Movie-Viewing Experiences 1/5/18 - 11/5/18
A+ = Adored Masterwork A = Excellent A- = Very Good B+ = Good B = Nice Try B- = Tolerable
C = Significantly Flawed D = Pretty Bad E = Truly Dreadful: Looking Into the Void F = Vile & Repugnant: The Void
BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON aka HAUNTED HONEYMOON (1940)
A- FIRST VIEWING
d: Arthur B. Woods
CAST: Robert Montgomery; Constance Cummings; Leslie Banks; Seymour Hicks; Robert Newton
> this is a largely-forgotten ancestor of British TV shows such as Midsomer Murders and Rosemary & Thyme...a killing takes place in the quaint English countryside, with an array of suspects (each with a reasonable reason for knocking off the he-was-asking-for-it victim) and a couple of sleuths who treat it all as a bit of a lark; Robert and Constance are newlyweds who move to a newlybought cottage where a newlybludgeoned body is found...Bob is Lord Peter Wimsey (gentleman detective) and Connie is a mystery writer; while the lightweight comedy is a given with this kind of thing, the dialogue is a notch or two above the usual rapidfire wittiness and the two leads have a natural rapport; throw in an amusingly stuffy butler and a typically surly gardener and you have a jolly homicide that out-entertains Father Brown
MYSTERY OF MR X (1934)
A- FIRST VIEWING
d: Edgar Selwyn
CAST: Robert Montgomery; Elizabeth Allan; Lewis Stone; Henry Stephenson
> a tricky serial killer / manhunt movie which is quite an achievement for 1934; the plot has many steps: murderer dubbed Mr X goes out killing police with a rapier + Robert is a nice guy jewel thief who stumbles across a stabbed victim + Scotland Yard thinks the robber & killer are one and the same + Robert must unload the jewel therefore needs to prove that this assumption is false + is tailed by a suspicious Superintendent + falls for the Police Commissioner's daughter + and realises he must find the maniac himself; pre-code violence (the very first murder is via impalement from underneath...bet that made his eyes water) adds grit and the capture is hard-won & exciting; Robert adds suavity in a Raffles kinda way and the support cast supplies humour, pressure and red herrings; predates Manhunter by 52 years
BEING FLYNN (2012)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: Paul Weitz
CAST: Paul Dano; Robert De Niro; Julianne Moore; Olivia Thirlby; Lili Taylor
> have you ever walked past a homeless man and thought "poor bugger, what brought him to this?"...no, I still don't drop any change into the upturned cap; this affecting story (which takes a while to slip into place) is about Paul, a young guy who has literary talent but is aimless instead, and his job at a homeless shelter...where he comes across his long-lost father...pain / rage / addiction / violence / mental illness all chase each other's tails; while the accolades were handed to Robert (who is mighty fine), it is Paul who impresses in a role that could have so easily become a turmoil-fest for a show-off...you'll believe and admire his self-rescue
Award-Worthy Performance
Paul Dano
THE FOURTH WISH (1976)
B+ SECOND VIEWING
d: Don Chaffey
CAST: John Meillon; Robert Bettles; Robyn Nevin; Anne Haddy; Michael Craig
> originally a 3-part TV mini-series, this father/son heartbreaker is a South Australian classic...that most locals have never seen; a single Dad (a wonderful depiction by John of an Aussie battler...a decent guy who uncomplainingly works hard to barely make ends meet) is told that his 10 year old son has leukemia and time is limited...so John gives and grants his boy three wishes...a dog / meet his absent mother / meet the Queen; loaded with Adelaide icons (old Glenelg tram + The Gorge Road + Johnnie's Christmas Pageant + Popeye & paddleboats + Lionel Jeffries), this manages to choke you up whilst still leaving you some dignity
Award-Worthy Performance
John Meillon
FIRST MEN IN THE MOON (1964)
B+ SECOND VIEWING
d: Nathan Juran
CAST: Lionel Jeffries; Edward Judd; Martha Hyer
> in the tradition of 1959's Journey to the Centre of the Earth and 1960's The Time Machine comes this nifty H.G. Wells adaptation; it must be obligatory for 19th Century sci-fi to have certain design features (plush colours & well-padded furniture & terribly polite Englishmen & pesky women); Lionel the inventor convinces his neighbour Edward to accompany him on a voyage to the moon (made possible by some homemade anti-gravity paint)...Martha comes along so they have a female to rescue; a beautiful-looking film with the SFX courtesy of supremo Ray Harryhausen (in this case, insectoid moon creatures); Lionel hams up his irrepressible eccentric and the other two could have been played by shop dummies, but characters aren't the point of movies like this...it's clever adventure...and, as the title says, this goes in, not just merely on
PORTRAIT OF JENNIE (1948)
B FIRST VIEWING
d: William Dieterle
CAST: Joseph Cotten; Jennifer Jones; Ethel Barrymore; Cecil Kellaway; David Wayne
> a much-beloved romantic fantasy, my scoffing cynicism rose up in the first minute: the intro quotes Euripides and Keats, and a voiceover announces "The truth of this story lies not on our screen, but in your heart." Hmm; Joseph the struggling artist falls in love with the spirit of a dead girl, who he keeps meeting as she grows up in record time...finally, in a grand tidal wave of doom, the real world resumes its dominance; well-acted by Joseph, along with a particularly strong supporting cast, producer David Selznick spared nothing to showcase his star (and main squeeze) ...unfortunately, Jennifer seems to be pining for a comedy role, but gives it her warm-toned best; you need to dive wholeheartedly into classy mush like this if you're going to enjoy it...me, I'll watch 1945's The Enchanted Cottage instead and not judge you
KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE (1950)
B FIRST VIEWING
d: Gordon Douglas
CAST: James Cagney; Barbara Payton; Luther Adler; Ward Bond; Helena Carter
> Jimmy in gangster mode, so obviously the two referenced precursors are White Heat and The Public Enemy...this doesn't live up to either, of course; Jimmy breaks out of prison, shoots his partner, shacks up with his dead partner's sister, brains someone during a robbery, blackmails a police inspector, pistol-whips a stoolie, two-times his girlfriend, marries a rich girl, deposits three bodies in a quarry, rips off a crime boss, gets his comeuppance...obligatory pant; the script isn't all it should be, and while Jimmy remains one-of-a-kind, his supporting cast doesn't make any kind of impression at all (they sort of stand around in awe); every character is crooked or rotten in some way, so the cynicism (check the title) becomes quite suffocating after a while...no fresh air, so no contrast; still, it's Cagney being violent & cocky, and that's always a pleasure
THE YOUNG STRANGER (1957)
B- FIRST VIEWING
d: John Frankenheimer
CAST: James MacArthur; James Daly; Kim Hunter; James Gregory; Whit Bissell
> this is another shot at the Rebel Without a Cause root-dynamic: angry son vs clueless father; James M punches a cinema manager in self-defence...he is arrested and charged, but maintains his version of the events...dear old dad doesn't believe him, which only fuels the kid's angst of course...what is truth? what is right?; Director John's first foray into feature films (his short-lived stunning 60's brilliance is gearing up) and he correctly keeps it all small-scale, and only of monumentality to the family concerned...no one else cares; young James M was always more a voice (which, in this performance, is curiously high-pitched... hadn't his balls dropped yet?) than a body actor (he's quite static, even in the fight scenes), but he is effective as the crazy mixed-up kid; the film is significantly weakened by a sloppy and lazily-written final scene
THE DARJEELING LIMITED (2007)
B- SECOND VIEWING RE-EVALUATION Original Grade: B
d: Wes Anderson
CAST: Owen Wilson; Adrien Brody; Jason Schwartzman; Amara Karan; Anjelica Huston
> like many cinephiles, I am a member of the Wes Anderson Fan Club and believe the man can do no wrong...after a second viewing, I am convinced that this film is the closest he came to doing so; three brothers go to India on a spiritual quest (what else?) and discover that the Meaning of Life is family; my main reservation is the character of the brothers: all 3 actors underplay, with the personas not dissimilar enough to create the required conflict, therefore interest and growth...in short, they are dull; lacking a central charismatic / quirky performance (like Bill in The Life Aquatic and Ralph in Grand Budapest Hotel), we are left with the script which, in this case, lacks snap; it meanders without going anywhere much and there are inserts (man-eating tiger, poisonous snake) which are purposeless; disappointingly uncaptivating
I'LL NEVER FORGET WHAT'S 'ISNAME (1967)
C FIRST VIEWING
d: Michael Winner
CAST: Oliver Reed; Carol White; Orson Welles; Wendy Craig; Harry Andrews
> this is one of those hip Sixties films (y'know...set in Swinging London + casual about sex but actually obsessed with it + symbolic Arty motifs + deep & meaningful dialogue spoken in clipped phrases + Marianne Faithfull being nude); Oliver is the brilliant ad exec who quits his job to find a more fulfilling existence...but Modern Life won't allow him to escape that easily; about three quarters in, the film suddenly turns very dark (violent death) which improves it no end, but it's a little too late to prevent audience impatience...only 97 minutes long, it imprudently re-takes its time making the same points; while Moon-sized Orson does his sarcastic watcher routine and Oliver suppresses his buffoonish tendencies, it's Carol (who had a tragic life) who makes an emotional impression; still, this film remains more character therapy than decent story
KID BLUE (1973)
C FIRST VIEWING
d: James Frawley
CAST: Dennis Hopper; Warren Oates; Ben Johnson; Peter Boyle; Lee Purcell; Janice Rule
> a peculiar Western which doesn't seem to entirely know if it means to be a comedy, a social message film or a dying-days-of-the-Wild-West valentine; Dennis is a good-natured train robber who quits his criminal ways and wanders into town to make an honest living...but most everybody there is either a nasty bastard or a hypocritical shyster...so he questions his decision; strongly anti-establishment and anti-commercialism, this is in some ways a groovy Sixties throwback and awkward with it, possibly trying to say something but can't manage to get it out; the support cast does a uniformly good job (hosannas to Ben & Warren) but Dennis just doles out his usual twitchy, quirk-for-quirk's-sake performance, a misfit no matter what he plays; the finale is farcical, flirts with poignancy, chickens out and reverts to farce
UNDERCURRENT (1946)
D FIRST VIEWING
d: Vincente Minnelli
CAST: Katharine Hepburn; Robert Taylor; Robert Mitchum; Edmund Gwenn
> described as a noir thriller, this has more in common with gothic mysteries such as Gaslight, Rebecca and even Jane Eyre (paranoia & insanity & secrets & murder); fairly dire in most aspects, this only manages to keep its head above water courtesy of the classy MGM production values; Kate marries rich Robert T and soon finds out that he has a family scandal...a vanished bad brother who just drives him crazy...but who is really the bad one?; this features a true rarity: a poor Kate performance...she flails about in a Joan Fontaine milksop role, aiming for terrified but only reaching jittery; Robert T is required to be menacing which is clearly beyond him and Robert M is soft and sensitive in a tiny agent-sacking role...these two should've switched parts; finished off with a coda where the actors appear to be embarrassed
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GO RIGHT AHEAD: masted59@gmail.com
BUSMAN'S HONEYMOON aka HAUNTED HONEYMOON (1940)
d: Arthur B. Woods
CAST: Robert Montgomery; Constance Cummings; Leslie Banks; Seymour Hicks; Robert Newton
> this is a largely-forgotten ancestor of British TV shows such as Midsomer Murders and Rosemary & Thyme...a killing takes place in the quaint English countryside, with an array of suspects (each with a reasonable reason for knocking off the he-was-asking-for-it victim) and a couple of sleuths who treat it all as a bit of a lark; Robert and Constance are newlyweds who move to a newlybought cottage where a newlybludgeoned body is found...Bob is Lord Peter Wimsey (gentleman detective) and Connie is a mystery writer; while the lightweight comedy is a given with this kind of thing, the dialogue is a notch or two above the usual rapidfire wittiness and the two leads have a natural rapport; throw in an amusingly stuffy butler and a typically surly gardener and you have a jolly homicide that out-entertains Father Brown
MYSTERY OF MR X (1934)
d: Edgar Selwyn
CAST: Robert Montgomery; Elizabeth Allan; Lewis Stone; Henry Stephenson
> a tricky serial killer / manhunt movie which is quite an achievement for 1934; the plot has many steps: murderer dubbed Mr X goes out killing police with a rapier + Robert is a nice guy jewel thief who stumbles across a stabbed victim + Scotland Yard thinks the robber & killer are one and the same + Robert must unload the jewel therefore needs to prove that this assumption is false + is tailed by a suspicious Superintendent + falls for the Police Commissioner's daughter + and realises he must find the maniac himself; pre-code violence (the very first murder is via impalement from underneath...bet that made his eyes water) adds grit and the capture is hard-won & exciting; Robert adds suavity in a Raffles kinda way and the support cast supplies humour, pressure and red herrings; predates Manhunter by 52 years
BEING FLYNN (2012)
d: Paul Weitz
CAST: Paul Dano; Robert De Niro; Julianne Moore; Olivia Thirlby; Lili Taylor
> have you ever walked past a homeless man and thought "poor bugger, what brought him to this?"...no, I still don't drop any change into the upturned cap; this affecting story (which takes a while to slip into place) is about Paul, a young guy who has literary talent but is aimless instead, and his job at a homeless shelter...where he comes across his long-lost father...pain / rage / addiction / violence / mental illness all chase each other's tails; while the accolades were handed to Robert (who is mighty fine), it is Paul who impresses in a role that could have so easily become a turmoil-fest for a show-off...you'll believe and admire his self-rescue
Award-Worthy Performance
Paul Dano
THE FOURTH WISH (1976)
d: Don Chaffey
CAST: John Meillon; Robert Bettles; Robyn Nevin; Anne Haddy; Michael Craig
> originally a 3-part TV mini-series, this father/son heartbreaker is a South Australian classic...that most locals have never seen; a single Dad (a wonderful depiction by John of an Aussie battler...a decent guy who uncomplainingly works hard to barely make ends meet) is told that his 10 year old son has leukemia and time is limited...so John gives and grants his boy three wishes...a dog / meet his absent mother / meet the Queen; loaded with Adelaide icons (old Glenelg tram + The Gorge Road + Johnnie's Christmas Pageant + Popeye & paddleboats + Lionel Jeffries), this manages to choke you up whilst still leaving you some dignity
Award-Worthy Performance
John Meillon
FIRST MEN IN THE MOON (1964)
d: Nathan Juran
CAST: Lionel Jeffries; Edward Judd; Martha Hyer
> in the tradition of 1959's Journey to the Centre of the Earth and 1960's The Time Machine comes this nifty H.G. Wells adaptation; it must be obligatory for 19th Century sci-fi to have certain design features (plush colours & well-padded furniture & terribly polite Englishmen & pesky women); Lionel the inventor convinces his neighbour Edward to accompany him on a voyage to the moon (made possible by some homemade anti-gravity paint)...Martha comes along so they have a female to rescue; a beautiful-looking film with the SFX courtesy of supremo Ray Harryhausen (in this case, insectoid moon creatures); Lionel hams up his irrepressible eccentric and the other two could have been played by shop dummies, but characters aren't the point of movies like this...it's clever adventure...and, as the title says, this goes in, not just merely on
PORTRAIT OF JENNIE (1948)
d: William Dieterle
CAST: Joseph Cotten; Jennifer Jones; Ethel Barrymore; Cecil Kellaway; David Wayne
> a much-beloved romantic fantasy, my scoffing cynicism rose up in the first minute: the intro quotes Euripides and Keats, and a voiceover announces "The truth of this story lies not on our screen, but in your heart." Hmm; Joseph the struggling artist falls in love with the spirit of a dead girl, who he keeps meeting as she grows up in record time...finally, in a grand tidal wave of doom, the real world resumes its dominance; well-acted by Joseph, along with a particularly strong supporting cast, producer David Selznick spared nothing to showcase his star (and main squeeze) ...unfortunately, Jennifer seems to be pining for a comedy role, but gives it her warm-toned best; you need to dive wholeheartedly into classy mush like this if you're going to enjoy it...me, I'll watch 1945's The Enchanted Cottage instead and not judge you
KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE (1950)
d: Gordon Douglas
CAST: James Cagney; Barbara Payton; Luther Adler; Ward Bond; Helena Carter
> Jimmy in gangster mode, so obviously the two referenced precursors are White Heat and The Public Enemy...this doesn't live up to either, of course; Jimmy breaks out of prison, shoots his partner, shacks up with his dead partner's sister, brains someone during a robbery, blackmails a police inspector, pistol-whips a stoolie, two-times his girlfriend, marries a rich girl, deposits three bodies in a quarry, rips off a crime boss, gets his comeuppance...obligatory pant; the script isn't all it should be, and while Jimmy remains one-of-a-kind, his supporting cast doesn't make any kind of impression at all (they sort of stand around in awe); every character is crooked or rotten in some way, so the cynicism (check the title) becomes quite suffocating after a while...no fresh air, so no contrast; still, it's Cagney being violent & cocky, and that's always a pleasure
THE YOUNG STRANGER (1957)
d: John Frankenheimer
CAST: James MacArthur; James Daly; Kim Hunter; James Gregory; Whit Bissell
> this is another shot at the Rebel Without a Cause root-dynamic: angry son vs clueless father; James M punches a cinema manager in self-defence...he is arrested and charged, but maintains his version of the events...dear old dad doesn't believe him, which only fuels the kid's angst of course...what is truth? what is right?; Director John's first foray into feature films (his short-lived stunning 60's brilliance is gearing up) and he correctly keeps it all small-scale, and only of monumentality to the family concerned...no one else cares; young James M was always more a voice (which, in this performance, is curiously high-pitched... hadn't his balls dropped yet?) than a body actor (he's quite static, even in the fight scenes), but he is effective as the crazy mixed-up kid; the film is significantly weakened by a sloppy and lazily-written final scene
THE DARJEELING LIMITED (2007)
d: Wes Anderson
CAST: Owen Wilson; Adrien Brody; Jason Schwartzman; Amara Karan; Anjelica Huston
> like many cinephiles, I am a member of the Wes Anderson Fan Club and believe the man can do no wrong...after a second viewing, I am convinced that this film is the closest he came to doing so; three brothers go to India on a spiritual quest (what else?) and discover that the Meaning of Life is family; my main reservation is the character of the brothers: all 3 actors underplay, with the personas not dissimilar enough to create the required conflict, therefore interest and growth...in short, they are dull; lacking a central charismatic / quirky performance (like Bill in The Life Aquatic and Ralph in Grand Budapest Hotel), we are left with the script which, in this case, lacks snap; it meanders without going anywhere much and there are inserts (man-eating tiger, poisonous snake) which are purposeless; disappointingly uncaptivating
I'LL NEVER FORGET WHAT'S 'ISNAME (1967)
d: Michael Winner
CAST: Oliver Reed; Carol White; Orson Welles; Wendy Craig; Harry Andrews
> this is one of those hip Sixties films (y'know...set in Swinging London + casual about sex but actually obsessed with it + symbolic Arty motifs + deep & meaningful dialogue spoken in clipped phrases + Marianne Faithfull being nude); Oliver is the brilliant ad exec who quits his job to find a more fulfilling existence...but Modern Life won't allow him to escape that easily; about three quarters in, the film suddenly turns very dark (violent death) which improves it no end, but it's a little too late to prevent audience impatience...only 97 minutes long, it imprudently re-takes its time making the same points; while Moon-sized Orson does his sarcastic watcher routine and Oliver suppresses his buffoonish tendencies, it's Carol (who had a tragic life) who makes an emotional impression; still, this film remains more character therapy than decent story
KID BLUE (1973)
d: James Frawley
CAST: Dennis Hopper; Warren Oates; Ben Johnson; Peter Boyle; Lee Purcell; Janice Rule
> a peculiar Western which doesn't seem to entirely know if it means to be a comedy, a social message film or a dying-days-of-the-Wild-West valentine; Dennis is a good-natured train robber who quits his criminal ways and wanders into town to make an honest living...but most everybody there is either a nasty bastard or a hypocritical shyster...so he questions his decision; strongly anti-establishment and anti-commercialism, this is in some ways a groovy Sixties throwback and awkward with it, possibly trying to say something but can't manage to get it out; the support cast does a uniformly good job (hosannas to Ben & Warren) but Dennis just doles out his usual twitchy, quirk-for-quirk's-sake performance, a misfit no matter what he plays; the finale is farcical, flirts with poignancy, chickens out and reverts to farce
UNDERCURRENT (1946)
d: Vincente Minnelli
CAST: Katharine Hepburn; Robert Taylor; Robert Mitchum; Edmund Gwenn
> described as a noir thriller, this has more in common with gothic mysteries such as Gaslight, Rebecca and even Jane Eyre (paranoia & insanity & secrets & murder); fairly dire in most aspects, this only manages to keep its head above water courtesy of the classy MGM production values; Kate marries rich Robert T and soon finds out that he has a family scandal...a vanished bad brother who just drives him crazy...but who is really the bad one?; this features a true rarity: a poor Kate performance...she flails about in a Joan Fontaine milksop role, aiming for terrified but only reaching jittery; Robert T is required to be menacing which is clearly beyond him and Robert M is soft and sensitive in a tiny agent-sacking role...these two should've switched parts; finished off with a coda where the actors appear to be embarrassed
Go something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD: masted59@gmail.com
