Keir Dullea top ten

 

1) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - he's actually perfect for this part

2) 2010: The Year We Made Contact (1984) - entirely decent sequel, no not as good but it tries, a lovely to see Dullea back

3) David and Lisa (1962) - the film that really launched his career, a little bit 'Simple Jack' but a sleeper hit

4) Mail Order Bride ((1964) - cute Burt Kennedy/Buddy Ebsen Western with Dullea as the romantic lead

5) The Thin Red Line (1964) - before the 1999 version of this novel there was this one... it's interesting, not as good as Malick, but worth a watch

6) Bunny Lake is Missing (1965) - Dullea was horrendously bullied by Otto Preminger, and received an almightly sledge from Noel Coward ("Keir Dullea, gone tomorrow") but the film is interesting

7) Madame X (1966) - one of many Ross Hunter remakes, this has Lana Turner camp it up and Dullea has her son - no way near a good movie but it is prime camp

8 ) The Fox (1967) - racy adaptation of the Lawrence novel with Dullea breaking up a tryst between Anne Heywood and Sandy Duncan

9) De Sade (1969) - Dullea's big chance after 2001, it had an excellent subject, writer and director but something went wrong (I think director Cy Endifeld went ill and seemed to have a nervous breakdown or something )

10) Black Christmas (1974) - fun early slasher. Dullea is a great creep.

I made it to ten films! Honorable mention to the Aussie TV movie Because He's My Friend (1978) where Dullea stars.

Movie review - "The Sound of Fury" (1950) ***1/2

 Cy Endfield's best known American film. The story of two crooks - Frank Lovejoy, Lloyd Bridges - who commit a crime.

Kathleen Ryan from Odd Man Out is Lovejoy's woman. Lovejoy does his craggy 40s/50s ugly leading man thing. Bridges gets to act up a storm. Richard Carlson is a rabble rousing journo who has an unconvincing change of heart after he talks to Ryan and gets lectured to by a dull European. There's lots of talks about ethics.

But the drama is well done. The seediness, the descent into crime, the sad eyed look of women, the power of the final lynching.

Movie review - "The Argyle Secrets" (1948) ***

 Based on a radio play and it is very talky, but it was shot over six days or something and there wasn't much Cy Endfield could've done. It's beautifully shot and the actors spit out the dialogue. A lot of Maltese Falcon - man dead, chasing Macguffin, there's a sinister fatty and a woman sho's shonky. William Gargan, Ralph Byrd, Barabar Billingsly... so some star power.

Movie review - "Hide and Seek" (1964) ** (warning spoilers)

 Cold War thriller with Ian Carmichael in a Kenneth More style role - more accurately, Cary Grant, who Carmichael wanted to emulate. In his memoirs Carmichael says the original scrit was great but was rewritten. Maybe. I think he's miscast. I can see why he got the role - not bad looking, comic, etc... Kenneth More would've been more at home or Dirk Bogarde.

Janet Munro is lovely as the girl, a little mysterious, though she's too young for him. Actually it's not so much that (14 years difference) as the fact he's not hot enough for her. Incidentally erhe's a scene where she changes out of her wet clothes and flashes her bare back - racy!

But the basic problem of the film is it's not clear what Carmichael is doing... he's a scientist doing chess stuff, looking for a colleague, I think. But the whole thing is a trap from Curt Jurgens so it's a trick, which isn't that satisfactory.

Curt Jurgens adds some star power at the end and I liked Hugh Griffiths as a fisherman and scenes out in the countryside, which had the 39 Steps vibe this could have led into more.

Movie review - "Sea Fury" (1958) ***

An old story - elderly captain, young hot wife who wants to bang the younger first mate. But Cy Endfield, writer-director, puts in effort - its got location work in Spain, some excellent storm footage, a strong finale with the ship coming across a creepy trawler and weird captain... I actually wish it had been more of this, maybe one journey with the woman on board.

Luciana Paluzzi is sexy and can act as the woman, even if ultimately there's not a lot of depth to her character. Victor McLaglen and Stanley Baker are excellently cast, as is Robert Shaw as a scowly crew member who wants Baker's job.

This is good, tough adventure stuff - not as strong as Hell Drivers, and it needs more of a villain, like German U Boats or something. But it was made with care - flamenco music and so on. Not a typical bland 50s Rank movie.

Vale Stuart Whitman

I remember once reading a list of the richest actors in Hollywood - it included names you'd expect like Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra... and Stuart Whitman. I thought "what? Stuart Whitman?" But it was true... he did engineering in the army and when he got out and went into acting, he needed a day job like a lot of actors. His day job was he bought a little bulldozer (he learned how to drive one in the army) and would hire it and himself out for the day/week to clear land It was the 1950s and there was a property boom on in LA... Whitman soon figured out where it would be good to pick up some land himself for developing/re-selling. Over time he was worth $80 million. But he kept acting because he loved it. Indeed, he was a compulsive actor and took everything going when maybe a little more choosy-ness might have been ideal (or at least using some of that $80 million to maybe option a decent book or screenwriter).

Anyway here's a top ten:

 

1) Ten North Frederick (1958) - Whitman has a small but shiny role as an abusive musician in this Gary-Cooper-has-a-midlife-crisis melodrama... it helped get Whitman a contract at Fox who tried for a few years to turn him into a star

2) Hound Dog Man (1959) - ostensibly a Fabian movie this film really more belongs to Whitman, who plays a ne'r-do-well... the part really needed the star power of Elvis or even just Tommy Sands but Whitman is effective

3) The Story of Ruth (1960) - part of a sub-genre, Biblical spectacles that no one remembers - interesting to watch. Whitman plays Boaz.

4) The Mark (1961) - Whitman was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for this movie where he plays a child molesterer... only he doesn't actually molest children he only thinks about it (he does abduct a girl but doesn't go through with it) and then gets "better"... but the film does get points for tackling a big issue in 1960

5) The Comancheros (1961) - a really fun John Wayne western with Whitman as his rival and Ina Balin giving perhaps her best performance

6) Shock Treatment (1964) - mental illness-sploitation with Whitman faking illness to go undercover (not the Sam Fuller movie which used the same idea)

7) Sands of the Kalahari (1965) - Cy Endfield and Stanley Baker's fascinating follow up to Zulu has Whitman stepping in to a role that George Peppard walked out on as one of a group of passengers who crash in the desert and deal with horniness and killer baboons

8) Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) - really fun, lovely movie, a deserved hit... it's a little odd to see Whitman in it (original choice Dick Van Dyke would have been more at home) but he's fine

9) Night of the Lepus (1972) - a killer bunny rabbit movie, no kidding - the sort of movie where David Del Valle would do a killer commentary - kicked off the horror cycle of Whitman's career, which included films about cannibals (Welcome to Arrow Beach), killer alligators (Eaten Alive), cult leaders (Guyana)

10) Crazy Mama (1975) - part of New World Pictures cycle of films about outlaw women and their trashy daughters (eg Big Bad Mama) this one has Whitman hook up with Cloris Leachman and Linda Purl... directed by Jonathan Demme

Book review - "The Many Lives of Cy Endfield Film Noir, the Blacklist, and Zulu" by Brian Neve (2015)

How good a filmmaker was Cy Endfield? He made one movie that has passionate devotees - Zulu - but the others are far, far less well known. After the triumph of Zulu his career bewilderingly failed to gain momentum. I was familiar with glimpses - the mysterious Sands of the Kalahari, being booted off De Sade, the beyond-weird Universal Soldier - but this superb biography answers all those questions and more.

Endfield was from Scranton Pennsylvania; like so many directors of his era, he was the son of immigrants, and was whip smart, getting into Yale. He earned contacts in the progressive theatre scene of the 1930s, knowing Orson Welles and Paul Gallico, and joining the Communist Party. He eventually found his way to Hollywood and whinged/nagged/networked his way into filmmaking jobs, doing a stint for Mercury at RKO, then making a short for MGM, Inflation. This was extremely highly regarded - but also so powerful it was considered anti-capitalist and found it hard to get distribution. It was to be the first in a series of career blows that would frustrate Endfield.

He was a hard worker and wrote as well as directed so managed to find work - radio dramas (including "The Argyle Secrets" for Suspense which I review elsewhere on this blog), then making comedies at Monogram, and working his way up to some highly regarded film noirs, notably The Sound and Fury. It seemed Endfield's career was back on track then he was hit with another blow - being blacklisted.

Endfield fled to England. He eventually found work again in TV and then movies, writing and directing, forming a notable collaboration with actor-producer Stanley Baker: A Child in the House, Hell Drivers, Jet Storm, then of course Zulu. This was a big hit and really should have put Endfield back in the A league again. But his follow up, Sands of the Kalahari, flopped and Endfield could never get his groove back - by this stage he was too cranky, too old, probably too tired after so many knock backs. He was booted off De Sade, Universal Soldier was a mess, was unable to get financing for other projects; he worked increasingly in other areas - computers, tried writing a play (the man was ferociously intelligent); he had a life long interest in magic and was very serious about it. Critics rediscovered him but it was probably too little too late for his sense of self-respect.

For all his many admirable qualities Endfield wasn't always an easy person to like - he was prickly, temperamental, sulky; he bailed on a first marriage and child (the blacklist was a big part of this, in his defense); seemed reluctant to help out with the war effort. But he had talent, intelligence and made some entertaining films. Its a shame his early 50s film noirs aren't better known, for instance. He was a fascinating character who deserved a good biography, and he got one.

Movie review - "Mysterious Island" (1961) **1/2

Part of the late 50s-early 60s Jules Verne craze, this time with help from Ray Harryhausen and several Brits pretending to be Americans. Michael Craig is the lead - he's butched himself up with some three day growth but still can't quite carry a film as star; Michael Callan is the handsome juvenile in the Pat Boone/Fabian mode, and Gary Merrill, Percy Herbert and Joan Greenwood add some support; there is also a starlet called Beth Rogan who I got confused with Janet Munro and who looks fetching in a fur bikini. (For variety the guys walk around in tight shorts).

There is some nice colour photography and decent enough Ray Harryhausen effects but this movie seemed to lack flair and energy. Maybe its the fact Captain Nemo's appearance is held off so long - until then it's just a bunch of people arriving on an island, then another bunch of people (two overly convenient women) arriving, then a few encounters, then Nemo. There are some wacky creatures and a large comic geese and castaway antics - surely the filmmakers had seen Disney's Swiss Family Robinson. I had trouble telling the characters apart and never felt that excited or thrilled. Kids may like it though.

Movie review - "Jet Storm" (1959) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

The least well known of the collaborations between Stanley Baker and Cy Endfield, who also gave us Hell Drivers and Zulu. This is a quite enjoyable British disaster movie, with a fast pace, great cast and silly plot - Baker is the pilot on a flight across the Atlantic, when he discovers passenger Richard Attenborough wants to blow up the plane in revenge for his kid being run over.

How this is revealed is, to be honest, quite dumb - Attenborough threatens the person he thinks killed his kid, then his wife figures out he's got a bomb, and Baker tries to get it out of him, he won't tell, so Baker tells the passengers and they get worried, but sit in their chairs and worry.

It's really bizarre and British with everyone obeying the captain (some are reluctant) and acting in their subplots. There's mad Attenborough, his bewildered wife, a Jewish holocaust survivor, a politely sexy air hostesses romancing the co-pilot, a separated couple who rediscover their love playing cards, a fat Welsh comic (Harry Secombe!), a drunken loud widow (Hermione Baddeley), a pop singer who gets stressed out (Marty Wilde, who sings the title tune), a socialite, a sexy flirt (Diane Cilento), a little kid, and a lynching. Something for everyone really - notably a climax where the captain sends an eight year old kid to sweet talk the psychotic bomber!

A great cast - in addition to the well known leads (who turn in good performances), Secombe and Wilde,  there's Mai Zetterling, George Rose, Virginia Maskell, Elizabeth Sellars, Patrick Allen, Sybil Thorndyke, Neil McCallum, Megs Jenkins, Paul Eddington, David Kossoff, Cec Linder, Jocelyn Lane, Bernard Braden, Barbara Kelly, Lana Morris and Jeremy Judge. It's a movie that is often stupid but never dull and I liked it a lot.

Movie synopsis - "Universal Soldier" (1971) *

London airport - people arriving. A passport is checked - it's someone born in Melbourne, Australia. There's a handsome photo of clean-shaven George Lazenby - credits: "George Lazenby in Universal Soldier". We cut to George - he's got shaggy hair and a mo. He's pulled into customs to be checked out - his character's name is Ryker. Ryker leaves the airport. People are waiting for him. They take him to a firing range - Ryker is respected on this. He goes to a cinema and watches ads for British arms being used in Vietnam.

 Then he goes to field where hovercrafts are being trialled - people talk about working in the private sector. Ryker takes a hovercraft for a spin. He crashes into another hovercraft. (At this stage of the film other actors are driving the dialogue more than Lazenby.) He visits firing ranges. Gets in a car with an African (Rudolph Walker) who knows about Ryker's last performance. Ryker has come out of retirement for two years. The CIA are bankrolling the operation and have approved Ryker (a bit of satire). "People? Come on you know what happens to people in revolutions - they just get shot".

Ryker is to pick mercenaries. He goes to hotel. Lies in bed with towel and has flashes of various war atrocities - mainly news photos of them and images of guns, they don't seem like his POV. The film uses jump cuts and flash forwards. Ryker goes to an arms shop. Talk about getting appropriate export licences. They visit a plush Playboy club. Ryker listens to a fat businessman talk with lack of morality about arms deals.

Drives along in a car. Song on soundtrack "Oh Ryker/ You've still got a long way to go." He is pulled over by a cop. Cops ask them to open boot. They drive off. They escape. Go out to the country. Fire off some guns. Practising shooting Ryker accidentally wounds a dog collecting a stick in a lake - his American mate finishes off the dog, then Ryker blows his top and shoots at the American's feet (doesn't hit him) then walks off. Then cut to driving in a car, all tense.

Ryker heads off on his own. He walks the streets while another song plays on soundtrack. Back at hotel his American friend tries to thaw the ice but Ryker isn't keen. They are going to meet other arms dealers. Their British friend arrives. The British guy offers to go to Africa.

Ryker drives around London a bit. Arrives at a house - looking for a place to rent - he meets an American expat who has lived in London 18 years since been kicked out of country for being "unfriendly". Played by Cy Endfield, who looks seedy and disreputable and mutters. Enfield shows him around flat. Ryker agrees to take it. Endfield asks "Did you ever read Deer Park by Norman Mailer?"

Enfield's wife comes home - it's Germaine Greer. She talks about her day - her students turned up with an obscene poem. He tells Greer that Ryker is renting the room. Friends of Endfield and Greer arrive - they are hippies.

Go to a political workshop. Some actors where masks and do a piece on British police force. They argue that American police should disarm and there would be no war. (One guy who says a bit and gets close ups I think is Rohan O'Reilly, Lazenby's manager.) People say various political things (montage of it) - chat about selling arms to South Africa, Germaine says a bit. Ryker watches. At drinks after he meets and flirts with some girls. He hits it off with a blonde (Chrissy Townsend) who is Greer's step daughter? Someone's step daughter. He asks to see her.

American friend Jesse says Ryker has left even though he has a lot of people to meet. Ryker goes for a stroll in the park. (Too many scenes in this film of him walking around or going for a stroll.)

Jesse (Ben Carruthers) and British guy worried about Ryker. Whole deal might fall over. Ryker walks around with blonde. Blonde gives beggar money. He tells her about a guy he knew in Africa who would give beggars money, be followed by others, get annoyed and kick them to death. "What sort of friend is that?" she asks. "A solider" he says. He goes home. Girl is in his bed. He gets into bed with her.

There is a montage scene where he mucks arond with girl Chrissy and smokes drugs. Jesse tracks him down. We are millions of dollars out, he says. We have to turn up and train. Ryker doesn't seem interested. Jesse "They said take him back or take a piece of them back."

Ryker and Jesse chucking a frisbee, Ryker tells them to duck. They do. Someone is out to kill him.

That night they go down to the docks where the guns are held. They hold up a security guard and take the trucks.

Then he breaks into house of African man and points a gun at him. We have a deal, Ryker. Ryker blackmails him. (It's confusing what happens.) Ryker wants $125,000.

Next day the African turns up with the money. They exchange money. They are $100,000 short - but Ryker says he didn't give back the guns. Jesse is furious. "I don't know what it is myself, you know," says Ryker. "Even if you had the money you'd still have nothing... You're asleep. You're on the short end of everything and so am I but we don't realise it. We're on the wrong side." Jesse understandably punches Ryker (some flashy slow mo and cutting). Ryker annoyed but doesn't hit back despite Jesse's taunts. Jesse trips him over. Ryker then trips Jesse over (in slow motion). Ryker helps up Jesse saying "some poeple just have to learn peace the hard way." A mysterious car drives past. Drives past two of them - shots ring out. Freeze frame

Summary - a decent story done in by poor handling. Confusing as what is happening and why. Little excitement. Unsympathetic protagonist.

Greer and O'Reilly are special guest stars.

Final credits: screenplay by Endfield with additional dialogue by Kevin Duggan, Kenneth Fueurman and George Lazenby - based on a story by Derek Marlowe and Joe Massot

Production companies of film were Appaloosa Pictures and Ionian. Derek Marlowe, an experienced writer, is credited with the story.

Movie review - "Night of the Demon" (1957) ***1/2

A conscious throwback to the cinema of Val Lewtown from Jacques Tourneaur, working off an excellent, literate script (co-credited to Hitchcock's old crony, Charles Bennett). The ever-reliable Dana Andrews is one of the many second-tier Hollywood stars who headed to England in the 50s to make genre movies, but was accidentally rewarded with a cult hit. He's a skeptical professor who is going to speak at a conference, and winds up investigating the death of a colleague.

The macguffin here is passing a parchment which kills those who hold it -I wonder if the makers of The Ring were inspired by this at all? There's some interesting discussions of the role of demons and folk stories, plus scenes involving a seance, old hieroglyphics, stone hedge. The most effective moments are the seemingly normal ones a little inverted: Niall McGinnis (superb as the villain) in a clown outfit playing with children, the impending storm, walks through the woods at night, a visit to a catatonic man's religious family. There are some good old fashioned shocks too like the catatonic man leaping to life.

Andrews is mostly study (a believable professor) although in one or two scenes he seems drunk (I may be projecting here - but look at the seduction scene with Peggy Cummins). Cummins is fine as "the girl". The monster looks a little silly but there's not much of it.

Movie review - "Hell Drivers" (1957) ***

Taut, highly enjoyable British B about truckers in the vein of They Drive By Night - it has an American energy and feel, perhaps due to co-writer and director Cy Endfield. It's perhaps been overpraised in recent years but is still fun. Stanley Baker became a confirmed leading man with his Bogie-type portrayal of a man just out of prison who gets a job as a truck driver. The company he works for seem interested in driving as fast as possible at incredibly fast speeds than delivering safely and is dominated by Patrick McGoohan. Baker is befriended by nice Italian Herbert Lom (once again playing an "ethnic" but this time he's actually sympathetic here - indeed, the most in the film) - Baker repays him by stealing his girlfriend, and then Lom drives a truck intended for Baker with dodgy brakes.

Some odd scripting decisions - having one scene where Baker goes home to see his mother and brother (David McCallum) but no other one (we never see them again); Baker realises the truck has been fixed but doesn't tell anyone; we don't find out about the fact McGoohan is ripping off the company unit the movie is almost over (maybe this wouldn't have mattered had Baker been investigating some sort of movie but it's just a realisation at the end - so the story doesn't really have narrative advice).

Sensational cast: in addition to Baker, McCallum, Lom and McGoohan there's also a young Sean Connery and Sid James, plus Peggy Cummins.

Radio review – Suspense – “The Argyle Album” (1947) ***

Edmond O’Brien – then during his brief, odd reign as a leading man (I think people enjoyed tubby tough guys after the war) – is perfectly cast as a reporter who investigates the death of another reporter, a big time columnist… and the photographer who was left with the dead reporter. This leads him to uncovering a bunch of war profiteers and fifth columnists – perhaps a bit late in the day for this sort of plot but it’s effective enough. This was turned into a movie, The Argyle Album, by director Cy Endfield. It was also previously recorded by Suspense with Robert Taylor.

Movie review – “De Sade” (1969) **

When Sam Arkoff was interviewed in the early 70s he gave this as an example of AIP’s biggest disaster. It’s a surprise when you consider the subject matter would seem a natural for AIP (this was part of the second cycle of Poe pictures) and there were some impressive names involved: the cast included Lilli Palmer, Santa Berger and John Huston, the script was by Richard Matheson), the director Cy Endfield. However the shoot proved highly troublesome. Endfield apparently rewrote the script (changing it from non-linear to linear) and flipped out, causing Roger Corman to step in to help finish the film.

 

Apparently Endfield’s direction was chaste but here are lots of bare boobs here, some female bums (no male bums); Arkoff says in his memoirs that Dullea was reluctant to do orgy scenes but he’s in there, licking nipples. Presumably Corman did all this.

 

Keir Dullea's performance is a major debit. The role of de Sade is a gift but Dullea lacks spark, artistry, madness, etc. He does have a look of bored aplomb of the aristocracy – kind of like a Nazi officer – but that doesn't work for someone like de Sade. As a result, for all the orgies and boobs on display, the film isn't very interesting. There are lots of trippy sequences, music that sounds a bit like 70s TV, some decent art design. 

 

A major opportunity missed.

Book review – “Stanley Baker: A Life in Film” by Robert Shail

Baker was one of the most imposing actors in British cinema. Dark, brooding, intense, he was a natural for villainous parts. Indeed, this meant his rise to regular, well-paid work was quite rapid: he came out of the army in 1948, struggled for a year or so but then got a good part in a Chris Fry play which took him to Broadway, began to work steadily, made a terrific impression in The Cruel Sea, and then was being nasty to various stars in a series of Hollywood-financed films shot in Britain. Like Bogart, his bad guy performances were often the most striking thing about the movies he was in; also like Bogart, he was ambitious and intelligent and wanted to play better roles. Bogie had John Huston and High Sierra/Maltese Falcon, Baker had Cy Endfield (and later Joe Losey) and Hell Drivers.

By the late 50s he was established as a second-tier star as the tough guy hero of a series of thrillers and detective films which never seemed to be large hits and are little remembered today. (Hell Drivers seems to be the exception). By the very early 60s he was the third most popular British star after Sean Connery and Cliff Richard. He was able to use this popularity to produce and star in Zulu, which remains the film for which he is best remembered.

I’m surprised Baker never really recaptured the success of Zulu after he made it. Tough guy actors never really go out of fashion, he worked well with top directors like Losey and Robert Aldrich. But he followed up Zulu with the unpopular Sands of the Kalahari; he semi-bounced back with Robbery, and Accident for Losey, as well as producingThe Italian Job as well as being part of a consortium that set up Harlech Television. But he then went on to produce and co-star in a big flop, Where’s Jack?, and his career went into decline – he starred in a series of dud films that no one seems to care much about (even Shail has little good to say for them apart from Perfect Friday), and to make matters worse he lost a huge whack of his fortune in an ill-advised attempt to take over British Lion. (I know it’s all very well to be wise in hindsight but come on, Stanley, British Lion always lost money)

Maybe the problem was at the bottom of it Baker the film star hero never really graduated to the A league – he was an A-league villain, but he tended to be associated with B-picture heroics. Maybe B-picture isn’t the right word – but his leading man stardom was based on second-tier crime films, and those sort of pictures pretty much died out in Britain during the 60s (they were replaced by television). (I don’t understand why he didn’t do more action pictures in the wake of Zulu and Guns of Navarone – maybe they weren’t offered). Baker’s reluctance to work in America also may have hurt him – plus the fact that down deep I don’t think he really wanted to be a big star. He was obviously a smart cookie, but there was a limit to his ability as businessman, as exemplified by the British Lion experience. (Just because you are a good producer doesn’t mean you’re a good executive – just ask Bryan Forbes).

Baker continued to do good work on television and had he lived I think he would still be a major name today, probably as a television star who keeps featuring in the occasional juicy support role in a blockbuster and stealing the notices. Who knows, he could have even become a Welsh MP. But Baker was blessed with family genes that lacked longevity (his father died young) and the heavy drinking and chain smoking wouldn’t have helped – he died in his 40s.

Shail is an academic and at times you can tell. He has been careful to ensure his work is devoid of jargon, but it's heavily reliant on secondary sources and he doesn’t seem to have done many interviews (just Ellen Baker and a few locals; oddest anecdote: Lady Baker told Shail that after Baker would perform sexy love scenes with Ursula Andress in Perfect Friday he’d come home an act the town bull with his missus.) We get glimpses of the man - the fact he wore a toupee, his fondness of gambling and boozing, his early years as a lady killer - but not a thorough picture.

Shail is however excellent when analysing Baker’s acting and image and how it fit into British society and cinema at the time, and also in terms of Welsh nationality. He’s not as crash hot on the nuts and bolts of filmmaking, mostly drawing on the established histories like Alexander Walker’s and Sheldon Hall’s account of Zulu. Still, if you're interested in Baker definitely worth a read.

Movie review – Tarzan #16 – “Tarzan’s Savage Fury” (1952) ***

In his excellent book on the cinema of the British Empire, Visions of Yesterday, Jeffrey Richards remarked in passing that Tarzan took on communists in Tarzan’s Peril and this film. You could argue the baddie in Tarzan’s Peril was a commie; the anti-commie slant is a little bit more obvious here, though you still have to look for it. Charles Korvin kills Tarzan’s cousin and gets Patrick Knowles to impersonate said cousin; Knowles admits to being a traitor to England, Korvin refers to Knowles being from the “bourgeois” and works for a fictitious European country that is an enemy of England.

Knowles and Korvin ask for Tarzan’s help in locating a source of diamonds; they claim they need them for England (where “the chips are down”) – which surely is going to raise Tarzan’s suspicions considering the number of greedy explorers who’ve trooped through his jungle over the years. But at least it’s a different sort of lie and Jane encourages him to go along with it.

The film benefits from the addition of a “Boy” character – Joey, an American, played by Tommy Carleton, an engaging child performer. He helps compensate for another bland Jane (Barker’s fourth in only his fourth movie). They could never get a right match for Barker - this one seems a lot older; to be fair, she’s not helped by the fact she’s shown to be pining for Tarzan while he’s away, implying that she spends a lot of time stuck at home – no wonder she gets so excited by the mention of diamonds, it’s like she can’t wait to get out of her tree house to do diamond shopping.

Some good action sequences: Tarzan rescuing Joey, crossing the desert, the expedition’s arrival at the native village to find that cannibals have attacked, Tarzan rescuing Jane from being sacrificed at the end. Barker acts with more authority and confidence than before. The villains are strong and its refreshing to have a plot that harks back to the history of Tarzan’s family.

On the downside there are some racially insensitive moments such as when Korvin distracts some natives with a few magic tricks. And the ending where Cheetah engineers a plane crash by the commie pilots (they misinterpret his chimp talk as their native language) is a bit full on – a reprise of the Tarzan Triumphs end gag, only with more violence.

NB the ending with the Africans giving Tarzan given half the diamonds – what exactly does he plan to do with them?

Movie review – “Zulu” (1963) *****

Classic guys movie, about a bunch of guys fightin’ off a massive swarm of black people. This film’s been accused of racism and it you can see that point of view – the Zulus are mostly a face-less personality-less mass. But that contributes a great deal to the effectiveness of the movie – apart from the opening scene at Isandlwhana, it’s all from the POV of British soldiers, for whom the Zulus were a face-less personality-less mass. And to cut away form this POV, to have scenes showing the Zulu’s side, would have detracted a great deal from the appeal of the film.

Also, this is a 60s Imperial film, which means the emphasis is on the soldiers not on any British-Empire-is-the-greatest messages like in the 30s films. The Zulus are shown to be brave, clever fighters, just ones without rifles. Indeed, the 60s liberalism strikes a bit of a bung note at the end with Stanley Baker and Michael Caine surveying the battle scene saying they feel ashamed, and talking about their first time of battle like its their virginity. (I get the point, but it doesn’t ring true.)

Very strong cast; Baker is an imposing presence, though he’s overshadowed by Michael Caine because Caine’s (a) blonde and (b) more likeable. However the flashiest role in the movie is that of James Booth who plays the coward-who-comes-good Hooke (a total distortion of history and utterly justifiable historically). Nigel Green also shines as the sergeant.

Many great moments: the opening scenes at Isandahlwana, the leisurely build up, Hooke coming good, the duelling singing, the final amazing battle at the redoubt. A big success by Cy Endfield never came close to it again – why?

Book review – “With some guts behind it: the Making of Zulu” by Sheldon Hall

Excellent book on the making of one of my favourite action movies. Incredibly thorough – Hall goes through bios of all the main players, the different drafts of the scripts, production, promotion, etc. I was surprised the film wasn’t more successful in the US – can only surmise it was due to lack of American friendly names (Michael Caine wasn’t Caine yet and Stanley Baker was never a big star). Perhaps a bit too much detail at times (eg interviews with small bit part actors) but much of it fascinating eg only 250 Zulu extras were used, the fact that the role of the reverend’s daughter was larger in the original cut and there’s a scene where she came back at the end (hinting at a romance with Baker)

Movie review – “Sands of the Kalahari” (1965) **1/2

Cy Endfield and Stanley Baker earned a lot of brownie points with Zulu, many of which they blew on this film, their next one together (and, as it turned out, last). The behind the scenes story of the film – George Peppard left during filming, Enfield was almost killed in an accident and fell out with the crew – is more interesting than what’s on screen, which is another crashed-plane-in-the-desert story (coming out the same year as Flight of the Phoenix).

I’d been led to believe that baboons played a bigger part in the story than they turned out to – at first I thought “baboons, how weird” but there’s not a lot of baboon stuff and in fact more baboons would have made the film a bit more interesting. Instead you’ve got Stuart Whitman running around in shorts going a bit bonkers, awful scenes where Susannah York throws herself at Whitman (“do you love me”), Stanley Baker’s undeveloped role.

There’s a decent cast, an exciting plane crash, splendid locations, and a fascinating finale with Whitman taking on a baboon then the baboons going in for the kill. But you can’t help wish Baker and Endfield had adapted Wilbur Smith’s When the Lion Feeds, like they were going to.