Hi All
The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946) -
www.imdb.com/title/tt0038326/reference Well buckle my swash son of Robin Hood! The Bandit of Sherwood Forest is directed by George Sherman and Henry Levin and collectively written by Wilfrid H. Pettitt, Melvin Levy and Paul A. Castleton. It stars Cornel Wilde, Anita Louise, Jill Esmond, Edgar Buchanan, Henry Daniel, George Macready and Russell Hicks. Music is by Hugo Fridehofer and cinematography is shared between Tony Gaudio, William Snyder and George B. Meehan.
A wonderful spin on the Robin Hood legend, this finds Robin Hood (Hicks) enlisting the help of his son Robert (Wilde) in stopping the nefarious members of the Regency who seek to basically abolish the Magna Carta. What follows in narrative trajectory terms is the usual array of fights and face-offs, with bow and arrows skills supplementing the swordplay. There is of course some simmering passions at work, whilst loyalty and camaraderie is never ever far away.
There's such a sense of fun about the picture, it's like everyone is enjoying playing in a costume adventure. The Technicolor is luscious and the set design and art direction is impressive, more so when put into context the modest budget allocated to the production by Columbia.
The draw card is Wilde, a one time Olympic standard fencer, he utterly convinces as a swashbuckler and has charm in abundance. It's very unlikely anyone will ever fill a Robin Hood based film role with the panache that Errol Flynn did back in 1938, but Wilde most assuredly nails down a marker for one of the genre's best.
Not all the costuming strikes as period reflective, neither does one or two character accents, but it matters not one jot. A sometimes rousing and often engaging swashbuckling adventure, The Bandit of Sherwood Forest is one of the better "Hood" movies out there. 8/10
Ride the Pink Horse (1947) -
www.imdb.com/title/tt0039768/reference She's got a dead fish where her heart should be. Ride the Pink Horse is directed by Robert Montgomery and adapted to screenplay by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer from the novel of the same name written by Dorothy B. Hughes. Montgomery also stars and is supported by Wanda Hendrix, Thomas Gomez, Fred Clark, Andrea King and Art Smith. Music is by Frank Skinner and cinematography by Russell Metty.
WWII Veteran Lucky Gagin (Montgomery) arrives in San Pablo during Fiesta time with the intention of blackmailing the man responsible for the death of his pal.
1947 was a super year for film noir as a film making style, it's also a year that still even today hides little nuggets awaiting evaluation by noir fans, Ride the Pink Horse is one such piece. It feels a bit daft to suggest it's under seen, given that Gomez was nominated for a best Supporting Actor Academy Award (deserved as well) and Montgomery had made waves this year with his gimmicky production of The Lady in the Lake, but it does scream out as being little known.
The title is a curious starting point, it's a reference to the carousel run by Gomez's Pancho character, a title that doesn't exactly have you thinking that this is a feverish noir, but that is exactly what it is. This is very much a bedfellow for Carol Reed's superb Odd Man Out (also 1947), the air of fatalism hanging heavy throughout, a sort of other wordly vibe that hooks you in and holds you there yearning for the resolution of the tale.
The setting is most interesting, that of a small Mexican town during its annual Fiesta celebrations. Yet as the locals indulge in frivolity and joy, Gagin (and us the viewers) are thrust into a shadowy claustrophobic world. The principal characters are suspiciously drawn, not so much Gagin - who is tough and downbeat and has a clear goal to aim for - but those who line up to hopefully aid him in some way. For the first half of the pic the makers keep the cards close to their chest, it's a nice move that ensures rewards await as the story shifts into a higher gear.
Psychologically the piece is strong, led by Gagin who was already feeling alienated after the war effort, but now also finds himself in an environment doubly alien to him, an interesting juxtaposition cunning in its placement for character development. Many noir staples shine bright, the main villain with a handicap, potential femme fatale, the macguffin, carnival imagery (the key carousel - gigantic scary looking effigy) and on it goes.
The look is terrific as Metty (Ivy/Crashout/Touch of Evil) and Montgomery bring much shadow play, the dalliances of slatted shadows and wooden beam crossbars further emphasising the imprisonment of Gagin at this life juncture. Montgomery proves a deft hand at directing a potent scene, here his piece de resistance is a violent assault shot through the carousel while it is in motion, it's the high point of technical noir work in a film that has a lot of such.
Very well performed in amongst the moral ambiguity, Ride the Pink Horse is very much recommended to those interested in film noir. As a character piece with visual treats, and as a fascinating psychological study, this one score high. 8/10
The Raid (1954) -
www.imdb.com/title/tt0047388/reference With a rebel yell, I cried more more more. "This is a true story...it began on the night of September 26 1864, in a Union prison stockade at Plattsburgh, New York, not many miles from the Canadian border."
Tho director Hugo Fregonese's The Raid opens with the above written statement, it's not entirely accurate. Further research into what became known as "The St. Albans Raid" is required if you want the complete and unembellished story. However, The Raid is in structure and plot significantly in line with what happened back there in 1864. Lifting from the story entitled "Affair At St. Albans" by Herbert Ravenal Sass, The Raid is about seven Confederate prison escapees who infiltrate the community of St. Albans and plot a second front. As the town is gleefully praising General Sherman's march towards Savannah - and throwing auctions to sell off mementos of slain "Rebel" soldiers, the "Rebs" are fashioning bottles of "Greek Fire" with which to torch the town as they plunder the bank of all the town money.
Naturally all doesn't go to plan, as an on the edge soldier puts a spanner in the works; and the "Reb" leader, Maj. Neal Benton (aka Neal Swayze), finds a conflict of interest as his relationship with Katie Bishop and her son starts to form. All of which helps to make The Raid an engrossing picture outside of its already high interest point for being a "Confederate" movie (how many can you name about the "Rebs" winning for example?). More so when one knows that the film doesn't revert to genre formula, it threatens to, but Fregonese and his crew are not interested in serving up standard fare, with the ending a particular point of reference to ram home that opinion.
Van Heflin is excellent as Benton/Swayze, put this along side his work in other Western outings like Shane and 3:10 To Yuma, and he surely is a candidate for the genre's most undervalued actor award. Watch as he has to suppress various forms of emotion - anger as the town around him rejoices in his fellow countrymen's misfortune - affection as he gets close to the mother and son, and torn as he ultimately must abide by his war driven codes. A fine turn from a very fine actor. Anne Bancroft is suitably bright eyed and deep down strong as Katie, while Richard Boone does a nice line as the troubled, and limb absent Captain in desperate need of redemption. Lee Marvin, Claude Akins (uncredited) and Peter Graves man up the support cast, and a nod of approval is warranted for young Tommy Rettig as Larry Bishop.
Filmed on location at Iverson Ranch, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, I find myself once again searching for superlatives about Lucien Ballard's cinematography. This is a "gorgeous" film to look at, the Technicolor crisp in tone as the brown and orange hues of St. Albans play host to the shimmering blues of the soldiers uniforms, all of course about to be engulfed by the crackling spurts of the raiders incendiary use of "Greek Fire". I fell in love with this movie quite early on in proceedings, come the finale, I knew I just had to have it in my own collection, I can only hope that this picture finds a new audience from which to give it the love it dearly deserves. 9/10
Fantastic Voyage (1966) -
www.imdb.com/title/tt0060397/reference Combined Miniature Deterrent ForcesA medical and science crew board a submarine and are miniaturised and injected into an important foreign scientist's body. The mission is to remove a blood clot on his brain that was suffered during an assassination attempt. Once shrunk and in their new bodily world, the team must battle the body's defence systems as well as avoiding trouble with the major organs. Also on a clock of one hour before they return to normal size, they have to also contend with the fact there may be a saboteur on board. This be a fantastical voyage indeed...
The crews voyage through the body's bloodstream and beyond is brought to life by the use of some splendidly inventive special effects, something which marks Fantastic Voyage out as one of the more visually appealing genre pictures of the time (winning Oscars for Best Colour Art Direction and for Best Visual Effects). It was also nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Sound Effects. It is in short a tip top tech credits production.
Based on the novel written by Otto Klement and Jay Lewis Bixby, the story is both imaginative and totally fascinating from a biology viewpoint, which is something that helps offsets the somewhat staid performances from the cast. However, are we really watching this for thespian delights? No of course not. We want director Richard Fleischer to take us on a perilous journey through the human body, and maybe just give us some suspense into the bargain. That is achieved wholesale, and while the the ending is a little too rushed for comfort, this remains a silly but wonderful filmic experience. 7.5/10
There Was a Crooked Man... (1970) -
www.imdb.com/title/tt0066448/reference Don't tell me you can't make speeches; you could talk a coyote out of a chicken.There Was a Crooked Man... is directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and written by David Newman and Robert Benton. It stars Kirk Douglas, Henry Fonda, Hume Cronyn, Warren Oates, Burgess Meredith, John Randolph and Michael Blodgett. Music is by Charles Strouse and cinematography by Harry Stradling Jr.
Plot has Douglas as Paris Pitman Jr., an unscrupulous thief who after stealing and hiding in a rattlesnake's nest half a million dollars, gets caught and sent to an Arizona prison for ten years. Once there his plan is simple, to befriend as many cons as he can so they can help him escape. Dangling the carrot of sharing his stash with those who help him, Pitman's plan may be usurped by the arrival of new Warden Woodward Lopeman (Fonda)?
Joseph L. Mankiewicz's only venture into the Western sphere is an odd picture in many ways, but not in a bad way, sort of! Coming as it did at the start of the 1970s when the Western was for what was to be some time, on its last legs, the pic blends comedy with cynicism and violence with choice characterisations. Taking bold decisions in not making this a straight run of the mill genre piece, it's unsurprising to find that Warner Brothers got itchy feet and cut a whopping forty minutes from the original cut of the film, footage that to this day has never seen the light of day. This is a crying shame for although it doesn't make the film a mess in any shape or form, it does stop it from being the more edgy piece it was meant to be.
With a super cast list fronted by a strong dynamic between Douglas and Fonda, story thrives by pretty much having nobody being straight as an arrow. In fact one of the strengths in the narrative is in setting us up for some surprises, we are never quite sure how this is going to pan out. As the violence, crafty scheming and general crookedness that exists within the prison simmers along, it's set up a treat for the pay off at story's culmination, something which has proven to be divisive (for me it's a doozy). At times it feels like we are in a knockabout comedy, yet this is merely a trick in the tale, the makers are in it for sucker punch merit, craftily flipping the finger whilst embracing moral decay.
Hard to recommend with great confidence for it is an acquired taste, but it's fascinating as a snapshot of when the Western was gasping for breath, and rewards are there for those willing to buy into its devilish oddities. 7.5/10
Robin Hood (2010) -
www.imdb.com/title/tt0955308/reference Robin Longstride. The Rid and Russ double act re-team once again to tackle the Robin Hood legend that has so often been spun onto the silver screen. With script changes and release dates juggled, the signs weren't leading us to think that this could be anything but an unmitigated failure. Refreshing, then, to find that not only is it a glorious historically bented epic, but also a different spin on the man, the myth and this time in history. For here, along with Brian Helgeland's pen, Messrs Scott & Crowe have made an origin piece about the time before the legend began. Before what we know as the life of the outlaw who frequented Sherwood Forest, his duels with the Sheriff of Nottingham, the band of merry men so steeped in lovable roguish history. This is the time of Robin Longstride and just how did he become known as Loxley. A time of the French marching ominously towards attempted domination of England, a country at war with itself; aided by treasonous parties within the newly formed Kingdom. And of course the time when the burgeoning relationship with the lady Marion would shape what most know as the Robin & Marion story.
The historical epic is naturally divisive across the spectrum of cinema lovers. There's just too much demanded from so many different quarters. Think about it, how many historical epics thru history have across the board been lauded? Ben-Hur is possibly the one stand out that most can agree on, but by and large they are few and far between. This Robin Hood will not break the traditional mold of a genre ripped apart for various irks. Be it historical facts, too talky, too dark, even too confusing, the only sure fire thing is that this is guaranteed to annoy as many people as it enthrals. To which I personally can only say that it ticks all the boxes required for a genre piece. It has a supremely tight plot, one that doesn't treat us like MTV watching kiddies, a script that pings with intelligence and awareness, and the action (devoid of CGI overkill) flows and rewards those who have been patiently following the smart layers within the story. Then there is of course the cast to factor into the equation.
This is a long way away from Crowe's best performance, but it happens to be one of his most fun. With the swagger and all round hardness of Maximus, combined with the stern, yet affable leadership qualities of Capt. Jack Aubrey, Crowe's Robin is an action hero of some substance, and Crowe plays it as such. He's helped by the casting of his real life pals, Kevin Durand (Little John), Alan Doyle (Allan A'Dayle) and Scott Grimes (Will Scarlet). As easy as it is to accept that Crowe and these boys have many a time really drank tinnies in the sun together, so it be easy to accept these as a group of loyal "soldiers" in the film. For real chemistry in cinema look no further. Blanchett is a quality performer, we know that already, here she has to carry the female role of note and does it with a steely edge that is sure to please more than most. Danny Huston (King Richard The Lionheart), Mark Addy (Friar Tuck), Max von Sydow (Sir Walter Loxley) and Eileen Atkins (Eleanor of Aquitaine), each become their respective roles. But it's with a couple of not so well knowns and and old pro where the acting honours should go. William Hurt as William Marshal gives the most assured and believable performance in the film, a real lesson in how to knit the narrative together without resorting to genre compliant ham. Mark Strong as the villainous Godfrey dominates every scene he is in. Britain's best kept secret is now out of the bag and Hollywood has finally woken up to the joys of this wonderfully spoken Londoner. Then there is Oscar Isaac (Prince John), looking like a cross between Sly Stallone and Edmund Blackadder, those in need of an Alan Rickmanesque deliverance of vile campy weasleness need look no further. A real boo hiss bit of sexy involvement.
It does have problems of note tho, again one man's meat is another man's poison etc. The accents fluctuate way too much, particularly Crowe's, while Léa Seydoux as Isabella of Angoulême is just awful. She looks too young and acts like a rabbit caught in the headlights, just watch as she tries to hold court with Atkins during a crucial scene, poor indeed. Then there's the score from Marc Streitenfeld, it lacks oomph for the battles and stringy heart pulling emotion for the more tender sequences. This cried out for someone like Hans Zimmer (Gladiator), one has to wonder if Ridley and Hans have fell out because it arguably could have been a match made in (Kingdom Of) Heaven. There's also the issue of blood, or lack of in this case, for as great as the battle constructions are (especially the final beach conflict that plays like a days of yore Saving Private Ryan) there's an absence of "war is hell" vibe. The rating compromise all to evident and sure to send, ironically, the younger members of the audience home bored with their blood lust unfulfilled.
Gladiator 2? Yeah maybe, perhaps? But that could easily be tagged as lazy journalism since it sure as heck fire finds Crowe & Scott doing wonders for a genre that is always in need of a pick me up. 9/10
Fright Night (2011) -
www.imdb.com/title/tt1438176/reference Well security is a little lax since everybody got their throat torn out. Fright Night is directed by Craig Gillespie and written by Tom Holland. It stars Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, David Tennant, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Imogen Poots and Toni Collette. Music is by Ramin Djawadi and cinematography by Javier Aguirresarobe. Film is a remake of the 1985 film of the same name, also written by Tom Holland, it sees Yelchin as Charley Brewster, a teenager living in a suburb of Las Vegas who finds the new handsome neighbour, Jerry Dandridge (Farrell) is actually a blood sucking vampire. With nobody believing him and the vampire homing in on his mother and girlfriend, Charley turns to enigmatic playboy magician Peter Vincent (Tennant) for help.
Ah remakes, a word that often spells trouble in film fan circles, especially when populated by the horror faithful. So no surprise, then, that Fright Night has been met with much division whilst hardly making waves at the box office (it made a small profit when various costs were taken off the gross). Yet it did receive some favourable reviews in critic's offices, where like myself they feel that this more than lives up to the original, which was fun and scary but hardly what you call a horror comedy masterpiece. I often have my rose tinted spectacles on for the likes of the 85 Fright Night, but whether we choose to accept it or not, they were real fun films back then, but that was because they were viewed through younger eyes. Now when viewing in the haze of nostalgia, it's not hard to see why some modern film makers feel a remake is possible and can work; Fright Night is one such case.
This is no masterpiece either, it drags for the first third and the CG malarkey really doesn't offer anything particularly worthy to the film's substance. In fact the transformation sequences are quite frankly weak. You don't have to be a nostalgist to lament the absence of a Bottin or Baker. But for all its little missteps, it still rounds out as great fun and scores high in the last third with the well blended mix of comedy, suspense and terror. The dialogue, too, is very enjoyable, with many lines bringing the chuckles. The casting is very good, particularly with the core three characters of Charley, Jerry and Peter. It's great to see Farrell having such fun, free of emotional character restraints, he just lets rip with a sexy and vengeful performance. Yelchin is just so likable, a rising blockbuster star after turns in Star Trek and Terminator Salvation (he would sadly be killed in a freak accident in 2016), here he crafts top work as Charley shifts from geeky teen into babe magnet bravado. While Tennant slots in and steals the movie with a glorious excess of profanity, sexuality and witticisms that befit the nature of the piece.
Next up Farrell went serious and threatened to run the wrath of sci-fi fans with his star turn in the Total Recall remake. Here he comes out of this horror remake, like the film in general, with good credit. So those 80s teens like me should shake off the dust and strap themselves in to a seat for this particular ride. It may not surpass the original, but it is every bit its modern equal, and that is something that newcomers to the Fright Night world should hopefully rejoice in. 7/10
The Nice Guys (2016) -
www.imdb.com/title/tt3799694/reference Waltons, Poronography, Tricky Dicky, Hitler, Equanimity, Bumble Bees ... And Stuff! The Nice Guys is directed by Shane Black and Black co-writes the screenplay with Anthony Bagarozzi. It stars Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling and Angourie Rice. Music is by John Ottman and David Buckley and cinematography by Philippe Rousselot.
1977 Los Angeles and a private detective and a muscle for hire enforcer wind up on the same case looking for a missing girl. Can opposites really attract? More importantly, can they survive not just the perils of a case that gets murkier the longer it goes on? But also each other?
I don't care if Colonel Mustard did it in the study with a candlestick. I just wanna know who he did it with and get the pictures.
How wonderful to have had Shane Black back in his comfort zone and producing such a joyful buddy buddy neo-noir of considerable substance. It was eleven years since the superb Kiss Kiss Bang Bang had reminded us that Black had few peers when it came to blending high action macho twosomes who are also armed with sharp tongues to match, this was after all the guy who also penned Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout. The idea for The Nice Guys had sat in gestation for a number of years, finally it was unleashed to reward fans of his work and for those in sync with the style of film making he homages.
Much like his other buddy scriptings, we are in the company of two mismatched guys. Gosling's ex-cop Holland March is a bit goofy, afraid of the sight of blood and morally bankrupt. Crowe's muscle for hire Jackson Healy beats people up for money, but he's a stand-up guy, likes his pet fish, even has a hero streak. What binds them together is troubled family baggage, that they are both men in search of a better world, to be better men themselves, and thus Black - to give them a chance of life improvement - pitches them into the seamy underbelly of the L.A. pornography industry - with some corruption elsewhere thrown into the equation.
As a coupling March and Healy prove to be a riot. Crowe is menacing and funny with it, Gosling is affably flaky but charm personified, and thankfully both men have a knack for visual comedy (see Gosling's Lou Costello homage and Crowe's reaction to a henchman's act of fish murder). Crucially both actors can deliver killer lines, which is an absolute must for a Shane Black inspired production, for here there is never any let up, zingers are unbound. Then there is Rice (superb and actually the third lead in the play) as March's 13 year old daughter, she's got youthful zest and a killer matter of fact skill in reacting smartly to the two men currently dominating her life.
The L.A. of the 70s is expertly designed, all blink blink blinkity blink neon lighting, side-burns and disco music, dubious fashions and protest groups protesting about the most mundane of things. Then you got the pornography angle, the 70s a hot-bed (no pun intended) for the sex sells profiteers, the perfect setting for Black to trawl through it all in noir clobber. As a noir piece it has it all, femme fatales, thugs, conspiracies, voice overs and an array of colourfully odd characters (excitable and troubling henchmen, a porno Pinocchio, a young lad willing to flash the contents of his underpants for cash!). And of course there's mysteries to be solved and rocks to be upturned, all of which is played out in a whirl of stylish violence, situational comedy and fluid camera work.
Black kind of wants it all, to stay cool whilst having wry observations on the Americana of the era, and he enjoys going close to the knuckle when he can, which to some (not me) will come off as a shock value humour tactic just to ruffle feathers. It's also a minor itch that he sort of snatches from his previous works in search of reassurance - note for instance the similarities between the opening to Lethal Weapon and here with The Nice Guys. But itches be damned, so much fun and hidden dramatic depth on show here, a real treasure that makes you wish Black would stroll down neo-noir lane a bit more often. Don't believe me? Then may Richard Nixon come after you the next time you go for a swim in the pool! 9/10
8/10
