prustage95 Reviews

Escape from the Iron Curtain (1956)

Poor production and dire script - but some interesting details

[26 September 2020]

Other reviews here have quite rightly highlighted what a poor film this is. The fault lies pretty well entirely with the production and direction. It is potentially a good story - but this story had been done before and since always to better effect. The screenplay is pedestrian and makes nothing of the opportunities for tension and character development. Direction seems to be non-existent with the poor actors doing the best they can with poor material. Nothing is made of the iconic Viennese setting, the drama of the border crossing or the constant tension of the protagonist being a hunted man. If this were not bad enough the cinematography, lighting and sound are distinctly amateur.

Is there anything of value in this then? . Well Theodore Bikel shows early signs of the genuine talent that would become more apparent as his career developed. John Bentley gives a dependable performance in line with his more famous "Paul Temple" role. Of interest is Donald Grey who became better known on screen in the TV series "Saber of the Yard" where as a one-armed actor he chose to play the detective with an empty sleeve. In this he wears a prosthetic arm carefully turned away from the camera. Probably because of his disability and distinctive voice, in his later career he became known for voice overs, most notably in Gerry Anderson's Captain Scarlett.

Finally, anyone interested in film composers may detect the uncredited early work of Edwin (Ted) Astley here. This is from the beginning of Astley's career, before he developed the distinctive ITC style that provided the scores for The Saint, The Baron, Danger Man and many other great TV series of the 70's. Here, his style is complex and orchestral, borrowing ideas and actual cues from "Scotland Yard" an early 50's TV series by him.

Spring and Port Wine (1970)

Great story - transferred poorly to film

[6/10 · 14 August 2020]

Naughton's 1958 play Spring and Port wine was a phenomenal success both as a radio play and stage production - and deservedly so. It was inevitable that at some point the story should find its way onto film but, alas, this production does not do it justice.

The most enthusiastic reviews here on IMDb concentrate on the story - which is not surprising because it is a good story and an excellent snapshot of working class life in late 50's Bolton. But this filmed version loses a lot of the tension and drama so well-crafted in the play and adds nothing in return.

This technicolor lit-for-television view of Bolton looks more 70's than late 50's and combined with the cheerful music score is more evocative of contemporary "Carry On.." films than working class kitchen sink. Naughton had to write new material to flesh this out into a full movie and unfortunately the additional bits do nothing more than add stock Northern comedy characters into the mix. Not so much "port wine" as "Last of the Summer Wine".

As for performances - every one gives their best and the family ensemble generally works well together but there are times when you wish the direction had been a bit more "hands on" with tighter interactions in the humorous bits and more tension when serious. Susan George, once again shows that she is a better actor than frequently credited, Diana Copeland however doesn't seem to be able to shake off the caring middle-class mother image that she made her own in "Bless this House" and her desperate flight to the canal-side is far from convincing.

James Mason, of course, is excellent. His look, body language and general presence is spot on even though his accent has not an atom of Bolton in it. Great pity that some of his best lines and most telling moments are not given the directorial treatment they deserve.

I recommend the film because it is a story worth watching - especially if you haven't seen the play. But if you have seen the play you will spend it thinking how much better this could have been with a bit more 50's feel, Northern grit and the directing talents of Tony Richardson or John Schlesinger.

Dulcima (1971)

Beautiful film perhaps a bit too slow?

[8/10 · 12 April 2020]

Synopsis: Lonely, scruffy old farmer brings in an attractive young girl as a housekeeper. He develops a lust/ love desire for her - she sees a way of making some money.

Pros: 1) Beautiful photography immersing you in the best or rural England: rolling landscape, green country buses, stone built villages. A great trip escapist trip for city dwellers. 2) Fantastic performances from John Mills (did he ever not do this?) and Celia White. 3) Engaging story that, although slow, keeps you just about interested

Cons: 1) This is really a short story dragged out to 90 mins. If you are happy to watch the scenery and absorb the mood then that's fine but there are some who, used to the constant sensual barrage that typifies so many recent films, might find this a bit slow 2) The shock ending isn't really necessary and doesn't feel like it belongs to the rest of the film

Unusual aspects: The film centres around Dulcima and we are expected to sympathise with her. However not only are her morals questionable but her ruthless exploitation of the old farmers loneliness suggest that she is not really a nice person at all. Meanwhile, the farmers totally understandable obsession with her is portrayed as being creepy. This is assuaged a little towards the end where we finally get a bit of pathos as we see his tragic wedding preparations in contrast to her desire to run off with her lover but in reality the pathos started much earlier and her duplicity and lack of empathy with him was always the root of the tragedy. One wonders how different this film would have been if our sympathies had been directed from the start to be with him rather than her.

It Takes a Thief (1960)

There is good British Noir - and then there's this

[30 January 2020]

There are many really good British noir films that exploit the seediness of post-war London, set around Soho and involving realistic underground criminality and making very watchable drama out of 1950's London low-life.

But this isn't that kind of film.

For some reason, the producers decided to make a Hollywood type noir - ignoring the excellent genre work done by other British producers and creating a totally unbelievable poor-mans version of a movie that should have had Bogart and Raft in it but instead had a collection of totally out-of-place British actors - and - Jayne Mansfield.

Mansfield whispers - Marilyn Monroe style - her way through the part and it is obvious that her attempt at a sultry voice has to be overdubbed for many of her scenes. The rest of the cast try their best to be American gangsters (at one point Anthony Quayle actually calls somebody a "dirty-rat") and betray their true acting ability in a poor attempt to be something they aren't.

The cinematography is good - lots of moody lighting, clever angles and the direction is sharp, closely cut with some good set scenes. But you always feel that this is a British attempt at making a film that is totally un-British.

The film gets better as it progresses as the story takes over and Quayle's excellent performance lifts the film out of its misery into something that is finally worth watching. But you always feel that Quayle is on a damage reduction exercise trying his best to rescue the awful script and Mansfield's execrable acting and try and create something worthwhile. Regrettably, the forces of mediocrity win out.

Steppenwolf (1974)

Too much wrong with this to be regarded as either an acceptable book adaptation or a film in its own right

[4/10 · 9 September 2019]

I am very fond of the book and have just finished re-reading it. Couldn't imagine how they could film it and was surprised they even tried. OK it is a good attempt but there is too much wrong with this to be regarded as either an acceptable adaptation of the book or a film in its own right.

Von Sydow is really the only good thing in it, the supporting cast are dire. I would have been happier if they had performed in German with subtitles as their English acting is awful. Hermine doesn't have the controlling hypnotic quality she has in the book and the other characters seem to be caricatures of the [people they are supposed to portray.

There is some nice camera work but direction is weak and fragmented. We rely heavily on quoted bits of Hesse's text to convey Haller's internal struggles as there are no real clues in the direction. Nothing against the animated bits in principle but they are a bit too cartoony and don't convey the right level of eeriness. Orson Welles used animated sequences in his version of Kafka's "The Trial" to better effect. The Magic Theatre sequences use good special effects for the time but they could have achieved more with less psychedelic visuals and more subtlety.

Most disappointing is the music. Handel, Bach, Brahms, Wagner and Mozart feature in the book, Mozart is even a significant character in the story yet we hear almost nothing from them in the soundtrack. Instead the score by George Gruntz is very much the sound of the 70s and hasn't dated well. Kubrick would have chosen classical cues all the way through and it would have worked perfectly.

Drama 61-67: Drama '63: Loop (1963) Season 3, Episode 21

Classic bit of 60's SCI FI

[8/10 · 16 July 2017]

I remember watching this when it was broadcast in 1963. It must have been good because it has stuck with me all these years.

Unaccountably, the entire population of an English town are put into a trance - all that is except those that were not watching television at a certain time. This small group try to investigate how the TV somehow caused this to happen.

The mystery develops and at one point it is thought to be an enemy invasion but slowly it emerges that beings from the future are sending pulses via the TV but why?

I no longer know the full explanation but I can remember that at the end we get to see a vision of the future that these beings live in. It is a barren misty world with glass domes spaced across the landscape at regular intervals. In each dome, floating like a pickled museum specimen is the creature of the future, fat, hairless and pasty barely human blobs. I was terrified!

L.A. Confidential (1997)

Great film spoilt by poor sound management.

[8/10 · 18 March 2017]

I am going to concur with the other glowing reviews here and say that this is an excellent film that deserves the high reputation its has. Except for one aspect - sound design and management. Much has been said about the recent trend to balance dialogue with other sound tracks badly but this film really is the worst I have come across.

Dialogue and music are fairly well balanced and work well together but any on-screen violence causes the volume to be cranked up to ear splitting and totally unnatural levels. Gunshots, fist fights and even door slams are unacceptably louder than the dialogue and music levels and in a domestic viewing environment this means the finger has to be constantly on the volume control to compensate.

I see no reason for this other than shock value. Unfortunately the shock effect wears out very quickly and we are left with something that is crude, annoying and badly thought out. Pity, because everything else about this film is brilliant.

The Terrornauts (1967)

Don't be misled by the "Amicus" brand - this film is not what it seems

[26 September 2016]

At first one is confronted by the "Poe's Law" dilemma: Is this a really bad film or is it a really good parody of a bad film?

The answer is neither - this is not a bad science fiction movie, it is a really good adventure for young children. Suddenly the simplistic dialog, comic relief and low budget make sense. This film is contemporary with the second incarnation of Doctor Who (Patrick Troughton) and has many similarities with children's TV programmes of that era. The dialog and scientific explanations have that restricted vocabulary and easy to understand structure one associates with Blue Peter, Rainbow etc. Elizabeth Lutyens' cut down wind and percussion score is reminiscent of the Clangers, Noggin the Nog etc. The characters are one dimensional stereotypes: the mean boss, the handsome hero. his loyal workmate, cockney cleaning lady and fussy accountant. There is also the attractive female but there is no sex or even mild love interest here - that's strictly for grown ups - who are not the target audience for this film.

The special effects are awful and the story is silly. The dialogue sometimes sounds like it was written for radio (when Sandy disappears before their very eyes constantly asking "where is she?" seems a bit pointless). My favourite bit - which even 1960's kids would roll their eyes at - is where the hero has to drop his pencil to demonstrate that despite being in space they still have gravity - as though that wouldn't otherwise be apparent.

So, not a parody, not a bad "B" movie, not a contender for MST3K, just a good space adventure for 9 year olds.

Calling All Cars (1954)

Interesting Period Piece

[5/10 · 19 March 2016]

This 40 minute short was sponsored by the Dover Port Authority and was clearly intended to showcase their newly built facilities. Consequently don't expect a story any more complex than two comical guys in a clapped-out taxi pursue two classy women in a sports car as far as France in the hope of making their acquaintance.

There are a few mildly comedic moments (e.g. Robinson sticks a firework in the car exhaust in order to get it going) and there is the unusual touch of having Spike Milligan doing a voice-over as though he was the voice of the taxi itself. As another reviewer points out this is more irritating than funny.

Also unusual is the fact that the budget obviously didn't stretch to portable sound equipment so the film was made silent with all background noises, sound effects and dialogue dubbed on later. This was done very badly so they may appear to be on a busy road but when they speak they sound like they are sitting round a microphone in a studio somewhere. There are also very few close ups in the film - I suspect this is so you don't notice the lousy lack of lip-sync.

Putting all that aside though this is interesting as a little piece of history and giving a glimpse of '50's England.

Starcrash (1978)

Enjoyably bad - except for the dubbing

[9/10 · 17 April 2014]

There are some good things about this movie that I like - notably Caroline Munro's outfits and John Barry's music. There are also plenty of bad things about this movie - but I like these too - pointless plot, awful scripting, poor direction, cheap sets, unconvincing special effects and amateurish stop-motion. Together these make for a really entertaining 90 minutes or so.

However, the one thing about this movie that I don't like is that they replaced Caroline Munro's English voice with that of an American actress of considerably less acting talent. Negative comments about Miss Munro's acting are entirely due to this poor dubbing. Watch her with the sound off and she comes across entirely differently and we get a hint of what we are missing.

Jason King (1971–1972)

Definitely Shane Rimmer

[6/10 · 17 March 2014]

This is by way of a comment on one of the other reviews.

The episode "All that Glisters..." was playing recently on a TV that I could hear but not see. "Thunderbirds!" I thought since I could clearly hear the voice of Scott Tracey. On going in to actually watch the TV I was amazed to see that it was Jason King rather than Thunderbirds and that bizarrely Clinton Greyn was speaking with Scott Tracey's voice. The lip-sync was excellent but it was clearly a dubbed voice since the acoustic was different. And of course, rather than Greyn's rounded Welsh tones we were getting the distinctive Canadian sound of Shane Rimmer. Cant understand why they did this - and then not credit it? Weird.

Merlin and the War of the Dragons (2008 Video)

Cheap and not very cheerful

[2/10 · 10 March 2011]

Likes :

* The CGI dragons are great - very mythical and more appropriate than a more Hollywood/Spielberg style would have been

* The location - totally fitting moody Welsh landscapes

* Some of the acting was good

* The music was a bit overblown but quite professional

Dislikes :

* The acting direction was non-existent so despite the individual actors doing a reasonable job there was no sense of interaction or timing.

* The camera work was atrocious. Most of the film is shot in close up with occasional distant shots where you cant actually see whats going on. Ironically although most shots are static (i.e. no dolly or tracking)the degree of camera shake tells you its hand held.

* Editing was poor and uninspired. Some of the conversational sequences were obviously pieced together from shots taken at different times.

Even low budget films can be successful if well directed - this one unfortunately wasn't. There are so many bizarre mistakes - hand held cameras that don't actually move; gorgeous open Welsh landscapes that you cant see because the camera work is too tight, good enthusiastic actors that end up sounding like a school play through lack of direction.