Script review - "A Milion Little Things" - pilot

Very good pilot, full of warmth and good twists - nothing super ground breaking but enough shades of difference to give it freshness, eg starts with a male suicide of the Richard Cory type guy, it's about four male friends as opposed to female, one of the men have breast cancer, one is shtupping another one's wife. I did wonder how much "legs" it had - it wasn't sure where it would go. But you can totally see why it got greenlit.

Movie review - "Life After Flash" (2018) ***

Fun documentary which focuses on the life of Sam Jones, in particular his Flash Gordon experience.Tricky up bringing (dad was a boozer, and they often tend to be for movie stars), he grew into a good looking dude which got him work in films, lept to fame with Flash Gordon, grew a big head which meant he went on strike (to make sure he got paid, he says, as if he shouldn't have been willing to do a film like this for nothing), got re-voiced, went into a career dip, bounced back (The Highwayman years), then dipped again, lost his way, had a problem with money, women and his temper.

Eventually found a good marriage, moved to the more psychologically healthy city of San Diego, and got a new career doing security - so he gets to be a he man and act in a way. Loves doing conventions - I enjoyed footage seeing him boss around the volunteers, and also praying to himself that he wouldn't lose his temper.

The running time is flashed out with people talking about the film and its impact on them - two comics are the most fun, perhaps too much time is devoted to random actors who had short roles in the movie. People like Robert Rodriguez talk as well as hard core collectors of things from the film.

I really enjoyed seeing Peter Wyngarde (as bitchily funny as you'd expect, though he seems to be sick... and indeed died not long after - it's funny to hear him talk about demanding his character live so he could be in sequels), Topol, Rafella de Laurentiis, Brian May, Melody Anderson (who seems a lovely person) and especially Brain Blessed, who is everything you'd imagine him to be - loud, boisterous, a bit naughty. Great fun.

Movie review - "Horror Express"(1973) (re-viewing) ***

Watched this film again just for fun - and it is a lot of fun, despite the slightly jarring fact its set in Russia but was shot in Spain.Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee have a high old time as the heroes, get that great moment where they say "But we're British" when asked if one of them is the killer. (The piece might have had more emotional impact if one of them had been infected). I forgot how Lee's part was significantly bigger than Cushing's. 

Some actors you won't recognise, a lot with moustaches. Telly Savalas steals the film in the last 20 minutes. The storyline rips off The Thing but that works really well on a train.

Script review - "Magnum" reboot pilot

Solid work. Lacks an element of magic. The X factor of the old show was the character of Magnum and his relationship  with Higgins. Here Higgins is a girl, which is fine, but she seems more set up to be a long term romantic interest. I did really love Magnum's ex being a crook. Magnum's friends aren't terribly well defined. I wasn't wild about the opening teaser being fantasy or the fact his friend was tortured before being killed - this just felt mean.

Script review - "Young Frankenstein" by Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder (1973)

Not sure what draft this was - its pretty close to the end result from what I can recall. The structure, characters are all the same. There's a bit at the beginning where Frankenstein's other relatives talk about the will - which is intriguing, more The Cat and the Canary type stuff - but we never see them again so it was easily cut. There's more dialogue.

I wasn't a huge fan of this when I first saw it. There's not that many jokes compared to say Flying High. It is done with a lot of affection and respect for the 30s Universal roles. The characters are clearly defined and you can imagine actors being excited to play the parts. The best lines go to Igor - he's got the more obvious gag lines. Some of this is really funny.

Script review - "Rebecca" by Robert Sherwood and Joan Harrison (warning: spoilers)

I remember being intrigued by this film in writings about it especially of the name Maxim, and read the original novel - I still recall the gasp at the big twist that Rebecca was murdered.

That's been changed here, a little - Maxim still admits to punching her and then she conks her head. Ah.... isn't that manslaughter? Anyway.

I was struck by how much time this spent on character. The opening 30 pages is devoted to the romance between Maxim and "I" (little odd to read that in the character header) so their relationship has a firm footing. It's not a very healthy relationship - Maxim is snappy and rude, and emotionally abusive. He doesn't hit her and is handsome and rich - and she's dutiful and doesn't have anyone and is a moron. You do utterly believe it would happen - she doesn't know any better and he needs an easy ride.

The rest of it is subtle and well done - this would never fly as an original script, I reckon they'd think it was too dull, but it had a best seller behind it. They go to Manderlay, she meets his sister (who clocks her as a nice ninny), she clashes with the superb villain Mrs Danvers (some wonderfully subtle writing, with Danvers talking about clothes and hairbrushes and suggesting "I" kill herself). The big set piece is the masqueraade ball.

The secret comes out with half an hour to go and the rest has the characters as passive - it's the inquest, with Maxim and "I" being swept along. The most active thing Maxim does is refuse to be blackmailed. He's saved by a deux ex machina of Rebecca's cancer diagnosis. I thought maybe at the end of the film they might give "I" a moment against Mrs Danvers as the house burns down but "I" is pretty much shunted off.

The film still has freshness because of its depiction of power, twisted relationships, sex, and repression.

Remembering Susan Strasberg

Watched some Taste of Fear today which got me thinking about Susan Strasberg. She seemed to pop up a lot in films I watched growing up - Picnic, The High Bright Sun, The Trip, Psych Out. She'd pop up in memoirs too usually having an affair with someone - Richard Burton, Warren Beatty, Chris Jones. No one seems to really rate her acting  but I've always liked her.

She was the daughter of famous Lee and Paula Strasberg and rose to fame relatively quickly - a role in Picnic and then Anne Frank on Broadway. She was the lead in Stage Struck - big shoes to fill as it was a remake of Morning Glory. Her reviews weren't good and she never got it back. She wasn't in the Anne Frank film, she bummed around Europe, was in some unremarkable films, lost career momentum.

She seemed a natural as a precocious kid - she developed into specialty of "scared young woman". But she never seemed to really develop her gift.Or maybe she did - I don't know. The drugs and exotic love life couldn't have helped. But it is harder for women.

Her film CV includes some films to be proud of: Picnic, Taste of Fear, The Trip, Psych Out. I think it was just she started with such a bang with such tremendous lineage that her career had this aura of disappointment about it.