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.

Script review - "Giant" by Ivan Moffatt and Frank Guignol

This apparently was George W Bush's favourite film and many other Texans love it which bewildered Larry McMurtry who thought it showed them in an unflattering light. But I get why he'd love it - it's a film about family, and proud men struggling with changing times, and sons in the shadow of their father, and race.

The writers know how to focus the story - making it about Bick and Leslie the mismatched couple who fall in love and go to Texas, and their marriage over the years, as Leslie tries to soften Bick. These two are the heart and soul of the piece - and while Bick has the bigger journey Leslie is still a decent role. There are some showy support parts - the sister Link, Jett the surly ranch hand who becomes super rich, the trashy daughter and sensitive son. There's also a dull daughter but she doesn't matter.

The script is solid. Many scenes end with a visual flourish that were surely written with the input of George Stevens the director.

It's a very human story - about family, and changing times. Texans come across as idiots it's true - boorish, stupid, self centered - but you can see why so many of them relate to it.

You wonder why adapters of Edna Ferber novels which followed - Cimarron, Ice Palace - didn't follow this more closely.

Movie review - "Andy Warhol's Bad" (1977) **

I've never seen an Andy Warhol film. I'm not sure this was the best introduction - it's like a John Waters film played straight, a delirious melodrama in the suburbs with Carroll Baker as a hair removalist who runs a murder business on the side. Perry King comes to stay with her and mayhem ensues.

I think this was meant to be a comedy but it doesn't feel like one. The handling is flat. Some actors play it broad, others underplay. It was nice to see Carroll Baker in a good role in an American film made by a leading artist (even though Warhol didn't write or direct it); she's competent in a role that might have required more flair. Perry King is fine in the "beautiful young man" part he often had to play in the 70s - but this role does have some meat on it.

The supporting cast have energy. There's scenes with a toilet overflowing with shit, amputations, a woman with gas... There's also, shockingly, a scene with a baby thrown out the window - it hits the ground and goes splat.

It was kind of dull. I kept expecting it to be more fun than it was.

Movie review - "Sylvia" (1965) **

Michael Caine once wrote when he arrived in Hollywood in the 60s every male film star was called George - George Peppard, George Chakiris, George Maharis, George Segal. This one stars Maharis, a smug 60s type whose name I was familiar with but who I don't recall from much - his claim to fame is being in Route 66. He feels like a TV star. He's definitely not a film star - too bland, too smug. Maybe he would make a good villain.

This uses the Citizen Kane/Laura template of someone putting together the pieces of someone's life. Maharis is investigating, Carrol Baker is the subject. Maharis gradually comes to fall in love with Baker, which is a stock story line... it can work, but here Maharis doesn't meet Baker until the last half hour. We see them fall for each other but it's very late in the day and a bit yuck too because Maharis uses everything he's found out about Baker to get her to like him. It's like he's being rewarded for being a stalker.

I think we're meant to go "gee isn't he great for not minding she was a hooker and rape victim" but he's creepy. And Maharis plays him smug and creepily. Maybe it would have worked if first choice Paul Newman played the role but even with him it would have retained elements of dodginess.

The film is mainly of interest for a cast. It's structured to be a lot of two handers - Maharis interviewing someone, who gets a chance to do some juicy emoting. We've got Peter Lawford as a prospective husband, Ann Sothern as a drunken lady, Edmond O'Brien as an ex, Aldo Ray as a rapist, Viveca Lindfors as a librarian, Lloyd Bochner as another rapist, Joanne Dru as an ex-prostitute, Paul Gilbert as a nasty cross dresser, Nancy Kovak as a stripper. The quality of acting varies - there's a fair bit of ham going around.

And some bad writing. Sylvia isn't a terribly interesting character - men seem to like her and want to have sex with her; she's a loyal friend... but that's about it. Baker is okay in the role - I always like her, but she can't surpass the material. Maybe someone better could have made more of the role, but I doubt it (Jane Fonda? Natalie Wood?) At least she's got a bit of charisma. And even Vanessa Redgrave at her peak would struggle to make all that gunk about Baker's love of poetry and poetry writing work (and there's a lot of it, especially in the last half hour when she meets Maharis).

The whole film has an unpleasant sixties male vibe - with this man investigating a woman, as if he's going to understand her, and these censor-pushing items like two rapes (I mean two, come on...),  and a cross dresser and alcohol, and these women seeming to find Maharis super attractive (not just Baker but also Kovak and Lindfors). It's a misfire, only for completists of the actors.

Movie review - "Cheyenne Autumn" (1964) **

A terrible movie - long, dull, lacking insight or interesting/empathetic characters, full of actors doing "bits". I think even the hardest core John Ford fans struggle to enjoy this.

There are one or two good things. An impressive cast. The colour, A few stylistic compositions of Indians and cavalry standing in line. There's a bad ass moment where James Stewart shoots a cowboy in the foot through his pocket with a hidden gun. And it's John Ford, and you always get something out of a John Ford movie.

But by god was it heavy going. 154 minutes long! You feel every day of that Indian trek.

You get the feeling at the beginning it's going to be a hard slog, with Richard Widmark's narration not really explaining anything we can't figure out, and endless shots of Indians standing around in the hot sun, and badly written and staged love scenes between Widmark and Carroll Baker (I did like him writing his proposal on the blackboard, but there's no heat, no affection, no chemistry between them).

Eventually the Indians make a bolt for it but it's a dull slog. Widmark doesn't have a character so much as a bunch of lines about how much the Indians have suffered and what good fighters they are. Baker just gets lines about how much they have suffered; she accompanies them, basically a saint in training. Gilbert Roland and Ricardo Montalban give interchangeable performances as stoic, noble Indians. Montalban is more of a fighter than Roland I think and there's a plot about Montalban's second wife having the hots for Sal Mineo, which threatens to be vaguely interesting... but Ford trims that to the bone and instead gives us endless - and I mean endless - scenes of men on horses travelling through Monument Valley, or standing on crests of hills.

We also get characters doing "turns". Widmark has a bit of a go at the beginning, then along comes Mike Mazurski (playing the Victor McLaglen role) and he's given a drunken Polish sergeant bit, and some other random actor is given a drunken Irish surgeon bit, then Jimmy Stewart and Arthur Kennedy get an extended bit as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday. Edward G Robinson comes along and does a bit. Ford completists will enjoy seeing people like John Carradine, Ben Johnson and George O'Brien.

There's some action, none of it too memorable - the Indians are said to be good fighters but are never given the opportunity to kick some arse. Their only real victory comes because gung ho Patrick Wayne (in a wooden performance) stuffs up (he doesn't even die). They march and starve, and are saved at the end by white men.

I thought at the least they'd get the chance to get some revenge at the viciously racist Texan cowboys who shoot two starving Cheyenne just for fun (an affecting scene even if the cowboys over act). But it never happens. One of them later gets shot by Earp but not because of what they did to the Indians - only because they pick a fight with Earp.

It's an inherently depressing story - the Indians are treated badly, escape north, starve, most of them are massacred at Fort Robinson, and give up. But surely it could have been more interesting/entertaining? It feels like Ford was bending over backwards to show how liberal he had become about the Indians - the main issue is he'd become more dull about them.

Movie review - "The Big Country" (1958) *** (warning: spoilers)

A good, solid Western story is perhaps given over-reverential treatment. This seemed to happen sometime with epic Westerns - I'm thinking of Duel in the Sun and The Outlaw - they were given all this weight.

Gregory Peck is ideally cast as the former sailor who goes out west to marry sexy little minx Carroll Baker, only to discover that Baker's dad Charles Bickford is engaged in a feud with rival owner Burl Ives; Bickford's overseer Charlton Heston loves Baker and thus hates Peck; Burl Ives' son Chuck Connors doesn't really want to be involved in the feud; Baker's friend Jean Simmons falls for Peck.

Those are juicy roles - characters with clearly defined, contrasting objectives, and for the most part this is strong drama. It's got a decent theme - Peck doesn't want to get dragged into a pointless feud, and Baker thinks she's cowardly.

The ending doesn't quite work, full of contrived moments (Ives shooting Connors, Bickford and Ives shooting each other with duelling pistols). It also has unsatisfactory moments: we never find out what happened to Baker, the romance between Peck and Simmons is undercooked.

Strong performances from Bickford and Ives; Heston makes an effective villain. I like Baker - her throaty voice and blonde looks gives intensity to the part. Jean Simmons is a winsome "whatever"; some writers like William Goldman adore Simmons but honestly I could take her or leave her. Much of the action is filmed in long shot. The photography and music are stirring.

Movie review - "Mister Moses" (1965) **

I've never read Max Catto's novel but the synopsis indicates why it would be attractive to filmmakers - the tale of a conman in modern African who natives think is a version of Moses; he leads them to safety and finds redemption. Movie stars love playing rogues with a heart of gold.

Robert Mitchum is ideally cast in the title role. The film benefits from location filming in Kenya, brisk Ronald Neame direction, a jaunt John Barry score, and the delectable Carrol Baker as the female lead. Baker is spirited, funny, beautiful, with that great voice; she matches well with Mitchum (even though he's old enough to be her father, like several of Baker's co stars during her early Hollywood years eg Karl Malden, Clark Gable).

But I didn't really like the movie. It's racist. I mean, you can say that about pretty much any Hollywood film in Africa, but the black characters are still poor - the locals are exemplified by one dumb elder (Orlando Martins), no more, and a shonky dude who is from America (Raymond St Jacques) and wants to con his own people.

The adventures this Mr Moses has aren't particularly exciting - the ticking clock is a dam about to be flooded, but that doesn't happen. You keep waiting for someone to chase after them, or to have extra baddies, or a development or something but it's all too easy. Moses in the Bible had floods and pursuing Egyptians and plagues and interesting conflicts among the Jews... this doesn't.

Ian Bannen is annoying as a district official engaged to Baker (I kept waiting for him to do something treacherous but it never happens). Alexander Knox's character feels superfluous in many ways too - it's like if Robert Morley didn't die at the beginning of African Queen and went along with Kate and Bogie.

Still, nice music and Baker/Mitchum completists will get something out of it.

Movie review - "The Miracle" (1959) *1/2 (warning: spoilers)

To understand why this got made you need to know it was based on a play that was very popular in Europe in the 1910s and which toured the US in the 1920s. Warners bought the film rights back then and to be honest that's when they should've made it but it kicked around in development hell until it was revived during the late 50s vogue for religious pictures (A Man Called Peter, The Nun's Story, etc.)

The plot is odd. It starts in a convent with some "how do you solve a problem like Maria" style chats among the nuns about Carroll Baker, who is a novice, but tends to day dream. When hunky British soldier Roger Moore trots into town (the time is the Napoleonic Wars and Wellington's campaign in Spain) she gets hot pants and the two of them are soon rolling in the hills. She gets it into her head that Moore is killed, goes a little ga-ga and runs off with the gypsies. Vittoria Gassman falls in love with her and winds up dead. Then she becomes a flamenco dancer; a bullfighter falls in love with her and ends up dead. Then she's reunited with Moore. At the convent the Virgin Mary comes down from a statue and pretends to be Baker. There's a drought. Baker goes back to the church so that Moore can survive the Battle of Waterloo and that it may rain again. I think I've got all that right.

So basically it's about a woman who wants to escape being a nun, but God keeps killing off all the men who are into her, and throwing in some drought for good measure, so she goes back to it. Which isn't very fun.

At times this has shades of Gainsborough Melodramas of the 1940s, with Baker going from nun, to gypsy wench, to flamenco dancer... Maybe that's should have made it. The filmmakers never get the tone right.

Baker actually is compelling in the lead - I always enjoy her, she's a strong actor, great voice, has star quality. She's better than the material. There is camp fun watching her hop around playing all these sort of characters - Baker as a nun is inherently campy. Roger Moore hadn't grown into his looks by this stage; like Baker he's got a great voice, and his performance isn't bad.

There is some hammy support acting from Walter Slezak and Katina Paxinou; some terrible dialogue such as "here's a portrait from my friend Goya" and the Duke of Wellington going "we could fight him here... at Waterloo".

It's a terrible move really only for Roger Moore and Carroll Baker completists, and/or students of religious films of the 1950s.

Movie review - "Jack of Diamonds (1967) **

If you're in the mood for a cat burglar movie this will hit the spot because its got every cliche/trope of the genre your heart could desire: George Hamilton in an all black outfit climbing down a wall during the opening credits, a wise old protege (Joseph Cotten), a beautiful rival female cat burglar (Maria Laforet) and her protege (Maurice Evans), a dogged detective to bring him down, a key jewel, European locations (ski fields, the beach), a big final heist, Hamilton has a trapeze in his apartment that he uses to work out, lots of fancy outfits, Hamilton is called "Ace", Cotten has a secret involving Laforet.

I guess it does lack a beautiful heiress whose jewels are coveted by the burglar. However it does have a series of cameos by actresses playing themselves - Zsa Zsa Gabor, Carroll Baker, Lili Palmer.

It could have done with a third act betrayal and a tightened running time - it feels flabby. The last ten or so minutes drag especially.

George Hamilton tries but is a long way from Cary Grant - a lot of actors got roles by being newer, younger versions of old stars (eg Matthew McConaughey was the new Tom Cruise, Julia Ormond was the new Audrey Hepburn) and only survived if they carved out their own niche; Hamilton would but the niche was as a jokey suntanned playboy, not Cary Grant. Marie Laforet is beautiful but indistinguishable from numerous European actresses who popped up in films around this time. It's a pleasure seeing Cotten - a movie about him teaching Hamilton (the back story to this) would have been more interesting than what's going on; their relationship is reminiscent of Bob Wagner and Fred Astaire in It Takes a Thief. Maurice Evans is alright - might have been nicer if they'd cast some old time movie star to square off against Cotten.

Movie review - "Easy to Love" (1953) **1/2

The challenge of Esther Williams movies was finding different excuses for the swimming related musical numbers - this one handles it well by setting the action at Cypress Gardens, a water ski theme park in Florida. It's run by Van Johnson whose star attraction Esther Williams keeps threatening to quit.

Williams is pursued by three men here - Johnson (though he's only doing it to keep her with his business... what are the chances she's genuinely fall in love), singer Tony Martin (who does a lot of singing) and fellow water skiier John Bromfield (who spends most of the movie walking around with his shirt off).

Williams wears a huge variety of outfits and some of the musical numbers are done very well, including one on a pond covered in flowers, one where Esther is dressed as a clown, and a truly spectacular water skiing finale. Carroll Baker pops up in a small role as a woman interested in Martin.

It's done with professional sheen and all of MGM's skill - which was then still considerable - but I couldn't warm to the movie. Something about the central romance struck me as a bit yuck - Johnson was a horrible boss to Williams and there was no good reason for her to love him other than he's played by a movie star; I didn't much like her for doing it either.

Carroll Baker Top Ten

My top ten films starring Carroll Baker - in no particular order:
1) Baby Doll - the quintessential Baker performance, have to include this
2) Giant - Baker is very impressive as a rebellious teen, something she should have played more
3) A Quiet Place to Kill - I had to pick one giallo and it was either this or The Sweet Body of Deborah. Sexy with twists.
4) How the West Was Won - Baker stands out in this epic Western
5) Something Wild - a bizarre, completely unique art film from Baker's then husband Jack Garfein, with a superb performance from its star
6) The Carpetbaggers - Baker's biggest hit after Giant and she stands out in a sex bomb role
7) The Sweet Body of Deborah - oh okay why not go for two giallos?
8) Kindergarten Cop - Baker is genuinely creepy in this Arnie action comedy
9) But Not For Me - don't laugh! This is a flawed movie but I really liked Baker in it.
10) Andy Warhol's Bad - Baker meets Warhol.

Movie review - "My Father's Wife" (1976) (warning: spoilers) *1/2

Carroll Baker made less thrillers in the mid 70s and more sex movies. Here she plays a wife whose husband (Adolfo Celi from Thunderball) can't get it up for her so he starts having affairs with younger women (who he can get it up for), which upsets Baker so she has an affair with his son, her step son.

Baker goes topless and rolls around on bed, throwing herself into it, which is good to see for a mature aged actress (which is what she'd become). Her performance is fine; better than Celi - it's not fun to see him writhing away.

This is an odd film - you expect the set up to be for a sex comedy or thriller but it's neither; the drama is played straight and the central situation isn't really interesting enough to carry for a feature film. At the end Baker is (it's implied) shot from a snipers rifle while skiing - that feels like it should be the end of act one or two, not the movie. This badly lacks a few murders, or twists - there's some promising support characters set up (like the sexy lady who is the first to bed the step son) but they do hardly anything with it.

Movie review - "The Virgin Wife" (1975) *1/2

Italian sex comedy, also known as La Moglie Vergine, which I only watched because Carroll Baker has a small role. She's the mother of a newly wed whose husband is yet to deflower her due to his impotence. If you find impotence hilarious then this is the movie for you.

There's some sexy women, who are frequently bending over showing off their backsides, and some fat comic actors. Most of the action seems dominated by Mr Impotent's lecherous uncle who manhandles a whole bunch of women - apparently this is considered hilarious.

There's a quite hot final sequence where the bride and groom are caught in a rainstorm with different people - a stud for her, and the bride's mother (Baker) for him - and both get to have sex. The groom apparently has a mother complex which is why his equipment works with her. So she suggests they move in. It's light and energetic and a film very much of it's country and time.

Movie review - "Baba Yaga" (1973) **

Really weird occult thriller based on a graphic novel about a fashion photographer (Isabelle de Funes) who comes under the spell of a sorceress. The sorceress is played by Carroll Baker who is appalling. De Funes starts to have visions of things, including Nazis - and gets turned on by Baker, who tries to brainwash her.  De Funes' boyfriend George Eastman comes to save the day.

There's hallucinations, sado masochism, fetishism, photo shoots, a torture dungeon, lesbians, nudity, left wing political statements. Listing all those things makes the movie sound more fun and interesting than it is - although you do keep watching. None of the three leads are up to their roles.

Movie review - "The Private Lesson" (1975) *1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Odd, pervy comedy which feels like it was made by dirty old men. In a small town, most people seem to be thinking about sex a lot. A good looking music teacher (Carroll Baker) in particular gets a lot of hearts a flutter. One of her students photographs her masturbating and uses the photos to blackmail her into an increasing series of humiliating acts for the enjoyment of himself and his mate, who had a crush on Baker: not wearing a bra, having her arm pits shaved.

it's a weird sort of movie - the teen girls discuss sex and fondle their breasts, the sensitive young man has a dirty old father and uncle (the latter has a mistress/girlfriend who gives the SYM oral sex). There's a lot of flesh on display - masturbation, oral sex and deflowering are all discussed, nudity, Baker has a sex scene with the boy, who becomes a man and goes cavorting in the fields naked with his more age appropriate girlfriend.

Baker's performance is fine, but it really is a not particularly comfortable film to watch.

Movie review - "The Devil Has Seven Faces" (1971) **

Carroll Baker in another European thriller but it's not really a giallo, more a hesity film. This is pretty bad - not just bad, it's also dull, which is even worse, without even a Baker nude scene to liven things up. She does play a double role and has to endure some awful fashions that make her look like Carol Brady.

The plot involves Baker being tormented by a mystery assailant and a missing bag of diamonds. Stephen Boyd (of Ben Hur fame) offers some name recognition as a lawyer friend, while George Hilton plays her racing car driver lover. Baker doesn't give a good performance; actually no one does (there are some hilariously OTT British police). Surely more could have been made of Baker playing identical twins?

It was partly shot in Amsterdam, but it's an ugly looking movie, crummily shot, badly made. The music score isn't bad.

Movie review - "Captain Apache" (1971) **

Spaghetti Western starring Lee Van Cleef (who also sings songs on the soundtrack!) as a native American cavalry officer  investigating a murder... and eventually uncovers a plot to assassinate President Grant. You don't find that out until towards the end of the movie but I'm telling you up front because it'll make this easier to follow - it's a bit over the shop, the sort of early 70s crazy movie that Quentin Tarantino likes.

There's a lot of non-traditional Western features to this movie - the finale mostly takes place on a train, there's a long hallucination sequence, odd camera angles. Stuart Whitman (mysterious businessman) and Carroll Baker (shady lady who has a series of lovers and winds up with Van Cleef) give the support cast genuine class. Philip Yordan was one of the screenwriters.

Movie review - "So Sweet So Peverse" (1969) ** (warning: spoilers)

Carroll Baker was usually the biggest name in the European thrillers she made in the late 60s and early 70s but here she's matched with Jean Louis Trintignant, that French film star from Z and A Man and a Woman who always looked like a chartered accountant.

He plays a married financier who falls in love with the mysterious Baker, who then claims her boyfriend (Horst Frank) wants to murdered Trintignant. Trintignant's wife Erika Blanc also gets involved.

There's some great giallo craziness: montage sequences of water skiing and dancing in night clubs, a black woman (Beryl Cunningham) dances and strips at a party and demands that a couple kiss.The second half it settles down to a standard rip off of Les Diabolique - husband dies, everyone's in cahoots, the two women are having an affair, the wife is driven ga-ga, the police inspector gets them at the end... Actually listing the story elements like that, this really is a rip off.

Very erratic acting: I normally like Baker but while she has some sexy moments and is good with Trintignant, she's bad in the second half off the movie, with some awful dialogue delivery. She does a little bit of nudity though not as much as in other films. Erika Blanc is alright. Some groovy music and photography.

Movie review - "Knife of Ice" (1972) **

Another teaming of Carroll Baker and director Umbert Lezni, who had previously made Orgasmo and Paranoia  together. She plays a mute traumatised by the death of her parents years ago who encounters a killer. (Shades of The Spiral Staircase).

This is less exploitative than previous Baker vehicles - no nudity, less violence, more suspense. Not as trashy - or, to be blunt, as interesting. There is some camp, notably the presence of a devil worshipper who looks very Charles Manson.

Baker is excellent; I have no idea what she thought of all these giallos she made around this time, but they gave her a chance to really act: she's completely convincing, conveying emotion mostly via her face and eyes (ironic since Baker was so renowned for her voice).

The rest of the film isn't up to her standard; no other character we can really engage with, too many bad actors and red herrings. The script lacks decent twists and/or memorable moments . It is worth checking out for Carroll Baker fans, though.

Movie review - "Paranoia" (1970) aka "A Quiet Place to Kill" **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Another Carroll Baker European thriller involving murder and sex. She's a racing car driver (!) who is injured in an accident, and goes to stay at the home of her ex husband, Jean Sorel (who was in an earlier Baker thriller, The Sweet Body of Deborah). Sorel has remarried, to Anna Proclemer, who suggests to Baker they team up and kill Sorel.

That's a good idea for a thriller and this is pretty good, at least by the admittedly low standards of the genre. It has what Orgasmo lacked, a strong third act, with the arrival of Marina Coffa, as Proclemer's daughter. Everyone is sleeping with everyone else, there is plenty of story and some decent acting from Baker, Sorel (who spends most of the film in swimmers and whose physique is exploited almost as much as Baker's), Proclemer and Coffa - the last named I hadn't seen before but she felt familiar. Coffa and Baker are particularly beautiful.

There are elements of earlier Baker thrillers: she dances in a night club, takes a nude shower, lolls about in bed without any clothes on; there's even a reprise of the song "Just Tell Me" which was heard incessantly during Orgasmo. But it's clearly one of the better ones.