Movie review - "Capone" (1975) **1/2 (re-watching)

 A film of some good moments - Ben Gazzara/Capone going mad at the end, the vivacity and beauty (and nudity) of Susan Blakely as Capone's upper glass gal (her death has someweight), John Cassavetes is electric in an all too brief appearance, the relationship between Capone and his unfaithful support Frank Nitti well played by Sylvester Stallone (a decent role for Sly).

But theres too much pointless gunfire and people shouting and not enough suspense,, sex, build up. It's unsubtly done. Like St Valentine's Day Massacre there's lots of details but we don't really get a sense of why it's important.

Movie review - "They All Laughed" (1981) ** (re-watching)

 Liked this even less on second viewing. I know the film has its fans. The acting is strong, typical for a Bogdanovich film. His script is poor. And creepy. All these detectives following women for work and then falling for him. Audrey Hepburn's perm is awful. So too BJ Novak. There's so much smoking, or fondling cigarettes, or talking about smoking. The melancholy nature of it seems faked - I mean Ben Gazzara and Hepburn just met, if they wanted to be together they could. Everyone falls in love so quickly it's hard to care. Bogdanovich seems to think name repetition is funnier than it is. There's too much country music.

Ah, I'm in a grumpy mood. It's a cult movie let the fans enjoy it.

Movie review - "Saint Jack" (1979) ****

 This film completely worked for me - maybe I saw it in the perfect mood or something but it just clicked. Bogdanovich films are about rhythm and this one nails it. It helps he had Paul Theroux's source material, he was keen to explore brothels in the far east, he had a surrogate in Ben Gazzara, Howard Sackler worked on the script, the budget was low enough for him to have freedom (even though it was a tricky shoot). It's one of the best New World Pictures.

Gazzara gives a subtle, laid back performance as Jack a man who seems to have all the answers but often gets in over his head. He works for some locals and dreams of setting up his own brothel; he succeeds only to fall victim to the local triads (a terrifying sequence... Bogdanovich doesn't do nearly enough suspense and violence he has a gift for it).

It is the story of white men in Singapore but he's constantly bested by the locals and the British don't come off too well - boozy whoremongerers singing songs. The female characters don't get much of a look in - more could've been done with Jack's Sri Lankan love - but the many virtues outweigh the flaws: the matter of fact acceptance of sex (so much so that to blackmail a man because he's gay is what makes Jack draw the line), the atmosphere, the fact it captured a Singapore now gone, Bogdanovich giving one of his best performances as a CIA man.  George Lazenby is effective in a small appearance as a senator who is a blackmail target. Denholm Elliot is perfect as a sweaty accountant who comes to be Jack's one genuine friend.

There's reference to Jack replacing Aussie beef with American to feed American GIs on leave during Vietnam.

The Lost Roles of Ben Gazzara

 * In 1957 Sam Spiegel signed him to play the sheriff in The Chase - film not made for almost a decade later, when Marlon Brando played the part

* In 1957 it was announced MGM were talking to him about reprising his stage role in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof which Elizabeth Taylor was attached to... how genuine was this? In Gazzara's memoirs he says George Cukor was meant to direct and Cukor and Ben Thau wanted him, but Cukor left when the gay subplot had to be cut. Eddie Mannix pushed for Paul Newman and got his way.

* In 1964 he and Jack Garfein announced they had bought the screen rights to Calder Willingham's novel Natural Child - never made 

* In 1957 it was announced he turned down Wind in the Evergaldes

* In 1957 it was announced he had the rights to the novel The Bandit by Garvin Maxwell about the outlaw Guiliano (I think Gazzara played him on TV)

* In his memoirs he says he turned down the Henry Fonda role in the 1956 War and Peace.

Audrey Hepburn age gaps with her co star (it's approximate)

Roman Holiday - 24 to Greg Peck's 37
Sabrina - 25 to Bogart's 55 and Holden's 36
War and Peace - 26 to Fonda's 50 and Mel Ferrer's 38
Love in the Afternoon - 28 to Gary Cooper's 56
Funny Face - 28 to Fred Astaire's 56
Green Mansions - 30 to Tony Perkins' 27
Unforgiven - 31 to Lancaster's 47
Breakfast at Tiffany's - 32 to Peppard's 33
The Children's Hour - 32 to James Garner's 33
Charade - 33 to Cary Grant's 59
Paris When it Sizzles - 35 to Holden's 46
My Fair Lady - 35 to Rex Harrison's 56
How to Steal a Million - 37 to Peter O'Toole's 34
Two for the Road - 38 to Albert Finney's 31
Wait Until Dark - 38 to Effrem Zimbalist's 49
Robin and Marian - 47 to Sean Connery's 46
Bloodline - 50 to Ben Gazzara's 49
They All Laughed - 52 to Gazzara's 51

(Again I stress these are approximate ages - I don't know exact shooting dates - but it will give you some idea of the gap.)
 

Movie review - "The Bridge at Remagen" (1969) ***

Not many Hollywood war films focus on the last months of the war - because the stakes of the battles aren't as high I guess. This is about a battle to secure the last bridgehead into Germany - everyone expects it to be blown up, even the soldiers, which gives the story freshness. When the explosives don't work then the troops go in.

George Segal is really good as an American officer - I don't know why I'm surprised, maybe it's because I haven't seen him play this kind of character before, but he felt very authentic. Ben Gazzara is fine as a sergeant - he has the best bit in the film, being forced to kill a boy soldier shooting at him. Like many war movies, Segal and Gazzara are in love with each other but they throw in a scene where a girl takes her clothes off to Segal to establish that everyone is straight (mind you, Segal doesn't go through with it).

It's tough and fast and looks great. It was shot in Czechoslovakia then had to relocate to Germany when the Soviets marched in but you can't tell.

John Guillermin does a typically strong job of directing. Structure wise it is hurt that the last 15 minutes or so are at night - I had trouble telling what was going on a lot of the time. The photography is great. I loved the opening scene with tanks hurtling down the road (you rarely see them going fast in a film - because it's not historically true admittedly but it looks great).

Robert Vaughan is solid as a good German. His execution is memorable - walking to the spot, seeing the bullet marks on a piece of wood. Bradford Dillman and EG Marshall are fine as officers.

Movie review - "Pursuit" (1972) **1/2

Michael Crichton was never much of a director, for all his talent and intelligence  - he wasn't up to his writing. This was his directorial debut - an ABC Movie of the Week based on his terrific John Lange novel called Binary. Reading that book you can "see" the film - it's tight, sparse, lots of dialogue. There is some internalised stuff - the battle of wits between the hero and villain- but that should be easy to dramatise.

Crichton actually didn't write the script of this, some guy called Robert Dozier did. The script's okay - it's more the handling that lets this down.

There's lots of men hanging around in dark suits - brown and grey. But Crichton can't really milk the key moments. Occasionally he does such as when Ben Gazzara realises that he's part of the plan.

It is a very good cast - Ben Gazzara as the hero, EG Marshall as the baddy, Martin Sheen as an associate of Marshall. Marshall is fine but Gazarra is disappointing with his thick set glasses and walking around with hands in his pockets. Joseph Wiseman is really good though as a professor

The last half is better than the first and it's fine compared to other films of this type - but it's just not as good as the book.

Thoughts on Jeffrey Hunter

Reading the script for The Searchers the other day made me appreciate how good the character of Martin Paulie is, though overshadowed by Ethan Edwards. In many ways the relationship between moral Martin and tormented Ethan is the heart of the movie - Ethan teaches Martin how to, well, be a vengeful maniac, but Martin teaches Ethan the importance of bringing Debbie home as opposed to, well, killing her.

It was probably the best role ever given to Jeffrey Hunter, an actor little remembered today - and to be honest probably little appreciated at the time. Hunter was a handsome lad, with a nice physique and handsome all-American looks. He was signed to a long term contract by 20th Century Fox who probably figured he'd be another Tyrone Power - they seemed to have similar thoughts about Robert Wagner, who also signed to the studio... though to be fair all the studios seemed to be signing up all-American boys in the early 50s: Warners had Tab Hunter, Universal had Rock Hudson, Columbia had John Derek, etc. One writer defined young male stars of this time as "brylcream boys" or "Brando boys" (Brando, Newman, Gazzara, Palance, Dean)... Hunter was definitely the brylcream brigade.

He was in a college play in 1950 when talent scouts saw him and Fox snapped him up. They were initially enthusiastic, giving him male juvenile leads or parts in war films such as The Frogmen - within three years he was given a lead in Sailor of the King. But it must've become apparently very quickly Hunter didn't have much charisma. He was handsome, he could act enough... but he had no personality, no charm, no individuality. He simply wasn't a star. Robert Wagner wasn't much of a movie star either - he had a slightly more brooding quality than Hunter which saw him outshine Hunter during the Fox tenure (in their films together - and they made several - Wagner almost always got the showier role); and Wagner went on to become a genuine TV star, something Hunter never managed.

Hunter's career is remarkable for the amount of lucky breaks he received, and failing to consolidate any of them - that initial contract, being cast in 14 Hours, a lead in Sailor of the King, The Searchers, playing Jesus in King of Kings, a TV show in Temple Houston, the original captain in Star Trek (he wouldn't do a second pilot). He was lucky to have been signed to a studio who did give him chances, he was lucky to have John Ford and Star Trek so people remembered him. I'm sure he was a nice guy and tried hard. But he was a bland actor and wasn't a star at all.

Nonetheless here is my Jeff Hunter Top Ten
1) The Searchers (1956) - brilliant Western and Hunter doesn't disgrace himself
2) King of Kings (1961) - Hunter does well in a difficult role
3) Sailor of the King (1953) - enjoyable movie which would've been better with a stronger actor
4) "The Cage" - the Star Trek pilot - would the series have been as successful with Hunter instead of Shatner? Who knows. It's still one of the better things he did
5) In Love and War (1958) - not bad all-Fox-young-stars WW2 epic.
6) The Longest Day (1962) - Hunter gets one of the best moments in this epic, dying on Omaha Beach
7) A Kiss Before Dying (1956) - Wagner gets the juicy role but Hunter does get to wear glasses.
8) Hell to Eternity (1960) - Hunter gets to play a real life hero in this war pic
9) Sergeant Rutledge (1960) - lesser known Ford with Hunter in the lead.
10) The Great Locomotive Chase (1956) - exciting Disney film.

Movie review - "One Day Since Yesterday: Peter Bogdanovich & the Lost American Film" (2014) ****

Peter Bogdanovich is one of those directors I feel I know personally, mostly because, in addition to seeing his films, I've read so many things he's written - his pieces on directors and actors, especially Orson Welles, are really good. So I'm the perfect target market for this documentary, which explores his life and work, focusing on the making of They All Laughed.

I actually found this a better and more moving film than They All Laughed which I've never loved that much. Bogdanovich is a fantastic protagonist - actor and film enthusiast turned writer about film and then filmmaker; who had such a hot streak from Targets to Paper Moon (all entirely different films); so famous he appeared in the trailers for his movies (as Quentin Tarantino points out, he even sidelines Barbra Streisand in the What's Up Doc? trailer); a high-publicised romance with Cybill Shepherd; guest hosting The Tonight Show. Then the downfall - a series of flops, breaking up with Shepherd - before restoring critical favour with Saint Jack and finding love with Dorothy Stratten and enjoying a wonderful creative experience on They All Laughed.

Then the true nightmare begins - Stratten is killed, Bogdanovich tries to distribute the film himself and goes broke, has a comeback with Mask but stuffs it by being difficult over Bruce Springsteen's music. He recovers to marry Dorothy's sister and makes some decent films but never regains his old heights. (The film omits his second bankruptcy in the late 90s). However he remains revered as a filmmaker, his reputation continues to be strong and the film ends with him making a movie with decent stars, She's Funny That Way.

I was familiar with a lot of the material but there's a great collection of talking heads: Tarantino's take on his films is genuinely fresh; Noah Bambach and Wes Anderson are true fans; Bogdanovich's daughters talk about their dad and his life with love but some wariness; several of his exes appear, including Cybil Shepherd and Colleen Camp. We get to meet some critics such as Molly Haskell, Andrew Sarris and Todd McCarthy. There's also Ben Gazzara who sounds like he's had a stroke.

Bogdanovich leant his papers which mean we see his old annotated scripts and, movingly, a card Stratten wrote for him. Bogdanovich was a bit of a goose but is a very talented filmmaker and it's a shame his post 1985 credits aren't stronger. Excellent doco.

Movie review - "Roadhouse" (1989) **

This has become a camp classic, with its high concept (an action film centering around a bouncer), late 80s fashion (mullets, high pants), 80s action tropes (women who strip for no good reason, smoking, best friends who die at the end of Act Two), Patrick Swayze in the lead role and delirious leaps of logic (where are the police)?

But you know something? The idea of updating the Western to nightclubs is a solid one - there is something very satisfactory about a bouncer coming in to town to clean things up. The scriptwriter (s?) make a mistake by not having Swayze either own the bar himself or have more a of connection with the owner - he's just this random guy (played by Kevin Tighe, an actor who normally plays villains). But Kelly Lynch is very beautiful and Sam Elliott and Ben Gazzara provide entertainingly campy support as chief friend and foe respectively. And I enjoyed the novelty of Jeff Healey popping up in quite a large role as the local singer at the bar and Swayze does great in the fight scenes.

This should have been better - the flaws in the script could have easily been fixed (eg cover the complete absence of police by establishing that they've been bought off by Gazzara, giving Swayze more of a stake in the business, varying the good townsfolk so that they're not all old white men who look like they'd be members of the Ku Klux Klan). But they haven't been so the movie is full of hilarious moments. Its silly, stupid and good fun.

NB A melancholy note - Swayze is in terrific shape but he's sucking down a cigarette almost every scene. You should have given them up, Swayze!

Movie review – “Capone” (1975) **

Although New World Pictures took up the bulk of Roger Corman’s attention during the 70s, he still produced films for other companies, such as AIP and 20th Centry Fox. This was one he made for Fox, for whom he also did Fighting Mad and, several years early, the St Valentine’s Day Massacre. Perhaps that it what prompted this production – it meant Corman could use the same writer of the latter film (Harold Browne) plus some footage.

There’s a good cast - Ben Gazzara is Capone; Harry Guardino plays his mentor Johnny Tonio, Gazzara’s great mate John Cassavetes is Frankie Yale; Sly Stallone (very effective) is Frank Nitti; Dick Miller is a corrupt cop. It’s very blokey for Corman – the only sizeable female part is Susan Blakely as a gangster's moll. (This is doubly surprising when one considers Corman and director Steve Carver enjoyed such success with girl gangsters on Big Bad Mama).

You do wish Cassavetes’ part was bigger. At first I also wished that Cassavetes was playing Gazzara’s role – he had a madder glint in his eye, more humour – but I found Gazzara grew into it. And chubby cheeked Gazzara looked closer to the real Capone.

The main problem with this film was that it felt too familiar. The Capone story is well known from Scarface and its impersonators– cocky kid, violent, becomes right hand to another gangster, get involves with a major crime war, comes out on top, etc. Although here Capone is called Capone, it doesn’t feel any more real – just like a movie made by people who have watched a lot of old gangster films. 

There’s a little swearing, blood and nudity (some from Blakely), but take away that and it could have easily been made in the 1930s – and you’d have had taunter handling too.

There are some interesting touches – like use of red frames to segue between scenes, and Sylvester Stallone as a seemingly loyal but actually treacherous Nitti (according to the film he’s the one who gives the Feds info for tax evasion.) But ultimately it's flat and not very good.

Book review – “Female Brando – The Legend of Kim Stanley” by Jon Krampner

There are actors and there are actor’s actors – performers whom other actors love and admire. Brando would be the best know – others would include Montgomery Clift, Olivier. Apparently Kim Stanley was the 50s equivalent for women.

Kim Stanley is not that widely known today, at least in Australia. I got her confused with Kim Hunter. Unlike Barbara Bel Geddes she didn’t have a hit TV show late in her life, unlike Helen Hayes she never played a series of cute little old ladies, unlike Geraldine Page she didn’t get a great film role towards the end of her life, unlike Maureen Stapleton she didn’t appear a lot in movies.

You’d know the roles she created on Broadway, mainly from film versions in which the roles were played by other actors: The Chase (Jane Fonda), Picnic (Susan Strasberg), Bus Stop (Marilyn Monroe). She was also in a popular stage version of A Touch of the Poet, and the film Séance on a Wet Afternoon as well as the famous Actors Studio disaster, Three Sisters.

She drank like a fish, ate like a pig and rooted like a rabbit – while married to her second husband she had a child to her lover (Montgomery Clift’s brother). Adored by other actors and writers, many of whom she had sex with – Ben Gazzara, Lorenzo Semple Jnr, Cliff Robertson, J P Miller. Several writers also turned her into fictitious characters.

If Stanley had died around 1960 she would have been this great legend. As it is she got fat and boozy, lost her looks and figure, and she’s more of an underground figure today. Her great performances were mostly given on stage and live television – of course its impossible to recreate stage performances but there’s still a fair few live TV performances available, it’s just hard to see them. (Marketing idea for this book – re-release The Goddess on DVD and throw in a couple of Stanley’s best television performances.) Of course there is a tantalising quality about this, very susceptible to cultism eg “ah, if only you’d seen Kim Stanley, now there was an actor.”

Krampner has done a lot of admirable research, including a stack of reviews from many of her colleagues and friends, who talk about her with a mixture of exasperation and admiration. Everyone attests to her acting genius, though some argue it went a bit off the boil towards the end. He does a very good job – I enjoyed his little asides – although at times I felt if he was an actor himself perhaps he might have been better able to convey what Stanley was like as a performer. But this admittedly is a very difficult skill – off the top of my head Simon Callow is the only writer I can think of who can do this – and generally what Krampner does is fine. (Maybe also he could have gone into more detail about Stanley’s influence on other female actors.)

Movie review - "They All Laughed" (1981) ***

A flop on release but the reputation of this film has probably risen (proportionally) more than any Peter Bogdanovich film. Its not hard to see its appeal to auteurists as it has a very strong personality, a loose-limbed feeling trip around the island of Manhattan as various detectives chase various women. There is lots of scenes using subjective camera work and without dialogue, plenty of moving around - it's a chase film. It has a carefree air and the cast all seem like nice people who enjoy each others company - which helps douse the slightly nasty taste that results from the fact that on one level this is a film about stalking. There are other unique touches, too - all the country and western songs on the soundtrack despite the fact this is set in New York, the appearance of Dorothy Stratten, Audrey Hepburn's last lead performance, the fact that Bogdanovich bankrupted himself distributing this film. Colleen Camp loves Ben Gazzarra but he then hops in bed with a sexy cab driver (Patti Hansen - never seen a cab driver quite like her, a gorgeous thing keen for a role in the hay with customers but I guess this was before AIDS hit), then falls in love with Audrey Hepburn so Camp chases John Ritter but goes for Sean Ferrer when Ritter chases Dorothy Stratten.

A film long on atmosphere and charm (also long on long takes and POV shots), short on story and characterisation. A little bit more meat in the Gazzara-Hepburn story might have made their parting more moving - it also doesn't help that the supposedly heartbroken Gazzara then goes and hops in a cab with an ever-loving Hansen something like 20 seconds after Hepburn leaves.

Having the boss of the agency have an affair with his secretary was an OK idea but one elder man-younger woman romance too many for the film (Gazzara already has two in the film with Camp and Hansen) and I wasn't wild about the shaggy haired stud detective character (Blaine Novack) who all the women love despite wearing sunglasses and a cap all the time. Hepburn is enchanting despite some unfortunate 1981 sunglasses and curly hair; Gazzara not quite believable to be this irresistible to so many younger women (maybe he is to others - I guess I'm not used to seeing him in this sort of role); Stratten lights up the scene, and Ritter very engaging in the geek-with-glasses part usually played in Bogdanovich films by Ryan O'Neal. (NB later found out that Hansen in real life went on to marry Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones.)

Book review - "Who the Devil's in It?" by Peter Bogdanovich

A sort of follow up by Peter Bogdanovich to his earlier Who the Devil Made It - this one looks at film actors. It is more autobiographical than the earlier piece and concentrates a lot on Bogdanovich's friendships with actors - Cary Grant, James Stewart, River Phoenix, Jerry Lewis, etc. Some he really just interviewed (eg Jack Lemmon), others he became friendly with (Jerry Lewis), some he worked with (Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazzara), a couple were actually close friends (John Cassavetes, Sal Mineo).

Interestingly, though, it doesn't look at the actors who really broke through in Bogdanovich pictures - Cybill Shepherd, Jeff Bridges, Ryan O'Neal, Tatum O'Neal, Eileen Brennan, John Ritter, John Hillerman, Eric Stoltz. Or Ben Johnson, who won an Oscar in Last Picture Show. He's also worked with a lot of stars who surely would have made a decent chapter - Barbra Streisand, Burt Reynolds, Cher. (You could argue they were new Hollywood and the book is old Hollywood, but then why include River Phoenix?) I guess they're all still alive.

Although Bogdanovich has worked as an actor he isn't really that good a one, certainly not as good as he is a director, and this book isn't as insightful as the one on directors. But it is always interesting and Bogdanovich is a talented writer. Many of the pieces appeared earlier in a collection of his writing, Pieces of Time.

Bogdanovich tried to get up a number of projects with stars that didn’t work. The one I think would have been great was John Wayne, James Stewart and Henry Fonda in a Larry McMurty script which would become Lonesome Dove (in the roles played by Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Duvall, and Robert Urich). However, I don’t particularly long for his project about degenerate gamblers with Sinatra, Martin and Lewis (degenerate gamblers are too depressing).

Particularly interesting is Bogdanovich’s relationship with Cary Grant, who was friendly with the director but also kept him at a distance. Bogdanovich seems especially keen to lap up any praise or recognition from Grant, like a worshipful freshman from the cool kid in high school; in return he tried to enlist Grant’s aid in the director’s fight against Universal when he made Mask (complaining about losing some scenes and Bruce Springsteen songs), even invoking Grant’s name in a letter to the studio.