Gainsborough really stopped caring with this one... actually maybe that's not fair, but they did stop taking their stories seriously. I know this is relative when talking about 40s melodrama but there's scenes in this which would be laughed at in a Christmas panto e.g. Robert Helpmann trying to push Stewart Granger off a boat (you can practically hear little kids yell out "behind you behind you"), a ridiculous amount of flashbacks in the first half hour as Stewart Granger tells stories of his childhood, the camp acting, ripe dialogue.
Denis Price was kept in by Gainsborough as a reserve villain in case James Mason wasn't available and this gives him his best chance - he's not remotely in Mason's class, even though (or because) he apes Mason's voice at times. Granger does his best in what is a terrible role - but he's fine, and Helpman is terrific as a snivelly assassin, as is Jean Kent as a gypsy girl.
Anne Crawford is the biggest debit: she's stuffy and bland as the aristocrat Granger is in love with (you long for Pat Roc or Phyllis Calvert). Honestly, Granger's better off with Kent, who loves him unconditionally, is brave and sexy as hell, can dance up a storm, dives naked off rocks into the water in front of him, has hundreds of fans panting over her but picks him, and eventually gives up her life for him. You kind of feel depressed at the end when he winds up with this spoilt, not particularly attractive brat.
This is more action orientated than the usual Gainsborough - it starts with a brawl, there's a kids hanging off cliff tops, an extended assassination sequence (which ends very effectively with Granger being shot when we think he's safe), not one but two scenes in quicksand, a coach chase. There's also camp - lots of dancing, a weird scene where Price invites all these prostitutes to dine with Crawford, Kent's nostril flaring performance and famous lines such as "what do you cold English women know about love" (I'm paraphrasing). Stupid, messy, fun, over the top - you can hardly believe they made it.
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
Friday, May 04, 2012
Movie review - "The Ides of March" (2011) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)
No classic, and the writers are unable to come up with a better twist than "he had sex with an intern" but it's done with panache, with a superb cast: Paul Giamanti and Philip Seymour Hoffman are especially stunning as old-time political operators, both of them with their own integrity despite oozing corruption (Hoffman hangs on to loyalty, Giamanti loves the fight but also encourages young people to give up the game).
George Clooney is appropriately charismatic as the Governor, a dream Democrat (war hero, small "l" liberal) with the disappointingly usual flaw (he can't keep his fly up), and Ryan Gosling solid. Evan Rachel Wood was so confident in seducing Gosling and the way she carried herself I had trouble believing that she'd commit suicide, even after having had an abortion - I also had trouble buying a character like her (educated, well connected) would have difficulty raising five hundred dollars for an abortion.
That aside there are some first rate scenes, it isn't overly political, there is much to mull about on the nature of corruption, Clooney's direction impresses (it reminded me of The Parallax View at times).
George Clooney is appropriately charismatic as the Governor, a dream Democrat (war hero, small "l" liberal) with the disappointingly usual flaw (he can't keep his fly up), and Ryan Gosling solid. Evan Rachel Wood was so confident in seducing Gosling and the way she carried herself I had trouble believing that she'd commit suicide, even after having had an abortion - I also had trouble buying a character like her (educated, well connected) would have difficulty raising five hundred dollars for an abortion.
That aside there are some first rate scenes, it isn't overly political, there is much to mull about on the nature of corruption, Clooney's direction impresses (it reminded me of The Parallax View at times).
Movie review - "The Lost Continent" (1969) ***
Hammer fantasy which serves to show that Michael Carreras really isn't much of a writer or director but is a lot of fun. It's got something for everyone really: a ship containing an assortment of passengers (frizzy haired man with pencil moustache who looks like a pimp, a mysterious woman with an accent who looks like a man, slutty blonde who just wants to be rooted, alcoholic jazz playing pianist, molesting doctor) led by some odd sailors (an officer with unconvincing blonde dyed hair, Eric Porter as a harsh captain with a taste for beating people to a pulp), gets in a storm and wind up in a lost swamp area.
They hop off the ship then hop on again, a repetitive story beat which is just one of the many story problems this film has. The land they arrive in is populated by weird deadly sea creatures, a woman with large breasts and several of her friends who kept above the water with balloons and oppressed by descendants of the Spanish inquisition led by a crazed child.
It's kind of an insane, mad film that probably needed to be done with greater gusto. It definitely needed to get to the Lost Continent earlier - they could have started the movie with the main characters in the life boat waiting to see if the boat was going to blow up. Their adventures once they get there seem rushed. Also there's some silly decisions like inserting an awful theme song.
It also lacks some Hammer star power - Eric Porter was okay but no Cushing, Lee or Andrew Keir. Suzanna Leigh is a delight in low-cut outfits as an aspirational tart who looks as though butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, the support cast seem to be having a high old time. Not top rank Hammer fantasy but worth checking out as a slightly classier version of Slave Girls.
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Movie review - "Raiders in the Sky" (1953) **1/2
There's a sub genre of war film known as the "bomber movie" about crews which go on constant raids and wind up having a nervous breakdown - Twelve O'Clock High, Command Decision, this. It's got the benefit of a story by a real bomber who flew over a hundred missions and feels a lot more real: the briefings with airmen where people up the back ask the officers to speak up, the easy camaraderie in the mess, the elaborate drinking ceremonies with everyone chanting and airmen putting paint dripped feet on the ceiling, the final bombing raid with its radio reports and anxiousness, the sense of routine mixed in with danger.
There's also a strong cast. Dirk Bogarde's youthful good looks and ability to convey neuroticism mean he's ideal in the lead. Old Hollywood standby Ian Hunter pops up bald as a superior officer; Bogarde's crew includes Aussie expat Bill Kerr and future director Bryan Forbes. William Sylvester plays the Bonar Colleano role as an American observer on the plane and Dinah Sheridan is perfect in the sort of part she plays here (widowed, sensible love interest). Kerr is very touching as a softly spoken Aussie who dreams of a sheep farm.
An early foreshadowing of Top Gun - Bogarde meets and flirts with Dinah Sheridan in a bar, then the next day at a session finds himself briefed by Sheridan who is in uniform. At times it's a little too realistic and British and drifts into dullness but it's a strong British war movie.
There's also a strong cast. Dirk Bogarde's youthful good looks and ability to convey neuroticism mean he's ideal in the lead. Old Hollywood standby Ian Hunter pops up bald as a superior officer; Bogarde's crew includes Aussie expat Bill Kerr and future director Bryan Forbes. William Sylvester plays the Bonar Colleano role as an American observer on the plane and Dinah Sheridan is perfect in the sort of part she plays here (widowed, sensible love interest). Kerr is very touching as a softly spoken Aussie who dreams of a sheep farm.
An early foreshadowing of Top Gun - Bogarde meets and flirts with Dinah Sheridan in a bar, then the next day at a session finds himself briefed by Sheridan who is in uniform. At times it's a little too realistic and British and drifts into dullness but it's a strong British war movie.
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Movie review - "The Mind Benders" (1963) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)
A reunion of Dirk Bogarde and Basil Dearden, the team that gave us Victim, results in something that isn't as good, but tries to be, and is at least at bit different. The hot social issue Dearden takes on here is brain washing - which has driven an old colleague of Bogarde's to kill himself. So Bogarde immerses himself in a sensory deprivation tank (years before Altered States)... under the supervision of a military man (John Clements, looking really old) who decides to test it's effectiveness by brainwashing Bogarde into thinking that he doesn't love his wife (Mary Ure). It's a really effective, creepy, horrid scene and even though it doesn't take place until 40 or so minutes in you think this is going to kick off into something really special.
Only it never does, not really. Part of the problem is Bogarde was never that convincing as a man devoted to a woman, and his great love for Ure before his brainwashing isn't as believable as his contempt for her afterwards - so his reformation doesn't strike true. Also the film goes really easy on Clements - instead of having this prick locked up at the end, Bogarde thanks him! The spy plot feels underused and there's all this Bogarde-Ure complex stuff which never feels quite right.
Still, it keeps you watching: Ure is very good as the woman who is emotionally pummelled, there's this random climax which involves her giving birth (we go through most of the process, even though it's not too graphic it's certainly more detailed than we normally get in movies), there's a great brainwashing sequence, and it's definitely different.
Only it never does, not really. Part of the problem is Bogarde was never that convincing as a man devoted to a woman, and his great love for Ure before his brainwashing isn't as believable as his contempt for her afterwards - so his reformation doesn't strike true. Also the film goes really easy on Clements - instead of having this prick locked up at the end, Bogarde thanks him! The spy plot feels underused and there's all this Bogarde-Ure complex stuff which never feels quite right.
Still, it keeps you watching: Ure is very good as the woman who is emotionally pummelled, there's this random climax which involves her giving birth (we go through most of the process, even though it's not too graphic it's certainly more detailed than we normally get in movies), there's a great brainwashing sequence, and it's definitely different.
Book review - "You Couldn't Forget Me If You Tried" by Susannah Gora
Not the definitive account of the Brat Pack/80s teen era, but more a look at specific films: Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Some Kind of Wonderful, St Elmo's Fire and Say Anything. So we get a lot on John Hughes (though it's not a bio), a bit on Cameron Crowe, and a fair amount on the actors. Basically this feels like six long individual pieces stuck together - there's kind of the link of Hughes, but a third of it deals with films he didn't make, and it pretty much ignores Weird Science. So there is something slightly unsatisfactory about it.
Still, what's here is pretty good, helped by interviews with most of the key players - well, actors, mostly, and a few executives, critics, academics and record company people, not so much from editors, cinematographers, etc. There were a lot of things I didn't know - the extent of troubles on Some Kind of Wonderful (which sounds hellish to make), the casting process of the various movies, the story of the writing of the Brat Pack article in New York magazine, the fact that all the actors blame that article for ruining their careers.
I have, like so many, strong memories of the John Hughes films. I had heard about Sixteen Candles before it hit cinemas - the advance word was it was a more serious teen movie. I first saw it on VHS and was delighted to find most of the comedy was very broad, like Meatballs or Vacation - there was a bit of sap but not too much. The others I saw in a cinema (including Weird Science) - except Some Kind of Wonderful which didn't get much of a release. The Breakfast Club blew me away - I remember talking about it with total strangers at McDonalds after seeing it in the cinema. Pretty in Pink was less impressive, though good - it was incredibly serious (like Breakfast it seemed to be a drama, only with a lot less laughs). Ferris was comedy with some great dramatic bits; Some Kind of Wonderful remains my favourite with great personal resonance. These movies were all flawed (e.g. broad racist caricatures in Candles, unconvincing romantic pairings in Breakfast, overly smug hero in Some Kind of Wonderful) but they all had wonderful moments, even Weird Science.
They were all beautifully cast too - Hughes seemed to have a knack of picking young actors who'd done maybe one memorable role before hand e.g. Anthony Michael Hall (Vacation), Mia Sara (Legend), Matthew Broderick (Wargames), Andrew McCarthy (Class). But also he took people who seemed to come out of nowhere, e.g. Jon Cryer, Alan Ruck. And the music was always great - Yello, OMD, Spandau Ballet, Simple Minds, Psychedelic Furs...
Gora is an engaging writer and doesn't deify the films. She could have perhaps put them in a more historical context - while she's strong on the films that Hughes influenced (Kevin Smith, Judd Apatow, etc) she's not as good on the films that influenced him. Surely he was affected by teen tales like Summer of 42 and American Graffiti - or was it the Sandra Dee movies of the 60s? The Hughes tales didn't just drop from the sky.
On one hand you feel some sympathy for the actors being labelled as part of a pack. But did it wreck their careers? A label surely didn't send Molly Ringwald to France, or drive Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, and Rob Lowe to drinking problems, or Ally Sheedy to an eating disorder. Do they really think the label made Ringwald turn down Blue Velvet and Pretty Woman and Some Kind of Wonderful, Hall and McCarthy Some Kind of Wonderful? Also most of them had one or two post Brat Pack hits - Nelson (From the Hip), McCarthy (Mannequin), Lowe (About Last Night, Bad Influence), Sheedy (Short Circuit), Estevez (Young Guns), Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing) - they just had trouble sustaining it. But most of them had decent careers - Nelson, Lowe, Hall, Ruck and Cryer all enjoyed a successful run on the small screen, none of them are washed up junkies.
A great read but you can't help wishing there was something more.
Still, what's here is pretty good, helped by interviews with most of the key players - well, actors, mostly, and a few executives, critics, academics and record company people, not so much from editors, cinematographers, etc. There were a lot of things I didn't know - the extent of troubles on Some Kind of Wonderful (which sounds hellish to make), the casting process of the various movies, the story of the writing of the Brat Pack article in New York magazine, the fact that all the actors blame that article for ruining their careers.
I have, like so many, strong memories of the John Hughes films. I had heard about Sixteen Candles before it hit cinemas - the advance word was it was a more serious teen movie. I first saw it on VHS and was delighted to find most of the comedy was very broad, like Meatballs or Vacation - there was a bit of sap but not too much. The others I saw in a cinema (including Weird Science) - except Some Kind of Wonderful which didn't get much of a release. The Breakfast Club blew me away - I remember talking about it with total strangers at McDonalds after seeing it in the cinema. Pretty in Pink was less impressive, though good - it was incredibly serious (like Breakfast it seemed to be a drama, only with a lot less laughs). Ferris was comedy with some great dramatic bits; Some Kind of Wonderful remains my favourite with great personal resonance. These movies were all flawed (e.g. broad racist caricatures in Candles, unconvincing romantic pairings in Breakfast, overly smug hero in Some Kind of Wonderful) but they all had wonderful moments, even Weird Science.
They were all beautifully cast too - Hughes seemed to have a knack of picking young actors who'd done maybe one memorable role before hand e.g. Anthony Michael Hall (Vacation), Mia Sara (Legend), Matthew Broderick (Wargames), Andrew McCarthy (Class). But also he took people who seemed to come out of nowhere, e.g. Jon Cryer, Alan Ruck. And the music was always great - Yello, OMD, Spandau Ballet, Simple Minds, Psychedelic Furs...
Gora is an engaging writer and doesn't deify the films. She could have perhaps put them in a more historical context - while she's strong on the films that Hughes influenced (Kevin Smith, Judd Apatow, etc) she's not as good on the films that influenced him. Surely he was affected by teen tales like Summer of 42 and American Graffiti - or was it the Sandra Dee movies of the 60s? The Hughes tales didn't just drop from the sky.
On one hand you feel some sympathy for the actors being labelled as part of a pack. But did it wreck their careers? A label surely didn't send Molly Ringwald to France, or drive Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, and Rob Lowe to drinking problems, or Ally Sheedy to an eating disorder. Do they really think the label made Ringwald turn down Blue Velvet and Pretty Woman and Some Kind of Wonderful, Hall and McCarthy Some Kind of Wonderful? Also most of them had one or two post Brat Pack hits - Nelson (From the Hip), McCarthy (Mannequin), Lowe (About Last Night, Bad Influence), Sheedy (Short Circuit), Estevez (Young Guns), Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing) - they just had trouble sustaining it. But most of them had decent careers - Nelson, Lowe, Hall, Ruck and Cryer all enjoyed a successful run on the small screen, none of them are washed up junkies.
A great read but you can't help wishing there was something more.
Movie review - "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" (2011) ****
Comfortably the best movie in this series - incredibly well done, with a first rate script, superb direction, lots of flair and a terrific cast. Tom Cruise is yeah whatever - Ethan Hunt really isn't much of a role - but he is a movie star and he fills the screen. Simon Pegg gives this genuine humour and warmth, Paul Patton is a terrific new star (sexy, enigmatic, believably physical with the action stuff), Jeremy Renner impresses in the is-he-really-a-traitor part.
The settings and characters reflect the shifting world economy - it's hardly set in America, the big money is in Russia, India and the Middle East. It pays very good continuity tribute to Mission Impossible 3 even though this is far superior. Great old fashioned action entertainment in the best sense - there's even a race against time to stop a nuclear war.
The settings and characters reflect the shifting world economy - it's hardly set in America, the big money is in Russia, India and the Middle East. It pays very good continuity tribute to Mission Impossible 3 even though this is far superior. Great old fashioned action entertainment in the best sense - there's even a race against time to stop a nuclear war.
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