Movie review - "Campbell's Kingdom" (1957) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

In the late 50s the British film industry, in particular the Rank organisation, went on a Commonwealth countries kick - you had films shot in Australia (Robbery Under Arms), South Africa (Nor the Moon by Night), India (The Wind Cannot Read, North West Frontier) etc. This was Canada's turn, so you've got lots of British actors wearing flannos talking in vaguely American accents.

This has been called Rank's attempt at a Western which it isn't really, although it's set outside in North America, has a couple of scenes set in a saloon and is about a mystery man who comes into town to beat the baddies, avenge a problem and save the day. For one thing it's set in the present day, it's about digging for oil rather than gold or the railways, Dirk Bogarde isn't a gunslinger (there are no guns) but rather a doomed Byronic man who has six months to live, and he doesn't do all the heroic work himself but rather gathers a group of friends around him: an engineer (Michael Craig), driller (James Robertson Justice), pretty girl (Barbara Murray), friendly driver (Sid James). This ensemble, everyone-pitch-in-to-help teamwork ethos marks the movie as very different from Hollywood, with its lone-man-against-the-elements ethos.

It isn't a great movie - Ralph Thomas never made a great movie, he was too much of a hack - but it's not bad. It's from a Hammond Innes novel so there's always plenty of action, there's some spectacular location work (mountains, dams, rivers), the setting is novel, a couple of good action sequences (blowing things up, a dam collapse at the end). Bogarde is effective with a terminal illness (it does kind of cheat that at the end he's miraculously better), Michael Craig lends handsome support, Stanley Baker could play this sort of villain role in his sleep. No one seems vaguely Canadian but at least it's in Canada.

Movie review - "An American Romance" (1944) **

Such was King Vidor's prestige in 1944 that MGM let him spend $3 million on this dull epic without insisting on stars or conflict on the plot. I know he wanted Spencer Tracy but surely there was someone more interesting on the payroll rather than Brian Donlevy - who is not only dull but embarrassing at times as the migrant who moves to America and rises up the industrial ladder. His rise is very slow at first - he's dim, becomes obsessed with steel - and also lacking much interest. He romances a teacher (Ann Richards - formerly Shirley Ann Richards, Aussie actor), they fall in love pretty quick and although he's obsessed with work and they lose a son to the inevitable war, their marriage is pretty good. Then when he's middle aged he becomes rich making cars.

You wait for something to happen - infidelity, Donlevy to go drunk on power, his son to go off the rails, a daughter turning into a slut, divorce... something. But it doesn't. There's an exciting scene where Donlevy nearly falls in some malten liquid and some conflict in the last half hour when his son tries to unionise the workers (they are very polite about it but it's still striking to see some vague pro-union propaganda in an MGM film) but that's about it. Donlevy retires, gets bored, but luckily Pearl Harbour comes along and he has to go back to work... is that supposed to be interesting? Did MGM really think Joe Public would be so patriotic they'd want to see this?

The Power and the Glory covered similar territory but a lot more things happened - marriages busted off, Spencer Tracy went crazy, there was a suicide. None of that here. All we get is some indifferent acting, bad European accents, a flat cast (hardly anyone is in familiar in this - the guys who plays the sons are all dull ditto Donley's daughter), and lots and lots of shots of industrial production. Richards, so engaging and spritely in her Australian films, isn't very good here - but then she doesn't have a character to play. (Why does she like Donlevy? Doesn't she have an opinion about anything?)

This was apparently cut down greatly by the studio - half an hour lopped off. I shudder to think of the long version.

Movie review - "The Sundowners" (1960) ****

There was a time at the beginning of his writing career when Jon Cleary was known as a really top rank writer, before he stuck to commercial thrillers. It was on the basis of You Can't See 'Round Corners and this, which was a beautiful book - well evoked, a rich character study about a man who can't change despite the wishes of his wife and son. He loves them, and they love him - which is the strength of this because they can't leave, and don't want to, but he can't change, so it's sad and happy and human.

The Australian accents of Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum have been much mocked, and the truth is they aren't very good, but that aside both of them give excellent performances. Mitchum is very good as the eternal drifter, keen to keep moving on, not wanting to be tied down, fond of fighting and drinking - this was so much like Mitchum himself. I think it's one of the best Hollywood star performances that capture the essence of the Russell Ward Australian (no matter how he sounds). Deborah Kerr is good too as the tired, weary woman. These two have a very strong bond - they clearly have a great sex like - which makes their conflict strong and real. Michael Anderson is engaging as their son.

They are backed with some other imports who are at least English - Glynis Johns, Peter Ustinov and Ronald Fraser (who has a mashed in face of an Aussie shearer) - plus several locals: Chips Rafferty, Leonard Teale, John Meillion.

There's an overall plot of Kerr wanting Mitchum to buy a farm but really it's a series of episodes: a bushfire while droving sheep, a two-up game, a shearer's wife giving birth, a sing-a-long around the piano, meeting colourful Peter Ustinov who romances barmaid Glynis Johns, Anderson being flirted with by a young girl, a fight, a booze up, a shearing competition, Kerr cooking for shearers, the shearers having a union meeting, Mitchum singing 'Wild Colonial Boy', not one but two horse races. There's also lots of shots of Australian wildlife - koalas, sheep, etc - and slang which is a bit distracting at times to be honest. But it's made with honesty and love and is further evidence of Fred Zinnemann's brilliance. Probably the best Hollywood movie about Australia.

Movie review - "Light in the Piazza" (1962) ***

What sounds like an unpromising subject matter - a slightly retarded girl falls for a rich Italian - is given sensitive and intelligent treatment resulting in a smart film. It's helped by Olivia de Havilland's performance as the girls' mother and Yvette Mimieux's beauty as the girl. Mimieux wasn't the best actor in the world but she suits the part of a pretty dumb thing. De Havilland's dilemma is well done - does she keep watching over her daughter, join her husband (Barry Sullivan) or let her get married and not tell the in-laws, so she can live life in spoilt happiness, chatting inanely with dumb friends... I don't think I've ever seen a film which put forward this as a genuine option. But then - is it so wrong?

George Hamilton is believable Italian. I didn't quite buy Rosanno Brazzi cracking on to de Havilland - she's too much an American matron. There are some pleasing views of Rome and it's never predictable - they keep throwing in weird curve balls, like Hamilton being too young, and de Havilland basically paying off the family. Worth watching.

Movie review - "Home from the Hill" (1960) ***

Popular melodrama from the time which appealed to two generations - adults interested in the antics of the parents (Robert Mitchum and Eleanor Parker) and teens keen on the young people (George Peppard, George Hamilton). It's a good old fashioned melodrama of the Tennesse Williams/Erskine Childers/William Faulkner school - lots of Southern accents, sweat, family, and sex.

The plot has rich man Mitchum run around town sleeping with anything that moves, being shot at occasionally by irate husbands/fathers, showing more affection for his hunting dogs and bastard son (Peppard) than his wife who won't sleep with him (Parker) and whimpy legitimate son (Hamilton). Mitchum is effective and very believable as a boozy basically useless rich man mainly interested in hedonism - his death is no real tragedy in my book. (Okay, they hint at a reconciliation with Parker but how long does anyone think that will last?) Parker looks too young to be Hamilton's mother but this was Hollywood; she gets a big monologue with goes on for far too long.

The two young man parts are dreams. Peppard comes off the better of the two as the tough, brave, smart but poor bastard son - he's not bitter about his upbringing and actually bonds well with Hamilton. He marries the cute girl Hamilton has knocked up, doesn't seem to resent Mitchum and invites Parker to help him raise Hamilton's child. Actually writing that he seems too good to be true but Peppard's playing doesn't make it seem that way. (I like the scene where Peppard visits his wife in bed and he's in pyjamas with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth).

Hamilton is less impressive - his inexperience is all too evident in what is a challenging role - but the role carries him along: highly strung, spoilt, neurotic, but also basically decent (once he finds out about Peppard he insists Mitchum take him in) with a strong motivation for this actions (he loathes his upbringing so doesn't want a wife or kids... which is why he abandons his girlfriend). And he has some good moments. As if to compensate, Hamilton walks around bare-chested a lot.

This goes on too long - two and a half hours - and is at it's core a soapy story but it's an effective one, and a good example that MGM knew how to make films for the teen audience.

Movie review - "David and Bathsheba" (1951) ***1/2

Gregory Peck isn't the first actor you'd think to appear in a Bible epic - Tyrone Power, his fellow big name at 20th Century Fox, probably would have suited it more. But he's handsome and has authority and does his best as the King who gets the hots for Bathsheba after seeing her take a bath on her roof (they hint at nudity but I'm pretty sure when she gets in she's got underwear on).

The main attribute of this is it's first rate script from Philip Dunne. It's a real character study - don't laugh: David is a torn man, tired from war, in a bad marriage with a wife he's only with for political reasons. He's drawn to Bathsheba for her sexiness, seduces her out of wedlock, and has hell to pay, constantly agonises over religious stuff. There's some great scenes with the prophet Nathan (Raymond Massey), the local religious lunatic - lots of interesting stuff about God and being a ruler.

Bathsheba isn't much of a character - she's hot but not super hot (Susan Hayward), just seems to drift along. She's no temptress, but is more a victim of fate/circumstance. Maybe this was a censor issue. Keiron Moore play Uriah who displays so little interest in his wife (always running off to battle and not having sex with her) that it makes your eyebrows raise.

 

Structure wise this is kind of odd - Dunne was faced with the challenge of padding out a very short section of the Bible, and most the drama is done by the time the affair is exposed. So the climax of the film is a flashback to the time David fought Goliath, which doesn't really have anything to do with Bathsheba. Yet it worked.

 

Henry King directs with sensitivity and the support cast are strong, including James Robertson Justice. It's not a big spectacle - most of the action takes place indoors, there aren't teems of extras. Perhaps the most thoughtful of the epics.

Movie review - "Hunted" (1952) ***

Charming British film which made a splash for Dirk Bogarde. It's the sort of role that always works - he's a murderer, but only of the rich nasty man who cuckolded him with his wife (Elizabeth Sellars, whose pointy nose seemed to always cast her in the role of sluts - she was one in The Shiralee); he goes on the run, having to take a boy witness with him. The two of them form a bond - the kid's from a nasty home and loves Bogarde. Jon Whiteley is the kid and he and Bogarde are excellent together.

There's no surprises or twists in the story - Bogarde's wife is a tramp, his brother is caught between a rock and a hard place, Bogarde is basically good - but it's very well done, briskly directed by Charles Crichton.