Movie review - "Victory" (1940) ***1/2

 Not very well known and I'm not a huge fan of Frederick Marsh (old, slightly hammy) or Betty Field (all nervous ticks) but Conrad's novel is well adapted by John Balderstone and excellently directed by John Cromwell helped by a terrifying performance from Cedric Hardwicke. He and his three rogues are genuinely scary.

Movie review - "3 Women" (1977) ***1/2

 A film that Altman famously came up with after a dream. It's a very interesting movie, a little slow and confusing in places but it feels like a cohesive whole even if that whole is odd. He was fortunate with two superb leads in Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duval who inhabit the world perfectly. It's really more about these two women than the third.

Beautifully shot and an ideal small town setting. Quite emotional at the end. Strong support performances.

Movie review - "Son of Fury" (1942) ***

Adaptation of a best seller, crafted into a star vehicle for Tyrone Power. He's very handsome and dashing and all that. Fox made sure this was a hit - dependable Phil Dunne did the script, John Cromwell directed, George Sanders offered support, there's decent production value Gene Tierney is a native girl and Frances Farmer the fake love interest.

Dunne does a solid job - there's three acts and a prologue, with Roddy McDowall excellent as young Tyrone. The piece has a theme, too - the injustice of laws that so favour the nobility. Act two is an idyllic life in Tahiti with Power romancing Tierney - I really liked how he was allowed to go back with her at the end, she didn't even have to turn out to be white or anything. I liked McDowall for not wrecking Henry Davenport's life by running off.

George Sanders does his Sanders thing well. In the opening scene he takes his shirt off for a boxing match - the most physical role Sanders ever played? No hiding those man boobs. It's not that satisfying Power grows up to beat up old Sanders - I mean, he is pretty old.

John Carradine livens things up as Power's friend. Frances Farmer was good value too as the fake love interest - she actually seems interested in what she's acting.

Movie review – “The Goddess” (1958) ***

Paddy Chayefsky was one of the hottest writers in the biz in the late 50s so his original screenplay for Columbia was eagerly anticipated, especially as it rumoured the lead character was based on Marilyn Monroe. 

The result is a flawed film. 

Part of the reason is Kim Stanley’s casting – she has excellent moments but is far too old, especially when playing a high school student. Also – and I know this is a purely personal opinion – but she doesn’t have the charisma or sex appeal of Monroe. Stanley has a great reputation as a Broadway star and as an actor during the Golden Years of Television, and she’s clearly a brilliant talent. But sometimes that’s not enough – I didn’t buy her as a sex bomb. It’s just not the looks, it’s the aura (however many lovers Stanley had in real life). Also her Southern accent got grating after a while. (Apparently they offered the part to Monroe herself and she was keen to do it but Arthur Miller nixed it.)

Chayefsky may have written this for the screen but it comes across as a filmed play – specifically one by Eugene O’Neill. (There are even headings for each act.) He ducks against his previous naturalism – there are long monologues by actors. Indeed each scene basically centers around a monologue: mum complains about having a kid; Stanley talks in a car while on a date about her family and hopes and dreams; Stanley falls for the drunken son of a silent film actor (Law and Order DA Steven Hill); Hill talks about his past; Stanley talks about her boyfriend ball player (Lloyd Bridges); Bridges talks about his family; Stanley has a breakdown. Occasionally Chayefsky spices things up with a dialogue eg Stanley and Hill – it’s a shame there wasn’t more.

There’s some wonderful writing and remarkable sequences especially Stanley yelling she wants to die at her mother’s funeral. Not a lot of laughs, though – even when Stanley become the biggest star in Hollywood she doesn’t have any fun, or even nice clothes. A lot of key incidents happen off screen eg Stanley becoming famous, attempting suicide, breakdown of her marriage with Hill – that’s not necessarily a criticism, more an observation. 

It's annoying how Steven Hill's character - established as a morose, suicidal drunk - comes back all reformed because of having a child; I didn't buy that, or his air of superiority. The film doesn't quite work, and should have been done as a play - or with a different lead - but it's worth watching; essential if you're a fan of Chayefsky.

Radio review - Lux - "Algiers" (1941) **

Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr were never more perfectly cast as a doomed criminal and the beautiful girl who loves him. They're all attractive and doomed and ya ya ya. I wasn't wild about it, probably because I'd only recently listened to the Orson Welles version - not that it was so much better, but I suppose there's only so much exotic romantic tosh I can take.

Film review – "Prisoner of Zenda" (1952) ***1/2

This version of the famous swashbuckler often gets pooh-poohed because it was a shot-for-shot remake of the 1937 David O Selznick film (MGM was remake crazy in the 1950s), but I really enjoyed it. The story is great (the adaptation was very good), and this has the advantage of being in colour, with terrific sets and nice action.

Stewart Granger doesn't have the reputation as an actor that Ronald Colman does, but I thought he was good; he doesn't smell of old school tie, honour and sacrifice like Colman but he's a more of a believable action man, with a darker side to his persona (Colman could never have played Rupert of Hentzau, but Granger could have).

Deborah Kerr is pretty in a role which doesn't require much more than that; James Mason (Rupert) and Robert Douglas (Michael) are strong villains, though I wasn't wild about Louis Calhern as Sapt or Robert Coote as Fritz (C Aubrey Smith and David Niven were better); Mary Astor was also better than Jane Greer. 

Still, lots of fun and I'm not surprised it made money.

Radio review – Lux- “Prisoner of Zenda” (1939) ***

In the chat at the end of this play, Cecil b de Mille talks about how when Zenda was on Broadway it prompted lots of men to propose. Maybe they were attracted by the sense of honour and moment. Ronald Colman and Douglas Fairbanks are back, with Colman’s wife Benita Hulme (although I gather she wasn’t during recording of this as they don’t mention it) stepping in for Madeleine Carroll. It’s not as much fun to hear this as it is to see it because you don’t get to see the impersonation and the tension involved. But the romance works well as does the by play between Colman and Fairbanks Jnr and it's still a strong story.

Radio review – CP#31 – “Algiers” (1939) **1/2

Orson Welles enjoyed success as a dashing mysterious lover in a number of productions, notably Jane Eyre and Rebecca – he no doubt would have played more on screen had he not gotten so fat. But here is it as a master criminal hiding out in the Casbah, and very effective he is too. 

 

Paulette Goddard isn’t quite so happily cast – she wasn’t the best actor, Goddard, but she was pretty… which doesn’t help a lot on radio. This is still pretty good silly fun and you can really imagination as to what the Casbah is like.

Radio review – SDP – “Prisoner of Zenda” (1949) **

Ronald Coleman reprises his famous part for radio yet again – no doubt a big attraction was the casting of his wife, Benita Hume, opposite him. This may explain why a lot of time is given to the romance scenes whereas some important plot points (eg deciding to do the impersonation in the first place) are rushed over. The story works pretty well, although the gimmick of impersonation is better when you see it.

Book review – “The Prisoner of Zenda” by Anthony Hope

Marvellous adventure tale which still holds up well just like King Solomon’s Mines, primarily because of its central idea (man impersonates king), plus the creation of Ruritania, some clever plotting, galaxy of support characters (especially the great villain Rupert of Hentzau, beautiful Flavia and the devoted Sapt), brisk pace, dash of romance and royalty. 

Re-reading it I was surprised that Rupert doesn’t appear til halfway through (though he makes up for lost time); also it would be better to have one attack on the castle instead of two and have Rupert duel Randolf at the end (an error the excellent 1937 film version rectified). Still, glorious romantic fun.

Movie review - "Little Lord Fauntleroy" (1936) **

Few American producers were more Anglophile in the 30s than David O Selznick, who produced this ode to the British upper classes. Freddie Bartholomew is incredibly annoying as a simpering child who finds out he's descended to British royalty. 

Although Bartholomew speaks with a strong British accent he's meant to have grown up all his life in Brooklyn - so when he arrives in Britain there is no real culture clash (the role probably should really have been played by Mickey Rooney, who plays one of Bartholomew's mates) just Bartholomew being cute. If you dig him, you'll like this. If not... C Aubrey Smith plays the crusty uncle role to perfection.

Movie review – “The Racket” (1951) ***

RKO kind of went to seed under Howard Hughes but I have a great affection for many of the films they produced during that era, particularly ones starring Bob Mitchum. Mitchum is a little oddly cast in this one, playing a straight-arrow, incorruptible, slightly self-righteous cop – the sort of Eisenhower Era hero that Glenn Ford spcialised in playing. But he’s always watchable and up against a fine villain in Robert Ryan.

The film gets off to a flying start with gangster Ryan running a town, but in an uneasy alliance with new, smooth criminals; Mitchum is determined to bring Ryan down, and to that end isn’t about using a bit of hard force (which the film seems to think is fine and dandy.

There is a goody-goody non corrupt cop who you know is going to die because he’s played by an unfamiliar, uncharismatic actor; more interesting are the parts of Ryan’s useless brother and his floozie woman (Lizabeth Scott). It gets a bit we-love-law-and-order towards the end but is unpretentious, enjoyable and fast moving.