TV review - "Playhouse 90 The Last Tycoon" (1957) ***1/2

 F Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished novel at one stage meant for Humphrey Bogart and Bacall but he died so they wound up with Jack Palance and Lee Remick. Palance's performance is fascinating - intense, empathetic, strong.

Support cast is amazing - Peter Lorre as a burnt out director, Keenan Wynn is an exec, achingly pretty Lee Remick is a nubile thing hot for Palance (shock).

Story ambles and kind of ends - I think he dies at the end. But then the novel was unfinished. Has that late 50s TV seriousness. 

Movie review - "Around the World in 80 Days" (1956) ***

 Do people still watch this movie any more? It's fun. I mean, it's long, but it gave people their money's worth in 1956. Length! Colour! Widescreen! Stars!

David Niven is a lot of fun as Fogg (the film put him back on top) and Cantiflas engaging as Passporteu. The cameos range from fun - Noel Coward, John Gielgud - to "whatever" - Fernandel, Charles Boyer.

Movie review - "Muscle Beach Party" (1964) ** (re-watching)

 Odd Beach Party movie - no Harvey Lembeck, lots of soulful philophising from Frankie Avalon who dreams of surfing forever, Luciana Paluzzi instantly falls for a bodybuilder then instantly falls for Avalon, which is unsatisfactory, then offers him a singing contract, and this offends the friend group because... why? He wants to be a pop star? And Avalon is offended because Paluzzi wants to pick up the tab because...? The film doesn't make sense.

The muscle boys are at least visually different, Don Rickles has fun, Candy Johnson dances, Donna Loren sings, Little Stevie Wonder sings, Dick Dale plays music and surfs, Peter Lorres does a cameo, Buddy Hackett is Paluzzi's helper, fun opening credits, some decent tunes. Avalon smokes after a night surf.

But it's too serious and gloomy.

Movie review - "Casablanca" (1943) ***** (rewatching)

 Not much new to say. Bogart's little smiles at the end to Rains. Bogart over acts in places as do others. Perhaps the best second act in movie history with all these sequences? Endless fun to watch with the characters and the lines.

You know how they could've done a sequel? The tale of Rics run by Sydney Greenstreet. Have a new dodgy French policeman and an American arrives to cause trouble.

Movie review - "Comedy of Terrors" (1963) ** (re-watching)

 A film generally unloved despite its pedigree - AIP, Richard Matheson, Floyd Crosby, Dan Haller, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Jacques Tourneur. No Corman but still...

What went wrong?

Well The Raven worked bc it was still creepy. This is all played for laughs. It begings wonkly with silly sped up camera and music and that tone is pleasant all the way through.

The pain and terrors in Raven were real. This is too much of a joke. Vincent Price seems miscast.

It lacks a supernatural element too. It's all explained away. Rathboone comes back from the dead but because it's rigid. The material needed to be played straighter.

I'm glad Rathbone got to play Shakespeare and Lorre got the girl. The Corman Poe films worked this doesn't. Needed genuine scares.

Big role for Joyce Jameson.

Movie review - "Tales of Terror" (1962) *** (re-watching)

 Anthology series of Poe stories, which benefits from the virtues of this series - Vincent Price, gorgeous photography and sets, Richard Matheson's script.

"Morella" is competent but very familiar - grieving widower, "she's not really dead", ingenue, wife back from the dead, house burns down. Price acts his butt off but needed stronger support from Maggie Pearce or Leona Gage.

"The Black Cat" is much better. Peter Lorre is on hand as a drunk whose wife hooks up with Vincent Price. It's over the top but Lorre vs Price is a great battle of hams and it's a grim story - I mean, Lorre drugs the couple and bricks them up alive... and they die. That's full on.

"The Case of M Valdemar" is classy, helped with the ageing star power of Basil Rathbone to take on Price and a plot that doesn't whimp out.

Movie review - "The Raven" (1963) ***1/2 (rewatching)

 Put this on for some comfort food. Marvellous three old stars, Lorre, Price and Karloff, plus two new ones, Hazel Court and Jack Nicholson.  Olive Sturgess is sweet as Price's daughter. Final magic duel underwhelming.

Movie review - "Hell Ship Mutiny" (1957) **

 Jon Hall tried to get up another TV series and made some pilots - while he couldn't sell them, he turned them into this film. There's some classy names on the credits - the cast includes John Carradine, Mike Mazurski and Peter Lorre, Elmo Williams edited and directed (along with lee Sholem).

It's a return to the south seas adventures with Hall as an adventurer boating around the Pacific - not dissimilar to Adventures in Paradise but that was a hit. Presumably this annoyed Hall. I guess he was getting on.

It's not very good. It feels like cobbled television. Lots of sets, darkened nighttime scenes, fake South Sea backlot recreations. Stop-start plot. Island girls, kissing, moonlight, all that... just rote.

Lorre livens things up the most.

Movie review - "The Buster Keaton Story" (1957) **1/2

 The film that marked the end of Donald O'Connor's time as a movie star... he'd just been in Anything Goes then he did this, billed above the title, and it flopped and it was... over. No films for a few years, and they didn't do much.

He's really good. He's always good. Does the comedy, the drama (Keaton's alcoholism). He's not exactly Mr Stoneface but that's hard to do. He was ideal because he grew up in vaudeville and was an alcoholic too.

Maybe the story was too hard. The fictionalisation of this is annoying. It gives Keaton one wife, a made up script supervisor. Ann Blyth was in musicals with O'Connor back in the day but here she's just bland pretty doll and too sensible. We never feel that she and O'Connor would be together or why (she seems very uncomfortable taking part in the slapstick at the end) - which is a big deal since that's the one relationship the film invests time in. Biopics only work really when they focus on a relationship. 

They do little with Keaton's parents There's the one studio guy, Larry Keating, one flunkie, Richard Anderson (as a rival for Blyth). Rhonda Fleming pops up as a silent film star Keaton falls for. Peter Lorre has a random small role as a director and Cecil B De Mille appears as himself.

It never feels real. There's no consistent theme.

I enjoyed O'Connor's dramatic acting and there's nice bits like Keaton doing business for the baseball kids. I do like that they had a go at it - I mean it's interesting and is a good chance for O'Connor. Sidney Sheldon directed - maybe he was the wrong guy. Maybe it just should've focused on the early days of vaudeville made it happy go lucky. The true story actually has a great five act structure (early days, struggle, fame, decline and booze, third wife) but that was probably too hard legally.

Look, this film did buy Keaton a house.

Movie review - "Scent of Mystery" (1960) **

Best remembered for "Smell of Vision" - I can't judge it on that because I saw it without smells. I can judge it as a movie. It's a weird thing, in 70 mm, because it was make by Mike Todd's son, so presumably he felt he had to maintain the family tradition. It also has a travelogue narrative, a little like Around the World in 80 Days, and also like that there is a slightly stuffy British hero (Denholm Elliot here), and he has a sidekick akin to Don Quixote which Todd Snr was going to make.

If you enjoy Spanish scenery you will like this more than I did, because there's a lot of it. Denholm Elliot having the lead has novelty - there's a lot of him too. He doesn't have much chemistry with his Sancho, played by Peter Lorre who looks unwell (indeed, he had a heart attack). There's no 80 Days complication of a pursuing detective or Indian princess... though I did like the device that Elliot knows someone is going to be murdered but doesn't know what the proposed victim looks like.

There's no all star cast - you've got Leo McKern in an American accent, and Diana Dors in a bikini and American accent in a cameo. Yet again Dors is better than the female lead. Elizabeth Taylor pops up with a fun cameo.

But I found it irritating - I never got a fix on Elliot's character (nothing wrong with a Don Quixote imitation... but make him like Don Quixote) or why Lorre would go along for the ride. It doesn't have much of a plot. The widescreen photography was annoying more than anything else. They should've made Lorre's character a love interest to give the scenes some pep.

I give it points for having a swing.

Movie review - "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" (1954) ***1/2

It looks wonderful - those rich blue sea colours, and the marvellous creation of the Nautilis. James Mason is a superb Nemo, driven and tormented, intelligent and empathetic - he sets new standards for this sort of thing. Kirk Douglas is perfectly cast as the swaggering, obnoxious, gropy Ned, Peter Lorre is always great fun, and Paul Lukas is dull but you need his character.

The film could have done with a subplot and/or a fleshed out member of Nemo's crew  - they're all like robots. It needed say a daughter/niece of Nemo to romance Douglas or something. It feels a little long.

But gorgeous photography, an exciting fight with a squid, a genuine sense of adventure... great fun.

Book review - "The Maltese Falcon" by Dashiell Hammett

This will sound dim but I was struck how faithful the 1940 film adaptation was to this - the structure, dialogue, characters. It really got it - sometimes cut and pasted. And why not? The original book is good - it was silly they changed it.

This has aged well in part because Sam Spade is such a prick - no Philip Marlowe like honor for him, he mostly tracks down the killer of his partner because it's bad for business. He's cynical and full of great lines.

I do get confused by the plot of this, always have - there's lots of talk about the action of people we don't see like Flloyd Thursby and the sea captain.

But the characters we do meet are fantastic - Spade of course but also the partner's cheating wife, Gutman, Joel Cairo, Wilfred, Bridget O'Shaugnessy (who Spade makes take her clothes off for a search).

Book review - "Stopover Tokyko" by John P Marquand (warning: spoilers)

This last Moto novel got some good reviews but I found it dull. Like most of the others it's about an American guy and girl in a foreign country, with Moto running in and out of the story. Unlike the others the American isn't an innocent or a newbie spy he's a professional spy - a particularly dull chap, who has a dull romance with his girl, Ruth. There's far too much chat between these two (philosophical and dreary as opposed to sexy) and not enough action/suspense.

There's some good baddies, excellent description of Japan after the war, and a decent ending because Ruth is kidnapped and killed instead of being rescued.

It feels very different to the movie of the same name, which had no Moto.

Book review - "Last Laugh, Mr Moto" by John P Marquand (1942)

You think World War Two would make a Mr Moto automatically more interesting but this was a hard slog despite the interesting setting of the Caribbean. Though what a Japanese agent is doing there is confusing.

The hero is another drunken American. His boat is hired by a mysterious couple who want to take him to an island. The characters are uninteresting the action unsuspenseful.

Book review #4 - "Mr Moto is So Sorry" by John P Marquand

For me this was a return to form after Think Fast Mr Moto in part because of its interesting setting - Peiking, and an expedition to find buried treasure in the Mongolian desert (I wonder if this inspired the film of Thank You Mr Moto).

It's also got a more compelling American-male-aboard-who-gets-involved-with-Moto protagonist - a man who has embezzled money from his family. He romances the standard exotic woman and once more it's not that compelling - I wonder if its me, or Marquand. Again there is excellent action that you want more of. This has a long page count.

The support characters are very strong - a Japanese officer who is a rival for Moto (more militaristic but respect worthy), a local prince, a super smart Russian intelligence officer, and a Western officer who works for the Prince... who is an Australian! He keeps asking for a "lucifer" to light his cigarette!  Must have been based on a real person. Great to see an Aussie baddy.

There's massive stakes here - a possible war between Japan and Russia over Japanese expansion in Manchuria. The book is a bit sympathetic to Japanese expansion! Well the Japanese do win and the Americans are impotent. It's kind of a downer book with Moto triumphing. Overlong but a good entry.

Movie review - Moto#8 - "Mr Moto Takes a Vacation" (1938) ** (re-watching)

The last in the series - though actually filmed before Mr Moto on Danger Island. I found this hard going. It started very well, with an archeological site digging and raiding the tomb of the Queen of Sheba. But then the action shifts to San Francisco and really bogs down.

It's not exotic - the production values have trimmed right down. Moto goes to Chinatown but it's not as impressive as the Chinatown in the opening of Think Fast Mr Moto. The male and female leads are drippy though neither have much to play.  There is far, far, far too much of Moto's idiot British friend - I didn't mind this sort of character in Mr Moto Takes a Chance because he wasn't in the film too much and made things worse for Moto, but this bloke (different actor playing basically same role) is just annoying as hell.

Lionel Atwill adds some class to the support but his part isn't big enough. All the tough talking gangsters and scenes with flashing neon signs in the background make this feel more like a Charlie Chan picture.

The best thing about it is the finale - there's a terrific confrontation/reveal with the killer in a darkened museum followed by a terrific fight. But too little too late.

Movie review - Moto#7 - "Mr Moto in Danger Island" (1939) **1/2 (re-watching) (warning: spoilers)

The weakest Moto movies with Peter Lorre were the last two. This was actually filmed last but released before Mr Moto Takes a Vacation. Its based on a non-Moto novel, and has a serviceable plot but feels tired.

Its set on Puerto Rico, which would normally be a plus but its depiction here isn't very evocative - I get the feeling Fox were starting to trim the budgets, and production values were normally a big appeal. There is a pretty cool swamp and caves.

The support cast is strong - Amanda Duff is sweet (she married Philip Dunne), and there's Douglas Dumbrille, Leon Ames and Jean Herscholt.  The story is quite clever and I didn't mind the comic relief wrestler. The romantic male lead is particularly wet. I did like Herscholt being revealed as the baddy.

It was just all a bit undercooked for me. Maybe it was because it was directed by Herbert Leeds instead of Norman Foster.

Movie review - Moto#6 - "Mr Moto's Last Warning" (1938) ***1/2 (re-watching)

Very good Moto film, one of the best. It's got the strongest villains, and the highest stakes, and ties in with real world shenanigans. It's got the best death and Moto really has to work hard to triumph. There's also no wet "heroic" romantic male lead. Every role has some meat on it. There is a silly ass sidekick for comic relief but I didn't mind him because it's his idiocy that causes trouble for Moto.

The villains: Ricardo Cortez as a smart villainous ventriloquist; George Sanders is always worth watching, as a monocle wearer; Leyland Hogson.

The deaths in this have impact - John Carradine, as a fellow agent, is sent to the bottom of the ocean in a chilling sequence. Also there's a guy who impersonates Moto who is killed.

Virginia Field, irritating in the first Moto film, has a decent role here to play - of a woman who realises her lover is a spy - and does well.

The villain's plot is great - they want to blow up a French ship in Port Said, run by the British - to cause trouble between France and Britain (this actually happened in the war when British ships sunk French ones).

It's a very good Moto.

Movie review - Moto#4 - "Mr Moto Takes a Chance" (1938) ***

The second film shot in the series but for some reason the fourth released. Not sure why. It's an imperial adventure more than a detective mystery - Moto is running around Cambodia making sure the locals don't overthrow the French.

He teams up with a visiting British aviatrix who jumps out of a plane and works for British intelligence, two visiting American cameraman, a rajah. Moto pretends to be a guru and an archelogist and there's pits and executions and a finale where the goodies are under siege in a temple.

The extras budget is amusingly blown early on and at the end there's only a few cast members but the film's ambition is endearing and the sets are good.

I liked the cast - Chick Chandler's comic relief camera guy didn't grate, and Robert Kent and Rochelle Hudson were enjoyable juveniles, and the villains were strong.

Movie review - Moto#5 - "Mysterious Mr Moto" (1938) **1/2 (re-watching) (warning: spoilers)

This gets off to a great start with Moto escaping from Devil's Island but instead of keeping things in the third world he heads off to boring old studio London and hangs around. I go back and forth over what I think of this one. I mean there's some good stuff - the opening escape, the novelty of seeing Aussie Mary Maguire in a role (hearing her accent when her character gets upset), Henry Wilcoxon adding some name value to the support cast, the reveal the upper class twit is the baddie. Leon Ames adds some support cast class. There's a striking scene where Moto encounters racial prejudice at an English pub - the bar guy charges him more and the others mock him.

But it's stiff - a bit stagey. Wilcoxon's character is a dull idiot. Maguire doesn't have anything much to do other than love Wilcoxon. The film lacks a bit of verve. Energy. I mean it's okay. Just not great. Needed another twist or something.