Movie-Viewing Experiences 20/7/18 - 3/8/18
A+ = Adored Masterwork A = Excellent A- = Very Good B+ = Good B = Nice Try B- = Passable
C = Significantly Flawed D = Pretty Bad E = Truly Dreadful: Looking Into the Void F = Vile & Repugnant: The Void
FIVE CAME BACK (1939)
A- FIRST VIEWING
d: John Farrow
CAST: Chester Morris; Lucille Ball; Joseph Calleia; C. Aubrey Smith; John Carradine
> this is the great-grandparent of disaster movies Airport, Airport 1975, Airport '77 and The Concorde: Airport '79...and is easily better than all of 'em; twelve people board a plane which crash lands in the Andes...have a guess how many survive?; the cast members were considered strictly B-Grade in their day, but they perform nicely here, unburdened with thin soapie backstories...all personalities can be summed up quickly, allowing the tension to slot into place without any dull talky lapses; smart direction from under-valued John...dimmed-down & cramped-setting camerawork disguises what must have been a miniscule budget, so the jungle is there but we don't see much of it...and it doesn't matter; there's even a message which has impact: Adversity Breeds Community...spot-on timing for 1939; an enthralling overachiever
THE MOUTHPIECE (1932)
A- FIRST VIEWING
d: James Flood; Elliott Nugent
CAST: Warren William; Aline MacMahon; Sidney Fox; J. Carrol Naish; Guy Kibbee
> this classy crime film opens with a shock: Warren the assistant DA successfully prosecutes a killer (via zealous closing-remarks-to-the-jury) and the crim goes to the hot seat...problem is he didn't do it, and the phonecall to stop the execution doesn't get through in time...the lawyer gets the guilts, turns bitter & cynical, and re-emerges as a corrupt defence attorney for gangsters; Warren was nicknamed King of Pre-Code by admiring filmbuffs (he made 24 films between 1931-1934) and his star fell once the Code came in and censorship ruled; in this, his inevitable reformation is more a wallow in self-disgust than the cornball "seeing the light"; with Aline in fine wisecracking form (she was always an asset), this is a marvellous example of how well-crafted and uncompromising Hollywood product used to be...tough & highly entertaining
PENNIES FROM HEAVEN (1981)
A- SECOND VIEWING RE-EVALUATION Original Grade: B+
d: Herbert Ross
CAST: Steve Martin; Bernadette Peters; Jessica Harper; Christopher Walken; Vernel Bagneris
> I remember watching the original 1978 Dennis Potter BBC TV drama...6x1 hour episodes of 1930's music (I was into The Clash and The Vibrators back then) and a storyline of unrelenting bleakness...needless to say, I was unimpressed; this movie version impresses me, although I wonder how much of that is due to me being 40 years older; a tribute to the Great Depression musicals (like Gold Diggers of 1933 etc), this tells the still-unrelentingly-bleak tale of Steve, a most unlikeable guy and Bernadette, a woman whose life he ruins; the song'n'dance numbers are all strikingly staged and the cast lip-sync and tap admirably; a rarity: a musical I like
Award-Worthy Performance
Steve Martin & Bernadette Peters & Jessica Harper & Christopher Walken & Vernel Bagneris
DEATH IN BRUNSWICK (1990)
B+ SECOND VIEWING
d: John Ruane
CAST: Sam Neill; Zoe Carides; John Clarke; Yvonne Lawley
> a comedy hailing from Australia but with a real New Zealand influence (Sam and John C are Kiwis who Australia adopted and considers "theirs"); fullblown loser Sam, a 34 year old boyman, is one of God's playthings, consistently being dropped into the wrong place at the wrong time...he falls in love, disappoints his mother, drinks too much, pisses off some serious people and, oh yeah, accidentally kills someone (and how the body is disposed of is the film's highlight); Aussie humour tends to lean towards the broad while NZ humour is closer to unabashedly un-PC, and this jiggers that combo up, producing something quite amusing if a little on the skittish side; John C stands out by doing nothing more than play himself (God, I miss that man on our TVs RIP); this developed a big rep in Australia because it was so novel
THE HOUSE OF MIRTH (2000)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: Terence Davies
CAST: Gillian Anderson; Eric Stoltz; Anthony LaPaglia; Dan Aykroyd; Laura Linney
> being a Terence Davies film, you know from the outset that this is not going to be a cheer-up...so the title is ironic at best and cynical at worst; 1900 New York and socialite Lily Bart is on the hunt for a rich husband so she can be assured of a luxurious life...the word gets out and men try to take advantage of her diminishing financial situation...but unlike them, Lily has scruples...so, down she falls; a period drama with the standard dictated attire, obsessive etiquette and thesaurus-vocabulary, this is an affecting look at the cruelty of the so-called superior class; the film's tenet is summed up by one line: "My Dear...the world is vile."
Award-Worthy Performance
Gillian Anderson
LIZZIE (1957)
B+ FIRST VIEWING
d: Hugo Haas
CAST: Eleanor Parker; Richard Boone; Joan Blondell; Hugo Haas
> this 3-way-split-personality story was released the same year as (and unjustly overshadowed by) The Three Faces of Eve...but I prefer this; while both films are painfully simplistic about a major mental illness, Lizzie has more compassion for its patient; most impressive aspect of this movie is its grittiness: the "bad girl" persona is the usual slut but here she has murderous tendencies + this has to be one of the first Hollywood movies to deal with the horror of child rape; with Joan blustering as a drunken broad and Richard as Psychiatric-Superman, they both fade before Eleanor's central meaty performance(s)...her very best...and better than Joanne
Award-Worthy Performance
Eleanor Parker
MR & MRS BRIDGE (1990)
B+ SECOND VIEWING
d: James Ivory
CAST: Paul Newman; Joanne Woodward; Blythe Danner; Kyra Sedgwick; Robert Sean Leonard
> essentially another Generation Gap story (Rebel Without a Cause; If....), this differs in that the focus is on the Oldies...they are the generation who claims to be unjustly misunderstood; set in 1936-1942, Paul is the conservative attorney who has a broomhandle for a spine and Joanne is his wife, supremely unhappy but duty-bound to keep up the old ways...their children grow up and become other people...the impact this has on Mum & Dad is the heart of the film; while Paul underplays to the point of snoozing, Joanne blends sadness with dizziness: she's a dingbat who could've been so much more; kudos for being more compassionate than merely soap-operatic
Award-Worthy Performance
Joanne Woodward
A COLD WIND IN AUGUST (1961)
B FIRST VIEWING
d: Alexander Singer
CAST: Lola Albright; Scott Marlowe; Joe DeSantis; Herschel Bernardi
> a highly-regarded little indie film which could have so easily slid into the realm of sleazy exploitation cheapie...which it still is, up to a point; aging stripper Lola flirts with and beds barely-legal boy Scott...much to her Cougarish surprise, she discovers that he is the man that she's been after all her life...but when Scott finds out how Lola makes a living...well, Papa wouldn't like that...; full credit to Lola for developing a potentially unlikeable character into someone we not only sympathise with but also understand; I struggle with one suspect scene: she says NO to sex but the boy makes her anyway...that's when she knows it's Love...wha??
Award-Worthy Performance
Lola Albright
BEIRUT aka THE NEGOTIATOR (2018)
B- FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: Brad Anderson
CAST: Jon Hamm; Rosamund Pike; Dean Norris; Larry Pine; Idir Chender
> I've never been able to fully comprehend the conflict in the Middle East...there don't seem to be any sides or beliefs...all I can discern is hate & ruins, war by habit...all outsiders should bugger off and let the fighters who live there just get on with it until there is one left standing who yells out "Enough!"; this movie is set in the middle of the Lebanese Civil War, with an American roped in to negotiate a prisoner swap (a CIA agent for a terrorist, I think); as is the norm with these kind of yarns, everyone starts off stressed to the max, then there's a double-cross and a conspiracy and unexpected explosions and the good guys win after much violence; Jon works well as the alcoholic dealmaker (he had to have a flaw) and everybody is suitably grim and shouty; could've done without the Stars 'n' Stripes coda...or was it sarcasm?
ROPE OF SAND (1949)
C FIRST VIEWING
d: William Dieterle
CAST: Burt Lancaster; Paul Henreid; Corinne Calvet; Claude Rains; Peter Lorre
> rather dull actioner set in an exotic locale (well, sort of...Arizona stands-in for South Africa); despicable Paul (he cheats at cards and his title is Commandant) is the manager of a diamond mine...his arch-rival Burt plans to return to a secret location where a fortune in diamonds is just waiting to be picked up...Paul and his boss Claude want to know where that it is, preferably via villainous persuasion; loads of clunky dialogue which is unfortunately spoken anyway drags proceedings down, but all the males give it their professional best; newbie Corinne tries a Bacall/Gardner turn but comes across as a femme with little fatale; the grand fight between Paul & Burt is more gymnastic (Burt even manages a headstand!) than pugilistic, and the film doesn't know when or how to end, so just settles for the Big Happy...ugh
THE BREAKER UPPERERS (2018)
C FIRST VIEWING IN-CINEMA
d: Madeleine Sami & Jackie van Beek
CAST: Madeleine Sami; Jackie van Beek; James Rolleston; Ana Scotney
> all the way through this Made-In-New-Zealand comedy, I thought of the Australian sketch-comedy show Fast Forward: two women run a business which helps people breakup from their partners as quickly and permanently as possible...a great idea for a recurring sketch, right?...it could join FF's Russian news presenters + the Ugly Couple + the Dodgy Brothers + the Indian rug salesmen + the gay flight attendants in being very funny and very un-PC; I counted a half-dozen scenes in this movie which would make great standalone skits BUT there's a helluva lot of filler in between to make up the requisite feature-film running time of 90 minutes; and don't believe the claims of rom-com conventions being challenged or even reinvented...in-your-face sex & drug jokes have been around for a long time now
THE EXORCIST III (1990)
E FIRST & LAST VIEWING
d: William Peter Blatty
CAST: George C. Scott; Ed Flanders; Jason Miller; Brad Dourif; Nicol Williamson
> despite its satanic heritage, this rubbish really is nothing more than a rather hysterical serial killer movie, made even more ludicrous by the later bar-raising standard of The Silence of the Lambs and Seven; George takes up the Lee J. Cobb role from The Exorcist #1 as the filmbuff cop...he is on the trail of a particularly heinous serial killer (why so heinous? well, this psycho doesn't simply kill...he drugs, asphyxiates, amputates a digit, drains of blood, decapitates, disembowels then stuffs, crucifies and leaves a tattoo)...major obstacle in the case is that the killer with this M.O.(!!) was executed 15 years ago...uh-oh; most of the "action" takes place in a hospital where the demon demands dementia patients do his bidding; shaky craftsmanship (bizarre banter + questionable editing & framing choices) just makes things worse
Got something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD: masted59@gmail.com
FIVE CAME BACK (1939)
d: John Farrow
CAST: Chester Morris; Lucille Ball; Joseph Calleia; C. Aubrey Smith; John Carradine
> this is the great-grandparent of disaster movies Airport, Airport 1975, Airport '77 and The Concorde: Airport '79...and is easily better than all of 'em; twelve people board a plane which crash lands in the Andes...have a guess how many survive?; the cast members were considered strictly B-Grade in their day, but they perform nicely here, unburdened with thin soapie backstories...all personalities can be summed up quickly, allowing the tension to slot into place without any dull talky lapses; smart direction from under-valued John...dimmed-down & cramped-setting camerawork disguises what must have been a miniscule budget, so the jungle is there but we don't see much of it...and it doesn't matter; there's even a message which has impact: Adversity Breeds Community...spot-on timing for 1939; an enthralling overachiever
THE MOUTHPIECE (1932)
d: James Flood; Elliott Nugent
CAST: Warren William; Aline MacMahon; Sidney Fox; J. Carrol Naish; Guy Kibbee
> this classy crime film opens with a shock: Warren the assistant DA successfully prosecutes a killer (via zealous closing-remarks-to-the-jury) and the crim goes to the hot seat...problem is he didn't do it, and the phonecall to stop the execution doesn't get through in time...the lawyer gets the guilts, turns bitter & cynical, and re-emerges as a corrupt defence attorney for gangsters; Warren was nicknamed King of Pre-Code by admiring filmbuffs (he made 24 films between 1931-1934) and his star fell once the Code came in and censorship ruled; in this, his inevitable reformation is more a wallow in self-disgust than the cornball "seeing the light"; with Aline in fine wisecracking form (she was always an asset), this is a marvellous example of how well-crafted and uncompromising Hollywood product used to be...tough & highly entertaining
PENNIES FROM HEAVEN (1981)
d: Herbert Ross
CAST: Steve Martin; Bernadette Peters; Jessica Harper; Christopher Walken; Vernel Bagneris
> I remember watching the original 1978 Dennis Potter BBC TV drama...6x1 hour episodes of 1930's music (I was into The Clash and The Vibrators back then) and a storyline of unrelenting bleakness...needless to say, I was unimpressed; this movie version impresses me, although I wonder how much of that is due to me being 40 years older; a tribute to the Great Depression musicals (like Gold Diggers of 1933 etc), this tells the still-unrelentingly-bleak tale of Steve, a most unlikeable guy and Bernadette, a woman whose life he ruins; the song'n'dance numbers are all strikingly staged and the cast lip-sync and tap admirably; a rarity: a musical I like
Award-Worthy Performance
Steve Martin & Bernadette Peters & Jessica Harper & Christopher Walken & Vernel Bagneris
DEATH IN BRUNSWICK (1990)
d: John Ruane
CAST: Sam Neill; Zoe Carides; John Clarke; Yvonne Lawley
> a comedy hailing from Australia but with a real New Zealand influence (Sam and John C are Kiwis who Australia adopted and considers "theirs"); fullblown loser Sam, a 34 year old boyman, is one of God's playthings, consistently being dropped into the wrong place at the wrong time...he falls in love, disappoints his mother, drinks too much, pisses off some serious people and, oh yeah, accidentally kills someone (and how the body is disposed of is the film's highlight); Aussie humour tends to lean towards the broad while NZ humour is closer to unabashedly un-PC, and this jiggers that combo up, producing something quite amusing if a little on the skittish side; John C stands out by doing nothing more than play himself (God, I miss that man on our TVs RIP); this developed a big rep in Australia because it was so novel
THE HOUSE OF MIRTH (2000)
d: Terence Davies
CAST: Gillian Anderson; Eric Stoltz; Anthony LaPaglia; Dan Aykroyd; Laura Linney
> being a Terence Davies film, you know from the outset that this is not going to be a cheer-up...so the title is ironic at best and cynical at worst; 1900 New York and socialite Lily Bart is on the hunt for a rich husband so she can be assured of a luxurious life...the word gets out and men try to take advantage of her diminishing financial situation...but unlike them, Lily has scruples...so, down she falls; a period drama with the standard dictated attire, obsessive etiquette and thesaurus-vocabulary, this is an affecting look at the cruelty of the so-called superior class; the film's tenet is summed up by one line: "My Dear...the world is vile."
Award-Worthy Performance
Gillian Anderson
LIZZIE (1957)
d: Hugo Haas
CAST: Eleanor Parker; Richard Boone; Joan Blondell; Hugo Haas
> this 3-way-split-personality story was released the same year as (and unjustly overshadowed by) The Three Faces of Eve...but I prefer this; while both films are painfully simplistic about a major mental illness, Lizzie has more compassion for its patient; most impressive aspect of this movie is its grittiness: the "bad girl" persona is the usual slut but here she has murderous tendencies + this has to be one of the first Hollywood movies to deal with the horror of child rape; with Joan blustering as a drunken broad and Richard as Psychiatric-Superman, they both fade before Eleanor's central meaty performance(s)...her very best...and better than Joanne
Award-Worthy Performance
Eleanor Parker
MR & MRS BRIDGE (1990)
d: James Ivory
CAST: Paul Newman; Joanne Woodward; Blythe Danner; Kyra Sedgwick; Robert Sean Leonard
> essentially another Generation Gap story (Rebel Without a Cause; If....), this differs in that the focus is on the Oldies...they are the generation who claims to be unjustly misunderstood; set in 1936-1942, Paul is the conservative attorney who has a broomhandle for a spine and Joanne is his wife, supremely unhappy but duty-bound to keep up the old ways...their children grow up and become other people...the impact this has on Mum & Dad is the heart of the film; while Paul underplays to the point of snoozing, Joanne blends sadness with dizziness: she's a dingbat who could've been so much more; kudos for being more compassionate than merely soap-operatic
Award-Worthy Performance
Joanne Woodward
A COLD WIND IN AUGUST (1961)
d: Alexander Singer
CAST: Lola Albright; Scott Marlowe; Joe DeSantis; Herschel Bernardi
> a highly-regarded little indie film which could have so easily slid into the realm of sleazy exploitation cheapie...which it still is, up to a point; aging stripper Lola flirts with and beds barely-legal boy Scott...much to her Cougarish surprise, she discovers that he is the man that she's been after all her life...but when Scott finds out how Lola makes a living...well, Papa wouldn't like that...; full credit to Lola for developing a potentially unlikeable character into someone we not only sympathise with but also understand; I struggle with one suspect scene: she says NO to sex but the boy makes her anyway...that's when she knows it's Love...wha??
Award-Worthy Performance
Lola Albright
BEIRUT aka THE NEGOTIATOR (2018)
d: Brad Anderson
CAST: Jon Hamm; Rosamund Pike; Dean Norris; Larry Pine; Idir Chender
> I've never been able to fully comprehend the conflict in the Middle East...there don't seem to be any sides or beliefs...all I can discern is hate & ruins, war by habit...all outsiders should bugger off and let the fighters who live there just get on with it until there is one left standing who yells out "Enough!"; this movie is set in the middle of the Lebanese Civil War, with an American roped in to negotiate a prisoner swap (a CIA agent for a terrorist, I think); as is the norm with these kind of yarns, everyone starts off stressed to the max, then there's a double-cross and a conspiracy and unexpected explosions and the good guys win after much violence; Jon works well as the alcoholic dealmaker (he had to have a flaw) and everybody is suitably grim and shouty; could've done without the Stars 'n' Stripes coda...or was it sarcasm?
ROPE OF SAND (1949)
d: William Dieterle
CAST: Burt Lancaster; Paul Henreid; Corinne Calvet; Claude Rains; Peter Lorre
> rather dull actioner set in an exotic locale (well, sort of...Arizona stands-in for South Africa); despicable Paul (he cheats at cards and his title is Commandant) is the manager of a diamond mine...his arch-rival Burt plans to return to a secret location where a fortune in diamonds is just waiting to be picked up...Paul and his boss Claude want to know where that it is, preferably via villainous persuasion; loads of clunky dialogue which is unfortunately spoken anyway drags proceedings down, but all the males give it their professional best; newbie Corinne tries a Bacall/Gardner turn but comes across as a femme with little fatale; the grand fight between Paul & Burt is more gymnastic (Burt even manages a headstand!) than pugilistic, and the film doesn't know when or how to end, so just settles for the Big Happy...ugh
THE BREAKER UPPERERS (2018)
d: Madeleine Sami & Jackie van Beek
CAST: Madeleine Sami; Jackie van Beek; James Rolleston; Ana Scotney
> all the way through this Made-In-New-Zealand comedy, I thought of the Australian sketch-comedy show Fast Forward: two women run a business which helps people breakup from their partners as quickly and permanently as possible...a great idea for a recurring sketch, right?...it could join FF's Russian news presenters + the Ugly Couple + the Dodgy Brothers + the Indian rug salesmen + the gay flight attendants in being very funny and very un-PC; I counted a half-dozen scenes in this movie which would make great standalone skits BUT there's a helluva lot of filler in between to make up the requisite feature-film running time of 90 minutes; and don't believe the claims of rom-com conventions being challenged or even reinvented...in-your-face sex & drug jokes have been around for a long time now
THE EXORCIST III (1990)
d: William Peter Blatty
CAST: George C. Scott; Ed Flanders; Jason Miller; Brad Dourif; Nicol Williamson
> despite its satanic heritage, this rubbish really is nothing more than a rather hysterical serial killer movie, made even more ludicrous by the later bar-raising standard of The Silence of the Lambs and Seven; George takes up the Lee J. Cobb role from The Exorcist #1 as the filmbuff cop...he is on the trail of a particularly heinous serial killer (why so heinous? well, this psycho doesn't simply kill...he drugs, asphyxiates, amputates a digit, drains of blood, decapitates, disembowels then stuffs, crucifies and leaves a tattoo)...major obstacle in the case is that the killer with this M.O.(!!) was executed 15 years ago...uh-oh; most of the "action" takes place in a hospital where the demon demands dementia patients do his bidding; shaky craftsmanship (bizarre banter + questionable editing & framing choices) just makes things worse
Got something you want to tell me?
GO RIGHT AHEAD: masted59@gmail.com
