir - the writing is tight, clever, wry, warm. He was always good on himself. Honest. Maybe too accepting of flaws... a little restraint wouldn't have hurt.

John Waters wrote an entertaining introduction posing the question what would have happened had he lived. I wonder. Amazing work ethic.

Full of colourful characters: his sister Rose, mother, father, Gore Vidal and Truman Capote, Frank Merlo, Tallulah Bankhead, Maria St Just, David Merrick, Elia Kazan, Brando. There's lots of gay sex - like a lot. And pill popping and meltdowns and cracking up.

Williams writes with lucidity and power. His skills had not deserted him.

Book review - "Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World" by Peter Chapman

 Entertaining, if slightly stressful book that looks at the most famous evil company in the world, United Fruit, whose antics were once glamorised by Hollywood films such as Tropic Zone but after contributing to coups in Guatemala, Hondouros and even trying their hand against FDR have been acknowledged as what happened with capitalism becomes full throttle.

Book review - "Ghostbuster's Daughter: Life with My Dad, Harold Ramis " by Violet Stiel

 Warm, affectionate memoir - one of those books where the author writes letters to her dead father, like Rock Brynner's. Not as good as the books by Glenn Ford's son or Vincent Price's daughter but worth a read if you're into Ramis. He comes across as he did on screen - lovely, warm and funny. A bit of a swinger - Amy Heckerling had his love child. A lot of things I didn't know: like ramis was held up at gunpoint in his LA house with the kids there, the rough final years of his illness (he was a smoker).

His daughter writes a lot about herself - idyllic childhood, parents divorce, adjusting to a split household, a wild-ish life, constantly dependent on her father for money (even when having kids), dumping the father of her first kid and hooking up with someone richer. I give her points for honesty. She could've turned out a lot worse. And she loved her dad, it's very winning. Not sure Knocked Up is pro-life...  they have to keep the baby for the story to work.

Seth Rogen did the introduction. They're right - Ramis' one scene in Knocked Up is really terrific, expands the universe and gives hope that Rogen and Heigl will make it work.

Movie review - "I Escaped from Devil's Island" (1973) **1/2

 Roger Corman but not New World - Gene Corman produced it, and got it released the same time as Papillon.

It looks terrific with impressive production values - beaches, cells, prison guards, palm trees. The cast is strong - Jim Brown and Chris George as duelling prisoners.  I liked the guy who played the guard, the one in The Student Nurses.

William Witney directs with pace and vigour.  The script has some complexity with the prison population - Quentin Tarantino loved its depiction of the gay population, who are a segment but not made into a joke. The story is a little wonky. It's hard to tell the prisoners apart and it feels it takes forever to escape. It doesn't seem to build - lacks a vivid third character maybe or a twist or something.

Still, worth a watch.

Book review - "A Girl's Got to Breathe: The Life of Teresa Wright" by Donald Spoto

 Teresa Wright seems a little bland a subject for Spoto until one reads they were good friends. I guess she deserves a book but there wasn't that much drama. She was pretty, nice, a good actor. She had a spectacular start to her career - understudied on Our Town then a part in Life with Father then Goldwyn and Little Foxes, Pride of the Yankees, Mrs Miniver... that's an amazing run. Throw in Best Years of Our Lives... it's a wonder she isn't better remembered.

A few things. She moved out of town at the behest of her husband Niven Busch and also quit her contract with Goldwyn. Both were mistakes. I think Wright would've struggled post war anyway - nice girls tend to have a short life span as stars (eg Jeanne Crain). But Wright could've delayed it - maybe done a Loretta Young/Donna Reed style transition to TV star. She did enjoy some successes later on like Dark at the Top of the Stairs on stage. A lot of stage acting.

The marriage with Busch busted up though he wasn't bad, just liked rooting around and living on ranches. Second husband was Robert Anderson - this book fleshes out him and that was really interesting because not much is known about him. For someone accused of being gay when younger (hence Tea and Sympathy) he had a lively straight love life - flings with Deborah Kerr, Ingrid Bergman and Audrey Hepburn (I guess everyone sleeps with them) then Wright but also cheating on her. She had an emotional fling with Sterling Hayden.

Wright seems to have been a decent, hard working nice person. It doesn't always make for a compelling antagonist - the colourful support players like Busch and Anderson steal the show.

But a really interesting book - two biographies really because it goes in depth on Anderson. 

Movie review - "The Bellboy and the Playgirls" (1962) **

 Technically Francis Coppola's first movie. He was given a West German comedy and told to add nudity. It's easy to spot his stuff because it's not dubbed... and most of it is in colour. It's not that much.

Jack hill helped Coppola shoot the extra sequences. I liked this more than Coppola's second nudie - production values are higher.

Movie review - "The Kingfisher Caper" (1975) **

 One of those South African films made during the 1970s that tried to get international attention - B list stars, ugly photography, slack handling. This one is based on a Wilbur Smith novel, which is surely more exciting than the result. Hayley Mills and David McCallum play siblings whose dying father runs a diamond company. Hayley's character is good but David's is bad - accordingly he has the most interesting role. Mills looks mumsy. Her husband Roy Boulting is credited as one of the writers of the script.  The actual heroic lead is Jon Cypher is who is Mill's foster brother. He's not that great.

It's dull and plods along. Surely South Africa is prettier than this? I liked the cable car sequence and McCallum's money hungry wife.

TV review - "Galactica 1980 Ep 7 Return of Starbuck" (1980) ***1/2

 The one episode of this series everyone likes. It's the quintessential Glenn A. Larson script - lively, ripped off a movie (in this case Hell in the Pacific) with some religious mumbo jumbo.

 There's some funny Starbuck-Cylon dialogue, and their relationship is very sweet and warm, even if not really consistent with Cylons in the series (I guess Cy got knocked on the head). The female character feels like a lost opportunity - she's all spacey and mysterious. It would've been better had she and Starbuck had a real relationship.

The episode has great emotional undercurrent because this is an adventure on which Starbuck won't return. When Boomer says good bye we're not going to see him again. When Adama has to leave him (Lorne Greene a little OTT here "I love you") he's not going to see him again. The ending where Cy dies is moving.

Dirk Benedict was a really good actor. The kid who played Doctor Zee isn't.

Movie review - "Mansfield 66/67" (2017) **

 Interesting documentary about Jayne Mansfield. The talking heads include John Waters (always fun), Mamie Van Doren, Mary Woronov, lots of PhD graduates, drag queens, Dolly Read from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

The cut aways to a stage musical doesn't quite work and there's a lot of emphasis on Mansfield's relationship with a Satanist. Wasn't that a small part of her life?

Good vision. Mansfield looked terrible towards the end.

It's fascinating how she's become this icon. She was only in two hit films. I guess she died interestingly.

Movie review - "Boom!" (1968) **

 Cripes. Odd. Weird. The play is weird but this is weirder because Liz Taylor is too young and Richard Burton too old. Interesting locations. Noel Coward looks half dead as the witch of Capri. Joanna Shimkus is lovely as the secretary but she feel miscast too.

Too random and weird to be a bad movie. Striking locations and set design. Occasionally the camera moves. This is really a two hander. The little person feels extraneous.

Book review - "Howard Kazanjian: A Producer's Life" by J. W. Rinzler

 Interesting book. Kazanjian isn't one of the famous producers, he's more of a line producer, but he worked during interesting times. There's a lot of quotes from Marcia Lucas and the book is especially insightful on that and makes you wonder why she doesn't do a memoir.

Kanzanjian was one of the DGA trainees alongside Walter Hill which is interesting. He became a top AD and after doing heaps of TV worked for a lot of directors at the end of their careers, such as Billy Wilder, Hitchcock, Robert Wise and Elia Kazan. He also worked for Coppola on Finian's Rainbow and with Peckinpah on The Wild Bunch (this section is terrific).

He was mates with George Lucas and eventually went to Lucasfilm in the late 70s, producing Raiders and Return of the Jedi as well as More American Graffiti (the account of that is fascinating).

Fans of Star Wars and Raiders will find this interesting. Neat trivia like Kazanjian talking Lucas out of considering Jack Smight for directing a film. Bruce Beresford was considered for Jedi.

Kazanjian's credits post Lucasfilm are not that amazing - The Rookie, Demolition Man, a bunch of other films I hadn't heard of.

Still it's good to have a book about a less recognised figure.

Play review - "In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel" by Tennessee Williams

 One of Williams' flops but I liked it. Simple one act play in two scenes about a painter cracking up and his girlfriend tries to take advantage. Both are Tennessee Williams and this was written when he really flipped out.

Movie revie - "Terminal Island" (1973) ** (re-watching)

 Fantastic central idea not really exploited to its full potential. It's set in the near future where society puts all it's convicts on an island. 

This suffers from having too many characters to follow. The Student Nurses always went back to its main four but this one is all over. There are good convicts and bad ones.

The good convicts include Ena Hartman, who looks like she's going to be the lead but then drops out (apparently she was injured during filming), Barbara Leigh the stunner from Student Nurses, Marta Kristen.

The baddies include Roger Mosely from Magnum.

There's a lot of bang bang at the end. Not very sexy despite opportunitis to do so. Just too many characters.

Movie review - "Mystify: Michael Hutchence" (2019) ****1/2

 Splendid documentary about Hutchence which consists of video taken by Hutchence and his friends and is narrated by his family and friends. Some good "gets" to us TV parlance, including Kylie Minogue, Helena Christensen and Michelle Bennett. There's home movie footage of nude Kylie in the bathoom on a train which is racy. Gosh he had good taste in women - everyone says the first three serious gals were lovely. Paula Yates was lovely too in her way just overwhelming and not as wholesome.

This is a fantastic film.

Script review - "Baby Doll" by Tennessee Williams

 Really it should be credited to Williams and Kazan. It's a Williams work don't get me wrong - the South, the sex, the odd characters. But it has more of a Kazan drive and passion. The plots about burning down the gin, and getting revenge feel like they've been infused with Kazan. Odd ending.

I don't rate this as highly as others do but it is its own thing.

Movie review - "Death Race 2000" (1975) **** (re-watching)

 Wonderful manic fun. Fabulous cast - David Carradine in the lead, an up and coming Sylvester Stallone, some New World stock company faves (Roberta Collins, Mary Woroniv, Dick Miller, Don Steele), the lovaly Simone Griffeth. Griffeth's contribution to this movie is often not commented on but I think she sells the reality of it. One of New World's best pictures if not the best.

Anarchic, hilarious. Some decent stunts too.

TV review - "BG Ep 24 - The Hand of God" (1979) **** (re-watching)

 A series goes out with a bang - one of its best episodes with the Apollo and company picking up a signal from Earth (revealed at the end).

Some kinky moments like Starbuck suggesting he a Cassiopeia do it in the viewing hatch area and Cassiopeia and Sheba giggling at the sight of Boomer in his underwear (they really linger on that moment a bit... I'm not sure if he's being humiliated or praised).

Excitng raid on the baseship, stakes are big, Baltar gets involved. This was set up nicely for season two.

TV review - "BG Ep 23 - Take the Celestra" (1979) **1/2

 Back to just a good old standard ep as Starbuck runs into an ex (Ana Alicia) involved in a mutiny against a Captain Bligh type. Decent characterisation - Alicia's character is bitter about Starbuck abandoning her, the captain didn't realise all the bad things done in his name.

I really liked Starbuck's relationship with Cassiopeia - when she finds out about his ex she doesn't wail and carry on like Sheba/Anne Lockhart thinks she should she's more matter of fact.

Alicia's new boyfriend has a ridiculous Leo Sayer perm which offers some camp humour. There's decent suspense and action at the end - with the threat of the transport barge being cut off in space. 

The series got back on track after the Alliance arc which is why it was a shame it got bumped. They could've found ways to tell more Fleet stories, keep the budget down.

TV review - "BG Ep 22 - Experiment in Terra" (1979) ** (re-watching)

 The last of the Eastern Alliance story arc, thank goodness, with it's fascist overtones. In this one they go to Terra, a planet where the baddies is the president but the goodies are the council... they're goodies because they distrust the alliance, so it's militaristic again.

This is a grab bag episode. It brings back the lights from War of the Gods which isn't a bad idea it's just wasted here. Why are they involved?

They send Apollo on a mission by hopping into someone's body (Donald Bellisario who wrote this reworked the concept for Quantum Leap) which isn't a bad idea, or is the fact he hops into the body of a Starbuck type officer... but they hardly do anything with it, despite Melody Anderson on hand as a gal of the guy. Why not have Apollo up to escapades?

Then they get Starbuck involved and... urgh. There's no point.

Edward Mulhare is in the Dean Stockwell role and he plays it with polish. Anderson is good as always.

The Alliance villains stand around a table and plot evilness like stock Nazis... they are such lousy characters and we spent four episodes on them.

Why don't the Galacticans stay on Terra? It's an Earth-like planet. It's civilised.

This episode is so annoying.

TV review - "BG Ep 21 Baltar's Escape" (1979) ** (re-watching)

 A really good idea for an episode - Balta leads an escape of prisoners on the prison barge - is done in by the facism of the Alliance story arc. The Council of the Twelve take over Adama's job, which had potential if they hadn't loaded the deck so much in Adama's favour. The Council are all idiotic, stupidly naive about the Alliance who are clearly evil.

In the pilot this made sense because everyone was exhausted by war... but it doesn't make sense they'd be that way now after the destruction of the colonies and for a people they don't know. I don't mind the Council being villainous but they just make the Council so dumb without motivation.

If they'd made someone on the Council one of our people - Anthena, say - it would've been a lot better.

It's hurt even more by the fact that the Alliance are such lousy villains. However Baltar and the Borellian Nomen are fun, the final rescue quite exciting and clever, there's a great moment where Tigh overrrules Adama, and Ina Ballin is excellent as a more sensible member of the Council.

Play review - "Summer and Smoke" by Tennessee Williams (1948)

 Basically a two hander, quite touching, about a relationship between two neighbours who knew each other as children, Alma and John. Alma is a spinster and then John is a talented doctor. Originally he's a party boy, who drink drives and goes to casinos and she's all prim... then he gets respectable and she goes off the rails. Written with empathy. It feels like a work in progress but not bad.

TV review - "BG Ep 19 and 20 - Greetings from Earth" (1979) ** (re-watching)

 This kicked off a run of fascist episodes. It's got a very good situation - the Galactica discover a ship with a family on board, and everyone is torn whether to wake them up or let them be. But the dramatic deck is stacked by giving the "let them go" case to Apollo and the "open them up" case to the grumpy Council of the Twelve, who seem to be idiots. How dare they suggest democracy! It's got a stand off between the military and the civilian security... of course the military are really in the right.

If Starbuck had pushed the case of opening them up - or Tight, Athena, Adama - it would've been a much better episode.

Anyway then they get off the battlestar and wind up on a deserted planet. Part two involves some wacky androids (Ray Bolger and Bobby Van) and Nazi surrogates (humans) and relationship complexity with Mark Harmon's sister propositioning Apollo despite being partnered with Randolph Mantooth (who probably auditioned for the role of Apollo). 

The Nazi equivalents are bad villains. Lazy. I missed Cylons. The Borellian Nomen in the previous episode were good characters - couldn't they think of something better?

Athena is teaching school now. Poor Athena. At least she has some dialogue. I liked seeing a school. I liked Cassiopeia going on the trip.

A note - I really love the characters of the scientist and the doctor, two grumpy old men. They felt real and sold to verisimilitude of the situation.

These episodes were written by Glenn Larson and feel like it was written in one sitting without planning it out. "We'll find a ship... with a family... only the man and woman aren't together... Council of Twelve... they're fleeing Nazis... they arrive on a planet... the planet is deserted... the woman wants Apollo... the Nazis arrive... Starbuck almost dies... there's these random homesteaders... Mark Harmon's sister wants to be with Mantooth..."

It's not without interest it's just messy.

TV review - "BG Ep 18 - Murder on the Rising Star" (1979) *** (re-watching)

 Solid episode with Starbuck accused of murder. It's a good chance for Dirk Benedict who rises to the occasion as does Richard Hatch.  John Colicos does a showy cameo as Baltar who is involved in the case.

Cassiopeia goes "there there"... Athena giggles when Cassiopeia talks about tending Starbuck's bruised body so that relationship was done.

The opening spiel for Adama is more "hey we're going to find Earth soon" - obviously a network note. Brock Peters is superb as a prosecutor. Frank Ashmore is also excellent as the deceased. Ben Frank a little more iffy as a possible suspect.

TV review - "BG#17 - The Man With Nine Lives" (1979) *** (re-watching)

 A cheaper episode in a way after some big epics but it has a great guest star, Fred Astaire, and a solid story where he pretends to be Starbuck's father to escape some Klingon type creatures. Emotional, contained, funny, a bit of romance and action. Solid episode from the series' best run of them.

Movie review - "The Velvet Vampire" (1971) **1/2 (re-watching)

 Stephanie Rothman's next film after Student Nurses didn't enjoy the same success, maybe because it was too arty. It's still full of interest.

Celeste Yarnall is a vampire who entices couple Michael Blodgett and Sherry Miles to her place in the desert. Yarnell is enigmatic and beautiful, everything you want in a vampire. She can walk around in the sunlight so the rules are flexible here.

There's some trippy dream sequences reminiscent of the drug scenes in Student Nurses.I liked the atmosphere and the performances of Yarnell and Blodgett. Miles lets the side down.

Silly logic issues in the last act with people following people and it doesn't make sense. Probably should've kept them in the desert.

TV review - "BG Ep 15 and 16 - War of the Gods" (1978) **** (re-watching)

 Excellent two parter, one of the reasons this show still has the power to fascinate. Glenn A Larson wrote it so he blew the budget but the script is very good. It expands the world of the Galactic fleet - there's triad, a game that has gripped the population, and a party barge. The gang arrive - but don't crash! - on  a planet where they rescue a mysterious count and bring him on board.

This isn't as derivative as some scripts on this show but one senses Larson has read Dracula because Patrick Macnee's Count Iblis is very much like a vampire, charming everyone, making Anne Lockhart's Sheba besotted with him, suggesting polygamy.

Excellent acting from Lockhart, Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch (who did a great tormented goody-goody), Dirk Benedict... this was a well acted show. There's lovely heart with Apollo-Adama scenes and Apollo-Sheba. (Admittedly the cast go a little OTT at the emotional scenes at the end.)

It's maybe not as good as The Living Legend because it relies on mumbo jumbo to get out of trouble (the lights are good! Adama can do mind control!) But still it's very good.

Athena just hangs around. Could they have used her more? In some episodes, yes, definitely. But the thing is she could never romance Apollo, just Starbuck and Starbuck had Cassiopea. She needed to go her own way. She worked on the flight deck but there were a lot of people on the deck. Cassie did medical. She could've been a pilot but Sheba was a pilot and could romance Apollo. If they wanted to keep her I think the best thing to do would've been to use her as Tigh's sidekick - Tigh issues orders, they are training Athena to take over from Adama, etc. There were two other Tigh sidekicks - Riedel and that guy, Athena could've done that.

TV review - "BG Ep 14 - Fire in Space" (1978) ***1/2 (re-watching)

 An episode of The Towering Inferno. It's really strong and everyone gets involved: Cylon suicide bombers hit the Galactica, setting fire to the ship and injuring Adam; Adam has to go under the knife (giving Cassiopeia something to do); Boxey, Athena and Boomer are cut off by fire, giving Athena some screentime; Tigh takes over on the bridge; Starbuck, Apollo and Sheba fight the fire.

A really good solid ep. Boxey and Muffit copped it a lot but I loved them as kids and they work in this episode.

Movie review - "The Student Nurses" (1970) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers) (re-watching)

Film that still really hasn't gotten its due, a look at four nurses at a hospital and their various adventures. They have been well cast, look different - while acting ability varies all are beautiful and have screen presence.

Karen Carlson is the blonde one, who has a fling with a doctor - she accidentally sleeps with another doctor by mistake, but it's her decision, and she gets annoyed when the doctor is annoyed by it. She has a terrific character, a sex liking woman who dislikes death. She's anti abortion and clashes with her doctor boyfriend. This conflict is strong, well motivated, and empathetically depicted.

Barbara Leigh doesn't want to wear a bra and has a fling with new age druggie Richard Rust (a snob food eater). Rust has a decent role to play - a health food nut with his hippy drug dealing point of view, this is a three dimensional part. Their relationship is very believable. The whole abortion sequence is amazing - matter of fact, powerful. Leigh has to give evidence to a shrink, the head nurse is sympathetic ("get a good one), Carlson's doctor boyfriend helps upsetting Carlson. It's amazing filmmaking still so franky.

Brioni Farrell is a Latina and she gets political, having an affair with an activist. This is more standard. Her consciousness is raised... she gets radical. The political aspects are interesting. It's just more stock

Elaine Giftos is a sweet young thing who cares for a terminally ill patient. She has to run around a garden, they fall for each other. Again this feels a little more stock - nothing Giftos does wrong.

The running time is padded out with montages but they are of the time and place eg a music festival so it's of cultural interest.

The women are supportive of each other - Farrell and Giftos help Leigh have an abortion, which Carlson opposes but Carlson doesn't get angry at Leigh more her boyfriend. 

Very satisfactory ending - Leigh becomes a nurse, Carlson dislikes it so decides to become a receptionist, Farrell goes on the run, Giftos goes to Vietnam. Farrell is the only one with a man and even that looks like it's going to be casual.

TV review - "BG Ep 12 and 13 - The Living Legend" (1978) ****

 Apart from the pilot, this is the first really outstanding Battlestar Galactica episode(s)... where the Galactica finds another battlestar, the Pegasus, that disappeared not in the big battle but in another one two years ago. Which does raise questions (didn't they wonder why no one meant looking for them?) but anyways...

This has splendid central conflict... the Pegasus is under the command of a Patton/MacArthur like general, played by Lloyd Bridges who wants to use the Galactica to attack whereas Adama is more cautious. That's a terrific central situation. Bridges has a wonderful character to play.

Glenn A. Larson develops excellent subplots - Bridges knew Cassiopeia, Bridges has a daughter Anne Lockhart who dislikes Cassiopeia and has a turbulent relationship with Anne Lockhart.

The second half is almost pure action. I forgot about that. They could've done a cheaper version you know, with just the one battle and focusing on the interpersonnel conflicts (couldn't they use Athena somehow? A relationship with Bojay? She becomes pro-Pegasus?)

But the spectacle is pretty terrific - the attack on the Cylon ground base, the two big air battles. The money is up there on screen. Great stuff.

TV review - "BG Ep 11 - The Young Lords" (1978) *** (re-watching)

 Yet another crash on a planet episode, this one being Starbuck, but I like this because the concept is simple but effective: it's an isolated Cylon outpost where the resistance is some kids. The head boy wants to exchange Starbuck for their captured father, and his sister has the hots for Starbuck which is good conflict. Spectre the Cylon is a fun character, a little crawler who sucks up to Baltar. There's some sexual tension with Audrey Landers obviously keen to get into Starbuck and a little rhyme at the end to memorise an attack which was taken off The Dirty Dozen. Oh and some comedy with Boxey getting back into bed with Adama.

TV review - "BG Ep 10 - The Magnificent Warriors" (1978) **1/2 (re-watching)

 Battlestar Galactica had so many stories they could've told on the fleet but they kept going down to planets. This has a strong start, with the fleet food supply wrecked and Adama having to romance an old dame, amusingly played by Brett Somers. It takes a turn on the planet where everyone acts like they're in a Western, a town being confronted by a malevolent force.

There's a superb guest performance from Barry Nelson as a local shifty dude who isn't evil, just doing what he has to do. I enjoyed the lighter tone, with Starbuck gambling and Brett Somers flirting with Lorne Greene, and Boxy and Muffit being involved, and the weird pig creatures, and Adama going on a mission. It's a bit lethargic at times and doesn't quite work (I wish Athena had gone down to the planet) but definitely has its moments.

Movie review - "Lady in Red" (1979) *** (re-watching)

The story of John Dillinger's last girlfriend played by Pamela Sue Martin... that actually only forms a small part of the film which is really a rise and fall type saga of a 30s gal along the lines of the story of movie Jean Harlow or Barbara Stanwyck would appear in during the 1930s. Pamele Sue Martin has the role of a life time - so much acting - and she does very well, she's gorgeous and likeable.

She starts off in a farm, accidentally takes part in a robbery (cameo from Mary Woronov), winds up in prison, gets out to work as a hooker. Act two is Dillinger interlude - Martin becomes passive not knowing he's a crook. Act three she becomes a gangster.

The exploitation elements are kind of undercut by John Sayle's social realism - Martin has sex with some dodgy guy at the start but it's bad, and has sex as a hooker later on to a guy who says "call me daddy" and it's quite blunt and depressing. It's good drama, mind, I'm just explaining my theory of why it didn't do well at the box office... whereas the gals in Big Bad Mama loved having sex and had a good ole time. Martin does have good sex with gangsters played by Robert Forster and Robert Conrad, mind.

A lot of it is really depressing - a black female prostitute is viciously killed by a client (Chris Lloyd).

I'm sure it had a New World low budget but the production values are high.

The story has a made it up as it goes along feel... more like a novel. She's a prostitute... she's in prison ... she's with Dillinger. Sayles felt it was shot too slowly... it's on 93 minutes but maybe it needed to be 80.

 

TV review - "BG Ep 8 and 9 - Guns on Ice Planet Zero" (1978) *** (re-watching)

 Quintessential Glen A Larson: lots of great ideas, a really exciting central concept gleefully ripped off a film or rather films (Guns of Navarone, Dirty Dozen), good ideas to involve our people  (Boxey stowing away) too much stuff, too many characters. 

There's this random viper pilot who we've never met who gets shot down over the ice planet who Starbuck seems to have a crush on - why not make it one of our people? I know that would be the third ep in a row where someone crashed on a planet but making it a random guesty doesn't change that... it could've been Cassiopea or Anthena for variety.

There's the Dirty Dozen who enlist to fight which is interesting (the novelisation of this is great)... but it's almost too interesting, it pulls focus from our people. Why not have them enjoy a connection with our people, like Boomer's old gang members (in a later ep it's stated he was in a gang), or people who knew Starbuck back in the day or Cassiopea back in the day, or someone Apollo arrested. The conflict between Apollo and the main convict was very good in the novelisation but here is underdeveloped. There's too many convicts - Roy Thinnes, Christine Belford, James Olsen and Richard Lynch... and the characters wear parkas so it's hard to tell them apart.

And they throw in some clones... Britt Ekland and Denny Miller and a Dr Moreau like person, Dan O'Herlihy, who created the clones... which is actually full of potential just feels skipped over. They could've gotten a whole episode out of just that - O'Herlihy's moral dilemma is dealt with in one scene.

James Olsen gets a terrific death scene (a suicide bombing) but it would mean more if he'd developed more of a relationship with our people. Roy Thinnes has a great dilemma - help the colonials or escape with his wife - which again would have played better if he'd spent more time with our people, and not done big dramatic scenes with his face covered in masks.

So plenty of strong ideas, very good cast, impressive production values. I liked things like the Clones not wanting to help at the end, the climax is very exciting. 

It's a classic TV script that needed an edit but didn't get it because it was written by the show creator. You can see some fixes easily - Boxey should be in more peril, the pilot who is downed in the opening sequence should have been Athena (who'd been established as a pilot in Lost Planet of the Gods), the convicts should've known Apollo who put them in prison and maybe the girl could've known Boomer or something.

Still, plenty of things to admire.

TV review - "BG Ep 7 - "The Long Patrol" (1978) **1/2 (rewatching)

 Two good ideas in the ep: an automated viper a la Knight Rider called CORA who flirts with Starbuck, and discovery of a prison planet. I think it was a mistake to have an episode right after The Lost Warrior where one of the pilots goes missing, and then when Apollo goes looking for them Adama has to look after Boxey.

The prison planet was fun even if underutilised and not quite believable - like, the grew up there their whole lives? I enjoyed the ambrosia plot and Starbuck double dating Athena and Cassiopea. They were clearly struggling to give Athena a job on the Battlestar though.

TV review - "Battlestar Galactica Ep 6 - The Lost Warror" (1978) **

 Apollo crashes on a planet and gets thrown into Shane - a hot widow with a bratty son are being tormented by a local landowner. I like that the landowner's hired gun was a downed cylon and that there are these outposts of the lost colonies.

It's a little soon after Jane Seymour's death to throw Apollo with a woman (Kathy Cannon) - maybe it wasn't planned that way. Lance Le Gault is Cannon's brother, playing him in Walter Brennan mode.

There's cuteness with Boxey gambling with the pilots (including Larry Minetti off Magnum) waiting for Apollo to come home.

But it's so derivative. Lance Le Gault's death is just like Elisha Cook Jnr's in Shane. The baddy plays it like Sydney Greenstreet. The language sounds silly.

I wonder if this episode was a filler for production. There are still some decent production values with extras at the saloon and stuff..

Maybe it's also there's no real point to it... Apollo has a son, so meeting a surrogate son doesn't mean anything, and he's just gotten married the previous episode, so a love interest doesn't matter. It would've been better if Starbuck had crashed.

I do like the implication that Apollo rooted the mother at the end, by the look on his face.

TV review - "Battlestar Galactica ep 4 and 5 - Lost Planet of the Gods" (1978) *** (re watching)

 Two part ep which is an immediate sequel to the pilot, picking up on the Jane Seymour-Richard Hatch romance and the fate of Baltar. 

It has a great idea: a virus lays low the male pilots so they have to recruit women to do it... then have to sneak back on the planet where they contracted the virus to figure out where it came from... despite there being a Cylon transmitter on said planet. That's entertaining though the training of the pilots here feels ruhsed.

The other idea is them discovering the Lost Planet of Kobol which is more mumbo-jumbo-y though it benefits from decent acting and location filming in Egypt, I think.

This episode has great emotional power with the death of Jane Seymour which I remember being traumatised by as a kid, esp as I related to Boxey. It feels like an episode rewritten and replotted at the last moment, things down played like everyone thinking Starbuck was dead, but is a meaty episode. I liked how at the end it's unclear how much of a liar Baltar is.

It was clear with this ep they didn't know what to do with Athena - Cassiopea already has a job (nurse) but Athena just sort of hangs around.. they should've made her a bad ass pilot off the back of this.

Play review - "Seven Descents of Myrtle" by Tennessee Williams

Curious to read this because it was slammed in William Goldman's The Season. A good play is in here trying to get out. It doesn't get out. 

It's a three hander with a decent central story - a married couple arrive at a house trying to get possession of it off the man's half brother. The half brother is part black which is interesting as is the fact his brother is a tranvestite. The wife is a former show girl.

But the characters don't really leap off the stage, there's no heat between the wife and the half brother, the ticking clock of the incoming flood is underutilised.. The death of the transvestite has some power but there's too much chat and it feels undercooked.

Movie review - "Runnin' Down the Dream" (2007) ***

 Four hours. Just a heads up. It goes for four hours. It packs in a lot - songs, background (mother died young, father abusive), some band shenanigans (not much... only a few line up changes), legal fights (zzzz), videos. Still leaves some stuff out - his heroin addiction, the end of the first marriage is very quickly skirted over. Lots of praise. Maybe too much. Not very many funny stories.

Had a great career, Petty. Serious musician. Everyone respects him. Some great songs. Not very handsome - funny looking guy. Laid back. Treated with a lot of affection. Stevie Nicks wanted to join the band. Bob Dylan got them to be his backing band. That whole Wilburys-Dylan-Lynn period was my favourite bit from the movie, maybe because it's the music I remember most.

Doesn't feel particularly Bogdanovich-y but it's one of the best of his later features. During it I kept thinking of that great riff from the title track. The whole way through the film. It was a relief to finally hear it.

Play review - "Orpheus Descending" by Tennessee Williams (1957)

 Filmed as The Fugitive Kind. A hot stud (with a guitar). Some horny women getting on in years. Good ole boys who turn violent. A violent climax. Carol, one horny lady, is introduced and forgotten as another one, Lady, takes over. It has a solid structure, is interesting, feels as though it needed another draft.

Play review - "Camino Real" by Tennessee Williams (1953)

 William Goldman loves this play so I was keen to read it. I think Williams likes it too and Elia Kazan. I've seen it staged. I tried to like it. Some of its interesting. It's fourteen scenes - blocks on the Camino Real. The main character is the boxer Kilroy. There's shady figures, lost figures, a hooker whose virginity is restored when the moon rises. It's a bit nutty. 

I also read the original shorter version which I think played better because it's episodic. There's lots of literary characters some of whom i got like Lord Byron and Don Quixote some which I had to look up like Maguerite. Interesting finale with Kilroy's heart and organs being extracted.

Movie review - "Eagle Squadron" (1942) ***

 Different in feel and tone to many Arthur Lubin films - this starts off with documentary footage of real life Eagle Squadron pilots, many of whom died. Even when it switches into more conventional war film mode the gloomy stylish black and white photography from Stanley Cortez gives it an almost noir feel. I suspect this was driven more by Walter Wanger than Lubin because it's so unlike other Lubin films.

The American pilots who join the RAF include Robert Stack, Leif Ericson and Edgar Barrier. British women are Diana Barrymore and Evelyn Ankers. John Loder is a British soldier.

Some progressive moments: Ankers is a pilot, Barrier is a Pole. 

The cast is strong by Universal standards: people like Jon Hall, Stanley Ridges, Edward Albert and Gladys Cooper are in it. Barrymore isn't very good - she's not good looking, doesn't have star factor, can't act. Sorry to be mean, but Hollywood really rolled out the red carpet for her on false pretences.

It is ra-ra and implies there's a lot of dating to be had if you're American and get to England but the tone is serious. Pilots die. It doesn't feel like a Lubin film at all. (The story of the film's production is quite complex and took years.)

Movie review - "Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley" (2014) ****

 Terrific doco. I knew the stories because people talk about this doco a lot but you should still see it because then you get the sense of personalities: Stanley is a fascinating figure, with long hair and hat, seemingly on the spectrum, who made a few impressive indies and did a script of Moreau that attracted Marlon Brando then Bob Wllis, It would up with Val Kilmer who basically ate Stanley alive-  but so would have Brando and simply a big budget. The film dips a little when Stanley goes out of it.

David Gregory gets some fantastic names: Bob Shaye, Edward Pressman, Rob Morrow. My faves were the Aussie crew who drew Fairuza Bulk from Port Douglas to Sydney and then later persuaded Stanley to come back on set.

Could the film have been saved? Stanley wasn't up to that budget, at least not then. I don't think Frankenheimer was the right replacement. They needed to look at it and go, right what are people going to watch? Just film lots of Brando-Kilmer stuff, cast a heartthrob in the lead (can be unknown) and do action/horror. Easy to say at a distance.

Play review - "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" by Tennessee Williams (1963)

 Apparently there's several versions of this play - I read the kabuki theatre one. It's enjoyable. There's a rich old woman in a house in Sicily who is visited by a hot stud... who then turns out to be an Angel of Death. There's a witch.

It bogs down with chats between the woman and the stud, a poet... I wish they'd used the witch more or some other character. It could have done with more melodrama. It needs the right treatment. Tab Hunter was in an original version with Tallulah Bankhead - Williams liked Bankhead but felt Hunter, though better than the writer feared, lacked the necessary mystery.

Williams said he never quite got this right and he hasn't in the version I read but it's consistently interesting.

Movie review - "Patrick the Great" (1945) **1/2

 Donald O'Connor's last movie before he entered the army, although its release was held back. It's more serious in tone, although still has a showbiz background, and plenty of numbers - he's a young performer whose dad Donald Cook is a singer.

Peggy Ryan is in it with Donald - I think this was their last movie together. They're running a theatre group in upstage New York. The plot has O'Connor be cast in a show that his father thinks he's been cast in... and Don is awkward about telling him.  That's not much of a plot. More promising is another one about Don falling for older Frances Dee... that is resolved a little too quickly with her falling for Cook. The script shies from too much conflict.

But O'Connor is good, as is Ryan as a girl with a yen for him, Judy-Mickey style. The numbers are very good. This had a decent budget.

Dwayne Hickman Top Ten

In honour of his passing.

1) The Boy With Green Hair (1948) - Hickman was a child actor. In this one he plays a boy who doesn't have green hair. (You know, contrast.)

2) The Bob Cummings Show (1955-59). This sitcom ran for 179 episodes with basically the one storyline: Bob Cummings was a photographer who tries to score with hot, willing models but is constantly cockblocked his sister, housekeeper (Alice from The Brady Bunch) and nephew... played by Hickman.

3) The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959-63). Hickman's starring vehicle. 147 episodes of Hickman as a teenager who cockblocks himself. Cockblocking was very big on TV in the 50s. Tuesday Weld and Warren Beatty had guest roles on this.

4) Cat Ballou (1965) - Jane Fonda became a star as a gal turned outlaw... Lee Marvin won an Oscar playing a drunken gunman... everyone forgets Hickman and Michael Callan are in this as brothers, and quite good.

5) Ski Party (1965) - AIP take the Beach Party formula to the snow, and rip off Some Like It Hot in the bargain with Hickman and Frankie Avalon playing Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. This film is fun. I mean, c'mon, Lesley Gore sings 'Sunshine Lollipops and Rainbows' and James Brown sings 'I Feel Good' in a sweater.

6) How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965) - Hickman replaces Avalon in the 6th instalment of the Beach Party series, easily the worst one. It feels all wrong him romancing Annette Funicello, who was pregnant at the time and is constantly covering her stomach with buckets of KFC. Everyone is in this: Buster Keaton, Brian Donlevy, Mickey Rooney, Elizabeth Montgomery... The green room would've been awesome. The film, not so much.

7) Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Marchine (1965) - genuinely entertaining sci fi comedy spoof with marvellous Vincent Price in the title role but Hickman and Avalon doing a very good buddy act.

8 ) Doctor You've Got to be Kidding (1967) - one of the many comedies that helped kill Sandra Dee's career. The actors are better than the material - they include Bill Bixby, Mort Sahl, George Hamilton, Celeste Holm (!) and Hickman.

9) High School USA (1983) - does anyone else remember this film? I remember loving it as a kid. Combined the latest stars (Michael J Fox, Nancy McKeon, Anthony Edwards) with boomer stars (Tony Dow, Hickman).

10) Designing Women - Hickman wasn't in this but later in his career he became a TV executive and he was responsible for this show for many years, which was a handful. He writes about it in his entertaining memoir, Forever Dobie.

Movie review - "Private Buckaroo" (1942) **1/2

 One of Universal's wartime musicals: little story, wall to wall musical acts, plenty of talent. I recognised some songs in this one, notably 'You Made Me Love You' and 'Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen'.

There's Henry James the bandleader the guy who married Betty Grable, singing cowboy Dick Foran. The plot has James and Foran join the army and Foran's got a big head. That's about it.

Donald O'Connor has a cameo as a kid who also tries to join but is too young - he returns to take part in a number (I think he was part of the Jivin jacks and Jills at this stage). The Andrews Sisters sing some songs. Joe E. Lewis is in it as is Mary Wicks and Shemp Howard.

Some patriotic singing like 'We've got a job to do' as the troops go off at the end. Just wants to entertain.

Play review - "Being the Ricardos" (2021) ***

 Nice patter and dialogue, interesting-ish, easy to watch, Nicole Kidman and Javier Barderm were surprisingly great (they've both been good actors... it was just the playing icons factor), JK Simmons is wonderful.

No stakes, not really. The show was never in danger and it was hard to care about the marriage. Weird subplot between Lucy and Vivian Vance about looking good. Overlong.

Some irritating historical flaws - Judy Holliday was never a threat for Lucille Ball's career until 1946 after her appearance in Born Yesterday, certainly not around the time of The Big Street in 1942 - I don't mind putting all the events on the series in one week (communism, pregnancy, cheating... all took place over different years IRL) -that Judy Holliday thing just bothered me

It went down easy. Gets points featuring an actor playing Charles Koerner of RKO. But maybe they dramatised the wrong week - getting the show up was surely more fraught with peril.

Play review - "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" by Tennessee Williams

 Great old melodrama with that Williams poetry. Act one is a long Maggie monologue interspersed with Brick blocking as she tries to have sex with him. Act two is dominated by Big Daddy. Act three is the family. The version of the play I read showed two act threes - one without Big Daddy one with (the latter done at the request of Elia Kazan who I think was right to have Big Daddy back). I would've liked a more definite ending but the play is very good.

Movie review - "The Great Buster" (2018) ***

 Peter Bogdanovich's last feature is a perfectly adequate documentary about Keaton's life and career. It's celebrator rather than with any in depth analysis.

A random collection of interview subjects - Cybill Shepherd, Johnny Knoxville, Richard Lewis (who knew his widow), Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Bill Hader, Dick Van Dyke, one of the directors of Spiderman, Nick Kroll, Quentin Tarantino. 

It is determined to appeal to the younger kids, which I get. It skimps on the personal drama. Really just shows a lot of clips and talks about them.

Bogdanovich narrates and his mates are in there but he never wrote about Keaton or had a connection with him (cf Chaplin) so it doesn't feel particularly Bogdanovich-ian. I'm glad he had a gig though.

Play review - "Hidden in this Picture" by Aaron Sorkin

 One act play from Sorkin set during the making of a movie - a director is lining up a big shot and has conflict from the production manager who thinks he's spent too much money, and the writer... and a random production assistant. The patter is all there, there's some funny jokes, and it's interesting to compare the director-writer relationship with Studio 60. Not really a major work but entertaining and interesting.

TV review- Colgate Comedy House: Donald O'Connor" (1952) ***

 A bright and cheerful episode. O'Connor earns his dough - he does some patter, a few musical numbers, sketches with his wife Gwen (who seems hostile), his daughter (who seems lovely). Some other act does a sketch, Scatman Crothers does a song. This seems like a lot of work for him - classy television.

Movie review - "Yes Sir That's My Baby" (1949) **1/2

 Battle of the sexes comedies from the 1940s always make one go "uh oh" but at least this has a fresh set up - it's post war college, so lots of students are married with kids, which is cute. Donald O'Connor wants to play football, while wife Gloria de Haven wants him to give up. There's a subplot with Charles Coburn unconvincingly case as a football coach and teacher romancing a feminist teacher, Barbara Brown. At least philosophies are espoused.

Some nice numbers and gags. It's in colour. Cute babies.

Movie review - "Sing You Sinners" (1938) **

 A sort of drama with music though not really a musical. It's got a great central situation: three brothers play in a band but sensible brother Fred MacMurray wants to focus on being a mechanic and irresponsible gambler brother Bing Crosby dreams of a big payday and the youngest brother Donald O'Connor (in his first proper movie role) worships Crosby. Both MacMurray and Crosby love the same girl, lovely Ellen Drew (who is always good).

The second half things get bogged down with Crosby buying a horse and they drop the musical stuff. There's a lot of horse related material - O'Connor as a jockey. They lose Ellen Drew. THen there's numbers at the end.

This is a good film inside here struggling to get out.

Movie review - "The Milkman" (1950) ***

 Donald O'Connor does well when teamed with an elder actor - Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly, Marjorie Main... and of course Chill Wills. Here he's with Jimmy Durante, although O'Connor got solo billing above the title.

The plot has  rich man's son O'Connor go to work for milkman Durante. O'Connor has PTSD from the war which makes him... quack like a duck. Which is weird. But interesting. There's some gangsters led by William Conrad for the third act, which is effective.

It's not really a musical but O'Connor has a solo number singing and dancing as he delivers milk and he and Piper Laurie have a dance.

I enjoyed this film. O'Connor is fun, he teams well with Durante who has a high old time, Conrad and Laurie are good.

Movie review - "Feudin', Fussin' and A-Fightin'" (1948) ***

 Really fun Donald O'Connor comedy musical benefits from Marjorie Main and Percy Kilbridge (coming off The Egg and I) in support. The set up could be used for a horror film - O'Connor is a travelling salesman kidnapped by hillbillies who want him to run for the town in a race. That could be a nightmare - here it's played for laughs.

O'Connor is locked in a barn and talks a lot to a horse - the year before he did Francis. He also does a spectacular solo number where he dances up a wall and flips years before Singing in the Rain. It's not really a musical though.

It is bright and energetic. Main and Kilbridge lift this above the usual O'Connor comedy from Universal. Penny Edwards is the girl.

Movie review - "Rock n Roll High School" (1979) **** (re-watching)

 Lighting in a bottle. They got the Ramones, who are so perfect, but also PJ Soles, Mary Woronov, Paul Bartel, Clint Howard (hilariously balding student... perfect), Dey Young. The film has so much anarchy but also heart - more than say Get Crazy which I also saw. because Soles loves the Ramones but it also a good friend to nerdy Young who is a good friend to her - they have a sort of Marilyn-Jane Russell bond. Everyone raves about Soles from this film, deservedly, but Young contributes heaps too - as does Tim Van Patten and Clint Howard and the magnificent Woronov.

Great music, energy., finale. Every now and then the rough edges really show but it's made with heart.

Movie review - "Get Crazy" (1983) **1/2

 Arkush has been on a journey with this film - based on a personal story, turned into a slapstick comedy, it flopped, he dealt with crooks, but time has been kind and the film has a cult.

It has tremendous energy, memorable music numbers, everyone is having fun. It doesn't have the heart of Rock n Roll High School  - there's no equivalent of the Dey Young-PJ Soles friendship, and the central love story isn't as good. We don't get the sense Daniel Stern loves the venue the way Riff Randell loved the Ramones. The Allen Garfield part seems uneasy - like it should be smaller or bigger. 

Malcolm McDowell is hilarious as is Lee Ving and the girl band. And the guy who plays Garfield's nephew. Lou Reed is fantastic.

Some very funny gags. A genuinely sense of rock n roll.

I just think more time needed to be spent on Stern's character. And give his love interest more to do.

Movie review - "Blue City" (1986) *1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 Directed by Michelle Manning, who got her break after helping out with teen films, though if this movie has an auteur it's more likely Walter Hill, who co wrote (from a Ross MacDonald novel) and co produced: the tough clipped dialogue, the southern setting, the Ry Cooder score, even the opening credits which go credit-vision-credit-vision.

I've read the original - it's a perfectly decent pulp about a young men investigating his dad's death. The thing is in the novel the young man was a war veteran, which gave him weight and experience with guns and killing. Here Judd Nelson is just a flake which makes him lightweight - critics who went after Nelson should have pointed that out.

It falls down in key areas: Nelson hearing about his father's death. And Nelson being tough with a bar tender asking questions is just laughable. So too is he when threatening Scott Wilson, declaring war with a molotov cocktail.

Michael Pare could've pulled it off - if his character had been given a military background. Ditto Val Kilmer. I'm not sure other brat packers could, like Rob, Andy or Emilio. Matt Dillon yes.

Ally Sheedy seems out of place too. She's nice and engaging... but doesn't fit this world, despite quite a racy sex scene with Nelson where if I'm not mistaken she's topless. Their courting feels perfunctory. Surely they could've gotten more juice out of that. It is fun to see her undercover as a go go dancer but really she doesn't do much - they could've and probably should've cut the Sheedy character and had the female lead be the other dancer in the club.

Some of the cast are perfect: Paul Winfield is a great dodgy cop, David Caruso a terrific shifty friend. Anita Morris goes a little OTT as the grieving widow, ditto Scott Wilson as the baddy. The music is good. 

But it's just silly. Nelson and Caruso running around robbing banks and stuff. Are we meant to care when Caruso dies? They are running around committing crimes!

Movie review - "Walking My Baby Back Home" (1953) **

 Donald O'Connor's success in Singing in the Rain and Call Me Madam prompted Universal to splash a little more cash on this vehicle, including colour and importing Janet Leigh from MGM. Lloyd Bacon directed.

The plot is spectacularly stupid. O'Connor is out of the army where he played a band. And he tries to start up a band. Hackett is his mate. Janet Leigh is a girl who was in the army.  Oh and O'Connor's family is rich and he inherits money to be an opera singer. Who cares? The crux of the plot is about O'Connor trying to find the right "sound" for his band. I think Leigh is meant to be worried she's too poor for O'Connor's family as well. It's inept.

There's some really racist moment - Buddy Hackett impersonating a Chinese waiter and O'Connor and Leigh doing a black and white minstrel number.

Scatman Crothers sings some songs. Sidney Miller who has a support role was O'Connor's collaborator on TV shows and films - Miller would write him songs.

The musical numbers are great, except the minstrel stuff. The dancing is fabulous. Just a lousy book.

Play review - "Suddenly Last Summer" by Tennessee Williams

 This is divided into scenes but is really a one take play. A doctor has come to find out the Secret and digs around the Secret from a woman who saw her cousin die - and the dead man's mother wants the woman lobotomised and is willing to pay. It works because the secret is a good one and the characters of dead unseen Sebastian and his mother are so wonderfully awful. Grand fun.

Movie review - "Are You With It?" (1948) **1/2

 Universal kept on Donald O'Connor after the war, ageing him up slightly in a series of musicals and comedies. This is a musical comedy although the first dance number doesn't happen until 18 minutes in. O'Connor is an insurance boffin who is persuaded to join carnies by Lew Parker.

O'Connor is great but his character is all over the shop - a nerd who can tap dance automatically. Olga San Juan is also delightful O'Connor's girlfriend even though her character too is all over the place..

The treatment is surprisingly sluggish - it lacks a light touch. The book is also at fault  - it feels contrived how O'Connor ends up at a carnival (why not just have him on the run from gangsters or something) and it's weird he can dance (I get he does it via maths but it doesn't ring true... why not have him study and pick it up). He needed to fall in love with someone while in the carnival.

It's a shame because when this is good - during the musical numbers - it's very good. Just not that well directed and the story is a mess. The two stars deserved better.