Movie review – “Night Train to Munich” (1940) ***

The Lady Vanishes done again – same writers, female lead, setting, model work and support characters. No Hitchcock but there’s Carol Reed handling the duties. It’s not as good but it’s still fun.

The story has more of a real world setting, with Nazi Germany precisely specified as the baddy – there is a prologue which goes for a couple of minutes establishing the nastiness of the Nazis as they march into Czechoslovakia (cue lot of stock footage). Lady Vanishes was a lark but this has a very serious side, with concentration camps, and Nazis and invading Poland, so it’s not as much fun.

The very British Margaret Lockwood plays the daughter of a Czech scientist who winds up in a concentration camp – at one stage she’s got this grumpy expression at one of the guards, and you can sense Esther the future of The Wicked Lady. But to be honest Lockwood doesn’t have that much to do here, certainly not as much as she did in Lady Vanishes. Most of the hero duties are carried by Rex Harrison as a jolly good nitwit who is actually a British agent – the character is very much in the vein of Michael Redgrave in Lady Vanishes and you can imagine Redgrave playing this part (he even has a musical connection). Actually that’s not fair on Harrison – he was a wonderful egotistical quality which adds a lot of spark to his part here.

Anyway Lockwood escapes from the camp but then 30 minutes in the Nazis get both her and her scientist father back and Harrison goes after them – you could have started the film here. They don’t actually get on the train until 50 minutes in – which is when Caldicott and Charters appear. (One of them buys a copy of Mein Kampf at a railway book store for something to read when they can’t get Punch; the only other thing available is Gone With the Wind.)

This takes too long to get going, Lockwood doesn’t have enough to do, the support characters aren’t as strong (apart from the dynamic duo), and there is a saggy section in the middle. 

But there are some good things: Paul Henreid makes a strong, worthy villain (great twist 15 minutes in when he’s revealed to be a Nazi – the eye exam stuff is clever too); Caldicott and Charters are funny and I like the way they put Harrison in mortal danger then get him out again; Harrison is very engaging; there is plenty of action at the end including a shoot-out on a cable car.

Radio review – “Abbott and Costello” – Bela Lugosi (1948) ***

I’d never heard an Abbott and Costello radio show before – they’re terrific, a half hour of consistent laughs. It was a lot of fun listening to it with a laugh track, too (the laugh track on the sitcom of theirs I’ve got doesn’t seem to work). The plot is light – Costello tries to be sheriff of Encino and winds up in a haunted house. Bela Lugosi guest stars as himself, a genuine killer for a change instead of a red herring. He gets to say some one liners instead of just giving feed lines; he kicks some goals too (“Why do you speak quietly” “I was raised in a library”) although he muffles his final one, a gag about having to run away from the police because he was parked in a one hour zone.

Movie review – “Crooks Tour” (1941) **

After two well-received support turns, Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne got their own starring vehicle with this mild comedy. It uses a solid premise – they are abroad when confused for two agents, resulting in people trying to kill them – but the result is middling. 

I don’t think Radford and Wayne really make great leads, because they are reactive characters so they keep having to be thrown into situations to get a response from them. Their material isn’t as strong – the stuff about wanting to go to the cricket feels tacked on, not integrated into the plot. It could have done with more of that funny Englishmen abroad humour, because what’s there is strong (eg in an Arab tent they wish they had dinner dress). Maybe they needed to be put in a more exotic location than Hungary and Syria – like Africa, or have the whole film set in Arabia (it is at the beginning). Whatever the reason, the whole film feels like it needed a rewrite from Launder and Gilliat, or someone else who really understood the characters.

It’s a good idea to have Wayne engaged to Radford’s sister (although Wayne and Radford wind up in bed together towards the end) but not enough is made of this. Indeed, it’s a shame we don’t see more of the families of both. The female lead is very good looking – although I don’t believe for a second she’d wind up with Wayne. It’s a pleasant enough diversion, but it suffers from being constructed in the shadow of Charters and Caldicott’s appearances in other films, two of which were classics.

Movie review – “The Boat That Rocked” (2009) **

You can imagine why this got greenlit – it must have sounded great at the pitch, and in treatment stage: Richard Curtis, a fresh topic (pirate radio in the 60s), an exciting ensemble cast, a rich array of characters, groovy soundtrack and period detail. But it’s a bit of a mess. It’s like Curtis spent all his time talking to his DOP (he moves the camera around a fair bit), set designer and costumer, and picking his cast and soundtrack – then wrote the script in a week.

There are lots of bright spots – the cast is strong, Curtis shows he hasn’t lost any knack showcasing new talent (this gives birth to two new stars – Sammy and Thick Kevin; the male juvenile is a bit wet); the costumes are fun and the songs are great; the setting is wonderful and touches on some important issues; there are some rousing moments.

But it constantly fails to exploit its potential: female characters are given short shrift; the black character is a nothing; Nick Frost pinches a guys girl and nothing really is made of it (then she comes back at the end – are we meant to feel good about this); the humour is often unrealistic (the room of naked women, the Jennifer Jones scene); the conflict between Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rhys Ifans is under-developed; the male juvenile has nothing to do on the boat (why not make him cook or do the books or clean or something); there are several climaxes, which is fine for sex but gets wearying after time.

Movie review – “Man Hunt” (1941) ***

Walter Pidgeon was a gentlemanly if wooden actor (he was described as having the temperament of a turtle) who found a real niche for himself supporting Greer Garson in a series of glossy dramas. This is probably his best known solo vehicle and he’s really good – believable as both a gentleman and a hunter (I can see why Fox borrowed him from MGM, it’s hard to imagine Tyrone Power, Don Ameche or Henry Fonda pulling this off). They do put in a line that his character has a place in Canada, presumably to cover any accent slips.

It maybe was a bit too convenient to have Roddy McDowall (who is excellent) agree to help Pigeon get away from Germany just because – in Household’s novel the hunter was helped by opponents to Nazi Germany, which is a lot more believable. Come to think of it, Joan Bennett also helps Pidgeon for no other reason really than its Walter Pidgeon – he could be a rapist for all she and McDowall know!

The relationship between Bennett and Pidgeon is a bit hokey, with overly-emphatic music and a patronising attitude towards Bennett (he calls her a “monkey” several times). Bennett overacts and is hokey but she was entertaining; also surprisingly touching – Bennett has a nice honest face.

The support cast include two of Hollywood’s most effective villains – George Sanders and John Carradine, although Sanders’ monocle was probably not required. (The great thing about the Major in the book was that he was very like Pidgeon; maybe the monocle was a dig at Fritz Lang or something.) Sanders actually says “today, Europe – tomorrow the world.” All the action stuff is exciting: the initial assassination attempt, the fight in the train station, the finale.

Radio review – Lux Theatre#153 – “These Three” (1937) ***

The expression “soap” came from the many soap companies who sponsored serial dramas. Lux aimed a bit higher than the soapies, sponsoring this famous anthology of film adaptations (it later did so on television as well). It was hosted by Cecil B de Mille, helping him becoming one of the most famous directors of all pre-auteur theory.

This is an adaptation of the 1936 Goldwyn/Wyler movie which was in turn adapted from Lillian Hellman’s play. Famously the lesbian angle was removed, but the story still works because it is based on one of the great archetypal situations – namely a horrid little girl spreading a vicious rumour which is believed by everyone and ends up destroying lives.

The cast here is different from the movie, but is so high quality they could have easily played the roles: Barbara Stanwyck, Mary Astor and Errol Flynn. All three are strong; this was the first radio role of Errol’s I’d heard him play (he featured in a number of them) and he’s very strong – he had a beautiful, strong voice which made him ideal for radio, even if it’s a nothing part, just the handsome male lead. (NB de Mille introduces him as being from Ireland, and in an interview at the end Errol refers to watching movies when growing up in Dublin – even in 1937 he was pretending to be Irish!)

The three leads are outshone however by the girl who plays the little girl that goes hysterical – although three hysterical breakdown scenes might be too many (the director probably discovered the actor could do it really well and thought “hey let’s get them doing it again”).

Radio review – MT #2 - “Treasure Island” (1938) ***1/2

Orson Welles and the Mercury followed up Dracula with another classic tale, this one of piracy. Were these commercially safe choices or did Welles genuinely like them? Probably a bit of both – it’s a shame he didn’t do more classic novel adaptations in his film career, he might have made more movies. It’s a great tale Treasure Island and there is something immortal about its DNA – what little boy at some stage hasn’t wanted to leave their boring old mother at home and go looking for buried treasure. Good fun. The script for the production is here.