There was a time when more Australians would have seen this theatre adaptation than actually read the famous novel. (Or at least a version of it.) It's been jazzed up and changed considerably: they've taken a cop and turned him into a villain who tries to man-handle the Marston's sister (a la Kate Kelly); there is a nice police officer who admires Starlight; Starlight is now a member of the English gentry who came to Australia because he took the blame for a crime committed by another member of his family (a la For the Term of His Natural Life); two comic Irish cops are added; Starlight is allowed to live to marry Aileen.
A lot of this is a mess - it's a jolt to introduce the Morrison sisters; momentum feels lost when Starlight seems to be killed and then Dick escapes. But the addition of a villainous copper works, Moran remains a strong antagonist, there's some great bits like Aileen pulling a gun on some people. The boring character of George (the "contrast with the life of crime" character) is still there - did anyone consider turning him into a villain? Plenty of action and incident - you can see how audiences would have liked it. A lot more successful than the 1957 version. This was the basis of a now-lost silent film adaptation.
Friday, November 30, 2012
Movie review - "Highway Dragnet" (1954) **
A minor B picture, mostly notable for being an early screen credit (I think it might be his first) for Roger Corman. He helped provide the story and is down as a co-producer - and certainly the tale isn't too dissimilar to the first he did for AIP, The Fast and the Furious. Richard Conte is an ex-GI who is falsely accused of murder and has to go on the lam, hooking up with a good looking girl - actually two good looking girls.
The film is a lot more polished than many of Corman's early films - in addition to Conte it's got Joan Bennett and Wanda Hendrix as the female leads (Bennett is the suspicious one, Hendrix is horny). The characters' motivations seem to go all over the shop - instead of hiding people go into plain view, the women don't bail when they clearly should.
There's an interesting finale at a house half filled with water and it's novel to see something set in Nevada at the time. Conte isn't really engaging as a star but at least can act; I enjoyed the trashy blonde and Hendrix's cuteness; Bennett looks old. Only really for completists of 50s film noir or Roger Corman. Or Richard Conte (hey, you never know - there might be some).
The film is a lot more polished than many of Corman's early films - in addition to Conte it's got Joan Bennett and Wanda Hendrix as the female leads (Bennett is the suspicious one, Hendrix is horny). The characters' motivations seem to go all over the shop - instead of hiding people go into plain view, the women don't bail when they clearly should.
There's an interesting finale at a house half filled with water and it's novel to see something set in Nevada at the time. Conte isn't really engaging as a star but at least can act; I enjoyed the trashy blonde and Hendrix's cuteness; Bennett looks old. Only really for completists of 50s film noir or Roger Corman. Or Richard Conte (hey, you never know - there might be some).
Movie review - "Barbary Coast" (1935) **
Early work from Hawks has some pep and great production design plus a strong turn from Edward G Robinson but it got on my nerves. Mostly I guess because I don't like Miriam Hopkins, who I never thought was a very good actress - with those funny lips and exaggerated acting. She plays a woman who turns up in Gold Rush San Francisco to find her fiancee has been killed so she goes to work at a saloon run by Robinson.
The movie is almost half over before she runs into poet slash gold miner Joel McCrea who speaks in flourishing rambling monologues more typical of writer Ben Hecht than someone McCrea should be playing. He's later so shocked to find Hopkins works in a (gasp) saloon (that hussey!) they he gets drunk and gambles away all his money. He's meant to be the hero and Hopkins can't help falling for him. What happened to Hawks' admiration for spirited, independent women?
Robinson runs San Fran with an iron fist so some locals get together and start stringing up his henchmen (well played by Brian Donlevy)... these are also meant to be the heroes too because they are not punished. Hopkins sobs some more, Robinson gets jealous then has an unconvincing change of heart...
This simply isn't that good.
David Niven has a very small role but I blinked and missed him.
Movie review - "The Native Born" (1913) by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan
The third in Bailey/Duggan's unofficial "squatter's daughter trilogy" where the material from a successful first play were rather ruthlessly rehashed: a handsome lead actor, a comic co-lead (written as a lead for Bailey), comic relief law enforcement, dastardly villains and his even more villainous off sider, a squatter's daughter heroine who is feisty and brave but actually doesn't do much action, a comic spinster, a piece of paper, rescues. This has the benefit of being set in Mount Kosciusko in the alpine region which is different.
There are some first rate comedy scenes, no doubt indicating the success of On Our Selection. The partnership of Duggan and Bailey soon wound up but they had an impact on Australian theatre like few others.
There are some first rate comedy scenes, no doubt indicating the success of On Our Selection. The partnership of Duggan and Bailey soon wound up but they had an impact on Australian theatre like few others.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Movie review - "Last of the Mohicians" (1936) ***1/2
In making his own version of the famous novel, Michael Mann paid tribute to Philip Dunne's adaptation for this one, saying he really knocked the book into shape. He did too, focusing the drama on the clash between Hawkeye and the Heyward, making the action flow logically, and creating believable romance.
I noted Mann made some changes - for instance, here the movie ends with Hawkeye and Heyward going to rescue Cora (both determined to die for her) and not the fight between Magua and Chingachook, and also here Heyward is allowed to live (so too is the colonel); this movie is a bit more sympathetic to that character and the British although the American-British tension is still shown. It also puts more emphasis on the Alice-Uncas romance.
It's a very exciting movie - I didn't expect to keep watching but I did. Randolph Scott is fine as Hawkeye (there's not much you can do about those fur caps), Binnie Barnes is bland as Cora but Herbert Wilcoxon is ideal as the stuffy Heyward, Robert Barrett and Heather Angel are likeable interracial lovers (as if they're going to be allowed to live) and Bruce Cabot a wonderful villain. Not particularly well directed - imagine if John Ford had been able to have a go - but great fun.
I noted Mann made some changes - for instance, here the movie ends with Hawkeye and Heyward going to rescue Cora (both determined to die for her) and not the fight between Magua and Chingachook, and also here Heyward is allowed to live (so too is the colonel); this movie is a bit more sympathetic to that character and the British although the American-British tension is still shown. It also puts more emphasis on the Alice-Uncas romance.
It's a very exciting movie - I didn't expect to keep watching but I did. Randolph Scott is fine as Hawkeye (there's not much you can do about those fur caps), Binnie Barnes is bland as Cora but Herbert Wilcoxon is ideal as the stuffy Heyward, Robert Barrett and Heather Angel are likeable interracial lovers (as if they're going to be allowed to live) and Bruce Cabot a wonderful villain. Not particularly well directed - imagine if John Ford had been able to have a go - but great fun.
Book review - "Flashman and the Great Game" (1975) by George MacDonald Fraser
Fraser was at his peak around this time, consistently turning out Flashmans of high quality. This is perhaps the best of them all - I thought it would make the best movie because it tells the one story, whereas the others are often broken into two halves. It is also the most emotionally devastating of the series - an odd description for a Flashman novel I know but it suits. Usually in Flashman stories you can be a bit removed from the impact of what happens, as Flashman is, but in this one people that Flashman knows, likes and even loves go through turmoil and are killed, sometimes horribly: the Rani of Jhansi, Skene the political officer, Ibrahim Khan his former blood brother (who grows up to become the same surly Pathan fighter who consistently pops up in Flashman books), Scud East, the horny Mrs Leslie. You feel their deaths - it really packs a wallop.
Inevitably this slants towards the British side of the mutiny although the Indian side is depicted sympathetically - the buffoonish thoughtlessness of the English missionaries, the incompetence of (some) of the army and politicians, the cruelty of British reprisals; against that are the horror of the massacres at Meerut and Cawnpore, the struggle at Lucknow, the viciousness of the Russian agents.
This contains some of Fraser's best writing: some brilliant one liners (e.g. Flashman looking down our noses at them like proper Britons should do with rebellious natives who've got the drop on them, "I shan't be writing to mother about this"), excellent descriptions of action, great comic set pieces (like Kavanagh running out from Cawnpore), first rate sketches of historical figures (Queen Victoria, Palmerston, Cardigan, Campbell, Havelock), moving sections (the death of Scud East and the Rhani), memorable fictional creatures (e.g. the civilian colonel), and the brilliant finale with Flashman strapped to a gun by Brits who think he's a mutineer. There's even a very witty coda with the revelation that Tom Brown's School Days has been published. He does use the "n" word an awful lot.
As a side note, I don't think Flashman was ever braver than he is in this novel. He says he's a coward all the way but he goes on all the missions he's sent on, and never shirks his duty even in Cawnpore. He probably had no other option but there's no "pure Flashman" moments like throwing women out of sleds or anything like that. I've read it about five times and still enjoy it.
Inevitably this slants towards the British side of the mutiny although the Indian side is depicted sympathetically - the buffoonish thoughtlessness of the English missionaries, the incompetence of (some) of the army and politicians, the cruelty of British reprisals; against that are the horror of the massacres at Meerut and Cawnpore, the struggle at Lucknow, the viciousness of the Russian agents.
This contains some of Fraser's best writing: some brilliant one liners (e.g. Flashman looking down our noses at them like proper Britons should do with rebellious natives who've got the drop on them, "I shan't be writing to mother about this"), excellent descriptions of action, great comic set pieces (like Kavanagh running out from Cawnpore), first rate sketches of historical figures (Queen Victoria, Palmerston, Cardigan, Campbell, Havelock), moving sections (the death of Scud East and the Rhani), memorable fictional creatures (e.g. the civilian colonel), and the brilliant finale with Flashman strapped to a gun by Brits who think he's a mutineer. There's even a very witty coda with the revelation that Tom Brown's School Days has been published. He does use the "n" word an awful lot.
As a side note, I don't think Flashman was ever braver than he is in this novel. He says he's a coward all the way but he goes on all the missions he's sent on, and never shirks his duty even in Cawnpore. He probably had no other option but there's no "pure Flashman" moments like throwing women out of sleds or anything like that. I've read it about five times and still enjoy it.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Movie review - "Frog Dreaming" (1985) **
If Brian Trenchard Smith had had better luck with the scripts he filmed he might have had a career more like Simon Wincer's - not that he's had a bad career, it's just his filmography lacks something like a Phar Lap or Free Willy, which he was perfectly capable of making. This kids film is full of energy, charm, verve and pace, and for a while you forget the basic story isn't that great. But it isn't that great and ultimately this isn't that good.
He's not helped either by Henry Thomas' rather flat performance in the lead. He seems monumentally uninterested in what's going on, at times even bored; compare his work with that of Rachel Friend, who is obviously less experienced and can go over the top, but you can see the emotion all over her face. They have a cute tween urst relationship (it's actually kind of a menage a trois, with Friend's little sister Tamsin West also involved) which helps Thomas; so too does the fact Thomas plays several scenes with Tony Barry, who is very good as Thomas' guardian. (It's a shame Barry never got to play a super dad for a long stint on a TV show he is the perfect laconic Aussie dad. Even if he is a Kiwi.)
The plot as Thomas investigate mysterious goings on at a water hole. But there are no real stakes - unlike BMX Bandits where the stakes were high (wanting to raise money for a BMX track, stopping a robbery, baddies who wants a robbery to go ahead, the MacGuffin of the walkie talkies), this has none. The only thing driving Thomas is curiosity, there's no real reason to uncover the mystery, there are no real baddies except Friends understandably protective dad (why not throw in some thieves or something?), and Thomas is passive at the climax.
It's a real shame because the direction is brisk, the support cast great and the scenery wonderful. Aboriginal lore is rich fodder for for a kids film - it would be worth revisiting.
He's not helped either by Henry Thomas' rather flat performance in the lead. He seems monumentally uninterested in what's going on, at times even bored; compare his work with that of Rachel Friend, who is obviously less experienced and can go over the top, but you can see the emotion all over her face. They have a cute tween urst relationship (it's actually kind of a menage a trois, with Friend's little sister Tamsin West also involved) which helps Thomas; so too does the fact Thomas plays several scenes with Tony Barry, who is very good as Thomas' guardian. (It's a shame Barry never got to play a super dad for a long stint on a TV show he is the perfect laconic Aussie dad. Even if he is a Kiwi.)
The plot as Thomas investigate mysterious goings on at a water hole. But there are no real stakes - unlike BMX Bandits where the stakes were high (wanting to raise money for a BMX track, stopping a robbery, baddies who wants a robbery to go ahead, the MacGuffin of the walkie talkies), this has none. The only thing driving Thomas is curiosity, there's no real reason to uncover the mystery, there are no real baddies except Friends understandably protective dad (why not throw in some thieves or something?), and Thomas is passive at the climax.
It's a real shame because the direction is brisk, the support cast great and the scenery wonderful. Aboriginal lore is rich fodder for for a kids film - it would be worth revisiting.
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