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Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
A dangerous movie
In its April 2000 issue, "Vanity Fair" ran a brilliant article by Sam Kashner about the making of the film, "A Movie Marked Danger". Kashner's research was deep and it cut deep. The story and the characters behind the camera were just as intriguing as the ones in front. I kept that issue for years.
"Sweet Smell of Success" tells the story of how powerful Columnist, J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) uses toadying press agent, Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis), to try and wreck the affair his sister is having with a musician.
Many people have noted that Hunsecker was based on influential columnist, Walter Winchell, but it went deeper than that. According to Kashner's article, Hunsecker's smothering relationship with his sister paralleled Winchell's wrecking of a relationship his daughter had with a producer. No wonder Winchell wanted to stop the movie being made.
The making of it was also fraught for Ernest Lehman who had been a press agent feeding gossip to Winchell and other columnists. However he hated himself for doing it. As part of his redemption he penned a story based on his experiences that became the basis of the screenplay.
Kashner, who was given rare insights into the film by Lehman and Tony Curtis, went on to detail how Burt Lancaster's company became involved, and how Lancaster was an intimidating presence for Lehman as he attempted to write the first screenplay. Eventually the stress got to Lehman and his doctors virtually ordered him to leave the project. Two of the producers were so enraged they reportedly said in unison "I hope the SOB dies" A dangerous movie indeed, and the cameras had hardly started rolling.
Lehman's departure ushered in Clifford Odets, the writer who once had five plays running simultaneously in New York. That's when the dialogue took on the distinctive passages that mark the film. When British director Alexander Mackendrick was worried that they sounded exaggerated, Odets reassured him: "Play it real fast - play the scenes for the situations! Play them 'on the run' and they'll work just fine".
The other great contributor to the film's brilliance was Mackendrick. However it was just about his last movie. Like Lehman, after dealing with Burt and co., he'd had enough; he later became a highly-regarded teacher at the California Institute of the Arts.
Kashner gave background on each of the stars, but one seemed particularly enigmatic, Susan Harrison. He claimed she had problems and disappeared from the Hollywood scene a few years after the film was made and could not be located.
She hadn't totally disappeared though, it appears she opted out of Hollywood to raise a family. She actually gave a 2011 interview about the making of the movie where she said it had been particularly democratic on set with opinions welcomed. Fascinating! She died in 2019, the last of the principals involved in the film.
For those who love the film or even for those who don't, Sam Kashner's "Vanity Fair" article is full of revelations and makes compelling reading. At the time of writing, it can still be found online.
'Northwest Passage' (Book I -- Rogers' Rangers) (1940)
Walk a mile in my moccasins
"Northwest Passage" recreates a slice of history that has hardly been touched by filmmakers.
However the brilliance of the film can't be gauged by the first 15-minutes, which features Robert Young's character, aspiring artist Langdon Towne, in conflict with the father of the girl he loves and then in conflict with a powerful official causing him to head west "to paint Indians". It's such a by-the-numbers back-story that you could be forgiven for thinking it had caught a vibe from the Andy Hardy films that were probably shot on the same soundstage.
However when Langdon and his sidekick, Hunk Marriner (Walter Brennan), meet Major Robert Rogers (Spencer Tracy) and join Roger's Rangers, "Northwest Passage" opens out and comes into its own.
Judging from well-researched books like "War on the Run" by John F. Ross, "Northwest Passage" is quite faithful to events, and Spencer Tracy caught the character of Robert Rogers beautifully.
It's the mission that makes this movie as Rogers leads his company of 18th century commandos on a deep penetration raid up mountains, through swamps and across rivers to St Francis to punish the Abenakis Indians that have been terrorising the British settlements.
Unfortunately the filmmakers dropped the final part of the journey back when Roberts did an amazing trip down dangerous rapids and through unchartered wilderness to bring help to the surviving rangers.
Tracy's performance gave us a leader who could inspire others to follow him anywhere, but hints that his later life might be difficult, "If you ever meet me when I'm just a man, you may have to use a little charity".
The film does convey the tensions that were arising between the colonists and the British. However it wasn't stressed. In fact, unity was more in evidence; possibly because it was 1940 and Britain was already at war with an enemy that many Americans sensed would also be their enemy before too long. The film seemed to be made as a reminder that Americans could steel themselves for war and be innovative about it.
These days the depiction of the Indians as total villains doesn't sit as easily as it did in 1940, but records show that they could be a cruel enemy. However, the British and French used their Indian allies on each other to further their own ends.
With that said, 80 years later, "Northwest Passage" still holds up as a stirring tale that doesn't distort the facts, too much at any rate.
The Third Day (2020)
Memories of Summerisle
For a while I thought there might be a wicker cage waiting for Jude Law's character. However it's different to that, although it may have lifted the ending if there had been one.
I'm not too disappointed in "The Third Day", but it is drawn out. Five episodes would have done it, but six? The extra one meant that Jude had to do a lot more stumbling around in the woods. Anyway, with COVID keeping us in our bunkers, there's wasn't much else to do.
The story is set on another one of those islands just off the British coast where the locals are well into their ancient rites. The island, Osea, is connected to the mainland by a winding, axle-snapping causeway, which is only accessible for a short time each day. There are surprises, usually at the end of each episode, and a number of seemingly random strands do come together.
The island isn't actually removed from modern life and does have mod cons such as mobile phones and the Internet, although reception is iffy. The islanders are even planning a full-on festival with hordes of people coming from far and wide. However the darker aspects of the islander's lives, involving a bit of a womb fetish, lurks just beneath the surface.
The hype about the series promised a uniquely different experience, and in a way it does deliver that, it just takes its time doing it. Like Edward Woodward's experience on Summerisle in "The Wicker Man", the supernatural aspects are in the eye of the beholder. All the beliefs and the consequent mayhem could simply be put down to the islander's whacky beliefs.
Strong cast all around. Naomi Harris as Helen is terrific. She plays a character that fiercely protects her two daughters and doesn't take s#*t from the straggly haired, pullover and cardigan clad islanders; it's a good warm-up for her next outing as Miss Moneypenny.
"The Third Day" does keep you going even if it's to justify the time you've already spent trying to get to the bottom of the whole thing.
Gods and Generals (2003)
Aptly named
This prequel to "Gettysburg" has some breathtaking recreations of Civil War battles. But the whole thing is so reverent and solemn that it takes time to fully engage with it.
The reverence shown to Generals Jackson and Lee is usually reserved for biblical figures. It made me wonder if "Gods and Generals" captures the way people of that time really spoke?
Maybe formal address was more common in the 1860's, but just about everything anyone says in the first hour and a half is a speech. Before the brilliantly staged Battle of Fredericksburg, Jeff Daniels even recites an ancient poem, "The Crossing of the Rubicon".
I'm sure the dialogue has been shaped from historic records and especially letters, but people don't necessarily speak the way they write; some of the exchanges between husbands and wives, and mothers and sons in this film are bizarre. The frequent appearances of John Wilkes Booth ever ready with a Shakespearean soliloquy add to the theatricality.
Some may object to a comparison with "Gone with the Wind'. However it has far more natural speech patterns than "Gods and Generals" and in 1939, when it was released, there were still some thousands of veterans of the war still alive, albeit elderly.
Heightening the dolefulness of "Gods and Generals" is the score. Other than source music from bands and soldiers singing, pathos informs nearly every theme whether for an intimate interior or a horizon-wide battle. To be fair, the theme for the surprise attack at Chancellorsville, "VMI Will Be Heard From Today", shows how the rest of the score could have been coloured differently.
Possibly the filmmakers didn't want to glorify war by building the score around the stirring anthems and songs of the Civil War, but it's a classic example of how music can shape the mood of a film.
For a while it seemed that slavery was receiving a pass, but towards the end, Jeff Daniel's Joshua Chamberlain puts it into context.
"Gods and Generals" does too much. Surely John Wilkes could have been saved for another movie. However the look of the film is amazing. We are transported to those battlefields; each one different, although we are spared what a blast of grapeshot would actually do to a human body.
In the end, those authentic looking re-creations of suicidal advances and troops firing point blank volleys into each other can only leave the impression that it was an era that produced remarkably brave soldiers.
Cromwell (1970)
Carry on Cromwell
This is one of the best-looking films ever. Back in the 1950's when Cinemascope arrived, directors worried that they didn't know how to frame for the wide screen, especially interiors. "Cromwell", shot in Panavision 70 some years later, is a master class on how to do it. There isn't an untidy shot in the whole thing.
But that's not exactly why people go to the movies. "Cromwell" bombed despite classy art direction and photography.
Critics at the time thought it dull. They had a point. Ollie and his mates were serious dudes. Sitting back 50 years later, I can see how the film might have been saved.
Where writer/director Ken Hughes went for a reasonably accurate and worthy work, he probably should have asked himself one question; "What would Ken Russell have done?" You see, by 1970 the gloves were off as far as censorship was concerned. Remember, "The Music Lovers" came out about the same time.
Maybe Ken Hughes should have noted that a lot of these guys were Puritans and taken the opportunity to show what they were puritanical about.
These days, mini-series about historical subjects such as "The Tudors", "The Borgias" and "Versailles", show us how to handle things when the action bogs down with too many speeches and too much exposition. Pantaloons and corsets hit the bedroom floor about three times an episode. One is compelled to keep watching.
Now I'm not suggesting that the court of Charles I be shown indulging in anything like the "Banquet of Chestnuts" ("The Borgias", Season 3), but Richard Harris as Cromwell becomes progressively hoarser from speech-making as the film goes on. Cutting to a romp in a hayloft by a couple of his estate workers could have given him a break.
Of course the other approach would have been to make it a musical, but then it might have been mixed up with the other "Oliver!"
"Cromwell" was the sort of movie my class at school would have trooped off to see. It's educational to say the least, but that wouldn't have stopped my peers from rolling Jaffa balls down the aisles as Ollie interrupted parliament for yet another dressing down.
To be fair though, as an Aussie, the film does give us an idea about the events that led to the stable government we enjoy today under the Westminster System, so far anyway.
Last Christmas (2019)
Magic in the mix
I think this is the most captivating Christmas movie since "The Bishop's Wife" and "Miracle on 34th Street".
It just takes a while to realise it.
Kate (Emilia Clarke) is beautiful and likeable, but she's too self-focussed, which tends to make her careless, testing the tolerance of friends and family. When she meets Tom (Henry Golding), a young man who comes and goes, she is challenged to become a better person and turn her life around. Eventually we find out how and why.
The backdrop is London at Christmas and among the Christmas lights and pre-COVID streets packed with shoppers we get George Michael songs, Eastern Orthodox church services; lines of homeless waiting in the cold; an over-the top Christmas gift shop where Kate works dressed as an elf; and Kate's overly clinging mother, Petra, played by Emma Thompson going to town on her "Former Yugoslavia" accent.
There is almost too much happening. I wondered how it would all come together. However it does and finishes on a high. Luckily, I hadn't seen any spoilers and didn't see it coming - I definitely got my money's worth.
Topping the whole thing off like the brightest star on the Christmas tree is Emilia Clarke. There is no shortage of brilliant, beautiful British actresses who also shine on countless talk shows. However, none have ever outshone Emilia Clarke.
"Game of Thrones" is one thing, but the real phenomenon is how much fun she has generated talking about it and every other aspect of her life to people like Ellen DeGeneres, David Letterman, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and especially Graham Norton, who has the rare knack of eliciting revelations about sex scenes and embarrassing moments without seeming sleazy.
Emilia has discovered the charm of self-deprecating wit; she can tell a story against herself. Anyway, whenever she's lost for words, she has that infectious laugh and those amazing eyebrows - not only that, she can sing!
She lights up the screen from the moment she appears. The combination of Emilia Clarke with good-looking, uber-charming Henry Golding gives "Last Christmas" a touch of magic.
There are plenty of Christmas movies, literally hundreds, but there are only a few that are perennial classics. I think "Last Christmas" is destined to be one of them.
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Between the lines
Based on the book by James Jones, "The Thin Red Line" is pretty much a sequel to "From Here to Eternity". They were based on Jones' experiences in the army and WW2. I recently read them both and I realised that Terrence Malick is the only filmmaker to really capture the spirit of James Jones' writing.
"From Here to Eternity" (1953) is a brilliant film. However while it has incidents and characters from the book, the differences are surprising. The filmmakers changed a lot and dropped even more, creating a tight drama. And that is the thing with Jones' writing; he takes his time. That unhurried style in both books takes some getting used to.
Then along came "The Thin Red Line". Malick's style meshed with that of Jones. Malick takes his time too. Not everything in the book is in the film and some dialogue was actually from "From Here to Eternity" but it works because it's obvious that Welch is Warden and Witt is Prewitt. However Nick Nolte's stunning performance as Colonel Tall is unique to "The Thin Red Line" and is almost word for word from Jones' novel.
The soul-searching in "The Thin Red Line" as characters reveal their inner thoughts, accompanied by Hans Zimmer's haunting score, takes you into Jones' novel and also to that real battle on Guadalcanal.
Jones' book has historic significance. It's fiction, but based on what really happened; he was there. Like "Eternity" it follows the men in a rifle company and tells how it felt to be pinned down on the slopes of "The Dancing Elephant", (the historic "Galloping Horse"). He thought inertia was the overarching effect, but through his characters he explored the complexity of leadership and analysed why some men cracked while others behaved heroically. Malick brought Jones' words to life visually, audibly and emotionally.
It's so authentic-looking you have to wonder how Malick pulled it off. Mostly filmed in Queensland, the locations look remarkably like the battle sites around Mount Austen on Guadalcanal.
There is another version of "The Thin Red Line" made in 1964 in Spain. Praised at the time, it seems an oddity next to Malick's triumph.
Much information about Malick's film revolves around the actors that were cut and fights Malick had with producers, almost rivalling the battle for Guadalcanal. Twenty years later however, it's the film that remains.
James Jones didn't feel that Zinneman's "From Here to Eternity" had done his book justice, but I think he would have felt that Malick had nailed "The Thin Red Line".
Grant (2020)
More than a general
This is the sort of series that validates the "History Channel".
There is a lot of filler on the old "History Channel", but every now and then something makes me glad I kept my subscription. "Grant" is one of those.
In telling Grant's story, no documentary about the Civil War has brought home the significance of the Western and Eastern theatres like this series. It's a combination of interviews with historians, effective use of maps and re-creations using actors. I'm wary of "History Channel" re-creations, especially of battles. Often they consist of a handful of extras milling around in close-up. Ken Burns created the benchmark Civil War series just using images from the time - plus some creative zooming.
Here the re-creations are effective, especially in well-acted scenes of Grant at various stages of his life.
For my money the best sequence is the surrender at Appomattox, where Lee and Grant face off for the last time. As historian Doug Douds comments. "It represented the changing character of war. Robert E. Lee commanding as though he were a 16th Century prince representing the last of the old wars, meanwhile you have Ulysses S. Grant representing the first of the new".
The series uses Grant's words in voiceover. At one point he acknowledged the enemy that had fought so valiantly "... for a cause that was one of the worst for which a people ever fought".
The re-creations of the battles in "Grant", although not as spectacular as those in "Gettysburg" or "Gods and Generals", do not glorify the war, instead they look horrific with nasty musket ball impacts. The American Civil War has been romanticised in art, literature and film almost since it ended. Just look at a painting by Don Troiani or the great Tom Lovell replete with streaming battle flags and bloodless corpses. Even Matthew Brady's posed historic photos of the dead look slightly unreal.
One statistic of the war that has always struck me is that of the 60,000 amputations. For decades, crutches and empty sleeves must have been a common sight in every town and city across America.
"Grant" presents a man of character and conviction. The series shows that only someone with those qualities could have performed as he did. Finally, the series traces Grant's presidency and explains why his legacy faded in comparison to Lincoln's; it shouldn't have.
This series arrives while at the same time there are interviews on YouTube with young Americans where few know much about the war or the century in which it had occurred. As someone who thinks history is important I find that rather sad.
The Undoing (2020)
Done and dusted
This is a case that Detectives Reagan and Baez probably would have wrapped up in an hour, in time for Danny to sit down to Sunday dinner with the rest of the Blue Bloods.
"The Undoing" takes its time, but I must admit I was hooked from the start and looked forward to it each week. I resisted the temptation to wait until it was finished and just binge it.
I think Nicole Kidman is actually better in this than she was in Season Two of "Big Little Lies". Possibly the presence of Meryl Streep caused disturbance all around. When Meryl did that scream at the kitchen table I knew there was some sort of theatre sports going on.
There's no such pressure here. Nicole, as psychiatrist Grace Fraser, projects a certain calm. She does a lot with a look, no need for words, and she looks fabulous.
Having only one murder to solve in stories like this often allows deeper exploration of the characters and gives the twists more impact. TV series such as "Vera" and movies such as "Anatomy of a Murder" prove the point.
New York is also a star of "The Undoing" whether seen from above or down at street level. Along with the deep focus shots of the skyscrapers overlapping each other, we get the feeling that the city is a dispassionate observer.
My wife and I almost spat out our evening coffee when a stark naked Matilda De Angelis as Elena Alves brazenly addressed Nicole's character in the gym change room. My wife, more of a cubicle changer or under towel changer, said she always found that sort of behaviour in the ladies change room overly demonstrative. Still, the scene was not as gratuitous as it seemed at first, making more sense as secrets were revealed.
With such a small number of people in the cast, one hoped the ending would not reveal a perpetrator that defied logic. The last episode is eventful and we do get a resolution, but as is often the way when a series ends, we realise it was actually the journey that was the most satisfying aspect all along.
Bonjour tristesse (1958)
Joy and sadness
When "Bonjour Tristesse" was first released, U.S. critics hated it. They thought it fake and that director Otto Preminger had missed the Gallic quality of the story, and they sure didn't like Jean Seberg's performance.
However when it was released in France, the French felt it had caught the essence of life on the French Riviera beautifully, and they were ecstatic about Jean Seberg. No doubt the French tourist board was happy as it made the Côte d'Azur seem like the most happening place in the world.
Jean Seberg's Cecile is a spoilt young girl living with her playboy father Raymond (David Niven) in a luxurious villa on the French Riviera. She was supposed to be playing someone pretending to be more sophisticated than she is and it seemed to be a case of art imitating life.
That slight awkwardness, actually gives freshness to her performance, along with her sprite-like presence. There is a lot of exposed flesh in this movie, not nudity, it was 1958 after all, but the leads do a great deal of swimming and hanging out in bathing suits and suntans. David Niven sports a pair of crotch-hugging shorts that would make an Australian Rules footballer blush.
Otto monstered Jean. She was his "discovery" and he not only took charge of the outside of her head with that trademark short haircut, but also tried to get inside it as well. Deborah Kerr and David Niven tried to protect her from his tirades, but not as well as Robert Mitchum protected Jean Simmons from similar treatment on "Angel Face" (1953) when he fetched the shaven-headed director a sharp slap.
Preminger knew the value of music in his films. For "Bonjour Tristesse" he chose French composer Georges Auric. He had composed the beautiful melody for Huston's "Moulin Rouge" (1952). His score permeates "Bonjour Tristesse" as background or the sound of nightclubs and café. The highlight was his "Dancing in the Streets" theme propelling the conga line of dancers around the harbour.
After 60 years the film takes on another dimension; we know the fate of the stars. "Bonjour Tristesse","Hello Sadness" in English, is an apt title for the problems that befell Jean Seberg, who died aged only 40. And most of the others are also gone, but not Mylène Demongeot (Elsa) who seems to be still going strong at 85 and still acting!
Like her this film has aged gracefully. I have seen it a number of times and like it more each time.
The Invisible Man (2020)
Is anyone there?
This "Invisible Man" isn't the old H.G. Well's dude with the bandages, gloves and dark glasses. There's nothing yesterday about this story, it's right up to the minute. "The Invisible Man" has been around the block a few times over the years, but this outing gives him a whole new lease of life.
Director, screenwriter, Leigh Whannell, has taken mundane, everyday locations like a suburban house, a restaurant and a hospital corridor and produced one of the scariest movies in a long time. He also gets the most out of a high-tech clifftop house, reminiscent of Vandamm's clifftop residence in Hitchcock's "North By Northwest".
For a while, we aren't sure if Elizabeth Moss' Cecilia Kass is imagining that her supposedly dead, abusive, optics guru husband is stalking her as an invisible man, or if it's all just in her head? "A Beautiful Mind" and "Woman in the Fifth" plus a few other movies come to mind.
Elizabeth Moss gives an incredible performance as someone who could be schizophrenic or at the least suffering from paranoid delusions. The scene where she gets hold of a fountain pen in her cell is hard to watch.
Now for me, I think the first three quarters of the film was the best where we still don't know which way it's heading. When the invisible becomes more visible though, I think Leigh Whannell took his foot off the gas. He had the choice of keeping the whole thing pretty ambiguous or going for a more concrete resolution. I would have opted for keeping us guessing. However, "The Invisible Man" is definitely a classy effort.
Like some of the most memorable scary movies, the best effect is sometimes the one we aren't shown, and the film relishes every dark corner and every empty room where our imaginations seem to create the action. The unsettling score by Benjamin Wallfisch that goes from serene to searing keeps us on edge even when nothing graphic is shown. The special effects are effective, but aren't the key ingredient.
Most of the film was shot in Australia, some of it just down the road from where I live. Maybe the feeling that the locale is hard to place adds to the film's atmosphere. It looks like a sequel is planned, but it will be hard to beat the innovative touches in this one.
Paths of Glory (1957)
A brave coward
One of the strongest memories of this film is the contrast between the lives of the soldiers at the front and the detachment from reality of the staff behind the lines. But more than just putting the French Army of WW1 in the frame, "Paths of Glory" says a lot about all wars.
I find "Paths" absorbing every time I see it. However, there are layers to this film, not all of which are apparent at first glance.
One aspect I find fascinating is the casting of Wayne Morris as the cowardly Lieutenant Roget. Many of the great directors famously created tension to get heightened reactions on the screen. Some have been perverse in the challenges they set the actors.
In real life, Wayne Morris was a much-decorated aircraft carrier pilot during WW2. But he stood out even in that illustrious company, including bringing home three planes so badly shot up they had to be ditched over the side. Rather than Lieutenant Roget's lack of nerve, Morris must have had nerves of steel.
Kubrick in directing such a man to act a coward is a little like a child pulling the wings off flies to see what would happen. Possibly the inspiration came from John Huston, another director who did something similar.
In 1951 he had cast Audie Murphy in "The Red Badge of Courage" where he played a young soldier who throws away his musket and flees the battlefield. Murphy baulked at playing the scene. During WW2, Murphy earned a chestful of medals that looked like a wall chart of U.S. bravery awards, but Huston got the reactions he wanted.
Like Huston, Kubrick tended to play with people's heads. When we see Wayne Morris giving possibly his most memorable performance, his depiction must have been very much against his nature.
In a similar vein was Eddie Albert as the craven Captain Cooney in Robert Aldrich's "Attack" (1956). Rather than the officer who curled into the foetal position when his nerve cracked, Albert, as a WW2 naval officer, more than kept his nerve when he made numerous trips in a small craft under intense fire to rescue stranded marines during the landing on Tarawa.
I thought there was an interesting pattern in all this.
However, rather than detracting from "Paths of Glory", knowing these things adds another fascinating dimension to this extraordinary film.
The Heiress (1949)
We are the real heirs
I always enjoy this movie no matter how many times I've seen it.
There aren't any surprises left, but I still find myself anticipating the key dramatic moments such as when Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift) fails to arrive after he and Catherine Sloper (Olivia De Havilland) have decided to elope. Then, years later, there is the payback as she ignores his frantic knocking on her door, totally rejecting him.
None of that was the way it was described in Henry James' novella "Washington Square" where things are more understated. The film is based on the stage play where playwrights Ruth and Augustus Goetz juiced up old Henry's story to create those memorable scenes.
For example in the book, when Morris leaves Catherine, he actually tells her he is leaving. At the end, Catherine simply tells Morris to go away and never come again, which he does; he's miffed, but there is no standing on the stoop pounding on the door.
There are fascinating insights into the making of "The Heiress" in "A Talent for Trouble", the biography of William Wyler. Apparently Montgomery Clift was difficult to work with and almost completely ignored Olivia de Havilland. However the tension probably helped her performance; Morris knocked Catherine off kilter and so did Monty with Olivia.
Aaron Copland composed a score that elevated the drama, employing an orchestra emphasising violins, flutes, clarinets, and harp. However Wyler altered the powerful "Main Title" track to include the melody of "Plaisir d'Amour," a French ballad used later in the score. Copland was not best pleased as they say, and only ever composed one other original film score. At time of writing, a suite featuring the original theme is online. It's worth a listen.
Although "The heiress" makes for a moving experience, "Washington Square" was filmed in 1997 following the book closely with no reference to the play or the earlier movie, and it works just fine. Also beautifully made, it has the subtlety and understatement of the novel with Jennifer Jason Leigh as Catherine giving a truly affecting performance.
Henry James' portrait of Catherine is complex and sometimes cruel. Like other powerful observations of female characters in literature like Mildred Rogers in Maugham's "Of Human Bondage" and Carrie Meeber in Dreiser's "Sister Carrie", she is based on a real person. Knowing this makes "The Heiress" even more interesting.
Glorious 39 (2009)
To appease, or not to appease?
If you haven't seen "Glorious 39", don't read reviews first; keep the surprises in this good-looking, engaging film set among Britain's stately homes just before WW2.
Some critics thought it a solid, old-school entertainment. When it comes to mystery/dramas, we often compare them to the best Hitchcock films. However not many manage that unique combination of iconic stars, humour, charming villains, a definite sense of place and intriguing plots. However I think "Glorious 39" does pretty well.
The film starts out with a touch of "Who do you think you are?" Young Michael Walton (Toby Regbo) visits his older cousins, Walter and Oliver Page. Michael is interested in family history. He asks his cousins about his great aunt, Anne Keyes, who disappeared just before WW2. The rest of the movie is a long flashback as they tell the story.
What at first appears to be about the mores of upper class Britain as WW2 looms, gets progressively darker as Anne discovers a group of conspirators close to home. She learns they wish to make a separate peace with Hitler to avoid the ravages of war, but seem prepared to kill off half of Britain to do so.
The film does have iconic stars, and they pop up in unexpected places. Christopher Lee and Corin Redgrave play the elderly cousins; Jenny Agutter plays Anne's mother and Julie Christie, one of most luminous stars ever, also has a role. But the real surprise is Muriel Pavlow; was there a more beautiful star in British cinema of the 1940's and 50's?
Then there is Romola Garai as Anne and Bill Nighy as Alexander her father. Bill Nighy exudes his characteristic cultured geniality, "The most charming man in England", as someone describes his character in the film. Romola Garai as Anne, wears her flowing dresses beautifully, and is the self-possessed type of beauty, à la Grace Kelly, that Hitchcock could easily have cast in one of his films and very possibly obsessed over.
The story is clever and original. But the conspiracy at its core isn't simply the equivalent of the Hitchcock MacGuffin. There were forces before WW2 that were prepared to appease Hitler, but "Glorious 39" makes you think about the world now, 10 years after it was made. Totalitarian regimes are on the rise and view appeasement as weakness. As it was in 1939, a line will undoubtedly need to be drawn.
Phoenix (1998)
Heads we call 911, tails we don't
Did the Phoenix Police Department sue the makers of this film for defamation? They should have.
Where is the entertainment value in this story? Corrupt cops with puerile senses of humour, driven by greed, poor decisions and a fixation on gambling.
The observation was once made that people go to the movies not so much to see things, but to feel things.
We can identify with characters on the wrong side of the law if they have some appeal. Look at "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "The Asphalt Jungle", "The Grifters" and any number of others. But to get us in they need a lightness of touch or characters with some charisma. Who has charisma in this movie?
"Phoenix" misses none of the clichés of the second-rate bad-cop movie. We have bookies and gangsters that seem like characters out of a "Batman" movie, we get inevitable pole dancers, inevitable shootouts, and finally, the twist that everyone, but everyone in the story is corrupt.
The team of detectives, Harry Collins, Mike Henshaw and James Nutter played by Ray Liotta, Anthony LaPaglia and Daniel Baldwin. decide to rob a wealthy pimp/loan shark. They reveal themselves to be totally inept robbers, but not in a fun way. There seems little point to their incompetence other than that the filmmakers didn't know how to sustain a consistent mood. Harry Collin's virtual flip of the coin in making every decision is stretched to the max.
Ray Liotta has been in better things, even as a crooked cop. For Anthony LaPaglia, this was a warm-up for his bad cop in "The Salton Sea", however that was superior in every way. Angelica Huston has so little to do it's as though the filmmakers didn't know what to do with her.
I feel the themes in "Phoenix" have been handled with greater skill elsewhere. The main character here seems a loser in the worst sense of the word; any redeeming traits he has appear to have been grafted on to try and redeem the movie.
Prince of Players (1955)
A well-grac'd actor
Apparently, before the American Civil War, the denizens of small cities, towns and even mining camps in The Old West had a taste for the plays of William Shakespeare.
When you see Raymond Massey as Junius Brutus Booth and Richard Burton as his son Edwin delivering the Bard's lines with their forceful personalities and mellifluous voices one can sense the appeal. The elevated language and the larger than life theatrical flourishes were a contrast to the ordinary, rough-hewn lives of their audiences.
Admittedly, I did not know much about the Booth acting dynasty other than that John Wilkes Booth, younger son of Junius, assassinated Abraham Lincoln. This film fills in some gaps even if John Wilkes (John Derek) emerges as little more than a cypher.
Richard Burton as Edwin gives the film a burst of energy, or is it more a charge from a defibrillator; this film would be hard to save without the power he and Massey brought to it.
Maggie McNamara plays Mary Devlin, the young actress who falls for Edwin. 60 years later, this film is tinged with sadness. All the players have exited this earthly stage and we know how their stories ended. This is especially so for Maggie whose lightness is almost overwhelmed by Burton's raw power in a scene from "Romeo and Juliet". She didn't make many movies and died tragically, like Juliet, ending her own life.
It's as well that Massey and Burton produced fireworks because the film is photographed in a rather artless manner. It was shot in Cinemascope but the few exteriors hardly do the process justice. Towards the end, the film gives little feeling that a momentous war is raging, "Gone with the Wind" it is not.
However, Bernard Herrmann contributed an impressive score with a powerful main title track; it helps give the film size.
Although some felt too much Shakespeare dulled the movie, it actually gives it a positive difference. The speeches are well chosen and spoken "trippingly on the tongue" as the Bard decreed it should be done in "Hamlet".
This is Burton at his best. The actor later accused of wasting his talents is not present here. This is Burton more than delivering on his early promise.
Stan & Ollie (2018)
Valentine to two legends
If you want to know why "Laurel and Hardy" are still so revered, this film helps explain why.
"Stan & Ollie" begins at the end of their careers, when they undertook a tour of Britain. Steve Coogan as Stan Laurel and John C. Reilly as Oliver Hardy have caught the two men in their off-stage lives. They were apparently rather quiet men and somewhat shy in real life.
The film captures the bond they had. Unlike some famous comedy teams of the past, these two stuck together. The film shows the odd falling out, but in the end they were inseparable.
"Stan & Ollie" brought back fond memories. I first saw "Laurel and Hardy" comedies when they were revived on television in the 1950's and 60's. I remember sitting with my family in front of our B/W television set doubled up with laughter as we watched "The Music Box" and "A Chump at Oxford".
Other comedy teams from the Golden Age also received a second life on TV especially "The Three Stooges". Their humour made us laugh at the time although not so much now. "The Marx Brothers" didn't seem to travel that well into the 50's and 60's, and I was never much of an "Abbott and Costello" or a "Martin and Lewis" fan although they were more contemporary to the fifties.
None of the other teams had the humanity of Stan and Ollie. "The Marx Brothers" humour was often cynical and sometimes cruel. Maybe it suited the Great Depression era where it challenged authority and the rich. And look at the screen persona of Bud Abbott of "Abbott and Costello", hardly a kind man. And was there much emotional depth in "Martin and Lewis"?
Stan and Ollie were different. Their humour was never generated from intentional meanness. The joke was nearly always on them. Ollie bosses Stan around like a big brother, but his strongest motivation is to retain dignity when everything conspires to strip it from him. His inevitable cries of pain, the nervous fidgeting of his fingers and the dabbing at his nose to see if it is bleeding make him very human. Stan is the perennial innocent, but he has pluck, he will hit back if provoked enough. Their humour has a timeless quality.
"Stan & Ollie" captures that humanity. Although the film also captures the sadness of their decline, it is nonetheless a heartfelt homage to two lovable men.
The Big Country (1958)
Big in every way
I first saw "The Big Country" at a drive-in around 1961 sitting in the back seat of our family's sedan. The view from there was the equivalent of sitting in a movie theatre behind three fat men wearing sombreros. Even so, I felt the film's power.
Gregory Peck's James McKay ends up in Texas in the late 1800's involved with two women and caught in the middle of a feud between Rufus Hannassey and Maj. Henry Terrill, the patriarchs of two powerful families.
Emphasising the bigness of the film were the male stars; Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston both standing at 6' 3" and Chuck Connors at 6' 5", even Charles Bickford's Major Terrill was almost as tall as Greg and Charlton if you count his crinkly grey hair. Then there was Burl Ives as Rufus Hannessey who may have been wider than he was tall but looked absolutely monolithic. Surely it wasn't all coincidence.
There is a dramatic contrast between the two women: blonde, pale, coquettish Carroll Baker as Pat Terrill and the softer-looking, dark-haired Jean Simmons as Julie Maragon. Jean Simmons had already won me when she showed Spartacus something worth fighting for around the same time.
Even for those not normally drawn to westerns, the drama in this film is practically Shakespearean, the House of Terrill against the House of Hannassey. Or maybe it's more Freudian, especially the interfamily tensions. There's the conflict between Rufus and his son Buck, where it's a toss-up whether there will be filicide or patricide. And what are all those daddy issues Carol Baker's character seems to be having over at the big Terrill house?
The film looks fabulous. William Wyler and the filmmakers got just as much visual power out of the sweeping plains of Texas as John Ford got from Monument Valley.
Over the years my respect for Wyler and his films has grown, especially since reading his biography, "A Talent for Trouble", and also the book and TV series "Five Came Back", which covered his service in WW2.
There was one other aspect of the film that made it unforgettable, that stunning score by Jerome Moross. It was music such as this that led me to become a lifelong fan of film music.
It's hard to believe that nearly all the stars have gone now; even after 60 years "The Big Country" feels like it could have been made yesterday.
Midway (2019)
"Where do we get such men?"
That was the question Fredric March's character asked as he watched planes taking off from the deck of his aircraft carrier in the 1956 film "The Bridges at Toko-Ri". They were written by James A. Michener, but they seem just as applicable when you watch Roland Emmerich's "Midway", which depicts real events in WW2 - where indeed did they get such men?
"Midway" is a brilliant movie. Forget the critics that carped about it, what the hell could they possibly be comparing it to? Not the last 80 years of war movies, because it easily measures up to the best of them.
Of all the achievements of this film, Wes Tooke's script is right at the top. It captures all the key events in the Pacific War as the U.S. Navy fought back from Pearl Harbour to the Battle of Midway. It brings in the Commanders on both sides and features intimate moments in the lives of the pilots and crews lower down the ranks. We see the suffering of civilians in China and the stress on the families back in Hawaii. Amazingly, it all works together.
Few war movies have ever achieved that. Just look at "Midway" (1976) with its fictional subplots that are intrusive and bog the whole thing down. And that is not to compare special effects, which are truly spectacular in Emmerich's film.
One odd note is the depiction of the Marshall Islands (Roi) as mountainous when in fact the islands are quite flat. Some of them saw fierce fighting when U.S. forces captured them later in the war. It would have been nice to get that right.
But respect for what the filmmakers have accomplished outweighs any criticism. 2019's "Midway" is simply an outstanding film that does justice, as far as a film ever could, to the remarkable men who fought in the battle.
As an Australian, I know my country was to a large degree saved from invasion in 1942 because of the things done by the Americans depicted in this film.
And here is the full quote from that earlier film, which seems so right for the deeds recreated in "Midway":
"Where do we get such men? They leave this ship and they do the job. And then they must find this speck lost somewhere in the sea. When they find it, they must land on its pitching deck. Where do we get such men?"
Scott of the Antarctic (1948)
Reversing snow blindness
Around 1954, my primary school class trooped into a suburban cinema in Sydney for a special showing of "Scott of the Antarctic". It was one of those films considered educational and possibly inspirational for a bunch of eight-year olds. Unfortunately, I found it rather dreary and depressing.
The first third of the movie had flat looking sets and painted backdrops, we might have been a bunch of eight-year old brats, but we were avid moviegoers and we could tell such things. The film opens out when the film gets some snow as Scott and his men head for the pole. However, bad decisions leave them dragging heavy sleds for hundreds of painful miles, accompanied by howling wind and eerie music as they slowly succumb - and they even lost the race to the pole. I felt the whole thing a bit of a downer.
65 years later, I have seen the film a number of times, and now find it quite stirring. Maybe it sparked my life-long interest in the exploration of the poles. I also became a fan of Ralph Vaughan Williams the composer of the ghostly soundtrack music. His "Symphony No. 7", composed from his film score, is a well-grooved record in my collection.
My original observations about the blandness of the early scenes still hold true, but now I can appreciate the sense of self sacrifice and heroic effort that the last half of the film captures so well.
The film contains sled loads of those British actors who defined British cinema at the time: John Mills, Kenneth More, James Robertson Justice, and plenty of others. They epitomized the stoic character of Britons especially in the war movies of the 40's and 50's, but their stiff upper lips were never more needed than in "Scott of the Antarctic".
If Scott's diary is any guide, there was no shortage of heroism by his party. Over time however, Scott's journey has undergone a re-evaluation with criticism of his motives and abilities. A 1985 mini-series, "The Last Place on Earth", gave Amundsen and his achievement equal airtime. He got to the pole first, but Scott got the glory.
"Scott of the Antarctic" is the cinematic equivalent of John Charles Dollman's famous painting, "A Very Gallant Gentleman", depicting Titus Oates leaving the tent to ease the burden on his comrades - the film celebrates true grace under pressure, and it's hard to be critical of that.
Five Came Back (2017)
Fabulous Five
This is a brilliant series based on a brilliant book. In fact it resets the bar for documentaries about cinema, and should endure as an important historical document.
Mark Harris' book about the role of Hollywood in WW2 focuses on five film directors who went out to document the conflict: John Huston, William Wyler, George Stevens, Frank Capra and John Ford.
They were the powerhouse directors of their time. Each of them has at least one cinematic masterpiece to his name, some more than one. They were different to the documentary cameraman and the service cameraman in as much as they were first and foremost storytellers. Their brilliance is evident in what they recorded; Ford at Midway, Wyler in missions over Germany, even Huston's recreation of the "Battle of San Pietro". The way they recorded the conflict and often challenged bureaucracy shaped the way home audiences and even the military viewed the war.
This series attaches a modern day director to each of their forebears as a guide to the man's efforts in the war and the impact it had on their work when they came back.
Guillermo del Toro for Capra, Steven Spielberg for Wyler, Francis Ford Coppola for Huston, Paul Greengrass for Ford and Lawrence Kasdan for Stevens. Although their comments about their respective predecessor are framed from Mark Harris' work (he also wrote the script), there is great insight in what they say. One can also sense their respect for those men whose films helped inspire them to become filmmakers.
All five of those WW2 directors removed themselves from their comfort zones, but the three directors that most impressed me, and this also came through in the book, were William Wyler, George Stevens and Frank Capra. Where Ford and Huston, two of the greatest filmmakers of all time, were larger-than-life characters who couldn't help drawing attention to themselves, Wyler, Stevens and Capra got the job done with far less self-promotion.
The series gives us another level of appreciation for the films they made after the war: Wyler's "The Best Years of our Lives", Capra's "It's a wonderful life" and Ford's "They Were Expendable" among others.
Obviously great efforts were made with this documentary series to restore the historic film and obtain the best quality clips of the Hollywood movies; it looks immaculate.
Seconds (1966)
Improving on the original
This movie has a seductive quality. I've seen it many times and never tire of it. Not long ago I read the book it was based on by David Ely. I thought at first that the film simply followed the book closely, but then about a third of the way through I realised that director John Frankenheimer and scriptwriter Lewis John Carlino had made significant changes.
The premise of the story is still there; flabby, burnt-out, middle aged Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph) receives an invitation from a secret corporation to escape his mundane existence. They attempt to achieve this through plastic surgery and physical conditioning to rebirth Arthur as fit, chisel-jawed Tony Wilson (Rock Hudson). His old identity is replaced with a new, more exciting one, but Arthur was an unhappy man, searching for something beyond his reach, and even as Tony he stays that way.
Ely's book is imaginative and he invented the main themes, but the filmmakers nuanced the story to another level. They heightened the mood and gave the film a definite rhythm. We seem to glide into the story with innovative B/W photography and a measured pace, which also encompassed the delivery of the actors notably Will Geer's empathetic old man and the ever helpful manservant John with his soothing tones.
Some of the changes improved the logic of Tony Wilson's transformation. In the book the corporation make him over as an established artist, an accomplished portrait painter with a realistic style. Wisely the filmmakers made him a painter of abstracts, far easier for a novice to get away with.
The major change from the book is the introduction of Salome Jens' character Nora, and the fabulous sequence at the grape-treading festival. Neither was in the book, but feel so right in the film, even if Rock seemed to keep his shorts on during the naked stomp in the barrel.
Some characters were eliminated and I was fascinated to read in the IMDb trivia section that a scene where Tony Wilson visits his daughter was filmed, but later cut. It was in the book but was really a doubling up on the visit to his wife.
Adding the right note literally is Jerry Goldsmith's score. The Maestro blended the discordant with the harmonious, capturing the feeling of yearning we sense in Arthur and later Tony.
Walk Into Paradise (1956)
Between Paradise and Hell
When I saw "Walk into Paradise" (the Australian title) in a theatre in Sydney in the 1950s, I think New Guinea was more in our minds than it is today. I was only nine, but nearly all the parents of my generation had served in the war, a lot of them in New Guinea.
The story has a touch of John Huston's "The African Queen". Like Humphrey Bogart's Charlie Allnutt, Chips Rafferty's Steve McAllister reluctantly takes a woman with him on an expedition through dangerous, uncharted country.
Like Humphrey in the earlier movie, Chips finds that the woman, a French doctor in this case, is an asset rather than a liability. That was pretty much the basic ingredient of movie expeditions whether it was a trip to the middle of Africa or a journey to the centre of the earth.
The stars in "Walk into Paradise" hardly had the glamour of their famous Hollywood counterparts, but the participation of the hundreds of extras, the real natives of New Guinea, is absolutely fascinating. They are the real stars of the film.
There are impressive scenes: the sudden appearance of scores of natives out of seemingly empty grassland; the female paddlers ferrying McAllister's expedition in canoes though a labyrinth of channels, and finally, the massing of the natives in full regalia to create an airstrip.
At the time, Chips Rafferty still seemed to represent the quintessential Aussie male. Peter Finch gave the icon another shading in "A Town Like Alice", but you always felt that Chips wasn't acting all that much.
The score for "Walk into Paradise" was by Georges Auric, hired through the film's French connection. He had composed one of the most beautiful melodies ever for the screen, "It's April Again", the song from "Moulin Rouge" - another John Huston film. His score here is a quality one for an Australian film of the time.
On many levels "Walk into Paradise" is a time capsule. It may not be a masterpiece, but it certainly is unique.
From Here to Eternity (1953)
From literature to lens
I read the novel long after I first saw the movie. There were surprises; it's so different it came as a shock.
It's almost as though screenwriter Daniel Taradash and director Fred Zinnemann worked from a few plot points and invented the rest. Doubtless they dissected the book quite analytically, but much that is in the film wasn't in the book or was considerably rearranged.
In the book, the characters are more complicated; more flawed; they argue and even tire of each other before the end. The movie tidied things up.
James Jones' novel was based on his experiences in the pre-WW2 U.S. Army based in Hawaii. 1953's censorship stopped many of the novel's themes from reaching the screen. Along with the gambling, anti-Semitism and racism, there was the interaction between the soldiers and Honolulu's gay community. The long sequence in the novel where Prewitt and Maggio head off to a gay bar to sponge money and booze from a couple of older gay guys went AWOL in the script.
It's a brick of a book with the characters projecting James Jones' worldview on just about everything. The raw look at the lives of the tough pre-war regular soldiers gave the book its clout, especially the treatment handed out in the stockade, but every episode seems drawn out. The filmmakers dismissed a platoon of characters to shape the brilliant screenplay.
The cast stays in the memory, Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra, Deborah Kerr even Ernest Borgnine as Fatso Judson, but especially Montgomery Clift. For me, he was America's finest actor. Even after his face was smashed and his life fell apart, he could still give performances such as those in "Judgement at Nuremburg" and "The Misfits" - Brando was wary of his talents. In "Eternity" he was at the top of his game.
There is another version of "From Here to Eternity", the mini-series starring Natalie Wood, William Devane and Steve Railsback. It's not bad and contains more from the book - the gay guys finally report for duty and we go inside the stockade. However it also used scenes from the 1953 film, which were not in the book including the bottle vs knife confrontation between Warden and Fatso Judson.
James Jones didn't like the movie. I love the movie. The book is harder to love, but it made me want to read "The Thin Red Line", a sequel of sorts.
Ex Machina (2014)
A real girl
It just goes to show. A guy's head can be turned by a pretty face even if the body is a see-through electronic framework combined with a dressmaker's dummy.
Caleb Smith, a smart computer programmer working for tech billionaire Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), is invited to his isolated home. Nathan has developed a humanoid robot named Ava (Alicia Vikander) and he is very keen to see how Caleb reacts with her on a number of levels, especially an intimate one.
However those of us trained on three seasons of "Westworld" know that A.I. experiments that blur the lines between human consciousness and clever electronics usually end badly.
The film shows what an innovative filmmaker can do with a couple of actors and an isolated location. I love the feeling of solitude in this movie with that underlying edginess driving the whole thing. Nathan's remote dwelling is almost like being on a space station with the normal world far away.
Of course, the concept for this film isn't one that was just born in the digital age. Didn't Mary Shelley start this sort of thing with "Frankenstein"? Maybe it's even down to "Pinocchio", with Ava the robot just wanting to be a real girl.
The special effects are brilliant. We totally accept Ava. She is sexy in the same odd way as was Maria, the robot woman in Fritz Lang's silent film "Metropolis". The weird thing is that Ava isn't really that much sexier when she puts on the top-to-toe, human nude-suit at the end.
"Ex Machina" plays with the idea that as our technology develops, we may have to re-think our interactions with artificial intelligence and also what we normally think of as attractive.