John Derek Top Ten

 I'll stick to his work as an actor. Here we go:

1. The Flesh is Weak - Derek effectively cast against type as a pimp in a decent British thriller

2. The Adventures of Haji Baba - fun Eastern with bright colour and action

3. The Outcast - tough William Whitney Western with Derek as a more rugged hero than usual, full of action

4. The Last Posse - surprisingly downbeat, gripping Western with Derek and Brod Crawford

5. Saturday's Hero - Derek quite effective as a champion colleage athlete in a film that takes risks and is consistently interesting

6. The Ten Commandments - big glossy blockbuster but smart, Derek as Joshua

7. All the King's Men - Derek is effective in a small role as Crawford's weak son

8. Knock on any Door - decent film though a better actor than Derek (like say Tony Curtis) would've made this sing

9 Once Before I Die - Derek starred and directed with Ursula Andress, an interesting movie

10. Prince of Pirates - another fun swashbuckler

Play review - "Lazy in the Sun" by Max Afford

 More serious Afford work (he was better known for mysteries) - an English woman arrives in post war Australia and has Thoughts on how spoilt and rich we were (to be fair she was tortured by the Gestaspo - she really should have been Italian, I don't think it happened that much to the Brits). She is shown otherwise by an Aussie who is blinded. Polemical but interesting in its discussion of where Australia sits in the world.

Movie review - "The Fury" (1978) *** (warning: spoilers)

 I didn't know much about this De Pala film apart from the fact that someone exploded at the end. It's quite a fun thriller giving Kirk Douglas a good late-career virile man performance as a CIA agent looking for his son Andrew Stevens. Stevens has telekenesis and has wound up at school for the gifted - I think this was after Xavier's school in X Men. It's run by Charles Durning but people behind the scenes are creepy John Cassavetes and Fiona Lewis, both excellent.

It's a very well acted movie - there's also Dennis Franz and M Emmett Walsh with hair, Carrie Snogress as Douglas' girlfriend, and Amy Irving heading the other key plot, a girl who has psychic powers.

Beautiful John Williams score, and unexpected finale with Stevens plunging to his death and a distraught Douglas then killing himself. There are riffs to Carrie - Irving, a teen who has psychic powers - and some unexpected comedy when Arabs are killed via Stevens at a fun fair.

Robert Shaw Top Ten

 1) From Russia with Love - still an all time great Bond equal, love the lower class resentment

2) Jaws - still an all time great crusty sea captain who is an expert that gets eaten

3) The Sting - required to be an idiot but very imposing and scary

4) The Caretaker - high class shabbiness doing Pinter

5) Robin and Marian - splendid performance in a very well acted film

6) Sea Fury - makes a mark as a scowly sailor - up against the scowly king Stanley Baker

7) The Birthday Party - more Pinter, also excellent

8) Black Sunday - a kick ass Israeli secret service agent - a mysteriously non popular movie

9) Man for All Seasons - just for something different

10) Young Winston - the best part, yes, but he's also very good

Actors Who Gave Career High Performances in Hitchcock Films

 1. Barry Foster in Frenzy

2. Tippi Hedren in Marnie

3. Janet Leigh and Tony Perkins in Psycho

4. Cary Grant in North by Northwest (proviso: Grant's best performance as "Cary Grant")

5. James Stewart and Kim Novak in Vertigo

6. Grace Kelly in all her Hitchcock films (better than The Country Girl)

7. Robert Walker in Strangers on a Train

8. Farley Granger in Rope

9. Ingrid Bergman in Notorious

10. Joseph Cotten in Shadow of a Doubt

11. Joan Fontaine and Judith Anderson in Rebecca

12. Dame May Whitty in The Lady Vanishes

13. Robert Donat in The 39 Steps (his best "film star" performance)

14. Ivor Novello in The Lodger

15. Tallulah Bankhead in Lifeboat

Book review - "George Brent - Ireland's Gift to Hollywood and Its Leading Ladies" by Scott O'Brien

 A book about George Brent? Well, why not? Brent is famous for not being famous, not really, but he had an amazing career. At least twenty years as a leading man, which is not bad for someone who was never a top star, though he had his chances. He was good looking, could act, was a man,.. all those things helped. His ace in the hole was though he was an ideal leading man for the ladies - and that was needed in the 30s and 40s.  Brent would've struggled in the 60s and 70s.

It's harder to be a good leading man than it looks - you have to support, not over shadow, but also hold your own (Robert Cummings could do it - like Brent he struggled as a solo star).

O'Brien does a worthy job on Brent, who to be honest isn't that interesting. He did some interesting things - worked as a messenger boy for the IRA during the Civil War (he's Irish), slept with a lot of famous women (Ann Sheridan, Ruth Chatterton, Bette Davis, Greta Garbo, Kay Francis), flew planes - but wasnt that interesting a person. A loner, moody, a whinger. He was lucky. It wasn't easy to break in as ana actor but easier than for most - he got a long run relatively early in Abbey's Irish Rose on stage, and then when sound films came in after some more door knocking got long term contracts. His big break was Ruth Chatterton catching a glimpse and wanting to grab some of that... so he was cast as her leading man, and carved out that niche.

Brent was a better actor than I recall and had the knack of appearing in a decent film every few years - Dark Victory, The Keyhole, Rains Came, Spiral Staircase. Even his Hammer flick with Diana Dors, The Last Page is worth a look.

Brent had amibitions to do other things - ran his owns stock company, bred horses (did well at this), invested in Hawaii. Aussie readers will find particularly interesting his marriage to Constance Worth aka Jocelyn Howarth star of Squatter's Daughter. That didn't end well nor did most of his marriages but he got it right towards the end. Fascinating weird relationship with Jane Powell (she had a crush on him, later he proposed to her). I love that Brent had a nose job.

I'll admit I didn't really like Brent that much as an actor and not as a person but it was great O'Brien wrote this book.

Movie review - "Weekend at the Waldorf" (1945) **

 MGM remake Grand Hotel just for the hell of it using a lesser number of stars - Ginger Rogers, Walter Pigeon, Lana Turner, Van Johnson, Edward Arnold.

Pidgeon isn't convincing as a tired war corresponent, the Clark Gable-ish part. Edward Arnold is more at home as a dodgy businessman. Ginger Rogers isn't convincing as a movie star though Van Johnson suits the aw gee dying GI.

Thinking about it the film casts its stars wrong. Turner should've been the movie star - she was younger than Rogers but she would've suited playing a lonely movie star; Rogers was a star of course but her persona is too perky. She would've been fine playing a poor girl who works as a secretary and is lured into becoming Arnold's mistress. (This story line would've been better incidentally if Ames had played Arnold's part, someone slimmer and more attractive). Johnson would've better better as the journo and Walter Pidgeon better as the ill soldier. THey would've had to adjust for the character's ages.

As it is it's annoying. I didn't enjoy the fake romance of Pidgeon and Rogers, it was a drag, or the romance between Johnson and Turner. Like many MGM films there's a subplot about someone giving up wealth for Americana - Turner faced with being a Park Avenue mistress versus Johnson's outdoor cookin' hometown. Actually the Rogers-Pidgeon romance is about that too - give up your freedom for marriage.

I'll admit - if you are a massive Pidgeon and Rogers fan you'll enjoy this more than I did. I found Pidgeon charmless, and Rogers trying too hard. Turner was trying her best but she's no fun.

People pop up in support like Leon Ames, Xavier Cugat and Robert Benchley. This was MGM at its peak I guess... in a few years it would lose money, panic, appoint Dore Schary, and it would unravel. I didn't really like this movie that much though. Songs and colour would have helped.

There is some fun reflecting on the rumours about Johnson and Pidgeon and wondering if they went cruising, while Turner shagged whoever and Rogers espoused anti Communism. Keenan Wynn, who gave up his wife to Johnson to avoid scandal, is in it.