Movie review - "One More Train to Rob" (1971) **

 This actually has a decent story - train robber George Peppard seeks revenge on the man who betrayed him (John Vernon) and married his girl, and in doing so winds up helping some Chinese. It's done in with a combination of Andrew McLaglen's flabby direction and that bland Universal treatment - bright colours, backlot sets, sting music.

Peppard loved the character he played - a rascally train robber. I get why but he's a little too low energy. peppard was at his best playing straight men surrounded by rascals.

Peppard doesn't bounce off anyone. John Vernon has an Irish accent that comes and goes. The Chinese angle is sort of French but no real characters - noble prostitute (Frances Nuyen, who is at least allowed to live instead of die tragically), noble son, noble old man.

This needed to be more fun. Peppard thought it was fun and it was fun for him, I'm sure, more than his usual characters. But it isn't fun. I'd dump the boring Chinese couple. Have all the Chinese women and they all want to sleep with Peppard. Have one Chinese turn traitor. Have more colourful other characters.

Larry Cohen once said Andrew Mclaglen and Burt Kennedy killed the Western in the 1970s with their dud movies and this is definitely an argument in favour of Cohen.

I think this was the last of his five picture Universal contract - Tobruk being outside that.

George Hamilton Top Ten

 1. Light in the Piazza (1962)

2. Love at First Bite (1979)

3. Godfather Part 3 (1990)

4. Doc Hollywood (1993)

4. Your Cheatin' Heart (1965)

5. Evil Knievel (1971)

6. Death Car on the Freeway (1979)

7. Rough Riders (1997)

8. Where the Boys Are (1960)

9 Home from the Hill (1959)

10.The Victors (1963)

Movie review - "Spirit of St Louis" (1957) ***

 Very sober and respectful for a Billy Wilder film, this focuses on the least controversial aspect of Lindbergh's life - his Atlantic plane flight. I felt Wilder would make a more memorable movie about the kidnapping, or the America first movement, or his war service, or his German mistresses. I get why he chose this version - presumably there was no "choice" due to Lindbergh being alive - but still...

James Stewart is famously too old to play the lead, though at the same time he was perfect casting (All-American, pilot). Even too old he's better than John Kerr (who turned it down!) would have been.

Wilder wanted to add a fictitious story how the journos around that night chipped in to pay for a hooker to sleep with virginal Lindbergh on the flight. Not a bad idea - some female love interset. He couldn't do it.

Hal Needham did some stunt work on this. Billy Wilder went up on the wings of the plane for one shot.

Two hours and fifteen minutes' running time. Not much happens on the flight - he chats to a fly, falls asleep at one stage (easily the best sequence).

It is of interest. You can't say it's a bad film. Well done and a little dull. Beautiful music. I remember my English teacher putting on a VHS and making us watch it. I guess it was safe material for schools, even though we would've learned more about human nature discussing Lindbergh's politics and kidnapping.

Movie review - "Body Slam" (1987) **

 Hal Needham's last theatrical feature as director is a grab bag. It gives a star role to Dirk Benedict who I loved in Battlestar Galactica and The A Team and who plays a role for which he is perfectly cast - cocky smooth talking promoter - but he isn't as appealing on television. I think because he carries the load on his own whereas in his two TV hits he bounced off an ensemble or co star. He was also as Starbuck able to convey sensitivity and he isn't given the chance to do that here.

Presumably Needham was hoping for a young Burt Reynolds, and it's a Reynolds type role (old Reynolds could've played it) - but Burt is relaxed, confident and sly, whereas Benedict doesn't quite work. He's too intense or something. In his defence he doesn't have the same quality people to bounce off - he's best in his scenes with Tanya Roberts but too often he's operating in a vaccuum.

The story is a weird hodge podge. Benedict is a band manager in debt who winds up managing wrestlers. He winds up taking both on the road. Rock'n'roll wrestling. Wow. That's low concept high concept.

Everything feels added as if they went "oh lets add that". His wrestler, Roddy Piper, has a cute kid, Benedict has this romance with Tanya Roberts that's kind of... there, there are convenient villains (Korean debt collectors) who pop in and out. The film doesn't build to any sort of emotional climax it just rolls along and Piper and his partner win the big game and... yeah I guess that's it.

This feels very haphazard and dumb.

Movie review - "Rad" (1986) **

 After some disappointing Burt Reynolds films, Hal Needham turned to teens with this amiable kids film set in the world of BMX racing. Someone called Bill Allen is the lead; he isn't much. Lori Loughlin is really pretty as his love interest but she has nothing to play and isn't convincing on a bike.

This isn't as good as BMX Bandits. It needed someone more interested in actors to get more out of its inexperienced cast. 

There's some 80s camp - the soundtrack features a pre-comeback John Farnham and Real Life ('Send Me an Angel'), there's a hilarious dance number at the school dance followed by Allen and Loughlin doing tricks on a BMX . There's a couple of Farnham songs on the soundtrack - Glenn Wheatley managed him and Real Life, presumably he was behind the pu8sh. (Both bands turn up on the soundtracks of a lot of forgotten 80s films).

Some old pros in support roles class up the picture: Talia Shire, Jack Weston, Ray Walston. The plot manages to be simple, dumb and yet confusing - it's about Allen wanting to compete in a BMX instead of doing his SATS (are those two things not easy to co ordinate?) and Weston is opposed because he wants his biker to win which kind of feels unconvincing as does the town rallying around Allen.

This feels like one of those movies that probably sounded fun in pitch form but they didn't nut out the details. BMX racing isn't that interesting on screen either - BMX Bandits was better because it was proper chases.

Movie review - "The Villain" (1979) *1/2

 After two big hits with Burt Reynolds, Hal Needham's directorial career stumbled a little without him with this bright comic book Western comedy. It's an odd sort of movie - I can see they were going for an anything-goes type feel, which is fine, and can work, and certainly has in other Needham films, but not here.

First of all it doesn't have the pace. The plot is about Kirk Douglas trying to rob Arnie and Ann Margaret but it takes ages to set up and get going.

Second, while Arnold Schwarzeneggar is ideal as an innocent, it seems weird him being in the West - now, I know Austrians would've been in the old West, it still seems weird especially as the film is a play on old Westerns..

Ann Margret is fun as the slightly trashy woman constantly trying to seduce Arnie but as he shows no interest it gets repetitive. They've gone for the gag - "oh haha he's not keen haha" - but over a feature that doesn't sustain. Nothing much sustains. The Road Runner cartoon motif works best in seven minute installments. This needs depth. Blazing Saddles had the friendship of the lead two and a really serious subject matter.

Entertainingly odd support cast including Ruth Brazzi, Paul Lynde. You can tell everyone had fun making it. But it starts to drag and then gets annoying.

Movie review - "Stroker Ace" (1983) **

 The film Burt Reynolds famously turned down Terms of Endearment to do. You can't blame him for the box office safety of a Hal Needham car movie but such is life this was his first car movie not to be a success. It's not that bad, just not as fun as their other collaborations.

It's not a chase movie like Smokey or Cannonball - it's more a comedy character piece like Hooper only looking at a stock car racer. But it doesn't do that was well as Hooper. Hooper was a lot more sympathetic - he was a stuntman trying to do his job, dealing with age and injuries, worried about ageing. Here, Stroker Ace is an idiot for signing a contract without reading it and his adventures are played broadly. I think the movie would've been better had it been more serious: worried about aging, the young rival (Parker Stevenson), dealing with sponsors. You could've still had laughs, romance, crashes and fun, just underpinned it with a bit more drama.

Jim Nabors is fun as Stroker's mechanic, I like Loni Anderson's character as the virginal good girl who gets involved but she's not that much on screen, no Sally Field. Ned Beatty is excellent as always as a chicken tycoon and the support cast includes interesting faces like Bubba Smith (as Beatty's driver), though he doesn't do much. Parker Stevenson's character feels like a wasted opportunity.

The film lacks the core that Hooper had - that was about an aging stuntman. This is just about a driver who's a bit dim.

Movie review - "Death Car on the Freeway" (1979) ***

 Years before Deathproof was this little TV movie gem about a psycho van driver who tries to run women off the road. It's well written and Hal Needham shows he was capable of directing more than jokey Burt Reynolds films (not to diss those). 

Lovely cast - Shelley Hack is the plucky heroine, a reporter, George Hamilton is her ex, Peter Graves a cop, Frank Gorshin a colleague of Hack's, people like Dinah Shore, Barbara Rush, Harriet Nelson.

It's a bit feminist - Hack is the hero, routinely dismissed and belittled, her ex Hamilton is controlling and he's not heroic. Hack learns how to drive from Hal Needham (playing a defensive driving instructor) and goes mano o mano against the van at the end. I think the writer had his consciousness raised.

A surprise. Exciting, solid script, strong cast. Well done driving scenes.

Movie review - "Hooper" (1978) ***1/2

 Hal Needham's second feature as director is fun, engaging, with a very strong cast. It's better than Smokey because it touches on more serious themes: Burt Reynolds' stuntman is getting older, there's a young tyke coming up (Jan Michael Vincent), his girlfriend is long suffering (Sally Field, lovely in a thankless part), his bestie (James Best) is getting on, Fields' dad (Brian Keith), a stuntman (called "Jocko" the nickname of Fields' stepdad, Jock Mahoney, a real stuntman) has a stroke.

I love how Reynolds was so confident to be around all these scene stealing actors (even low energy Vincent was pretty). He was like John Wayne in that regard.

The director, Robert Klein, was meant to be a spoof of Peter Bogdanovich but you can only really tell at the end when he goes on about pieces of time. no wonder Bogdanovich got annoyed with him. They might've had more fun though doing a more direct take off.

A lovely sense of family, which the best of Hal Needham films had.

Movie review - "Smokey and the Bandit" (1977) ***

 Amble shaggy dog movie which gets by on the charm of its cast, some excellent stunts, and sheer unpretentiousness of its concept. Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed have to transport some beer over state lines... which I didn't know was a thing but apparently was. The real plot is actually a screwball comedy of runaway bride Sally Field getting a lift from Reynolds.

Field was the X factor of this film - bright, sparky, flirty, game - helping the film do even better than typical Burt Reynolds car films. Jackie Gleason I'm sure has his fans - I didn't grow up with him. I guess he was a decent foil. Mike Henry is his son, the straight man, Jerry Reed's dog is fun (I got confused how the job split between Reed and Reynolds).

There's a lovely sense of camaraderie and fun. Hal Needham backed himself and was right to do so.

Movie review - "Nickelodeon" (1976) **1/2 (re-watching)

 This probably would have been better in black and white, like Bogdanovich (said he) wanted... ditto with younger actors in the leads like John Ritter and Jeff Bridges because it would've given a greater sense of young people trying to make it, whereas Burt Reynolds and Ryan O'Neal (both of whom are fine by the way) seem like they've been around a while. Cybil Shepherd would've been better than Jane Hitchcock who isn't that great.

But even that wouldn't have fixed other issues with the film... it's overlong running time, the fact it spans years, all the endless zappy talk that isn't particularly witty (a hall mark of Bogdanovich written dialogue), characters falling in love at the drop of a hat (ditto). The Tatum O'Neal part seems shoehorned in to recapture some Paper Moon magic... really this part needed to be played by a grown up who could be a rival to Jane Hitchcock. The John Ritter part seems shoe horned in to give Ritter a role... Stella Stevens at least winds up with Brian Keith at the end but Ritter doesn't get a subplot. Neither does Tatum O'Neal.

Every now and then the film captures a bit of magic that it is striving for but too often it never seems to click. It's played by a comedy then there's this dramatic stuff thrown in - I think we're meant to care more about the O'Neal-Reynolds-Hitchcock love triangle (a Last Picture Show throwback) more than we do. Maybe that was me (though I doubt it, it wasn't a hit).

This film isn't a disgrace it's just frustrating because it doesn't quite work and it should have.

Book review - "Burt: But Enough About Me" by Burt Reynolds

Highly entertaining memoir from the beloved star, the first star I remember feeling sorry for because his run of luck with projects was so bad in the 80s. He always was a good raconteur and is so here (props to his ghost writer who gets the book to sound pure Burt).

We get lots of stories about his dad, who was so formative, but never told Burt he loved him and was a hard bastard; his longing to spend time with son Quentin (why only one child though?); he says he never loved Loni just sort of went along with it; Sally Field was the one who got away; Hal Needham was great; Darren McGavin was a prick on Riverboat; Marlon Brando hated the fact Reynolds looked like him; he didn't get Paul Thomas Anderson (thwarting another comeback); he regrets the Centrefold; loves Deliverance but fell out with John Boorman after turning down Zardoz due to injury; was shunned after being injured making City Heat and rumours spread he had AIDS; he was hit on by Greta Garbo (!) and became great mates with Bette Davis.

Burt is impulsive, needy, insecure, honest, a little dumb. He adored acting. A fun book.

Why Burt Reynolds Might Not Have Worked with A List Directors More

I always felt that Burt Reynolds might have sustained his regime as star had he worked with better directors. Because his filmography was littered with the work of journeymen - Hal Needham, Joseph Sergeant. And his career famously never recovered from turning down the role of the astronaut in Terms of Endearment from James L Brooks. 

But maybe there is something to be said in his defence.

Burt didn't have great luck with A list directors. Look at the following: 

 * Stanley Donen - made a hash of Lucky Lady which had been a much-in-demand script

* Steven Spielberg - was to direct White Lightning but pulled out instead Sergeant did it and was rewarded with a big hit

*Sam Fuller - made Shark but Fuller took his name off the film

*John Boorman - helped make Reynolds a star with Deliverance - they were going to do another film together but Reynolds got sick... the film was Zardoz! Bullet dodged. Still it's a shame Reynolds didn't appear in The Emerald Forest.

*Peter Bogdanovich - the hottest director in Hollywood used Reynolds for two films, both big flops: At Long Last Love and Nickelodeon

*Don Siegel - directed Rough Cut which was a mess.

*Robert Altman - was meant to direct Heat and would have been perfect but pulled out.

*Michael Crichton - he'd made Coma, Westworld, The Great Train Robbery... but with Reynolds did Physical Evidence

 *Blake Edwards - his two films with Reynolds, The Man Who Had Power Over Women and City Heat, were both disappointments.

*Bill Forsyth and John Sayles - a dynamic combination resulted in a good film, Breaking In, but no one cared.

So you can blame him for being wary. 

He did work with some top directors with fine results - Boorman, Alan J Pakula, Norman Jewison, Robert Aldrich.

He fought with directors - John Alvidsen on WW and the Dixie Dance Kings, Dick Richards on Heat, Henry Winkler on Cop and a Half and PT Anderson on Boogie Nights.

Movie review - "Lucky Lady" (1975) **

You can say Burt Reynolds should have worked with more top directors at his peak, but the fact is he had a lot of success with second tier talent like Hal Needham and Joseph Sergeant and had a lot of bad luck with ostensible A listers or critical darlings like Sam Fuller, Peter Bogdanovich, Stanley Donen and Don Siegel. (Needham did stunts on this incidentally.)

This was directed by Donen - or misdirected I should say. It's completely clear to see what writers Gloria Katz and Willard Hyuck were going for, a sort of MGM of the 30s picture with Gable, Harlow and Tracy, with modern sex and violence. But he stuffs it.

The film is flabby, has annoying soft photography and never seems to get its tone right. I was confused by what was going on a lot of the time. The production values aren't great - this cost a fortune but it's not up there on screen just a lot of puttering around on boats.

Burt Reynolds and Gene Hackman are fantastic as the two men. Liza Minnelli feels wrong though as the girl - I get that at the time it was either her or Barbara Streisand but she's too fey and vague when the role needed someone with a bit more drive. If they couldn't get Streisand someone like Candice Bergen or Jane Fonda would've been better.

This isn't terrible, it just isn't very good, and also frustrating because you can see what they were going for and they miss. The best bit is the death of Robby Benson. There's also quite a racy threesome scene where Burt gives Gene Hackman's arm a fondle the morning after. Saucy!

RIP Burt Reynolds

He hadn't been in good health for a long time but this is still sad. There was no bigger star in the period of 77-83... His work was always a lot more interesting than he got credit for (he'd done Broadway, hosted talk shows, turned director)... he'd often be a hilarious interview subject... no one was funnier or more self deprecating about himself... Then in 1983 he decided to do "Stroker Ace" instead of "Terms of Endearment" and it was like the movie gods cursed him... he had a run of bad luck like few other stars - "Man Who Loved Women", "City Heat", "Stick", "Cannonball Run 2", "Heat", "Malone", "Rent a Cop"... at least he came back for "Boogie Nights" and was never out of work... RIP Burt

A Top Ten

1) Boogie Nights (1997)

2) The Longest Yard (1974)

3) Hustle (1975)

4) Deliverance (1972)

5) Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

6) Hooper (1978)

7) The Cannonball Run (1981)

8 ) Striptease(1996)

9) Sam Whiskey (1968)

10) Sharky's Machine (1981)

The troublesome production top ten

1) City Heat (1984) - Eastwood fires director Blake Edwards

2) The Man who Loved Cat Dancing (1973) - Sarah Miles’ lover killed himself for a time Reynolds was suspected of murder

3) Heat (1986) - the 1986 William Goldman one not the Michael Mann - five directors one of whom Reynolds punched out

4) Stick (1985) - Reynolds directed and Universal made him refilm half

5) At Long Last Love (1975) - musical which got worst reviews of any Reynolds film til then (actually isn’t that bad)

6) Shark! (1968) - Sam Fuller took his name off as director

7) 100 Rifles (1969) - weird sexual tension and fighting on set between Jim Nrown and Raquel Welch

8 ) Boogie Nights (1997) - Reynolds fights with PT Anderson so badly he refuses to be in Magnolia

9) The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) - Burt fights with Dolly and insists on singing

10) Switching Channels (1989) - should’ve been a comeback for Burt (we’d say this every few years in the 90s) - he fought badly with Kathleen Turner

Random thoughts - the Burt Reynolds cold streak

In 1982 Burt Reynolds was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, star in the world - and what's more he'd maintained that position for about four years. He had been a name since the early 60s, doing lots of TV and support roles, and moved up to a medium tier star with Deliverance and a series of good ole boy action films such as Gator. What made him huge was Smokey and the Bandit. This was a box office sensation and led to a golden run for Reynolds - the well received Semi Tough, a decently received directorial debut The End, a popular comedy Hooper, a venture into rom com Starting Cover. No one seemed to much like Rough Cut but Smokey and the Bandit II and Cannonball Run were huge and Paternity did okay. Sharky's Machine, his second work as director, was reasonably received and both Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Best Friends were popular.

Within six years he was finished as a star.

What happened?

Did he just become unfashionable? Did he pick badly? Did America change? Did people get sick of him?

Stars often fall from grace... but the jolt of Reynolds' fall was surprise, especially considering he'd been around for so long. Also, several of his contemporaries managed to keep up their profiles - such as Clint Eastwood and Sylvester Stallone.

Let's look at the films he chose:

* Stroker Ace (1983) - he himself calls this a turning point. He famously turned down the role which won Jack Nicholson an Oscar in Terms of Endearment to do this, showing the danger of breaking the Hollywood commandment "nobody knows anything but always try to pick the classiest project". I can understand why Reynolds did what he did... Hal Needham had directed several of Reynolds' biggest hits to date, it was so obviously commercial (cars, gags, boobs, fun) - this was the first one to flop. Which just goes to show, you can never pick what's going to work - sometimes the public can sniff out a stinker.

* The Man Who Loved Women (1983) - a risky-ish bet from Reynolds who was keen to segue into romantic, grown up films... but it was a remake of a Truffaut movie and had Blake Edwards attached. The public didn't like it. What went wrong? Americans don't mind films about compulsive womanisers eg Shampoo. It just didn't work for them. This is the sort of movie which you can't blame Reynolds for making... it's a shame it didn't pan out for him.

* Cannonball Run II (1984) - this one I do think Reynolds may have been a bit hasty about making. I can understand he wanted a hit, it would have seemed commercial... but backing Needham after Stroker Ace should possibly have made him re think. Around this point he should've been trying to make really good commercial films and honestly there was no way Cannonball Run II was going to be it. It was lazy... there was no reason to make it... It lacked heart.

* City Heat (1984) - teaming Reynolds and Clint Eastwood was a fantastic idea and Blake Edwards should've been an ideal movie.  It isn't. You want this to be fun - the opening sequence with the two of them is fine, the basic idea is strong - but it doesn't work. Buddy comedies aren't as easy as they look. Eastwood was wary of Edwards who quit, Reynolds was injured during filming which led to rumours he had AIDS.  The film was profitable though, showing Reynolds was still a box office draw.

*Stick (1985) - Reynolds returns to directing and the film is a mess. He should've been able to do Elmore Leonard - he later claimed Universal bullied him into changing too much of the film, in which case he should've stopped directing. I think by this stage Reynolds' confidence was badly shaken and he needed a stronger director for the film. It's a great pity that John Boorman couldn't have done it. (Indeed for me the great missed role for Reynolds during this period is playing the star part in The Emerald Forest - as fine as Powers Boothe was, it would've suited Reynolds like a glove, and given the movie more commercial power.)

* Heat (1986) - this is when things really started going wonky. You can see the appeal of William Goldman's novel for filmmakers - it has a great central character, a tough guy with a gambling problem, and is full of colourful characters. Goldman's script is okay. But not easily adaptable - because it's more character piece than action piece. So you really need a director who gets it. Robert Altman would actually have been fantastic, but he wanted changes and quit the project, The result was a mess with Dick Richards and Jerry Jameson coming in. The Jason Statham remake showed the problems with the material - it's not quite action, not quite character. Reynolds did suit the role but the film is a mess.

* Malone (1987) - another mess of a movie, when Reynolds needed to be making major films with major talents. Harley Cokeliss was the director here, in a modern day Western.

* Rent-a-Cop (1988) - Reynolds is a cop again only this time with Liza Minnelli - a teaming that didn't excite people in the 70s and didn't in the late 80s. It had another second tier director, Jerry London. I think it was this string of four post-City Heat action films which killed Reynolds' career more than anything.

* Switching Channels (1989) - Reynolds' turn as Cary Grant in this remake of His Girl Friday was acclaimed as a comeback (Reynolds tried to do a Cary Grant a few times). He got some good reviews but the film was a fop. Michael Caine (who was originally meant to play the lead) once said a star needed a hit every five pictures or he was out - by now Reynolds was out.

* Physical Evidence (1989) - a weird one in Michael Crichton's filmography as it has nothing to do with science really, and in fact was originally a sequel to Jagged Edge. It would've been fun to see Robert Loggie be defended by Glenn Close but instead we've got Burt and Terese Russell. There were a lot of these thrillers in the 80s and 90s - the best of them had sexiness, style and some decent plot twists, which this doesn't have. It's a really, really average movie.

* Breaking In (1989) - an unexpected surprise: Reynolds finally works with some top talents, John Sayles and Bill Forsyth, and turns in one of his best performances. It was too little too late though - the film was barely seen. If he'd done this in the mid 80s I think people would've really gotten behind it. But by now Reynolds' reputation was at a super low ebb.

Reynolds then did the smart thing and went back to TV - he had a medium success with BL Stryker and a pretty big one with Evening Shade, which ran for 98 episodes and was only really axed because costs got so high. It was a shame, as I think he could've really found home there.

He made semi comebacks in Striptease and Boogie Nights but could never seem to consolidate. It's a shame. I wish he'd have one last big fat hit before going off because the last two decades must've been tough and I still have a lot of affection for him.

Book review - "Stuntman!: My Car-Crashing, Plane-Jumping, Bone-Breaking, Death-Defying Hollywood Life" by Hal Needham (2011)

Disappointing autobiography from a colourful Hollywood character. Needham certainly had an interesting life and made a decent contribution to movie making - indeed, he's one of the few stuntmen of whom you could argue was an auteur - but his memoirs are unfocused.

Needham was - as he mentions many, many times in this book - born poor, living in Tennessee then Arkansas. Dad shot through but ma was a decent woman, hard working and religious and all that stuff and she remarried to a sharecropper. Needham's childhood seems to have consisted of a lot of poverty and chores but joining the army helped him. He got work as a paratrooper and developed contacts which proved useful. After discharge he went to work as a treelopper but broke into stunts via a buddy who was helping out on The Spirit of St Louis. (Needham tells a great story where Billy Wilder took part in a flight stunt to win a bet that the director wouldn't do it.)

Needham admits to being interested in stunts mainly for the money - he talks a LOT about how much money he made, how you could get more money doing certain jobs in certain ways, it clearly drove him - but he also seems to have found his life's passion. He would practice stunts on the weekend, developed his own stunt crew, was always thinking up new bits of business. Once he got a job as Richard Boone's stunty on Have Gun Will Travel he didn't look back and became one of the best in the business.

Interestingly though, Needham has few classic action films on his resume - no Bond films, say, or even The Great Escape. He did a lot of TV, many films for Andrew McLaglen (like Bandolero!), a couple of the lesser known John Waynes, some Burt Reynolds films. He branched out into other areas - doing ads to demonstrate the power of air bags, developing the Wild West show at Universal's theme part. At one stage he was so high profile he even had his own action figure. He moved into directing with Smokey in the Bandit - a film originated by Needham.

Needham was a good ole boy - that is very clear from this book where he includes an anecdote working on The French Connection 2 telling a local French girl how the Americans came and save the French during the way; he's always talking about hanging out at the bar, and chasing women. But he clearly had a gift for connecting with audiences - the Smokey films were big hits, as was Hooper and The Cannonball Run. These were all Needham projects - Smokey and Cannonball were his ideas.

Then around the early 80s it started to go wrong - Stroker Ace bombed as did Cannonball Run II and Megaforce. Needham's directing and stunt career wound down - interestingly, it coincided with the declined in Burt Reynolds' career.

You won't hear much about that in this book - actually you won't hear anything. You'll hear a lot about stunts, in fact heaps about stunts. There's plenty about growing up poor, and adventures on the way to making it, and his views on stuntmen. There is a little bit on John Wayne (almost all positive), but surprisingly little on Burt Reynolds (Dinah Shore was nice, they shared a house, Needham drove him over the state line when it seemed Reynolds might be up for murder during the making of The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing). It's frustrating because I would've loved a closer look at Reynolds or Andrew McLaglen or other people. And Needham can tell a good story - he does a good bitch session on Peter Bogdanovich making Nickelodeon which inspired a Bogdanovich-esque director to appear in Hooper.

I know there's always a danger in a reviewer going "I wish a book had been X" but I honestly think Needham had a better, more interesting book in him than this effort. No reflection on his less successful films, no real grasp of the personalities he worked with, his own private life was vague. Still, if you enjoyed his films you'll get something out of it.

Movie review -"The Cannonball Run" (1981) **1/2

Dopey early 80s car racing movie which I remember loving as a kid. It hasn't aged that well but it maintains a genuine good natured air of mischief and fun - you do feel everyone who worked on it got along, and just wanted to have a good time. It presumably helped everyone would have gotten paid a decent amount of money and Burt Reynolds and Hal Needham were friends.

The chief appeal of this is the cast - Burt Reynolds as the nominal hero (a relaxed and self-kiddying performance), and Dom de Luise as his sidekick (who turns into Captain Chaos, which is fun); Farrah Fawcett as the girl who gets dragged along (I always liked her theme song in this); Jack Elam as a crazy doctor; Roger Moore poking fun of his James Bond image (which he kind of did anyway playing James Bond but still entertaining); Jamie Farr playing up the stereotypes as an Arab; ditto Jackie Chan as a technology obsessed Asian; Burt Convy as a tycoon competing for fun doing a wheelie most of the way (this always cracked me up); Tara Buckman and Adrienne Barbeau as a female driver with massive boobs (at least she's allowed to win); Peter Fonda as the head of some bikies, the third act villains (how is that for times are a changin'); Dean Martin and Sammy David Jnr hilarious as priests.

The movie is ramshackle and silly but it works (despite the fact there's actually not that much driving). It has a spirit that is hard to repeat though - so when they did for Cannonball Run II (and also Stroker Ace) it didn't work. (Maybe a crucial element was also Brock Yates, who wrote this - he's a car journalist and added a lot of verisimilitude).

Movie review - "Nickelodeon" (1976) **1/2

This must have seemed like a sure-fire hit: Peter Bogdanovich, making a commercial genre (a comedy) about a fascinating subject matter (the patent wars in early Hollywood) dear to his heart (he'd written books on the subject). He also cast two hot stars, Ryan O'Neal and Burt Reynolds, added in another star, Tatum O'Neal, whom Bogdanovich had made a star in Paper Moon. He was forbidden to cast his girlfriend Cybil Shepherd, who starred in his last two flops. Few people would have seen the old silent films so he could pinch the gags. But the film was a big flop. What went wrong?

A few things: the film's story covers a significant number of years, which is OK for an epic but not really for a comedy - shooting one film would have kept the story tighter. Also the film strains and seems to try too hard - too consciously zany (NB this was also a problem in the hit What's Up Doc? but that took place over a short period of time) Also old Hollywood had been done a lot around this time, with Hearts of the West and Won Ton Ton the Dog Who Saved Hollywood and Bogdanovich was very much on the nose in Hollywood after At Long Last Love and the critics slaughtered the film. Occasionally the film clicks and it is wonderful - Tatum O'Neal is in fine form and I loved the bit where Reynolds accidentally finds himself playing a member of the Ku Klux Klan.